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UPDATE FIFTEEN
Alpha strikes
Here comes a time of war and conflict.
This is a time when empires attack each other, trying to totally wipe out their opponents.
In regards to the more dramatic events that happened these years, the flu epidemics that
Jotunheim giants in Agartha suffered from may look like a small thing. However, many died in the province, and in other times, it would have been major news.
In
Abysia, wizards discovered they could harvest mana from tar pits that they hadn't searched to this day.
In
Mictlan, a slave merchant has proposed the clergy to sell them blood slaves for a cheap price.
Arshnoc gave Bogarus territory back to
Shinuyama. Arshnoc troops then left Bogarus, heading west into Ural. Bogarus inhabitants were now technically under Shinuyaman rule, but as noone from Shinuyama came into the country and Arshnoc hadn't left any troop to take care of the country, the locals decided to revolt and declare independance!
Arshnoc miners of Seul have brought lots of gold from their mine, contributing to extra revenue for their empire.
Lu Tun Ping the immortal found 3 mana worth of magic gems in a badger's den in Ural.
An earthquake ravaged the province of Man ch'i, destroying the temple.
In Dark woods, Arshnoc priests managed to convince the population not to take arms and revolt, but the situation remains extremely tense after the mushroom affair.
Arshnoc navy moved from Seul to Arshnoc, looking for pirates, but these have apparently all moved away and the trade routes could now be secured again.
Many Arshnoc troops from Bogarus and Caelum regrouped in Ural, preparing themselves for a fight against Magni and his army. This caused a real porblem however, as there were so many troops that the province couldn't feed everyone. Tigers and men were starting to starve when Jotunheim armies invaded.
The battle between Arshnoc and Jotunheim was unbalanced, as Arshnoc had many more troops than their opponents. However, these troops are having supply problems and should they move all together into Jotun lands, it's likely many would die of starvation and disease before actually fighting the giants. Right now, population is dying of lack of food in Ural, and unless some troops leave or measures are taken, the situation will worsen.
In
Lanka, monkeys celebrated as their island was finally free of Shinuyaman troops. They hunted down all of those who had started worshipping Shizen and tried to force them to renege their religion. As a result, faith in Shizen has decreased in the province.
Shinuyama fleet around Lanka set up to find out and destroy the remaining Lanka fleet. They sailed south to find them, but Lanka ships tried to avoid contact. When Shinuyaman sailors decided to blocade ports however, Lankan reacted and a battle finally ensued. Shinuyama had a very slight advantage in numbers, but Lankans knew their waters better. Both fleets were made of quinquiremes, and most of them were regular navies, although a few Lankans were corsairs and pirates.
After a long battle, Shinuyama ships managed to take the corsairs on the sides of Lanka navy, but suffered heavy losses in their center. As Shinuyama started to circle Lanka ships, some Lankan quinquiremes broke the fight and escaped. At the end of the day, Shinuyaman ships had to repair their damaged hulls, and rescue their damaged ships' crews. The ships they captured almost replaced those they lost, and the end result was a distinct victory for Shinuyama, although a pair of Lankan ships managed to flee to the southern ocean.
Shinuyama fleet decided orders to blocade all of Lanka coasts: Half of them stood in Cyprus sea to blocade Lankan ports north of Gath and Ashdod, and the other half sailed east to chase the Lankan ships and blocade the rest of Lanka. This was a long pursuit around Bandar Log coasts. Shinuyaman ships had sailed from Central Ocean near Lanka to Cyprus sea and then through the southern ocean up to Monkey sea when they finally caught the Lankan fleet. That is, the
other Lankan fleet, the one which the rakshasas had ordered their monkey subjects to build in the south five years ago, far enough from Lankan ships that they could be finished before an invasion fleet could reach them. Now they were ready and Shinuyama ships were outnumbered about three to one. Monkeys had been able to pass word to the southern fleet, and they had picked a location where they could trap Shinuyamans. The northern fleet had no way to escape and got destroyed by these Lankans.
In
Pythium province of Dacia, the young boy called Kain was escorted east to the civilised lands. Celes himself had looked upon the boy, and found him to have an extraordinary potential. The boy was escorted by two emerald guards, some of the finest soldiers of the empire. One of them, Dudos, kept grumbling at being assigned such a silly task, while his fellow Dupos kept saying they should follow the will of Celes without asking questions. The boy got bored by the soldiers constant bickering. When a bear attacked the trio, Dudos and Dupos were busy arguing with each other and couldn't react in time. Dupos's head was crushed by a paw and Dudos's shield torn down as the bear charged him. The guard urged Kain to run away, while he kept the beast at bay, but the boy calmly approached Dupos's corpse and took his sword. Dudos fainted at that time, after the bear hit him once again. When he woke up, he was in a bed in an inn at the border beetween Pythium and Dacia. The innkeeper told him he had been brought in by a child, a small boy maybe 10 years old judging from his size, but strong enough to carry an unconscious adult in full armor over a long road. The boy had asked the innkeeper to take care of Dudos, and left. He had said he couldn't wait for his guard to heal so he would reach Pythium alone.
In Colchis, a preacher urged the peasants to donate money, and earned a lot of gold which he gave to the church.
In Dacia, Diana was attacked by the shipwrecked sailor from Ulm. He managed to reach her, pretending he wanted to join Pythium. This let him to get close to the sorceress, but as he attacked her with his psychic powers, she called her battle vestal bodyguards and they managed to rout the Ulm assassin.
Pythium had decided to get rid of
Ulm's threat, and sent armies to attack both Ulm in the north and Sauromatia in the south.
However, an
Ulm priest had managed to tame several small hydras in Sauromatia, and had them join the army.
Spotting a large defense force and even a few hydras defending the land, Pythium first sent a small unit of big hydras to attack the province.
Although Pythium hydras got killed, they killed Ulm's small hydras, and their noxious aura poisoned Ulm defenders and so many died of their wounds in the following days that, when the true invasion force arrived, Ulm defenses were severely weakened.
Sauromatia fell easily to Pythium's legions.
In Ulm proper, Celes led his army against the Monolith's armies, heavy infantry with knights in the front and on the sides, and crossbowmen and mages in the back. Pythium wizards planned to use water and air magic while Ulm smiths shot back fire bolts and flame darts.
Ulm soldiers had learnt from their previous defeat, and they had scattered their troops a bit, hoping that Diana's rust mists couldn't catch all of them and ruin the whole army. Their knights in the front ranks also looked strange. They were even more scattered and would be unable to exploit a successful charge for lack of numbers and mass.
But as the first Ulmish cavalry charged their lizard-mounted counterparts, it soon appeared that these front knights had been picked for sacrifice: As soon as they were killed, they exploded in a large blast of fire, taking their slayers with them in the other world.
While they expected an easy victory, Pythians were sorely disappointed. They had never faced Ulm's fire magic: darts, bolts and fire prisons, along with the knights' sacrifices were deadly. Ulm had scattered their infantry, reducing the effects of by the rust mists. Diana was caught by an arbalest bolt around the end of the battle. Celes afterwards realised that the sacrificed knights all wore strange amulets which exploded when they died. Those amulets of vengeance proved to be a nasty surprise. At least six knights wore such amulets, and when they exploded they killed five, ten or fifteen opponents at once. After these sacrifices, Ulm's armies outnumbered and outflanked Pythium's and the battle was won. Ulm still retains its homeland, if little else.
In
Ermor, emperor Tiberius Drusius Nero Claudius told the senate that it was time to reclaim their lost territories. Many inhabitants dug the family graves and brought buried torcs and diadems to the ruler, saying they had been visited by the manes of their ancestors. The manes told them it was time to put these buried treasures to good use, and the faithful Ermorians obeyed, thereby increasing Ermor's gold.
With the emperor's blessing, several Ermor thaumaturgs led their behemoths and longdead horsemen to attack Slavia.
The behemoths crushed Ulm infantry, but Ulm arbalests managed to destroy a few of the monsters before they were overwhelmed by the undead in a very short and bloody fight.
Mictlan ships were refitted on the coasts of Man, Mictlan and Kymriu, removing oars to put catapults instead and changing the sails. This work was expensive but a lot of manpower was used, and the military contributed to the effort. Once the first ships were ready, the were sent west and north looking for Vanheim ships. Many soldiers boarded the ships and sailed north after the first galleons had been sent north.
In the far north, four galleons tracked down Vanheim's longship sighted on the coasts of Niefelheim and used their catapults againts it. The longship was sunk by the catapult missiles before it could close its enemies.
The rest of the fleet sought Vanheim's ghost navies and engaged them near the coasts of Helheim, sinking them with the same ease. In both cases, Mictlan navies had an advantage of about three or four to one, and that didn't leave much chance to Vanheim ships which needed to close in order to be able to fight.
With the waters cleared by this huge naval vanguard, the rest of
Mictlan navy landed. Troops were unloaded in
Vanheim and Helheim, and some flew over to strike Midgard. Other ships unloaded troops on
Shinuyama provinces of Eriu and Tir na n'Og.
In Vanheim, demon women sneaked ahead of the army, trying to seduce or assassinate enemy wizards. One of these women was a tlahuelpuchi, a strange witch able to change into a dog and to remove her feet in order to fly. She tried to kill a vanherse, but the van summoned phantasmal warriors which overcame the assassin. Two other women, succubi with bat wings, tried to seduce wizard priests but were killed by their mighty priestly powers. One wizard however, succumbed to tanother succubus' charm and joined Micltan armies as they marched on Vanheim's capital.
The Vanir were totally outnumbered, imps and giant dragonflies pinned down their soldiers while jaguar toads spit poison at them. Wizard priests tried to raise undead and cast some lightning spells to counter attack, but they were too few in numbers and suffered too many losses to be able to resist. The vanir decided to flee, hoping to regroup with other soldiers in Midgard.
In Helheim, Vanir defenders were even less numerous. There was no van to defend the province, only a few huskarl militia and several dwarven wizards.
As Helheim was promptly defeated, three civateteo accompanied by several jaguar fiends and beast bats flew to srike Midgard. This army was the smallest of Mictlan armies, and it faced dwarven smiths, huskarls and the remains of those vanir who had managed to flee Vanheim. Furthermore, a group of dead kings rose from the draugar mounds to join
Vanheim's armies and repel the invaders.
Midgard resisted Mictlan's attack, but the troops there are few in numbers and vanir fear that they may be unable to hold the province should Mictlan strike them with all their might.
Mictlan troops also landed in Eriu and tir na 'nOg, in the lands claimed by
Shinuyama.
In Eriu, jaguar warriors, slingers and javelineers backed by wwizard-priests and couatls faced flagellants and bakemono protecting bakemono sorcerers and shamans.
Despite heavy losses to their jaguar warriors, Mictlan managed to kill all Shinuyama defenders and master half of the island.
In the other half, five ice devils and a few frost fiends landed and attacked the local shugenja and Onmyo-ji.
The ice devil Bifrons was killed in a magic duel before the real fight could even begin, and the frost fiends fell to the elementals and faerie shots, but the four other ice devils killed all the Shinuaman wizards. Unfortunately for Mictlan, Bifrons's equipment was crushed beyond use as an elemental rolled over his corpse, but at the end of the day, the whole island was under Mictlan control.
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