The Cognoterre: The Gathering of Armies
FIRST RITUAL CONDITION: Each player must establish a Seat.
Months pass as Samru girds itself for war. Armies are gathering at Mynedd Palace or stationed at strategic points chosen by Gules Dragon, largely down in the Somadion Plains. The Heshetani airships are brought in and crews are trained; then they are dispatched to gather supplies and move troops. New weapons are being built as quickly as possible -- pistoles, rifles, cannone, and other alchemical weapons of destruction such as clinging fire and delayed fire. These, too, are dispatched to the troops as quickly as possible.
Dakrion Avis appears in Mynedd Palace and tries to slay Malachi, but one of Malachi's followers throws himself before the antipaladin's axe, saving the boy at the cost of his own life. While Malachi, stricken, looks down at the loyal follower, Gules and Remington blast the antipaladin -- and a significant part of the throne room -- into component parts. His axe, Reaver, is destroyed by the Church of the Sacred Order.
Slowly the army builds. Kevalinu walk in, one by one, scattered survivors of the Domination War. Ragged ships appear off the coast -- the ships of the Salt Alliance, damned souls cursed to keep the ocean safe in revenge for their own evildoing. The king of the kobkode teleports in, sharp teeth flashing in a grin and gold rings glittering in his ears, and volunteers to engage in any spying missions the Destined King may require. Word comes in that lycanthropes and arboreal spirits are willing to battle the Metal Gods' forces. And, disturbingly, the drow Fellis appears, with a small force of cold-eyed children trained as warriors and mages. Malachi takes the children as his own personal guard against his counselors' advice, arguing that had things been different, he and Olivar would be one of them, too.
Many cities send contingents of warriors, mages, and clerics: Cislunar, the Warholt of Bathalt, Ankham, Jackscrag, and more.
But the enemy is also raising armies. Minimin reports legions of diseased around a vine-covered temple in the Djerjain Jungle, where Mock's horrible-looking Champion, Travail, rules. Mock's forces include maggon-headed carrion hounds, swarming grubs, plague angels, despairs, fatlings, fleshcrawlers, gauntlings, lard worms, disease-carrying pestilites, plaguecats, skullworms, spirits of the plague, touch corruptors, and Mock's contgagion-bearing, half-rotten chosen.
Halkem reports swelling forces heading south to join Iron Scream in the Rharihu Plains, where the Metal God's Champion Havoc rules. Shapechanging beasts, scythe-handed blood reapers, oozing bloodmen, sword golems, shadowravens, manticore/humanoid heralds, scythe falcons, and Iron Scream's Slain, warriors who will fight on after death with the same prowess they had before. In addition, Iron Scream has attracted thousands of warriors of all races who seek joy in battle, including not a few former followers and even clerics of Sangre.
Halkem convinces some of the desert denizens to join him: lamia, sphinx, human and aseku, especially. Like Thame and Chymrae, the sphinx prophet-goddess Ramatap was destroyed by the Metal Gods, and many of her followers are now ready for revenge. But the hadjjin mostly follow Orthodoc Hai, and he has joined forces with Iron Scream, swayed by the promise of glorious slaughter. Halkem heads further south, to see Iron Scream's fortress, himself.
Pip quickly learns that Sardonicus has great sway in the north, and with investigation and mind-reading learns that his Champion, Bane, dwells in the icy halls of northern Cronoan, a city once said to have been the dwelling-place of the aseku god Jagganath. Sardonicus seems to attract mages and have fewer monstrosities serving him than the other two Metal Gods, but Pip recognizes more of the strange, weather-controlling children of the sort he met in Gedding Gaol, called stormchildren by the locals. He also hears of arcane symbiotes, mages that have turned host to strange parasites that give them spell resistance and telepathy. But the most frightening thing he hears rumors of are tempus twins, humanoids -- perhaps coryphei -- that now breed true and can travel through time.
To Pip's surprise, though, he is able to convince Darkangel to fight for the Destined King, and when Darkangel agrees, the Ashen Lady also makes the alliance. Darkangel's motive is selfish; he is a god, and he will not suffer himself to be destroyed by the Avatarchs. The Ashen Lady's motives are harder to discern. She is a long-time ally of Darkangel, which may play some role in her decision, and she claims to have lost many friends who killed themselves after Chymrae's death. But Pip is affected by the same suspicion as so many others: can any mage be trusted anymore? After making the treaties, he travels northward to see what he can learn about Sardonicus' stronghold.
Valere and Elianora have had much success; they have convinced most of the bade'in Holdings and aseku Families to join them, and are responsible for negotiating with many of the other races whose spokesbeings have reached Mynedd Palace. But they also have grimmer news to report. Strange insectoid/wormlike beings are crawling out of Harad's Fault and attacking any who come too close. Black unicorns are growing more common, fighting white unicorns for dominance over the forests. Worgs slink around the edges of civilization, as well, and vermin seem to be proliferating, carrying disease with them. They have killed such abominations whenever possible, but they are only two against many.
Finally, Caprice and Hari report on Decad's forces. Many are merely normal folk seduced by Decad's promises of beauty, passion, drugs, forgetfulness, and neverending pleasure. But Decad also has some uncanny followers. For example, cruel, angelic beings called bloodless that devour souls in return for eternal beauty -- they particularly seek out paladins, and Hari had several close calls. In addition, Decad has attracted to itself a number of aseku who call themselves "forsaken" and seek only pleasure to lighten the burden of near-immortality. Decad also attracts those born beloved of the gods who have turned their back on their vocations, the unhallowed: faithless knights, false lovers, forsaken priests, and treacherous thieves. But to Caprice, the most painful of the spirits that are under Decad's rule are the unholy children, the spirits of infants who have been murdered by their parents and are now consumed with hatred, taking out their anger on parents everywhere.
Their mission has been largely successful; the only rocky part was their negotiations with Shreir Nyctalop, who turned out to be a vampire, after all. Caprice and Hari killed him and set an honest woman on his throne, but the town of ShadowEyrie has much to rebuild before it can look beyond its own borders. Geronfrey is, perhaps, the most split of all the realms; it has always leaned toward darkness, and Caprice and Hari have seen many things to indicate that Decad and Sardonicus, especially, have much sway here behind closed doors: orgies, cruelty, and dark rites. They call as many as they can to the Destined King and spend much time ferreting out evil and bringing it to the light and the fire.
Caprice returns to Cislunar briefly to tend to Nicodemus, who is on his deathbed. She, Hari, and many other worshippers of Bel -- Valere and Elianora brought in by Remington -- see the aged coryphei off. Before he died, he names Caprice as the next head of the church in Cislunar, and during his funeral rites even King Domenico addresses her by her new title. He also asks her for her assistance. A rebel faction is growing in the city, led by the demagogue Seidr, who is protected by Jyreji Kite and Thorn.
After meeting so many now, Caprice, Valere, and Elianora recognizes that the three are, indeed, Archetypes on the road to becoming gods. Seidr: the Ruthless Demagogue. Jyreji: the Unrelenting Hunter. Thorn she has more difficulty with, and she and her followers watch him for some time before hesitantly identifying him as the Wounded Healer. He is dying of cancer, but he seems to have an empathic skill -- perhaps he is a coryphei? -- of taking others' pain and injuries onto himself. He uses the skill to heal Seidr and Jyreji on the occasions when their speeches turn into riots.
But defeating Seidr isn't easy: she also learns that the Company's suspicions were correct, and Bune is behind him. Earle Remington gathers the rest of the members of the Company willing to help Caprice in another battle against the fallen mendicant of Bel, and this time they are successful, destroying Bune's physical body and driving him off Samru. Seidr and Jyreji are slain, and Thorn dies with them, taking too much onto himself and expiring from the attempt to save his two friends.
