Operation Parameters
| Date |
1492 DR, 3 Eleasis
|
| Group 1 |
- Faye
- Falyer
- Aceso
- Tempest
- Belial
- Bishop
- Tavvok
- Triste
- Farolt
- Forge
|
| Group 2 |
- Echo
- Burt
- Tibbs
- Dremond
- Tide
- Shallan
- Fruedek
- Neamhni
|
| Group 3 |
- Arden
- Ayula
- Aujirgix
- Waldo
- Tokosh
- Ilpi
- Virgil
- Sloan
|
| Status |
|
| Casualties |
Dremond
Valraën
Shallan
Tokosh
Neamhni
|
Operation Details
From Aceso:
A little while ago the "The Ein Sof" -- Aegir, Grann, Vett, and Weloh, were able to take back the Moonwell from the enemy. This bought back sunlight to an area around the Moonwell, and it was slowly expanding.
A massive enemy camp was discovered south of the Moonwell by one of the scouting missions that went to investigate a rumor of an enemy force that was present in that area.
The group named the "The Aegis", were sent to secure the Moonwell from an incoming attack from the enemy in an attempt to retake it, but for reasons unknown, they left before the attack commenced. The enemy re-took the Moonwell, and the land was once again plunged into darkness.
The morning after darkness fell, the soldiers in the camp explored options, sought out allies, looked to create or acquire items, and do anything else they could to help prepare for whatever came next. (See other mission reports for more details).
As a side note, some other in-camp actions were taken as well that didn't have a direct mission report. For example, the creation of 6x Potions of Fire Breathing.
The command called for a vote of the entire camp to determine if:
1. Fight -- Attempt to retake the Moonwell
2. Flee -- Relocate the base
3. Plan J -- Escalate the war by taking the Moonwell off the table
We also had to choose if we accept Hora's aid in exchange for letting them use the camp as a staging ground to attack Cobh after the Moonwell fight.
In the end, the camp chose to fight, and to also accept Hora's aid -- along with their conditions of using the camp as a staging ground.
Following this decision, Aceso created a proposal that broke up all the volunteers for the raid into three different groups that were self-sufficient, and well-rounded.
Group 1: Lead by Aceso
Group 2: Lead by Dremond
Group 3: Lead by Aujirgix
Group 1 included the Mustang Brigade and was the first of the two groups that made up the ground assault.
Group 2 would be the second ground assault group.
Group 3 was the final group that would pilot the Jim's "apparatus", which turned out to be a massive armored mobile unit [Tank].
On the morning of the raid, Lt. Tel presented the final roster for the three groups. All three groups gathered, and then began heading south toward the Moonwell.
The following report is from the perspective of Group 1.
As we pushed south, we heard grunts/groans and fighting in the distance. There was a chill in the air. As they headed southeast, they came across what seemed to be a campfire with two tents. The whole situation seemed way too convenient, so the group was cautious. We initially planned to just attack the tents at range, but we decided to use the familiar to investigate if this was a potential ambush. The owl initially circled and couldn't see anything. The owl then attempted to peek into the tent and was destroyed in an instant.
Three enemies exited the tents, and a fight began. The three fighters included a Mage/Caster, a sword wielding summoner, and a dagger wielding fighter. The sword wielder summoned a massive flaming skull that was able to deal massive area damage using fire. The dagger wielding fighter also able to unleash a major area spell that involved cold and ice.
As a group, we were able to take out the mage, followed by the sword wielder, the dagger wielder, and finally the flaming skull. For any soldiers who fights one of these flaming skulls, needs to be aware that the skull explodes when killed.
During the fight we did notice a massive blue column of light that came from the direction of the Moonwell. Overall, the fight went well, and we continued toward the Moonwell without any major issues.
Upon arrival, we saw the two other groups approaching. Group 2 looked as expected, but Group 3 no longer had the massive armored mobile unit [Tank] and seemed to be 3 soldier's riding giant t-rexes.
In the center of the Moonwell was 6 people chanting in a circle in red robes, with one other person on the south side who seemed to be the leader. Surrounding them was a blue light that we'd learn was some sort of barrier.
Tempest attempted to enter the barrier but was thrown back and took a massive amount of damage.
As the battle started, two flying bone monsters descended towards group 1 and group 2, along with 1 hound at the feet of each group. While hard to see from our perspective, we could see a giant blue beam of light that was headed in the direction of Group 3 from the Moonwell, as controlled by the leader inside the blue barrier.
The hounds seemed to be able to both charm and do area attacks. The bone devils like to grapple and throw people into the barrier causing massive damage. Their claws did a lot of damage, but their stings were deadly by piercing those attacked, and poisoning them. In our case Tavvok was grabbed by the monster, but Belial was able to grapple the monster keeping it from flying away for a period. Tavvok was also able to do an attack to caused it to stay in place until he could escape.
From the prospective of group 1, we were doing fairing decently at first. But when the leader sucked in several of the chanting robbed people, the Moonwell seemed to become unstable, and a blast of blue energy erupted. In total Belial, Aceso, Triste, and Forge all went unconscious by the blast. At the time, Faye was also charmed. This meant that no one from group 1 would be able to bring up those who had fallen unconscious.
Two critical actions turned the tide for Group 1:
1. Tide grabbed Echo (Group 2), who could still heal, and thunder-stepped away from a charmed Tibbs. This broke Tibb's charm and allowed Echo to bring up Aceso. Aceso was then able to use mass healing word to bring up 4 people and heal another two badly wounded allies.
2. Tempest blew a whistle she received from her family and gained the ability to use a devastating magic attack. She then used this attack on bone devil near group 1, and well... disintegrated it.
Around this time, we noticed that the leader of Horsa, Calliope, along a several of her fighters were chasing down the enemy to the west as they approached. Suddenly Calliope appeared in the middle of group 2, along with another dwarf, and began assisting them. They had taken significant damage during their fight and had lost a few people.
At this point all the remaining robbed figures in the Moonwell barrier, and the leader himself had entered the blue center of the Moonwell. Another blue blast emanated from the Moonwell, but it was slightly weaker than before -- and luckily for group 1, we were all able to survive the second blast.
In the end the following people passed away:
Dremond
Valraën
Shallan
Tokosh
Neamhni
Burt
Aujirgix
Of these, only Burt was able to be brought back immediately after the battle. The rest had taken far too much damage to be revived at the time.
At the direction of Calliope, all of those with a divine connection -- Triste, Burt, Aceso, and Fruedek entered the center of the Moonwell. Inside was a jumping puzzle leading to a giant orb. We were told to try to make it to the center, and then dump as much magic into it as possible. None of our members were able to make it to the center, and were forcible ejected, but Calliope was able to make it. This allowed Talos to take control of the Moonwell.
With this, sunlight returned to the area around the Moonwell. Those who survived collected their fallen allies and headed back to camp.
After returning to the camp, the Cpt was able to revive Aujirgix using a much stronger revival spell. He is currently being treated in the field hospital.
With this, I would like to pay my respects to those who died in the Moonwell, along with those died while preparing for the attack:
Dremond
Valraën
Shallan
Tokosh
Neamhni
--------
Hallbjorn
Aludira
Lu Bu
=============
From Ayula:
I’m writing this in a bit of a daze, with bitter whiskey on my lips. I wish I could tell you exactly what happened on the last mission, but I’ll admit, it was a blur. So I’ll explain what memories I do have.
The night started with us getting in the tank. We all had our list of what all the buttons and levers did, and we felt quite clever and optimistic, but our tank didn’t last all that long.
A hoard of goblins with explosives attacked us first. Some were zombies, I think. I asked my teammates not to move the tank while I was shooting goblins on top of the tank, and alas, they did not listen. I ended up getting thrown off the top of the tank when it moved suddenly. I landed in the cold dirt very annoyed, and I was even more annoyed when a goblin with a poisoned sword hit me rather hard. I saw red, and in an instant, with a bit of hellish rebuke, the annoying thing was a pile of ashes at my feet. Slash, fire, dead. Fueled by adrenaline I picked myself up. My magic worked for me, and without really thinking, I teleported myself onto the top of the tank, then fell into the hatch pretty immediately.
It was at this point I really started to kick myself for burning 2 spells in 6 seconds. Going into battle with 0 spells was bad news. Turns out it didn’t really matter though.
From there, things were a blur. A giant worm took one bite of the tank, then another. Right before the tank died, we managed to hit the worm with a canon, and it completely destroyed the worm in a spray of blood and guts. But the tank was dying.
I retook my seat and looked around, everyone was holding down the ‘1’ switch on their control panels. “Hold 1!” They told me, So I did, not knowing what would happen. I turned into a giant lizard, is what happened.
From there, my night was a jumble of flashing lights, death, and occasional agonizing pain. My thoughts were quite dim as a lizard. I could tell friend from foe, and I knew I was going to the moonwell, but beyond that thought, I couldn’t make out much. I count myself as lucky for not being totally aware as people fell and died around me and on me. I’ve never known this much death before. I only hope that my brain hasn’t processed enough of tonight to make nightmares out of it. My old, familiar nightmares would be a comfort.
But, at least I can see the stars again. I mourn those whose last sight was darkness. May they see many stars, and sunsets, and the moon in the afterlife. May their soul rest under the clear sky.
=============
From Echo:
Once the teams split off, and we of group 2 made our course. We found ourselves, alone. In the quiet of the forest, we could hear the distant sound of battle. But we could not make haste, we made it to a clearing and were blocked by a man, and three winged creatures, Megaera, Tisiphone, Alecto. He commanded them, I don't believe we caught his name in the scuffle. He summoned a large foreboding being. Tall, gaunt, skeletal, Zagreus. But in the face of all this, group 2 held strong.
We scattered into our respective positions and slowly we chipped away at the enemy. Even Orion and Sirius made an appearance! They shot one of the creatures backwards as it was chasing after someone. One after another the creatures fell and so did their master.
We all came out of that one injured but we would make it to the Moonwell, what happened after. We all came to witness. Pushing further became harder with the terrain, and with Bone Devils and Hellhounds blocking our path further. Causing us to scramble a bit as friends became captured and hypnotized. In the end the darkness was banished. Casualty count is up to 8 now, it could be worse, but it could better. I'm not exactly sure what happened inside that portal. But I'm at least grateful to see the sky again.
=============
From Arden:
We brought out the apparatus and moved towards the Moonwell after doing some final testing. We encountered some goblins and goblin zombie bombers along the way as well as a mysterious figure who disappeared shortly after. After crushing the small goblins we fought against a giant worm that the mysterious figure likely summoned. The apparatus already had been damaged by the bombers (crushed before we realized they were bombers) and was further damaged by the giant worm taking bites out of it. We found ourselves looking up at open air after the worm took off the ceiling of the control room. Things were looking grim for us, but PocketJim came through with pivotal advice. We shot the worm almost point blank with the cannon before destroying it in a giant explosion. I don't really recall what happened exactly but the somehow the self destruct was triggered, destroying the apparatus and the worm together in fountain of gibbets and machine parts! Thankfully, I had followed PocketJim's instructions and had held down button one. Alongside two others, we were spared from the self destruct blast and instead polymorphed into T-Rexes! Our two unluckiest team members were thrown backwards into the surrounding area with great force, falling unconscious. Miraculously they were both able to wake up on their own shortly after though! We then proceeded to the Moonwell as the newly created Dino Cavalry unit.
Looking back that the Moonwell fight I have a better idea what happened now, but at the time I was just a T-Rex that wanted to eat the bad people and help the good people. It was the strangest thing
We approached the Moonwell from the south with group 1 and 2 to the north of us. We closed on the Moonwell and it's shimmering barrier as best we could through the swampy terrain. The enemy was some sort of huge undead construct accompanied by what looked like spellcasters in a circle around the Moonwell. As we approached the barrier the enemy leader casted chain lightning, hitting the entire Dino Cavalry group and frying many of the T-Rex riders. After I reached the barrier I slammed it with my tail but was repelled by a strong force that knocked me back. Shaken, I decided to go around the barrier and help our allies first.
Before I could, the enemy leader activated some sort of pulse of energy that destroyed the barrier but managed to hit the entire battlefield doing severe damage to everyone, which included his own minions. The Horsa reinforcements finally showed up around this time, looking like they had already gone through some battles of their own. Badly injured, I moved towards our beleaguered group 1 and 2 allies to chomp on the bone devil... -err defeat the bone devil and strange doglike creature that was still attacking them. Just as the last enemies were defeated, the Moonwell finished charging up again and unleashed another deadly pulse of energy, returning me back to my normal dwarf self.
Many lives were lost in the Moonwell battle. Group 3 was fortunate or unfortunate to only lose one, Tokosh. In the end we did not manage to claim the Moonwell for ourselves and it was claimed by Lady Calliope for Talos.
