Session 29 - A Letter from the Shrine

General Summary

From Tertia's letters...
Dear Father,
I’m glad I saved my letter to you until now, as I know you enjoy hearing the details of battle and strategy.
~after many pages of previous events~
You know that I served Faustus Cornelius Sulla, a brilliant military mind. He can see the shape of opposing forces and terrain and resources like some can see the shape of a sculpture inside rock or the shape of a soul behind the changes of expression. He can see what can be done with what is at hand.
Those around him followed him not just because he wielded the auctoritas of a legatus or the auctoritas of a patrician Cornelii, but because is easy to follow someone has an idea and explains it so others can see it too.
I wished I had his vision as we debated the various strategies, but fortunately my years as his aide did give me more instincts than I had credited. I could see the likelihoods and actions and reactions, like a net of fish you can hold in your hands and feel the weight of This Fish and That Fish...but I could not explain it. My words stumbled and I lost confidence.
So in the end I deferred to what the greatest number of people was comfortable with - the cautious approach. We would nibble away at the edges of their forces, moving swift and quiet through their numbers, and eventually attack their heart without being flanked. It started well - we struck the first sentry and though he fought to the last, he died within seconds. When we moved into the first living quarters of pilgrims, we still found them unawares.
We lost control fairly quickly after that however. Neighboring chambers heard the sounds of battle, and we failed to stop the flight of a sentry. Terrified pilgrims began to scatter (those that couldn’t barricade themselves in), and though I pursued and cut down many who ran, at least one fled to further spread news of our incursion.
I am under no delusions that we were the monsters to these people. And that, yes, they are people. But so were the orcs and goblins of the east, and we cut them down with little remorse. A people must be judged by their collective choices, and these people chose to worship using thievery and the sacrifice of innocents. I am just glad there were no (obvious) children.
Returning to my account, at this point I finally took the time to use the eyes of Haruspex to see what forces were before us, and saw roughly two contubernia of their warriors moving in. After we had arranged ourselves to ambush them at the top of a winding set of stairs I looked again, and for this second glance it appeared to be a half-century!
I have seen the work of war mages at a distance, but never in the ferocity and proximity that I witnessed today. The sorcerer Hassan first filled the staircase of their approach with sticky webbing, then he filled the air with flames. It was brutal and devastating and incredibly satisfying.
I pursued those soldiers that had not been caught in the flames, in the hopes that I could prevent them from bringing even more down on us, and was thrown back a step by the concussive force of the priest Kleeck conjuring another explosive surge of fire in their midst.
My eyes swam with the afterimage of flames and burning creatures. My ears with their pitiful screeches and the strange popping noises their flesh made. I barely caught my breath to assess whether there were yet any remaining runners when Hassan caught up and between the two of them, they ripped the world apart.
Laura, Bandua, and I kept our wits trying to identify survivors to dispatch. It was mercy we dealt, I think. I had no concerns that the non-combatants we left would behind would be a threat, not once they saw what devastation we brought.
I did have some fear that they might think to use the wall slits between chambers to throw spears at us (no signs of archers in their numbers), but that did not transpire. I do not think they built this temple themselves.
We moved forward through the wide hall, slowly closing with the waves of warriors that continued to pour in. Their numbers appeared unending, including fierce troops that I believe may constitute a sort of bodyguard to their rulers. At this point I still believed we would be able to maintain control of the situation.
Then troops filed in from the hallway behind us, that we had abandoned, and we were flanked. It was our one piece of luck (or animal instinct) that we were still near a flight of stairs up to the archers gallery. We pulled back onto these steps as troops closed from both sides.
I looked over from my position at the bottom of the stairs and was horrified to see that it was not Bandua next to me, but Hassan. Our most deadly, but most vulnerable, member was in the front ranks. I would have tossed him bodily up the stairs, but I was already matching steel with the Kuo-Toa already.

Report Date

10 Apr 2021

Primary Location

Myrkyr Isles