Phase Three: Battle of the Rim
This is the battle at the edge of The Pit. It will begin with the routing of the armies and pushing them back to The Pit and end with the fall of Elpidian.

1. Behind the Scenes - Enemy reacts to the bad news (7 tokens, 1 per)
   1. Billy - Harkan kills the bearer of bad news.
   2. Nathan - Gustav knows exactly what to do with this. Unleash the knights of Kael'Ras. "It is too early," Elpidian resists. "No. It is precisely the right time," Gustav insists.
   3. Kei - Wei is terrified and attempts to flee.
   4. Ian - Bramiel raises someone precious to the good guys.
   5. JT - The Nameless Vizier erases a key prisoner from existence, turning it into another nullman.
   6. Benjesus - The enemy calls in a divine favor.

... It was surprisingly difficult to find a rat in Harkanheim. Or maybe it shouldn't have been surprising. After all, no one had gone to the trouble of breeding fuligin-resistant rats, or infusing them. After some discussion of summoning one from elsewhere, it was decided that it would be better to create one from scratch rather than risk the anti-teleportation matrix. A Theuwissian mage was found and the task was carried out.

Rosamonde strangled the rat herself in an ogre-hide glove. "Hollow Jack, by our ancient covenant, I call upon you. The time has come for you to repay your debt to me." He appeared as a cloud of noxious vapors. You are bold, to summon me here, gray elf.

"You would be right to fear the pit, Father of Vermin."

That isn't what I meant ... but no matter. The mantle of undeath has claimed you, and the prejudices you held in life have been inverted. Isn't that right?

"I still despise you."

The cloud flinched, smirking. But you recognize my utility.

"You are proud, self-interested, and cruel, as you always were."

Enough flattery. What is it you wish?

"Our intelligence reports that the enemy is vulnerable. Their supply lines are running thin, their food supplies are starting to spoil befire they reach the front, and they can't breathe properly through their masks."

The vulnerability is in their immune systems, is that it?

"Give us a plague that will allow us to capitalize on it."

Easily done. Bring me a morsel of food, in which to incubate it.

"Will this do?" She offered a shiny red apple she had taken, even though she no longer had any appetite.

Perfectly. A thin tendril of green smoke billowed forth. At its touch, the skin of the apple dessicated and cracked, flaking away, leaving the white meat visible. The fruit browned with unnatural speed before becoming a repulsive shade of green. Rosamonde gripped it lightly, squeezing a out few drops of brown liquid.

"In the water supply?"

Eat it, drink the fluid, admire the scent. None of your people will be affected. It will sweep across their entire army before any symptoms present. If your enemies are as weak as you say, their bodies will self-destruct trying to fight off the infection. The ones in the fuligin desert, anyway.

"How does it work?"

It's just an influenza virus, but fuligin-infused. This is the only environment on Shem where it can propagate.

Rosamonde smiled thoughtfully. "Their masks keep the grains of sand out, but they won't keep out a virus."

No. Are we done here?

"Yes. Go away."

The fetid cloud dispersed quickly. Rosamonde drew her hood, hid her powerful aura of msawhat, and ventured into the alliance camp ...

1. 1. Dani - A prophecy trap is set using the corrupted waters from an undead sandworm's raising rituals.
2. Advance to the Rim - the Alliance advances across the Fuligin Field, over the course of a week (14 vignettes, 2 per). Includes villains, NPCs, and PCs.
   1. Dani - A colossal spectral undead passively blocks the path.
   2. JT - A minor villain defeats a major nation's best unit through guerrilla tactics.
   3. Dani - The enemy starts to fight dirty with psychological torture upon the advancing Alliance.
   4. Kei - Shara decimates an entire battalion - by the literal term of the word - using the Mastered Heart's ability to burn the unashamed.
   5. Ian - Prax enters a poioumenonic war-trance, and is many places at once. For much of the week, he becomes the war, and the Hunt is his heart. Prax and Sli share a moment out of time.
   6. Nathan - Tam Lin and Gerrick take charge of a stranded encampment of inexperienced NPC's, keeping every one of them alive through a hard, horrific night of siege. Tam Lin hardens a little in the process, and understands what it must be like to be a Troublemaker.
   7. JT - A battle is fought in a field with no faith, no magic, and no gifts.
   8. Benjesus - Quicksand, blessed by undeath, claims many lives. Those who die within lie just beneath the surface, ready to drag others under.

... blessings are not all that differerent from curses. That was the logic that led to Lucas Tove being called away from skirmishing with the grey army to deal with the lake of undeath-blessed quicksand at the head of the column.

Quicksand by itself isn't much of a threat. The alliance had run into it once or twice before on this adventure. The procedure is simple: stop moving and wait for someone to pull you out.

The first problem with the blessed quicksand was that it was full of corporeal undead who would pull victims down before a rope or pole could be used to pull the victim out. The other problem was that the blessing had animated the quicksand; it seemed to be a form of spectral undead, shifting and shuffling from one area to another, co-locating with the desert sands or moving them aside to take their place. It was a quicksand that didn't wait, but hunted. And its camoflauge was excellent.

An evil blessing isn't a curse, it's still a blessing. Undeath "curses" are usually merely unwanted blessings. The difference is mostly the source of power, though. The structure, on the other hand, is similar: emotion, intention, power, scope, attachment, conditions.

So the curse-weaver ended up being a decent choice to diagnose and solve the problem, even if by accident. He talked with the scouts and established its properties. He had a chat with desert, jungle, and submarine hunters and established the metaphor of a symbiotic predator. He enlisted a mage from Dabusen sufficiently skilled in raesian magic to locate the "host", which turned out to be a chir batti with a talent for drosdenian magic. He got a void grenade from a vewelian.

He had a variety of ways of dealing with undead. His ailsilver gladius, his faith in and bestowments from the Gatekeeper, the Ring of 1000 Deaths, several of the thousand curses he had bent to his will. The problem was the sand. Being blessed by undeath, it was capable of absorbing most powers that would harm undead. And it was underneath the fuligin sand, so faith would not penetrate it. So he decided that he would go inside.

The shamblers couldn't move very well being buried in quicksand, and the chir batti was busy controlling the sand. None of them could touch him while he wore the Ring of 1000 Deaths. The main risk was in panicking and swallowing sand, suffocating, or getting strangled by the shamblers, at which point a victim would join them. Lucas couldn't die, so none of this worried him. Still, he didn't look forward to being buried alive again, so he went down with a rope.

Ten seconds after diving in (it was more of a crawl, really) and the shamblers were grasping at him. They knew to pull people down and try to turn them undead, but being pulled down was what Lucas wanted, and he couldn't be turned undead while he had his Ring on. After pulling him down about ten feet, they seemed to lose interest and started "swimming" up to find more victims.

Thirty seconds. He'd held his breath for four minutes once, but he knew that after tw o he'd start to slip, and by 3 minutes he'd be as good as useless. He tried to swim some more, but only sank further. He shortly found that there was more resistance under his feet - it was the bottom of the grey quicksand and the top of the "regular" fuligin sand. It was rough, but now he could walk. 45 seconds.

He felt the sand start to move. He was no mage, but he'd learned the difference between magical and natural movement, even in the dark, by nothing more than touch, it was pretty clear that the area was rotating. He pressed on toward for the center of the rotation. 60 seconds.

The sand stopped and started moving two more times while he walked through the muck. Each time, it became clearer where the master of the quicksand was standing. 90 seconds.

The chir batti tried to possess him. It was a logical thing to do, but the Ring protected him, so it failed. He feinted with his gladius, slashing at eye level, and then followed up by shoving the void grenade into the monster's space around waist height. It got about a foot away, far enough that Lucas and it would take the blast equally. Nearly two minutes.

Lucas didn't rely on conventional magic for much of anything, so mostly he paid for setting off the grenade like that in bruises. The quicksand stopped moving. There was a risk of the chir batti recovering, though, so he pressed forward. The monster was howling in rage, so it was easy to find. He slashed at it in slow motion again, missed, and then his next thrust nicked it; it slowed just enough for his coup de grace. He grabbed (or co-located) it with his gauntleted hand, flexing his fingers to expose the surface of the Ring. A moment's concentration and it was gone, sent by divine power. He tugged hard on the rope twice and let the soldiers on the surface pull him up ...

1. 1. Billy - A corrupted Gift is recovered by the alliance.
   2. Nathan - Mudpie is termporarily an avatar of Shem. He becomes a normal desert storm, warping the fuligin to normal desert where he passes, and making ash of the undead in a swath the size of a nor'easter. When he returns to normal, he will still have remnants of Shem in his head, altering his mind. He will also be, temporarily or for an indeffinite moderate time, short of energy.
   3. Kei - Deyn communes with the earthpower aether and summons a small tectonic disruption.
   4. Ian - The May Queen uses her cup, long held by Prax and now energized with narrative energy, to purge all fear from someone thought shattered by the war.
2. Behind the Scenes - Alliance commanders (7 tokens, 1 per)
   1. Billy - Thannas spends the day among the common soldiers, performing miracles of healing, and weeps at night at the pain and suffering he is still unable to defeat, as the weight of messianity causes him to hear the prayers of everyone within miles calling for help. He reaches out, even in his dreams, to help them, but it's never enough.
   2. Dani - Pajah Harami must give up the search for a lost wounded red cloak.
   3. Kei - Sorosiphia notes a tendency for one wing of the enemy forces to fade back the exact same distance and regroup after a certain strategy is used and decides to make use of it in a sudden ambush on their next regroup site.
   4. Ian - Prax mourns with a stoic commander.
   5. JT - Diplomatic tensions flair as the Tara'hinian cannot find Ledyim, and think him dead.
   6. Benjesus - The Irriton Complex presents the alliance commanders with a weapon and then leaves.

... the Irriton Complex had sent a few hundred drones to join the allience, and one of them was in the Commander's tent. "We are leaving this war," it said. "We regret that we are not able to fight more, but circumstances do not allow."

"May I ask what those circumstances are?" Ghef'hardim asked, annoyed.

"No."

"Is there anything we can do to persuade you to stay?"

"Kill the Val'abrans. Or arrange their deaths. After the war, perhaps. This would persuade us."

"I guess this is goodbye, then."

"Or just the Valhonian Consequent. She is a danger to all. You must recognize this. At least banish her from Shem."

"Is there anything else?"

"Yes. We started pulling our forces out before this conversation started. We have left behind a weapon of great power."

"What kind of weapon?"

"An irriton cascade bomb, 100 terajoules, full organic penetration, equipped with a vewelian delivery system."

"And where did you leave it?"

"It is in your tent. This drone is the delivery system."

Ghef'hardim stared. Maradir, who had been listening, stared. Maradir spoke next.

"You built a bomb into one of your people? Into ... you're nothing but a bomb?"

"A delivery system. And what better delivery system could there be? It can navigate any terrain, use any form of transport, adapt to any situation. Hide in plain sight. Use weapons to defend itself. Debate. Negotiate. Enlist others to its aid. Truly think."

The generals were quiet for a moment. Then, Maradir turned to Ghef'hardim, and said, "We're ... going to have to use this, aren't we?"

Ghef'hardim sighed. "Stay a hundred meters from any of our people. Don't detonate, and don't get captured."

The bomb nodded, and did as it was told ...

1. 1. Nathan - the lesser queen and her allies try and fail to freeze Angela Murray out of her command. Before she leaves, she gives them one crucial piece of intel leading to a necessary victory.
2. Clash at the Rim - vignettes of wins and losses all around the Rim of The Pit (14 tokens, 2 per)
   1. JT - A major NPC saves a legendary NPC from a gashadokuro.
   2. Kei - A fault line is used to cause a collapse of The Pit edge and to win a battle.
   3. Nathan - Gerrick and Tam Lin get stranded, rescued by the inexperienced NPC team they protected.
   4. Dani - A minor nation's units are completely wiped out.
   5. Ian - Bramiel's newly-undead scion makes their debut with an early victory.
   6. Billy - Endhathef loses control and goes on a rampage.
   7. Kei - Avery finds himself pinned between the Pit and an enemy armed with iron. Jack the Diamond manages to reach him but is grievously wounded in their escape.
   8. Ian - Prax flashes back to his early medical training, and wonders if Shem could survive having The Pit amputated.
   9. JT - Ledyim Lilac uses Rindacsa's candle to lead his men out of a trap of undeath despair.
   10. Dani - Undead or fuligin-infused gnomes.
   11. Dani - Roving packs of wild fuligin predators
   12. Billy - Bluebird Hrielle kills a minor NPC and raises him/her to taunt a major NPC.
   13. Nathan - Mudpie feels the pull of The Pit, and uses the connection to transmit vital knowledge.
   14. Benjesus - Tom Fool steals Dullahan's voice.

... "I have an itch," the vilechant manifest whispered, to a dying soldier.

"Give me a scratch," the soldier responded, not knowing why, with her last breath.

The vilechant manifest moved, invisibly, intangibly, to the next one, hundreds of meters away. This one had been maimed by a pit monster. His left arm was gone and all the bones on that side had been shattered. His right hand twitched. He'd ask for help, but he hadn't been acting on orders, and blamed himself. It was his mistake. And it was starting to sink in that there was something especially wrong about the pain in his left arm.

"I have an itch," he heard. Who could have said it? There was no one around to speak to him, so he decided that must have said it himself. "Give me a scratch," he whispered, dying.

On the other side of the battlefield, an alliance scout was being tortured in a ditch by harkanians. They lacked real training or equipment, their methods were crude - dining implements inserted in places they shouldn't go. She would be dead long before she'd experienced enough pain to break. While she waited for death, she reflected on how stupid her orders had been. How naive her commanding officer was. How her loyalty and duty had brought her to this. She was covered in blood from tiny cuts and punctures, applied from head to toe.

"I have an itch," she heard. It was true, she did have an itch. A full-body itch. "Give me a scratch," she whispered, dying before her captors could happily oblige her.

The itch chant had always been one of his favorites, especially when raising vilechants. Itches are a a cruelty experienced by all living things. Often they don't make any sense. The medical definition of an itch is "the feeling associated with a desire to scratch". What could be more useless? But what is useless medically can be so very useful to the application of msawhat. The alliance hadn't caught on. Wounds are itchy, and dying people say stupid things.

Tom Fool had been at it for several days, and the train of vilechants now stretched behind him for 70 meters. It would have been a terrifying sight if vilechants had any bodies to see. Until now they remained silent and thus undetectable. He judged that their numbers were great enough for him to execute his plan. He could easily create and command so many more, but time was precious, and his target was only one man. "Find the itch," he whispered, and they scattered in every direction.

Nearly an hour later, Dullahan heard the alarm. "HERE'S THE SPOT!" it shrieked. He shifted, looking for its source. There was something familiar about it. "HERE'S THE SPOT!" it repeated. That was enough for him to identify the creature's species. He lacked the sensitivity to msawhat to find the soul of a bodiless undead, but even a bodiless undead has a location, so it wasn't necessary for him to speak its name. He snapped his spinal whip and destroyed the thing instantly.

He held his head high and scanned the field. At first, there was no sign of a disturbance - not one that would explain why a vilechant was trying to attract attention to his position. Just the usual fighting.

The soldiers around him had heard the alarm too, and those not actively fighting were now watching the Headless Horseman as he scanned the field. Consequently, when the vilechants assembled and began whispering in their ears, they naturally targeted Dullahan.

"Why is he here?" dozens of vilechants whispered in the ears of dozens of soldiers. Doubts surged in their hearts. "This headless horseman, isn't he dead himself?" "How can anything live without a head?" "How can a head live without a body?" "Why doesn't he say anything?" "I heard he killed one of our boys." "I heard that too, just said his name and that was it." They turned their weapons on him and began to close in.

Dullahan tucked his head under his arm again and dismounted.

"Kusha Farrinou," he said, snapping his whip, sending a vilechant and killing its living pawn almost simultaneously.

"Hielel Areereh," he said, snapping his whip again, dodging under a pike thrust, and maneuvering into the opening left by the dead woman.

"Amel Ilatitan," he said. Relief at finally having the swarm on one side of him vanished as three arrows stuck in his back and nine more stuck in the sand around him.

"Ammos Samahteri", he said, disbelieving that this was entirely the work of vilechants. But he kept hearing their whispers, and he knew his whip was sending them. There was only one way there could be so many vilechants in one place.

"You'll never guess my name," he heard. But it wasn't true. He knew the name. And saying it was the only way to stop this.

"Tom ..." he said. But then something strange happened. It was as if his voice was stuck. Something was at the back of his throat, at the base of his head. His jaw worked, trying to force the sound out. "Fffff ..." he managed. "Fffffff ..."

"You're the fool," he heard. And then Tom Fool laughed. He laughed and laughed as Dullahan methodically killed vilechant and possessed soldier. Tom Fool was in his skull. He felt the vilechant dislodge himself and leave. It was only a metaphysical feeling, of course, since vilechants have position, but no bodies. And then his voice was gone entirely.

"Gleosa Martinia", he said. His voice said, anyway. But it did not come from him. His shock was so great that he dropped his head. He fell to his knees, broken. Tom Fool's horrible laughter continued. A sudden wind blew black sand into his eyes. For the first time in an age, he wished he could blink.

"Samua Sogahari," he said, his voice starting to move away. The vilechants' pawns turned away, their work done, and began fighting un-possessed alliance soldiers.

"Resa Laghonchamy," he said, his voice getting further away. His eyes flitted from one dead body to the next. His own work. He felt despair and envy. Silently, to himself, in his mind, where he still had words, he said a prayer. "Let me die here. Isn't this enough?" But no answer came. No one came to finish him off. And he still didn't know how to do it himself.

"Vassa Lichila," he said, in the distance. His despair turned to anger. His envy turned to purpose. His will returned, as it always did in these moments. He picked up his head, shook off the sand, and mounted again ...

1. JT - Rindacsa faces the Nullman
2. The Fuligin Twelve ride forth with Khanga, routing a portion of the Alliance front (7 tokens, 1 per)
   1. Benjesus - A "flu" sweeps across the alliance.

... the "fuligin flu", as the army had taken to calling it, had been traced back to a chunk of rotten vegetable matter in a cask of water. How it got there had not yet been determined. Initial symptoms included cough, fever, vomiting, sweat, and loss of the power of faith. Except for the last, the symptoms were all manageable. But those who didn't recover quickly fell into comas. Several units had been slaughtered when they lost the ability to move amidst battle. Those who had been in coma longest were starting to pass away. And it was spreading quickly.

Noinalla was changing cold compresses and contemplating her next move in the battle against the flu in a medical tent when the intruder appeared to her. It was late at night and the other medics were sleeping. She watched coolly as the yellow-green cloud billowed from under the blanket drawn across the flu's latest kill. Healer, it hissed, resolving into a vaguely humanoid form. Hear me. The epidemic is tied to the fuligin desert. Move those who are incapacitated out of the desert and they will recover. Leave them too long and they will die.

"What the hell are you doing in my tent?"

I've come to finish wiping out my ledger. I didn't want to be involved here. An old debt forced me to deploy this plague against you, but I won't have it said later that I chose sides. As he spoke, Noinalla realized who He was, as if remembering an acquaintance from childhood, though she'd never seen Him before, in any of His disgusting forms.

"But you have," she countered. "Whatever you do now to mitigate the damage, it is done."

You're wrong. I've given you the key to victory, if you have the will to grasp it.

"What key? How do we grasp it?"

Those strong enough to stay in the desert and fight off my plague will be transformed by it. Their bodies will come to naturally reject fuligin particles. Not total immunity, but they can take off their masks without fear.

"How is that possible? You're a God, you have no power over fuligin."

My power is the furnace of the body, the alchemy of gut flora, the hammer and anvil of virus and antibody. The fuligin is as it ever was, I simply changed the biological systems in play. Use magic, faith, vitamins, medicine, whatever you have. Bolster your people and their own bodies will do the rest. When they burn through the virus, it will become a part of them.

"This doesn't 'wipe your ledger'. It won't bring back those who died."

Your military leaders would have gladly paid in lives ten times what I took - or what you let slip away - for this power. And because you didn't ask for it, your hands remain clean. As mine should have been. To call it a bargain is an understatement.

"That's logical insanity. Life is sacred, nothing can make up for its loss. You can't barter it away like that."

I can. It's only you, healer, whose code prohibits it. Generals play different games. So do Gods.

"My Goddess will never accept this!"

The cloud shuddered, smirking. The Silver Mother has accepted worse. Done worse. She'll turn a blind eye. And She's not who I'm concerned about, anyway.

"Who, then?"

Many. The next arbiter, if there is one. The Gods who maintained their neutrality. Echidna, Mother Shem. Your Logos and Messiah. Tell them what I have told you. Heed me, or don't, healer, and see what happens.

The fetid cloud dissipated quickly, before Noinalla could think of anything else to say. She wanted to vomit. The air still stank of sick sweat. Everything He said lined up. She herself had gone out without wearing her mask the day after the fever broke. She just forgot it when leaving her tent. Rationally, she knew that she had reason to be hopeful, but behind that was a worse form of guilt, that of being the corruptor's accomplice. Then again, he hadn't left her with a choice.

Not a medical choice. But he had left her a political one. She'd keep this meeting a secret at least until after the war, do what she could to strengthen her patients, perhaps sabotaging the detente Hollow Jack wished to maintain, perhaps even increasing the death toll among the sick, but she wouldn't become that monster's messenger. It was too fine a line between that and advocate. She began writing a letter recommending the transfer of all coma patients out of the desert. A simple prescription wouldn't raise any suspicions ...

1. 1. Kei - The breaking of the lines causes the med tents to overflow, and named NPC healers struggle to keep up with the influx.
   2. Dani - Khanga feasts on the fear and blood of fallen faithful.
   3. Billy - Edela finds herself caught in a masterful doublecross by a previously undiscovered double-agent mole that severly hinders Allied intelligence.
   4. Nathan - Gustav figures out how to fool Mudpie's energy sense. Mudpie protects the wrong flank, to disastrous results.
   5. JT - Noraqqalmud, under siege, screams out blasphemy against the Silver Mother for creating the curse, betrays and kills his men, raises them as undead, and joins the enemy.
   6. JT - Lightning storms
   7. Ian - Casur Fhi distributes wondrous, newly-woven fuligin-filtering masks to the army, but ends up in the med tents from fuligin inhalation himself.
2. The Alliance rallies - the Alliance rallies against the onslaught of Grey and Fuligin, though some fall (14 tokens, 2 per). Includes villains, NPCs, and PCs. Major NPC deaths occur here.
   1. Billy - King Suk Boon-ja rides under the tattered star banner with the remains of his men against a unit of undead chthonians. He is drawn over the Rim to a series of ledges, where he and his men face the terror of falling into The Pit as well as the burrowing undead monsters. The King risks his own life to keep his men from falling, and he is blinded in the fight.
   2. JT - A major NPC is thrown into The Pit and hits the invisible barrier of curses, blasphemy, and esoterica that keeps people from teleporting in when they try to teleport themselves away to safety during the fall. They are ripped to pieces in the moment.
   3. Benjesus - Toves and other servants of Death make a last united stand against the Grey armies.

... Derek Reis and Necco Loufburrow, senders, sat in the ravine with the other priests, monks, assassins, and assorted other servants of Death, waiting for the Master Sender to arrive. Secerator Tove's ancestor (?), Lucas Tove, had summoned them all here, and they had been trickling in for the last few hours. Many had answered the call to enjoin war against the Bone Champion, and those who had survived this far were being assembled here.

Finally, the Master Sender arrived, his expression drawn and tense. "Brothers and sisters. Our time has come."

A murmur went through the crowd. One's "time", to this group, had a very specific meaning. It was normally frowned upon to attempt to determine one's own "time", but sometimes it happened anyway. And it was normal to find out for others. For most people, it was the kind of secret you wanted other people to know, as long as there wasn't an emotionally attachment. Over time, the knoweledge could eat away at a person, even drive one mad. But once the time came, it was always best to accept it and face it, so said the gospel of Death.

"I have seen the manner of our passing. It will happen here, today, in battle against the grey," Secerator continued. "We all knew that we might meet the Gatekeeper here. Now we can be sure. And we can take pride knowing that our actions can save many others, for here we can make a stand against the grey army, for their last wing will march through this pass, and after this, only their reserves will remain. Please, let us share our blessings for the coming struggle."

Many prayers were spoken over the next few hours, and positions for the ambush were worked out.

Derek found himself sitting next to Necco again. "Did you ... check? That he was right, about your time?"

Necco chuckled. "Aren't you more interested in your own time? And he was right about that, I checked."

"It doesn't seem right. All of us going at once. It's too ... coincidental."

"These kinds of things happen in war."

"You seem awfully cheerful about it. Aren't we supposed to be grim?"

"I'm always cheerful. What good does it do to hide our emotions? We're alive now, and our lives will end meaning something, before we can undo that good. Isn't that what it's all about?"

"Yes, but ... shouldn't it be ... I don't know, more random? This seems so ... organized. Deliberate. We were called here, for god's sake!"

Necco shrugged. "There may be a reason for it, or it may be random. We'll just have to wait to find that out. And yes, I checked on myself as well, and he was right about me too."

"I just don't like this. Why do we all have to die here? Why not just a handful, and the rest escape?"

"You know I can't answer that. It's not for us to know. Not yet."

Along with the rest, the two young senders finished their preparations, crouched in their hiding places, masked their ashar, and waited.

About a hundred of them were assembled there when the grey army started to stream through the pass, spectral undead swirling and , corporeal undead shambling or skulking. Hundreds of thousands of them. There was plenty of cover here, and little sign of the alliance, so they thought to use the pass to outflank the alliance, overwhelming them with mass amounts of cheap cannon fodder.

The first sign of the ambush was when the spectral undead found themselves unable to phase through the walls or floor of the pass. With the number and potency of servants of Death that had been assembled, it was quick work to consecrate a dozen acres. The spectral undead moved in double-time, rushing past their corporeal bretheren, eager to put the difficult terrain behind them, until they met the second sign of the ambush, a massed force of senders and assassins, eager to put their powers to use.

The battle was enjoined, with the servants of Death enjoying superior positioning and the undead finding themselves unexpectedly confined. The spectral types exposed between the corporeals and their enemy, they flowed upward and over their own lines, expecting to escape the pass by flight.

This, too, was impossible, thanks to the efforts of the curseweaver. Though the restriction matrix was beyond his ability to control or dispel, he was able to pull a single thread, to bend the rules, to lower its boundary, making flight outside of the pass in this one stretch impossible. Upon realizing this, the spectrals knew terror and began to flee, but more servants of death had been hiding and waiting for this very moment to strike, boxing then in. A hundred men and women had a thousand times as many undead trapped, and it would only cost them their lives.

The pincer slowly closed around the slower but far more relentless corporeal undead. There were no serious attempts to destroy them, only to distract or contain. All sending efforts were focused on the quick, intelligent, slipperty incorporeal undead, until there was no more space, and they would have to either fight or yield ground. And that was when they detonated the explosives, trapping all within under thousands of tons of rock, enough of it blessed by Death to send every last soul within to the afterlife ... except one.

Lucas Tove awoke and once again found himself buried alive ...

1. 1. Dani - Earthquakes.
   2. Kei - Deyn finds himself cut off from his unit and must conceal himself in a hastily-created shelter of stone and earth to avoid enemy detection.
   3. Dani - Wormriders make a charge that results in a victory but also heavy losses of their own number and steeds.
   4. Nathan - Gerrick, Tam Lin, and the inexperienced NPC's lure the enemy into a vicious trap.
   5. Kei - Avery finds a hidden route allowing an Allied force to hit the enemy from behind, enabling a successful pincer attack that all but destroys an enemy batallion.
   6. Ian - Prax flashes back to Sourav's death and Aeon-apotheosis at the moment that an NPC dies. Buoyed by the redemptive power of sacrifice, he does not lose heart, and his forces rally.
   7. Benjesus - Rhomara's sealcasters are slain, but she emerges transformed and victorious.
   8. JT - A swordfight suspended on a narrow ledge over the Pit becomes a fight of legend.
   9. Billy - A mastered Gift is obliterated by Fuligin.
   10. Nathan - Mudpie slays a powerful enemy, but a terrible cost to his energy when the blasphemous backlash knocks him on is ass.
   11. Ian - Bramiel's scion is slain.
2. Ian and Dani - Prax and the 13 Hunters face Khanga and the Fuligin Twelve. (Dani and Ian)
3. The Enemy line collapses - vignettes of victories as the Enemy falls back further (7 tokens, 1 per)
   1. Dani - The Cult of the Mouth tears a large fuligin creature limb from limb.
   2. JT - Enemy aerial cavalry arrives but is routed.
   3. Nathan - Tam Lin and Gerrick work together to take a powerful and valuable prisoner.
   4. Benjesus - Alliance assassins strike in concert.
   5. Kei - Wei, whilst trying to flee, is caught and slain by Allied forces.
   6. Ian - Prax slices one of Bramiel's wings off, but he escapes anyway.
   7. Billy - Bluebird Hrielle is defeated as his undead slaves are destroyed by holy powers. The Grey Commander reveals his name.

Phase Four: Harkan's Last Stand
This is the battle with Harkan's core forces. It will begin with the push back from Harkan's forces and end with Harkan's death.

1. Harkan rides forth (Billy)
2. Major losses for the Alliance - The core of the Grey and Fuligin Armies has a series of sweeping victories (7 tokens, 1 per, all NPC deaths)
   1. Kei - While attempting to rejoin the bulk of the forces, Avery runs afoul of a band of fuligin monsters. He manages to escape, barely, but the wounds received prevent him from returning to the field.
   2. Dani - Faith dies permanently in various minor NPCs as Harkan's full might sweeps over them.
   3. JT - Rindacsa goes on a rampage and loses control when she realizes just who the Neverman erased.
   4. Ian - Mara Tslea is carried off into the sky as Bramiel returns to the field, whole once again and wielding a terrible grey blade. She falls into the Pit singing songs of the sea and victory.
   5. Nathan - Gerrick is wounded in the fight, and taken out of action, but still gives commands from the back, proving a brilliant commander. Tam Lin acts as his "avatar" on the field.
   6. Benjesus - Rhomara becomes reckless and is overwhelmed.
   7. Ian - Aisling Caillte is choked to death by an undead monster with no light behind its' eyes.
3. Miracle at the Rim - in face of enormous losses, a Miracle occurs (1 token, 7 authors? maybe?)
4. The Final Advance - the fall of the core of the Grey and Fuligin Armies. This should see the conclusion of almost every arc. (21 tokens, 3 per)
   1. Kei - A second Bulyemeh rises from The Pit.
   2. Dani - An undead sandworm bears a powerful villain into battle.
   3. Benjesus - A massive joint faith effort/sacrifice tears apart a major fuligin contingent.
   4. Billy - An enormous, fuligin-infused moth. Ybraulk's triumph.
   5. Kei - Deyn leads his company in a sneak attack against a larger enemy force. The enemy is defeated, but Deyn is the only man left standing of his company.
   6. JT - Jheshemirath helps Rindacsa recover before her Ring can exact it's terrible curse.
   7. Billy - An enemy cannibal has eaten our dead and gained their power.
   8. Ian - Rafu runs off on his own, speaking softly to the assembled armies, allowing a savage ambush to take place.
   9. Dani - The Red Cloaks make a final stand against a fuligin creature never before seen.
   10. Benjesus - A major villain is teamed up on by several legendary NPCs.
   11. Ian - Despite the best efforts of our healers, Casur Fhi's condition worsens. Prax flashes back to Sourav saving a pilgrim with silvran healing breath, his earliest memory of his ambition to tend the afflicted, and he returns having lost his sleep-breath power but gained a much more powerful version of his silvran racial ability. Fhi recovers and incorporates his recovery narrative into his breathing masks.
   12. Kei - Shara wins a desperate duel in which she wields the Sword with the skill of thousands of elves but still doesn't know what she's doing, trusting instinct.
   13. JT - Noraqqalmud strikes the enemy from behind, dooming himself but saving thousands.
   14. Nathan - Tam Lin and Gustav have a "foe-tossing-charge" moment, they clash, and their fight ranges all over the rim. Tam lin faces certain death from a trap laid by Gustav, but Ansley sweeps in with the Troublemakers, allowing Tam Lin to finish pursuing and finish off Gustav. Tam Lin must rely on the Erlking the way Gerrick relies on the Troublemakers.
   15. JT - Ledyim suffers a mortal fuligin wound-- his faith severed from him, the Gods are deaf to him (and his descendents?) now.
   16. Dani - Aleel'aqallah, after a trying time and several failed attempts, succeeds in assassinating a key enemy commander
   17. Billy - King Suk Boon-ja has no time to get to the healers, so he rides forth without sight. His men guide him by voice during the fight, and he stands for a long time with their aid, but one by one, their voices stop coming as they are killed around him. Eventually, he, too, falls.
   18. Nathan - Angela Murray returns, and gives her life to save large swaths of allied forces from certain death. She is now returned to her god.
   19. Ian - Bramiel is pulled from the sky by the united Hunt and slain by Prax wielding Foiche Maru, now blazing with Life.
   20. Benjesus - Dullahan chases Tom Fool into the Catacombs.

... The Headless Horseman chased the Vilechant Manifest a long time.

He chased him around the entire rim of the Pit.

He chased him the length of the alliance's column.

He chased him under the ocean.

He chased him among the underwater gardens.

He chased him through the deep trenches.

He chased him into the underground nations.

He chased him through the domain of the athaks.

He chased him to the gates of the core, but Tom Fool did not wish to go inside.

He chased him through the ancient dwarven cities.

He chased him back into the outside world.

He chased him through the forests of the elves and faeries.

He chased him along the Long Path, until they reached its end.

He chased him through tundra.

He chased him through the forests of Genesis.

He chased him through jungle.

He chased him to the Mountain of Trials, but Tom Fool did not wish to climb it, and escaped the trials by passing through a tiny crack.

He chased him through the Catacombs.

And thereafter it is not known where they went.

It is said that the voice of Dullahan can still be heard from time to time, calling out the names of the doomed, and that it is always accompanied by the beating of horses' hooves. But whether the will of the voice is commanded by Dullahan's grim duty, or Tom Fool's sadistic glee, none are sure ...

1. 1. Nathan  - The last gift of Father Crane, long after his death
   2. Nathan - Both of Mudpie's gods do something, ironically at the same time and with the same intent, to make sure he lives through to face the Pit. Mudpie loses consciousness here, and can only be awakened by Inelle protecting him from the divine backlash. Mudpie is split into primal and celestial halves. Inelle loses her portion of the Gift in the process.
2. Kei and Billy - Shara vs. Styrah Rhee and Rosamonde
3. Benjsus and Billy - Nas vs. Harkan
4. Vignettes of Victory - 7 tokens, 1 per (any loose ends)
   1. Kei - Enemy survivors surrendering.
   2. Benjesus - A surviving death priest holds a service for those lost.
   3. Billy - Edela personally sees to the execution of the spy that nearly cost them the battle. Spymasters gather and ask questions.
   4. Dani and JT - The scene of a field hospital trying to evacuate remaining patients.
   5. Ian - Prax tends blossoms of the World Tree that somehow survive in the fuligin fields.
   6. Nathan - Gerrick and Ansley offer Tam Lin a home in Carterhaugh, Innesmoor, and the two Mudpies get back together with the party.
   7. Billy - Cork quietly picks over the corpses on the field, unnoticed by others, picking up loot.
5. Gathering of the Heroes (no tokens, resume normal play as Heroes gather and begin to descend into The Pit)

Notes:

1. Samuel Jericho. That is /still/ all, no matter what anyone says.