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.

Elpidian stared at the map. He grimaced. "Well?"

The priest shook his head. "Their faith has returned."

Elpidian sighed. "Open your mouth to tell me one more thing I already know."

The priest quickly clamped his mouth shut.

Elpidian faced him fully. "And your faith?"

"Also returned, Sir."

Elpidian gestured to him with an open hand. "And do we have a shortage of priests?"

The priest sweated. "Well sir, it's just that--"

"--you assumed they were useless and used them in bait gambits early in the conflict."

The priest sweated harder.

With a gesture, the priest dropped dead. Elpidian turned back to the map. "Their line is faltering. What they make up in faith we can cripple in logistics. Shore up our defenses here, here, and here, that will stagger their lines even more. Abandon this part of the line and let the Laird of Inverray punch through, then we can strand him. Fade back from the Survivalsmith and the Logos at all costs. Draw them in. Lead them on like this until we can get more priests here."

The generals all sounded off affirmative.

"Well we /could/ do that."

Elpidian sighed. "You have something to say, Illyanovich?"

"With your permission, sir." Gustav stepped forward, pointing at the map. "The Survivalsmith is that crazy, no doubt about it. The Logos, /psshh/. I couldn't even guess. The Laird of Inverray's not even close. Now if you try this gambit with him, he'll hold back, and he'll help out these two units--" He pointed to the two on either side of him. "That's <insert two legendary generals here>. They aren't stupid either. If he hangs back, they will, and then, most of their front line falls back into alignment and we're fucked like yesterday's socks. Now on the /other/ hand, we do have something they forgot about."

Elpidian watched him, deadpan. "Yes?"

"See, their faith returned, which means ours did too. Now, we don't have any priests, but we do have quite a stable of faith-based undead."

Elpidian watched him.

"Solless," Gustav went on. "The Knights of Kael Raas. They came in spite of the fuligin, and have been waiting for their chance. They know no fear, no mercy, no trepidation whatsoever about their own existence. Now, suppose we line them up here and here--" He pointed to the lines in front of the units flanking Gerrick, "--and have them harry those armies, /dividing/ the Laird's advancing army, and we push a wedge through? Go ahead and try to stagger their line at the other points, but put this gambit front and center."

One of the other generals shook his head. "It's too early for the Knights of Kael Raas. We're saving them for later."

"It's /exactly/ the right time." Gustav pointed to the map. "We have to use them before the enemy get their priests up front anyway, they'll be useless later on."

"They'll be a surprise later on!"

Gustav sighed. "Look. Do you /really/ want a bunch of undead special forces hanging around camp when they're bored and are out of cares to give? Think hard about that."

Elpidian stared at the map.

He slapped it with his crop. "Do it. Gustav, I give you the Knights of Kael Raas. Make your plan successful. You have your chance."

Gustav grinned.

1. 1. Kei - Wei is terrified and attempts to flee.
   2. Ian - Bramiel raises someone precious to the good guys.
   3. JT - The Nameless Vizier erases a key prisoner from existence, turning it into another nullman.
   4. Benjesus - The enemy calls in on a divine favor.
   5. 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. Benjesus - A major NPC uses newly restored faith to defeat undead and Pit-monsters in equal measure.
   3. JT - A minor villain defeats a major nation's best unit through guerrilla tactics.
   4. Dani - The enemy starts to fight dirty with psychological torture upon the advancing Alliance.
   5. Benjesus - An alliance faction gets cut off from the main forces and nearly dies of thirst/starvation lost in the desert. A chance (miracle or something?) change of route leads them back.
   6. Kei - Shara decimates an entire battalion - by the literal term of the word - using the Mastered Heart's ability to burn the unashamed.
   7. 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.
   8. 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.

The day had been horrific. The skirmishes had taken their toll on everyone. Blocked from moving forward, they had to make camp early. Assassins, fuligin beasts, magical attacks, and snipers did their damage, until everyone hunkered down in abject terror.

Night was the worst time out here. Even Tam Lin's fae senses could not penetrate the inky black on black. The light from the campfires and lanterns only went so far out, and the blacker than black sands made it look like you were out in the Universe, surrounded by nothing.

But even that illusion was not comforting--you could feel the fuligin, its gnawing teeth eating at your flesh, breath, and soul. And worse, the enemy now waged a terror warfare. Their drums beat, their beasts roared, their prisoners screamed.

Tam Lin walked along the perimeter. To his left, the feeble but warm glow of the campfires, and to his right, a thick, pregnant expanse of black nothing full of danger and stretching for miles. Being that close to it made his hair stand on end. His life expectancy now was seconds. He did not linger in the fire light.

When he was satisfied, he went back to his tent.

Gerrick and the Troublemakers sat around a fire. Gerrick passed him an open bottle of Glen Ray.

"Eases the nerves."

Any other day, Tam Lin might have been offended to be drinking after another. Out here, he'd drink whiskey from a rusty iron trough if it lived up to the promise of "eases the nerves." He took a swig.

"This the family brew?" he handed it off to Haystack.

"Aye. That recipe has been in the family for generations."

"So has the still," Raven said. "That cranky rattly old bitch is older than Gerrick."

"Be nice," Haystack said, "That bitch makes your whiskey." He shrugged. "course, the copper boiler's been replaced a few times."

"And the piping," Trace added, with a salute of one of her daggers.

Raven squinted. "Has the condenser ever been replaced?"

Gerrick huffed. "Did it maself before we left. And once a year fer the last six centuries. They dinnae make 'em like they used to."

"What about the guages?" asked another.

"Had 'em changed out three years ago," Haystack answered. "Same with the spigots, mount, gaskets, handles, and suspension."

Raven looked at him in disbelief. "Are we still usin' the same bucket?"

"Got a hole in it last year." He passed the bottle to Raven.

"Well shit." Raven took a swig and passed the bottle back to Gerrick. "Nevermind. The still's the newest thing in Inverray."

Tam Lin looked to Gerrick. "What's it like? Inverray I mean."

Gerrick smiled wistfully. "It's like home."

"Rains alot," Trace vouched. "I miss the rain."

"I miss the music," Haystack added. "You should go, mate. Hear the pipe and drum corps. They say when the pipes and drums get goin', you can hear 'em all the way to Ballymoran on a clear day. I ain' never been any other place that wasn't Taggarus that didn't feel so much like...well...home."

"Yeah." Raven looked down. "I miss the Moran Haddie chowder. It's like a fish soup my mom used to make."

Tam Lin eyed the holy symbols on Gerrick's tartan. "Is that the Hearthmother's blessing I'm hearing?"

"Aye." Gerrick grinned. "I want Inverray tae be a home for all I invite in." He gestured. "Ye should come visit."

Tam Lin started to answer, but stopped himself. "I...have duties to the May-Queen."

Gerrick nodded. "Just keep us in mind." He handed off the bottle.

Tam Lin took it, and raised it. "To all our homes, then."

"To all our homes."

He was about to drink when the messenger arrived--the commissar of the tenth division--all young, inexperienced, a group of brave volunteers who had chosen this endless expanse of the arsehole of Hell as their first battle. He huffed, out of breath, and nearly tripped over himself before Haystack caught him and held him up.

"Sir, they're panicking. We've lost six. They ran into the night to try to escape."

Gerrick stood up.

"A dozen more tried to charge them. We...we...we hear their screams on the wind..."

"Shyte." Gerrick pointed. "Raven, hold it down here. Tam Lin, with me."

By the time they arrived, every man in the freshman camp was up, armed, armored, and trembling. The air filled with the deafening chittering of insects.

"Oh my god, they're everywhere."

"We are going to die tonight!"

"Wrong!" Gerrick walked among them with a purposeful stride. He met their gaze with hard, ancient eyes, one at a time. "I'm nae that merciful. I'm gonna make ye /live./"

The men looked at him in uncertain horror. One of them raised a hand. "General MacBoon--"

"Laird." Gerrick turned to face him. "I have generals prayin' tae be led by me in Innesmoor."

"Sir, they've surrounded us."

"An' why hannae they attacked yet?"

The man fumbled for an answer.

"Because they have tae weaken ye first. If they attacked now, they might lose. Which means?" He pointed to Tam Lin.

Tam Lin took his cue. "They won't attack if we stay strong."

Gerrick pointed to him definitively. "That's ma lad." He paced. "They're tryin' tae scare ye, lads."

"Well they're doing a good job." The other men laughed nervously.

Gerrick closed his eyes, spreading his arms wide. "Listen to them. Children of the damned. What music they make." He opened his eyes. "Fetch the drum corps."

The man looked uncertain.

"Do it. Muster 'em here."

From the dark came a bloodcurdling scream, and demonic laughter. the men flinched.

Gerrick called back, "PRUNE JUICE'LL CURE THAT!"

Some of the men laughed.

"I willnae lie to ye, lads. They're gonna attack. But we'll repel 'em. Stand strong with me."

A young one nodded. "Well...you did stand in front of us way back there."

"Aye." Gerrick grinned. "And I would again." The drum corps assembled. "I want a good solid beat! BAM BAM BAM BAM! Dinnae be timid with it, drum like ye're tryin' tae impress a girl! One! Two! One two three four--"

The drummers hammered their implements.

Gerrick opened his mouth and sang rich and deep. "/Donald went up the hill hard and hungry, Donald came down the hill wild and angry, donald will clear the gawk's nest cleverly, here's to the king and to Donald McGillivray--" He signalled the drummers.

BAM BAM BAM BAM!

Tam Lin picked up the next stanza with him. "--Come like a weighbauk, Donald McGillivray, Come like a weighbauk, Donald McGillivray, balance them hard and balance them cleverly, off with the counterfeit Donald McGillivray!"

BAM BAM BAM BAM!

Some of men from the Freehold began to sing. "Donald's run up the hill, but his tether man, as he were wood or stinged with a--"

And that was when the attack came. Gerrick swung with his Hammer. Tam Lin cut loose, and the men, no longer afraid, surged to action. Flares lit the night sky, and blood, both black and red, soaked the ground.

Demons. The demons were the worst. Only the Sword of Frustration clove them. Their foul magic repelled all but the most legendarily strong. Tam Lin knew what was at stake--his life, his soul, his very existance. Their reach was better, their magic more powerful, their powers more unreal, their bodies harder, their speed more preternatural.

And yet he looked them in the eye, swing after swing, stroke after stroke, and every pair of eyes showed him his doom in the next second. Still he pressed forward, the only words on his mind being "I'm going to end out here." there was nothing else.

And that moment came, but it was denied. A demon's stroke was blocked by Gerrick's Hammer, which sent the motherless entity back to the Hells with one blow.

He didn't need to say it. Tam Lin remembered his voice. /"I'm nae that merciful. I'm gonna make ye live."/

1. 1. JT - A battle is fought in a field with no faith, no magic, and no gifts.
   2. Benjesus - Quicksand, blessed by undeath, claims many lives. Those who die within lie just beneath the surface, ready to drag others under.
   3. Billy - A corrupted Gift is recovered by the alliance.
   4. 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.

The storm.

Mudpie felt free.

Powerful.

Unstoppable.

The voice of a World coursed through him like energy. From the fire at the center of the planet She pronounced judgment through him. With the fury of a wounded world, wind swirled around his center for a mile in every direction, and sand--not the fuligin dust, but honest-to-the-gods /SAND/--whipped like shattered razor blades among his enemies and like a cooling kiss to his allies.

The Hunt caught up to Prax.

"Sir...where is Mudpie?"

Prax pointed to a storm in the distance. "There is no Mudpie."

The Hunt watched in horror.

"Wait, is that..."

"Sand." Prax strode forward. "Shem has discovered a moment of lucidity in the midst of her thousand-year nightmare, and she is lashing out. Hell hath no fury...as this place confesses."

Her fury consumed Mudpie, Her boundless rage, fear, sorrow, horror, Her trauma, Her /vengeance,/ powered him with reckless abandon. He used it to incinerate undead as they fled from him, melt the black blasphemy out of the fuligin sands and turn them to plates of volcanic glass and then shred them to sand again, leaving white sands like the Windkin deserts behind him. Through him, Shem roared like thunder.

A fuligin creature the size of an Oliphant and covered head to toe in fuligin armor tried to charge in pulling a chariot with a fuligin giant. Her winds picked it up, beast, chariot, and rider, and pounded it against the sand with animalistic fury until nothing remained.

There were no enemies in sight.

Mudpie collapsed, wheezing, out of energy, onto a bed of white desert sand. He shuddered uncontrollably, and sobbed.

Prax ran up to him. "Mudpie?"

Mudpie coughed, rubbing the white sand onto his skin, feeling its purity. "She's wounded."

"I know, Friend. That's why we're here."

"I felt it, Prax. I've never felt so..." He coughed hard, sending plumes of clean sand into the air. He wanted desperately to taste it. "I felt the pain. I remembered...She remembered Starfall. I felt Her memory of it." Mudpie struggled up, but fell flat. The world fell away from him.

Prax sighed. "He needs energy. Take him with us. We still have our part to do. He will rejoin us when he can."

"Yes, Red Master."

1. 1. Kei - Deyn communes with the earthpower aether and summons a small tectonic disruption.
   2. 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.
   7. 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.

The guards outside the tent barred Angela's way. She gave them a look, and they parted their spears. She pushed open the flaps and strode in.

Ghef'fhardim looked up. "General Murray?"

"Would you care to explain why my messages to my armies are being intercepted?"

Ghef'fhardim's face took on a serious cast and he set his pen down. "Your messages are being intercepted? By whom?"

"By guards, couriers, officers, commissars, and even servants. It seems an order has gone out that I am to be detained from command. Did you sign such an order?"

"I most assuredly did not."

Angela snarled. "Who else had the authority."

"No one." Ghef'fhardim sat back in his chair. "We have a spy. Go to your armies personally and regain command, correct any damage that has been done. I will find a way to have your attacker rooted out. I can't take time to do it myself." He held up a stack of reports.

"Thank you, Sir." She saluted, and turned to leave.

"Da. Thank the gods you are here." Vasili fell into step next to her. "It did not seem like your style to order us to bunch up like this where we can be surrounded and isolated. I have had the williams since we recieved that order."

"Willies. Show me the order."

Vasili handed her a rolled up parchment.

Angela studied it. "Unbelievable." She handed it back. "That's my hand, forged with perfection. Show me every order you've received for the last three days."

"They are in my tent. Do I sense that someone is about to get their horse kicked?"

"Ass. You need to stop trying to use modern idioms."

Vasili grinned and shrugged. "Eyyyy! It is what the younger mercenaries are saying these days!"

Angela sifted through the orders. "Here. This is the last one from me. It was two days ago." She tucked them all together. "You've been following forged orders."

"Well that explains the order to go two miles out of our way to dig out the Wildcat unit instead of taking the fortified outpost like I wanted to."

"Like /I/ wanted you to." She dropped the orders on the folding table. "How many did we lose taking the outpost?"

"About twice as many as we would have if we had surprised them."

Angela sighed. "How many Wildcats did you save?"

Vasili shrugged, his face deadpan. "None. The Nightmarchers took them one and all."

"Well played." She sat back. "Not enough to make you question, just enough to wear us down a little."

"No disrespect, Silver-Bear, but I do not think that was an enemy plan."

Angela arched one eyebrow. "Oh?"

"If either of us controlled such a master spy, why would we settle for so little. I could think of half a dozen such orders off the top of my head, and so could you, that would do the same thing but with more damage to us."

Angela stared into the distance. "Yes. I could."

Vasili counted on his fingers. "Wait where you are to let reinforcements catch up. Bypass the outpost entirely. There is a spy in your midst, root him out--"

"There's a valuable prisoner among the enemy, capture them all alive and unharmed. Move to this location and wait."

"--and your weapons are useless against this unit, you'll have to steal theirs."

"And dozens of others." Angela squinted at him. "Their spymaster would have to be impossibly incompetent."

"And since we know that to be untrue..."

"It's not them." Angela stood up. "It's someone inside."

A messenger ducked into the tent. "Sir--Oh!" He grinned. "Silver-Bear! Ha! I was just bringing Vasili your new order. It just arrived."

Angela smiled. "Looks like I got here ahead of it. Let me review it in light of new information before I issue it."

"As you wish." He handed it to her and ducked out.

Angela read the order. "Hm. It seems now you are to move to assist the Arvan-City Militia."

Vasili scoffed. "Alright, if that one had arrived without you, I would have /known/ something was wrong."

Angela wadded it up. "Stay on course. Ignore all written orders until you see me again. I think I know what's going on."

"May I ask?"

She stood up. "It's one of our generals who is more concerned with preserving life than with winning the war. She thinks she found a way around me."

Vasili laughed. "It would seem then that her moose is cooked."

Angela sighed. "Goose. Just do me a favor and never tell me anything about blowing someone's mind."

Vasili made a yuck face. "Ewwww."

Angela chuckled as she left.

Angela threw open the flap of Lilybell's tent. "You. Stand to."

"I will not." She looked up from a map and half-a-dozen Fae leaders.

Angela leaned over the map, right into Lilybell's face. "What the hells did you think you were playing at."

"I was saving lives. The Nightmarchers were going to--"
"THE NIGHTMARCHERS SUCCEEDED!" Angela began to pace. "The Wildcats are GONE, TO A MAN! And you cost my men a hundred more deaths than needed to be!"

Lilybell shot to her feet. "You are unfit for command!"

Angela blinked in surprise. "Excuse me?"

"This is not some training exercise, the dead out there don't come back!"

"Yes, that's usually how it works. Welcome to Shem."

"You're playing with their lives!"

Angela strode over to her. "I am not playing with anything. There is /one/ goal here." She held up one finger. "ONE. We march into that pit, drag an undead Arbiter out by his shriveled balls and put him the Hell out of our misery! /Nothing/ else matters! Not me, not you, not the Wildcats, not our lives, not our souls, not even our godsdamned /names!/"

"You don't get to make that decision for the rest of us anymore!"

Angela laughed. "How do you reason that? I stopped your little bout of tomfuckery."

"With the orders." Lilybell grinned.

Angela eyed her sternly and turned to face her, looming to her full height.

Lilybell blushed, but did not change expressions. "The orders have already gone out. Everyone in this little operation already knows you've been banished."

Angela blinked.

Go to Ghef'fhardim? He had his hands full. And she had no time to disentangle this. The damage was perfect. A lie could get halfway around the world before the truth could even wake up. The war effort was damaged. That alone hurt more than anything. There was no undoing this.

But there was a way to get the results she wanted.

Angela shrugged. "Okay."

Lilybell blinked. "Okay?"

"Yeah. We'll be off the field and gone in a day. You better find a way to fill that gap in the line, and come up with what you're going to tell Ghef'fhardim." She turned and walked out.

"So that's it? We are just leaving? Poof?"

"Poof." Angela smiled at Vasili. "But there is one more thing I can do for Ghef'fhardim."

"Oh? Will it involve killing Lilybell?"

"I won't have to. No." She pointed at the map. "They forget what I am. I can /feel/ this war. Send word to Ghef'fhardim that the enemy is about to try to puncture through the front line right in the center and they're going to do it by hitting the left and right flanking armies at the center simultaneously--with the Knights of Kael Raas."

Vasili whistled. "A bold move. They must be feeling their corns."

Angela sighed, closing her eyes. "Oats."

"I know." Vasili laughed. "I did that one on purpose."

1. 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. Benjesus - We see what a man is made of when he is literally pushed to the edge.
   3. Kei - A fault line is used to cause a collapse of The Pit edge and to win a battle.
   4. Nathan - Gerrick and Tam Lin get stranded, rescued by the inexperienced NPC team they protected.

The orders had Ansley's seal on them. They included a quick personal note, an update on the supply lines, and news of two Troublemakers' deaths. Rodrick and Milano. They died laying down cover for a wounded officer to get his men out of the thick of battle. His heart dropped.

But then he got to the news, and orders from Ghef'fhardhim. Gerrick read them, then crumpled them up, smiling.

Tam Lin looked up at the gray sky. "Good news?"

"Not even a little. We're fucked."

Tam Lin blinked. "Why so?"

First, we lost the general of the <third?> army. She happens tae be a hero a' mine. A manifestation of one of my gods. Before she left, she said this place is aboot tae become shyte-storm central."

Tam Lin looked concerned. "What place?"

"The one yer standin' on, Laddie."

Tam Lin looked down at the black ground around his feet. "Well...it can't be any worse than anything else we've faced so far?"

Gerrick laughed, and patted Tam Lin on the shoulder. "An optimist. That's cute." He turned around. "LISTEN UP! THE GAME IS CHANGED!"

The troublemakers mustered attentively, as did the commanders of the cohorts and divisions marching behind him.

"Our comrades, to our left and our right, are aboot tae be up tae their periscope lens in undead! We will not be intervening! Watch me, follow my orders /immediately when they are given,/ and some a ye might make it back home tae tell yer families what happened here! Now, no matter what ye see, what ye hear, what ye feel, you obey only one soond! ONE! SOOND! MY VOICE! NOO GET THE PICKETS UP!" He pointed at the Troublemakers. "Nae you lot. You attend."

The Troublemakers approached. Raven said, "Whatchou got, Gerrick?"

"Trace, front and center, Lassie. The rest a ye' gather roond."

Trace looked worried. Tam Lin could tell she knew something was up, but she tried to break the tension with a smile and a joke. "If this is about the last of the Glen Ray, in my defense, no one else seemed to care--"

Gerrick put a hand on her shoulder. "I got a note from Ansley, Trace."

Trace shook her head. "No."

"I'm sorry, Trace. We lost Rodrick."

Trace shook her head harder. "No. No we didn't. She's wrong."

The other Troblemakers gathered around her, forming a cocoon of embrace as she sobbed.

"She's wrong!" Trace collapsed against them, with a scream. "SHE'S WRONG! Oh god, Roddie..."

"He and Milano." Gerrick now addressed all of them. "They died savin' the lives of a cohort of men who were pinned down by snipers. Ansley says they left the cover of the supply train to flank them. They bought the men enough time to get oot safely. Bought it with their blood. With /our/ blood."

"Our blood." Haystack shed a tear.

"Our blood." The others repeated.

"Trace, take what time ye need. The rest of ye, prepare tae scoot ahead wi' me."

Trace sniffed hard. "The only time I need is time alone with these bastards."

Gerrick nodded. "If that's what ye need. Haystack. Stick by her side." He smiled. "Doon' let her steal all the fun from the rest of us."

Haystack grinned, but kept a reassuring arm around Trace. "I'll be there."

They climbed up a dune. Tam Lin said, "How are you holding up?"

Gerrick scowled. "I'll hold up later. We got a war tae fight."

Tam Lin nodded, and took that as his cue to focus.

"I knew I'd be pipin' home a fair few heroes when this was over."

Tam Lin glanced at him.

Gerrick went on. "I still remember the first two. Like it was yesterday. The cairn, back home, used tae just be a big pile a rocks. Know what it is now? A wall. An' the wall's runnin' oot a room for names."

Tam Lin nodded. "I'm sorry."

"Seventeen thoosand eight hundred forty-three since the war of time. Noo I gotta find room for two more." Gerrick shrugged. "Frankly, I'm surprised we made it this far withoot more loss."

"Yeah. So am I."

Gerrick looked at him.

Tam Lin smirked. "With your strategies? I'm surprised we still have a war."

Gerrick laughed. "I like ye." He started climbing again. "Ye remind me of an old friend. Best I ever had. Jonas Khalev. He was an Ender--which is why he liked hangin' aroond ma family." Gerrick tapped his temple.

They crested the ridge, and stopped immediately. Gerrick got out one word: "RUN!"

But they were too close. A detachment of armored skeletons on rotting-corpse horses rode easily to surround them. Haystack grabbed a lance and unhorsed its wielder by sheer force, but the Knight's horse boxed him down with his front hooves. Gerrick smashed his Hammer into the fuligin sand, and some of the Knights disintegrated. A few others dodged backward, and others did not move. The unhorsed knight grabbed Tam Lin by the arm. Tam Lin screamed in agony, but turned into a roaring lion. He twisted in the knight's grasp and ripped into his armor and crushed his dry bones. Two lances pinned him through his legs into the sand. His roar turned into a Human scream as he transformed back into his natural shape.

A humming sound emitted from the depths of the undead Knights' throats. Tam Lin felt...strangely...peaceful...

Tam Lin shook off the trance to find himself kneeling and tied up on the fuligin sands. Gerrick glanced at him, his eyes hiding careful calculation. On the other side of him, Haystack knelt next to Trace.

"Easy, sister. Easy."

Trace, tied up with more rope and chain than all of them and gagged to boot, still thrashed like a landed fish.

A familar voice laughed behind the knights. "Whooo. That was fun."

Tam Lin looked up.

The Knights parted to reveal the man from the camp, still in his impeccable black and red suit. He smiled. "Good gods, Warden, you are so predictable! I knew once you didn't break off to help the line you'd want to do the scouting yourself, and you were true to your legend! Your dad would be proud!"

Gerrick shrugged. "He'll be even prouder when I send ye tae serve him in the afterlife."

Gustav laughed. "Oh! Where are my manners. Laird MacBoon, gracious Troublemakers, These are my good friends, the Knights of Kael Raas. Some of them, anyway." He put his hand on an armored shoulder standing next to him. "This is Captain Drogan. Drogan has been a Knight of Kael Raas ever since he murdered his superior officer in the Order of the Crysanthemum for talking too much. He enjoys stargazing, long walks in the fuligin, and sexual torture sessions, and he'd like to get to know all of you." He turned to Drogan. "I promised if you were a good boy, I'd let you pick out a toy. Would you like one now?"

Gerrick snarled, working carefully at his chains. Tam Lin took a deep breath, hoping one of them was dumb enough to grab him and planning to force them to if he could.

"That one." He pointed to Trace. "I want to see what it takes to break her."

Haystack struggled up to his feet against the hands of two knights. "The hell you w--"

Two blows across the backs of his knees dropped him with a snarl.

Gustav nodded. "The girl huh? Good choice. Personally, I'd have gone for the blond, but hey." He shrugged, then grinned at Tam Lin. "Maybe I still can."

Tam Lin looked him in the eye. "Oh, take me into your arms, you stud."

Gustav waggled his finger. "Ah ah ahhh! Nice try though. I know about the geas on you, boy. Don't worry. You'll get your turn." He clapped his hands together. "Alright! Get 'em loaded up, we're takin' 'em to interrogation first, and then everybody gets to have fun!"

One of the knights rode up to them. "Sir. They're coming."

"Good. Without the Laird's leadership, we should be able to punch through--"

"No, sir. Not ours. Theirs."

Tam Lin and Gerrick looked at each other in confusion. Raven mouthed an oath of surprise.

Gustav held up one hand. "Our spy said he ordered them to hold position."

"And their pickets are up. Nonetheless, a detachment comes this way. carrying makeshift holy symbols."

Gustav grimaced.

Gerrick smiled. "Hi, Ma name's Gerrick, I enjoy good wine, modern music, and seen' how far I can get my boot up yer arse before it comes off ma foot." He stood up. "An' I wanna get tae know you." He turned his back to Tam Lin and opened his tied arms as far as they would go.

Tam Lin took the opening. "I am so sorry, Laird." He stood up into Gerrick's backward embrace--

--and turned into a raging bear. His furry skin tore, his bones crushed agianst his chains, but his shackles broke, and his claws rent armor. Gerrick screamed, and thankfully the flesh of his hands tore rather than the sockets of his arms. His hands came free, slopping blood onto his protective clothing. He whipped the chain around and bola'd it around Drogan's neck. His other hand siezed the Hammer from the ground where their weapons lay.

Tam Lin ripped the skin from Gustav's face, but he disappeared in a flash. The Knights started to hum, but he roared to drown them out.

Gerrick pounded the sand again, and the bindings fell off his comrades.

It was the confusion more than the battle that did the damage. Sure, Gerrick slew his share of knights with the hammer, and Tam Lin ripped his share of heads off their spinal columns and crushed his share of ribcages, but what the Troublemakers excelled at was exactly as their name might imply--coordinated chaos. Surprise.

Big, clanging, sparking, shiny, massive BALLS.

Drogan reined his zombie-horse around. "IGNORE THEM! KILL THOSE AP--"

/SMASH./

Gerrick's hammer crushed Drogan's chest with one swing. Tam Lin ran himself up on a lance and crushed the skull of a zombie mount in one blow. It toppled over with its rider, and Tam Lin finished him. Haystack dropped down and cupped his hands, throwing Trace up into the air. She came down on a rider and unhorsed him hard, two knives planted through his armor and into his chest.

But the Knights reorganized quickly. Soon, they surrounded their prey again, their circle reformed, and their lances lowered to pin each and every one of them to each other.

Gerrick licked his lips. "Lads, it's been a pleasure."

"Us too, Gerrick."

Tam Lin let out an ursine whine.

"I'll tell Roddie you're all coming."

"Good. Jackass owes me twenty sovereigns."

"Shut up, Raven."

"Well he does!"

And then, another sound filled the air, faint at first.

Voices.

United in a scream of charge.

The Knights looked up, but some of them panicked backward. Some did not have the opportunity, as their zombie mounts crumbled under them.

In the next seconds, a swarm of Freehold men of every stripe swarmed over the ridge, carrying crosses, crysanthemums, holy symbols of all kinds made from junk. It was a good thing it was sturdy, heavy junk as well, because many of the men resorted to bashing the Knights over the head with them.

Raven pointed. "Now see that, in a nutshell, is why I don't like fanatical religion--"

"TROUBLEMAKERS GO TO WORK!" Gerrick joined the fray.

Tam Lin pounded two armored heads together, crushing the skulls inside. In a few minutes, the fray died down. Haystack had to lift a frothing Trace off of a now nearly powdered Knight. "Easy, sis. Hey! Hey. He's done. You showed him."

Trace twisted in his arms and pounded on his chest, sobbing. Haystack patted her gently as he held her.

Gerrick stood before the leader of the expedition--the commissar of the freshman camp. Their rescuers were the young and inexperienced unit.

Gerrick said, "Report."

The man saluted smartly. "You don't have to stand in front of us anymore, Sir. Now, we stand with you."

"In front of the World." Gerrick laughed. He gave the man a friendly shake by his shoulder. "Good job, lads. Damn good job."

He beamed.

Gerrick turned. "ALRIGHT, LET'S GET THIS ROAD-SHOW BACK TAE CAMP! COLLECT THE WOUNDED AND DEAD!"

"Did you hear that? He said good job!"

"He said /damn/ good job!"

"Holy hells, man!"

Gerrick groaned, but went about the work.

1. 1. Dani - A minor nation's units are completely wiped out.
   2. Ian - Bramiel's newly-undead scion makes their debut with an early victory.
   3. Billy - Endhathef loses control and goes on a rampage.
   4. 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.
   5. Ian - Prax flashes back to his early medical training, and wonders if Shem could survive having The Pit amputated.
   6. JT - Ledyim Lilac uses Rindacsa's candle to lead his men out of a trap of undeath despair.
   7. Dani - Undead or fuligin-infused gnomes.
   8. Dani - Roving packs of wild fuligin predators
   9. Billy - Bluebird Hrielle kills a minor NPC and raises him/her to taunt a major NPC.
   10. Nathan - Mudpie feels the pull of The Pit, and uses the connection to transmit vital knowledge.

The battle raged.

All around him, energy released, like a combination of lightening and orgasm, the spark and fire of WAR. In that instant, Mudpie knew how the Crimson Father must feel. His eye had not left this conflict, not even with the departure of his Avatar.

Mudpie fell into vision. Distance maintained its meaning, but failed to be a barrier to sight and knowledge. All points were /here,/ even if some of them were actually /there./ An energy more powerful than the war around him pulled at his soul.

He stood at the edge of oblivion.

This wound in the world, it was no mere wound in a /world./ it was a wound in /existance./ He stood at the edge of a black pit, not miles across, not hundreds of miles across--but solar systems across, and deep as eternity.

He closed his eyes. The pit pulled at him, romanced him with its power. It was the power to defy not only the gods, not only the Arbiter--it was the power to defy ALL.

The Foundation.

He or they or it who laid it.

It was the power to unmake, and eventually, to reweave.

The Pit could create a God of Gods. A God of Arbiters. A God so many layers up from the Arbiter that the Arbiter was as a speck of dust.

And all Mudpie had to do was leap in. Offer himself and his gods as a sacrifice. He could be the first apostle of--

A voice.

In his mind, it took the form of a mother giving birth.

/Free me./

Mudpie opened his eyes.

/Free me./

"Then help us."

/Say. My. Name./

Mudpie wracked his mind for the Name, but none came to mind.

His mind filled with an image of a woman giving birth. Tentacles emerged from her opened canal. Mudpie gasped.

/Say my name./

Mudpie licked his lips. "Mother."

/Take the names of the nine brothers and sisters to the Hunter. Do not speak them until you are at the rim./

Mudpie's mind filled with images:

An albino moragesque creature as big as a castle, in the shape of a great iguana, crying in abject fear.

A singing Bann Sidh, weeping in loneliness.

A dragon of forest green and eyes of emerald, the size of a village, sulking alone in spite.

A great lumbering rock creature, looking at a worn and faded picture, bearing a great pain in his heart.

A woman covered in blood and wielding a bone scepter, her eyes full of fire, and an army of rejected and wounded monsters behind her, on her lips the command /never again./

An unassuming man in tattered clothes casting the shadow of a batlike monster, nearly insane with hunger, but desperate to hide it.

A giant metal man, staring at his hands, his heart full of hurt and confusion.

An unformed shadow, desperately searching for something, borrowing energy everywhere it could find it, chanting over and over again its own name.

And an ancient sea-creature, a great grand-dam of the first Kraken, with one thing on her mind: /My hour come round at last./

In that instant, Mudpie knew their /Names./

Mudpie wanted to scream, but could not. He was transfixed, and the more he stared at their horror, the more he /loved them./ He /understood/ them. Their need. Their pain. And he could not bear to look away.

Mudpie fell to the ground and choked, crying like a newborn. He gasped for air, and struggled to his feet.

Mudpie found Prax cleaning out a fortification. He helped fight, and then approached.

"You look full of purpose, my friend."

Mudpie swallowed. "The world is more complex than any of us ever imagined."

Prax nodded. "That it is. Though this is not new to us."

"I need to give you nine names. Do not speak them until we are at the Rim. Mother has commanded."

Prax blinked. "Mother?"

"Echidna. I saw her children...They are...beautiful, and terrible...and they are us."

Prax stood silent.

"There is no ready. You need to sit."

1. 1. Benjesus - Tom Fool steals Dullahan's voice.
2. JT - Rindacsa faces the Nullman
3. 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.
   2. Kei - The breaking of the lines causes the med tents to overflow, and named NPC healers struggle to keep up with the influx.
   3. Dani - Khanga feasts on the fear and blood of fallen faithful.
   4. Billy - Edela finds herself caught in a masterful doublecross by a previously undiscovered double-agent mole that severly hinders Allied intelligence.
   5. Nathan - Gustav figures out how to fool Mudpie's energy sense. Mudpie protects the wrong flank, to disastrous results.
   6. 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.

And there it was.

Mudpie had expected that hyperbolic vision to dull the impact of finally seeing it, but it did not. The Pit, miles and miles ahead of them down this slope, on the other side of untold legions of the enemy, was breathtaking, in all the worst ways.

"Well..we made it."

The line stopped. Horns sounded for miles in either direction.

Memories played in his head: the first meeting at the pub, the trip to the Nightwood, the dreams and nightmares, the Hand of Treason, the trip to Sah Bellaaw, meeting Inelle.

The Children.

The doors in the vision.

Bargaining with a dead Goddess.

The War.

It had all come to this.

Through the blood, death, and fire, Mudpie's senses burned. He felt a buildup of energy, dark black fuligin energy. It came from the western end of the enemy camp.

"Oh gods..."

The mother of all Fuligin attacks was about to be unleashed.

"NO!" He sprinted.

Mudpie stopped, wheezing, before a Dhunnic general. "There's about to be a major attack here, we need to get our defenses up!"

"What kind?"

"Fuligin! Powerful fuligin monsters! Er--not monsters, people! I'll help!"

And so they prepared. Every possible defense was re-routed their way. Legends made their way over to join the fight.

Mudpie kept them apprised of what he felt--

--until the feeling vanished.

Mudpie looked to the east, in horror.

The general stood up. "Survivalsmith?"

Mudpie fell to the floor onto his butt. "No...No..."

The General ran to him.

"I've made a terrible mistake..."

EARLIER THAT DAY, IN THE ENEMY CAMP...

Gustav stared at himself in the mirror. With one angry fist, he shattered it.

That Innesmoor Faery-brat would pay. That much he promised. He would live for /years/ of abject torture before serving as Gustav's personal undead slave and being gated directly into the Hells.

Gustav wrapped his face and walked out, to the command tent.

His servant Haggardy fell into step next to him. "Sir. You look refreshed. How about a nice cup of wine?"

Gustav batted the cup away. "Report."

"Sir...they're...approaching the Rim fast. The Fuligin Twelve are preparing to ride forth."

"Good. I may have a way to assist them. Take me to their marshall, or keeper, or whatever it is they obey."

"Sir, they uh...they obey His Black Majesty directly and only."

Gustav stopped.

Haggardy waited.

"Oh. Well then...I guess we'll just have to help from a distance, won't we?"

The servant sighed in relief.

Gustav put his arm around him. "Haggardy, what would you imagine to be the single greatest danger to the Fuligin Twelve?"

"I...well sir, there's the uh, the Red Hunt, and the Survivalsmith, and the Logos...and..."

"Exactly. Now, these fools have come a long way under the power of their own chutzpah, correct?"

Haggardy nodded. "Oh yes, undoubtedly, Sir."

"And might there be, in the farthest reaches of possibility, a danger to the Twelve if our enemy were to muster all their defenses right where they emerge?"

"I...could concieve of such a thing."

"Well Haggardy," he straightened his servant's lapels. "They will."

"Ah. I see. But uh...sir, how will they know?"

Gustav gestured grandly ahead. "Energy, Haggardy. The fuel of the Universe. They have a rather pesky dwarf who can sense all of it. He will feel the buildup, and alert them. So you know what we're going to do?"

"What sir?"

"We're going to fool him."

Haggardy grinned. "A capitol idea, Sir. Uh...how are we going to do that?"

"By bending time and space. See, here's the thing. They know good and well that we've got all the Sable and Obsidian powers on our side. But they forget one very important thing: The Neutral powers. It so happens that our magi have dabbled a bit in the less unsavory arts. One such art is the art of connection, which would allow us to tie a little string of energy between the Twelve and the spot we want the Survivalsmith to think they're coming out of. All the buildup, all the energy will be felt on the west end, but actually released on the east end. See?"

Haggardy nodded. "I do, Sir! I do indeed. But...won't that take a lot of power?"'

"Indeed it will, Haggardy. Which is why I need a favor from you."

"Oh, anything, Sir!"

"Good." Gustav patted him firmly on the shoulder. "I need you to go ask His Black Majesty for the power to fuel this spell."

Haggardy went gray. "But--but..."

"But but but there's a difference between you and me, Haggardy. I'm not expendable."

Haggardy swallowed. "Sir..."

"And Haggardy," Gustav held up a vial on a pendant, "Remember who has your soul." He patted his servant on the cheek and walked away.

1. 1. JT - Lightning storms
   2. 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.
   4. Dani - Earthquakes.
   5. 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.
   6. Dani - Wormriders make a charge that results in a victory but also heavy losses of their own number and steeds.
   7. Nathan - Gerrick, Tam Lin, and the inexperienced NPC's lure the enemy into a vicious trap.



"HOLD!"

Gerrick held his position in the fuligin sands, his Hammer raised.

Only his Troublemakers and Tam Lin stood with him.

Bearing down on him now, more of the giant, horrific cavalry from their first night. They rode great fuligin wasteland behemoths, in full charge.

"For the record, Gerrick, this is the stupidest plan I've ever had the privilege to be a part of."

"HOLD!"

"And I traveled with the Survivalsmith."

Raven held his knives ready. "I don't disagree, Gerrick. This one's a whopper."

Gerrick looked the lead one in the eye. "Come get me ye nihilistic bastard."

Tam Lin nodded. "I uh...I think he accepts."

"Ready yerselves, lads. HOOOOOOLLLLD...."

And then they crossed the line.

"NOW!"

A single crossbow bolt sailed over their heads, and went right between the eyes of the lead beast. It exploded, blowing its riders free, and shattering its skull. The Freshmen in the flanks pulled their ropes. The nets fired.

They were not meant to catch, only to delay. These beasts and their fuligin riders would tear through or cut through easily.

But Gerrick only needed one.

He ran to a thrashing beast and mounted it, thumping it on the head with his Hammer. "Property of Inverrray!"

The arrows fired. The molotovs flew. Gerrick jousted several of the enemy down with his Hammer. A beast tried to grab Tam Lin, but he turned into molten metal and burned out its insides. More explosions went off as Ansley kept firing.

When the rookies ran out of ammo, they charged. They had learned from watching Gerrick--they did not attack, but they distracted the beasts and their riders, lured them into each other, lured them into intanglements with the torn nets, lured them to their deaths at the hands of those with the power to actually kill them. Gerrick claimed four more mounts using the Hammer, and two of the rookies rode along side Raven and Haystack to cause even more trouble.

In the end, though, they were fuligin, and it was time to put them down.

"Awww, do we have to?"

"Aye, Raven. They'll just taint us and cause problems."

"Okay."

Ansley jogged up as Gerrick smashed the last one. She gave him a quick peck on the lips. "Hoy, lover. Finish up quick. There's more comin'."

"Aye."

"And don't do anythin' stupid!"

Gerrick blinked. "Ye do know where we are, right?"

She waved.

Tam Lin leaned over to Raven. "Current ladyfriend?"

Raven looked surprised at first, but then answered, "Current, original, and only."

Tam Lin nodded when the realization hit. "Oh."

"Yeah."

"She uh...looks good for her age."

Raven grinned. "I know, right?"

1. 1. 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.
   2. 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.
   3. Benjesus - Rhomara's sealcasters are slain, but she emerges transformed and victorious.
   4. JT - A swordfight suspended on a narrow ledge over the Pit becomes a fight of legend.
   5. Billy - A mastered Gift is obliterated by Fuligin.
   6. Nathan - Mudpie slays a powerful enemy, Elpidian, the Hand of Undeath, but a terrible cost to his energy when the blasphemous backlash knocks him on is ass.

The Hand of Undeath.

His energy blipped in Mudpie's senses like a beacon. He made his way that direction. Creature after creature, soldier after soldier, stood in his way, but Mudpie would sap their energy with one hand and release it as an attack against the next one with the other. It was energy he could not consume for himself--there was too much Msawhat out here. Too much blasphemy.

But it meant he could not recharge.

Still, the pit called to him. Its comforting power loomed in his visions. Part of him wanted desperately to leap in, and another part of him cried out to heal it. His mind felt as if it would split in two.

Now, so deep behind enemy lines that he could feel his friends and allies far behind him, and a sea of Msawhat around him, he no longer cared who or what he killed. Vampires, demon lords, fuligin monsters the size of sea-vessels, some kind of dragon. He sapped them all, and hammered their fellows with blasts of the energy. The two guards at the edge of the Hand's camp jumped to in surprise, but he left them lifeless, without even looking their direction. All others simply ran from him. He allowed it.

The tent ahead of him, glowed a sickly gray in his sight, and smelt of corrupted rot to his nostrils. He threw open the tent flaps.

A host of generals reached for their weapons. Mudpie struck them dead.

Elpidian did not look up from his map. He picked up a marker in the shape of an Ammoniac dwarf and moved it decisively. "Hello, Survivalsmith."

"Hello, cupcake."

"Now now." He stood up straight and faced Mudpie. "I'm being respectful. There's no need for insults."

"Fuck, I'm bored of this already." Mudpie reached out to Elpidian and began sapping his energy to feed back on him in an attack.

But Elpidian grinned, stopping the flow out from Mudpie. Mudpie choked.

"You really thought I wasn't prepared for that, didn't you?"

Mudpie gritted his teeth against a snarl and rooted himself into the heart of Shem, drawing up a primal fire.

"Yes. Do that. The explosion will take out half the battlefield, salt the world with Fuligin dust, and slide us all into the Pit. I long to see such sights."

Mudpie roared, pushing back against the blockage.

Elpidian knelt, reaching down. "Let's see what happens if I start channeling Fuligin blasphemy into you."

And Mudpie knew how it would end. The world would be wounded again.

Unless--

Mudpie could not release the energy, but he could control it. He formed a shield around them both, a tube of pure energy with a bottom under their feet.

There was just an instant, a very satisfying instant, of a look of abject horror on Elpidian's face.

There were no words for the explosion. Mudpie did not experience it anyway.

A collumn of white fire and black fuligin veins shot into the sky with a sound that would be heard or felt everywhere on Shem and seen on the nearest continent, and by every logos and Nephesh within five light-years.

Paul Driver looked up in awe. "Was that our Logos?"

"No." A nearby Consequent shook his head. "He's over there."

"Sweet gods."

Mudpie awoke to a feeling of alarm, coming from Inelle. He tried to move, but his arms and legs hurt /terribly./

Inelle's voice in his head. "<It's phantom limb syndrome. Keep your eyes up. Don't look.">

Of course. She knew what Phantom Limb felt like.

"But...all four...of my limbs..."

<"Hush. I know what to do here.">

Inelle ripped off her gloves and strode to the miracle-working scion. "I need you to fill me with as much energy as you can stand to give me."

At this point, the sleepless scion did not question. He reached for her hands.

Mudpie screamed as his burned and jagged stumps sprung to life. On the other end, Inelle fed him wave after wave of energy, using her skill to craft nerves, cast bones, weave muscles, and press skin. It was like diverting a river into a bottomless pit.

Until everything snapped into place.

Mudpie rolled over, weeping.

<"Get up, Mudpie. You need to find energy.">

Mudpie coughed. <"Thank you.">

1. 1. 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.

Gerrick, Ansley, Tam Lin, and the troublemakers took cover behind a wrecked fortification.

Ansley slammed a map down on the ground. "Timojin found Harkan's Master of Beasts." She pointed at a mark on the enemy camp. "If we can take him out, it'll end their attacks."
"What'd he see?"

"A giant. A hundred feet tall, covered in Fuligin. He wields a nine-tailed fuligin whip with barbes the size of dirks."

Gerrick blinked. "Well bleedin' bollocks. This'll be easy compared tae the other shyte we've done."

All looked at him in horror.

Tam Lin nodded in realization. "No. He's right. We were never going to best a troop of fuligin warriors. they would be too well armored, and kill too many of us. There's no trap we could spring for him that would hold him. Look at what we had to do to take down those behemoths. We killed the men by taking their mounts and letting them do all the work. Only Gerrick engaged directly. There's only one beastmaster. Something that big, we don't have to kill. We can just bring him down, and let Gerrick brain him."

Gerrick grinned and pointed emphatically. "I knew there was a reason I like ye."

Raven shrugged. "Well, guess I didn't come here to live forever. Tell you what. My turn to be bait this time."

Haystack squinted. "Sure you don't wanna draw lots, mate?"

Raven waved. "Naaaahhh, fuckit. I'm tired of bein' scared I'm gonna die. Let's just bring it on."

Ansley looked at him sympathetically. "Ye're nae gonna die laddie."

"Yeah have that inscribed on my rock. So what's the plan, man?"

/"First, we get there."/

Gerrick and Tam Lin clung to the underside of a Fuligin war-wagon.

"No," Tam Lin said, "I'm wrong. /This/ is the stupidest plan I've ever had the privilege of being a part of."

Gerrick chuckled. "Ye know ye like it, lad."

"That's beside the point."

/"then, we create a distraction."/ /"Oh. Well, as long as we're playing to our strengths."/ /"The distraction will have to careful, subtle, perfectly timed. Ye cannae skimp on this, and it will nae be simple, or easy. Ye're gonnae have tae be an artist, laddie."/

Raven ran up to the guards, his fists balled. He leaned right into their faces. "FUUUUCK! YOU!" He ran off.

The guards gave chase.

/"That should get the giant alone. Next, we break into the pens and start setting up the chains."/ /"Want me to do that?"/ /"Ye're the only man for it, Haystack."/

The Fuligin chains clinked as Haystack dragged them out of the giant warehouse next to the pens. Each link a foot long, four inches thick. He could have hula-hooped with the manacles. Grunting under the weight, he hooked one manacle over a rock.

The chain stretched from a giant warehouse, bigger than a castle. It could hold several ships. Next to it, a great complex of fences held herds and packs of all manner of fuligin creature. Fuligin mud sucked at his boots--somehow more unpleasant than dry fuligin. The air smelled like a bloody, blasphemous barnyard.

The ground under his feet shuddered.

"Awww shit."

Haystack rolled aside as the whip slashed down into the fuligin dirt with a crack like thunder. He dodged behind a giant fuligin plow twice as big as he was tall. The next blow of the whip wrapped firmly around the handle of the plow, and sent it flying with a yank. Haystack ran for his life.

Tam Lin winced. "There goes the plan."

"Nae even close, laddie. It's up tae you and me. Ansley, Trace, cover us."

Ansley sighed and drew a handful of crossbow bolts to her off hand. Trace hefted two daggers.

Gerrick and Tam Lin ran for the pens. Picking up one end of the chains, they started finishing Haystack's work. "Sydney Broncour how did he even lift these?"

Gerrick grunted under the effort. "Less talk, more draggin'."

"Uh, Laird?"

An explosion went off on the other side of the pens. Ansley shouted, "THEY'RE COMIN'!"

"Arse." Gerrick looped the other end of the chain around a pylon, panting.

A horde of Fuligin warriors charged toward them. Tam Lin pointed. "Well what do we do now?"

"This!" Gerrick swung his Hammer at the pens, knocking the fence over. A great many fuligin beasts glared at him. He waved his Hammer over his head at them menacingly. "SAP THEIR COURAGE, LAD, MAKE 'EM PANIC!"

Tam Lin drew his Sword and pointed it right at the beasts, screaming.

Gerrick had never seen the panic expression on a Fuligin face, let alone a herd of them. With screeches and howls, the beasts stampeded, knocking down their pen walls--straight into the oncoming rush of warriors.

Gerrick laughed. "I hannae had this much fun since the rogue Watcher!"

"You are psychotic."

Haystack came around the corner at full tilt. "HELLLP!"

The end of the whip wrapped around the side of the warehouse with a deafening CRACK!

"Fade back!"

Gerrick moved to his mark. Haystack and Tam Lin moved to his sides.

The giant stepped around the corner.

Gerrick motioned to him. "Dance tae yer daddy."

The giant sneered. He bent down and picked up one of the chains. "THIS? THIS IS HOW YOU HOPED TO CATCH ME?" He cast the chain aside.

Tam Lin went ashen.

Gerrick shrugged. "Well I was kina hopin' ye'd trip over it."

The giant laughed. "YOU MUST THINK ME TRULY STUPID."

"Very, actually." Gerrick stepped forward. "Well? Yer move, big'n."

Tam Lin stepped back. "Laird, this is not the time to bluff."

The Giant pulled back his whip for a killing stroke--and took that ceucial step forward.

"NOW!"

From out of the door of the warehouse, three fuligin harpoons the size of ship's masts shot forth, slamming into the giant's knee, thigh, and side. The chains attached to them, at first slack, drew taut.

/"Timojin says they got harpoon balistae in the warehouse. Probably anti-dragon, for use in their later conquests."/ /"Do they now. Timojin, how aboot ye comandeer those? They may come in handy."/

Gerrick gestured to Tam Lin. "Sap 'is strength. I got the rest." He strode forward.

The giant fell to one knee with a snarl of pain, then fell over onto his side.

Gerrick climbed up him easily, and perched on his head. He tapped him with the Hammer. "Now. Ye do as I say, or I hurt ye. That simple enough?"

They marched their charge back through the lines. The beasts, too dumb to do anything else, herded around them obediently. No one dared approach. As they passed through the thick of battle, ally and enemy alike scattered from them. Gerrick stopped them in front of the Master of the Red Hunt, mid duel with some blackguard hero. "Yoohoo. I have a present for ye!"

1. 1. Benjesus - Alliance assassins strike in concert.
   2. Kei - Wei, whilst trying to flee, is caught and slain by Allied forces.
   3. Ian - Prax slices one of Bramiel's wings off, but he escapes anyway.
   4. 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.

Tam Lin shifted his weight atop a fuligin cassowary, cutting down foe after foe as he rode through them. The other Troublemakers at his side with Gerrick rode similar beasts--except for Haystack, who rode a fuligin bicorn. The magi had no trouble enchanting the Master of Beasts, binding him to their servitude, and with him, all his little creatures. They would all have to be put down eventually, but for now, they served.

Gerrick led them in where the battle was thickest. There were no tricks now, no plans, only the need to push back, and win. They fought for their lives, with their army backing them up.

But not all the beasts obeyed their master.

Tam Lin saw the behemoth coming, tossing its own allies out of the way in full charge.

"GERRICK LOOK OUT!"

Gerrick leaped off his cassowary, his Hammer drawn back for a crushing blow--but he misjudged the behemoth. It stopped its charge just short of the blow. Gerrick landed hard.

"NO!"

The beast siezed Gerrick in its mouth and tossed him aside.

Tam Lin charged.

Three precise cuts from the Sword of Frustration left the beast without its sight, its smell, and its legs. Tam Lin did not stay to see the creature fall. He bolted for Gerrick's body as the other Troublemakers ran to join him. Crossbow bolts, thrown daggers, rocks, and finally two Troublemakers beat back the tide of enemies around him before Tam Lin arrived.

Gerrick moaned. "That mighta hurt just a wee..."

Tam Lin checked him for wounds. A near-panicked Ansley arrived next, in her rage physically lifting and throwing a Fuligin Goblin out of the way without even a second look or breaking her stride. She dropped to one knee. "Gerrick?!"

"I'm alright." He swallowed. "Shyte that hurts."

Tam Lin looked up to her. "Get him off the field. We'll take it from here."

She nodded, slipping her arms under him.

"Wait! wait." Gerrick lifted the Hammer and tapped Tam Lin on the head with it. It hurt far less than he expected. "Lads, follow him."

Tam Lin blinked. "Me?"

"Ye ken how I think, laddie. Get 'em through this."

Tam Lin blinked.

Raven put a firm hand on Tam Lin's shoulder.

Tam Lin nodded once, firmly, then stood up. "Let's go!"

He did not look back to see Ansley depart with her husband.

The siege engines. Tam Lin led the Troublemakers through the thick of battle toward them, winding like a serpent and only stinging where necessary. It was not the killing of individual enemies that mattered, it was the turning of the tide, and a tide of Harkanheim regulars came hard from the east.

"Turn them! Take out the other engines first, then fire on Harkenheim!"

And then, a voice in his head. /"I'm sendin' the rookie force tae hold the line. Ye have tae support 'em."/

Tam Lin pointed. "Timojin, Trace, go take command of that line!"

"What line?!"

"There'll be one there! Help them hold it until we take out these engines!"

"Aye aye, mate!"

/"Well, now. Timojin called you 'mate.' Think ye're fittin' in."/

TWANG! the first balista fired, followed by the two trebuchets. A satisfying /crash/ sounded from the first target--a direct bullseye on a loaded Scorpion.

A fuligin minotaur roared out of the fray, stampeding toward them. Tam Lin had only half a second to think. He swung his Sword at the cable strung between the two arms of the balista. It popped /hard,/ one arm slamming into the minotaur and crushing his chest. Tam Lin finished him with one stroke.

/"Nice, laddie. Alright. I've dispatched two units tae support yer position. Keep firin'."/

Tam Lin looked at the now wrecked balista, and moved to the next engine. "Create a canopy of fire! Stagger your shots so we can fire continuously!"

/"Have Haystack move his balista to the east. Ye got more engines comin' tae counter."/

"Haystack! Deploy east and fire at all the engines you see!"

"On it, mate!"

Gerrick chuckled in Tam Lin's head. /"That's two votes. I think ye might be a made man."/

The front line sagged.

"Crap. Concentrate fire on the east line! They can't break through!"

But they did.

And Haystack would be stranded out there with his trebuchet.

Tam Lin merely reacted. His mind filled with images of Gerrick letting go of the rope to slide down into the ant-lion's pit. He did the same.

"KEEP FIRING! HOLD THEM BACK!" He charged out for Haystack.

Haystack fired the trebuchet one last time and then ripped a beam out of its structure to use as a club.

Tam Lin ducked low under Haystack's swing and cut down two enemies who pushed in. "Hold them at length, and I'll get the ones who close in!"

"Mate, you are as crazy as Gerrick!"

/"Aye. I think that seals it, mate. Ye're one of us. Reroutin' the Rendruan cavalry tae yer position. Hold oot."/

Tam Lin cut down three more, and Haystack thrashed back at least a dozen more. Stones from their captured catapults slammed into the enemies, but not fast enough.

"Get outta here, man! No reason for you to die too!"

Tam Lin grimaced. "No, mate. Gerrick wouldn't leave you."

But the enemies kept coming. Tam Lin looked into the maw of death, knowing now what Gerrick saw when he slid down that ant-lion's pit to save his men.

Tam Lin cut two down. "Haystack, I want you to know I believe Gerrick'll come for us somehow."

Haystack redoubled his efforts, and took out a fuligin goblin with one swing. "I know he will. He always does."

Tam Lin missed his cut. A second of pure alarm later, the fuligin sword plunged into his chest.

But he felt no wound.

"What--"

The Erlking dropped in from above, doubled over from having taken Tam Lin's wound. the rest of the enemy scattered back from him. "How about me?"

Tam Lin laughed. "You are a welcome sight, friend!"

The Erlking laughed painfully, joining the fight. The three of them stood amid raining stones, beating back the foe, until the Rendruan cavalry arrived. In minutes, their position was secure.

Tam Lin hugged the Erlking with earnest ferocity. "Thank you, my friend."

"Is this the sort of thing that normally calls for drinks?"

"Undoubtedly." Tam Lin patted him on the shoulder. "We should see if there's any more Glen Ray."

"Oh no. Innitch disagrees with me."

"That's a bad way to be," Tam Lin said. "It's not safe to disagree with Innesfolk."

The Erlking squinted. "Is that racist?"

"I don't think so. Technically, they aren't a race, they're a culture."

"So you just insulted a culture?"

Tam Lin considered. "Was that insulting?"

The Erlking shrugged. "We could ask an Innesman?"

Tam Lin looked around. "Are there any present?"

"Well you're surrounded by Troublemakers."

Hastack just watched, non-plussed.

"Yes, but not all of them are /from/ Innesmoor or Inverray."

The Erlking gestured with an open hand. "You just said it was a culture. They have no doubt adopted the culture."

Tam Lin thought about that, then nodded. "You're right. Haystack, was my statement offensive?"

Haystack held up both hands. "I am not even getting involved in this. You two have at it." He walked on.

The Erlking nodded. "I think that may be a yes."

"Oh not at all. He was being courteous..."

1. 1. Benjesus - Rhomara becomes reckless and is overwhelmed.
   2. Ian - Aisling Caillte is choked to death by an undead monster with no light behind its' eyes.
2. Miracle at the Rim - in face of enormous losses, a Miracle occurs (1 token, 7 authors? maybe?)

Theresa walked among the battle, invisible to all.

The tide was about to turn. She could feel it. A convergence, a miracle, loomed on the horizon. The air was thick and pregnant with it.

She walked by the Master of the Red Hunt. He had what she needed. Echidna had intended for him to release her inaugural brood, the Archetypal Nine, and he had the names, but he did not know what to do with them. As she walked past, she reached out to him, drawing the names from his memory.

There was an order to this. One had to be released first. He alone knew all the secrets of his Brothers and Sisters.

His Name Was.

She walked to the edge of the pit and made the proper supplicative gesture, and called out his Name.

A shock ripped through her body. She lifted off the ground, her arms spread, her Self full of power. The World seemed insignificant--she saw through all of Time and Space, images even her immortal mind would forget in minutes.

The voice filled her mind. <Are you a god?>

Her body rushed with adrenaline. "I am a mere supplicant, Ancient One."

<Speak.>

"Your mother gave us your name. This world is wounded. Can you help us?"

<The Wound will not be healed. But I can help you. And this is the price: Your desert, where the puppet of the Misfortunate One dwelt and held sway. That shall be the land of my brothers and sisters. It shall be the land of Monsters. I shall remake it for my Mother's brood. We shall rule there. Her temple shall be there.>

Theresa nodded. "Yes, Ancient One."

<To the weakest and most frightened of your army, I lend the rage of my youngest brother.>

The Rookies fought hard.

Tam Lin shouted, "HOLD THE LINE!"

But they died too quickly.

It started when one of them began to cry.

Then he panicked.

Then the others panicked.

And then, the first one called out.

And out of the fuligin sands rose a giant beast. It roared in fear, and began its rampage, crushing and trampling and incinerating with its breath all the Harkanian warriors it could see.

Many more such creatures rose, all over the battlefield.

<To the bards, priests and leaders of your army, I lend the resonant voice of my youngest sister.>

Mudpie struggled through the Fuligin sands, forever feeling like he might faint.

/"Keep going, Sulfur. You have to find energy."/

It reminded him of a song.

Something old, by a man named Crane, he thought a distant relative of Father Rufus.

He began to tap his feet.

"Hey. That's not bad."

/"What is that?"/

Mudpie smiled. "It's energy." He spread his arms and sang out, and his voice carried for miles.

Allies who were disheartened perked up, and found new courage. Allies who were frightened turned their fright to determined rage.

Mudpie could feel all of it.

"SING WITH ME!"

And all over the battlefield, his song was echoed by others, and the allies rallied as one.

<To the champions of your army, I lend the raw might of my next youngest brother.>

Haystack roared and breathed a blast of raw fire, consuming a wave of enemies. His voice growed deep and primal. "IS THERE NO ONE TO CHALLENGE ME?!"

Somewhere else on the field, the Rendruan captain stared down a Fuligin Oliphant and ripped it to shreds before roaring in victory. A Paladin cut a bloody swath through Harkanheim's ranks, then bellowed a challenge to the Undead Arbiter. One of the rookies wrestled a Fuligin ogre--and won, ripping his head off, and yanking out his fangs for a trophy. "MINE! MY TEETH! CHALLENGE ME WHO DARES!"

<To the selfless of your army, I lend the fortitude of my next brother.>

An army in retreat. There was nothing else for it. The Redcloaks had suffered too many losses.

But Pajah stopped.

Rage filled his being, a quiet, determined rage.

His second in command looked at him in horror. "Pajah! Come on!"

Pajah stood up straight. "Go. I have this." He turned to face the onrush of beasts and blackguards.

"Pajah!"

"GO!" He transformed.

Pajah grew six feet. His muscles filled out, his clothes tore, his skin turned to stone. He screamed a mighty roar at the attackers, and when they came in range, he felled the first with a mighty punch.

"Leave. My. Men. ALONE!"

The charging foes stopped, and began to circle.

Pajah took a beating, but in the end, none of the attackers remained--and he still stood.

<To the needlessly meek of your army, I lend the authority of my right hand sister.>

The enemy thought they were clever to circle around and hit the medics. They charged through the camp, butchering any who got in their way, until they came to a young woman, a healer in training. Still only seventeen, she came to this war with her brothers, hoping to keep them alive.

She cowered before the raiders and screamed.

Until they reached for her.

Her hand shot up, grabbing her attacker's wrist.

The man tried to pull away in surprise, but her grip held as firm as if she had been a legendary man. She looked up with an expression full of fire and fury, and words came to her lips that she would never have dreamed of speaking at home. "Oh, you are in Hell. Pray to me." With a wrenching motion, she snapped his wrist. He screamed and fell to his knee.

The first of his comrades swung to defend him, but with a twist, she threw her man to the ground and ripped his arm off. At once, she transformed, taking a tall, broad-shouldered, stately amazoninan form with bright raging eyes. She shrieked a bloodcurdling battle cry, and began her reign of terror using her attacker's arm as a scepter and sword.

When she stood victorious, she raised her hand high. "RALLY TO ME IF YOU WANT TO LIVE!"

To the deprived and repressed of your army, I grant the comfort of release from my next brother.>

The army was full of poor, and devout. They suddenly became very hungry.

Tam Lin closed his eyes, breathing heavily.

Trace put a hand on his shoulder. "Mate?"

"I...I..."

Raven stepped up. "You alright?"

"No." Tam Lin doubled over. "I...Go. Get away from me."

Trace leaned down to him. "We aren't leav--"

"GO!" He snarled at her, suddenly wanting to take a huge bite. He galloped off on hands and feet, like a wolf, and threw himself on the nearest enemy, ripping it to shreds.

Tales would be told of the thousands who did the same.

Theresa screamed.

<Do not fear. We have enough of our own. The The effects on your army will wear off after the energy is spent unless they embrace the Monster to keep it.>

Theresa wept, a feeling she had not felt in ages.

<To the conflicted of your army, I grant the companionship of my next brother.>

The priests surveyed the damage, carnage, and violence from a distant high place.

"Is this what it comes to? All this damage and carnage?"

Another one shook his head. "Sometimes..." He swallowed. "Sometimes this war makes me question my faith."

"Careful, friend. Let that not be the fuligin talking."

He twitched.

"What?"

"I...don't know. But..." He prayed. Where the prayer came from, he could not say, only that it was answered.

And the wreckage shifted, coming together to make a giant man.

The man stood a hundred feet tall, composed of bricks, metal, shards of shattered wood, armor, swords, and everything else--and every surface was etched with a holy symbol.

He turned to the priests. "WHO AM I. WHAT AM I."

The priest swallowed hard. "You are...a blessing."

The giant junk man bent down and held out his hand. "I WISH TO UNDERSTAND. TEACH ME."

The priests nodded. "We will. Will you help us fight our enemies?"

"TELL ME MY NAME."

The priest shrugged. "We can...call you...Faithchild. For you were born of our blind faith."

"I AM FAITHCHILD. YOU ARE MY FRIENDS. FAITHCHILD WILL CRUSH YOUR ENEMIES, AND YOU WILL BE SAFE TO TEACH ME."

The Priests smiled.

Across the field, many more such constructs moved to protect their newfound friends.

Theresa panted, now unable to scream.

<To those of you erased from memory, I grant a second chance. My right hand brother will cobble you together, and give you a chance...to reform.>

A phantom army rose from the field, ghosts of nothing, shadows that were never cast. They moved among the enemy, stealing Names, using those Names to make themselves anew, not perfect, frightful to some, but able to exist again.

They swept through, chanting. "Here a name there a name your name my name find a name take a name all names by name..."

They stole the Names by cutting out the tongue and putting it in their own mouths, such as their mouths were. The allies among them clamped their mouths shut, but they had no need to. The shadows swept past them, prying open the jaws of their Harkanheim enemies, and claiming their tongues.

"Here a name there a name your name my name find a name take a name all names by name..."

It was not until one of the allies faced a shadow head on, looking into its eyes, that he knew what happened.

"I...I know him."

"What is he?"

"I think I may have served with him."

Theresa fell to her knees, gasping.

<And to you, Listener of Old, I grant this Secret of my own. Use it to change the world.>

He touched her head with a giant tentacle.

Theresa could not say how she got back to the camp, but she collapsed when she did, shivering in more terror than she had ever felt in her entire life.

1. 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.

Tam Lin collapsed in the dust, his face stained with all the fuligin of the people he had savaged. He panted.

He looked around for the Erlking. He was nowhere to be found, nor were any of the Troublemakers.

Tam Lin suddenly felt very alone.

"If you're out there my friend, mates, I need help." He cut down enemy after enemy, each stroke a killing blow. Swift, efficient, calculated.

Until, across the field, toward a watchtower on the edge of the Pit, he saw a very familiar figure.

Gustav had his face wrapped in bandages, but his impeccable style of clothing showed through even the black dust. He met Tam Lin's gaze.

Tam Lin pointed with his Sword. /You're mine./

Gustav charged.

Tam Lin plowed through, shouldering enemies aside, cutting them down. Gustav did the same, throwing Allies aside left and right, gutting them with his daggers as he did.

They clashed. Gustav crossed his daggers across a downward strike to the head. He grinned. "I like you. We should fight more often."

Tam Lin pushed him back and took a cut at mid level. Gustav dodged backward.

"Woohoo! You're mad! Wonder what little ol' me did to deserve that!"

Tam Lin swung his sword, Gustav blocking every blow.

But he stepped back with every stroke.

Tam Lin pressed on, determined to take this head for Gerrick.

Gustav stepped back into the door of a tower on the edge of the Rim. "Come on, Faery-brat. You can do better than this can't you?"

Tam Lin backed him up onto a spiral staircase. "I wouldn't be so blase' about my impending death if I were you."
Gustav shrugged. "Have it your way."

When all of this was over, Tam Lin would tell his children that not even once did it occur to him that Gustav never attacked him in this exchange. Instead, he pressed on, backing Gustav up the spiral stair case of the tower.

"So what's got you so mad?" Gustav laughed as he fenced with his knives. "Was it that sexual torture threat? Or did something happen to your Innesfolk boyfriend?"

Gerrick kept his focus, not that it did any good.

"You know he's got a wife, right?"

Tam Lin pressed on.

"I bet that's some sweet pussy. I'd love to get me some of that."

Tam Lin took a series of precise cuts, watching Gustav's eyes, but Gustav parried him effortlessly.

"If he dies, I'll make up the difference." He spun in and kneed Tam Lin in the groin. "For both you and her."

Tam Lin roared in fury and pressed in harder, but Gustav only laughed, parrying each blow. Tam lin snarled at first, putting more effort into the cuts, then more, and more, until he screamed in fury, taking cuts wherever he could manage.

But Gustav knew what he was about. He parried every blow, laughing.

Tam Lin caught a glimpse of a familiar face, behind Gustav, and made a split second decision--he intentionally left himself open.

Gustav drove in with a dagger, right for Tam Lin's chest. Tam Lin took it, gasping for air--but he did not feel the blow.

Gustav leaned right into his face. "Gods you're beautiful. If only you were evil." He threw Tam Lin out the nearest window.

Tam Lin barely caught himself by his fingertips.

"Help..."

Gustav leaned out. "Know what the difference is between you and me?"

Tam Lin stared up, into the face of death.

"I don't care. That helps so much in battle. I just want to die my death and glorify the Mother of Blood. Not that you give a shit. You see, it's not the evil ones who are nihilists."

Tam Lin stared up at him.

"That's you guys. The good ones. You think that all there is to life is intent, but it DOESN'T FUCKING WORK THAT WAY!"

Tam Lin looked down. It was a long drop to the nearest surface he could see.

"It's you guys. You, so pure and holier than thou. Good intent, it just...wipes it all away. Oh gods, I never knew that would happen! I never knew people would suffer from my piety! I meant well!"

Tam Lin closed his eyes.

"It's all about results, little man. Say what you want about evil, we get results."

Tam Lin looked up at him.
"What. Wanna challenge me?"

Tam Lin looked him in the eye.

"There's no point. You already lost. But hey, how about an object lesson. What would you do to me right now, just to win."

Tam Lin stared at him, praying for a friend to rescue him. His mind filled with the image of the Erlking.

"Well? Answer me."

Had it all been a halucination? Tam Lin held on to the hope, and whispered the one name he could think of. "Erlking."

"Erlking? Really? That's all you have for me? YOU RIPPED MY FACE OFF, MOTHER FUCKER! I WILL TORTURE YOU INTO INSANITY!"

Tam Lin went calm. "You won't get the chance."

Something happened. Something attacked Gustav from behind, throwing him out the window--and into the pit.

The scream was almost ethereal. Otherworldly. It was a sound of the horror of final defeat--eternal defeat.

The Erlking appeared in the window. "I heard you my friend. Let go."

Tam Lin pleaded. "Pull me up."

"If I try to, you'll fall. Let go, friend. You're going to be okay."

It was not even a choice. Tam Lin did what he knew to do--he let go.

He expected to plunge into the depths of Hell's Hell--but he was caught in a net. A familiar Innesfolk woman's voice shouted, "Gerrick, we got 'im!"

/"Is Gustav dead?"/
Tam Lin answered for Ansley. "If he's not, he wishes he was."

/"Bring him home. Well done Mate."/

1. 1. JT - Ledyim suffers a mortal fuligin wound-- his faith severed from him, the Gods are deaf to him (and his descendents?) now.
   2. Dani - Aleel'aqallah, after a trying time and several failed attempts, succeeds in assassinating a key enemy commander
   3. 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.
   4. 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.

It was Harkan himself who pressed the retreating forces.

No power of the Monster-Archetypes could turn him, stall him, or defeat him. He was a monster of his own kind: a Giant because of his deep seated insecurities. A Messenger because his very existence sang, and craved resonance. A Dragon because nothing dared challenge him. A Guardian because of his long-dead family, a Queen because of his ambition, a True Form for his Hunger, A Construct because of the circumstances that made him this way, a Bogeyman because of what he sought, an Elder God because he would change the world.

Had Echidna not children of her own, she would adopt him as the One Archetype.

All who stood in his way perished. There was no other way.

And that was all the challenge the Avatar of WAR needed.

Courage. Very few people understood the place of Courage in the WAR god's plans. So much of the battle was won merely by the chutzpah to show up. It took so very little to impress the Father of War, and so many misunderstood him. The place of conflict in the World was established when the first Protozoan outstripped the first Eukaryote in a conflict for resoures.

But Courage did not enter into it until conscious decision became a thing.

Courage was the ability to decide, in spite of rational analysis, that it was okay to die--provided the price was right.

The Father of WAR was all about making the price right.

Angela appeared. There were no other words for it. She /appeared,/ in front of the retreating fae forces, the same way the Laird of Inverray had stood in front of his forces, to protect them, to give them courage.

She turned to the nearest commander. "Tell Lilybell I said, 'this is how wars are won."

No one saw how she ended--but the world felt when she did. All that is known is that she faced Harkan personally, and lost, and in the process, uncounted allies were saved, freeing them to go on and fight the war..

1. 1. Ian - Bramiel is pulled from the sky by the united Hunt and slain by Prax wielding Foiche Maru, now blazing with Life.
   2. Benjesus - Dullahan chases Tom Fool into the Catacombs.
   3. Nathan  - The last gift of Father Crane, long after his death

There was a secret so few knew about the Harkanians--It had to do with the nature of blasphemy. Blasphemy, by its nature, was /against./ It was a position of conflict, against creatures so much more powerful than normal that to challenge them should have been unthinkable. But to those whose war was with the gods themselves, there was /only/ that conflict.

Athiesm, in Shem, was not a philosophical position--it was a choice of will, an act of war.

The Guardians were believers in one assertion: I may be a puppet, but I dance for no man. I make my own decisions. My mind is not for rent, and if I find the truth, I do so without the help of gods.

That, in itself was not blasphemy. Blasphemy came into it when a Mortal/denied/ the influence of gods, no matter what that god's contribution to the current situation.

Harkan could not see how much his position owed to the gods.

Some of them /loved/ him. Few if any hated him. Most ignored him. But for whatever reason, hew went on as if they mattered naught. It was a form of blindness many would speculate on for millienia to come.

Was it an illusion? The father of stories would argue that knowing what illusion to accept was the first step in understanding one's place in the universe. Harkan was a character, and playing his part was the utmost importance.

But his part ended in defeat, and he knew it.

For some strange reason, Harkan was painfully at peace with that realization.

And somewhere in the Heavens, a priest of Peace smiled.

1. 1. 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.

Mudpie walked among the battle.

Well, /walking/ was being a bit generous.

The energy left him. He wanted, so desperately, to embrace the Monster. It sang to his soul so much lie the intoxicating promise of well-made Sal Ammoniac. But he chose the fast, as he always had.

And now, more hungry the ever, he realized how much he missed the rush of energy.

He staggered.
The Fuligin enemies began to circle.

"That's the Survivalsmith."

"End him and be done with it."

"No. I want him for a servant."

It was like a dream. Mudpie could not say what was awake and what was asleep in his psyche, what was real and what was dream. He mused that Prax could help him in such a state, were he not off on his own battles.

The world seemed so far away. He lay his head on the cold fuligin ground, as if feeling Shem's heartbeat.

A woman's voice. An eight-eyed giant bent down, offering him the sweetest Gald-bread he had ever smelled. On the other side, a one-winged creature whetted a rusty scythe.

He's mine, bitch. Step away. The demon spoke fluent Salt. He even had the Obsidian Eye accent and dialect.

Oh he's yours, is he? She answered in Aeslawan. And that must be why he feeds so many. Why he's so selfless.

His self-denial honors /me!/

His self-denial is in service to greater things! You stay clear of him, his soul will be mine!

Even though he's blasphemed you? He spat in your face, after all you did for him, to call on /my/ name! He tasted your false promises, and invoked /my/ power!

She huffed. To give his life, soul, and Name to good causes.

He snarled. Everyone gives those things for something.

In the distance, the enemies argued amongst themselves. Mudpie sat up, not daring to look at his Sire and Madam.

Well then take him by force if you dare. I came to bless him!

SO DID I! AND I CLAIM HIM!

YOU HAVE NO CLAIM HERE, RUST! She pulled her staff back and struck Mudpie solidly in the chest, just as the Father of Rust cut deep into his chest with the scythe.

Mudpie screamed. His body froze.

The giantess pressed her staff into his chest. Let him go, you foul theif!

You first!

Mudpie screamed for his life. His body surged with godlike energies. He felt hope, the satisfaction and energy of a good meal, the driving pain of hunger, and the need to hunt or be hunted--eat or be eaten. In that moment, all the world was his kitchen, his table, his family, and also his prey.

He dreamed of feasts in Aeslaw, of turning the fuligin desert into a lush garden and farm, and of sweeping down upon entire nations to blight them. He saw himself--/lived/ moments, days, years--in the life of an avatar, of Amber, and then of Rust.

He could have whichever life he chose.

His body stretched painfully, pulled as if by a thousand horses.

You'll kill him, let go!

Well?! You're the one who cares, /you/ release him!

You want the pit healed as much as I do, let him go!

Never! The Survivalsmith serves ME!

The strain pulled his muscles and bones apart. Mudpie knew he could save himself if he chose.

He could not choose.

<Inelle...I'm sorry...>

Her reply was not words. She made a split second decision to save Mudpie.

Rust screeched in rage. Amber roared in protective fury. Mudpie closed his eyes, as every fiber of his being rent assunder.

Inelle blinked, then fell on her butt. "I...I can't...sense him anymore."

The Miracle worker crouched down to her.

"I don't even know...if it worked. I can't...oh god...I can't feel this place...the ward, the tent, I can't feel my tools or the lights or the patients--"

"Here! here." The miracle worker touched her. "You still have your skill. Breathe easy."

Inelle took a long deep breath. She looked up at him. "Did it work? Did I save him?"

Hasulakh Zadhaun felt about a hundred pounds lighter.

He laughed.

He cackled and cawed, arching his back and pounding the sand with his hands and feet. "YES! YES YES YES! FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU ALL, I'M ALIVE! HAAAAA HA HA HA HA HA!"

Sulfur Irongut sat up and rubbed his head. "Oh gods that's better. Whoo. I thought I was a goner. Inelle, I'm alright!"

Hasulakh squinted at him. "Who the hell are you?"

Sulfur blinked in surprise.

Hasulakh struggled to his feet and stomped over, trying to loom. It didn't work. He was exactly as tall as--well, as tall as himself. "Asked you a question, sweet-meat."

Sulfur blinked. "You look really familiar. Do I know you?"

Hasulakh glared. And then, he chuckled. "Oh gods, they do have a sense of humor."

"What do you mean?"

"Come on. You're not this dumb. Know how I know?" He tapped his chest furiously. "Because /I'm/ not that dumb!"

And then Sulfur got it. "...Oh."

He stared at himself. He stood at the height he remembered, scraggle-ass hair and pale desert mottled skin drawn tight over a hunched skeleton, decked in tattered black clothes. His furious, bloodshot eyes held a tense, fearful look, boiling into barely controlled anger. He snarled through yellow, rotten teeth.

He also stood plump and fit, handsome, rosy cheeked, his beard and hair groomed to attentive neatness. His pearly whites glistened when he smiled, and kindness emanated from his calm demeanor.

One of him carred a rusty sickle. One of him carried a blessed spatula.

Sulfur nodded. "Yeah. This is awkward."

"Fuck awkward. We got a war to win." Hasulakh turned and charged into battle with a scream.

"Wait for me!"

1. Kei and Billy - Shara vs. Styrah Rhee and Rosamonde
2. Benjsus and Billy - Nas vs. Harkan
3. 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.

Raven helped Tam Lin up. He offered his hand, angled up. "That was some show, mate."

Tam Lin looked at the hand.

Ansley stepped up behind him. "Like this." She took Raven's hand and pulled him into an embrace. "That's how we do it." She offered her hand.

Tam Lin smiled, seizing her hand, and accepting her embrace.

"My man." Haystack offered the handshake next. Then Trace, with a nod, and Timojin with a wry smile.

"We snogged 'em off in true Inverray style!" Timojin gave Tam Lin a friendly shove as they parted. "You're alright, Tam Lin."

Gerrick, now tended by the healers, sat up in bed. "That was a bang-up job, laddies. We did the impossible."

"Shame we dinnae have any Glen Ray left."

Trace looked down.

Ansley took her hand.

"It's not fair." Trace looked away.

"It never is." Ansley gave her hand a squeeze. "His soul is safe. I had the priests see to them. We're gannae pipe 'em home as heroes. They willnae be forgotten. An' they're waitin' for us, with seventeen thousand who went before."

Trace sobbed. She nodded.

Raven patted Tam Lin on the shoulder. "Gerrick, he followed us home. Can we keep him?"

Tam Lin looked sad. "I...wish I could. I'm already in the service of the May Queen."

"So?" Gerrick shrugged. "Doesnae stop ye from bein' one of us."

Tam Lin smiled.

"I have a proposition for ye, laddie."

Tam Lin perked up. "If ye should find yerself in need of a place, ye come tae Inverray. I know a man, a Thane in Innesmoor who happens tae be descended of ma brother, who has more land than he ken what tae do with. He needs help. He's recently acquired the estate of Carterhaugh, but he has nae sons to help him. His wife died bearin' him only daughters."

"And you need a changeling prince to help him," Tam Lin guessed.

"Aye. Nae just for him, but it would give us a Troublemaker in Carterhaugh, someone we trust. Ye'd be doin' both of us a favor." Gerrick shrugged. "Just a thought."

Tam Lin nodded. "I could do it, if I could be guaranteed that the May Queen would always be welcome in Carterhaugh."

Gerrick smiled. "Aye. That we can do."

Sulfur and Hasulakh fought together. For such opposite souls, they worked together flawlessly. There seemed to be a connection between them that made them almost like the one person they once were.

"Admit it. You're hot for her."

Sulfur blushed. "Don't talk that way about Inelle. She's been through a lot, and our relationship is complicated."

"Ha. Look at you being all respectful and shit. Just show her the sausage, she can choose to take a bite or not. Worst that can happen is she tells you to fuck off."

Sulfur looked horrified. "I will do no such thing! Inelle Schiell is a highly skilled doctor with a unique skill-set. She has earned respect."

"And what are we? Stale crackers?"
"Respect is earned, and I haven't earned it!"

"Well I have." Hasulakh glared. "And you know what else? It's gonna be a kick in the balls to you if she chooses me over you because you got self-esteem issues."

"Come on, me, be reasonable. In what world are you--in what world am I even close to what she wants?"

"You don't know," Hasulakh said, "because you won't ask. You're a pussy. You roll over before the battle's even started. But you know what? I will ask." He walked off.

"You insult her, I will fill you with pie!"

"Try it, shortstack!" Hasulakh walked up to Prax and stared up at him. "Wow. I am the foulest tempered thing this side of the pit, and for some reason, I still like you." He slapped Prax on the flank. "Okay guys, line up! The fun's just gettin' started! Roll call! Who's here!"

Sulfur sighed. To Prax he said, "Don't mind him. He's having a bad hair life. How'd you make out, pal?"

Prax blinked. "Aparently only half as well as you did. Literally."

Sulfur nodded. "It's good to see you."

Prax nodded. "and likewise, it is good to see...both of you."

Sulfur laughed.

Inelle jogged up. "Mudpie!"

Both of him looked up. She jogged to a stop, staring in confusion.

Hasulakh walked up with a serious expression. "That was quick thinkin', doc. You're the best in a tight spot. You sure you don't have any Ammoniac hunter in ya?"

Inelle grinned a bit. "With this build? I am certain."

Sulfur blushed. "Oh no. Don't you say it."

Hasulakh smirked. "You want some?"

Sulfur grabbed him by the ear, blushing furiously. "Sorry. I'll take care of him."

Inelle watched them go, an indeterminate expression on her Kerrupene face. Prax looked at her and laughed quietly.

Inelle sighed. "Shut up." She walked on.

1. 1. Billy - Cork quietly picks over the corpses on the field, unnoticed by others, picking up loot.
2. 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.