The War of Lilacs

[SpringNixie]

((END TURN 5))

Duel in the House of God [The Battle for Erfurt]
Avery Wounded || Erik Deceased

Pregnant Ladies Fight [Gwen Vs. Queen Karaliene]

 

[SpringNixie]

May 17th, Afternoon:

Far from any sort of radio communication, Avery Hughes watches as healer after healer passes her by; a mixture of fear, pain, and hopelessness leaking from her bloodshot eyes. She had been separated from all of the other wounded. Quarantined to a lonely corner of the cathedral where she would not be considered a threat to her fellow kindred. Even Allie, the woman she loved, had been warned to stay away from Avery and those guards who stand in the distance are resolute in keeping Lilly and Marius, Avery's little angelfish, separate from their mother as well... at least for the time being.

The lone nixie rubs at her poorly-bandaged shoulder with her one remaining arm, massaging it in a vain attempt to make the phantom sensations of her right arm fade away as the echoes of a long-dead strain of Filth feed on her growing sense of hopelessness and pound relentlessly in her head. Her entire body aches and she has hardly slept for days as she stares into the meager bowl of rations which had begun to grow stale beside her, the dying smartphone in her left hand blinking silently in a vain attempt to alert her to the new messages of condolences or hope contained within the device.

 

[Theo Collins]

For the first time during this entire war, Theodore was completely silent. All of the chatter coming in over the radio both surprised and terrified him. To think, Avery was wounded fighting off the enemy. She was laying her life down on the line to protect everyone. And what was Theo doing? Nothing. He was out here on what felt like a wild goose chase, trying to find the enemy and take them out before they hurt more people. But this wasn't his usual style, he was a spell-thief for goodness sake! He tried to avoid combat however possible, and now he's roped into this freaking war. He had felt so sure of himself when this all began, but doubt crept its way into the dark recesses of his mind. He was starting to second guess himself.

'What if I still can't protect these people?'

Thoughts and memories started to well up inside him. He needed to sort them out.

"Stray," Theo's voice cracked. "I'm going to be over here." He pointed to a small shop down the road. "I'll be but a minute. I'll be back soon."

 

[Pattern-Weld]

Stray would give him some space, allowing him to go. "I understand friend." After he was out of earshot though, Stray would command the troops to continue fortifications and, as stealthily as he could he followed Theo. He was worried about the man, and wanted to make sure he was ok.

 

[Viyola Marcotte]

@EmbracePoseidon I'm going to Erfurt.

--tweet posted by Queen Egle (@apexqueen)

Vi had only just woken up from her rest - finally, some sleep - when she saw this message. She sat in disbelief for a few seconds, then took a few minutes to catch up on her feed. Between this odd book, the baby, the war itself...

Of course Egle would get restless. Vi figured the Queen would be moving out soon enough.

She went through as much of a morning routine as she could manage in the inn, with a brief wash and a snack by the locals, and then radioed in to the tent.

"Tear Marcotte here," - as she had been called so far - "I'm in the central villages of Gotha. I'll be going around for the day seeing what the town is prepared for, please report in any tasks you'd like me to address.

"Also... I don't know if anyone saw this." She pulled up the tweet on her phone. "The Queen stated on social media that she'll be moving out soon. I don't know her goals -- looks like some kind of prophetic book triggered it. So... I might have to move to the east, perhaps into Erfurt [==> 9 ==> 11] with the rest of you soon. I need to find her, to finish this." She keeps the radio close as she sets out to explore the town.

 

[Achlad]

Thom sat crouched on the ground by his formation of Plains Fae, chewing on a piece of bubblegum as he looked over the desecrated lands to the south. He was still wearing his fatigues from when he had arrived, not yet putting enough use into them to justify washing them quite yet. He scratched beneath the collar however, feeling a sudden urge to do just that, wash the clothes and get a wash himself.

It was the itching again. The same itching he had felt that had driven him to do what he did against Egle, to gain justice, and end this before it began.

It was the itching demanding that he cross into the desecrated lands, to that city. To punish the ones who had made what could have easily been his family in another life suffer such a fate as infection.

It'd be so easy, but..he couldn't do it.

If I pull away from here, and the Fae with me follow in some half-witted attack? What happens if we lose? Suddenly there's a gap in our lines..they can exploit it..take the portal right back into the Spring camp..

"Un-Fucking-acceptable." He rubbed the grass in the plains with his hand, looking around idly for the others that were with the Fae in his sector.

 

[Ms. Zhuge]

Gillian spotted Thom, and thrust a scroll into his hands, simple grey leather gloves peeking from a light Templar jacket. The wax seal on the scroll was long dry, and had he been in the tent, he would have recognized it as having been written before Gillian’s arrival.

‘If the enemy should fall upon Summerda while we have yet to confront them at Erfurt, our forces should make use of the incendiary mines I have brought from London.

Hide portions of your forces on either side in the grasslands, as suits the plains fae, and have the bulk of your forces in the center. When the enemy attacks, perform a rolling defensive retreat with your main force a short distance, then activate the mines.

When the center of the plains are in a grand conflagration, spurred on by the dry grasses of early summertide, activate the forces on the enemy’s flanks, and pelt any foes that struggle within the flames with faefire and arrow, all fronts performing rolling retreats as needed with additional incendiaries.

It is imperative that you complete this action quickly; the coming rains will subdue the flames before long, so you must weaken them as much as possible before clashing. If Colt and I are still here, we will make ourselves useful in our ways. You may let your men know of the showers that will stop the fire, if it assuages their guilt. Meteorologists are more accurate then mankind gives them credit for.

Should you be unable to overcome them, do not throw units away, but retreat through the portal, and open the scroll I have left in the war tent with all haste. Remember, you are to thin their numbers, not die in a last stand.'

With a curt nod, she steps away.

 

[Ms. Zhuge]

(( Tangentially related: I forgot how much 'light it on fire, let god sort it out' was the go-to tactic for Chinese strategists looking for personnel management strategies. ))

 

[SpringNixie]

May 17th, Midnight:

The Courier of Spring lay slumped against the wall in the corner of the cathedral she had been quarantined to when two heavily armed members of the Court of Spring come up to her with their weapons raised. She blinks up at them wearily and frowns deeply as she places her phone at her side. Her expression was one of purest surrender for, as she was currently, there would be no fighting back. These would likely be her final moments and she was well aware of this as she bowed her head and let the blunt end of a staff crash into the side of her head. Within moments, darkness had enveloped the nixie's vision and she was on the ground.

The two Fae looked down at her and the one who struck the wounded nixie sighed as he took up the phone by her side and casually destroyed it with another strike of his stave. "Get her loaded up. The bait for Lady Bresee's plan has been set and it is time to take this one out of harms. She's not going to be pleased when she wakes but this is for the best..."

Both of the guards then help to lift Avery's unconscious form from where it lay on the ground and, under the cover of darkness and glamour, led her and her family to the western outskirts of the city where they would eventually be transported to safety.
-------------------------------

Lady Bresee strapped on the final pieces of her armor as she stepped out of the war tent. According to the reports coming in from her allies within the field, the Court of Lilacs' Queen had finally chosen to step outside of her castle and take to the field. It was about damn time, the Lady of the Plains thought to herself as she drew the rusted longsword she kept at her side from its scabbard to examine one final time. I was beginning to think this supposed Queen of Filth would hide in her tower until it inevitably fell in upon herself.

She had already announced her intentions to move out over the radio earlier that evening along with her current plans for what she believed her allies should attempt.

First on her list were Knight Collins and Stray-Hound, who she felt should maintain their position within the city of Suhl [20] whilst preparing themselves to defend the Ilm-Kreis [21] or Hildburghausen [24] regions whilst their reinforcements from the east continued securing territories on that side of the state.

Second was the issue of Sir Burnet, a man so riled up by the recent wounding of the Courier of Spring that the Lady of the Plains was almost entirely certain he and his small group of fighters would strike at those troops within Weimar [12] before retreating back into Erfurt [11] using guerrilla tactics. She was so certain of this, in fact, that she had already begun to create plans around it. That was part of the reason why she was making the move to Sommerda [6] to meet up with Sir Haeftenn and Elisha that night. According to her reports, a newer dryad of the Court of Spring would also be there after moving the Courier to safety. Supposedly she had some sort of grudge against a Spriggan who was located within the next region over.

Lady Gillian and her cohort would likely continue with their plans to ambush the enemy in Erfurt using the trap they had laid using the Courier's supposed infection. It was a cruel plan, she knew... but effective. Avery would one day understand why it had to be done. Tear Viyola would most likely make her way towards the city as well to provide the area with much-needed assistance.

She looked to Sir Price and nodded to him regally as she stepped through the portal to Sommerda [6]. He would hold down the camp until Avery arrived to take Lady Bresee's place within the war tent. He was reliable in these sorts of affairs she had heard.

 

[Pattern-Weld]

Nick, after finishing his mission in Tokyo, would begin the final stage of the Hear No Evil project, using the metal Bite had forged for him, and the songs she had collected, to mass produce anti-filth earbuds, complete with solar metal outer plate, a small hexagram on the inside made from lunar metal to form the shape of a dreamcatcher, mixed with the new device he had collected and recreated with his Gaian blessing. A 3rd age system capable of recreating the buzzing, however weakly, it still did wonders to protect from Egle's lullaby. Setting the noise to a frequency below average hearing, he spliced it with the Fae's songs to create an anti lullaby. Testing them on himself, and finding them quite satisfactory, he gave the all clear to make enough for every Fae soldier in the war. They would not help against physical infection, but they would be an extremely welcome boon against the memetic and long range effects the lullaby produced. The first thing he did upon arriving at the camp was assure Avery got some as soon as possible to help with her echoes, before, as he saw it, they retook her body.

 

[Inkwell]

The darkness felt almost smooth as velvet. That kind of darkness you can almost feel, or hear. The sound of nothing filling your ears with the absence of sound.


A sudden flash of light, as someone struck a match, the hissing sound of the flame catching on right before someone used it to get his cigar going. The light from the match let up a crooked grin too, just as it got blown out, leaving nothing but the glowing red end of the stub and a lingering smell of of burning tobacco leaves.


“Right.” The voice is low and hushed, no more than a deep rumble. “So here is the plan. I am going to get in the Cement Mixer Truck and drive it straight through their camp. They should be settled for the night, but the guards should still be out, so we need a diversion, on the other side of the camp. Which is where you guys comes in.” Jules pointed to the two veterans chosen for this part of the plan. “You basically just need to strafe the camp. Use the leftover explosive. You know, throw it around as you feel like. You don’t really need to hit anything. Just give me an opening to get in.”


A bit later, the large speakers someone have mounted on the side of the Cement Mixer Truck starts blaring out a mangled version of Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries. The large diesel engine on the truck roars to life and Jules works the gears like he grew up driving a truck like this.


While his partners are busy on the other side of the camp, Jules comes thundering across the ruined land. He hisses to himself as he sees the effect of the enemy on the ruined land spreading all around them and vows to make someone pay. Anyone.


Jules is all about momentum. And so is a fully loaded Cement Mixer Truck. Once it picks up speed, it takes more than a handful of guards to slow it down. It plows straight through the camp, and while it doesn’t do much harm at first - much like a needle puncturing a blister.


Jules himself jumps from the still rolling truck, which is now being attacked from all sided. He dodges a few attackers, who have a hard time figuring out if they should just kill the brutish fighter or focus on the truck instead. This gives Jules all the time needed to fire a flare attached to the grappling hook straight up in the air. The last member of his small team, now able to take advantage of the chaos in the camp below comes swooping in through the air, barely managing in the last second to catch the lifeline attached to harness Jules wears around his chest.


And just as Jules is being pulled out of the camp, almost as if he just did a reversed bungy jump, something goes of inside the truck. At first it’s nothing but a muted rumble but then the explosion finally builds up enough force to rip the Cement Mixer apart, sending sharp shrapnel and torn chunks of rusty metal out in all directions.


From somewhere up in the air, already on his way back into Erfurt [11], Jules can be heard shouting, “EAT COLD METAL! BITCHES!” And it’s with great satisfaction he keeps puffing on his cigar, as he watches how the chaos of his Guerilla Tactics rips through the camp Maria and her allies had set up for the night in Weimar [12]. If he was any judge, there was no way they would be able to recover from this any time soon.

 

[SpringNixie]

[In relation to Jules' attack]

Maria's eyes lit up with a hungry rage as she heard the sounds of explosives and the out-of-place music. She roused the knights she was with and pulled them up onto their feet whilst Captain Peter and Riggans were still surveying the fields on which they would be fighting the next day. "Get on your feet. The heathen Court of Spring is upon-" Before she could finish, the cement truck came barreling into her camp; a bald-headed man leaping from the driver's seat. She cursed under her breath as the truck suddenly exploded in a shower of rusted metal and fire, the filthy Magus commanding the desecrated earth beneath her to fortify her against the blast in an unholy barricade.

After the calamity had passed, Maria broke free from her Filthy cocoon with a murderous anger blazing in her crimson eyes. She grabbed the nearest soldier, a hunter who had been impaled with an iron spike, and lifted him into the air as she seethed with hatred. "Which way did that scum go?"

The filth-infected fae, iron burning in his flesh, pointed towards the city of Erfurt. Maria nodded and threw the hunter aside as she reached into the nexus so as to communicate with her fellows. The fortifications had to be rebuilt if they were forced to retreat to this position and someone had to stay behind to do so. She offered herself so that she could get revenge on that bald bastard if he ever came back.

 

[Achlad]

Thom looked over the scroll he had been handed, reading it over quickly. His eyes widened a bit, and then his lips twisted into a grin of approval. "Oh fucking yes. This is good." He stood up from his crouch, looking over the plains before whistling and waving over the Fae.

He relayed the orders to them, and the Fae under Thoms command set about their task.

 

[Theo Collins]

As Theo walked, he watched the general populace as they moved about their business. They were so oblivious to the current situation. But this is just like how he was. He was no more knowledgeable back then as they are now. His mind was closed off to what the world really was.

Theo ignored the foreign chatter in the background. It was all senseless to him. He couldn't care less. There were more important things to be focused on... but then why was he here. Why was he walking around when he should be back leading his troops?

Before he knew it, he had walked into a corner bookstore. A wave of nostalgia and home-sickness washed over him. He nodded to the clerk behind the desk and proceeded to the back of the store. Here, he found the young adult section. He picked up a book that depicted a small hero fighting a large monster. He stared at it for a long, pregnant moment. He could feel his chest tighten, like a long, black tendril had coiled itself around his heart. This book was much like the hundreds he read as a child, wishing and hoping to be just like the heroes. But here he is, practically living out his dream. Living in the world he always wanted to. What was wrong?

He quickly put the book down, realizing he was taking to long and couldn't afford to let Stray and the others worry. He rushed out of the store and made his way down the street to the fortifications.

"How are we on the fortifications everyone? Good? Okay." Then Theo paused. "Where's Stray?"

 

[Pattern-Weld]

The hulking knight gave him a wave from one of the tall rooftops "Oye!" He made himself known. "Trying to see if I can't get a good view of the enemy from here."

 

[SpringNixie]

((END TURN 6))

 

[Theo Collins]

Theo was a bit startled when he heard Stray's voice. "Oh..." he said, a little embarrassed. "Hold on a second." Theo waited until there was no one else looking in his direction and drew his sword and pointed it straight down toward the ground. "Aero Raison." A column of air burst from the tip of his sword, force Theo to lift straight into the air. With it, he landed right next to Stray on the roof top.

"How long have you been up here?" Theo questioned. When stray mentioned about finding the enemy. "Here, I might have something." he scrounged around in his dufflebag and eventually pulled out a pair of binoculars. "Try these," Theo said handing him the binoculars.

 

[SpringNixie]

Bite flew over to Nick where he was working within the smithy and landed unannounced upon his shoulder, flicking his ear lightly so as to ensure he was paying attention.

"So, Lady Bresee wanted me to let both you and Sir Charles know that two prisoners of war are on their way to this camp. One of them was this Filth-Infected knight My Lady fought whilst the other is Queen Karaliene's fiancee. She says we should treat them both well but that they should not be allowed to wander the camp freely."

She took off into the air once more. "I've also taken the liberty of sending out a call to that one Tear of Mattarias who was walking around here earlier. If what Avery said was true, she should be able to purify our two new buddies of whatever Filth they may have contracted during their time with Queen Croc-Claws. I'd imagine she'll be here in a few days at the most."

With this, Bite gave Nickolai a salute and flew off to get back to work.

----------------------------------------------------
((END TURN 7))

The Battle of Sommerda
Peter Captured \\ Riggins Killed

Disarming The Red Hand
Valantin Captured

 

[sam4books]

"Good, I'd imagine Mr. Mamomtov woukd have a lot to discuss with me. And if not, well...I would certainly have a lot of words to say to him." The old man muttered. "Am I needed for any other portals?" He asked the fae.

 

[SpringNixie]

She turned around in the air in shook her head. "None at the moment! Shall I inform you of when Mister... Mamolotov and that one kid of a knight arrives at camp, Mister Charles?"