Niefel AAR: "...Some Say In Ice"

[Peter Ebbesen]

…Some Say In Ice: The Throne of Heaven

“Then came he from the North and smashed the Throne of Heaven, and by his act divided old from new” – the Omega Question


Supplies are low.

The fleet inhabitants of T’ien C’hi are able to evade the foraging parties with distressing ease. As I suck the marrow from an oxe, I am minded that my men are getting uncomfortably lean. Yet my presence boosts their morale. What true soldier can remain dejected when his god walks with him?

Thus morale remains high, despite the crippling disease that has afflicted most of the survivors of the failed attack on Hebei. Failed? Yes, in my heart I must remain honest. No tactical retreat, no advancement in retrograde, but defeat, hated defeat.

A shame, really. After two months of siege, the fortified city was on the verge of falling, but who was to know that so many soldiers remained? Truly, their number of soldiers appears incalculable. Forty dead in the first skirmish, fifty in the second, and, finally, some eighty soldiers led by several Celestial Masters attacking Last month. It proved too much. Casualties were high. Ten invaluable Jotuns slain on the field of battle, their puny frames incapable of withstanding the arrows and glaives of T’ien C’hi..

I will not accept this. It will not be. Reinforcements from Siberia are marching to our relief even as I speak, six of my Niefel guard and 4 Jotuns, and my emissaries have gone out to seek the aid of mercenary archers. Though it tears my heart, I will have to rely on midgets for my next attack. Fortunately, their limited intellects should be able to understand their job. With mercenaries suppressing the enemy archers, the Niefel giants should be able to press the attack.

And I have an extra advantage.

Angerboda has been rounding up some sage midgets, and have had them working on spell research. When I enter battle next time, I will be quickened as I launch my cold bolts, and the enemy will freeze.

It will be so.


And so it came to pass. With mercenary scum eliminating the enemy archers, Tjordulf was able to goad the guard into a battle frenzy destroying all three T’ien C’hi armies that sought to hinder our return to the imperial city, and in front of the imperial city, with our bridges burned and the enemy hot on our heals, we tore down the walls, and we charged through the streets slaying all who would stand against us and all who impeded our progress, and we reached the Palace of Heaven itself.

Through waves of magic that sought to tear them apart, the guard stormed the Palace of Heaven, and it slew the Lich’s guard and crushed its bones, evil misbegotten thing that it was, and they carried the day. In serried ranks they stood, four Niefel giants to a side, as I strode through the Palace and came unto an exquisite hall, the banners of a thousand families hanging from the walls, and in the centre of the hall, the Throne of Heaven, a pitiful man-shaped throne, perhaps, but one of immense symbolism to the natives.

I smashed it with a single blow of my fist and I let slip my ice and my cold, and the hall froze, and I scattered the ashes of the lich to the four winds, and I saw that it was good. Though the lich was to return for battle many times, each fight would see it diminished and destroyed.

Now, with the Throne of Heaven fallen and the power of T’ien C’hi broken, it is time to re-establish the lines of contact with the Jotun home and to take all that belonged to the Khans. It is said that far to the west, in Golden Samarkand, the Khans still rule, and I know that their writ is still accepted in most of Eastern Asia, but now is the time to reap the rewards of my toil.

Rewards, yes, but also a time to prepare for war. On my western border, a nation born under a lucky star and led by astrologers seems intent on conquering, and it is rumoured that the winged folk of Caelum controls the central Asian highlands. The people of Hebei also tell of an ancient star that fell into the world-sea and spawned a race of monsters, the R’lyeh, who prey on them even to this day: Myth or legend? Time will tell.

For now, a gentle campaign to reclaim Siberia would seem in order.

Fall, Year 2 of the Ascension Wars