Spring has finally arrived and I am in time!
The High Cultist T'yog, for that is what that creature calls itself, left my citadel alone instead of assaulting it. He probably did not feel confident that he had sufficient forces to overcome the defensive advantage the walls gave Childerik. I had to cut straight through the forest to my fortress after all, because a massive migration of more uncooked venison first blocked my way on the plains and then headed toward the citadel, still on my chosen path.
However, we managed to join forces and I left three spearmen and a crossbowman to guard the citadel along with one scout who presented himself belatedly and did not manage to join us in the assault on T'yog's forces.
Even as I began to position my forces, my mind's eye was drawn south, where my giant stone minion had climbed the hills where all those months ago the ferocious monsters blocked our access to an abandoned coal mine.
The Colossus feels no fear and it did not consider the beasts anything of note. They boiled out of their lair to do battle.
The clash was terrible and the monsters would have trampled normal infantry underfoot like yesterday's grass, but the golem was unfazed. The giant monsters bounced off the stone limbs of the Colossus with little effect and then it swung that massive granite sword.
The monster that would have taken a score of infantry to bring down was cleaved in two at one stroke! A moment later the second of the monsters lay broken on the ground and the third shared its fate soon after, though it managed to avoid being killed on the first blow. Severely wounded, it was not fast enough to evade again.
The contact with the Colossus faded as it began to put the mine in order and I was brought back to the grim reality of facing my own battle with an enemy whose forces were at least the equal of mine if not superior.
The fell creature spoke words that told of the vast gulf between the stars and of worse things best left unnamed and sent many of my men reeling, stunned and unable to do anything other than cling to their weapons and trying to recover as his troops charged mine.
We were lucky, for even though we sustained losses in that first exchange, my men and undead gave better than they got and slew many of his troops while some ran away in terror before the nightmare images I set on them. My apprentice conducted himself well, weakening his frontline and reducing their effectiveness.
More words of power struck at us, but we were prepared and weathered them better this time. Then, the thick of battle swirled away for a moment and I got a clear view of my enemy, long enough to do something about putting a stop to his fell enchantments:
I drained the life right out of that abomination, leaving its withered husk on the field. With their leader gone and no magic to support them, his remaining troops were quickly slaughtered or routed. Now I need to hunt down his wretched apprentice to make sure I can stamp out their repulsive cult once and for all.
My realm, such as it is, is in complete shambles. Half of my holdings have been ravaged by brigands, herds of wild animals or the depredations of that wretched sea cult. My forces are a shadow of what they were and I need to regain control of the gallows and hang some more rabble to resume collecting the all important Hands of Glory.
One piece of good news is that there is a battlefield in the vicinity of my new coal mine, even though heavily guarded by longdead and soulless under the command of a wight. If the Colossus should chance to wander there, it will make short work of them, because the wight cannot drain the life of something not alive and the lesser beings will not be able to do much damage, if any at all.
And then I would finally have a proper source to replenish my sadly decimated troops.
Re: CoE3 AAR: A Chronicle of the Interregnum
Hybrid Mode
