Session S5-W.09

1629, Fire Season, Fertility Week, Freezeday to Waterday

Dramatis Personae

Events

At Wilmskirk, the city was guarded by those too young or too old to fight. There’s no wall – only a palisade. The gates were cracked at dawn. Serala was in the southern part of the city, setting up to shoot any pirates that might come her way. There were Wind Lords overhead and Gunda’s banner was visible.

The pirates charged and made their way through the gate and two other points along the walls. Serala took a few down with her arrows before retreating and bolstering the general melee.

Meanwhile, in Whitewall, the outer gate collapsed under a magical attack. Haralast the City Rex called for parlay, meeting with the leader of the Wolf Pirates. He was accompanied by guards including Varanis, Rajar, and Xenofos. Negotiations played out and the Wolf Pirates agreed to leave, as long as they were well paid to do so. But, some of the warriors were oathbound to fight, so Rajar, Xenofos, and Varanis agreed to take them on. Inpira kept an eye out for treachery, but none was apparent.

In Wilmskirk, the pirates were flooding in. Serala stayed where she could help others, but they were losing ground. Serala was wounded fighting one of the pirates, but killed him. Wilmskirk was on fire and Rajar’s mural was destroyed. The pirates began to systematically loot the city even as the battle raged.

Outside Whitewall, Rajar defeated his opponent swiftly, while Xenofos won after a drawn out fight. Varanis? She lost before she could do more than light her sword on fire. The sword, and her arm, fell to the ground. The pirates withdrew while Agnew, a Sword Brother of Humakt, healed the broken Vingan.

Inpira and Rajar both saw the city of Whitewall as it had been, standing up on a great plateau, before the magical siege broke it down.

In Wilmskirk, as the pirates kept pressuring the defenders, Serala found herself making tough choices. The Earth Temple was taken, though some of the Priestesses and Orlanthi tried to protect it. Serala focussed on keeping people alive, which meant guarding their retreat. She ended up corralled with King Farinst and his people. Gunda strode up and demanded that Farinst fight her. He accepted the challenge and went alone. Serala’s honour could not bear to see the king without support, so she marched up to join him. Gunda decided to allow it, but just as they were about to fight, Farinst yelled out that his wife was pregnant.¹To be fair, she is AND so is Serala. Gunda said that Serala was not Farinst’s wife, but Devolin yelled out that she was rally and in that moment, everyone, even Serala and Farinst, believed it. Serala and Farinst were disarmed and taken prisoner. The city was looted. Eventually, the truth about Farinst’s wife came out, especially once ransoms started getting discussed, and Gunda was unimpressed but accepted the situation. Serala managed to insult the entire fighting populace of Wilmskirk in the process.

In Whitewall, Inpira was told by the Earth Priestess that she should encourage people to go help the people of Wilmskirk. She worked to convince Agnew, the Humakti God Talker and while Haralast wasn’t keen, he agreed to try to gather more forces and go in a couple of days. Varanis was not waiting that long and was preparing to go immediately. Rajar and Xenofos accompanied her, and to everyone’s surprise, Inpira came with Jaldis and two other White Ladies. Jaldis pointedly asked the group to accompany her and keep her safe. They travelled through the night.

That night, Polaris was shining so brightly that Serala saw it from the city and Inpira caught a glimpse of a spear of light blazing from the star to somewhere near Wilmskirk.

With the dawn, Kallyr came to the walls of Wilmskirk, called for Gunda and then struck her down with a spear like a shaft of light through her chest. The corpse of the Wolf Pirates’ leader was tied to Kallyr’s chariot at her command and dragged around the city wall five times. There was little left by the last lap.

Varanis reported to her king while Devolin beaked off about being heroic. King Farinst tracked down his wife, who had been protecting the city’s pigs. Varanis and Serala managed to track down Gunda’s iron greaves (with a leg still in one), and Varanis handed it over to Farinst, to Serala’s disappointment. Some other bits of the armour that could be tracked down were handed over to the Temple of Orlanth to help with rebuilding costs. Silor made helpful suggestions about having Air Elementals drop rocks on Wolf Pirate ships after the pirates are back on board, and at least one Wind Lord set off to track and punish them. The rest requisitioned horses and set off for Tarsh in a hurry.

• 1
  To be fair, she is AND so is Serala.