Decimus Grexolis

Goblin-Cookie · Jun 10, 2023

Decimus Grexolis

King Decimus 'the Unwavering' rules over a race of beings called the Atoning Toadmen. Yet his species is not one that naturally arose, but one that was deliberately created by Nimue, a fickle and treacherous Wizard Queen and a mistress of the watery element who once built great empires on Athla during the Second Age of Wonders but was ultimately banished from that world.

At first the Atoning Toadmen thrived under the leadership of their creator, but in the end, Nimue, driven by madness attempted to destroy them all. Refusing to accept the reality of their rejection by their Goddess, they dedicated their lives to regaining her favour by atoning for whatever crimes they felt they must have committed to have earned her wrath. In this manner they became known as the Atoning Toadmen, and as their pleas to Nimue were ignored, they finally elevated Decimus, who was once her favourite to be their King.

Yet in the end, Decimus took the advice of a goblin from a previous race created by Nimue that had also fell afoul of Nimue's watery wrath. Together with an equally forsaken race of ratfolk and dwarves from another world, they rose up and together banished Nimue from Tudolon. Yet even victory did not remove from the Atoning Toadmen their sense of indebtedness to the creator.........

Prologue
1. Life After Nimue
2. The Mortal King
3. Reunion in Magehaven
4. The World Gate
5. Bound to the Shad'rai

Main AAR

* The Latest Episode here designates an entry that may not be properly edited, likely containing errors.

Historical Background

The story truly begins on Athla in the Yr 970 LIR with the downfall of King Inioch and the seizure of the Valley of Wonders by the invading humans. A faction of Athlan dwarves known as the Sentinels served Inioch by defending the entrances into the Valley, but since the humans were allowed by Inioch to enter and settle in the valley under pretence of peace, they remained at their stations even after Inioch was slain. They barred all humans from leaving the valley through the mountain passes to invade or settle the neighbouring lands. Yet after fighting the humans for ten years with little support, the last Sentinels finally abandoned their fortresses in the mountains surrounding the Valley around the Yr 980 LIR.

Most Sentinels fled to the west of Athla, where humans were (and still are) comparatively rare and founded an underground nation of Athlan dwarves known as Deepmir.

which was later destroyed by an earthquake invoked by the Meandor's wife Melanis in 1216 LIR.

A few however chose a different, harsher path, they headed downwards into the deepest, most inhospitable caverns below the mountains surrounding the Valley and there most of them died, whether by starvation, terrible cavern beast or by encrounching on the underground hideouts of what would become Meandor's Dark Elves. Yet one group survived, unlike the others and as the centuries passed they slowly multiplied in their lightless home, oblivious to the wars and conflicts going on above their heads.

This group became known as the Fortress Dwarves to those few outsiders who knew of their existence, in recognition of how they were descended from the fierce Sentinels, but they would go on to become over the centuries some of the most pacifistic creatures on Athla. As their numbers grew and scarcity began to afflict their underground utopia, they were forced to rely more and more upon magic to sustain themselves in their dark, rocky home. Magic required special materials, materials not found in the caverns in which they lived and so it became necessary for a few to venture to the surface in order to purchase or gather said materials.

Centuries of reliving memories of terrible trauma had led the Fortress Dwarves to the conclusion that there was nothing on the surface of Athla but a hellscape of eternal war and so those who went to the surface were given the contemptuous moniker of 'Bloodslave' by their society, even as that society became ever more dependent upon their materials. As the numbers of Fortress Dwarves continued to grow and survival demanded that their excursions onto the surface grow also, a class of leaders who commanded the bloodslaves appeared; these leaders, aware of the contempt that they and their people were held in, deliberately inverted the insulting name they had been given into the moniker Bloodmaster.

Bloodmasters were typically, in addition to being wealthy merchants, also students of magic and some of them of them became powerful wizards. To add to the dread in which the respectable majority who remained underground held them, the Bloodmasters took to decorating themselves with the pelts of powerful beasts from the surface, typically bears. Things were however about to change as the reopening of Athla's shadow gates by Werlac of the Shadowborn brought about a terrible cataclysm which caused the collapse of the caverns in which the Fortress Dwarves had lived for centuries.

To the chagrin of many, it was the Bloodmasters that saved the Fortress Dwarves from extinction, leading them through their secret routes to the surface and then they were able to use their extensive cartographical knowledge to settle their people into new homes on the surface. In the upheaval, a particular Bloodmaster called Armok rose to power as Deep Baron over the demoralised Fortress Dwarves now forced to live on the surface of the Valley of Wonders and went on to claim a portion of the Valley for his people, using his powerful magic and leadership ability to successfully defend it against the ambitions of the ancient wizard king Yaka. Following this great victory, Armok ascended to become a Godir of Magehaven and was offered a place in the Pantheon by his ally Princess Sundren, a granddaughter of Inioch who was intrigued by the Sentinel ancestry of his people.

Armok Bloodmaster in Magehaven

The Enchanted Archipelago

It was not purely an historical interest in the bloodline of his people that led Sundren to give Armok a place among the Pantheon; it was because she had a problem. She was the leader of the Covenant and the Covenant had commited themselves to a noble cause, that of releasing the Maer Elya from her captivity on the Enchanted Archipelago of the oceanic world of Tidolon. Nimue had captured Elya, an astral being with an affinity for water and forced her to help create four 'superior' races to serve her as their Goddess, among them the Atoning Toadmen.

Over the waves of Tidolon Nimue's power was unstoppable but Sundren saw a weakness in her dominion. She held little power over the caverns below the surface of Tidolon, few and small as they were and Sundren saw that she could sneak an army of beings capable of thriving in such an environment into such a cavern and they would be able to avoid detection long enough to build up their forces. Then they would be able to release Elya from her prison and ideally bring about Nimue's expulsion from Tidolon itself.

Sundren had hoped to use the Wizard King Fangir, but Fangir had found himself 'important things to do' and was presently absent from Magehaven. The newly recruited Godir and member of the Covenant, Deep Baron Armok by contrast proved eager to serve. His people, the Fortress Dwarves resented having to live on the surface of Athla in a contested strip of land in the Valley of Wonders and Sundren knew they would be as eager to claim the caverns below Tidolon for themselves.

Upon their arrival in the Enchanted Archipelago, Armok quickly found that of the four races Elya been forced to help create, only one of them, a race of toadmen called the 'Chosen Children' were presently in the good graces of their mistress. Nimue had unleashed the seas of Tidolon upon the three other races, the 'Atoning Toadmen', the 'Drowned Recreants' and the 'Fertile Goblins'. The irony here is that it was Elya's skill that had allowed Nimue to make these four races so 'superior' that some of their members were resourceful enough to survive the very watery wrath directed at them by their 'goddess'.

Only once did Armok's forces actually clash with those of Nimue, which was to release Elya from her prison. Otherwise they mantained a 'peace' of sorts, which allowed them to turn against Nimue the remnants of the three races that she had earlier failed to completely destroy, though the Fertile Goblins pledged their allegiance directly to Armok and evaded fighting her directly. As the Atoning Toadmen, led by Decimus the Unwavering and the ratlike Drowned Recreants fought against Nimue and her Chosen Children, Armok's followers worked to uncover the secrets of Materium, until they had bound the rock of Tidolon to their will just as Nimue had bound the oceans to herself. Faced with such overwhelming power, Nimue was forced to abandon the Enchanted Archipelago and retreat from Tidolon, abandoning her Chosen Children to their fate.

1.3 Armok brings about an Age of Materium, ending the reign of Nimue over the Enchanted Archip...png

Nimue defeated by Deep Baron Armok Bloodmaster.

History of the Atoning Toadmen

Elya (left) and Nimue (right)

The Wizard Queen Nimue had long sought the power to create a race of servants, one devoid of the 'negative properties' that had 'led to her' 'having to harm' the many races that she had adopted over the centuries. After her seventh race of servents, a race of humans 'failed her' like all the others had before and she was forced into the Astral Void like the other Wizard Kings of Athla, she had in the process of struggling with the perils of that realm gained the ability to imprison Maers, astral spirits with an affinity for the water. Upon her return to the material realm, she arrived in Tidolon and learned that a Maer called Elya dwelled in the Enchanted Archipelago.

Nimue imprisoned her and forced her into service.

With the power she had stolen from Elya, Nimue was finally able to realise her dream of creating new races of beings according to her specifications rather than having to adopt existing beings like she had before. Thus she created her eighth race of servants, a race of ratfolk now known as the Drowned Recreants.

First Protector Otto of the Drowned Recreants.

In time the Drowned Recreants had displeased Nimue and so she created a second race of creatures, according to specifications that would correct for the alleged flaws of the Drowned Recreants. Called the Fertile Goblins, Elya was ordered to give these beings a powerful moral compass that would render their character entirely unlike their amoral predecessors, along with a pioneer spirit that would cause them to spread across the lands rather than congregate in squalid burrows.

1.6 Astralader Solace, Leader of the Fertile Goblins.png

The Fertile Goblins' leader, Astralader Solace

In time, the Fertile Goblins also displeased Nimue. Yet since Elya remained Nimue's prisoner, she was still able to create her 10th race, the Atoning Toadmen, the race with whose history we mainly concern ourselves here. They were created to lack the deficiencies that the Fertile Goblins had allegedly displayed, while they would have still a strong moral compass like their predecessors did, it would be far less compassionate but far more concerned with mantaining social order and the repayment of debts. That was supposed to ensure that as long as the Atoning Toadmen's debt to Nimue, their creator was stressed continually, their loyalty would be assured.

In the end however, the Atoning Toadmen still managed to displease Nimue like the others had, which led to her creating another race of toadmen to serve her, the Chosen Children. However, such was the strength of their indoctrination combined with their nature, that the surviving Atoning Toadmen did not accept the drowning of their kin as an atrocity but as a justified punishment for some wrong they were not aware that they had committed. For this reason, as Nimue committed herself to hunting down the last Drowned Recreants in their underground hideouts, the Atoning Toadmen did not aid them but dedicated themselves to atoning for the guilt they felt and that is how they gained their name.

They elevated Decimus, who had once been the most favoured of the servants of Nimue and had once known her personally to be their King, hoping that Nimue's old friendship would stave off her wrath. Meanwhile, the last of the Fertile Goblins settled in a place called Flotsam and the insecure Decimus became reliant upon the advice of their leader, the sage Astralader Solace. The arrival of Armok and his Fortress Dwarves on the Enchanted Archipelago dispelled the fear that the Fertile Goblins held for Nimue and as Flotsam fell under his control, Decimus received advice from Astralader that he should ally with Armok.

1.6.1 Astralader convinced Decimus to turn against Nimue.png

Astrolader Solace negotiating with Armok on behalf of Flotsam.

1.8 Flotsam, the city of the Fertile Goblins and Elya's Prison.png

The city of Flotsam.

Yet once Decimus had allied with the Fortress Dwarves, Nimue suddenly turned against the Atoning Toadmen. Now forced into war against their own goddess, the Atoning Toadmen found themselves on the winning side and Deep Baron Armok bestowed Godirhood upon his three allies, King Decimus, First Protector Otto and Sage Astralader, just as he had agreed already in seperate agreements with each of them.

After these terrible events, the historical question that troubles scholars is how did Decimus the Unwavering and his Atoning Toadmen, go from helping defeat Nimue in the Enchanted Archipelago to being her loyal ally in the Shad'rai's invasion of the forbidden world of Grexolis?

King Decimus back on the Enchanted Archipelago.

Scaling
Certain game concepts were 'converted' into the story using the following ratios.

1 City Pop = 10,000 people.
1 Turn = 2 months.
6 Turns = 1 year.
120 Turns = 20 years
Starting Year = 5477 GC
1 in-game gold unit = 10 gold coins

The Kingmaker · Jun 11, 2023

Always glad to see another AoW4 AAR! I’ll keep an eye on this.

Goblin-Cookie · Jun 11, 2023

The Kingmaker said:
Always glad to see another AoW4 AAR! I’ll keep an eye on this.

I haven't got to the AAR yet, I'm still going through the story background, which mostly doesn't have to do with me.

My gameplay session for Story Mission 2/Enchanted Archipelago was pretty much defined by it's bugs. The most notable bug is that I was locked into peace with Nimue the whole game because the event to turn her hostile (I watched a Let's Play to figure out how it works) never triggered. That led to an amusing case of a proxy war against Nimue and getting to see all the AIs strategic bugs in action.

Goblin-Cookie · Jun 11, 2023

1. Life After Nimue

The City of Halcyon, Enchanted Archipelago, Tidolon Yr 0 AN (after Nimue)

1.9 Halcyon, capital of the Fortress Dwarves back on the Enchanted Archipelago.png

With Nimue finally banished from Tidolon, the Fortress Dwarf Deep Baron Armok Bloodmaster invited the two other remaining rulers on the Enchanted Archipelago to meet with him in his underground capital Halcyon City and settle arrangements. His adoring hero, the Fertile Goblin Sage Astralader Solace stands by his side, though no longer a sovereign ruler, he is treated as the equivalent of one due to agreements signed years ago when he handed over to Armok his city of Flotsam. King Decimus stands beside First Protector Otto, ruler of the Drowned Recreants and while he remains calm, the ratman beside him is visibly agitated and he suspects that this is partly due to how the luxurious underground boardroom they are standing in is lit by bright magical lights, rendering it entirely unlike the dark smoky squalor of the underground chambers of Otto's people.

The agreements that Deep Baron Armok made seperately with the three other leaders all amounted to one thing, that they should each ascend to Godirhood and be given a place in the Pantheon of Magehaven. Sensing Otto's displeasure, Armok rises to his feet to stand before them in his dark robes, casually levitating his purple orb above his hand, as magical wards sparkle around his form and tree branches protrude from his body. Years ago, upon releasing Elya from her prison, Armok had demanded that she endow his people with the very power that had been given to the Chosen Children of Nimue and this apparently involved adding tree branches. Then there were the other transformations devised by Armok himself, leaving those parts of a Fortress Dwarf not made of wood, usually made of metal.

He looks like a god, a god of metal and wood; but he is only a Godir, Decimus thinks in awe.

Otto squeaks like a rat and cowers in his seat.

"First Protector Otto, it is clear that you have something to say; say it," Armok says forcefully.

Otto squeaks again but quicky gathers up the courage to rise to his feet and face his terrible ally.

"You used my people! We fought Nimue for so long, so many of us died! We are just tools to you and now our usefulness is at an end!" Otto declares.

"An agreement was signed," Armok reminds Otto.

"An agreement you forced me to sign," Otto reminds Armok.

"I was offered payment for services rendered and chose an alliance with your people," Armok responds coldly.

"Now you have the Keys of Materium, so you can break any agreement you wish and if we complain you can have the earth swallow us, just as you did Nimue!" Otto points out.

"That I can, but that does not mean that I will," Armok agrees, sitting down. Decimus is surprised that Otto recipricates the gesture by sitting down himself.

"How are we to ascend to Magehaven and become Godir as our agreements require?" Decimus asks.

Armok pulls three pearls from his robe and hands one to each of the leaders present. He then shows everyone that he has an identical pearl in his own hand.

"These pearls, they may be used to enter Magehaven whenever you magically will it, provided you are holding them in your hand at the time. They are already bound to each of you in such as way that no other may use them," Armok explains.

"What if this is a trick, what if they are just pearls!" Otto objects.

"I had heard that you were a clever, intelligent, well-educated..... Drowned Recreant Otto," Armok tells him.

Otto does not say anything but sniffs the air suspiciously.

"Just because something could exist or could happen does not mean that it does exist or is happening; thus I am not betraying you simply because I could be," Armok argues.

"If someone gives Otto a pearl, Otto is clever enough not to believe it is a special magical pearl until he has *evidence* that it is," Otto counter-argues.

Astralader Solace rises to his feet.

"I have a way to provide evidence, by using my pearl to enter Magehaven before anyone else does!" he interrupts.

1.6%20Astralader%20Solace,%20Leader%20of%20the%20Fertile%20Goblins.png

Astralader Solace

Almost as soon as Astralader says these words he begins to rapidly fade away, his form which is already ghostly due to his people's astral transformation becomes more and more nebulous until it cannot be seen at all.

"So what if Astralader has teleported away? I have no proof he actually went to Magehaven and became a Godir!" Otto objects.

"First Protector Otto is free to believe whatever he wishes, even if it is wrong," Armok concludes wearily.

"What would prove that the Deep Baron is not lying to us First Protector?" Decimus asks.

"If somebody important were to leave, somebody whose departure from the Enchanted Archipelago would not go unnoticed; then I would know!" Otto answers.

"Somebody like me," Armok points out.

No sooner has he spoken these words than Armok begins to disappear like Astralader had before him. As soon as the last traces of Armok are gone from the room, Otto gives out a triumphant squeak.

"Armok is gone! The Enchanted Archipelago is mine! The whole of Tidolon will be mine!" he declares loudly.

"I think you meant to say ours, I am still here," Decimus points out.

"Yes, ours! But there is still a lot of Tidolon to go round!" Otto corrects himself.

Shortly after he has said these words, numerous guards enter the chamber. Some are Fortress Dwarves armed with swords and shields while others are Fertile Goblin battlemages with their staves.

"We are here to escort you both to the chronogate and then back to your respective capitals," the guard captain announces.

"Armok is gone!" Otto tells them excitedly.

"That is what we expected to happen, he has simply gone back to Magehaven but it seems you two have chosen to remain here," the guard captain responds.

"Since Armok is gone, the Enchanted Archipelago is ours!" Otto tells him.

"Explain?" the guard captain asks.

"Now Armok is gone, that means there is no leadership for Fortress Dwarves. Without leadership this city of Halcyon and all his other former holdings will fall into chaos, so that we can take over!" Otto answers.

"But until the day this hypothetical future anarchy comes about you, First Protector will be returning to Refuge and King Decimus to Penance," the guard captain concludes.

The Guards escort the two rulers back to their respective capitals.

*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Index and Reference

Goblin-Cookie · Jun 15, 2023

2. The Mortal King
Penance, Enchanted Archipelago, Tidolon Yr 30 AN

King Decimus had once again climbed to the top of the wizard's tower in his capital Penance in order to perform what had become for him a secret monthly ritual; from the tower's great height he would survey his capital city to compare its breadth to how it appeared last month. He finds that Penance is once again larger than it was before and Decimus feels again validated that he had made the right choice in remaining on Tidolon to rule over his people.

One issue keeps bothering him however.

I can barely see the edge of Penance anymore, for my tower is no longer tall enough, he thinks to himself.

I will soon need a taller tower, but a taller tower requires a broader foundation, he continues.

Thus I will need to demolish people's homes and properties in order to build a tower tall enough that I can continue to measure our progress, he realises.

Clearly it is not right to demolish part of a city to build a tower large enough that I can see how big a city it is, Decimus concludes.

Decimus averts his gaze towards the stairs, uncomfortable at the fast-looming prospect of a city too large for him to see its edge and then he hears footsteps coming from those stairs. As Decimus stands calmly atop the tower totally still, a certain Atoning Toadwoman that is one of Decimus's most trusted advisors emerges from the stairs; Ylwen the Starcaster.

"King Decimus, I have important news," Ylwen reports.

Decimus is taken aback by what he is being told; it had been decades since anyone had brought him anything that he considered important news. Though he does not show any outward display of emotion aside from blinking his eyes twice, Ylwen still quickly intuits that he is surprised.

"First Protector Otto has left, likely for Magehaven," she tells him.

"So I am the last........" he begins, finding himself uncharacteristically unable to finish.

"You are the last Sovereign on Tidolon," she finishes.

"Which means?" he challenges her to answer.

"Nothing more than the fact itself," she answers.

"Yes, the Dwarves still exist and so do the Goblins, their sovereign left decades ago but nothing really changed afterwards," he responds.

"That is probably why Otto left, he spent decades waiting for the Dwarves to fall into chaos so he could invade and conquer them with advantage, but in the end he realised that Tidolon no longer needs sovereigns to function; so he left," Ylwen suggests.

"Are you saying that nobody needs me?" he challenges Ylwen to answer.

"I made an earlier statement that sovereigns leaving changes nothing, by affirming to it you have already agreed that your role no longer needed," she points out.

"Yes I did," he admits coldly.

"Why not leave then, join Otto in Magehaven?" she asks.

"So you can take my place as King?" he accuses.

"You would no longer be present, so I would be committing no wrong against you. Additionally there is no point in taking on a role without function," she responds coldly.

"Leave, Ylwen," he orders.

Ylwen immediately complies with the command, climbing down the stairs and then leaving the tower altogether. This leaves Decimus alone to reflect upon his reasons for not going to Magehaven to join the ranks of the Godir.

It is as he gazes once more over the vast sprawl that is his capital city Penance, that the answer suddenly comes to him.

Nimue,

If I go to Magehaven, Nimue may be there, she is a Godir already, he continues.

Why do I fear her when we have defeated her already? he asks himself.

It is not fear, it is guilt. I wronged Nimue and I love Nimue, he replies to himself.

No! Nimue wronged *us*, I hate her because she killed thousands of my people, Decimus forces himself to think.

Decimus chooses to remain on Tidolon.

1.1. Decimus's Capital back on the Enchanted Archipelago.png

Penance, Capital of Decimus the Unwavering (30 years ago)

Penance, Enchanted Archipelago, Tidolon Yr 50 AN

King Decimus sits in the dining hall of his great palace and devours yet another whole chicken. No longer the lean, athletic toadman he once was, Decimus is now too bloated to climb the steps of his wizard tower to survey the cityscape of Penance or indeed to walk much at all. A high wall stands between his palace and the rest of Penance, for having long since concluded that his own public role served no purpose, Decimus had stopped caring about anything beyond that wall. Perhaps the whole city out there was rioting, starving, burning, a heap of ruins, but for as long as the supply of chickens into the palace was not disrupted, Decimus neither cared nor cared to know.
Yet not everyone stayed outside the walls. As Decimus reclined upon his enormous reinforced chair, his webbed feet upon the table and his enormous belly full of chickens, he hears a familiar voice address him.

"Refuge has fallen," Ylwen tells him.

Decimus immediately sits up, fighting against the urge to vomit up all his chickens as he does so. Refuge is a great city of the Drowned Recreants and the former capital of Otto the Discarded.

"So there is fighting again! In the Enchanted Archipelago no less!" he exclaims.

"No fighting at all, the Dwarves simply walked in," she explains.

"So the Recreants surrendered immediately and did not fight?" he asks disbelievingly.

"There are no Recreants left on Tidolon, the last of them disappeared around year ago," she explains.

"Why was I not informed?" he asks.

"Because you have not left this palace for several years," she responds.

"So you said that 'Refuge fell' rather than 'the Dwarves have colonised an abandoned city' to get my attention," he figures.

"Yes, it is good to see that all those chickens have only added to your sharp mind King Decimus," she flatters backhandedly.

"With the Recreants gone, then who will be able to stop the Dwarves? All the caverns beneath Tidolon will be theirs for the taking, we will have a world of endless tunnels and endless railways!" he realises.

"Not if we take the islands above the caverns first," she points out.

Decimus leaves his palace for the first time in years and returns to his wizard tower to go over his papers.

1.5 Otto's Capital back on the Enchanted Archipelago.png

Refuge, Capital of Otto the Discarded (50 years ago)

Penance, Enchanted Archipelago, Tidolon Yr 53 AN

No longer a recluse in his palace, Decimus had moved back into his wizard tower (or the ground floor of it anyway) and endlessly sits reading endless statistics about everything that transpires across his vast domains on Tidolon. He is absolutely determined that no matter of any importance escape his notice ever again and is absolutely exhausted by the effort of doing so. Then one evening, having drifted off in his office beside Ylwen after another day of hard statistical analysis, he awoke to find himself facing a being of a kind now held in contempt across the Enchanted Archipelago, one of the Chosen Children of Nimue. So startled is he that were Decimus a human, he would likely have reached for a weapon and lashed out, but an Atoning Toadman does not act without deliberation.

"I was once known as Presto the Arrow, you are King Decimus, once my enemy," the newcomer introduces himself.

"Who let this creature into my tower?" Decimus asks forcefully.

"I did," Ylwen responds.

"Why?" Decimus asks.

"Because this Chosen Child knows something and you are a king who loves knowledge," she explains.

"A Chosen Child! The only reason we haven't killed or enslaved the whole lot of them is because it is the wrong thing to do!" Decimus exclaims.

"Our.... former mistress sits in Magehaven wondering why, even as the end of your natural lifespan approaches, you choose to remain here on the Enchanted Archipelago, as opposed to taking up a place in Magehaven that was earned long ago," Presto tells them.

"A matter about which I care little, if this is all the knowledge he has then he can leave," Decimus complains.

"Nimue has powerful friends, these friends made a deal with Otto and when he kept his side of the bargain, they kept theirs; that is why his people have vanished from this world," Presto informs him.

"How do you know this?" Decimus asks.

"Because Nimue told me it," Presto answers.

"You still speak with Nimue, that should be a crime!" Decimus responds.

"How many millions of Drowned Recreants do you think disappeared 4 years ago?" Presto asks.

"I would estimate around 27 million, give or take about two million in either direction," Decimus responds matter-of-factly.

Presto pauses, not expecting such a definite answer.

"Nimue's friends are proven powerful, it is a powerful feat to remove 27 million people from a world," Presto tells them.

"I am not afraid," Decimus declares defiantly.

"You will not be, since you King Decimus will be dead like other mortals. With your death, nothing will stop Nimue from returning with her powerful friends and our people will not show mercy to your people when she takes back this world; Armok and the rest of the Covenant will not save them this time since it was only Elya they ever cared about and now she once again drifts freely in the Astral Sea," Presto explains coldly.

"Why are you telling me this? You want that to happen!" Decimus points out.

"Because Mother Nimue has ordered me to inform you that she wishes to negotiate; but only once you are a Godir in Magehaven," Presto explains.

"Then I must do it," Decimus concludes.

Once again King Decimus 'the Unwavering' climbed the stairs of his tower. His great bulk and advancing age make this a challenging feat but with the aid of Presto and Ylwen he is still able to make his way to the very top. There, from a secure vault he retrieves a chest and holds it before him, not daring to open it, for in that chest is the pearl that Armok gave him so many decades ago; the pearl that he was told would lead him to Magehaven and to immortality.

"Farewell, my subjects," he tells Ylwen and Presto, the last words that the mortal Decimus ever spoke on the Enchanted Archipelago.

He opens the box, removes the pearl from within and fades away.
**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Index and Reference

Goblin-Cookie · Jul 21, 2023

3. Reunion in Magehaven
Atoning Toadman Astral Village, Magehome Yr ∞

Decimus finds himself in a strange courtyard and the first thing that he notices is that he is much lighter than he was before, the great rolls of fat accumulated during his many lazy years of gluttony are somehow gone. As he looks down, he realises that his skin has changed colour, it is no longer a leaf-green but rather is the golden-yellow his species originally had; the magical transformations that were applied to him along with the rest of his species back on the Enchanted Archipelago before and during the struggle against Nimue are gone.

This must be Magehaven, the pearl worked, which is unsurprising, he thinks.

Looking about the courtyard, Decimus finds the vista before him both deeply calming and deeply unsettling.

This place seems unreal but also more than real because it is so vivid, he concludes after some thought.

Seeking to ground himself in his new environment, Decimus looks around and spots some vines growing up against a wall. Then he spies some large, blueish slugs slithering about on the vines and is curious about them. With one hand he pulls a slug from a vine and plops it into his large mouth, intending to devour it whole. Yet no sooner has the slug arrived in his mouth than he finds himself involuntarily forced to spit it out again and the slug falls unharmed to the stone floor of the courtyard.

This is indeed Magehaven, ancient magic means no-one can hurt anyone here and that includes beasts, Decimus recalls.

Turning his attention back to the plant, he notices that there are small fruits growing on the vine, similar to blueberries. They are ripe and Decimus strips a cluster of these fruits from one of the vines and places them into his mouth; this time he is able to swallow without incident, unlike before with the slug.

Now feeling more grounded, Decimus refocuses his inhuman eyes to see things at a longer distance. This allows him to scan the extent of the courtyard and he realises that it is far larger than he had initially realised. The courtyard is rectangular and there are a number of ponds along the centre of it, teeming with brightly coloured fish living in harmony. In the wall at the opposite end of the courtyard from where he had initially found himself he spots a closed door and with nobody else in the courtyard, he decides to approach the door to see if he is trapped by it.

To his relief he finds that while the door is indeed locked, some magic means that as soon as Decimus places a hand on the door, it immediately swings open. Beyond he finds a familiar looking settlement and knowing that he is completely safe in Magehaven, he does not immediately refocus his eyes to close-vision as he normally would upon entering a doorway. The settlement is inhabited by his own people, the Atoning Toadmen but just like himself they bear no transformations upon their bodies and their skin is golden-yellow.

Having had a good look at the settlement, Decimus refocuses his vision to see things that are up close but as he does so he quickly notices someone he had long feared to meet again, standing just to his left; Nimue.

Startled by Nimue's appearance, Decimus immediately hisses in threatened surprise even though he knows that in this place she cannot hurt him nor he her.

“Greetings King Decimus, I see you are a Godir now,” Nimue remarks.

“I know we are in Magehaven, but what is this village of my people?” he asks, quickly regaining his composure.

“It is your astral village, every Godir has one here in Magehaven; populated by their own chosen people,” she explains.

“So why are you residing here? If these are my people then they will simply throw you out?” he asks.

“That is why I made sure to arrive first, before you had introduced yourself to your people,” she answers.

“Why are my people in this place, how did they get here?” he asks.

“They died on Materium worlds and were brought back by Magehaven to populate your astral village; there are exactly ten thousand in each village, but Magehaven always strips them of their transformations upon arrival, as it does to us Godir if we are not careful,” she replies.

"Are they now once again alive or are they spirits or undead creatures?" he inquires.

"Their souls were taken from the astral void as they travelled through it to wherever souls go when they are dead, but I would say that zombies are more alive than the denizens of an astral village," she claims.

Decimus switches back to long-distance vision to watch the Atoning Toadmen in the village going about their business.

"They appear to be alive Nimue, but is that an illusion?" he remarks.

"They are technically alive. Yet their 'living' consists in repeating the same peaceful, uneventful day over and again, forever. There is no advancement or learning, no struggle, no striving and no evolution, nor do they breed, sicken, age or die; so they display none of the expected attributes of living things, it is fortunate that Magehaven does not make us Godir like them," she responds.

"You are here for a specific reason, what is that reason?" he demands to know.

"I am merely here to greet Magehaven's newest Godir," she declares insincerely.

"Why would you want to do that? We are enemies," he points out.

"We are all enemies here in Magehaven, also allies, also neutrals; each time when we descend to the Materium, or ascend to it perhaps, we adopt those roles within the history of our chosen world, but on other worlds our roles may be entirely different," she claims.

"The way you describe it makes it all sound like a game, a game in which real people die," he complains.

"Death is part of life, we Godir were the catalyst driving the development of innumerable worlds, we provided them with a history, along with the struggle and striving they needed to develop, so that that when they die they may be regarded as more than technically alive," she argues.

She isn't here to talk philosophy, he reminds himself.

"Our relationship is different to that of the other Godir, because you created created me, you created us," he points out.

"That I did and for it you owe me a debt," she claims forcefully.

"You then turned against us, drowned thousands of my people but in the end we defeated you!" Decimus responds defiantly.

"It was Armok Bloodmaster that truly defeated me and I only drowned your people before because they turned against me, rebelled against their own mother!" Nimue counter-claims angrily.

Most beings would have flown into a rage at what Nimue had said, but Decimus is an Atoning Toadman and they are resolute beings.

"That is your point of view and that of your people, we have a different point of view," he states coldly in response.

An uneasy silence descends as Decimus says nothing and allows Nimue to calm down.

"It is true that I owe you a debt," he finally agrees.

"A debt you wish repaid as soon as possible," she adds.

"Unless our debts to each-other are paid off, then we can never be said to be truly free," he concludes.

"That is why I propose that we negotiate a deal by which you perform a task for me and in return I will forgive any debts that you and your people may owe me," she proposes.

"Along with any debts that you and your people owe mine," he adds.

"Yes, that as well," she responds dismissively.

"What sort of deal are you proposing?" he asks.

"I will select a world and you will help me conquer it as my ally," Nimue explains.

"So I am to serve you all over again after everything that happened," he complains grimly.

"We will be allies and thus will serve each-other as equals. You could benefit greatly from having a more experienced Godir to aid you when you conquer your first world, so the arrangement is to your advantage as well," she argues.

"That makes sense," he admits.

Together Decimus and Nimue head back into the courtyard where the former arrived to negotiate a deal. As neither trusts the other, they quibble endlessly over the details and a great deal of time passed before they reach a final agreement or rather would have done were there time in Magehaven. Then Nimue leaves the Astral Village of the Atoning Toadmen to return to her own astral village.

*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Index and Reference

Goblin-Cookie · Jul 29, 2023

4. The World Gate
Atoning Toadman Astral Village, Magehaven Yr ∞

Decimus found that Time flows differently in Magehaven, but as the 'days' passed his control over his people grew. No longer do they merely wander about, set upon the repetition of the same day that always is but instead their circular lives start to form a vortex around a single individual, their King. For his part Decimus has begun to organise many of the institutions that had served him back on the Enchanted Archipelago, but not any of those associated with warfare or violence as those things do not exist in Magehaven.

As Decimus sits upon his throne within the palace he had built at the centre of his astral village, surrounded by his new courtiers, certain old concepts that Nimue had taught him long ago come back to him.

We presently understand the world as consisting of six opposing affinities, the Astral, the Materium, Nature, Shadow, Order and Chaos, but Nimue once described it to me as having six elements, Water, Fire, Earth, Air, Life and Death, he recalls.

Turning to his official court sage, Decimus asks her a question.

"What is the relationship between the six magical affinities and the six magical elements?"

"The affinities are the contemporary understanding of magic, the magical elements are an Athlan concept that is considered obsolete," she answers.

"But Nimue once sat on the Wizard's Throne and channelled the Sphere of Water," Decimus points out.

"Athla used to be unnaturally cut off from the Astral Sea, the elemental spheres and the Wizard Throne were likely the result of a distorted perspective; now things work on Athla as they do on all other Materium worlds," she explains.

The Wizard's Throne was always out of balance and only kept in balance by the intervention of a seventh power, Decimus recalls.

As he was about to reply, one of his other servants, the butler approaches.

"A goblin stands outside the gates wishing to enter, my King," he is told.

"What kind of goblin?" Decimus asks.

"A Fertile Goblin, like they had back on Tidolon," the butler answers.

I have a very good idea who this might be, Decimus thinks.

"Allow the goblin to enter," he orders.

1. Decimus is ready to earn his freedom.png

"In case you have forgotten, I am the Grand Sage Astralader Solace, now also a Godir," the goblin introduces himself.

"Why are you here?" Decimus asks Astralader.

"No special reason, just here to talk," he replies.

"About what?" Decimus asks suspiciously.

"Given how loudly you were both speaking I could not avoid overhearing a conversation you were having about magic, let me add my own take on the matter," he responds.

"So what is your take?" Decimus asks.

"Athla was severed from the Astral Sea by a powerful imbalance in favour of Nature and Materium, consequently four of the affinities appeared there as physical states, Water is Order, Fire is Chaos, Astral is Air and Materium is Earth. Two of its affinities appeared in terms of the cycle of nature, Nature appears as Life and Shadow appears as Death. The Wizard's Throne was always out of balance because Life was always stronger than Death and Earth was always stronger than Air, owing to the basis of Athla's separation from the Astral Sea, which gave rise to the appearance of the elemental spheres in the first place," Astralader continues.

"But it was always held that balance could have been restored by a human," Decimus's sage points out.

"Indeed it was, but the effort of that rebalancing led to the coming of the Shadow and weakened the powers of Nature, lifting the Materium veil cast over the powers of the Astral Sea and causing the Wizard's Throne to perish," Astralader responds.

"What have you been doing since you became a Godir? I surmise you are now one of the Covenant," Decimus interrupts.

"I went to the Eternal Court in Auldweald and helped 'sort things out' for the Covenant there. What have you been doing since becoming a Godir Decimus?" Astralader asks.

I cannot tell him anything about my agreement with Nimue, that is against the agreement, Decimus reminds himself.

"I have been organising my people here and building this palace for myself to live in," Decimus answers.

"That work is clearly finished now, do you even know how to leave Magehaven and enter another world?" Astralader asks.

"No," he admits.

"Can I show you?" Astralader asks.

"Yes," he agrees.

The Portal of Worlds,
Magehaven Yr ∞

Decimus and Astralader stand before the Portal of Worlds, a huge structure around 20 feet tall, standing at the intersection of the astral villages of all the Godir in Magehaven.

"So this is the way out?" Decimus figures.

"Yes, very much. It is called the Portal of Worlds and is a way to leave Magehaven, though it is not a means to return to it," Astralader confirms.

"It appears to be a teleporter," Decimus remarks.

"It appears to be, but it isn't," Astralader responds.

"How so?" Decimus inquires.

"It doesn't merely move materials or people from one place to another; think of it instead as an intelligent machine that thinks rather like a golem does," Astralader responds.

"So do we control it using magic?" Decimus asks.

"No, we control it just like a machine but it then it intelligently carries out its program," he explains.

Astralader leads Decimus to a location near the portal where there are three dials and shows them to him.

"The dial on the left has only two settings, on one setting you are heading to your target world alone and on the second setting you head there with your entire astral village, or rather its arrival precedes you; since the machine is intelligent," Astralader explains.

"So how do we get another astral village?" Decimus asks.

"There are always exactly 10,000 people in any Godir's astral village, if any of them are removed, Magehaven will just find more," Astralader explains.

"The dial on the right controls the time when you arrive, not in terms of a date but in terms of the world's present level of development, if you set it too high you will find beings with horrifying weapons and strange machines beyond your comprehension, while if you set it too low you will find beings with stone weapons living in tents or caves," he continues.

"So I could arrive in such a primitive time and conquer everyone with my steel weapons?" Decimus suggests.

"No, because the machine is intelligent, so if you go back to a primitive time, then you will find your followers are also primitive. Few Godir mess with this dial since it was long ago determined that there was an optimal era for us to operate on any given world," Astralader tells him.

"So the middle dial must control our destination?" Decimus figures.

"It does, but only the world we wish to enter, not the location on that world. This does not matter however, because the machine is intelligent enough to send us wherever we *need* to go," Astralader explains.

Decimus examines the middle dial. On it he can see ten rows each with six symbols on each row.

"Do the symbols represent the affinities?" Decimus asks.

"They do indeed, this symbol represents the Materium and it is important that the highest of the ten symbols is set to it; otherwise you will arrive at a world that is *not* a Materium world and we Godir do not generally belong in those worlds, excepting of course Magehaven," Astralader explains.

"So, every world has a unique set of ten affinity symbols that represents it," Decimus figures.

"When set to a certain set of values the portal will send you and possibly also your people to the world indicated," Astralader confirms.

"What would happen if I set all values to be Materium?" Decimus asks.

"Everybody who has done that and entered the portal never came back," Astralader warns him.

There is a silence as Decimus does not respond.

"Thanks for your help, but I must return to my village," Decimus asserts.

"Why? I have the values for a number of worlds we could explore together," Astralader protests.

"I cannot tell you the reason," Decimus informs him.

"I understand," Astralader responds.

"I am worried that you might understand too well," Decimus concludes cryptically.

*********************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Index and Reference

Goblin-Cookie · Jul 30, 2023

5. Bound to the Shad'rai
Atoning Toadman Astral Village, Magehaven Yr ∞

With everything in order within his miniature kingdom, Decimus retired to the largest of the many ponds in his Astral Village, which he had cordoned off for his own use. He submerges himself in the water, so that only part of his head is above it but knows that he is not alone in the pond, for he can feel astral frogs swimming in the water and brushing against his body. With his hand Decimus scoops up one such frog and holds in his palm, the frog is an off-grey colour but decorated with bright blue patterns along its back. It is not in any way afraid given that nothing can hurt anything in Magehaven but instead sits contentedly in Decimus's hand. With his other hand Decimus picks up a bunch of pond weed and dangles it before the frog's mouth; to his delight the frog takes an interest, snatching the weed from his hand and devouring it.

Soon, somehow sensing that they might also get fed, a line of astral frogs forms upon both of Decimus's shoulders, which ironically means he cannot feed them without displacing the frogs on the opposite shoulder. As he continues to sit submerged in the pond, surrounded by his little frog friends, Decimus suddenly hears the heavy splash of someone putting their feet into the water. He stands up and turns suddenly to confront the intruder and the frogs on his shoulders leap away, landing in the water with a splash.

The intruder is Nimue.

As Decimus gazes at her warily, Nimue quickly wades through the pond until she is face to face with Decimus and up to her chin in the water.

"We are ready and I call upon you to honour your agreement; head immediately to the Portal of Worlds," she tells him.

"Who is the *we*?" he asks.

"The Shad'rai," she reveals.

"Those are the enemies of the Covenant," he recalls.

"Yes, we are enemies of the *Covenant*," she confirms, spitting out the last word.

Decimus and Nimue leave the pond together and head to the Portal of Worlds.

The Portal of Worlds, Magehaven Yr ∞

Decimus and Nimue are both approaching the foot of the Portal of Worlds and before them they can see a trio of Godir that have preceded them, members of the Shad'rai movement. They are the wizard king and 'God' of Fire Yaka, the dwarf wizard Ydgaard Worldbender and the present leader of the Shad'rai herself, Lithyl Nightweaver.

"It appears that Nimue has finally arrived, along with her pet frog person," Yaka remarks, sneering.

"I am the Godir King Decimus," he states in response.

"So, has the Frog King actually joined the Shad'rai?" Yaka asks contemptuously.

"He and I have an agreement," Nimue reveals, evading the question.

"So our King Decimus is some kind of mercenary; is that allowed in our secret scheme?" Yaka challenges.

"This bickering will end. Now, to answer Yaka's question, we know the symbols for Grexolis only because First Protecter Otto, another 'mercenary' brought back the Gildercoil from the Crimson Caldera of Obbadoth," Lithyl tells the others.

"Is this related to how all the Drowned Recreants on Tidolon disappeared suddenly?" Decimus asks.

"It very much is, the payment that Otto demanded for bringing back the Gildercoil was that we relocate Tidolon's entire population of Drowned Recreants to join him in the Crimson Caldera; we both kept our sides of the agreement," Lithyl reveals.

Decimus notices that Lithyl is carrying a scroll in her hands and as if noticing his interest, she offers Decimus the scroll.

"As a sign of our trust for King Decimus, we offer him the scroll that contains the symbols to Grexolis that were divined using the Gildercoil," she announces.

Decimus takes the scroll and unfurls it as Yaka scowls in disagreement. The symbols read.

Astral
Materium
Order
Order
Nature
Order
Shadow
Nature
Nature
Astral

"Is the first symbol correctly written? The first symbol of any world's code should be Materium, otherwise the world in question is not a Materium world and I was told that Godir are not supposed to go to non-Materium worlds," Decimus objects.

In response, everybody else laughs.

"Grexolis is a forbidden world, hidden and placed off-limits by the Archons themselves. We Shad'rai are not going to respect the limits placed upon us by the decrepit Archons just because what is forbidden to us happens to be an Astral world rather than a Materium one," Lithyl says once the laughing has subsided.

"But if our agreement is illegal, surely that makes it void," Decimus objects.

"You signed an agreement with me and made no agreement with the Archons to obey their laws or their wishes," Nimue asserts.

"You are correct and you have chosen Grexolis as the world to conquer, as is your right by the terms of the agreement," Decimus concedes.

Decimus walks towards the middle dial and carefully enters the coordinates written on the scroll. Having done so, Decimus links arms with the four Shad'rai and together they enter the Portal of Worlds.

Grexolis awaits them all.

*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Index and Reference

Goblin-Cookie · Oct 2, 2023

6. Arrival on Grexolis : Turn 1
Vallenford, Grexolis, GC 5477 (Grexolis Calender)

Having entered the Portal of Worlds, King Decimus 'the Unwavering' found himself seated upon a throne within an all too familiar throne-room, but he is alone and finds the familiarity unsettling rather than comforting.

Has the Portal of Worlds made a mistake? Has it sent me back to the throne-room of my Astral Village? he asks himself.

Looking about the throne-room he examines the details of the wall decorations, of the ornaments, of the chairs and so on.

The people who built this place attempted to replicate my palace in Magehaven and did so almost perfectly, yet they still had to substitute some materials; for instance they had to use brass instead of gold for the embossing of the wall panelling, he observes.

Decimus gets up onto his feet but as he does so he finds that he has to exert an unusual amount of willpower to it.

There is something wrong about this place, it is making everything hard require more willpower to do than it should, he thinks oddly.

Now on his feet Decimus leaves the throne room through the main doors, which are unlocked and heads out into the palace in search of those who are either his servants or his captors. Then, without any warning he is set upon by armed Atoning Toadman guards wearing his very own livery and is quickly arrested.

"I am King Decimus!" he declares to his captors.

In response to this statement, the guards immediately recognise and release their king.

"We have laid hands on our King without consent? How are we to be punished?" Decimus is asked.

"I was suddenly transported from Magehaven into this palace and therefore it is understandable that I might be percieved as an intruder," he remarks.

"But what about our punishment?" one of the guards asks.

I wish to see what kind of strange place the Shad'rai have brought me to, Decimus thinks.

"You can consider your 'atonement' to be guiding me to the highest point of whatever settlement this palace is built in," Decimus tells them.

"We will comply at once King Decimus!" a guard responds obeisantly.

Leaving the palace, King Decimus is struck to find that even though he is on an astral world, the sky is still blue overhead and the sound of birds can be heard alongside the mood-croaking of his people. A town of at least several thousand people had been built in his name prior to his arrival and Decimus can see that though the dwellings are generally humble, the place looks wealthier than it actually is due to how the buildings are all brand new. As he takes a look back at the splendid palace he has just left, the contrast between that lavish building and the humble town surrounding it causes him to have an uncomfortable thought.

When I built this palace in Magehaven, I had no idea that they would ever be building such a thing in 'reality', where time and resources are finite. The people were driven to build a replica here in Grexolis and though they have had to substitute some materials they have succeeded. I wonder though how much it cost this small community to accomplish this feat and what hardships were inadvertently created by the paying of such a price, he thinks uncomfortably.

"What is this town and how many people live here?" Decimus asks the guards.

"About 10 thousand in total, give or take about two thousand and there will be new people arriving soon when the latest brood of babies transform into adoptees and leave their nativity ponds," he is told.

"What is the name of this town?" Decimus asks again.

"The name of this town is Vallenford, it doesn't matter very much what it is called; you weren't there so we had to decide what to call it ourselves, we can rename it if you wish," he is told.

"The name is indeed not important," Decimus concludes.

As they continue their journey, Decimus realises that their destination is a simple watchtower made of wooden planks that lies at the highest point in Vallenford. The journey ends when they arrive at the watchtower, which affords Decimus a good view of the surrounding area. However Decimus is forced to ask his guards which way is north and which way is west before he can truly begin to map the landscape.

He can see that Vallenford sits on the eastern flank of a river and between two ranges of mountains. On the high ground above he can see trees growing while on the low ground below, down where the river flows he can see marshland and thinks about how there might be babies swimming about in the various ponds that are found there. Then he spots what appears to be the campsite of an army on the river bend close to the northern wall of Vallenford.

"Is that an invading army?" Decimus asks, alarmed.

"Those are ogres, ogres and sylphs," he is told.

"Explain their relationship to us?" Decimus inquires.

"When we arrived from, I think you called it Magehaven, we were immediately accosted by sylphs who kept reminding us that Grexolis is forbidden, but we kept saying that if that was the case why didn't *they* leave since the forbiddenness of Grexolis is their belief not ours," a guard begins to explain.

"What happened next?" Decimus asks.

"At first the sylphs were just a nuisance that wouldn't shut up with their nonsense about how we were forbidden to be here but they aren't; there was no violence for some time. This all changed when we started to build your palace and we needed lots of gold to make it just like the one you have in Magehaven. We sent a party to mine the gold but then the sylphs got some ogres to scare away our miners as they carted their gold back to Vallenford; those ogres are still there with their sylphs and some other creatures guarding their stolen gold," the guard explains.

"That explains why there is so much brass in my palace," Decimus realises.

"We are sorry we failed you King Decimus!" the guards declare pleadingly.

"I never asked you to build me a palace but you did so all the same, and if we find any gold I will have have better things to do with it than redecorate a palace," Decimus tells them reassuringly.

Decimus spends hours surveying the landscape from his wooden tower, building a map of his surroundings and committing every detail to memory. He enjoys the process of analysing the surroundings of his new capital so much that the will-sapping properties of Grexolis leave him unable to stop surveying even as night falls. Then, when the sun sets, he finds that Grexolis becomes vastly stranger; there are no stars in the night sky, but instead the night sky is a smooth inky-blue, interspersed with strange lights and shapes, appearing and disappearing seemingly at random.

This world is an astral world, that must mean that rather than being surrounded by a solar system with orbiting planets, Grexolis appears to be directly suspended in the astral sea, Decimus thinks.

Normally he would never have spoken his thoughts aloud but the will-weakening effects of Grexolis combine with his unease at the strangeness of its night sky to realise that outcome.

"I was told that all worlds exist within the Astral Sea, but if that is true why is not the sky of those other worlds the Astral Sea as well?" he says.

Then he hears the voice of someone he had heard before coming from above.

"To answer your question King Decimus; all worlds are located *within* the Astral Sea but only in Astral worlds do they connect in the three dimensions through which material objects travel, rather than solely via a seperate astral dimension," the voice tells him.

Decimus looks up immediately and sees a massive head looming over him in the night sky, a helmed head bearing the face of Lithyl Nightweaver, leader of the Shad'rai, he initially cowers in surprise and fear before it, but quickly regains his composure.

"You are communicating with me via the Astral, Lithyl Nightweaver; that I see your face in the night sky is a hallucination that the others in Vallenford will not perceive," he figures.

"I would call it a confidential astral projection, but you are clever and Nimue clearly taught you well," Lithyl compliments.

"What then is Grexolis, where has duty brought me?" he asks.

"It is a 'forbidden' world, a world where decent, honourable Godir like yourself are not supposed to go, but we are Shad'rai; it is our calling to go where are not allowed," she answers.

"I knew that already," he complains.

"Grexolis is a world sacrificed to a greater purpose - commendable, yet in vain," she adds.

There is a pause as Lithyl appears to struggle to speak further.

"The Archons did what they deemed to be just, but their strength was dwindling; where they saw danger, we see potential. We have the Gildercoil, the only key to this world-vault called Grexolis; yet it may only be used when all of Grexolis is under our control," she tells him.

"As informative as you are, I understand that your intention to contact me was not to answer my questions," Decimus figures.

"Indeed it was not, you are invited to come to Shadowhaven in order to discuss the conquest of Grexolis," Lithyl responds.

"I agree, but where is Shadowhaven?" Decimus asks

Lithyl does not answer but instead it feels as though a hand has picked up Decimus and placed him somewhere else.

Shadowhaven, Grexolis GC 5477

Decimus finds himself seated around a table covered in magical symbols, but does not feel his weight on the chair underneath him. He quickly realises that he is not really *there* in the normal physical sense and is able to confirm his theory by placing his hand right through the table itself. Seated around the table are four other people, Lithyl, Yaka, Ydgaard and Nimue, but all except for Lithyl appear insubstantial.

Of the five people around the table, only Lithyl is actually here in the flesh, Decimus realises.

The other four people are singing a song.

"Glory to all Godir and Glory to the Shad'rai! We cross every mountain and smash every wall! No doctrines, no dogmas, no laws and no morals, can say what exists and what cannot! We are the new age that breaks every chain and bends every will to climb every mountain!" goes their song.

"It seems that Nimue's little frogman is here at last!" Yaka announces contemptuously.

"As expected, though I am surprised it took him so long to manifest," Lithyl adds.

"Let's stop singing songs and get down to business," Ydgaard declares.

"That we shall," Lithyl confirms.

"The Archons left a powerful warden to watch over their forbidden world," Ydgaard states.

Ydgaard takes out an astral projection of a jewelled figurine and places it on the table before everyone.

"Turiel Tolarim is the first of the Godir and a loyal friend of the Archons. He could have been a god but instead he became a mere watchman, waiting for a foe to strike him down," he tells everyone contemptuously.

Studying the ghostly figurine, Decimus determines that it is an armoured orc with angel wings.

That is the Guardian, Turiel Tolarim who we will have to defeat, he figures.

Ydgaard grabs the ghostly figurine in his ghostly fist, breaking it into pieces before casually throwing the figurine's fragments back onto the table; muttering "some sacrifices are worth making," under his breath. They land at the centre of the table, somehow kept from falling through by the magical symbols found there. Then Yaka creates an astral projection of fire to incinerate these ghostly remnants and cause them to vanish entirely.

"Enough talk, Destiny does not wait!" he declares as he does this.

Everyone looks warily at Yaka, but Decimus more so than the others.

"It does not matter who or what stands in the way of our victory! We are Godir, we are Shad'rai! Gone are the times when we had to trust in the schemes of lowly mortals to achieve our goals. Nothing can withstand our combined magical force; together we will cast a spell that shakes the foundations of Grexolis!" Yaka declares forcefully.

Then Nimue, who has so far remained silent speaks.

"It is ironic that our King Decimus will bear witness to what our spell will do. Those who opposed me back on Tidolon, who tried to wrest the Enchanted Archipelago from me; they will serve me once again in death, forming an undead army that will surely prevail! We have reached through the Astal Void, through time itself in order to bind the souls of invaders and traitors that died fighting against a goddess. They will be divided equally among us all, even Decimus here will receive his share because I am a goddess that loves irony," Nimue tells them.

Decimus feels distinctly unnerved but maintains his composure.

"When will these creatures arrive?" Ydgaard asks impatiently.

"It should take, half a year for the spell to complete," Nimue explains.

"So each of us gets a share of your dead traitors, even the living traitor himself, Frog King Decimus!" Yaka laughs.

"Indeed," Nimue confirms.

"I am not a traitor, I did what I did to protect my people and to avenge my people who Nimue betrayed and drowned!" Decimus responds angrily.

"Thus ends the meeting!" Lithyl declares loudly.

Everyone ends up back as their physical bodies far away.

*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Index and Reference

Goblin-Cookie · Oct 16, 2023

7. Gazing into the Void : Turn 2-4
South-West of Vallenford, Grexolis, GC 5477

Through the untracked forests, the scouts rode on the backs of their giant pigs. They are now hundreds of miles away from their families in Vallenford, yet despite their weariness from four months riding they are still excited by the dramatic arrival of their lost king, Decimus the Unwavering. Yet unlike their king, the scouts are not at all concerned by the heavy matters of debts and diplomacy but are instead focused upon the great opportunities for their people provided by exploring the new world.

The scouts are led by Captain Lisa and as they head into another area they follow standard protocol, which is to ride uphill to the highest point and clear a vantage point for their cartographer, Jack to begin drawing up maps for their couriers to deliver back to Vallenford. At this point they would pick up the cartographer and bring him to the next vantage point.

There were of course things that required special notice, things that broke up the usual cartographical/scouting routine. To the south they had recently located a cluster of strange crystals, obviously a powerful source of mana and some lush meadows where the grazing was clearly rich. However it was also clear that the 'Locals' had established their camps in those places, so that even were their people to expand far enough to reach them, they would not be able to access those resources without violence. One thing that Lisa and all Atoning Toadmen had learned since arriving at Grexolis was that the 'Locals' were bad, an intractable menace driven to ruin the people's new lives by an unreasoning fanaticism and their first few years had been spent violently expelling them from the area around Vallenford.

The worst locals, Lisa had long since concluded were the astral abominations knows as sylphs; as soon as her scouts had departed from Vallenford, the damn sylphs had followed them always, watching their movements. She had applied a simple, if brutal solution to that 'problem', whenever you see a sylph, shoot it and by this method, after about a couple of weeks, the sylphs had learned to keep their distance, while she had gained a pair of glittering sylph wings to decorate her hat with.

As Lisa and her scouts arrived at the top of the hill, they saw something new. The land below them sharply reduces in altitude, which would normally imply they would encounter some body of water at the bottom, a lake, a river, an ocean, a swamp; something along those lines. Yet they see no water at the bottom of this slope, instead they see nothing at all, the forest below sinks into a vast inky blackness.

"It is like the night sky!" Lisa exclaims.

"I see things out there, pretty things!" one of the scouts declares.

One of the other scouts by contrast had seen something less than pretty in the void, they hiss loudly and attempt to the turn their mount around in order to flee in terror from the possibly imagined horror.

"Everybody look away, now!" Lisa orders.

"It is like the night sky, isn't it? You look into it and you see things, horrifying things, pretty things, then you go mad; this is why we must not gaze into the astral sea," Cartographer Jack comments.

"That *thing* is where an ocean should be," Lisa complains.

"Then we have finally found it; conversing with the Locals led us to conclude that somewhere out there we would discover the astral void at the edge of Grexolis," Jack declares excitedly.

"You spoke with the Locals?" Lisa asks contemptuously.

"Of course, many of the Locals are mortal beings like us, they are not all sylphs or *other* astral abominations," Jack confirms

Northern Vallenford Province, Grexolis, GC 5477

King Decimus had no intention of actually spending much time in his palace within Vallenford, he had a war to win, a world to conquer and debts to atone for. So Decimus had appointed Kyneburt as Viceroy to deputise for him in his palace and took his army north through the swamps, in search of the enemy. He had a vague intuition that he would find something to the north, perhaps the origin point of the nasty sylphs that had constantly harassed the Atoning Toadmen since before his arrival and as he made his way to the edge of the city's environs and gazed into the wilderness beyond, he indeed spotted something horrifying.

To his north, partially concealed by trees Decimus can see something massive that is both dreadful and hard to describe, surrounded by horrifying creatures straight out of nightmares.

That must be what an astral rift looks like, he realises, unfazed by the horror.

Decimus was not unfamiliar with the concept of astral rifts, back on Tidolon, as his people had spread beyond the Enchanted Archipelago he had heard reports of an island containing a magical void that acted as a gateway through which terrible astral horrors came. Having no particular interests requiring landing there, his only orders at the time were simply to leave the island, the creatures and the astral rift alone.

With their rift so close to Vallenford, there will be no choice but to fight the creatures and seal it, he concludes warily.

Yet I do not presently have an army sufficient for such a monumental task, he realises.

"My King, you should not spend your time gazing at that *thing* any more than we should spend our time staring at the night sky," someone tells him.

Decimus looks away immediately. Yet some time later, beset by the strange weakness of will that Grexolis exerts on him, he glances back at it and is stunned to find the creatures are now both less numerous and less horrifying than they were before, for not all the creatures he had seen before around the rift were actually real.

He turns back and addresses his army. Around half of them are mere peasant militia, armed with spears, but there is his own 'elite' bodyguard from the palace and some archers too.

"We turn back here! These creatures must *not* regard us as a threat and for this reason, as well as the safety of the people of Vallenford we must cordon off the whole northern region!" he tells his army.

One day I will have a stronger army and then we will return, but I will not tell anyone this in case those creatures are listening, Decimus thinks to himself.

11. A nearby astral void is discovered.png

*********************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Index and Reference

Goblin-Cookie · Nov 13, 2023

8. Meeting the Covenant : Turn 5-6
Vallenford, Grexolis, GC 5477

Decimus had once again returned to the highest tower above his capital city and does so flanked by his Viceroy Kyneburt; the one who acts as his deputy and governs Vallenford when he is (as is normally the case) out commanding his army.

"I don't see much of a city below me, though I see plenty of tents and crude shanties," Decimus remarks.

"There are now around 50,000 people living in Vallenford and less than a year ago there were only 10,000; we have not had enough time to build proper buildings for them all," Kyneburt explains.

"How could a population increase by 5 times in less than a year?" Decimus asks.

"I merely carried out your orders to welcome all the 'Locals' into Vallenford that were not invading armies; though you know that determining the difference can sometimes be a challenge," Kyneburt answers.

"How do our people feel about all these foreigners?" Decimus inquires.

"Ordinarily we would have been angry to have our town invaded by those we had spent years fighting against, yet so impressed were we by your return King Decimus that we were willing to welcome thousands of our former enemies into our town since it is your will," Kyneburt claims.

"Is there any indication that these immigrant locals are actually a threat as some might fear?" Decimus asks.

"It is a complicated situation. The locals worship this being they call the Guardian but do so out of fear; they care nothing for it and this Guardian clearly cares nothing for them. According to the will *of* the Guardian all large settlements are forbidden, except by his express licence, which is given only to his 'exalted ones', which I have learned are actually called Onmar," Kyneburt replies.

"So this Guardian is keeping Grexolis deliberately undeveloped, save those parts that his own people inhabit," Decimus concludes.

"The locals fear of the Guardian is why they initially fought us but since neither he nor his forces have materialised to aid them, they now fear us even more. If we can provide them with a better life than what they would otherwise have had they should become our loyal servants, even if we do not make them citizens," Kyneburt theorises.

This situation is precarious, I will need to ensure that the breeding of new Atoning Toadmen is happening on the proper scale or else we risk being sidelined by these Locals enthusiastically joining our own struggle, Decimus thinks.

King Decimus says farewell to his Viceroy and descends the tower.

Eastern Vallenford Province, Grexolis, GC 5477

Having travelled beyond the outskirts of the city of Vallenford, King Decimus is led by Viceroy Kyneburt to the location of the spawning pools that have recently been dug into the swamps east of Vallenford. Created by combining a number of the swamp's natural pools together to form a single, large body of water, each spawning pool belongs to a specific family group within Vallenford. According to a negotiated arrangement with another family, females would be sent to spawn with the males of the family that owned the pool, while a complex formula devised and perfected over centuries determined the correct number of females that would be sent to spawn according to the size and richness of the pool.

Once the spawning was completed, the resulting offspring would not receive any care from their parents or their wider families, though it was common for local farmers to dump waste foodstuffs into the water as food for them to eat, but instead they were required to survive independently within the pool, eating whatever they could find or catch. It was not expected, or even desired by the families that spawned them that the entirety of their offspring, or even the majority survive to develop into toadbabies and leave the pool. Once the young Atoning Toadmen had left their natal pool, they would be adopted and socialised, usually by the patrilineal family that spawned them, though it was common for families to unknowingly adopt unrelated offspring simply because the toadbabies from other pools had wandered into the vicinity of their own pool.

Decimus throws a whole loaf of bread into the spawning pool and almost instantaneously the water churns as Atoning Toadman babies swim to the surface to devour the bread. As Decimus watches them struggle over the food, it brings back memories of when Decimus was himself a baby, splashing about through the muddy water of his spawning pool and being essentially identical to those he had just fed.

When those babies grow up, they will leave the water and the family that owns this pool will adopt them. I, however am different, for I was not adopted by a family like the others but instead by Nimue herself and as a result I have no family now, but it is also for that very reason that I am King, he thinks.

Back before when I was mortal I could have had my own spawning pool built and there would have been hundreds of women lining up to spawn with me. I could have created myself a family, but why did I not do that? he asks himself.

Decimus is reminded of the old scar on his back, left from when a heron had tried to eat him as a baby but he had wriggled away, probably because something had distracted said bird.

If the heron had eaten me then another would have been adopted by Nimue instead, another would have in essence been me, was my survival merely the result of blind coincidence or did I have some special destiny even then that protected me? he reflects.

"What measures have been taken to secure the safety of our young?" he asks his Viceroy.

"No measures of course! The young ones must be able to survive unaided until they are adopted, it is......" Kyneburt responds, before cutting short due to sensing Decimus's disapproval.

"It is what?" Decimus challenges him to answer.

"The natural order. The weak and the sickly perish in the ponds, unable to prevail in the relentless struggle for survival and this ensures that when a family adopts them, they will not receive weaklings that will grow up to become a burden on their strength," Kyneburt continues.

"The weak and the sickly do indeed perish, but mostly it is just the unlucky," Decimus remarks.

"Indeed, luck is most of it. Think of it as giving the Toad Mother the opportunity to decide which Atoning Toadmen the adopting family's resources are best spent to support," Kyneburt adds.

The Atoning Toadmen were made to worship Nimue as a Goddess; but after Nimue drowned most of them, the survivors had originally dedicated themselves to praying and punishing themselves in the hope of earning her forgiveness. Yet when the war came and the Atoning Toadmen had fought against Nimue, it obviously became necessary to change their religion. The new religion they adopted centred upon a goddess called the Toad Mother, but Decimus knew that this new religion was essentially identical to the one before, for all they had really done was to substitute the name and image of their new deity for that of Nimue.

"We will need the largest number of Atoning Toadmen we can in order to prevail; thus we need to ensure the greatest survival rate for the young we spawn," Decimus tells Kyneburt.

"How will we do that?" he asks.

"Firstly we need to deploy hunters to ensure no wildlife that is interested in devouring our young gets anywhere near our spawning pools. Secondly, we must deliver a sufficient quantity of food to the pools every day that none of our young starve to death," Decimus answers.

"It would be best to keep all this a secret," Kyneburt advises.

"Indeed, that way when the families find a vast number of adoptees waiting for them near to their spawning pools, they will consider themselves blessed with good fortune rather than deliberately tricked into parting with their precious wealth," Decimus agrees.

"However, they will ultimately find out what we are doing, what then?" Kyneburt asks.

"I will have the priests preach about how precious our little ones' lives are, even before they are adopted and that way they will consider our actions virtuous once they find out about them," Decimus explains.

Shadowhaven, Grexolis, GC 5478

Roughly a year after his arrival, King Decimus found himself once again summoned by Lithyl Nightweaver to the magical chamber beneath her capital of Shadowhaven, or rather he finds himself there as an astral projection; just as before, the astral projections of his Shad'rai allies are also present in the chamber, though Lithyl is there in the flesh.

"Our Covenant enemies have followed us to Grexolis," Lithyl begins.

"How many!" Ydgaard interrupts.

"They sent me a message in the form of a vision I have trapped and will show to you," Lithyl continues.

Their astral projections continue to sit round the table, as Lithyl casts a simple spell to conjure up an image of herself sitting in the same chamber as before. She faces the astral projections of three other beings, an Athlan elf with gray skin and purple eyes, a humanoid cat wearing a crown and a robed, bearded Athlan dwarf.

"The elf is Meandor of House Inioch, the catwoman is Shira Snowblood and the dwarf is the wizard-king Fangir; all members of the Covenant" Lithyl comments.

The vision continues.

"It seems you forgot to invite us to your mad attempt at unleashing cosmic disaster," Meandor retorts.

"First you brought conflict to innocent worlds," Shira adds.

Fangir nods in agreement before the astral vision fades away.

"I ended their message at this point. As you can see, these three members of the Covenant will do anything to foil our plans," Lithyl concludes.

"Meandor is Covenant!" Nimue exclaims.

"He is their newest member! I guess the elf prince got tired of losing all the time and decided to go follow after his niece Sundren, hoping for some scraps of success! But Sundren sent him off to Grexolis and now he is going to lose, just like usual!" Ydgaard responds contemptuously.

"Do we know how strong the Covenant is? If they were here long before us, they could have become invincible," Decimus asks.

"They followed us when we left Magehaven, where time does not really exist. Yet owing to certain ancient principles, the Gateway of Worlds will have had them arrive at the same time as ourselves," Lithyl explains.

"Principles!" Yaka spits.

"Those principles are the very thing we Shad'rai seek to overthrow, but these are rules that in using the Gateway of Worlds, we were forced to obey," Lithyl continues.

"What are the principles?" Decimus asks.

"Nimue's little frog is talkative today," Yaka interrupts nastily.

"This principle is essentially one of balance. If someone goes to a world, while another seeks to stop them, they will arrive at a nearby location to their enemy, yet will arrive at the same time. Thus we know the Covenant have no head-start on us, meaning they will lose," Lithyl explains.

"Why will they lose?" Decimus asks.

"Because there is a way to avoid said 'Principles', which is to move stuff through the Astral Sea. The Astral Sea is beyond all principles and we are using it to sail here an army of loyal wights raised from the corpses of those drowned fools that once defied me back on Tidolon," Nimue explains.

"Including those drowned among Decimus's people," Yaka adds viciously.

I heard reports that an army of loyal wights had materialised back in Vallenford, but I have not met them yet, Decimus recalls.

"Excellent! The very principles the Covenant upholds balanced their forces and ours! But when we upset that balance in our favour, we win for certain because they are not allowed to do the same thing!" Yaka concludes triumphantly.

Those who underestimate their enemies tend to lose, but then Yaka is for all his arrogance no stranger to defeat, Decimus thinks to himself.

"There is a second vision I wish to show everyone," Lithyl announces.

This vision consists of an astral projection of Lithyl and some of her soldiers confronting an large orc man with angel wings.

"Flee you fools, I am Turiel Tolarim" the orc declares.

Lithyl is not intimidated and stands dispassionately before the considerably larger orc as he moves towards her, made to appear all the large by his wings.

"You have come to a forbidden world. Leave now and you may live. Stand and you will meet your doom," Turiel declares.

"It need not be like this, Turiel Tolarim," Lithyl responds, her voice laced with tenderness.

Turiel however continues to stand in silence, stern and immovable like a lone rock within the tide.

"We have much in common, why fight amongst us Godir when the true enemy is breeding new darkness by the day? Would it not be wise to leave this post and join the Archons in their fight, while retaining peace with the Shad'rai, who could be valuable future allies?" she suggests.

The vision ends without Turiel saying anything in response.

"So that is the Guardian the enemies of my people spoke of! His name is Turiel Tolarim," Decimus remarks once the vision had ended.

"You already knew of him! I spoke of him during our first meeting, when we arrived!" Ydgaard reminds him.

"I did not know then that there was only one Guardian of Grexolis," Decimus points out.

"So what is this 'true enemy' the Archons fight against?" Yaka asks suspiciously.

Lithyl winces, realising that she has revealed something to her allies she did not intend to.

"It is a secret," she says simply, as the astral projections of the other Godir in the chamber fade away, ending the meeting.

*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Index and Reference

Goblin-Cookie · Nov 21, 2023

9. Magical Servants : Turn 7-10
Vallenford, Grexolis, GC 5478

Decimus had already known for many months about his new undead warriors, raised from the corpses of those who once were drowned for attempting to challenge Nimue's rule over Tidolon and the Enchanted Archipelago. Until now, they had served without ever having met their King, but the time had finally come for them to meet Decimus in person.

Upon observing them Decimus quickly determined that they were, or had been goblins. Viceroy Kyneburt had explained to him earlier that these undead were wights, creatures that were more intelligent than the more ordinary zombies or skeletons, but unlike them retained the majority of the skills they had possessed in their former life. Yet from the ice crystals on their skin and the cold aura that follows them around, Decimus concludes that there were additional transformations applied to these undead than merely their alteration into wights.

These particular undead had drawn Decimus's attention, as they were dressed in the robes of wizards and bore their magical equipment. Not knowing the nature of the powers that these beings might possess, Decimus had gathered them together to hold a magical demonstration in a square within Vallenford. Somehow the people had quickly learned the demonstration was happening and Decimus can see that a large crowd had gathered, craning their necks to peer over the barricades his guards had erected in order to keep them out of the square itself.

Not every object that had been placed within his palace before his arrival was beautiful and Decimus had the ugliest of all the vases within the palace brought out to serve as the first object to test the powers of these wizards. A bird inside a cage was to be the second test of their abilities while the third test was to be a large pig tethered to a post in the centre of the square.

Decimus stands on a podium as the undead wizards unleash their powers upon the three entities before them in the square and once they had done this, he descends from the podium to examine the damage. The ugly vase is largely intact, though scarred by new cracks that were not there before, the bird is now definitely dead due to having been completely encased in a block of ice while the pig lies upon the ground, crippled by frostbite but still alive. Decimus takes a knife and puts the crippled pig out of its misery.

These wizards' powers are those of the cold, they drain the heat from their enemies, though their failure to kill that pig outright was a bit disappointing, Decimus realises.

Having seen their magical powers in action, Decimus is interested to determine if these creatures are capable of speech and so he asks one of them a question.

"Before your death what manner of creature were you and what was your profession?".

"Our kind is known as the Necrotic Goblins, I was a warlock in the service of the Dark Lady Gloom Hooknail on Tidolon," the wight replies.

"How did you come to die?" he inquires.

"I died because our Dark Lady believed she could defeat Nimue, but Nimue defeated her," the wight reveals.

"Before you served Gloom Hooknail, but whom do you serve now?" he asks as a test.

"Now I serve King Decimus, before I served Dark Lady Gloom Hooknail," the wight confirms.

"Why do you serve me?" he asks.

"I serve King Decimus because I serve King Decimus," the wight responds circuitously.

The wight cannot question the reasons for its servitude, that is part of the magic that binds it to me, he realises.

Wilderness south-west of Vallenford, Grexolis, GC 5478

The life of a scout was not an exciting one, Captain Lisa had long since learned. Normally all they encountered was the tedium of ceaseless forests and green fields; yet they knew to be grateful of this fact, as the moment they encountered something interesting would likely also precede their own deaths. But now Lisa stands before something truly unusual, a huge rectangular glass bottle full of what looks like water, almost as tall as an Atoning Toadmen and fixed firmly into the ground.

We should make a report of this thing, but what is it? she asks herself.

"It is my prison mortal soldier," a telepathic voice tells her.

"What kind of being are you?" she asks in her head.

"A spirit of the water," the voice responds.

Surely this spirit did something terrible and that is why it was imprisoned in that bottle, she thinks.

"More years ago than I can remember, there was a lake here in which I dwelled. Then the Guardian passed a law on the maximum size of the lakes that were allowed to exist here on Grexolis, so they dug a channel into the astral sea and drained my home into it," the water spirit tells her.

"So how did you end up imprisoned in that bottle," she thinks as a response.

"I was bound to a lake that was being drained, but I could not survive without it in the form I had then. Yet I was still bound to obey the Guardian by the Archons as all spirits on Grexolis are. To survive I pretended to resist the Guardian's decree of destroying my lake and then accepted the punishment of being trapped in a bottle until the day the Guardian should choose to release me, the water in this bottle sustains me even as my power has diminished over the centuries," the spirit explains.

"So if we release you from this bottle, will you die?" she asks the spirit in her head.

"Once that was the case, but I have long since changed my form so that would no longer happen," the water spirit responds.

"Who would you serve if I released you?" she asks.

"At present I would serve the Guardian and thus would kill you as an enemy of the Guardian, but there is an alternative," the water spirit answers.

"Which is?" she asks.

"You can name me something new and that new name will render me your servant instead of the Guardian's," the water spirit explains.

"I name you Waterborn," she says aloud.

"I am Waterborn, but to whom are you bound?" the water spirit asks.

I serve King Decimus, she responds.

"Release me and I will serve King Decimus, but do not smash the bottle for you might harm me in the process," Waterborn responds.

Captain Lisa has her scouts use their shovels to dig Waterborn's bottle out of the ground and once it is out of the ground, they tip it over so that it lies on one side. Then they struggle together for many minutes to remove the lid of the bottle, which has rusted shut but finally succeed. Then out of the bottle, propelled by its own internal motion rather than by gravity, water pours.

The 'water' then stands up to form the approximation of a humanoid form, though one without legs. Then it speaks in the normal manner for the first time in many centuries though its voice is strange and gargling.

"Thanks," Waterborn says.

"I am Captain Lisa and these are my scouts," she says in introduction.

"On behalf of our King Decimus, what are my orders?" Waterborn asks.

"You are to head to a town to the north-east called Vallenford and report yourself there to Viceroy Kyneburt, who will find you a place in King Decimus's army," she responds.

Without saying anything more, the water spirit moves away. It does not walk as such but instead it slithers, rather like how a snail moves but much faster. The ground behind it is rendered slightly damp but far less than one might expect given the passage of a creature entirely made of water.

Though made of water, the creature makes sure to keep its watery substance within itself as it slithers about, Captain Lisa observes.

Wilderness north-east of Vallenford, Grexolis, GC 5478

Since receiving his first wights from the Astral Sea, Decimus had worried about how he could properly integrate such lifeless beings with his living troops so that the two would fight together with the proper harmony. For several months the researchers back in Vallenford had laboured to solve this problem, and now he is being told that the result of their efforts is now contained within a number of chests that couriers had delivered to the camp of his main army.

Decimus opens one of these chests and finds that they are absolutely full of mass-produced rings, each of them bearing the stylised imprint of a sword.

"So we now have a lot of rings to wear, how is this the solution to anything?" Decimus asks.

"Ah, I was also to deliver you this letter," the lead courier recalls aloud.

There is some ruffling through a wagon and then the courier reemerges with an official looking envelope, which they hand to Decimus.

He removes the seal on the envelope and retrieves the letter which he then reads.

We deliver to you, our King Decimus the results of our labours and those of your court wizards. These rings will impart to those beings that are not regular soldiers of our Atoning Toadman kind the valour that said soldiers possess. You will find that living and undead soldiers will now fight efficiently together as long as the undead soldiers are wearing these rings. The rings should also be given to your chaplains, magical beasts and whatever other irregular elements that your army contains. Remember however that since these are mere conduits for a magical spell cast by your court wizards and not magical in themselves, the more such rings that are worn the greater shall be the requirement of mana needed to maintain their power; thus do not give these rings to those who do not require them.

From Theodoric the Scholar and Viceroy Kyneburt.

*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Index and Reference

Goblin-Cookie · Dec 4, 2023

10. Sentient Plants : Turn 11-12
Vallenford, Grexolis, GC 5478

It is dinner time at Decimus's palace and Viceroy Kyneburt is seated at the dining hall table with the other members of the royal household waiting for the kitchen staff to deliver their food. Then the cooks finally arrive from the kitchen and place everybody's plates of food upon the table.

As Kyneburt is about to grab the largest portion of food possible in his hands and stuff it into his enormous mouth to be gulped down in one motion, he notices that there is something different about the plate of food in front of him; this time strips of some strange vegetable have been added to the rice and meat of the meal. Filled with curiosity he picks out a few pieces of this new vegetable from his bowl and swallows them separately, so as to ascertain their flavour.

While the flavour is quite different to anything I have tasted before, it is not offensive to me, he decides.

The cooks are still delivering their meals to the others seated at the opposite end of the table, allowing Kyneburt to speak with them before they depart.

"What are these vegetables that you have added to our meals?" he asks.

"They are vines that come from the frontier and there is a great story behind how we obtained them," he is told.

"How can a vegetable have a great story?" Kyneburt asks sceptically.

"Out on the frontier, there were some plant beasts that thought they could defy our King Decimus and keep some mana source from us. But then one of our armies showed up and the plant beasts quickly decided they would not prevail against such might. Having surrendered they were allowed to leave but not until they had been pruned of all their tasty vines," the cook tells him.

I think it must be the second army to the south-east, the one *not* commanded by King Decimus, Kyneburt realises.

"How many of these vines do we have?" he asks.

"Not too many, but they bore seeds that should allow more vines to be grown in future," the cook replies.

"As these are the seeds of the plant beasts, will they not grow into more plant beasts and thus cause ethical issues when it is time to harvest them?" Kyneburt points out.

"It is better to talk about the issues with Theodoric the Scholar, who is presently working out the details of sentient vine cultivation," the cook suggests.

"Are the vines sentient or just the creatures they came from?" Kyneburt inquires.

"The vines are sentient in a basic way, for instance they struggled mightily not to be chopped into pieces and fried in a pan," the cook reveals.

"Just like chickens then, can I have some vines raw?" Kyneburt requests.

"Yes, we have plenty left over," the cook confirms.

The cooks head back into the kitchen and emerge carrying softly writhing plant vines in their arms.

As Kyneburt attempts to devour the vine he is given, he finds that it struggles mightily not to be eaten. However his large toad mouth proves the mightier and the vine ends up in his belly, struggling all the way. Kyneburt and the others on the table end up spending their dinnertime happily forcing these struggling, sentient vines into their large mouths, their original meals forgotten.

Sentient plants guarding a mana node surrender

Wilderness North-East of Vallenford, Grexolis, GC 5479

Decimus knew that to conquer Grexolis and fulfil the terms of his contract, freeing his people from their debts and winning them a new world in which to dwell, he would need a great deal of mana. He would need it for the powerful spells required to best the Guardian and the Covenent Godir, for mere flesh and blood alone would not suffice to this end. Grexolis, they had learned, perhaps due to its 3 dimensional exposure to the Astral Sea had plentiful mana nodes scattered across its broken surface. Yet their scouts reported that these nodes were typically guarded by sentient plants, whether it was because those plants fed on the magic therein or because the Guardian willed it, or both.

During the 2 years since his arrival, his forces had grown sufficiently that he had felt able to safely split them into two separate armies and the plan they were presently pursuing was to drive out the plant creatures holding two mana nodes, one to the north and another to the south. He planned to reunite those armies again only when they were collectively strong enough to confront the creatures guarding the ominous astral rift north of Vallenford and to the west of their current location.

Once the two nodes had been cleared, it would be left to Vallenford to handle the details of extracting the mana from them in order to fuel his kingdom's spells. The army to the south had sent him reports that the plant creatures there had surrendered without a fight and that they had taken possession of the node. Contrastingly his northern army, the army he personally commanded found itself facing more tenacious opponents. Rather than surrendering, these plant creatures had summoned their allies and up ahead Decimus can see spirits of fire and electricity gathered around the mass of stalks that the plant creatures collectively formed.

He knew that they would not leave the node without a fierce fight.

23. Decimus attacks some other sentient plants for some materials.png

Decimus organises his forces into a basic formation from the books. His melee infantry would form up together and screen his archers, undead warlocks and most importantly himself from the plant creatures and their allies.

Even though he is attacking, Decimus orders his forces to remain in position, confident that the presence of his missile troops will goad the enemy to come to him and in this respect he is entirely correct; for soon he can hear the squeals of the piglets that had allied themselves with the plant creatures. These are no ordinary piglets however, they are goretusk piglets and for all their cuteness, baby goretusks possess a considerable fraction of the deadliness of their parents.

24. The sentient plants summon allies.png

From behind some huge bounders came juvenile storm spirits and Decimus immediately recognised them as the greatest threat that his army faces. He had learned that his undead warlocks not only possessed the means to channel bolts of ice to harm things, as they had back at their demonstration in Vallenford but could also conjure up a powerful curse capable of undermining a creature's strength and toughness.

Decimus turns to his undead goblin warlocks, which he towers over.

"Curse those lightning spirits," he orders.

Immediately the formation of goblin warlocks begins a powerful spell in unison. Once their spell is completed, a powerful, freezing gust of wind strikes the storm elementals. This cold wind immediately freezes the mist of water that forms the base of the elementals' electrically charged bodies and Decimus can see electricity flow into the earth beneath as the resulting ice crystals sink to the ground like snow.

Faced with this onslaught, a number of the storm elementals perish and fade away, but not all. Several still remain, their light dimmed by the loss of electrical energy, but still managing to continue their advance forward. Then Decimus turns to his archers and signals that they should let loose their arrows, which fly through the air, hitting the weakened storm elementals as they stagger forward.

Normally, the arrows would have had their impact reduced by a forcefield surrounding each storm spirit, but the warlock's curse had left these fields weakened; thus the arrows hit with full force and the storm elementals perish. The piglets charge forward but are promptly skewered by spearmen and at that point it became clear to Decimus that, as predicted victory would be theirs.

Victory would indeed be theirs.

25. The warlocks unleash their magic to great effect against the storm spirits.png

Wilderness West of Vallenford, Grexolis, GC 5479

Helios Gloriam had spent his life training to serve Turiel Tolarim as a hero and commander of armies, just as five generations had before him. They had passed on to the astral sea, without actually ever seeing real combat. Many philosophers of his people, the Onmar had long since held that the astral coordinates of Grexolis had been successfully hidden from the rest of the universe and consequently certain other people started to ask what the purpose of people like Helios really was, or why the Guardian even needed armies at all.

Helios had once been sent to force a group of said philosophers to recant their erroneous views, for the Archons had intended for Grexolis to be a fortress world and what use was a fortress unguarded? Recently however it had once again been proven that the disgraced philosophers were very much wrong about the universe as this time no less than eight Godir had invaded.

So it came to be that he was assigned to soar across the pristine wilderness in search of these enemies, and he flew upon his trusty gold wyvern steed. While he was perfectly capable of flying unaided, none of his kind could approach the effortless soaring that a wyvern was capable of. He had expected this day to be another one of lonely monotony, but down below in the wilderness he can see some kind of beings riding on pigs.

They were clearly scouts for one of the hostile Godir invading Grexolis, but he does not care *which* Godir these scouts work for, for he intends to kill them in any case. He begins his descent once he has signalled for his mount to do so, but the scouts quickly spot the wyvern above them and drive their squealing mounts forward as they attempt to flee, hoping to avoid their inevitable deaths.

The chase begins.

27. Helios Gloriam, the hero of Turiel.png

*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Index and Reference

Goblin-Cookie · Dec 25, 2023

11. Actuality of Healing : Turn 13-15

Northern Vallenford Province, Grexolis, GC 5478

We now have the means to actually heal our forces, said the letter King Decimus 'the Unwavering' had received from Theodoric, his Minister of Magical Research. So strange was this particular phrase in the letter that he felt compelled to leave his army and return to Vallenford to confront Theodoric in person for a clarification about the letter's intended meaning. Thus he ended up riding through the swamps north of Vallenford on the back of a giant pig, the form of mount favoured by his people.

Yet as he rides, he finds himself confronted by the apparition of one of his allies, Yaka, who stands before him in haughty silence until Decimus has finished dismounting.

"Yaka, God of the Fire that will consume the Universe stands before you, King Decimus," he says in introduction,

"What matters concern Yaka?" Decimus asks politely.

"The Fire God Yaka is affronted by constant letters sent by your servants; you will order them to send no more such letters!" Yaka responds.

"What is the subject of these letters?" Decimus inquires.

Yaka is reluctant to answer but his discomfort at Decimus's piercing amphibian stare eventually convinces him to do so.

"They are concerned with a certain quantity of gold, which belongs to Yaka; they are claiming that the gold belongs to you and thus are accusing Yaka of stealing from his allies!" he reveals bitterly.

"How did you come by this gold?" Decimus asks.

"A phoenix of mine, along with some lesser soldiers destroyed certain ogres near Vallenford and took the gold from them," Yaka reveals.

"Shortly before my arrival, those ogres you refer to stole gold from Vallenford, so a case could be made that it is ours," Decimus points out.

"Gold was taken from the earth by force, then forced into shape by the power of fire, then forcibly taken from the weaklings of Vallenford by ogres and then forcibly taken from them by the forces of Yaka," Yaka states.

"You spoke no falsehood there," Decimus agrees.

"Then you will order your servants to stop writing letters about this matter; Yaka does not steal from his allies!" Yaka demands.

"Yaka can write a letter of response explaining why everything that is forcibly taken by Yaka belongs to him and why at the same time everything forcibly taken from Yaka also still belongs to him," Decimus responds defiantly.

"Yaka is not an equal to mortals, bound by their notions of ownership; he is the God of the Fire that will consume the Universe!" Yaka rants.

Decimus mounts his pig and continues on his journey without saying another word.

Vallenford, Grexolis, GC 5478

28. Yaka's forces kill the ogres near Valenford and take the gold.png

Decimus had arrived back at his palace and is now seated upon his throne, actually for the first time ever. Below him stands Theodoric the Scholar, the one whose cryptic letter had convinced Decimus to return in order to formally question him before the rest of the government and certain notables of Vallenford.

"In a letter sent to me, you spoke of how we have developed the means to *actually* heal our injured soldiers," Decimus begins.

"Yes, I did," Theodoric confirms.

There is much hissing from clergytoads throughout the throne room.

"Presently our chaplains heal our injured soldiers by the power of their faith in the Toadmother and have done so since we arrived," Decimus points out.

"I did not deny that, merely the actuality of it," Theodoric responds.

The hissing of the clergytoads rises to a deafening pitch.

"Is the power of the Toadmother not actual or do you refer to the faith of our chaplains *in* the Toadmother," Decimus asks.

"Neither my King, soldiers healed by our chaplains believe that they have been healed, which keeps them alive and fighting, but their wounds come back once the battle is over; but this new power we have researched allows us to *actually* heal our soldiers," Theodoric explains.

"If that is the case, why do injured soldiers who were healed by our chaplains never simply drop dead when the battle is over?" Decimus asks.

"I can answer, but to do so I will need guarantees for my safety and office; regardless of what I should say," Theodoric tells him.

Yes, the clergy in this room are very irate and might hurt Theodoric if what he says next is as offensive to them as what he has already said, Decimus thinks.

"I King Decimus, promise that Theodoric the Scholar will come to no harm, neither to his body nor his office owing to the next words that he is about to say," Decimus promises.

Trusting in the impeccable word of King Decimus, Theodoric finally answers the question.

"The two principles of Actuality and Mind are balanced, with only a slight bias in favour of Actuality. This bias is why the faith of our chaplains can heal wounds only for a time, but the wounds return afterwards. There is however a third principle involved, the Will-To-Life; the primeval drive of a lifeform to continue to exist regardless of whether it is conscious or not and this principle intervenes to ensure that even if the wounds come back, they do not come back enough to immediately kill those who were injured,"

"From where do you derive these metaphysical principles?" Decimus inquires.

"From old books that we acquire and translate for others to read," Theodoric reveals.

"Books that are old and therefore written before our arrival; when the rule of the evil Guardian went unchallenged," Decimus points out.

"We had little choice but to do this, for we did not arrive on Grexolis with any books of our own. We do however have control over the process of translation, if for instance the Will-To-Life is an offensive concept we could instead translate it as the Toadmother's Love or something similar, without any practical consequence," Theodoric claims.

"As Minister of Magical Research, you are the best qualified to decide how to translate your books," Decimus concludes.

Severford, Grexolis, GC 5478

Captain Lisa 'the Scout' is now neither Captain nor scout. After narrowly avoiding death at the hands of a hero of Turiel (and his wyvern) she, having at this point exceeded her minimum length of service, decided to leave the army and return to civilian life. She had then settled in their newly built colony of Severford to the north-east of their territory.

She had quickly learned that Severford was much colder than Vallenford, a lot colder. Here it was not cold enough (usually) to kill an Atoning Toadman but it was cold enough to reduce one to a sluggish stupor. When they had built the outpost that had grown into Severford, they had quickly devised a solution to this problem, which was to bask in front of a fire and then to cover yourself in many layers of warm clothing. Yet as Severford had grown into a town of around 40,000, the number and size of the communal fires needed to keep the population warm during the long winter months had grown as well.

With so few trees in the swampy vicinity of Severford, keeping so many fires from going out had proven difficult and thus Lisa had found herself gainfully employed applying her old skills to locate sources of firewood in the surrounding area. This profitable situation she did not expect to continue for much longer, as she had heard rumours that coal deposits had been discovered to the west and even if they had not, Severford would surely soon begin large-scale shipments of firewood from the woods south of Vallenford.

The seasons on Grexolis were rather strange and did not work in any way like they had back on Tidolon, probably due to the way it was broken up by the Astral Sea. She would have expected Severford to be in the same hemisphere as Vallenford, but somehow it was spring in Severford and autumn in Vallenford, but in both places spring meant the onset of spawning season.

Not many members of Lisa's family had left with her when she departed to Severford, five to be precise. Yet despite this, they had still managed to strike up a spawning agreement with a large, established family with a spawning pool not far to the east of Severford. According to the agreement, she would be sent to spawn with the males of said family at their pool but she did not really know what spawning actually entailed. Clearly it involved male toadmen, female toadmen and eggs; how she knew about the latter was only because her earliest memory consisted of her chewing through another Atoning Toadman's egg and when she did so she found the corpse of a baby like herself.

At least she liked to think it had been a corpse before she started eating it, but in either case they had helped sustain her to become the adult toadwoman she now was. It was widely accepted that the youngest lived in a different ethical world, an amoral world of hardship and competition, where there were no laws and the strongest survived; a complete contrast to the disciplined world they would be adopted into once they emerged from the pond. Yet whatever was actually involved in spawning, she would cooperate, for the honour of her family was at stake along with her own.

Of the fertilised eggs which Lisa laid in the spawning pool, about a hundred hatched and of these about a dozen survived to be adopted by the family who owned their pool, 5478 was a good spawning year in Severford. They all went on to be worthy, courageous and productive members of Atoning Toadmen society, but they never knew who their mother even was. The great irony here is that while the Atoning Toadmen may worship a Toadmother, they do so having no idea who their own mothers even are.

31. Severford, Decimus's new city to the east.png

***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Index and Reference

Goblin-Cookie · Dec 31, 2023

12. The Ancient Banner : Turn 16-17
Wilderness south of Vallenford, Grexolis, GC 5478

Scouts had sent Decimus reports of a splendid banner, left by Turiel's forces centuries ago and draped over a monument to mark the location of a costly victory over a rebellion that once challenged the Guardian's rule over this area of Grexolis. Narrowly obsessive about his higher purpose as Guardian, a negligent Turiel had struggled to control his people with their mundane concerns and the resulting rebellions had led Turiel to a policy of deliberately depopulating most of Grexolis, allowing major settlement only in an area to the north-west which he felt he could easily control.

This was the reason they had met so little resistance from the Guardian's forces in the nearly three years since Decimus's arrival on Grexolis, Turiel's policies had created a wilderness inhabited only by nomadic groups that were out of his favour and that of his people the Onmar; what the Atoning Toadmen had taken to calling the Locals.

The monument and the banner were guarded against defilement by fierce beasts, serpent monsters and ice spiders. However, Decimus had with him an army, which he had every confidence would easily slay these monsters and take the banner, which would then inspire them as a symbol of their victory. The ironic thing was that neither Decimus nor any of his followers actually knew the meaning of the banner they were to fight and perhaps even die for.

34. Decimus takes on some creatures over a banner to the south.png

35. Decimus only narrowly avoided losing units to the creatures.png

Knight-Captain Sergus gazes dispassionately at the milky white blood of the ice spider on his lance as he returns from his charge. Once, long ago when he had fought first for Nimue and then against her he might have felt some semblance of emotion at his triumph in slaying one of the huge spiders. But now that he is no longer alive but rather a wight brought from the dead, he feels nothing whatsoever. That he had killed an ice spider was a mere fact to him, a fact of which every detail could be recalled vividly, that he might learn from it, but still he was unable to feel anything about it.

Angered by the death of one of their kind, the ice spiders unleash their freezing webs and they fall upon Sergus and his knights. Yet these webs were no colder than Sergus's own body and had little effect. Utterly unfazed, he and the other undead knights hack the webs off their bodies, before dismounting to free the trotters of their quite living mounts, whose noisy squeals revealed that they were vastly less calm about the situation than their riders were.

As the wights gather for another charge against the remaining spiders, a charge that he is confident the spiders will not survive, Sergus has an ironic thought, a thought so strong that he almost feels something.

All my life I trained to be like this, a being that carries that out manoeuvres of war perfectly as ordered and that kills others without feeling; I never knew that I would accomplish this ideal only after I was dead,.

Then one of the serpent creatures charges at them and an undead knight finds its mount swept from under him as it is pulled many feet into the air and greedily devoured by the serpent creature; the chargers had become the charged.

While in the end victory was won, Decimus's army was lucky to avoid losing entire units to the creatures.

Triumphantly, Decimus scales the monument and carefully unbinds the banner from where it had been tied. He cannot read the writing on the monument but suspects that they are the names or at least the companies of those Onmar who died in the battle long ago. Once he has descended to the ground, Decimus has a closer look at the banner in his hands, finding it in surprisingly good condition given that it has been exposed to the elements for so many years. He does not ask himself by what means a piece of cloth was preserved for so long, but instead is struck by an insight regarding the thinking of Turiel and his Onmar.

This banner is not from Turiel's forces, for they fly through the air and banners would merely slow them down. It belonged to one of the races of the Locals, a race whose members rebelled against the Guardian. It was not put there to memorialise those who died fighting against the Guardian, but rather it was put there as a condemnation; a statement of their guilt for the deaths of those whose names are etched into the monument,.

Decimus intends to hand the banner to his company of defenders, those armed with swords and shields among his army, but as he makes the short journey towards them, owing to the will-draining properties of Grexolis he finds himself distracted by the rows of injured spearmen that lie upon the ground, on bedrolls of cloth (if they are lucky), the ground beneath them is hard, for it had not been raining for some time in this part of Grexolis. Decimus could have thought about how lucky it was that so many spearmen were injured rather than killed, but instead he has another insight.

The Guardian is without mercy, and he deals ruthlessly not merely with flesh, but also with spirit; the reason this banner was somehow kept so fresh over so many centuries is that it's placing on the monument is a part of a curse; a curse upon the souls of those who once rebelled against him. Yet now we have removed the banner, this curse will be lifted, and those spirits will perhaps aid us with knowledge. Yet if we lose, Turiel may erect a similar cenotaph and place one of our banners upon it so that our spirits may not pass on to the Toadmother as they should but instead will be weighed down by the guilt of those we have killed in pursuit of the victory that eluded us,.

As he hands the banner over to his cheering troops, Decimus realises something else about the matter.

My troops' spirits would be condemned forever by the blood of Turiel's people, but I will not. I will instead return to Magehaven, condemned in my own way to conquer yet another world for Nimue,.

That night, Decimus has strange dreams as do the rest of his army, even the undead that do not sleep receive visions. In these dreams Decimus sees himself back in Vallenford helping to erect great monuments and other grand buildings, he learns much. Perhaps the grateful spirits were indeed repaying him for releasing them from their curse.

36. With the creatures vanquished, the banner is now theirs.png

North-Eastern Vallenford Province, Grexolis, GC 5478

Bruno the Chaplain stood atop the cliffs with the other clergytoads, gazing downwards upon the motley collection of strange creatures that sought to deprive Vallenford of access to the gold within the valley they guarded. He and his peers are part of a great army, an army that was originally smaller but had been reinforced when it turned out that the enemy had concealed some of its forces and was not as weak as it initially appeared.

Decimus was not personally present in this battle, and that meant that command over the army naturally fell to the most high-ranking members of the Atoning Toadmen present. Normally, that would be the knights, but their knights were actually undead creatures, so the army was placed under the command of the members of the clergy. Bruno did not hold the formal rank of captain over the other chaplains for no such rank existed, but he was considered to be the most eminent clergytoad present, mainly due to his apologetic works regarding the spiritual relationship between the Toadmother and the unknown toadwoman who was your biological mother.

It was a strange situation, for the only living troops in his army were a rabble of peasant spearmen or, as he was supposed to consider them, patriotic volunteers prepared to die for Toadmother and King. The number of wights in their army ever seemed to increase, and their fighting skill was generally surprisingly great for creatures he was told had no minds of their own. In his youth he would have considered such creatures to be abominations, but now he found himself as their commander, and was beginning to see them entirely differently; he might also even be called upon to heal their wounds.

Bruno had total faith in the power of his army, the opposition could not win against such a force unless the Toadmother aided them, and he was entirely certain that she was on their side; so the gold would be theirs.

Decimus's forces fight a battle to seize control of a gold vein

Vallenford, Grexolis, GC 5478

Viceroy Kyneburt had long struggled to balance the books of the treasury of his master, King Decimus. He might have expected that the wights sent by Nimue to aid them would cost nothing, not being alive and therefore needing no wages. Yet, it turned out that these wights required a large amount of various exotic magic materials to sustain themselves, the price of which was in no way cheap. This had created something of a conundrum, as more of these wights arrived every year and thus their total cost increased, the income extracted from the economy of Vallenford and Severford had somehow to increase faster.

The economy needed to grow, but for that to happen investment would be needed, but their present forces ate up almost the whole of their income. Luckily Kyneburt had found a solution, the creatures of a certain valley protected a vein of gold, so he had sent advice to his King that their forces should take this valley and its gold. Though his advice had been accepted, though there were delays because the creatures had proven more numerous than initial scouting reports had led them to believe, requiring reinforcements to be sent.

Victory had been theirs, and now Kyneburt stands over a vast pile of treasure, the spoils of that victory. It had turned out that the creatures were not, in fact, native to the valley, before their arrival there had been a gold mine, founded by the miners of some unknown people on Grexolis. However long ago that was, they had left behind the ruins of their refinery, but from the rubble they had easily retrieved a great deal of pure gold, ironically protected from being stolen by the very creatures that had driven the miners away. Being naturally immune to rust or corruption of any kind, the gold could have lain there in the rubble for thousands of years, but it would still be as valuable as it was the day it was refined from ore.

He now finally had the capital he needed to develop Vallenford. For some reason Decimus had recently developed an acute interest in architecture and had sent back from the field a number of surprisingly detailed diagrams of a marketplace, which (without telling anyone their origin) he had shown to actual architects and was told that they were in fact sound. Once finished it would provide more income from Vallenford which would then finance further investments, particularly in Severford, so as to increase income yet further.

Comprehending the sheer virtuosity of the coming cycle of reinvestment reinvigorated Kyneburt's faith in King Decimus's ultimate victory on Grexolis.

39. The gold allows a market to be built in Valenford.png

*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Index and Reference

Goblin-Cookie · Jan 7, 2024

13. The Vine Druid : Turn 18-19
Wilderness north of Vallenford, Grexolis, GC 5478

The long-awaited time had finally come for the armies of King Decimus; the time of gathering together to deal with the Astral Rift that had threatened Vallenford since before their King had arrived from Magehaven. From the rift came the hated sylphs, the magical 'abominations' that had harassed the Atoning Toadmen since the day they arrived on Grexolis, destroying, defiling or stealing whatever went unattended. Some blamed the Locals, but since those races of Locals had moved into Vallenford it had become policy to blame almost every crime on sylphs unless strong evidence actually existed to implicate a mortal being. However, in those cases, that mortal being was invariably a Local, for no Atoning Toadman had ever been proven guilty of any crime since their arrival.

And somehow, just as Decimus rested within his tent, this very topic came up while in casual conversation with Bruno the Chaplain and thus the discussion had become serious indeed.

"If we are going to get rid of the astral rift, that would mean the end of all those sylphs destroying and stealing things," Bruno had pointed out.

"Which is a good thing," Decimus had responded.

"Seemingly so, but we blame the sylphs for everything that goes missing or gets destroyed; but with the sylphs gone, whom are we going to blame?" Bruno asks.

"We can blame those actually responsible, when it is anyone's fault at all," Decimus suggests.

"Our people have never been found to commit crimes, which means we will be punishing Locals," Bruno points out.

"If they are truly guilty, what is the problem?" Decimus asks.

"The People will not see no problem?" Bruno claims.

"Which people?" Decimus asks.

"Our people, the Atoning Toadmen," Bruno clarifies.

"If our people, as you claim commit no crimes, then none of them will be punished and so will not have any reason to take objection," Decimus points out.

"Yet the Locals commit crimes against our people, so to remove the Locals from our lands would also put an end to crimes," Bruno argues.

Decimus blinks a few times, initially unable to counter-argue.

"The Locals do other things than commit crimes, they also work and pay taxes; without them we could never have gathered sufficient population quickly enough to ever hope to challenge this astral rift, let alone the Guardian," Decimus eventually replies.

"Yes regrettably, we initially needed them, but once we have eliminated this rift, we can surely negotiate an agreement in which we accept the Guardian Turiel's ultimate authority over Grexolis and proceed with eliminating the Locals in our midst, whose additional population we will no longer need," Bruno counter-argues.

"You would settle with the Guardian?" Decimus challenges.

"Not I personally, I was merely articulating on behalf of the People when I spoke before," Bruno responds meekly.

"There is something else involved, a secret that I do not wish the People to know," Decimus claims.

"If I maintain the strictest confidence, can I learn this secret?" Bruno asks.

"Yes," Decimus confirms.

"I pledge to keep secret what I am about to be told," Bruno promises.

"I am not here to colonise Grexolis with our people, I am here because I am bound by a contract with Nimue, which requires us to conquer this world, rather than settle with the Guardian or any of our other enemies and when this task is completed, I will leave," Decimus tells him.

"Is that Nimue the wicked temptress and murderer who opposes the Toadmother or our ally Nimue the Queen of the Chosen Children?" Bruno inquires.

"They are the same being," Decimus reveals.

"I can see why it all has to be kept secret, but what justifies dealing with Nimue herself?" Bruno asks.

"I owe her a debt, or rather we *all* owe her a debt, and to repay that debt we must conquer this world," Decimus answers.

"How can we owe a debt to Evil personified!" Bruno protests.

"Because Nimue created us," Decimus reveals.

"The Toadmother created us!" Bruno interrupts.

"The Toadmother we loved was originally Nimue, but then she tried to destroy us all and the Toadmother became someone else," Decimus reveals bitterly.

"I wish to hear no more, for I cannot bear what I have already learnt," Bruno concludes.

He is lucky that he can choose to remain ignorant, but I have no choice but to forever bear the whole truth of our people as I am no longer a mortal who will die, Decimus concludes in his mind.

41. Decimus's forces gather close to the rift as some scouts act as bait.png

Wilderness north of Vallenford, Grexolis, GC 5479

Acting upon the advice of Theodoric the Scholar, his Minister of Magical Research, Decimus had invited a special guest to the camp of his army, a reputed master of the knowledge of the properties of the roots of plants. The meeting place was less than ideal, normally he would have made a quick trip back to his palace for its greater security, but at this crucial moment Decimus could not leave his army. His famous guest was an Atoning Toadman, but had no name because he had fled his family before he was due to be named, which normally happens some time after adoption. As his fame grew, this nameless toadman who lived in the wilderness became known as the Vine Druid, and legends of his connection to the forces of nature attracted a following.

Decimus had advised his forces to show all precautions while dealing with his special guest and as he witnesses a large cage being hauled into camp, he comes to understand how 'all precautions' was interpreted. The cage is heavily guarded by numerous defenders, but behind them is a long procession of the Vine Druid's followers and Decimus notes that about half of them are Atoning Toadmen while the others are from various races of Locals. The cage is brought before Decimus and its occupant remains serene as the King gazes upon him.

"I apologise for the cage, I was imprecise in my instructions to my followers," Decimus tells the caged one.

"I am a dangerous animal, so it is not surprising you put me in a cage," the Vine Druid retorts.

"I any case, you shall be released," Decimus promises.

The Vine Druid does not say anything but closes his eyes, both Decimus and the guards dart back in alarm as vines spring from the ground and engulf the cage. When, shortly afterwards, the vines expire and fall to the ground, the door of the cage is wide open and the Vine Druid makes his way out without difficulty.

"To hold a dangerous animal like me, would take a better cage," the Vine Druid remarks dismissively.

"You are not a dangerous animal, you are an Atoning Toadman just as I am!" Decimus insists.

"There are so many kinds of dangerous animal here on Grexolis, there are toad-people like us and there are the cat-people, the mole-people; then there are the various kinds of monkey-people, but all of them are dangerous animals," the Vine Druid responds.

"I am King Decimus and we have heard of your skills regarding the magics of nature, in particular regarding the roots of plants and their poisons," Decimus tells him.

"Ah, you fear that you are not the most dangerous animal on Grexolis, that another might be more dangerous still," the Vine Druid figures.

"Yes, in a sense," Decimus concedes.

"Your cage gave me plenty of time to think of your reasons for capturing me," the Vine Druid responds.

"What did you conclude," Decimus asks, curious.

"It was widely known, even to me, that you are enemies with a particular form of monkey-person," the Vine Druid remarks.

"The Onmar, yes," Decimus remarks in response.

"The Onmar have wings on their backs, which they imagine makes them different from all the other monkey-people, more like bird-people, but birds do not have wings attached to their backs do they?" the Vine Druid continues.

"You are not here to make jokes," Decimus coldly reminds him.

"You want me to tell you how to kill Onmar more effectively?" the Vine Druid suggests.

"No, you are here to help us to do it," Decimus responds.

"You think I am a master of poisons; that I could be, if that is what you want. The Onmar have a secret weakness, their failed attempts at being bird-people as well as monkey-people have rendered them easily poisoned, and I know all about the most poisonous plants on Grexolis," the Vine Druid remarks.

"Yes, you will work with Theodoric the Scholar to develop poisons to kill Onmar, though I am sure you have other valuable skills as well," Decimus concludes.

Wilderness north of Vallenford, Grexolis, GC 5479

Tykis the lost wizard gazes upon the vast swarm of mortal creatures beneath him with a mixture of contempt and bewilderment. He was a god, ascended above their mortal worlds to a place of ultimate power and wisdom, yet still the mortals marched against him.

Before the mortals had laid a trap, sending a small team of scouts to invade their new divine garden, as bait so that he would be drawn away from the garden's gate and would not be able to help the other gods defend it. With the gate gone they would be trapped here forever, unable to call upon any of their friends from the wider world.

To his right were swarms of sylphs, beings that insisted on informing Tykis of the goings-on of the mortals. They liked to masquerade as followers of the Guardian who they told him ruled the land around the garden, for the purpose of manipulating mortal creatures who recognised said being's authority. Just below him was his magebane pet, Preen; who would ensure that none here would be able to cast spells aside from himself.

The ranks of the mortals appeared vast, too vast even for his magic to prevail. But his ascension had taught him great wisdom, thanks to it, he knew that everything before him was a mere projection of his vast mind and as long as he could imagine their defeat then the whole enemy army was doomed.

44. The 1st battle against the astral creatures.png

Tykis the lost wizard watches magical acidic gloop emerge from the staff of what appeared to be the leader of the invaders, perhaps a mortal wizard like he had once been and it hits the already wounded body of Preen, his magebane pet. To his horror, Preen waves it's tentacles at him one last time as if to say goodbye and then collapses into a heap, its life gone.

How can magic kill my Preen, when no enemy spells can be cast in its vicinity? he asks himself.

Then a piece of knowledge resurfaces within his mind from when he was a mortal wizard himself.

A magebane only negates spells cast from miles afar, it has no effect on basic spells cast by combatants on the battlefield itself, he recalls.

Why do I keep remembering this stuff? If I could only have forgotten then the projection would be different, the frog-wizard would not have been able to harm my Preen, who would still be alive, he rages at himself.

It doesn't matter, because like everything else here Preen is a projection of my mind, so my mind can make it alive again, he forces himself to think.

"Preen, you aren't dead, wake up!" he shouts.

Tykis's booming voice dominates the battlefield, but owing to linguistic differences none know what he is saying. As for Preen the magebane, it doesn't hear and remains dead.

45. Decimus personally takes down the magebane.png

The crude spears of mortal spearmen carve into the flesh of Tykis the lost wizard once again, and it hurts.

I am a god, I refuse to feel pain! he thinks indignantly.

But the pain does not go away.

Then he remembers.

I am not a god, I am a wizard that got lost in the astral sea, a lost wizard like many others, some of whom are my allies, he realises as his strength begins to fail him.

When I die, do I go where the mortals go, or do I return to the astral sea and remain a lost wizard? he asks himself as he begins to sink to the ground.

Those were the last thoughts that Tykis ever thought on Grexolis, for as he fell to the ground, an Atoning Toadman peasant thrusts his spear right through his massive brain.

46. Surrounded, a lost wizard is torn apart by a mob of peasants.png

*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Index and Reference

Goblin-Cookie · Jan 24, 2024

14. The Astral Rift : Turn 20
Astral rift north of Vallenford, Grexolis, GC 5479

The recent battle against the astral creatures had been a decisive victory for King Decimus's forces and those few injuries they had suffered had already been healed with the help of the new army healing magics discovered by Theodoric the Scholar. As Decimus leads the vanguard of his forces over the hillside, he can see the astral rift below him, seemingly unguarded; though Decimus knows better than to believe that it really is.

In confirmation of his suspicions, as the vanguard marches down the hill, many astral creatures, all more powerful than sylphs emerge from the rift. In response, Decimus calls a halt to his vanguard force, raising a signal flag to rally the rest of his army for the battle to come and as they approach, Decimus is struck by the sheer size of his combined force.

I have not commanded an army this large since I fought against Nimue on the Enchanted Archipelago, we have come far in three years, he thinks.

Having assembled at the foot of the hill, the larger force split into columns and continued their advance through the heavily wooded valley towards the location within the forest where the astral rift was located. Their advance meets no resistance and as they approach the rift, they find the trees all around them subtly changing to become even more twisted but also more colourful, for the influence of the astral sea changes all life that comes into contact with it.

The army emerges into a vast meadow, but it is a strange colourful meadow interspersed with mysterious chasms and at the centre of this meadow is the astral rift itself. Only at this point do the creatures decide to offer resistance, forming up around their gateway back to the astral sea and determined to repulse the attack of King Decimus's forces, despite how numerous they are.

Just like before, at the centre of the astral army was a giant tentacled humanoid being floating above the ground by magic. Decimus is unfortunate to know, from his studies with Nimue the origin of this form of creature; that it is a wizard that spent too long in the astral sea, and drifted into the astral void to become an enormous twisted monster. Yet he notes, with satisfaction the absence among the enemy army of any instances of a creature he had faced before and to whom he had struck the killing blow; a magebane would prevent his wizards and clerics from supporting their efforts from afar, in addition to being in itself a powerful opponent, deadly with its tentacles and surprisingly tough for a boneless creature resembling an octopus.

In this case, Decimus had already determined the most effective strategy was the most brutally, mindlessly simple; to charge forward as quickly as possible to overwhelm the enemy before they could unleash their powerful magic. Before his army he raises his staff, they immediately receive his signal and the charge forward begins.

49. As it's creatures are slain, a lost wizard attempts to teleport to safety.png

Despite the powerful magic channelled by means of their eyes, the astral watchers were still no match for the sheer force of so many peasants charging forward in unison. As they die one by one, their levitating bodies fall to the ground and being unable to hold up their own weight without the help of magic consequently collapse into blobs of flesh bearing little resemblance to the creatures they once were.

Seeking to avoid a similar fate, the lost wizard phases away, reappearing on the far side of one of the chasms scattered across the battlefield. Then, only slightly later the astral serpents re-emerge from the astral sea in the midst of the invading forces. Lightning is drawn from the beyond and springs from the serpents statically charged bodies to pour through Decimus's forces, filling the air with the scent of ozone and burnt flesh.

The peasant spearmen attempt to retaliate but find their serpentine opponents have somehow become insubstantial and their weapons pass right through them. Decimus knows that their efforts will not bear fruit, but also that the astral serpents will fully materialise soon enough and harming them will then become possible.

"Stop attacking them!" he shouts across the battlefield.

Somewhat to his surprise, the spearmen actually hear him and desist from their futile efforts.

"These creatures will soon become physical again, start attacking them when they do so!" he explains.

50. The lost wizard is run down by undead knights.png

Knight-Captain Sergus watches the titanic creature that leads the other creatures as it reads through an equally enormous bejewelled tome as though it were some kind of wizard. He can see that the being is clearly wounded, its massive body covered in dozens of arrows and a few javelins but it is still very much conscious despite these injuries.

Its intention is clear enough, the being is trying to recall a spell to destroy them all, or perhaps to make itself invulnerable or maybe even to simply escape, but Sergio has no intention of allowing the creature to carry out any of these tasks. Along with those knights under his command, they rush forward on the backs of their giant pigs and charge into it with their lances.

The lost wizard wails as it falls to the ground and dies, ending the battle; yet the tome that was seemingly held in its hands disappeared along with its life.

The now shapeless bodies of the astral creatures that tried to defend their astral right lie scattered across the battlefield and Decimus's forces have won. As Decimus examines the body of the lost wizard that led the defending forces and was the last to die, he is struck by a strange thought as he gazes upon its tentacles.

Why is the astral sea full of creatures that look like octopuses? Yes octopuses live in the sea, but the astral sea is only metaphorically a sea, so there is no reason the creatures that live there would look like them. Perhaps it is the case that just by using that metaphor, we mortals inadvertently caused the creatures within the astral sea to start appearing like sea creatures even though they are not, Decimus muses.

Then Bruno the Chaplain interrupts his king by asking the question.

"What are we going to do with that *thing?*" he says, pointing at the astral rift.

Bruno is referring to the astral rift, which does not simply go away because we have defeated its guardians, Decimus quickly realises.

Decimus moves forward with Bruno beside him to examine the astral rift, which towers over everyone in an imposing fashion and as he does so he realises that the rift's size is actually an illusion, it is really much smaller than it appears.

"We shovel earth into the rift," Decimus finally concludes.

Using the shovels that are normally used to dig camp latrines, Decimus's army shovel dirt into the astral rift. Amazingly, given how randomly Decimus had come up with this idea of doing this, the astral rift does in fact begin to grow smaller as the more dirt is shovelled into it.

Powerful magic does not always require powerful magic to defeat it, Decimus thinks.

When the last pile of dirt arrives in the astral rift and it is finally gone, something strange happens. From where the astral rift used to be, what looks like a tree sprouts and then falls down flat onto the ground.

"The Toad Mother has sent you a gift, take it, for it meant for you," Bruno enthusiastically declares.

"It's a small tree that just fell over and died," Decimus responds disbelievingly.

"No, it's a Staff, a Staff of Blossoms," Bruno explains.

Decimus picks up the Staff of Blossoms and holds it in the air before his army, as he does this, the 'tree' returns to life, it's leaves become green and flowers begin to appear on it's branches.

51. Decimus gets a staff of blossoms from the astral rift.png

North-west of Vallenford, Grexolis, GC 5479

Her name was Ayenna Sunseeker and she had been placed in command of an army from an Onmar city known only as Citadel. This city had many privileges granted to it centuries ago by the Guardian Turiel Tolarim and in return it was expected to carry out a certain duty, a duty considered beneath the notice of the cities that existed directly under his rule. Her family, the Sunseekers had ruled Citadel for as long as they could remember and Ayenna was a cousin of the city's ruler, Shel Sunseeker.

As far as Ayenna was concerned their duty could, more or less me summarised thusly, to keep the primitive savages that lived to the east properly primitive and savage, that they might never challenge the might and magic of the Onmar. When she was young she had once asked Shel why it was that they didn't just hunt down all the other races until they were extinct, why they were permitted to exist at all.

The answer she had been given was this; the primitives kept anyone else from settling in the 'East', which had come to mean just about the whole of Grexolis. These off world invaders would be more civilised, more advanced and altogether more dangerous. The primitives still understood their duty to the dreaded Guardian was to attack such invaders and every time she was sent to destroy one of their settlements for becoming too large or too advanced they were reminded of that dread.

Recently scouts spoke of frog-like beings living in a swampy river-valley to the south-east of Citadel. Whatever those beings were called, Ayenna's plans for them were simple, every last one of the invaders would be put to death, regardless of age, sex or military status and by the power of flight granted by the wings upon her back, none whatsoever would survive.

In her youth she had been taught a special prayer, a prayer that was not to be said except in times like this, when Grexolis was invaded by evil beings from beyond and all beings that would invade Grexolis were by definition evil. She had not expected to ever say it because none had invaded for centuries, but now that time had indeed come.

She had flown to the top of a mountain that would give her a good view of the astral sea, where the Allfather was said to dwell. Gazing downwards into the inky black void interspersed with imagined shapes and images, she brought to mind the words from long ago.

Aid us mighty Allfather, in this time when the lawless trespass against your will expressed through your Archons. All who trespass on our home Grexolis are condemned, and none who are condemned will escape our wrath. When we destroy them, bind their souls within Grexolis that the knowledge of where to find our home may not be revealed even in the next life, she prays.

54. Ayenna Sunseeker, leader of the Citadel army.png

*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Index and Reference

Goblin-Cookie · Feb 7, 2024

15. The Ogres' Feast : Turn 21-25
North of Vallenford, Grexolis, GC 5479

There is a blinding flash of light within the swamp, as the Onmar wizards summon their powers, intending to unleash them on Decimus's army. Unlike most that are present, Decimus knows the nature of these wizards, if indeed that was the best term to describe them. He knew of them because his old ally, Armok Bloodmaster had employed them against his enemies back on the Enchanted Archipelago and they were called awakeners. They were conjurers of the supernatural light, a light so 'pure' that it cursed all that it fell upon, since no mortals could bear its judgement. His spies spoke of the sheer devastation they could wreak on entire armies, of how they could melt flesh and turn metal armour into a shimmering substance with the consistency of jelly. Decimus averts his gaze and offers up a prayer to the Toad Mother as he prepares for their terrible, luminous onslaught.

But the onslaught never came, for riding effortlessly through the swamps came his undead knights on their pigs. Just as the awakeners were to about to finally unleash their deadly power, the knights reach them and they are on impaled on the end of lances. It is at this point that Decimus, in his relief at not being melted, realises just how feeble an army the Guardian has sent against him and determines correctly that it wasn't sent by him at all but by an autonomous city government.

55. Undead knights prove decisive in dealing with Citadel's awakeners, delivering the battle T...png

With their remaining awakeners desperately trying to avoid death by lance and unable to unleash their powers effectively, Ayenna's invading army from Citadel found itself consisting of nothing but it's leader and a number of priests. For all their conviction that the Allfather was with them, the priests could not compensate for the awakeners' loss and soon they were all dead, unable to escape quickly enough through the swamps which Decimus and his people could traverse with ease.

Understanding them to be fanatics driven by hatred for his people, Decimus feels even less remorse at slaughtering his enemies than he normally does and begins to pluck the feathers from their angel wings to make himself a more comfortable bed upon which to lie. Some of the feathers are understandably damp, either with swamp water or with blood, but it does not take long for Decimus's bed of Onmar feathers to be finished and placed inside an abandoned shack that coincidentally happened to be located in the middle of the battlefield.

Then, comfortable upon his feathery bed, Decimus sleeps soundly. Before waking in the morning however, he has the strangest dream in which he sees himself in the middle of an idyllic swamp covered in lily pads and croaking frogs, confronted by a strange, but beautiful Atoning Toadwoman whom he has never met before.

"Who are you?" he asks.

"I am your mother," she answers.

"As in the Toad Mother, or my actual mother, as in the one who spawned me?" he asks.

"The former but *not* the latter. When our kind die, only then do we meet our actual mother, but you will never die my Decimus, King of my People," she explains.

"So I will never meet my actual mother," he concludes unhappily.

The toadwoman says nothing in response, which Decimus takes as agreeing with what he had said.

"So whose mother are you, in particular?" he asks.

"The mother of one you killed," she responds warmly.

"I killed only Onmar!" he protests.

"The one you killed, they would have remained alive if you had never recruited them for your war against the Onmar, so your actions killed them," she argues.

"My war is just, I am not condemned for the losses it incurs!" he asserts.

"This is Grexolis, all who walk here are condemned, save the people against whom you wage war, condemned by the very fact of their walking upon its ground," she states.

"My agreement demands it, you cannot be the Toad Mother, for she would never demand I break my word!" he responds angrily.

"I am the mother of a certain soldier that you have killed, I grant you the power to bring them back to life," she tells him.

"Which one?" he asks.

"Whichever one you choose," he is told.

Decimus wakes up.

56. Decimus gains the ability to raise the dead.png

Having awoken, Decimus picks himself off his Onmar-feather bed and makes his way out of the shack, well rested and full of energy. He immediately remembers the dream and looks about the campsite.

The Toad Mother appeared to me and told me that I had the power to bring back the dead, that I should find a certain soldier whom she spawned during her life, he recalls.

It does not take long for Decimus to find Atoning Toadman casualties from the battle. The corpses of three peasant spearmen are piled up nearby, but Decimus struggles to determine which one to bring back, if indeed the power the dream told him he had is actually real.

It doesn't matter which one I choose, he recalls.

He picks one at random and then immediately the spearman lifts himself up to a sitting position, his wounds entirely healed.

Upon realising he does actually have the power spoken of in the dream, Decimus croaks loudly in surprise.

"King Decimus," the spearman remarks.

"I had a dream," Decimus reveals.

"I saw the Toad Mother and complained about being dead. Now I'm alive again," the spearmen responds.

"What did she tell you?" Decimus asks.

"Well, among other things that we should treat our slain Onmar enemies with respect," the spearmen tells him.

So no more Onmar-feather beds to sleep on, Decimus realises unhappily.

But the ability to bring the dead back to life, is rather useful, he thinks, cheering himself up.

East of Vallenford, Grexolis, GC 5480

The surrounding area was full of copper and Decimus can even feel the nuggets of copper ore beneath his webbed feet as he walks. Below him he can see the river but also the huge nets that lie on the bank beside it, for this region is inhabited and the fish in the river provide those inhabitants with plentiful sustenance and a small amount of sustenance would not suffice for these locals, which his scouts had already reported were ogres.

A separate group of ogres had once harassed his people, even stolen the gold that was meant for his palace. The ogres in this region seemed remarkably unfazed by the proximity of his powerful army, perhaps because they could not see how his people might be interested in their coppery home range; Decimus can hear them making a noise, but not an angry racket, but rather as though they were celebrating something.

My army could easily destroy this whole tribe of ogres, but what if I don't have to? What if I can negotiate with them, get them to leave peacefully? Do they have to die, on the day of their grand celebration? Decimus thinks.

He is struck by an emotion that is rather unfamiliar to him, that of compassion. As much as he tries to convince himself that ogres must die that civilised people can live, it is to no avail as Grexolis continues to eat away at his self-control, just as it had since the day he had arrived.

Back in the dream, the Toad Mother said we were all condemned for walking on Grexolis, maybe this is part of how we are cursed; with compassion for our enemies? Decimus thinks.

Unable to don the mantle of ruthless ogre killer however much he tried, Decimus orders his army to halt at a location by the river where he knows the ogres cannot see them despite their height and decides to go uphill to the ogre's camp alone.

Upon arriving at the camp, Decimus discovers that the ogres are indeed having a party and are mostly sitting around a fire contentedly.

These ogres seem in good spirits and, mostly importantly, their bellies will be full, maybe this idea isn't as foolish as it seems, Decimus decides.

He emerges from his hiding place and places himself in full view of the ogres, before tapping his staff of blossoms on the ground a few times to get their attention, as well as to subtly suggest that he has magical powers.

"It is a frogman!" an ogre announces.

"Yes, they have lots of those about nowadays, mostly to the south-west, in a town called....." another ogre responds, picking up his weapon.

"I am Decimus and our town is called Vallenford," Decimus reveals proudly.

"What a brave frogman, to come to speak with us all alone without an army, lucky for them that our bellies are rather full," an ogre remarks.

The other ogres laugh.

"Why are you celebrating?" Decimus asks.

"Because it's the decennial, the year 5480 has finally arrived, everybody on Grexolis is celebrating!" an ogre explains.

"Frogmen don't come from Grexolis, maybe they don't know they are supposed to celebrate," a second ogre points out.

"They are invaders, in the end the Guardian will defeat them like he did all the invaders before, including us ogres back a long time ago," a third ogre points out.

"So does the frogman want to join our feast, or would he rather *become* the feast, sometime tomorrow," a fourth ogre asks menacingly.

Decimus grabs the nearest roasted fish and gulps it down in one motion. Then he gulps down two more fish, which leaves him feeling very full indeed but he hopes it is enough to convince the ogres he has truly joined their feast. The ogres seemed amused by his presence among them, but once the novelty of his being there has passed they have little to say to him and Decimus spends awkward hours in silence lest he upset his hosts somehow. Then as the sun draws low in the sky, he finally realises he must say something or his efforts would be in vain.

"I am King Decimus and there are stones in this place that we want for ourselves," he tells them.

"So you are the King of all the frog people?" an ogre responds sceptically.

"If we kill him and chop off his head, we could give it to the Guardian and then he would be pleased with us," a second ogre suggests.

"No, the Guardian would never be pleased with ogres, whatever we did for him!" the first ogre points out.

"Because the Guardian only cares about other Onmar," Decimus adds.

"So if we don't leave and won't let you take all the special rocks, what will you do?" an ogre asks.

"My army will descend upon this place and kill every one of you," Decimus threatens.

"How do we know you did not make the army up, maybe we should kill him for threatening us?" the ogre inquires.

"I can show you," Decimus responds.

Decimus leads the ogres to a place not far from their feasting camp, where they can see his enormous army with all its campfires.

"There are just too many of us for you to fight," he states.

The ogres agreed.

58. Ogres guarding an iron deposit to the east surrender.png

Wilderness west of Severford, Grexolis, GC 5480

It was an uneventful day in the camp as Decimus's army slowly made its way eastwards to Severford, but then it so happened that the Vine Druid suddenly made a reappearance before him.

"Why are you here, Vine Druid?" Decimus asks.

"Do I need a reason, I work for you now, or did you forget?" the Vine Druid responds irreverently.

"You are not someone I trust," Decimus explains.

"Do you trust anybody?" the Vine Druid asks.

"No," Decimus admits.

"What about those ogres you just sent on their way, a few months ago?" the Vine Druid points out.

"You know about that?" Decimus inquires.

"Everybody knows about that, you turned up alone at their feasting camp alone, trusting that with their bellies full you would not get eaten, and your trust was well-placed," the Vine Druid replies.

"A point understood, but I do not know what your interests even are, why it is that you are even serving me?" Decimus points out.

"What makes you think I don't serve you for the same reasons everybody else does?" the Vine Druid asks.

"So what have you actually done for me since the day I employed you?" Decimus inquires in response.

"I helped develop the deadly poisons that now coat the arrows of your archers, poisons especially deadly to Onmar," the Vine Druid answers.

"So why did you actually do that, rather than disappear into the woods?" Decimus responds.

"Do I get an Onmar feather bed to sleep on?" the Vine Druid remarks evasively.

"You know about that too?" Decimus exclaims.

"With my new arrows, every Atoning Toadman should soon be able to have such a bed and why not?" the Vine Druid suggests.

"Because the...... Toad Mother told us we should respect the dead Onmar, in a dream," Decimus reveals.

"But their feathers are so lovely and soft. When we were little, swimming around in the water and one of our siblings died, it wasn't disrespect when we ate their remains to sustain ourselves. Now we are older and need more things, so who is to say that we don't genuinely *need* those wonderfully soft Onmar-feather beds to sleep on in order to get a proper night's sleep?" the Vine Druid rambles.

"So it's okay to eat Onmar now? Is that what you are saying?" Decimus responds irritably.

"Of course not, since all their bodies will be filled with deadly poisons," the Vine Druid concludes.

*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Index and Reference

Goblin-Cookie · Feb 22, 2024

16. Gremlins of Severford : Turn 26-28
Severford, Grexolis, GC 5481

It is the afternoon and Lisa has gathered with the rest of her family at the centre of their dwelling, which is towards the outskirts of the city, in order to eat their daily meal. Back in Vallenford she had lived in a much larger household and, not having heard of any particular calamities she supposed that her old household must still be there in their huge house in Vallenford eating their equally sizable meal. When she had left to colonise Severford, only a few of those family members had left with her to form a new household in Severford and most were of her generation.

But then there was Lagoona 'the Elder'. Originally, she was 'the Elder' because there were many Lagoonas in the family and she was the eldest that bore that name, but now however she was simply *the* Elder, since everyone else in the household belonged to the same generation of the family as Lisa did. She was thankful for her presence, for Lagoona was interesting; she belonged to the oldest generation of Atoning Toadmen on Grexolis and unlike her adoptee Lisa who was spawned in a pool on Grexolis, Lagoona actually arrived from Magehaven.

Her questions about Lagoona's time in Magehaven had met with hazy, unclear answers. It seemed that during one of her days on Magehaven, or was it *the* day on Magehaven, Lagoona had been appointed to be Court Sage and had actually personally advised King Decimus about lore and magical matters. Yet Lagoona was not spawned on Magehaven, since nobody was, but instead she originally came from a settlement on Tidolon. Lisa considered that part of Lagoona's story longer and more interesting, though she had yet to tell her most of it.

For dinner are many whole rabbit-like creatures and a number of large fruits, similar to oranges, lemons or grapefruits but grown in a much colder climate. She gulps down one rabbit creature without cutting it up at all, it tasted like fur and meat. Then she picks up the fruit and finds that it is quickly pulped in her mouth, she rather enjoys the way its juice tastes. Then a new, experimental idea occurs to her; what if she ate both the rabbit-creature and the fruit at the same time? Even her large toad mouth could not accomplish such a feat, so she takes a very sharp knife from nearby and cuts the rabbit-creature in two. She is able to just about manage to eat the whole fruit and half the creature in one mouthful.

As she does this, her siblings look at her strangely, perplexed by the whole concept of eating more than one food item at once and Lisa is made to feel somewhat uncomfortable, but then Lagoona, noticing how Lisa's siblings are looking at her, decides to intervene.

"Lisa's concept of cutting things up into smaller parts and eating them together is a rather basic one. Back on Tidolon we used to eat many meals containing numerous parts of animals and different plants, all combined to produce new and delicious flavours," she remarks.

Then, after quite a while apparently spent in silent reflection, Lisa's least favourite brother decides to respond.

"That is the problem Elder, those combined flavours are delicious, unnaturally delicious,".

"How is it a problem?" Lagoona asks.

"Pleasure is always a problem, everyone will spend their days eating fine-tasting food and resting on their swollen bellies rather than being productive," Lisa's brother argues.

"Productive of what?" Lisa challenges.

"Of what our King seeks, power, strength, victory; the things that we can all agree are truly essential," her brother responds.

Tidak talks like he is a great warrior in the service of King Decimus, but the only one here who has ever actually been a warrior is me, Lisa thinks in irritation.

"Ultimately, regardless of the productive or unproductive effects of eating mixed food, we can all surely agree that arguing *about* what food we should eat is especially unproductive, especially given we can, in fact, eat whatever we wish provided it is not illegal to do so," Lagoona concludes diplomatically.

With the conclusion of the meal, Lisa heads upstairs to the room where everyone sleeps. In a chest under her bed are found all her personal possessions and driven by nostalgia she retrieves her chest and opens it. Within, she finds her old scout hat, the one decorated with the severed wings of a sylph, this hat is now worn and tattered and the wings no longer glow as they once did. She puts this old hat upon her head, dreaming of her past days in the military and feeling bitter about her brother's disrespect.

Then from somewhere she smells smoke on her nostrils.

"Fire!" she croaks.

She receives a response immediately

"That isn't fire, that is what an inferno hound smells like, they must be getting close," Lagoona tells her.

"Who is *they*, is Severford being invaded?" Lisa responds, alarmed.

"Yes it is, I have known about that for hours but there was no reason to upset our meal about it," Lagoona explains.

"We should fight!" Lisa insists.

"You meant to say, 'we should die' Adoptee Lisa," Lagoona retorts.

Lagoona gathers everyone to a high-up window, where owing to the general high altitude of their dwelling Lisa can see all the major streets in Severford. Using her long-distance vision she quickly spots the source of the smoky scent, for on the downhill streets below their house are a pack of inferno hounds, creatures she had encountered before in her scouting days but only from a distance and given their small size and disproportionate heads these inferno hounds are clearly babies, what might even be called inferno puppies. Then she realises that strewn about all over the streets are mangled and charred bodies, for some had tried to fight back and been overcome, but then she notices that some of the inferno puppies are gnawing on the dead and at this point she averts her gaze in horror.

Then comes insane cackling and the sound of shuffling feet, as a large mob of a second kind of fiend traipse along the street below; gremlins. As horrific as she finds these monkey-like creatures, Lisa is highly perplexed by how as they pass, the doors of seemingly random houses open and the gremlins are able to enter without resistance, reliably leaving with random valuables or foodstuffs. In a few cases, however, the gremlins do not even have to bother to enter the houses but rather the residents actively hurl them valuables through open doors or windows.

"People are helping the gremlins, why?" Lisa exclaims in bewilderment.

"Because of that thing," Lagoona explains, pointing at something in the distance.

What she sees is the strangest creature she has ever seen, a floating worm with a face that resembles a skull but glowing with an intense inner light.

"What is that?" Lisa asks.

"A lightbringer, it shouldn't be helping fiends, but clearly it is," Lagoona reveals.

"Why not?" Lisa inquires.

"Because it is, normally an angelic creature of order and goodness. That mystery can wait however; the important thing is that our minds will soon come under attack and if we are not vigilant we will be persuaded to aid those fiends below us," Lagoona tells them all.

No sooner has Lagoona finished speaking these words than the lightbringer's mental assault begins.

Lisa hears a powerful voice in her head, a feminine voice that she finds it impossible to ignore.

"I am the Toad Mother, I have come to call upon the atonement of this wicked town that they may be once again be regarded as righteous, I love all my children and so I wish that they avoid the fate of those who have already foolishly attempted to resist, deliver your wealth over to them, and you will be forgiven," the voice tells her.

The Toad Mother does not speak to people, she is a polite metaphor for how babies come about, she thinks.

"I can appear as well," the voice responds.

Before Lisa's eyes appears an apparition of a beautiful toadwoman who appears as everyone somehow knows the Toad Mother looks like.

"I am not wicked and even if I were, I would still owe that collection of fiends, nothing!" she responds, this time aloud.

"What you call fiends, they are my collectors, that appear only rarely before the wicked that they be given an opportunity to atone, do not deny them and pass up what may be your only opportunity to be at peace again," the voice responds, in an anguished tone.

As the apparition gazes serenely at her, Lisa finds herself attacked by a terrible wave of pure guilt, which leaves her despising her very existence and wishing she had never been spawned. She tears her sylph wing hat off her head and cradles it in her hands as she falls to the ground, overpowered by negative emotions.

"Do not lie and pretend you are innocent Lisa, you are a murderer. You bear in your hands the severed wings of an innocent sylph, who only wanted to get away and live their life in peace but then you struck them down all the same, and then you decided their beautiful wings would look pretty on your hat," the voice accuses.

"They were enemies, just as you are an enemy, a lightbringer pretending to be the Toad Mother," she declares angrily, putting her hat back onto her head.

The voice and the apparition fade away as the lightbringer, realising that its efforts have failed decides to redeploy its powers elsewhere. The gremlins with their allies looted Severford for the rest of the day and ultimately retreated to the south with their spoils but neither Lisa nor any other member of her family helped them in any way.

60. A gremlin leads a campaign of terror against Severford.png

Vallenford Province, Grexolis, GC 5481

Bruno the Chaplain was no longer a Chaplain any more. He had retired from military service, knowing that he had many inspired notions to write down, straight from the higher mind of the Toad Mother and that dying in battle would keep him from writing all these inspired notions down. During his time in the military, he had grown close to King Decimus and he had passed on a note to Viceroy Kyneburt that they should build a new form of community somewhere around Vallenford, preferably somewhere close to numerous farms.

It was a regrettable fact that not everyone who was adopted by their families, necessarily thrived under their care. Many succumbed to vicious sibling rivalries, or were neglected and abused by their elders. Thus, many families were at risk of becoming arenas of internal conflicts, threatening to undermine the bedrock of Atoning Toadman society even more than the Locals already did. The solution, he had explained was to create a special form of family, one dedicated entirely to the Toad Mother's love, where those who felt unloved or rejected by their own families could go.

Thus had been born what Decimus had insisted in his divine wisdom upon calling an abbey. The resident toadmen and toadwomen, which would be called monks and nuns respectively would answer to their leader, the abbot. Naturally as the most eminent and esteemed clergytoad in all the Kingdom, Bruno had been elected the abbot before the abbey itself was even finished.

Now with the abbey finished, his new monks and nuns were now residing. It was not intended however that they remain resident for long, as the harvest season would soon enough begin and then they would be sent off to toil in the fields for the farming communities to the north and south; all according to profitable agreements negotiated before the abbey was even built. He had written a number of books extolling the virtues of honest labour in the fields and he hoped his new disciples would be eager to savour the spiritual delights of hard work.

Regrettably however, Abbot Bruno's time was just too important for menial toil, so now he sits at his desk and begins penning his new work.

The Toad Mother, she is both a literal being from which we all descend and a metaphor for the power inherent in the bloodline of our great people, he writes.

Vallenford, Grexolis, GC 5481

Life had become easy for Viceroy Kyneburt. Once, back when financial difficulties forever plagued his administration in Vallenford and the central treasury, he had been a hardworking toadman, forever toiling away for his master King Decimus, but in recent months however, things had changed and Kyneburt had taken up near-permanent residency in the palace's central pond.
Typically an Atoning Toadman ate only a single meal each day, but against the advice of every doctor in the palace Kyneburt had started demanding a second meal to be delivered to him while he reclined, after the day's absence of work, in the pond. Apparently this would cause him to become enormous and sluggish, but the pleasures of eating while en-ponded were just too much to resist. If he did not appear in the dining hall, people would wonder why and so it was also necessary for him to eat there as well.
One woman was responsible for his good fortune; her name was Dafa and she was his Executor. Originally she had been employed merely to execute Kyneburt's instructions, which is how she became known as 'the Executor'. Since disagreeing with her on anything was so inexplicably.... hard, he had quickly learned to delegate all the government functions that he was supposed to carry out to Dafa.

But then, as Kyneburt continues to dine in the midst of his pond, Dafa enters the chamber, and he finds himself involuntarily sitting up to address her despite himself.

"Viceroy Kyneburt, to put it simply, this city is full of protesters and trouble; it needs dealing with," she tells him forcefully.

"So go deal with it," he responds, reclining back in the pond.

"Normally there is a correct decision, but here there is likely only a bad decision and a worse one; while whatever decision we do make will be bitterly contested, with personal appeals to King Decimus likely," she responds.

"You can still deal with it," he insists.

"But if I do, then you will be able to blame me for the negative consequences, which cannot be avoided whatever it is we do," she points out.

That was originally why I hired her as Executor, so if anything went really wrong I would have somebody else to blame for it, in case King Decimus were to summon me to explain the situation, he recalls.

"Would a guided tour of the city's troublesome districts suffice to inspire you to a solution?" she asks.

Kyneburt finds himself practically dragged on a sightseeing tour of Vallenford by Dafa.

Having being taken to a suitable vantage point, Kyneburt can observe two rival crowds at what is the border of sorts between two districts, one is predominantly inhabited by Locals while the other is inhabited by Atoning Toadmen. Kyneburt has a look first at the placards of his own people and finds they say things like:

All crimes are caused by Locals, no Locals, no crimes.
Locals out of Vallenford means a better Vallenford.
The Local problem has been ignored long enough.
Our concerns about Locals *must* be heard.
The People demand retribution, they will not be denied.
A permanent Atoning Toadman Council Now!
Peace with the Guardian, war with the Locals.

He doesn't bother to read the placards of the Locals because he cares so little about them or whatever it is that they might conceivably be demanding, but the radical nature of his own people's demands concern him. Tolerance was the very basis of Decimus's policy towards the Local population, whose productive labour would support the scale of military needed to conquer Grexolis, but here were people openly advocating negotiations with Turiel Tolarim so that they could depopulate their own city.

"The main problem here is a particular kind of Local, called the Leonine Villains, these creatures have a secret agenda to enslave all of Grexolis which involves among other things inciting the other Locals to rebel against the civilised races," she claims.

"They surely did not decide to start calling themselves villains, that isn't how Evil works," he points out.

"The Onmar named them that, like with the Mole Villains they are forbidden from all Onmar settlements since their evil plans to cause trouble were long ago exposed, perhaps we could do likewise here in Vallenford," she suggests.

"The loss of their population and thus their labour would surely cause Decimus to complain," he points out.

"I said that there was no *good* solution to the problem," she reminds him.

"Actually there is, Decimus is a Godir," he realises.

"How does that help anything?" she asks.

"Godir can use things called whispering stones, to convince neutral cities to join their cause. Yet since these whispering stones effect cities, it might be possible to use one to make a city that is becoming rebellious, more loyal," he explains.

"You could write a letter to Decimus suggesting he employ one of his whispering stones and see if it calms Vallenford down," she suggests.

62. As unrest grows, a whispering stone is deployed to keep order.png

Eastern Severford Province, Grexolis, GC 5481

Okirlot was one of the Leonine Villains, the leader of a group of catfolk knights that had ended up guarding a special lake within the swamps. In this lake special lilies grow, lilies containing astral dew, a valuable magical ingredient much sought after by spellcasters throughout Grexolis. Once they had lived among the Onmar, had trained under their instructors and had become what were known as 'tyrant knights'. But others of their kind had decided to cause trouble for the Guardian's authorities and being perceived as the main orchestrators of said unrest, the Leonine Villains were expelled from the cities of the Onmar.

The Leonine Villains had arrived when the Godir Lorcelot the Lion had invaded Grexolis, seeking in his own time what the Shad'rai sought to achieve now, to free whatever was trapped in the centre of Grexolis. The war had resulted in a stalemate and a negotiated settlement, the details of which were unknown to everyone on Grexolis, which had led to Lorcelot and his ally, who led a race now called the Mole Villains departing from Grexolis. While the Godir left, the creatures that served them remained, subject to demonisation and to various, contradictory rules. The rules had changed once again, when before the Leonine Villains were not permitted to settle anywhere *but* in the cities of the Onmar, now they were prohibited from dwelling *in* the cities of the Onmar.

He and his knights had sought new employment at a cult that had set up in what was once a temple to the Guardian Turiel Tolarim, before the 'Great Contraction' centuries ago when Turiel had prohibited major settlement anywhere except in the Onmar cities to the north-west. Much to his irritation, rather than employing their terrible combat power to slay the dragon and it's servants, taking the astral dew of the lake for themselves, the cult warlocks had instead sent his knights as a 'gift' to said dragon in return for being able to harvest a limited amount of the astral dew lilies of the lake.

Now the boredom had come to end, since new invaders had arrived on Grexolis. His cult spoke warmly of an age of strife and chaos that would somehow (logic was not their strong point) lead to the supremacy of the Leonine Villains over all of Grexolis. But now an army of the invading toad-people had arrived and the dragon he was leased out to work for refused to abandon her lake, despite his advice for her to flee.

63. Securing some astral dew near Severford.png

The forces of King Decimus had marched forward in an orderly fashion, relying as ever on their close ranks, discipline and cooperation to win them victory over the dragon and the various creatures that served it. But then the spell protecting the lake has been unleashed, scattering individual companies of the attacking forces around the vicinity of the lake.

Okirlot's knights wasted no time in taking full advantage of the new disorganisation of the enemy forces. Engaged in battle with plant beasts that served the dragon were some spearmen of the toadfolk, though Okirlot looks contemptuously at the quality of their weapons and armour.

"Those spearmen are weak, crush the weak!" he tells the others.

The catfolk knights rush forward in unison, charging forward into the formation of peasant spearmen and their charge hits home with a terrible force. Okirlot impales one such spearman with his lance and the spearman falls to the ground. Yet as he pulls out his lance, the spearman simply returns to his feet and picks up his spear.

What sort of creatures are we fighting, nobody could survive that blow, he thinks, frustrated.

Then he notices some kind of subtle glow is emanating from the spearmen he is fighting.

They are using some kind of magic to keep their forces from dying, he realises.

65. Hold the line is employed to save the lives of some peasants.png

Decimus watches as large, powerful undead orc berserkers hack through the enormous neck of the now unconscious frost dragon. He knows that in life these orcs served Asgera Spinesplitter, one the most terrible of the Godir in Magehaven; undeath seemed somehow to have done little to reduce their bloodlust and ferocity.

The battle was nearly over, the dragon was dead and nothing remained of the defenders of the lake except for it's knights and a number of.... dire penguins. His victory was not however without losses, but he knows that he no longer has to passively accept losses from among his army. Some of his peasant spearmen had fallen in the battle, their bodies punctuated by the vicious beak marks left by dire penguins.

Decimus closes his eyes, calling upon the power and love of the Toad Mother. When he opens his eyes again, the peasant spearmen are back on their feet and back in formation. With surprising speed, they charge forward, right into the mob of dire penguins that killed them and the penguins are quickly struck down. Now only the tyrant knights that served the dragon remained as enemies on the battlefield.

His archers loose their arrows, laced with the poison devised by the Vine Druid and his followers and these fall upon the tyrant knights. Knowing that the battle is lost, the catfolk knights turn around their horses and flee the battle.

66. Decimus uses his new power to bring some peasants back from the dead.png

******************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Index and Reference

Goblin-Cookie · Mar 9, 2024

17. Temple of the Catfolk : Turn 29-31
Mine north-west of Vallenford, Grexolis, GC 5482

The labourers of a tin mine in the mountains north-west of Vallenford have gathered outside the entrance of their mine to begin their next shift. From within the mine come out those of the previous shift, their bodies and clothes stained with rock dust and small shards of cassiterite. Those leaving the mine are a mixture of Atoning Toadmen and the Local race known as Swarming Dwarves, while those about to begin their shift are mostly of the Local race known as the Mole Villains, since it is the night shift and they are nocturnal.

The Swarming Dwarf miner Ulric makes his way back down the mountain path, looking forward to supper and a soft bed to sleep on. But then he sees something strange, faintly glowing angel figures seeming to fly through the night sky.

It is just a hallucination in the night sky, perhaps just the setting sun misinterpreted by my mind, Ulric reminds himself.

But the angel figures were actually quite real and as soon as Ulric had made his way back to the foot of the mountain on which the mine is located, he finds that a group descend in front of them, hitting the ground with a loud thud.

"Onmar!" Ulric and several others cry out together.

The band of Onmar stands before them, a mixture of warriors with swords and shields in their hands, and robed orcs with staves, who Ulric concludes are some kind of priest.

One of the priests moves forward within the Onmar group and advances towards them, flanked by a few of its brethren.

"You have all been involved in illegal mining but not all of you are invaders, separate your invaders from the rest," the priest commands.

There is silence among the terrified miners, but then Ulric alone gathers the courage to respond.

"Which us are the invaders?" he asks.

"You are not an invader, your people were given leave of Grexolis by the Guardian and are subject to his law. The invaders are a race of being that resemble frogs, comply with the law and separate from such beings," the Onmar priest coldly explains.

"You can remove them yourself," Ulric declares defiantly.

No verbal response is given but instead the Onmar move forward and swiftly drag Ulric away from the rest of the group, awed by this show of force, the other locals quickly comply, leaving the Atoning Toadmen miners huddled together in fear. The Onmar with swords swiftly move forward and dismember the first Atoning Toadman miner, but Ulric is at this point fleeing in terror along with everyone else.

Ulric is now back in his mining village, having fled from the massacre of his fellow miners who happened to be Atoning Toadmen. Yet as he and the others arrive back at the village, he finds that another group of Onmar have occupied the now bloodstained village centre and stand over the corpses of a number of Atoning Toadmen whom they have just massacred.

The Onmar aren't interested in us, they are only interested in the Atoning Toadmen, he reminds himself.

Warily Ulric makes his way back to his house within the mining village, only to find himself blocked at the door by an Onmar warrior.

"We are allowed to live here," he says after some time of wary silence.

"That is not the issue," the warrior responds.

"The issue is?" Ulric asks fearfully.

"You are indeed allowed to live, you are even allowed to live here, but the fact remains that you are a criminal and will thus be taken to a suitable location not under the control of the invaders in order to be punished," the warrior explains.

Ulric and the other surviving miners from the village were taken to a mine in Guardian territory and required to work there as part of their 'sentence' for the 'crime' of helping the invaders.

69. A 2nd Citadel army siezes a gold mine near Vallenford, causing a deficit.png

The Forbidden Shrine east of Severford, Grexolis, GC 5482

72. The leonine villain warlocks in the cult.png

Zyne the Black had built his cult up from its humble beginnings among the leonine villains cast out by the Guardian Turiel Tolarim. Long had his people yearned for the coming day when they would bring about the Great Anarchy that would see Grexolis thrown into utter disorder, a disorder that would end with the rise of a new order, one in which the Leonine Villains would reign supreme over the entire world and all other beings would be either their slaves or their playthings.

His people were organised into secret cults, but some of these cults had become arrogant and had leaked the whole genius plan for world domination to the Guardian, who had then without needing much encouragement banished Leonine Villains from all Onmar cities, ruining centuries worth of careful alliances and connections with the other beings that chafed under Turiel's rule, beings that would surely be crucial to bringing about the Great Anarchy.

As he had slowly accumulated his followers, Zyne had maintained the proper discretion. When they had moved into the abandoned shrine, they had not torn down the images of the Guardian but instead they had cleaned and renovated them, all the better to maintain their cover of being his faithful worshippers. Yet it all seemed so unfair, despite having done everything properly, maintained the proper organisation, the proper secrecy and the proper teaching, everything had gone wrong all the same.

The invading frog-men had a set-up a new town to the west and tens of thousands had arrived at this place, which they apparently called Severford. Then they had slain his dragon ally and took the nearby astral dew for themselves, despite the power of the knights he had sent to help protect the dragon. That detail did not matter, for they had enough astral dew already stockpiled for many years worth of rituals and work had already begun with the black market in Severford to obtain astral dew indirectly through purchase.

Yet the string of misfortune continued, as the frog-man army had continued east after taking the astral dew and for some reason had taken an interest in their temple; their only hope now lay in rituals. As they had spotted the army long before their arrival, they had been given plenty of time to prepare the rituals needed to summon aid from their fiendish patrons in Obbadoth.

The only problem was that said patrons demanded something that would make maintaining secrecy and covering up the nature of their true allegiances difficult; his transformation into a fiend and that of all members present in the temple. Now Zyne lies bound within the ritual circle, as his followers who are holding bowls full of astral dew chant around him the words of a spell. As the spell takes effect, Zyne finds himself screaming in agony as horns emerge from his head and wings from his back.

Now a fiend, Zyne the Black stands up on his feet, as new concepts and thoughts pour into his head.

"Grexolis will sink into Obbadoth! Only then will the balor rule over this world through us! The mortal people will all be slaves and we will be their drivers!" he declares.

"Bring out the shrine of smiting! We have power enough to bend this holy thing to the will of Chaos!" he orders.

Zyne leaves the ritual circle to allow the next leonine villain to take his place and become a fiend themselves.

71. Within the shrine, Decimus finds a cult summoning a demon.png

Decimus had come to the ruined temple because he had heard rumours of a terrible cult based there, one dedicated either to dark magic, chaos magic, or both (they weren't the same thing); he felt an evil cult hiding nearby a better explanation for the recent gremlin attack on Severford than it merely being an accident. Yet he looks with confusion upon the many statues of Turiel Tolarim surrounding the vicinity of the temple itself, for some reason they have been cleaned and repainted rather than smashed into rubble.

Merely worshipping the Guardian does not prevent a group from summoning fiends to serve their cause, Decimus decides.

Then he senses powerful magic coming from within the temple and its chaotic nature clashes with his fundamentally orderly nature as an Atoning Toadman, making him feel somewhat queasy. His whole journey in life, from his studies with Nimue, his war against her on the Enchanted Archipelago and his ultimate rise to Godirhood had gradually endowed him with the ability to sense magical power, but he remained uneasy about how his perspective was no longer that of an ordinary toadman like those he ruled over.

They are summoning something big, a powerful fiend from Obbadoth, we don't have much time to stop them, he realises.

"Attack immediately!" he commands, raising his staff of blossoms as a signal in case any of his army did not hear him.

There is a great deal of noise as Decimus's army storms over the broken cobblestones and into the main shrine at the heart of the ruined temple.

The cult warlocks were waiting for them and unleashed their icy magics without delay.

73. Fighting the cult, which has a shrine of smiting.png

The battle had raged within the central shrine for a number of hours, but Decimus's forces had proven stronger than the cult warlocks and their tyrant knights. Even the aid of their shrine of smiting, deadly as it was, had not been enough for them to prevail. A possessed statue normally employed *against* the likes of these cultists by forces of order and holiness, it had been abandoned centuries ago along with the temple and that had ironically led to being forced into service by those it would normally be employed against, but unfortunately for Decimus its powers still worked, resulting in the loss of many lives.

Now that the cultists are all dead upon the floor, the attacking forces smash apart the shrine of smiting and it falls to the ground in ruins. Yet as it does so, Decimus and many others can hear a mysterious voice, though others hear nothing.

"Thanks, you have freed me," the voice says.

But then there is a rotten smell in the temple and Decimus realises that the cultists' ritual has concluded, unleashing a powerful fiend into the temple; a balor.

Powerful as it is, the balor faces the entire invading army alone.

"The cultists made a deal with me, but when I turn up they are all dead!" it complains,

Then a mob of peasant militia skewer it with their spears.

"If you keep doing that little toadmen, I promise that you are going to regret it," it threatens.

Down come the great axes of the undead orc berserkers in Decimus's army.

"As I said before, you are all going to regret this," it repeats.

It was not lying, in a sense, for as the balor perished, its huge bloated body violently exploded, showering those within around 20 feet of itself with the flaming remains of its unnatural body; so that even its death proved deadly.

76. They find a scroll within containing great knowledge.png

The victorious King Decimus stands over the bodies of the cult warlocks and is able to remove a key from around the waist of one of them, perhaps their leader. His victorious troops rampage through the temple ruins, looting the bodies of their enemies and smashing the ancient images of Turiel Tolarim, though Decimus already suspects that he is entirely another enemy to the cult he has just defeated.

Using the key, Decimus opens a locked door in the basement of the temple ruins; within he finds a cellar where there are the paraphernalia of fiend worship, a ritual circle, empty containers that once contained magical materials or mana crystals and a large array of scrolls. Unlike in the main part of the temple, there are no images of Turiel here, but rather a tapestry bearing a single image of a triangle trisected horizontally. As Decimus examines the triangle in the dim light, he realises that the triangle represents a hierarchy, in the top section is a single demonic being resembling the summoned balor that they killed in the battle, in the middle section are Leonine Villain warlocks and in the bottom section are Onmar, prostrated before the warlocks.

Here I have definite proof that the Leonine villain cult did not believe in the Guardian at all, in their delusion they sought to invert the social order, to place their weak and defeated kind in charge of Grexolis with the aid of fiends, he concludes.

The only thing of potential value in the cellar are the scrolls, so Decimus heads over to examine them. Disappointedly most of the scrolls turn out to be works of propaganda rather than about magic at all.

These fools wasted so much ink writing their hateful nonsense down on paper when the truth is much simpler, that the more they try to take over Grexolis, the weaker they will be, he thinks.

But buried beneath the works of propaganda, Decimus finds a case full of scrolls clearly related to magic and decides to send them back to Vallenford for further study. As he carefully puts the scrolls back into their case, a defender captain makes his way into the cellar.

"We have found the cult's treasury!" he reports excitedly.

"How much wealth is in there?" Decimus asks.

"We haven't counted it yet," the defender admits.

"Then come back with the numbers, merely knowing we have found some unspecified quantity of wealth is not useful," Decimus responds irritably.

The victorious army has now left the temple and has returned to their camp for the night, having already removed all the wealth from the cult treasury and neatly piled it in the centre of said camp. Decimus stares at the treasure for a time, unable to determine whether he is impressed or disappointed by the quantity of the wealth before him.

"We have obtained 3110 gold coins worth of treasure from the temple," he is told.

With a precise number in place, Decimus sits down and thinks about what would be the best use for such a sum of money. Using a bottle of ink taken from the very cult he has just destroyed, he writes a letter to Viceroy Kyneburt.

We have obtained 3110 gold coins worth of wealth, which will soon be deposited in Severford. I understand that the development of Severford would benefit from having a castle, while Vallenford would benefit from having a series of taverns built to bring the disparate communities of our capital together in harmony, he writes.

78. A tavern is built in Vallenford to keep the disgruntled people happy.png

Vallenford, Grexolis, GC 5482

Theodoric the Scholar had struggled for many weeks to solve a problem regarding the development of a form of magic which the Vine Druid had described to them but the practical realisation of remained ellusive. They were supposed to use their powers over nature to manifest roots that would embrace injured soldiers on the battlefield to heal them and this they had already partly managed to achieve, yet to imbue the roots themselves with healing magic, that feat continued to elude them.

No work within the palace shone light upon a solution to this problem but Theodoric had recently obtained a set of scrolls taken from some kind of evil cult. In his desperation he actually reads through the scrolls line by line, grateful that there are no clergytoads watching, in the vain hope that perhaps something in there might shed light on a solution to the problem where all the books already in the royal library had not.

Then he spots it; one line contains a mechanism to transfer magic from the chaos affinity to a living creature that it may become a fiend.

Nothing should prevent us from modifying this formula to transfer healing magic from the nature affinity into the roots summoned in the first part of an incantation, he realises.

Having copied the useful line onto a piece of paper, Theodoric reads through the scrolls a few more times to ensure nothing else useful to his project could be gleaned from them. Once he has done this, he throws the entire case of scrolls into the fire.

It is better that the clergy never realise that I have been reading things of this nature, he thinks to himself as the scrolls burn.

*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Index and Reference

26. Ice Magic School : Turn 49-51	27. Invading Northwards : Turn 52-53	28. Citadel Under Attack : Turn 54-55	29. The Central Council : Turn 56
30. Citadel Falls : Turn 57-58	31. The Abbey's End : Turn 59-60	32. The Pyromancers' Fortress : Turn 61-64	33. The Builder's Guild : Turn 65-66
34. March on Arcadia : Turn 67-68	35. Decimus in the Void : Turn 69	36. The Return of the King : Turn 70	37. Reflections : Turn 71-74
38. Phase Beasts and Spiders : Turn 74	39. Glowing Eyes : Turn 75-76	40. Battle for the Spelljammer, Part 1 : Turn 76	41. Battle for the Spelljammer, Part 2 : Turn 77
42. Battle for the Spelljammer, Part 3 : Turn 78-79	43. Baloric's Rise : Turn 80	44. Battle at Battleground Keep : Turn 81	45. Decimus the Prophet : Turn 82-83

46. Presto the Viper : Turn 84	47. Green Fields and Opportunities : Turn 85-87	48. Presto's End : Turn 88-89	49. Sophisticated Orcs Rebel : Turn 90-91
50. Making Swamps : Turn 92	51. Archers : Turn 93	52. Hunting Rebellion : Turn 94	53. Shel against Shel : Turn 95-97
54. Gondelion's First Battle : Turn 98-99	55. Court of Whispers : Turn 100	56. Invading Lucerna : Turn 101-103	57. The Magical Recipe Book : Turn 104
58: The Interrogation : Turn 105-106	59. The Lonely Besieger : Turn 106-107	60. The Counterattack : Turn 108	61. The Bard of Morn : Turn 109
62. The Frightened Abbey : Turn 110-112	63. Baloric and Lucine : Turn 112-113	64. The Cost of War : Turn 113	65. The Latest Episode : 114-115

6. Arrival on Grexolis : Turn 1	7. Gazing into the Void : Turn 2-4	8. Meeting the Covenant : Turn 5-6	9. Magical Servants : Turn 7-10
10. Sentient Plants : Turn 11-12	11. Actuality of Healing : Turn 13-15	12. The Ancient Banner : Turn 16-17	13. The Vine Druid : Turn 18-19
14. The Astral Rift : Turn 20	15. The Ogres' Feast : Turn 21-25	16. Gremlins of Severford : Turn 26-28	17. Temple of the Catfolk : Turn 29-31
18. Crime of Subdelegation : Turn 31	19. Government Charity : Turn 32-34	20. Ice Witch and Phoenix : Turn 35-37	21. The Phoenix and the Unicorn : Turn 38-39
22. The Battlefield : Turn 40	23. The Siege of Morn, Part 1: Turn 41-44	24. The Siege of Morn, Part 2 : Turn 45-46	25. Annexation : Turn 47-49

Decimus Grexolis

Colonel

AlexanderPrimus

Colonel

Colonel

Colonel

Colonel

Colonel

Colonel

Colonel

Colonel

Colonel

Colonel

Colonel

Colonel

Attachments

Colonel

Colonel

Colonel

Colonel

Colonel

Colonel