Furyan
Another dream city, this one has sheltered the Realms Watch and FreeSoul Templars
in recent history and is currently the stronghold of the Furyan/Freesoul Templar/Realms Watch/Warrior Maidens of Shinarr alliance.
Heavily besieged by a Kadatorii/Arretian/Illuminate Vanguard force.
Furyan Expedition
by Arnaya
On Wednesday, February 10th/ 2016, a group of Dreamers gathered at the Alliance of the Eclipse to use the telescope to look in on the city of Furyan.
Tamarisk (Guardian and High Priest of AoE) set up the telescope and oriented it. Bladeslayer, Tember, Uthanatos, and Arnaya completed our initial group. The pillar that raised the telescope into position began to release a warmth that could felt in the room, and several faint clicks could be heard coming from within the column as Tamarisk aligned the telescope to look for a dreamer named Xun'rok (The Knight Commander of the Freesoul Templars group helping to defend the Furyan City).
Initially, A blurred vision began to form on the darkened area of the wall but quickly began to resolve into visions of beings that began to form more clearly than before. The beings resolved into a clear image of battling dreamers as the telescope settled into its position. Not much was really distinguishable except for crests of various sizes and colors, along with dust, dreamsoul and swinging blades. The entire scene was a jumbled, desperate melee.
A long line of dust was seen in the background that reached closer and closer to the dreamers; behind the line, no dreamers stood, only large mares. Tamarisk adjusted the telescope a little more, and the screen settled on a small shard of a city, defensive walls surrounding it, black smoke rising from several different locations around the city. Darkmares surrounded the walls, exchanging chak fire with beings above the ramparts.
As we watched, a large ripple of energy erupted on the south wall of the city (Arnaya identified that zone as the location from which the Kadatorii Mares had been attacking last), sending large bricks and debris flying in all directions. Smoke rose from a large hole left behind from the explosion. Tamarisk attempted to zoom the telescope in on that point, but the twisted dial gave way with a sharp POP and the dial would no longer control the focus.
The line of darkmares we'd seen began flooding in towards the hole, continuing the barrage of chakfire towards the top of the ramparts. The focus began to go blurry, and faded completely as Tamarisk stormed and A very large Hota suddenly appeared larger than life on the screen before the dreamers with his mouth wide open, as if screaming out a battle cry. The last thing we saw was a large shadowed crack in the foreground and blurred figures in the background. Darkened clouds rose above the dreamers, before turning the screen to nothing but complete darkness.
Tamarisk powered down the telescope to prevent further damage to it, while Tember, Rasputin (who had arrived near the end) and Arnaya went outside to prepare themselves for a raid. Bladeslayer went to get Dynroths staff, and returned at about the same time Jade joined the group. Tamarisk also came out. Arnaya organized the group. Zsa Zsa joined them as everyone was preparing. The group set up with Bladeslayer, Tember, and Arnaya in one squad... Zsa Zsa, Jade, and Rasputin in the second squad. Tamarisk stayed behind to provide an anchor and home support to help recall the group is something went wrong.
The plan was to arrive as quietly the group could, and focus as much power on Arnaya as possible for a single, devastating strike at the maren ranks to buy the Furyan defenders some time. At which point, Bladeslayer would again activate the staff and return the group to the city to limit out vulnerability and help make identifying our point of origin harder for the enemy forces. In the event the group was discovered before they could strike, the group would barrage the enemy forces with chakram fire to keep them back from Bladeslayer and Arnaya.... Arnaya would release whatever energy gathered and Bladeslayer whisked the group away. No one was to be left behind.
With the groups formed and a basic plan in place, Bladeslayer planted Dynroths staff in the ground and the strike group each grabbed the staff after preparing (making sure that they had Soulshields in place). The staff transported the group to a small section of the unknown, and detached a platform from it while shrouding it in a protective bubble. The entire platform traveled swiftly, surrounded by the glowing bubble of energy as stars and other cosmic features sped past. The bubble condensed quite a bit, until it only covered the small platform at the center.
After a couple of minutes, the platform began to slow and came to a stop. The group was hovering on the platform above the battle of furyan, the darkmaren lines almost directly underneath the strike force. The strike force briefly saw another female dreamer flicker into view within their protective sphere, but it disappeared again without saying anything or interacting with the group.
The strike force could hear and smell the battle taking place, and immediately took action. Everyone assembled directed a concentrated barrage of energy into a harmonic retention field that Arnaya put up, and she cycled the energy up further with her own power.
As the group was building their power, a band of Furyan dwarves advanced out from the hole in the city wall and formed a small defensive circle in front of it, striking with axes and clubs at the darkmaren forces attacking. One of the dwarves roared: “For Furyan!!” and was echoed by the others. Though one of the dwarves was quickly felled by the darkmares, forcing the others to quickly tighten their ranks to maintain the line. A pure abyss darkmare ripped another dwarf from the lines, and he was quickly torn limb from limb by the maren forces as they pressed forward. Another dwarf fell before the defensive lines could tighten up again, though they did attempt to rally.
The strike forces energy gathering was completed at that point, and it was unleashed in a single burst beam that swept the maren ranks, decimating everything in its path and thankfully was aimed well enough to avoid harming the defenders.
An all blood colored Horron at the back ranks of the maren forces finally noticed the Strike Team and quickly attacked. When it burst through the protective bubble to attack, it was noted to be Hotano. A quick, but fierce battle erupted between Hotano and the Strike Team. Arnaya and Zsa Zsa were both floated, though Arnaya was quickly restored by Bladeslayer and managed to strike the falling blow on Hotano. Zsa Zsa vanished as her recall swept her into the energy bubble, where the conflicting power nearly swept her away. Thankfully the bubble was able to return her inside safely in short order.
The dwarven defenders of the Furyan city took advantage of the Strike Teams assault to counter attack the maren forces and drove them back some distance, several of the darkmares at the edge of the horde began to retreat. The Strike Team attempted to return to Underlight at that point, but found that the staff had been too drained with the initial transport of the group to return them to the city.
Before they could start coordinating recharging the staff, a dark dreamer figure emerged from the maren hoard. The Strike Team began trying to send messages to Tamarisk to begin his work back in Underlight, and prepared themselves for battle again.
The Dark Dreamer walked slowly towards the breech in the Furyan city walls, while Tember, Rasputin, and Zsa Zsa began cooperatively recharging Dynroths staff. Blades concentration was needed to maintain the protective field around the Strike Team. Jade and Arnaya took up defensive positions to protect the group. Arnaya took a bit of an offensive role briefly, unleashing a barrage of chakram fire at the dark dreamer as a small light off in the distant stars above the dark dreamer began to shine.
The dark dreamer completely ignored the attack and continued his advance on the Furyan lines, dragging the head of a large decorative mace behind him. Arnaya tentatively identified the figure as Zaxun, General of the Illuminate Vanguard (after later discussion with Jiovanni, it is possible that the figure was Garius, champion and apparent leader of the Arretian forces) and the mace as the “Mace of Castigation”, an Idoaclesian artifact from the era of the Sect of the Prudent and Emancipators of Men, capable of duplicating the art of Dreamstrike.
The fires from the battle reflected off of the dark dreamers crest, revealing the dual circles of the Arretian city while the glow from the distant star glowed brighter (Theory: The star was the Arretian city, glowing as the dark dreamer drew power from it for his assault). As the Strike Team continued to work on recharging the staff and sending to Tamarisk for aid, Arnaya continued her ineffective attack on the Dark Figure. He continued to ignore the attacks, and swept into the Furyan lines. Three Dwarves sent flying ten feet or more with a single stroke of the mace. Another stroke of the mace crushed a Furyan defenders head and continued on to crush anothers rib cage. The light of the star now a solid beam aimed directly at the Strike Teams platform.
Before the incoming attack could land, Dynroths staff flared to life again. As the darkmaren offensive resumed, sweeping the defenders aside through the gaps in their line that the dark dreamer had created, the Dark dreamer and several darkmares turn their attention to the Strike Team. The incoming beam completely surrounding protective bubble as Dynroths staff flared, returning the Strike Team to the city at the last minute. Arnaya lingered longest, making sure that nothing remained to positively identify Underlight as the source of the Strike Team.
The Strike Team returned to the city though a portal rift created from the combination of Tamarisks efforts and Dynroths Staff. Tamarisk himself was badly burned from his attempts to open a portal from the city end of things. All of the Strike Force (excepting blade, though even he had to sit down pretty quickly) were exhausted from the combination of the travel and the unleashed energy of their attack and most arrived back just before their main protective arts began to fail.
Tamarisk reported that he could see little of events besides the Strike Team encased in the transport bubble. Everything outside of it was fuzzy to him. Everything was dark and swirling around the Strike Team, then the bubble started shifting color before it started to crack. At that point, Tamarisk began trying to get the Strike Team back home. Zsa Zsa reported that when her recall took effect, she couldn't sense “The Weave” around her, just a flashing energy storm that was dark and scary to use her words.
Pending further efforts and possible repair of the Alliance Telescope, it was decided to use the telescope in the Insight Hall of the Teaching Hall to keep tabs on the Furyan city and ensure we are not caught unprepared when the forces we saw turn their attention to Underlight.
As everyone was discussing events and unwinding a little, a voice echoed in Arnaya's head saying: “Vision pleads. Insight needs. Go.” and she was abruptly pulled to the telescope in the Hall of Insight. She took the hint and began aligning the telescope, focusing it towards the Furyan City. She saw that the battle continued to rage and was briefly blinded by a flare of chakram fire that came right into her line of sight. Several recognizable faces were briefly visible in the field of view before the telescope powered down.
Reported by Arnaya, Soulmistress, with thanks to those dreamers identified above and the houses of AoE and DoL.
