Blood-red blooms

In Urizen, red flowers represent Courage.

In the Footsteps of the Dead

The Fist of the Mountains broke themselves to preserve the spires of Elos. Denying the Grendel a ruinous weapon of the Spring Realm looted from the fallen Temple of Tempest Jade, the orcs of the Broken Shore must adjust their strategy. Perhaps they initially intended a hit-and-run, looting Elos and leaving the port shattered to demonstrate again their arrogant belief that they are the masters of the Bay of Catazar. Perhaps they always intended to seize the coast of Redoubt; perhaps their hungry gaze is turned inland to where the Brilliant Star lies in the foothills of Tomari. The Salt Lords of the Grendel have an insatiable lust for mithril, after all.

There are three armies here - the Black Eels, the Bone Nautilius, and the Hamsin. The Black Eels, as is their wont, take every opportunity to strip the valuables from the people of Urizen whose spires they breach. The other two armies are more interested in land and conquest for all that they come cautiously, carefully. Perhaps they do not wish to risk the kind of unexpected confrontation that wrecked their plans last season.

They are supported by an armada of swift-moving warships with red, and green, and blue, and yellow sails. The Shamal, the Simoon, the Tempest, and the Golden Winds These three armies are surely some of the best provisioned and well supported armies anywhere along the Bay of Catazar. Valuable as that support is, however, it can only do so much. It is the armies of the Broken Shore that must face the anger of the Empire, not the Grendel secure at sea on their fine warships.

Heralds of the Autumn Realm, now is our time! The virtue and loyalty of the Blackthorns and the Pilgrims patiance will bolster our numbers, but that is not where we shine… The grendel have taken our land and taken our riches - but we are the true masters of greed! Make callidus proud! Let the Grendel fear us like the farmer fears a plague of locusts. Rob them, starve them. Root out their supply lines, find their caches of riches - Leave nothing behind. Take back our land and take everything the Grendel have. The Grendel think war is business - How Quaint! Let us show them that war is industry.

Clytemnestra of the House of the Wanderer, General of the Argent Sword

Blackthorns, I know your pain. To see our home in Therunin fall to the sway of the Vallorn. However, we have fought this war for 1000 years. We need allies. The people of Urizen call for aid and their calls will not fall on deaf ears, not while I still draw breath. We move to redoubt, to fight for Elos, Redoubt and the Empire. We remember the sacrifice of the fist of the mountain. A Hero has a name, and his name is Umarth. Eillian Sweetwater hides in the light house that was. I will not abandon our kin, find them.

Cadwell Waystone, General of the Black Thorns

We strive forth in Loyalty and solidarity with our siblings from Navarr and Urizen. Not to fight the Vallorn, but to lend our strength and virtue to the Urizen of Redoubt. We shall be the Bulwark that defies any Grendel advance. We shall inspire and lead with our courage and vigilance. Our virtue will stand, redoubt will stand.

Nathaniel of the Woodwych harts, General of the Pilgrim's Defiance

Sword, Spear, Staff

The Fist of the Mountains faced the entire Grendel onslaught alone. The shadow of their heroism hangs over Redoubt, over the Imperial armies who come now to fight the barbarians. The Black Thorns out of Astolat march to join up with two new armies; the Argent Sword fresh from their part in securing victory against the Druj in Zenith, and the untested Pilgrim's Defiance only recently mustered in Casinea. Untested - but filled with zeal and virtue as only the Highborn are. An army of Grey pilgrims raised to fight the vallorn, eager to temper their virtue in the tempest of war.

Highguard and Navarr come together, making the river crossing at Hedra to Cargo. The Navarr veterans march together with the Highborn, and while one army is new, the soldiers of both are not strangers to each other. The Grey Pilgrims have walked the trods with the Navarr for years now. On the road south existing friendships are renewed and new ones built on shared experience. Both armies are wrapped in the clarity of the Day realm, which helps them make good time to their rendezvous. At the Urizen city they meet the exotic mercenaries of the Autumn realm. Siege engines and titan constructs of brass and bronze are overseen by canny engineers from the Fire Mountain; cadres of chain-armoured minotaurs eager for plunder; spider-kin tacticians of the City of Bridges; brutally efficient warriors from the cities of the Iron Labyrinth.

When they move toward Siluri to engage the Grendel, the garrison of Cargo accompanies them, swelling their numbers. They are met by the White Fountain sentinels. Both garrisons are bolstered by more Autumnal mercenaries; the Ramparts of Ashlar have been woven into the fortifications of Redoubt this season and their influence extends far beyond the walls of the citadels themselves.

The Thorns and the Pilgrims move steadily, cautiously, careful to avoid whatever trap the Grendel are preparing. The Argent Sword are less concerned about the danger, focused as they are on claiming the valuables the Grendel have seized, and the forged weapons, and fine armour, and practical talismans they have brought with them. They are creatures of Autumn, after all, and there are no brokers of the City of Gold and Lead to gainsay their raiding.

As the armies begin to move, the magic of Spring floods through Rebout. It sparkles in the streams and pools, and in the rain that falls. It nestles in every water-bottle and skin. The Rivers of Life flow through the hills, mountains, and valleys. Only fatal injuries will not be healed by this potent magic; those who survive a battle no matter how grievous their wounds will rise again refreshed the next morning. Most of the Empire's soldiers welcome the healing power but the heralds of Autumn mutter and grumble about it among themselves. They cast suspicious glances towards the clouds, and complain that the waters spread rust and verdigris and the taint of uncreation. If there is a real downside to the magic, it is that as with all such magic it is indiscriminate; healing the virtuous and the unvirtous alike.

Flowers in the Snow

Imperial troops and their magical allies march south, to engage the invaders bent on claiming Siluri. The Grendel are already well on their way to seizing the region, and its wealth. There are spires aplenty on the slopes of the mountain that gives the region its name, and along the Couros to the east; rich mines of tempest jade and weltsilver; the pilgrim's way that leads to the Shrine of the Armsmaster; and perhaps most relevantly the central heliopticon tower for the Redoubt network. If that is captured, it has significant implications for the people of Redoubt, especially the Doyen of the Spires. And, of course, from Siluri it is barely a stone's throw to the rich city of Cargo...

The Grendel armies are clearly expecting some response from the Empire. Scouts from both sides quickly begin assessing the other sides' strength and position, and begin to manoeuvre their forces to seek advantage. On the second night after the Imperial forces enter Siluri along the road from Cargo, there is a rumbling thunderstorm during which no rain falls. The next morning, the sun rises over a grand citadel of ice and blue stone perched on the side of Mount Siluri. From it's gates issue a cohort of one-eyed giants armed with vicious hooked polearms. Their castellan is a stout giantess in a cloak of mandowla feathers who offers the hospitality of the keep to the Pilgrim's Defiance. At the same time, a bastion of white stone with high fluted towers rises in the hills near Tabulous in Tomari. Warbands of squat, bandy-legged goblin-kind armoured in silver metal and pale fur with whitewood shortbows come to fight alongside the Black Thorns. The heralds of Autumn, then, are joined by the warriors of Summer. Both sides studiously ignore one another as much as possible.

More powerful defensive magic; enough to give the Grendel pause indeed. But what do they expect? They are invading Urizen, after all, and the pre-eminent magicians in the Empire and perhaps even the Known World do not sit at home lamenting when they can wield the power of the Fist Pillar to shape the world to their will.

Weltsilver and tempest jade and mithril and ilium are fine and all, but there are richer prizes yet to be found in the libraries of Siluri and Tomari. Take it all, and let the buyers decide where the value lies.

Beagh Seosam, General of the Black Eels

The foothills of Mount Siluri represent opportunity for those audacious enough to seize it! Fight alongside our western allies, and show them what the scions of Rucraic do to the wizards of the north!

Neeve, General of the Hamsin

An Argument of Blades

The majority of both Grendel and Imperial forces have adopted more defensive strategies even as one strives to conquer Redoubt and the other works to drive them out. The Black Eels and the Argent Sword have very different plans. Both are focused on plunder first and foremost. For the invaders, it is theft pure and simple, as they seek to divest the spires of Urizen of as much wealth as possible. The heralds of the Autumn Realm are more interested in recovering what has already been stolen (although they are not shy about keeping a portion of that recovered wealth; a finder's fee if you will).

It is clear however that as well as more traditional wealth, the Black Eels are targeting the magical libraries of Urizen. Bands of thieves and raiders follow in the wake of the more disciplined armies, and fall on those spires that the Grendel capture. They are eager to clear the shelves - they seem to have little appreciation of what they are stealing knowing only that the magicians and scholars of Attar will pay well for these tomes and scrolls. Some are captured back by the Argent Sword; many more disappear south toward the waiting ships. There are rumours that Faireoir, Seer of the Sky and Diviner of Ophis, the well-connected Grendel magician who helped lead the attempted looting of the Lyceum, has been "advising" some of the Black Eels thieves.

The hills ring with the sound of steel on steel, with the roars of Summer giants, with swift-spat words of battle magic, with voices raised in victorious hymns, and with the silence of the Navarr. The sides clash and the fray is joined. The wrath of many Imperials, especially the Highborn, is heightened when they see how many of the Grendel warriors bear weapons and shields of a particularly Wintermark cast. They have looted the dead, an egregious insult to those soldiers who laid down their lives to save Elos.

Clytemnestra of the House of the Wanderer, General of the Argent Sword

Nathaniel of the Woodwych Harts, General of the Pilgrim's Defiance

Cadwell Waystone, General of the Black Thorns

While the Empire has magical allies, drawn from Autumn and Summer, the Grendel have more mundane auxiliaries. There are warbands of Asaveans among them, especially with the Hamsin. These mercenary soldiers particularly seek out opportunities to engage the Highborn troops, chanting blasphemous prayers to their Red Goddess when they fight. They are cruel, and brutal, but they also seem to be a little on the back-foot. More used to fighting ragtag rebels along the shores of their archipelago than facing the bold steel of the Empire, perhaps. Their presence is a matter for concern; a consequence of the great Asavean battle-ships sailing alongside the Grendel navies. Venger's Blade and Balo's Grace are both here bolstering the Grendel navies.

The navies themselves bear powerful enchantments, according to observers high atop the walls of the White Fountain. Barely perceptible halos of Day magic flow and swirl in ordered patterns around the hundreds of ship along the coast. The ship captains and admirals oversee a smoothly oiled machine, where everyone seems to know where they are needed and where every opportunity for victory is quickly identified and exploited. This same magic washes over onto land; the Grendel are rigorously securing their positions in Naris, bolstering the defences in anticipation of the siege they must know is coming. As their soldiers fight and die in the foothills, the marines and sailors prepare for the future.

In Naris

Fortunately, the navies are preoccupied, dealing with the Winter spirits that haunt southern Naris after the destruction of the Fist of the Mountains. Many of those unliving horrors were raised in Tassato, cadavers of the League buried with grave goods that the Grendel raiders are eager to seize. Perhaps more importantly they have carried away the Pinnacle, a symbol of Pride for those who fought with the Fist. Divinations suggest it has been sent south to the court of Lord Garbhan, the Salt Lord of Deinath. What plans they might have for the stone are difficult to guess, but veterans who remember the fell use to which the Dragons once put the Crown of Three Tears fear the worst.

A greater loss, for the Urizen at least, is the Tower of Light and Shadow, the seat of the Penumbral Watcher. The Rays of Uanán coven have torn away the shrouds that once protected the tower with a spell of merciless light. The delicate balance of Night magic that upheld the tower could not survive this rough treatment. Unravelled by Sky mage Kalleghan the secrets of the tower have been taken by the witches of the Naguerro; it remains to be seen what the former Lasambrian orcs will do with this lore.

Worst of all, news comes from spies and scouts that the navies are using their foothold to import white granite, working feverishly to fortify the walls around the port of Elos. Crude by Imperial standards, these bolstered walls will nonetheless create an additional obstacle in reclaiming the port if they are completed. Both the granite and the engineering expertise comes not from the Grendel themselves but from their western allies. The old Sempronia family has apparently seized the quarries that once belonged to the now-much-reduced Tarquinius, but continue to supply the orcs of the Broken Shore. They are not attempting to throw up a fortification; the defences they are deploying are makeshift, similar to the kind of work the Towerjacks might do. It will make retaking Naris, and Elos in particular, much more challenging.

Into Tomari

While the bulk of the fighting takes place in Siluri, a sizable contingent of the Black Eels break off and along with Asavean mercenaries try to push east into Tomari. It soon becomes clear that they cannot hope to make headway against the bastion of Cathan Canae, especially when the garrison of the Court of the White Fountain pulls back from the fighting in Siluri and comes to the defence of their neighbours. The speed and surety of the sentinel response puts the Black Eels on the back foot; they rethink their plans and ultimately fall back to rejoin the fighting in Siluri.

A small handful continue to raid the spires of western Tomari, but they are no match for the defenders. While they have some minor successes against a few spires taken by surprise, they are ultimately foiled by Urizen magic and the strength of the citadels of Redoubt. Without the conjured fortress, though, the situation would have been very different. It's likely the Black Eels would have torn through the western spires, and seized a significant portion of Tomari.

In the Shadow of Mount Siluri

Naris and Tomari are far away from the foothills of Siluri, however, where great numbers of human and orc soldiers spill out their blood and sweat in pursuit of land. The Grendel have the advantage, in that their surprise attack has stolen a march on the Empire. It's obvious that had the Fist of the Mountain not been here, then their control of Siluri might have been completed before the Autumn Equinox and the fighting instead taken place in Limus, threatening not only Cargo but the forges of the Spiral Sword and the western end of the Bridge of the Air as well for good measure.

The Grendel have triumphed in Redoubt, and now threaten both Cargo and the Brilliant Star.

The clash is furious, and the sides reasonably well-matched. What the Grendel lack in magic, they more than make up for with the support of their navies and their Asavean allies. In the end, the Imperial armies slow their advance, but cannot prevent them claiming Mount Siluri, and after that the entire region. The last battle takes place before the walls of the Keep of Azure Ice; the frozen citadel holds for three days but in the end the orcs of the Broken Shore and the mercenaries of the west are able to breach the gate and seize the castle. After that, the writing is on the walls. The Imperial armies are forced to retreat back into Limus, towards Cargo.

The Imperial armies are bruised, but by no means bowed. Their retreat is orderly, controlled, disciplined. They take up positions in the hills around Cargo, bracing for another Grendel assault... which does not come. The invaders harry them as they withdraw, but do little more than probe the defences of the north-western hils. They seem content to secure their control of Siluri. They are clearly not prepared to risk beginning a siege of the well-defended walls of Cargo - built by an alliance of four nations - at least not yet. At the same time, there is a Grendel embassy in Cargo. For all that it has only a skeletal staff, it is almost inconceivable that that staff is not engaged in espionage against their hosts. Does the embassy pose a threat to the safety of Redoubt? Is the reason the Grendel are not yet pushing further north that they are waiting for some signal from the merchant-city?

There has been loss of life on both sides but it is a fraction of what it might have been without a combination of Spring magic and the cautious strategies employed. While Imperial and Grendel alike lost roughly the same number of troops, it is notable to the Imperial observers that the armies of the Grendel have been disproportionately weakened. The navies of the Attar offer support, but they are not at risk. The brunt of the fighting is endured by the Bone Nautilus and the Hamsin, while the Grendel admirals remain safely in the south.

Either way; as the Winter Solstice dawns Redoubt enjoys a moment to breathe, a delicate shroud of anticipation. Soldiers on both sides must be asking themselves "what next?" Will the Grendel strike toward Cargo, or will they seek easier pickings to the east? How far does their Ambition extend? How far will their Audacity take them? And how far will the Empire go to secure its own Retribution against these invaders?

Dangerous lowlands and fortified citadels

Game Information

• Siluri and Naris are both in the hands of the Grendel
• Asavean allies are building makeshift fortifications in Elos
• The central heliopticon tower of Redoubt is in Grendel hands, reducing codification speed for the Doyen of the Spires
• The Tower of Light and Shadow has been seriously damaged
• The Winter husks unleashed after the fall of the Fist of the Mountain are being contained by the Grendel

Grendel forces now control both Silrui and Naris. A combination of cautious tactics on the part of the Grendel, the Empire's armies, and especially Imperial enchantments prevented them from making even more significant gains. Without the Frozen Citadel of Cathan Canae in Tomari, for example, it is entirely possible the Black Eels might have claimed a quarter of Tomari and been well on their way to capturing the Brilliant Star.

The Asavean allies of the Grendel amongthe Sempronia have provided white granite and expertise to construct makeshift defences around the port of Elos. These defences function in the same way as those that might be created by a force with the Engineer quality taking the Dig In order. They will be in place following the Winter Solstice, increasing the number of victory points needed to capture the Naris region by 10. This temporary fort will last until the start of the Summer Solstice, assuming that further effort is not expended to maintain or improve it... and assuming nobody interferes with the construction.

The loss of Siluri means that Redoubt's central heliopticon tower is in the hands of the Grendel, which has significant implications for the spires of Redoubt. While communication between spires is still possible, until this tower is liberated from the Grendel the ability of the Doyen of the Spires to codify ritual texts will be reduced by 5 magnitude each season.

The delicate balance of Night magic that supported the Tower of Light and Shadow - the Tilphussian Reach - has been wrecked by Grendel Day magic. The tower itself still stands, and as near as anyone can tell there is still a regio attuned to the Night realm in the vicinity, but its library has been extensively looted by the Grendel. It is feasible that if the tower is recovered, at least some of the power that once flowed here might be recovered in some form or another although that may require the aid of an eternal; the exact circumstances under which the Tilphussian Reach was harnessed are not common knowledge. Perhaps the Arcane Architect knows more?

The Winter spirits loosed by the fall of the Fist of the Mountains appear to have been contained, but it is not clear how much they have been weakened (if at all). Urizeni agents recount that Saltbinder Grekodh - a Grendel master of the lore of salt - has been brought in to deal with the situation in some capacity.

The beautiful harbour of Elos is in the hands of the Grendel and their Asavean allies.

Grendel Opportunities

• The Grendel are looting Urizen libraries in pursuit of magical lore
• The Pinnacle has been claimed by the Salt Lord of Deinath

The Grendel continue to loot Redoubt, particularly that of the Tower of Light and Shadow and the spires of Naris and Siluri. Imperial prognosticators speculate that it is likely the orcs of the Broken Shore have enough stolen arcana to feasibly create an arcane army, or perhaps attract magicians to one or more of their mercenary armies. Worse, however, is the grim spectre of a magical navy combining manoeuvrability with the ability to deliver deadly curses or hostile enchantments anywhere along the coast of the Bay of Catazar.

The Pinnacle, the relic of the Fist of the Mountain claimed by Salt Lord Garbhan of Deinath, is a major prize for the Grendel. This trophy represents an opportunity for one of the barbarian armies to improve their army quality, or even create a new army with a potent quality much as the Empire has done on numerous occasions.

Battle Opportunity

• The Civil Service have identified a major conjunction of the Sentinel Gate leading to Naris in Redoubt

A major conjunction of the Sentinel Gate has been identified by Imperial prognosticators that leads to the vicinity of Elos, in Naris. It's not clear at this time what opportunity the conjunction offers, but it's likely to involve Grendel efforts around the captured port.