A walk in shadow
Point of the Spear
To the east of the Barrens are the Salt Flats of Sanath. It lies across the great Nameless River that girdles the Barrens, connecting the Semmerlak and the Barren Sea to the Feverwater, and all three ultimately to the open sea. The deep, wide, muddy waters are easily fordable at only a few points. The Druj have built bridges in the past, but they rarely last long, and when they retreated from the Barrens they burned them in their wake. As such, the four armies set on striking into the Salt Flats must gather at Saltmarsh if they wish to ford the river with as little difficulty as possible.
Strike Flat, strike hard. We will open an opportunity to press the Druj and prevent their return to Imperial Lands. We are the Irresistible Spear, we will lead the charge supported by the Knights of Glory and Dominion will be ours. Fight with Courage, fight with Ambition, make me proud.
Nicassia Avicia of Phoenix Reach, General of the Citadel GuardThe Citadel Guard will lead the assault; drawing on the illimitable power of Summer to wield the Irresistable Spear technique. The sentinels of the army are strengthened with Summer enchantments, but their main focus is on identifying key strategic objectives, establishing safe camps, and using their magic to infuse barricades and palisades with immovable force. A small cadre of curious koboldi from the Crucible of Fate accompany them, eagerly adding their own magic to that of the Urzeni magicians.
The Valiant Pegasus and the Gryphon's Pride support the Urizen, flanking the thrusting point of the Imperial assault. Three years ago the Gryphon's Pride marched across the Golden Causeway and into Ossium and conquered; a little less than two years back they crossed into the Forest of Ulnak and were repulsed. This is the third time, now, that the Gryphon's Pride have marched blindly into terror incognita – into the Mallum to fight the Druj with no idea what awaits them. Bringing up the rear are the Iron Helms, the grim Varushkan army, dogs carefully leashed for the moment. Once across the river they shall bring their merciless will to bear on the orcs, spreading terror wherever they go.
Siblings, showing great loyalty to the other Highborn armies that resupply this season, we push into the salt flats, to liberate the tribes from the Druj Oppressors. Remember that Highborn armies inspire our allies, wear your virtue with pride, may vigilance guide us.
Jack Flint, General of the Valiant PegasusI call upon all those who stand with me. We have healed our bodies and had time to mourn. Now I call on you to march with me to the salt flats where we strike at the heart of the dry. I will not rest till the capital burns. Remember your loyalty to those who fell.
Archavion Wolfborne, General of the Gryphon's PrideThe magical Summer knights that march with the Citadel Guard and the Gryphon's Pride give the Varushkans a wide berth. Several thousand glorious gold-and-sapphire knights of the Summer realm march with the Dawnish; the Urizen are supported by a shining cohort of feather-crested spearfolk whose scaled armour brings to mind the feathers of birds of prey.
The Imperial armies are further reinforced by some fifteen thousand or so Imperial soldiers lead by independent military captains, many infused with magic of their own. Most fight with the Gryphon's Pride, but only the Valiant Pegasus are without notable allies. Their scouts have spent a little time speaking with the Vendarri - the orc sept that calls the Saltmarsh home and has technically at least surrendered to the Highborn- about what they might encounter on the other side of the river.
With the sun rising before them, for the first time in a great many decades, the Empire's armies begin to cross the Nameless River into the Salt Flats of Sanath.
Crossing the Nameless River
The crossing is fraught, and made under fire. The Druj have clearly been bracing for an Imperial attack, even if they don't seem to know for sure which direction it will come from. They have scouts and watchers in the wooded marshes across the River, who quickly alert the orcs of the Mallum to the presence of the Empire's forces. Fortunately, the sentinels of Urizen are swifter than the orcs; they have already established a base-camp on the eastern banks of the slow-moving river before the first Druj warriors are able to reach them.
The White Lion – the Druj who fight with uncharacteristic discipline under the banner of the pale ant – are in the vanguard, but within hours the first Arrow Viper scouts and skirmishers are spotted, elite Chikad probing the defences, picking off any target they can identify. If they had been faster, more Vigilant, the Druj defenders might have been able to drive the Citadel Guard back before they could find their balance in the unknown lands. As it is, by the time sufficient force is brought to bear to potentially threaten the Urizeni and their fey allies, the other three armies are already across the river. Not everyone makes it; more than one Imperial soldier falls to a sniper's arrow, lost beneath the muddy waters of the river, their body stolen by the implacable current.
The Sydathian Fens
According to the Great Forest Orcs, the Salt Flats are broad plains criss-crossed by dark waterways. The ground is sodden, and the further east toward the sea one travels, the more marshy the land becomes. Eventually one reaches the Leen – the largest settlement in the Mallum according to the orcs, a sprawling mess of buildings and bridges and ramshackle towers held together by the malice of the Druj.
The Vendarri say that across the river from Saltmarsh lie the Sydathian Fens. A region of freshwater marsh that becomes increasingly salty as it runs along the river to the shores of the eastern sea. It is ruled over by the Razorbird clan of the Druj; cruel spear-fighters and archers who mark their territory with sinister wicker effigies of great long-legged marsh birds, their hollow bodies studded with barbs and spikes. Those who offend the clan are interred within and left to die of hunger, thirst, or sickness. They are cruel even by Druj standards. Or so the Vendarri say.
It is not the Razorbird Orcs that gather to resist the Imperial conquest of the Salt Flats, however. It seems that there is a significant Druj force waiting here – the scouts of the Valiant Pegasus suggest that they were engaged in desperate resupply which the Empire's soldiers have now categorically interrupted. Along with the White Lion and the Arrow Viper, the Deadly Blade and the Hidden Widow are both here, as are the vine-and-bramble adorned Thorn Born - all have faced Imperial troops before, and fight with a kind of desperate wariness.
The armies are further supported by a great many Druj warriors from the city of Leen itself. They are first encountered a fortnight after the initial probing engagements. Hateful, malicious, cruel like any Druj, many of them seem to be veterans of past battles in Holberg, Ossium, and Reikos. They focus much of their wrath against the Highborn and the Varushkans. However, they ultimately answer to the commanders of the White Lion, their fury that anyone would dare to invade their heartlands shackled to he Druj's wider defensive strategy.
The Fear of Fear
By all accounts, the Salt Flats are the heartland of the Druj. The seat of their power, their first and most precious home. It should not come as a surprise that it is well-defended by hard-bitten orcs who will stop at nothing to hold the territory and drive the invaders out. While there are a great many orc warriors here, there seems to be very little of the Druj's signature twisted magic, although it might be dangerous to read too much into that. For example. there's no sign the Druj have infused the waters of the Salt Flats with Spring magic – neither for weal nor woe – and no indication that they have raised the magical fortresses and wards from swamp or woodland that they so favour. With Imperial armies on their very doorstep, it's doubtful that this will remain the case, of course.
There is at least one obvious piece of magic at play here, however; a powerful shroud over the Salt Flats. Once the sun sets, the night sky is empty of stars. Only the moon, the lowering clouds, and the erratic red eye of the Wanderer are visible after dark. Whatever happens here is concealed from prying eyes by the obfuscating weave of Night magic.
And, of course, there is the Druj miasma. It clings to everything, a thick, nauseating stench of fear and despair that crushes the spirit and devours every hopeful thought. It's notably more potent than that the Imperial armies encountered in Zenith, or even Ossium. Older. More established. The orcs who live under it are somewhat inured, and the Druj themselves seem broadly unaffected, but even the Iron Helms and the Citadel Guard must admit that the potent aura is dragging on them. It slows the advance, as it has done in every land the Druj have claimed save the Barrens.
As in Ossium, however, those armies that fight alongside the knights of Glory find it a little easier to bear the pressure of the miasma, suffer fewer dark dreams, recover more quickly from bouts of introspection, morbid thoughts, and feelings of futility.
It must be noted also that the Druj are not the only ones wielding fear as a weapon. The Iron Helms are here, and once they leave the Barrens and set foot in the wretched Sydathian Fens, they are unleashed. The Varushkans work with a cold pragmatism, their every move intended to instil terror in the orcs of the Mallum, to break the morale of their armies, to cow any who might stand against the Empire. The leaders of the Druj cannot help but be aware of the ripple that runs through the defenders as the Varushkan army sets to work. The Iron Helms know how to employ the most ruthless tactics; ambush, mutilation, maiming, and torture of prisoners and civilians alike. Tricks intended to make even the most hardened het consider retreating rather than face them. The carrion birds that follow the army wherever it goes feast well on, leaving eyeless corpses nailed to trees, or pecking at the bloated flesh of orcs weighed down with chains and drowned in the stagnant waters of the marsh.
Iron Helms, hear me! It is time. Push into the Salt Flats of Senarth. The leash is off. We will be merciless in our onslaught. The enemy is weakened we have run the Druj to ground. Break them!
Alderei the Fair, General of the Iron HelmsSlow Progress
At first the four Imperial armies make reasonable progress across the Fens. They see precious little of the Druj's subject septs – only abandoned villages. The orcs fear the Iron Helms, and believe their masters when they tell them the cruel Varushkans are coming for them. They fear the cruel blades of the knights of Dawn almost as much, and would rather flee that face these imagined terrors.
After the first few weeks, though, the tide turns the other way. The five Druj armies, battered but not defeated in the conquest of the Barrens, reinforced by the personal soldiers of the Salt Flats' rulers, hold the line against the Empire. Then as more of their forces are gathered in the area of the Fens, they slowly push Imperial troops back, towards the banks of the Nameless River. The muddy land is churned with blood, with the bodies of the fallen often being left to be sucked down into the quagmire. Over fifteen hundred Imperial soldiers die on the Sydathian Fens.
The White Lion have taken charge, and execute a well-prepared plan to defend their territory. Their strategy is not without cost; while the other Druj armies fight only when the terrain favours them, those who battle under the banner of the ant must often deal with Imperial troops without being able to pick their own battlefield. The bulk of the Druj casualties are taken by the warriors of that already depleted army. Yet there always seem to be more of them; for each one an Imperial soldier cuts down two more emerge from the mud seeking vengeance. Still, perhaps twice as many Druj fall before the blades and arrows of the Empire and their supernatural allies - though it is always difficult to estimate casualties among the orcs of the Mallum even without the chaos of retreating back through the stinking marshes.
Try as they might, though, the Druj are not strong enough, not even here in their heartland, to force the Imperial armies all the way back across the Nameless River. They drive them back to that first armed camp the Citadel Guard created, but as the Autumn Equinox draws close the Empire's heroes are still there. They may be hanging on by their fingertips, but thanks to the arcane techniques of the Urizeni, they have not been driven from the Salt Flats of Sanath. Not yet, anyway.
Game Information
The Empire has no map of the Salt Flats - as with the earlier invasions of Ossium and the Forest of Ulnak it is thus difficult to know what is going on in the territory. There is certainly at least one fortification in the territory – perhaps more than one. The Sydathian Fen – the only region Imperial troops have seen - has the marsh quality, and is cloaked in the Druj miasma (which means that there is at least one miasma pillar somewhere in its depths). Beyond that, the Empire knows only what they have gleaned from the Great Forest Orcs. There are also signs that the territory is large. Not as large as the Barrens, but larger than the typical territory the Empire is familiar with.
Imperial troops are a tenth of the way towards capturing the Sydathian Fens.
Each other army in the territory is aware that the Iron Helms have performed a merciless onslaught, as detailed in the description of the cruel quality. It is also apparent to many of the Druj who live here, and to their enslaved septs.
Participation: Military Units
Every character who accompanied the Imperial armies into the Salt Flats of Sanath this season will have been exposed to an ancient and powerful Druj miasma. Such characters are encouraged to incorporate the effects of the miasma - which saps the will to fight and magnifies fear and doubt - into their characterisation. The page detailing the miasma's effects may provide some inspiration.
Any character whose military unit was assigned to fight alongside the Citadel Guard or the Gryphon's Pride this downtime has been exposed to the power of the Summer realm thanks to the experience of fighting in close proximity to large numbers of heralds of Eleonaris. In the case of the Citadel Guard, this experience is heightened by their use of their unique Summer magic technique; the Gryphon's Pride have been infused with a little of the powerful enchantment that settled over the Dawnish territories after the Solstice.
As such, any character whose military unit supported one of these two armies may choose to gain a single temporary hero point even if they do not have the hero skill. Once spent, this additional point is permanently gone and will have faded entirely by the end of the Autumn Equinox regardless. If you choose to claim this benefit, however, you also experience a powerful roleplaying effect: if you feel thwarted, belittled, crossed, overlooked, or wronged in any way it is easy for those feeling to be replaced by furious rage at the source. This anger fades quickly but it is easy and satisfying to give in to it and lash out at whoever or whatever has sparked your ire.
The roleplaying effect is particularly strong for anyone who already has the changeling lineage. If your character is a human without lineage who supported one of these armies, you may choose to manifest the changeling lineage as a result of your experiences, creating a story of a fey lover, a goblet of tangy apple brandy, or some other exposure to powerful Summer magic to explain the transformation. If you want your character to gain lineage this downtime as a result of supporting the Citadel Guard or the Gryphon's Pride, please email us with your CID and which lineage you want your character to acquire. Remember that you can only gain lineage in Downtime once for any individual character, even if you later lose the changeling lineage for whatever reason.
Battle Opportunity
News from the Salt Flats of Sanath, via the Vendarri, has revealed that Serra Grubfeast – the former governor of Dawnguard and a figure believed to be involved in certain unspeakable plots – has been spotted in the Sydathian Fens with an escort of Druj apparently taking them to Leen. During the Autumn Equinox there will be an opportunity to intercept those Druj and capture or eliminate Serra Grubfeast. Further details will be provided by the prognosticators nearer the Equinox.