Events+of+Midwinter-Alturiak+5+1374+DR

Midwinter 1374 DR
The tribes of the Shaar had mustered, in the thousands. In part due to reluctance, and in part due to the decimation of the Eagle tribe, their numbers only amounted to twenty thousand, mostly light horse and sipahis, with Ankheg tribe light infantry making up the remainder, where they could have reached upwards of fifty thousand on a perfect day.

Still, their raw strength gave them a numerical superiority of over 4:1 according to Lia's notes. A flight of dragons flew overhead, providing a CAP, though they refused to overtly ally and were merely protecting against air attacks.


 * For more information, see Muster of the Shaar for Order of Battle.**

Unbeknownst to the council of the tribes, which had stalled before marching one inch on a question of leadership and objective, the dragons were also performing another function--among their number, several had the ability to polymorph into small animal forms, and were watching the approaches to the city in disguise. From the CAG, a mature adult Gold, Kethiel recieved a sending...

"be advised, diplomat with terms departing Shaarmid, on horseback, 30 Miles per hour. second part follows." Lia recieved the second. "terms sent, 'will kill remaining humans if you march, prepared to offer 20,000 gp in magic per month to tribes.'"

The tribes would spend weeks debating this offer, while their strength eroded from desertion and smaller hordes separating off for raids. It was unnacceptable.

The party teleported foward on the road between Shaarmid and Bridgemeet, where the muster was encamped.

Kethiel and Dacker sat along the road, hiding in a tuft of tall grass. The Shaar was terribly windy today... There was the messenger, but something was wrong: It was a perfectly normal, ragged peasant, holding a flimsy stick, galloping away towards them. Kethiel's sight told him it was a phantom steed, and the stick held a conjuration aura, but little else. He was exacly what he was. They teleported back to the party's ambush and notified them of incoming.

Lia dropped a wall of force in the rider's path and he tumbled to the earth, stunned. He managed to break the stick, releasing whatever magic was within...this called forth the foe, and a vile, succubus-reminiscent, fallen-angel thing appeared, with snakelike vipers sprouting from her back where her wings were, once.

Since their arrival in the Council Hills, Kethiel had been accompanied by an elf, presumably one he'd met while staying with the Elmanessee in the past weeks. Given that she wasn't terribly social on the evening of the company's reunion, everyone had concluded that it was her first trip into the wider world. However wide the world was to Calie, her magic was up to the task. After a brief battle in which the demon had to work hard to heal from the damage being dispensed onto her, Calie uttered words of banishment as she drew back her hood and stared down the creature. It vanished.

The party knew they needed to keep quiet any offer of truce if they planned to count on the Shaarans. Sibiliante was eager to lead the horde elsewhere if he could find an excuse. Kethiel gave the hapless, tortured peasant--the messenger--a modest bit of charity and teleported him off to Kholtar, where whatever he saild couldn't reach the Shaarans for a week, perhaps.

Alturiak 1 1374 DR
The council of the tribes convened, and unlike the last time, they didn't have to do so in the shadow of Xothchol. Both the Lions and the Rhinos contested Sibilante's de facto leadership. The deadlock went on for hours. Eventually, Kethiel was bored, and happened upon a crazy solution. He stood and nominated Lia to lead the Muster. The beleaguered eagles seconded the nomination, and Gabríel of the Lions cited that there was precedent for it, during the second insurrection against the Shoon, when the tribes were led by a Halruaan Adventurer-Mage after being unable to trust each other. Given the aid of her and her companions in allowing the council to even meet, Sibilante and the heyenas were forced to begrudgingly assent.

It all happened too fast. Suddenly, the fresh-from-Eltrochul girl from waterdeep was the Khan of the Shaar. In any case, they marched on Shaarmid for the next four days, and were encamped a mile from its walls by the fifth.

Alturiak 5 1374 DR
Without a siege train, the Shaarans had few options for taking the city, besides storming the gates with magic. The majority of their force was light and ill-equipped to stand up under withering fire. The average Shaaran could easily go toe-to-toe with the dretches and rutterkin that comprised the majority of the demonic host, and could even challenge their Armanite cavalry on a good day. However, the static defenses of the Shaarmid, along with a preponderance of demonic force multipliers (not the least of which were the three Goristro 'Siege Demons' somewhere in the city), made the battle coming look like a mismatch, with the demons on top. Lia charged herself with leveling the odds; the company debated how to assault the walls.

The adventurers devised a plan to eliminate the battery of ballistas from Shaarmid's walls. They stood unmanned in most places, so that their tiefling/rutterkin crews were not vulnerable to attack. A thin guard of Hezrou-led patrols held the walls against surprise attacks. If the walls were stormed, many more hundreds and thousands would rush to the walls, but for now, the Ballistas were weak. Dacker colocated the party onto the wall and they began ransacking each ballista in turn. The first patrol fell to a dismissal spell from Lia; Variska's sonic magic destroyed artillery wholesale. Dacker colocated the company forward to the next ballista.

At the second Ballista, Calie Stone Shaped the wall, so that the ballista would simply roll off the battlement. As the attack was at night, and no bright magics were yet fired, the Vrock TAC Air and the demon's teleport QRF were none the wiser. Third ballista was destroyed less than a minute after the first, though at the main gate, a more sizable contingent of Hezrous and Arrow Demons challenged the party. The arrow demon's fire proved deadly to anyone except Variska, who used her power over the winds to protect her. Lia almost took a dive from a volley of arrows, were it not for the quick reaction of Calie, who closed her wound before she succumbed to it. One of the Arrow demons sounded a horn, and the Hezrous had come to grips with Dacker and Vytorrin, who were not having an easy time of it...

The Company concluded they'd done enough damage for the night.