Althas Makari - Animosity VIII Week 1 - Expedition to the Flaywilds

The Expeditionary Force of the Free City of Thermodon had set out for the Eight Points, using the Ur-River to navigate the vastness between the Realmspheres.

To make sense of those arcane waterways, Grand Marshall Lykos took a contract with the Dawnguard of Eklysium, with the understanding that the Expedition would allow the Dawnguard to carry out a certain amount of reliquaries recovered from the wreckage of the Xo'axtu. 

The good ship Paralos navigated the river and took flight upon reaching the Eight Points, avoiding Everchosen patrols through the skill of their Dawnguard guides. They made for a nearby valley, as the Grand Marshall was keen to discharge their responsibilities to the Azyrites as quickly as possible.

 

Marshall Althas Makari embarked upon the Cogfort Kapros and set out to understand the terrain.

The detachment was technically under the command of Marshall Gorgos, but the old man was in a foul mood, and made it clear he would only be speaking to his griffon today. 

The great beast worked with the cavalry of the Dawnguard to scout ahead, while the cogfort ponderously pulled two floating earthmotes meant to channel obscure energies, one of faith, one of the arcane. After a half-day's march, the party began to notice strange stone throughout the jungle.

It was clear that the Xo'axtu had at broken up, at least partially, in the skies over the remains of the lost city of Bhaal-Irama. The Dawnguard riders returned with word that an enemy force had been spotted, that Maggotkin plodded towards them and might be taken unawares. 

Makari set his forces to action, bringing a spearhead of ten Gallants into the Cogfort withj him, while the Steelhelms took over one of the motes, and the company's Warforger towed the other to the most appropriate magical nexus. On the flank, Gorgos nodded tersely to the Dawnguard riders and prepared to surge forward.

 

The two forces broke into a clearing to find two relatively intact treasures of the temple ship, a pyramid and a titanic control throne, each coursing with energy. The circumstances left engagement as the only choice to both forces. 

Makari ordered the cogfort to lope up the middle of the battlefield, while Gorgos and the riders advanced more cautiously. 

On the right flank, Warforger Vasillis attempted to summon an incarnate spirit of the All Points, but only wrestled unsuccessfully with the energies of this unfamiliar realm. 

The cogfort was thus left to carry the brunt of the assault, as it strode unnaturally quickly across the field and lowered the boarding ramp. Makari and the Gallants charged out, meeting three fly riders and putting them each to the spit.

 

In response, the Maggotkin drew their forces around the Freeguild knights like a noose. A great phalanx of Rotsword warriors marched alongside a wizard commanding a fearsome Maggoth beast.

The Gallants readied their shields and did their best to withstand the crushing tide of rot, while the cogfort tried ineffectually to pour fire from its central tower. 

On the flank, a party of local druids drove their Nightshreiker steeds into the Dawnguard cavaliers. Marshal Gorgos looked through bloodshot eyes as his guides were caught by the slavering claws of the Craebmhorg, then drove his spurs into the feathered bulk below him to meet them in a counter-charge. 

Finally, Vasillis found a modicum of control over the ancient ley currents of the All Points, and from atop his Armillarium pedestal, summoned the Incarnate of the sub-realm before him.

 

Makari soon found himself wounded and forgotten, below a Maggoth's claw, as his men were slaughtered. 

The Kapros gave ground and fell back, making room for Gorgos and the incarnate spirit to take the center. 

The victory against such an implacable foe was always going to be slow, but in time, it ground itself into being. 

The survivors of the Dawnguard gathered up their spoils, chief among which was a basalt icosahedron, wide as a man's chest and coruscating with astral power, and set off for the Ur-River. Makari limped back to the cogfort with the remainder of the relics, including a set of six globes recovered from the wrecked command throne. 

Just as Marshal Lykos had predicted, they had been in this valley, and just as he predicted, they would secure the Expeditionary Force an audience with Krehmicto.