I think the legion should march on Gornath first. That's mostly just hungering dead, which is firmly within their capabilities. Also the Rat King must die.
 
[X] Use a high altitude screen of Wyvern flights to detect any large-scale troop movements, reporting them back continuously. Erinyes will cyclically teleport within Line-of-Sight distance of the main body of troops, putting their sight to good use detecting traps or ambushes. Both Myrkdreki will scout farther ahead of the Legion and eliminate enemies at their discretion, disengaging and using Sending Stones to call for help if necessary.
-[X] You will deal with large bodies of incoming troops making raids on a case-by-case basis, but your Manticores and Wyverns have a large effective range, so you don't expect them to bother after the first attempt gets reported back with a status of 'in pieces'.
--[X] All three Moonchasers will keep the skies immediately around the Legion clear of cloud cover.
---[X] Legionnaires in general have a ration of Dawnfruit which is to be consumed immediately prior to battle, so that they enter it fresh regardless of marching distance involved.

[X] You will start marching on Sarnath, intermittently using divination to determine if Gornath is going to make a move upon you, or attempt to link up with Sarnath's forces during the battle (it would be hard to hide those kinds of troop movements if they did plan on doing so, and they wouldn't arrive in time if they didn't start moving now). If they are moving in force, instead meet them in the field first and defeat them in detail when they have made sufficient distance from the city, or until they retreat back to Gornath, then resume marching on Sarnath. You will also keep an eye out for any untoward movements from Kasath via divination, though the majority of your attention is centered on the former two.


I think that we should deal with Sarnath first, if possible. That's the city that our allies agreed to march upon with us, and Gornath will have a way of wearing our forces down if we try to engage them when their main strength is their entrenched position. City fighting is hell on the attacker, even if you take the time to painstakingly tear down their defenses, that does basically leave us as a sitting duck to the more obviously dangerous force to our rear. I do see it on the other hand as possible to rout or destroy an attacking Gornathi force before Sarnath has time to react.
 
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Of Silver and Steel

Ninth Day of the Second Month 294 AC

Salthal Ral was not the usual sort of legionnaire to march under the banner of the Dragon King. He was not a former slave looking for vengeance or purpose, nor a former sellsword interested in a steady stream of silver or looking forward to a land grant. As the son of a once prosperous mercantile family in the Summer Isles, he had sought his fortune in Lys and found less success than he had hoped. He had eventually come to make his living as a scribe and 'assistant' to a wealthy magister who could not be bothered to actually pay attention to his duties. When the conquest came, someone had realized that Salthal's writing was on most of the documents his former employer sealed and the next thing he knew he had been given the job.

I might still be putting seals on land transactions if I hadn't decided to go drinking that first Tree Night. It wasn't every day a bureaucrat with barely enough skill at arms to know his way around a knife saved a minotaur, twelve feet tall horns and all, from being sacrificed by a bunch of lunatics hoping to conjure up some demons. Sometimes all you needed to win a fight was being in the right place at the right time... with a bottle of strong wine and a lantern.

Lyrgyl had been very grateful to his new friend. Their company had been doing poorly for logistics and the job paid better than pushing parchments around in Lys. He even got to push around some of that new Yi Tish rice paper, which is how Salthal ended up dressed in hardened steel and looking at a silvery portal to 'the city of the dead'.

The young clerk, for truly he thought of himself as more of that than a soldier, tried to remember all the assurances of the red-robed Scholarum sorcerer who had explained that these revenants were not of a mind to drink the blood and tears of the living.

He bit his tongue to keep from screaming at the sight of row upon row of dead men in armor of rusted iron and tarnished bronze, at engines of war and sorcery bound with the ghostly glow of the dead, and in the midst, upon a chariot of gold polished to shine like the sun and opals black as a starlit night, grandeur enduring even in its tomb, was a queen with a will that would not crumble through the ages of the world's passing.

Golden-scaled serpents slithered through the portal behind him, eyes bright with old magic and secrets older than mankind. Above the square black-winged angels flew and a dragon's roar shook the ancient stones, eager at the thought of battles against another host, a match and more for the one that dead queen brought forth.

Salthal put one foot in front of the other like some brass automaton, but he could not help but think, This was no place for a clerk playing at war.

"Don't go running out on me, little scribe," Lyrgyl set one large warm hand on his shoulder. "Who will tally my kills if you go?" Seeing that the jest did not land as it should, the minotaur turned Salthal bodily about to look back at the column still marching through the wizard's gate, row upon row and line upon line, infantry and cavalry, sorcerers shrouded in the haze of their own power as hard as steel chain, darkenbeasts enough to cover the face of the sun as they took to the sky.

Mighty were the dead of Sarnor woken by some fel curse, but mighty were they also who marched with hardened of steel.

What is the first action of the Legion?

[] Send out Erinyes scouts
-[] Towards Gornath
-[] Towards Sarnath
-[] Write in target

[] Scout in force, including Darkenbeasts
-[] Towards Gornath
-[] Towards Sarnath
-[] Write in target

[] March on Sarnath, keeping the scouting screen close

[] Write in


OOC: A bit more of a glimpse into minotaur integration this time around, we have not heard of them in a while, outside of Argo at least.
Made a few more edits to the chapter, DP.
 
@DragonParadox would undead use/need triage?

Maybe we could spread some black sand around. Do we still have any?

Edit:
Underneath all the steel and sorcery. The legion at its core is still largely made up of 'mere' mortals.

This was intentional, and I hope they will show why we chose to believe in them today.
I don't think you guys collected enough for wide scale use. to be fair you had little reason to assume you would be allying with an army of the dead back then.
We have some Negative Energy Belts ala @Goldfish's crafting sheet, IIRC. I don't think we really made much for large-scale undead repairs, more routine maintenance.
We sold a couple of them to the Undead of Tall Pines yesterday, but we still have 5 Negative Energy Healing Belts, plus 6 Greater Healing Belts which can be used to heal the living or the Undead.

That's not a huge amount, but they could still be useful for VIPs. It's the thought that counts.

[X] Crake
 
[X] Use a high altitude screen of Wyvern flights to detect any large-scale troop movements, reporting them back continuously. Erinyes will cyclically teleport within Line-of-Sight distance of the main body of troops, putting their sight to good use detecting traps or ambushes. Both Myrkdreki will scout farther ahead of the Legion and eliminate enemies at their discretion, disengaging and using Sending Stones to call for help if necessary.
-[X] You will deal with large bodies of incoming troops making raids on a case-by-case basis, but your Manticores and Wyverns have a large effective range, so you don't expect them to bother after the first attempt gets reported back with a status of 'in pieces'.
--[X] All three Moonchasers will keep the skies immediately around the Legion clear of cloud cover.
---[X] Legionnaires in general have a ration of Dawnfruit which is to be consumed immediately prior to battle, so that they enter it fresh regardless of marching distance involved.

[X] You will start marching on Sarnath, intermittently using divination to determine if Gornath is going to make a move upon you, or attempt to link up with Sarnath's forces during the battle (it would be hard to hide those kinds of troop movements if they did plan on doing so, and they wouldn't arrive in time if they didn't start moving now). If they are moving in force, instead meet them in the field first and defeat them in detail when they have made sufficient distance from the city, or until they retreat back to Gornath, then resume marching on Sarnath.


I think that we should deal with Sarnath first, if possible. That's the city that our allies agreed to march upon with us, and Gornath will have a way of wearing our forces down if we try to engage them when their main strength is their entrenched position. City fighting is hell on the attacker, even if you take the time to painstakingly tear down their defenses, that does basically leave us as a sitting duck to the more obviously dangerous force to our rear. I do see it on the other hand as possible to rout or destroy an attacking Gornathi force before Sarnath has time to react.
If we're doing Sarnath, we are bringing the heavy hitters as well, right? Specifically everyone who's been set aside for the action (minus Rhango for obvious reasons), like the dragons, the outsiders, etc. Sarnath will no doubt have the most lethal concentration of enemy forces, along with a potential surprise!CR 20 daemon and other unsavory things. The legion is damn good for its weight category but we're going into the big leagues there.
 
If we're doing Sarnath, we are bringing the heavy hitters as well, right? Specifically everyone who's been set aside for the action (minus Rhango for obvious reasons), like the dragons, the outsiders, etc. Sarnath will no doubt have the most lethal concentration of enemy forces, along with a potential surprise!CR 20 daemon and other unsavory things. The legion is damn good for its weight category but we're going into the big leagues there.
That's already been voted on. So yes.
 
I'm mostly suspicious that the Void might try to send some heavy hitters since swaying all of Sarnor would be amazing for them.
Well we'll have multiple Valyrian dragons on the field, over half a dozen fiery dragon beasts, dozens of Heralds, the Harbinger, Nirah, Bahro, the fire bull who's name is really hard to pronounce, etc. etc.

We have a high probability of bullying whatever they send too, 'cause in combat there's nothing worse than getting hit for loads of HP from really far away with no ability to respond, which is exactly what our air forces will be doing.

The battle will basically be decided by the PCs though, as per usual. That's their only hope of not having their forces chased down and or blown to hell twenty times over. Kill the enemy PCs so that you can shatter the morale of the enemy.
 
Well we'll have multiple Valyrian dragons on the field, over half a dozen fiery dragon beasts, dozens of Heralds, the Harbinger, Nirah, Bahro, the fire bull who's name is really hard to pronounce, etc. etc.

We have a high probability of bullying whatever they send too, 'cause in combat there's nothing worse than getting hit for loads of HP from really far away with no ability to respond, which is exactly what our air forces will be doing.

The battle will basically be decided by the PCs though, as per usual. That's their only hope of not having their forces chased down and or blown to hell twenty times over. Kill the enemy PCs so that you can shatter the morale of the enemy.
I'm not particularly worried we'll lose, mind you. I'm mainly bringing up the possibility because the PCs might actually get worthwhile XPs out of this.
 
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