Part MMDLXIV: Winds of War
Winds of War
Seventh Day of the Eighth Month 293 AC
Armun Kelisk is a city transformed, a city at war. Companies of winged warriors fly above its islands heralded by urgent trumpet blasts, dozens of swift sleek skyships flying the azure and white of the Sultan's colors patrol the wind currents that sweep trade into the city, and everywhere you look there are other smaller signs that mark the way war has affected the ebb and flow of life in the City of the Winds. Children still fly or glide from perch to perch, but their games are of a decidedly more martial nature. The Djinn do not seem to have suffered much in the war for banners to be so common and spirits so high, or perhaps it is simply a matter of war being solely the province of those who choose to take up weapons in earnest as you hope to do with the Legion. Curious, you listen in on the rumors floating about.
Battle of the Broken Mountain: Continuing their offensive, the Djinn sorcerers opened a short-lived but vast gate between the realms of air and fire, hurling one of the Endless Sky's natural floating islands directly into an Efreeti anchorage, not only sinking many of the ships present and scattering the armies gathering for a counterattack but shattering the anchorage itself, fraying the Brazen Throne's supply lines.
Infernal Plague Falters: A hideous plague called the Boiling Pox which had threatened to sweep through the mortals of the peaceful Shaitan hinterlands has been stymied through the use of strict quarantine and quick relief actions. Though the delay will doubtless give the Efreeti a chance to shore up their defenses, most agree that the effort fell far short of what the Brazen Throne might have hoped for.
Char-Serpent: A new sort of monster has been seen attacking Efreeti ships, some manner of unliving serpent with a taste for Efreeti flesh. As the creature has shown no inherent affinity to flame, many fear it is some manner of weapon forged for this war alone, one that might spread unchecked.
Infernal Plague Falters: A hideous plague called the Boiling Pox which had threatened to sweep through the mortals of the peaceful Shaitan hinterlands has been stymied through the use of strict quarantine and quick relief actions. Though the delay will doubtless give the Efreeti a chance to shore up their defenses, most agree that the effort fell far short of what the Brazen Throne might have hoped for.
Char-Serpent: A new sort of monster has been seen attacking Efreeti ships, some manner of unliving serpent with a taste for Efreeti flesh. As the creature has shown no inherent affinity to flame, many fear it is some manner of weapon forged for this war alone, one that might spread unchecked.
Thankfully, with the veil of secrecy over your origins well and truly lifted, the minutia of trade can be delegated, leaving you and Lya to look through the markets for the reagents she needs, not only for her projects but those of the stone-born enchanters you had hired for the task.
Bought 500,000 IM worth of reagents
"You know..." Lya muses. "It feels odd to be making something as complex and ambitious as your Harbinger without actually making it with my own hands. I trust Spark and Ember of course, but it's odd to think I might not even be there when it opens its eyes. "Going over the plans for the Harbinger in your mind, a being of spellsteel and wildfire that can match a Marilith in ferocity and cunning both, you cannot help but shake your head a little in bemusement at Lya's worry.
She catches the motion: "Powerful or not it will still be new-forged. The spirits within will need time and advice on how to adjust to a state so much different from the one they have been called from."
"A fair point," you nod. "We will wait until you and the others return with the Orb from the Red Wastes before we awaken the Harbinger."
"Tsk," she says in jest. "Don't you know it's bad luck to just assume we'll win?"
"And what do I care for that?" You spark a flame in the palm of your hand. "A mage believing in luck seems to me like a miller believing in grain that grinds itself."
Your banter had carried you into the best markets where dozens upon dozens of uncanny creatures feathered, furred, and scaled jostle for the attention of thousands of buyers from merchants looking for a bargain, to quartermasters looking to shore up recent battle losses. Alas that you do not see any griffons, having perhaps already been recruited by the Djinn, but the same war has made for enormous strings of hippogriffs, scores, hundreds of the beasts already trained to the saddle brought forth to sell not only to the Sultan's armies but also to any merchants thinking to hire and equip sellswords for their own protection.
Hippogriffs available: 350
Hippogriff rarity discount no longer applies due to large wartime demand
How many do you buy?
[] Write in
OOC: Some pretty extreme rolls on the market availability.
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