![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Dawn of Magic
And . . . the last recap. At our final session, we had Bonnie ("Leif"), Marc ("Mushamee"), Martin ("Kaeso"), Mike ("Rufus"), and Stéphane ("Vinz").
Time: Dva 12, 1003 Imperial Reckoning.
Place: Tenosia.
Last Event: The final battle is joined!
The hostilities open with 80 or more legions of Starfish-Men storming into Tenosia – led by their Dark God – after their wizards strip away its protective covering of earth. However, Hippolyte's armies are in the city, braced for the attack. Once the enemy has committed fully, Recnam calls upon the power of Necros. Necros returns Tenosia and all the forces within it to the mortal universe . . . where Black Adolph's horde is waiting to close the trap. With the Nybboth destroyed, this means the Starfish-Men have no avenue of retreat. Then Necros possesses his servant and hurls him at the Dark God, leaving the armies to fight their battle.
Hippolyte and Adolph have the home-plane advantage, superior air forces (the flying disks of the Starfish-Men being no match for Adolph's semi-divine Valkyries), and foreknowledge of the enemy's only point of entry. These factors enable them to achieve a crushing ambush. As the Starfish-Men adjust to finding themselves in an alien world and scramble to set up their sinister purple-sphere artillery, Hippolyte sends her cavalry around one edge of the enemy formation, while Adolph's forces charge the enemy's rear. The Amazon queen is further aided by Elixirs of Leadership provided by Kaeso – and most of all by the heroes' actions. The result is a crushing blow to the Starfish-Men, reducing their effective fighting strength by more than a third and denying them the defensible terrain of the uphill side of the city.
Just when things couldn't be worse for the invaders, Recnam-cum-Necros knocks down their Dark God. One of the Starfish-Man generals assumes command, but he is not the equal of a divinity . . . or of Hippolyte. As he takes over the invasion force and rallies them for a hasty attack, Hippolyte launches an all-out attack into the gap left in his lines by the fallen god. The Amazon queen, now bolstered by not only Kaeso's elixirs but also Vinz's magical blessing, anticipates his every move – literally by magic, in this case. The result is even more devastation in the Starfish-Man ranks, with only minor casualties on the defending side. The only real setback is an error by Rufus, who commands his guerrillas to unleash arrows on an out-of-place element of the citizen rabble led by Leif. Fortunately, those casualties are light.
At this stage, the battle is all but won by the armies of the mortal world. The Starfish-Man commander, unable to withdraw to his world, tries to retreat down to the ocean and along the shore to save what's left of his command. Hippolyte predicts this, too, thanks to both her skill and Kaeso and Vinz's magical aid. She presses her attack, and Adolph's horde acts as anvil to her hammer. The remaining Starfish-Man forces are driven into the sea and destroyed.
Twelve hours after the battle began, it is over. The defenders have suffered only minor casualties, and of their heroes, only Hippolyte and Kaeso are even slightly harmed – the result of a near thing involving one of the enemy flying disks. Across the field of battle, horns sound in triumph. Adolph meets with Hippolyte and, true to his oath, declares that this victory has proven that the world's nations, leaders, and armies are worthy of their places and titles, and do not need his sword to lead them. His army finally leaves the mortal world for its immortal reward, taking with it the bodies of the fallen. That night, there is much celebration in Tenosia, and runners are dispatched to the world's four corners to spread the good news.
In the years that follow, the gods who regularly manifested in the world and directly meddled in the affairs of mortals cease to do so, and take to operating only indirectly, via empowered clerics. Recnam's sacrifice in the battle thus becomes the last divine manifestation, while Recnam's example in life marks him as the first of these powerful priests. Magic flourishes, however, and wizardry grows in importance to become a respected profession. As for our heroes . . .
Kaeso dedicates his time to rebuilding war-ravaged Tenosia, creating a glorious city that becomes the wellspring of a Golden Age of Technology. The only thing that somewhat mars this is a little remnant of Necros' power: On the anniversary of the great battle each year, zombies walk. However, their appearance is brief and peaceful. Kaeso never ages, despite the passage of time – a result he engineers through alchemy. He makes sure that Hippolyte receives similar benefits, in order to stay unaging like her husband, Mushamee. He does the same for Leif, disguising the youthfulness potion as a bottle of wine.
Leif at first walks the earth. Eventually, he settles into the life of a Northern shaman. In the custom of his people, this doesn't mean a life of abstinence and asceticism. Indeed, Leif takes two more wives – one a Valkyrie, the other a mermaid – and with these and Diandra, he has many children, all of them unusually gifted in their own ways. Every year on his birthday, he receives a special bottle of wine from Kaeso, and as a result of its powers, he does not age.
Mushamee is dubbed "Emperor of Arms" by Nicolai, and given Nicolai's own leadership over the Empire's legions so that Nicolai can focus on rebuilding (although those in the know suspect that Nicolai really wants more time to study magic). Over time, Mushamee and Hippolyte have many daughters, Amazons all. Between his inability to age and Hippolyte's own supernatural longevity, theirs is a long union. As the decades wear on and the peace comes to look lasting, the general spends progressively less time with the legions and correspondingly more time on his estates, making wine and – with Kaeso's aid – brandy.
Rufus returns to the great city of Roma with Helena. He takes with him the remarkable gladiators rescued from the secret arena under Kapital, and over time trains them as a special police force, loyal to the Emperor. During this time, Helena bears a child – albeit a strange one, who doesn't quite resemble either parent. In the years that follow, Rufus' lawmen keep the peace well in Roma. Rufus' descendents inherit his power of memory, and make a pilgrimage to Tenosia in commemoration of the great battle fought there.
Vinz vanishes mere days after the great battle. His allies eventually find his body – which shows signs of having been killed as a ritual sacrifice – along with a note explaining that this is the price paid to keep the gods from interfering directly in the mortal realm. There is no sign of Loclá. Years later, though, there comes word that Spirit Anaconda has been assassinated. Nobody is sure who did it, but Vinz's allies recognize the telltale signs of their old friend's methods . . .