As in Zenith, the scorpion army is adept at countering the disciplined strategies of the Highborn, ruthlessly outmaneuvering and flanking their defensive positions. This is not the first time the two armies have clashed. The Granite Pillar have the upper hand, up to a point, but much of their strategy is undone by the presence of orcs fighting beneath a scorpion banner. The Highborn are able to slow the Druj, but not much more. Their physicks and healers are overwhelmed, however, by the sheer number of casualties they must deal with and stretched almost to breaking by the need to offer succour to frightened refugees as well as injured soldiers. They have seen what the Druj can do, and have erected a central hospital in the shadow of the magical fortress in Operus. For their part, the Valiant Pegasus are well prepared for the bloodbath that is to come. Sadly, they are unprepared for the sheer numbers of orcs pouring into Morrow from Zenith - all the strategies in the world are no help when one is outnumbered four to one. The Seventh Wave provide intelligence about enemy movements, working to identify opportunities to counter the Druj advance.
The Granite Pillar takes the lead again, precisely orchestrating the defence of eastern Morrow. The three Highborn armies move to intercept the orcs. Here again the patrols are quickly overwhelmed, but the great central Heliopticon tower is able to send a warning to every spire in Morrow within hours of the first reports of orc movements. A Seventh Wave patrol manages to get out a warning of their approach before being overwhelmed, but they are utterly unable to slow the flood of orcs as it washes down into Peregro.Īt roughly the same time, another twenty-five thousand orcs, more or less, push north from the sodden lowlands of Proceris and Clypion into Caeli. As dawn breaks three weeks after the Summer Solstice, some twenty thousand Druj orcs pour northward along the trod from Proceris, down from the peaks where the Arch of the Sky now stands in ruins. It seems that they have slaked their cruel thirst, at least in Zenith. Enslaving, butchering, burning, devouring everything that comes within their grasp. Cuth, General of the Seventh Waveįor the last three months the Druj have held their position in Zenith, consolidating their gains. Hold the border defend at the fortress of Operus and resupply so we can be ready to sweep them before us. If they should dare to move upon our positions, we will find and destroy them. The Wretched Druj lurk across the border and threaten to spread their filth into Morrow. Marching across the Golden Causeway from Semmerholm, they launch a surprise invasion of the Mallum, conquering not only several regions of the new territory - Ossium - but also taking control of a mithril mine in the process. Unless the Empire pays, they will take advantage of the chaos to pillage and loot one of the rich territories along the Bay of Catazar.įinally, in the north-east, the armies of Dawn and their Varushkan ally take the battle to the Druj. They do not invade - not yet - but instead issue a chilling ultimatum. The Grendel send a great armada up the Brass Coast to Sarvos with magical speed. The Druj and the Jotun are not the only barbarians active in the Empire this season. In Kahraman, Jotun and Imperial forces clash again and again, back and forth throughout the season until finally, in one last concerted push, the orcs are driven back across the border to Reinos and Serra Damata is freed entirely from their grasp. The situation could not be more different in the south-west. It is hard to separate fact from fiction but something unexpected is happening in the land of lakes and seals. At the same time as the Jotun complete their conquest, there are muddled stories of the dead rising and falling on orc and human alike. The northernmost territory is now entirely controlled by orcs - the Silver Peaks still controlled by the Thule and everything else in the hands of the western orcs. To the north-west, Imperial forces withdraw from Sermersuaq leaving the Jotun to claim the entire territory uncontested. A pall of ash and despair hangs over eastern Urizen as the Halls of Knowledge - among other irreplaceable treasures - burn. The fighting is fierce but the Imperial forces are pushed back time and again, and the Druj destroy anything of value that falls into their hands. In the south-east, in Morrow, the Highborn armies fight to protect Urizen from the onslaught of the Druj.