0AJD, Month of Whitestar

0 AJD

Month of Whitestar

In a sudden surge, the Jungle Deep swallows Lorenthia. Over a million and a half people lived in Lorenthia at that time, the crushing majority of them are either dead or missing; although information gathered later by Ranger companies pointed to many haven been enslaved by evil, for unknown but doubtless unsavoury purposes.

King Arethic II immediately sends out a new and heartfelt appeal to his allies and to every other surviving realm, a summoning of heroes to come and stand against the darkness.  Help, however, seems far away, if it ever comes. 

The King orders all the Rangers to abandon any other task, and descend into the Jungle Deep to gather information, rescue prisoners, launch raids, and fight a delaying action against their mysterious foe.  He also calls up his army.

Reports quickly come in of strange creatures flooding across the new border into eastern Alladore, striking terror into frontier villages.

Meanwhile, a fierce battle develops for control of the line of beacon towers.  Seemingly endless waves of Giant Spiders, Carrionspawn and Hu-Mans, driven on by Banshees, come raging across the old border, whilst their tame Pteranodons wheel and spy overhead.  There are even reports of Nekhbeti shaman,s and the terrifying demons they can summon.  During four long days, the Border Guards of Alladore, reinforced here and there by the Rangers, put up desperate resistance.

On the "Night of the Green Fire", however, many of the beacon towers began to burn with a phantasmal green light, announcing to everyone within thirty miles that the Jungle Deep now controls the border.  Only in a few spots along that long line can the light of orange fire be seen, offering just a sliver of hope that the warriors of Alladore are still fighting to hold back the darkness.

And fighting they are, making a first foray into the Jungle Deep itself in an attempt to learn more about it, and perhaps open a corridor for survivors from Lorenthia.  

The war quickly swings in the enemy's favour however.  During the following two weeks, the soldiers of Alladore have lost almost every battle, and the number of beacon towers burning with orange flame diminish every day.

Whilst one group of Rangers, under the command of The Twins and Akriss, uses intelligence provided by Lorenthian survivors to try to recover the Decanter of Burning Light, and bring badly-needed assistance to the many wounded, another company tries to kill at the source the dark sorcery that is definitely sapping the morale of Alladore's army.

The first group finds the Decanter, and brings back with it a chilling first-hand account of the fall of the convent.  "A horrible earthquake and thick clouds of ash...Monsters, pouring out of every corner".   The eye-witness is none less than a young Hu-Man child, that the nuns of St. Emilia obviously took in a few years ago, for she was wearing a novice's clothes...and knew how to wield magic.  She must have run away....perhaps Hu-Man society is not as monolithic as previously imagined, there is dissension within, perhaps resistance to the Jungle Deep ?  

The company that infiltrated the convent suffered the death of a companion, and many returned with permanent injuries.  No longer under the protection of St. Emilia, the centuries old convent will yield to the pervasive roots of the Jungle Deep, but the Decanter is now in Tallis, and such a powerful artefact is sure to aid in the long struggle ahead.

The second group, led by Aka Morumotto, also achieves a major success, not only killing a "Wizard Adept" of the Jungle Deep, but learning of the possible whereabouts of the young heir to the Lorenthian throne, cousin to the King of Alladore.  They also reveal from their encounters, that Hu-Man civilisation is much more complex and advanced that previously imagined.  The price paid is high, with two companions returning with permanent injuries, but all consider it worthwhile.  Later discoveries by Ranger companies suggest some sort of tentative link between the lost and mythical empire of Old Shava, and present-day Hu-Man civilisation within the Jungle Deep.