Renewal 1106

For the festival of Renewal we were off to Noravik over in Jhereg lands. It was fairly warm but the large variety of fungus hinted at how damp it could get.

Of course we couldn't actually go into Noravik as the city had declared its independence from the Jhereg some time ago. There was still no definite information as to whether the non-born had power in Noravik and there seemed to be a bit of a power struggle going on there.

The Jhereg had decided that all mercenaries were to be treated as full members of the Jhereg as they were under Jhereg law anyway. Of course this only seemed to apply when they wanted something as most of the main Jhereg groups didn't seem to know and believed we had to treat them as fellow Jhereg while they could treat us as slaves. This led to all sorts of problems for all concerned down the line.

As has been becoming usual at these larger gatherings there wasn't enough space in the main glade for all the companies and groups that had assembled though it wasn't as bad as had been in the past couple of years due to the number of groups that had joined factions in the past year.

The JIS (Jhereg Information Service) had a valiant attempt at spreading information around the camps but it never really seemed to get going after what seemed like a great start (Although the Evil Sunz seemed to enjoy having Jhereg notices available to deface).

Shortly after our arrival a group of non-born cultists tried to build some sort of crystal device in the road outside the camp and perform some sort of suicide ritual. Luckily there were members of the Lion Azure and Merchant Militia on hand who had dealt with these cultists before and had a handle on dealing with the crystals.

The Discordials had regular cocktails at four but Farquar had to leave because it wasn't quite what he expected.

The social highlight of the year was Master Joseph's marriage to a Lady Inari. Unfortunately the event was slightly marred by the appearance of the demon previously known as Brother Gabriel in the nearby ritual circle with a bunch of other demons. Chaos reigned for a while.

The Hei Ravni signed a treaty with the Wolves - it was a major occasion and a big step forward for them.

There were some unusual attempts by the Jhereg to hire mercenaries for the attack on Noravik, most of them revolving around how easy it would be and only having to slaughter civilians. Funnily enough this seemed to put most of the companies off the idea rather quickly (memories of what had happened to previous companies that had worked for the Jhereg may have had some effect too). The only company that signed up was Spoon, a rather chaotic group of goblins with a fascination for table implements.

The attack on Noravik by the Jhereg, Wolves, Fir Cruthen, and Hei Ravni seemed to go very well but there were many rumours of a massacre of civilians. Seasoned campaigners were talking of mothers with babies being cut down in the city. There are some unusual images supposedly of this battle at Noravik Defenders.

Unfortunately far less of our frieds in the Hei Ravni returned to camp than left for the battle.

Spoon were in trouble with the Jhereg after the battle, they were accused of looting Jhereg bodies. Spoon members claimed they'd taken a potion from a dead Jhereg to give to one that was dying. Either way the whole group was sentenced to death and the camp was regularly visited by Jhereg looking for survivors. Very soon there were no members of Spoon in camp although there was a new group of goblins called Fork.

The Wolves lost one of their commanders to an attack by evil Dwarves which apparently may have led to an innocent Dwarf being slaughtered by Wolves a short while later. It wasn't considered a good idea for a Dwarf to be seen by the Wolves for a while after that.

The vampire Silver was around and about. Many groups seemed to think it would be a good idea to go after him but without success.

There were lots of rumours that the Wild Hunt was out at night hunting beasts and beastfolk but nobody in the camp saw anything to confirm it.

Brother G and the demons took Noravik overnight while the city was still in turmoil. Demons attacked the camps but were fought off, somehow the three or four in the mercenary camp when the main attack hit managed to survive. A sortie went out to the city that night but fighting demons at night has never really been the safest of activities.

The Algaia, Lions, Vipers and Steppe Alliance attacked Noravik in an attempt to finally put an end to Brother G and his demons. The Lion Azure joined General Donald and the 95th Varangian in this battle as a mobile reserve. The Vipers were there purely to support the Lions as they had no grievance with Brother G and they came despit their heavy troops being unable to leave camp due to the conditions. Everyone fought valiantly and although there were many points at which the demons managed to outmanoeuvre the allied factions they were always pushed back. Towards the end of the battle we managed to perform a manoeuvre that would have made Tacitus himself proud - we saw an opportunity to extend the right flank, wrapped around and simply cut across the face of the battle until we were on the left flank. Brother G fell to weapons that had been made specifically for the task.

A lot of mercenary groups left the camp for factions. The Black Company joined the Algaia after many years in the camp, Moshimo Ryu went to the Lions and Malice's Men joined their friends in the Steppe Alliance.