Previously: Conquest 2022 – Summer campaign against Ankor Mortis

The goal of this campaign was to make Ankor Mortis, the capital of the Undead Flesh, sink by finding the burial chamber of Saint Barnabas and destroying his remains. Since the remains of Cerenna were also believed to be in the same burial chamber, another goal was to destroy them as well. Most of the fighting outside the walls was merely a diversion to allow scholars, mages, and scouts to sift through and analyze things.

In front of the walls of Ankor Mortis, we could only survive thanks to the force point that was shifted there during the Spring Campaign. However, this force of protection shifted from time to time, so it was not always present everywhere evenly. The camps, however, were safe as long as the force point could be held. So, it was one of the main tasks to accomplish this.

At the outpost that was established, and that was inside the protection, three of the known temples of the elements appeared: Aqua, Ignis and Terra. The Aeris temple could not be summoned from the Intermediate Level. However, a “place of terror” was created to compensate for this.

At all temples, various tasks had to be solved to give us advantages:

• Citadel of Life (Aqua): near the fountain, the self-healing powers of injured people were activated.
• Halls of Perpetual Fight (Ignis): through duels the fighters could be strengthened and thus had more power on the battlefield
• Cradle of Impermanence (Terra): Strengthening of fighters, extendable to a group.

Also at the outpost, we were able to find an “artifact” that was uncovered by the second cataclysm. It was from the time before the World Fire and was called “Caller”. The “artifact” was more like a ritual site than an object. With the “Caller” one could call an enemy and defeat him there. The idea crystallized that it could possibly be used to defeat Nimoe, a powerful saint of undeath. Plans were made and on the penultimate day the prepared ritual was held. Nimoe could be destroyed, but at a very high price, for all the Edalphi died just moments before, as Nimoe shredded their ancestral marrow. This affected all the Edalphi, including the Toria Edalphi and the two continuum Edalphi still alive and present.
The shock of this was immense for all. But the Quin (the Children of the Golden Dream – Magica) decided that the Edalphi still had a job to do and sent them back. This happened at the point of power. However, each of the Edalphi could decide beforehand if he/she wanted to come back.

The seedling, which had arrived before the settlers, had connected with a tree on site and the surrounding land. This tree was right on the edge of the battlefield. The area around the seedling was accessible at all times due to its protection. One could walk under the tree and take in seedling water, which it secreted, and was thus protected from the “Hatred of Terra” for a while.

To achieve our ultimate goal, to find the burial chamber of St. Barnabas, a compass was made, the base of which was a few drops of Barnabas’ blood and hair from Cerenna. With this, the chamber could be found and Barnabas placed in special chains. These chains had to be forged together from chain links found on site and according to specific instructions, so that Barnabas’ spirit could no longer wander around the walls and was fixed in one place.

To eventually get to the remains of Barnabas in his burial chamber, there were seven locks on the door of the burial chamber, to which we eventually also had the instructions on how to open them. Also, a letter was found, in which the weapon was mentioned and its forging was explained, with which one could destroy Barnabas then finally.

At the same time there were preparations to destroy Cerenna’s bones. The “Blades of Cerenna” had a vision of Cerenna, asking her to find the bones. She mentioned that her dark part had been destroyed during the Spring Campaign. The bones were found, recovered, destroyed with the loaded blades of terror and burned at the place of terror. The ashes were scattered to the winds.

Black Ice:

The Black Prince was on the scene and it quickly became apparent that there was a power struggle in the Black Ice. The Black Prince wanted to destroy the Amon’Khar (leader of the Black Ice) and take over himself. The Dragonfly Queen’s goal was to rule together with him. She had made him dependent with the gift of the emotion “love”. The Black Prince put his spark into some Rakhs. This spark gave them individuality, but the Black Prince could also use it to impose his will on them.
With a certain sword and by charging it, the Black Prince could defeat the Amon’Khar and become the new ruler of the Black Ice. The sword had to be charged with the help of the settlers. Thus, a decision had to be made beforehand as to whether one would rather have the Black Prince or the Amon’Khar as the ruler of the Black Ice.
The Amon’Khar was completely destroyed on the penultimate day of the campaign with the charged sword wielded by the Black Prince, an aria of Sephor’Assil, the amphora of Ottar’Khan filled with hate, and the addition of love and joy by the Dragonfly Queen.
Earlier, there was an area where charged orbs could be thrown into scales of emotion to affect the properties of the new Black Ice. The continuum sedalphi present took care of this issue. The choices were emotion vs. logic, anger vs. sadness, perseverance vs. curiosity, and joy vs. compassion. The balls had to be filled with elemental aspects and then, within a certain amount of time, placed in one of the scales.

The result influenced the Black Prince and the Black Ice. The weighting here was mainly in compassion, emotion, logic and perseverance.
The Black Prince, after his victory over the Amon’Khar, now calls himself Amon’Valar.

Ratio/Army of Doubt + Pestilence:

Still seeking a way not to die out, the Ratio was able to create an ancestor mark of sorts through a ritual using Pestilence Shards.

Skargen:

The Skargen were on the scene with several ships looking for something. Some invited diplomatic talks. They answered questions, in exchange for the gift of blood.
There was also a peace offering. This read:

We will not attack the Skargen anymore. The Skargen will not attack us anymore. Each settler will give a non-lethal amount of his blood to the Skargen.

However, this offer was not accepted. Through conversation, however, we found out how the Skargen became aware of Mitraspera in the first place: Before the World Fire, Methraton’Thul had tried to send a message to the outside world. This failed, and the message was not delivered until the first explosion of the World Forge, four years ago.

Undeath:

At the end of the campaign, King Garvan appeared on the battlefield and announced that he had excavated ancient tombs and would now travel to the deep south, beyond the Ice Wall, to conquer and claim this land for himself.

Ankor Mortis is now sinking completely! A great victory for us.