AAR: The Abyssian Chronicle
This started as simple write of my experiences in the recent no-diplomacy anonymous players game (RAND) which just ended, however as I began writing it I couldn't help weaving in some more RP aspects, so I thought I'd post this outside the RAND thread given how few AARs the forums gets.
Episode I, The Lizard Menace
The trials of the Abysians were more or less determined from the very start, with both the Vanir and C'tissians having capitals within two provinces of the great volcano. It was around halfway through the first year of the ascension war the first blood was drawn, the C'tissians invaded and the relatively small Abysian army was forced to withdraw to the capital while proper evocations were researched. After a number of turns of raiding and preperation for the attack C'tissians finally risked the attack on the capital the Abysians were hoping for. By then the Abysian god, the Prince of the Wastes, had awakened, evocations were ready, and events had raised the province defense to near maximum levels.
Episode II, Attack of the Vans
After the ensuing massacre, the prospects of the fledgling Abysian nation swiftly dealing with C'tis and building an empire seemed bright. Unfortunately, the very next month, when the Prince of the Wastes first set foot out of the capital, a sailing Vanir army equipped with thunder strike and a blessing of death sailed out of nowhere (or rather, out of Vanhiem, which it just so happened was just a one turn hop across the lake). The Abysian army could not hope to withstand the thunder strikes by themselves, and while the Abysian god could laugh in the face of lightning, the wicked weapons of death wielded by the sacred troops were another matter. But at least the cave castle was in no danger of a breach in the near future, and the mages prepared in safety, while a wrathful god stuck outside the walls could do nothing but wander about raiding and killing the lizard armies that littered the countryside (the lay of land was such capital besiegers blocked the only route to the lands of Vanir). The wandering god was more successful than the Abyssians could have hoped, and once mercenaries were hired, they soon began running out of suitable C'tis provinces to raid.
Chapter III, Revenge of the Abysians
It should note here that back during the C'tis war the demons of Yomi had made an abortive attempt to take advantage of the situation and procure a Abysian territory adjoining the capital. Unfortunately for them, a hunch on the part of Abysian leadership preempted the attack, and it was defeated the very turn of the suprise invasion. At the time there was little in the form of reprisal that could be considered, and it was simply considered fortunate no further aggressive actions emerged. Now though, Abysia had a rampaging and exiled God with little to loose, and sparsely defended Yomi border to the south.
Episode IV, A New Hope
So the Lord of the Wastes and his mercenaries turned south, with still greater successes, taking perhaps a half a dozen provinces without meeting significant resistance. During this time the mages in the capital had the satisfaction of watching several armies of C'tis (no doubt convinced the Vanir had stolen their prize) virtually suicide themselves against the Vanir's thunder strikes. The Vanir had meanwhile breached the walls of the capital some time ago, but for some reason timidly held off. This was agreeable to the Abysians, in the meantime the mages had summoned a host of summer lions and researched falling fires. When shortly after Van finally decided to storm, the battle swung miraculously in the Abysian's favor, with summer lions drawing all the thunder strikes, and evocations whittling away the troops. In the end, not a single Abysian mage was lost in the battle and the capital was once again free.
Shortly after, the remaining Van provinces around the capital were tentatively mopped up, while meanwhile the Lord of the Wastes an his mercenaries pushed ever farther south. This was the brief golden age of the Abysian empire, the threat of a new Van army making another grab at the capital was ever present, but prospects were one again hopeful.
Episode V, The Oni Strike Back
Inevitably, the Dai Oni started trickling in from wherever they had been occupied at the start of the war. At first in small numbers the Abysian god was more than a match for them, but as the number and level of equipment increased he was often forced to retreat (though over the course of the war, his eye shield blinded more Dai Oni than could be easily counted). In any case, the Lord of the Wastes could only be in one place at a time, and the war's front was slowly pushed back. The bright spot for the Abysians was that scouts reported that both the Vanir and C'tissians had plenty of problems and were themselves in danger of being overrun. In an effort to deliver a decisive blow, the Abysian god finally prepared with new weapons dared a direct trapeze on top of a group of Dai Oni atteptting to sneak around him to the capital. Unfortunately this proved to be his last foray, and he was overcome. A new siege of the capital started shortly.
Episode VI, Return of the Pretender.
With the number of priest-mages at the capital, the pretender's return was swift, but the loss of magic and equipment was great a blow. When the Oni breached the walls (much faster than the Vanir had done), the number of Dai Oni outside greatly outnumbered the party that had killed him the first time. Abysia did, however, have one new secret weapon. Early in the war, one of the first provinces captured contained a magus temple, a quite lucky find considering how meager the resources available for site searching in the Abysian homeland were. As the war went on, the temple changed hands several times, but in the turmoil about a half dozen magus were produced, and all made it safely back to the capital as the Oni advanced. With a few gems set aside for eyes of the void and spell foci, a communion was set up, with magus the very few warlocks at the capital. Soul slay was researched just in time for this desperate Dai Oni countermeasure to be up and running on the day of the storm. The communion proved quite pivotal to the battle, and though several mages and summer lions were killed, this siege too was defeated. At first there were worries of a new attempt on the capital, after all more than half the Dai Oni had escaped with their lives. It soon became apparent however that Yomi too now was facing another aggressor, as troops of T'ien Ch'i appeared on the Yomi border.
Epilogue
By this time the Abysian people had come to be quite cynical about the concept of peace, and their expectations were not disappointed. Scant turns after the Yomi defeat, the greatest army yet to find the walls of Abysia materialized with no warning. The skirmish outside the walls showed a frightening force, one with numerous SCs, every flavor of support magic, and most terrifying of all to the lava born, fire resistance. The towering giants were well prepared and inexorable, they breached the walls the very turn they appeared.
The walls of Abysia were known the be the bane of many an army, but with virtually all of the troops dead from patrolling on the turn of the attack, any hope of victory seemed beyond a miracle. So, reluctantly, the escape tunnels were prepared (a titan needs a rather large one) and pretender and mages alike retreated once more into exile. In the months after the escape, the strange one eyed invaders showed little interest in the surrounding countryside, and the exiled Abysians gathered around the occupied capital and plotted their return...
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I wish more people did these, they're awesome. Who were the giants who defeated you in the end? I didn't know the giant nations had fire resistance, unless they got it magically or something. 
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