One month, several rules debates and an amusing mishap later, and all of the solars seem to have made progress with their plans. The only thing missing from their campaign is somebody who knows Tiger Warrior Training Technique. Enter Grey Wolf, led by Dalf who stops off only to eat a whole chicken and complain about the lack of fighting.
Grievously upset by Dalf’s complaints, the solars resolve to declare war on a previously non-aggressive kingdom within the week. The kingdom of Moloko beckons. It’s ruled by an evil despot, but more importantly, it’s conveniently located and very fertile. Before battle can commence though, the circle must pick up the bodies of their fallen night caste comrades. Apparently, night caste’s are like buses. The solars act all upset and stuff for the benefit of Valion’s sister, and gratefully accept her vow of protection. They then wait for all of 20 seconds before looting the bodies. Kairos misses out on the loot, as he sadly realises that he must convince Queen Latifah that he’s Lord Fi’s brother, and then marry her.
The party is postponed and the war begins. After scouting out the city of Moloko, they summon Dalf’s army. Grey Wolf convinces a wing to follow his flag and join up with Dalf. Fox and Kairos spread the word that fighting a liberating army (which they are - honestly) is immoral. The former then heads back to Tredemin, the latter joins Dalf to command Grey Wolf’s soldiers. Ferric and Azir have a lie in. As they approach the city, Kairos uses husband-seducing demon dance on everybody (10,000 people) within a 7 mile radius, but having seen Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered, decides to make people fall in love with The Unconquered Sun.
The battle lasts 15 minutes. Dalf’s men grab the most kills, but also suffer casualties of around 50%. Grey Wolf’s new recruits emerge unscathed, but the less competent Kairos looses the lives of 10 of his old recruits. As the opposing army, which mysteriously only had 50% of its expected numbers, scatters Grey Wolf is able to decapitate the leader (or, if not the leader, then the guy with the nicest armour), a mere 20ft from his gates.
With its army safely inside, the city bars its gates. The attacking force tends to its wounded, and retreats far enough to ensure that the enemy can retrieve theirs.
With civil war narrowly averted and the populace of a city state now freed from the bureaucratic tyranny of Maanas, the Circle departed Maluka. They left behind a city rejoicing with the promise of doubled payments and the new opportunities as the era of free market commercialism dawned on this agrarian nation. And what better way to prepare for, or distract from, Kairos’ impending nuptials than annexing a distant country…
Preparations for said wedding were well underway by the time the victorious forces returned to Tredamin. There was a pleasant reunion as well as Azir’s request to his allies in Nexus was answered. The intelligence operative Raiden showed up… and was stopped from immediately departing once the full extent of his task here was made clear. The fact that he had also joined the ranks of the newly enlightened gave Fox an opportunity to extol the virtues and glories of the Unconquered Sun. At length.
The wedding itself was a simple affair, though the image of Fox as presiding celebrant and the prayers to Sol Invictus was bound to draw some attention. But it wasn’t until the guests started arriving that the true extent of their social naïveté, however, was revealed. The youngest non-Exalted son from Kharadron, a minor functionary from Seluss… hardly the most auspicious or significant of diplomatic envoys. Obviously, they weren’t important enough… yet. It might be time to take diplomacy straight to the neighbouring courts and… introduce themselves. Of course, social re-engineering can be both top-down and bottom-up directed, so Azir (working on information from Fox) produced some ‘recreational assistance’ to help boost the commercial fortunes of some of these new contacts and maybe relieve the suffering amongst targeted sections of the population.
In order to further their long-term plans, a side-trip to Nexus was undertaken. Ferric needed raw materials to complete his reconnaissance drones (aka the spy-bots) and where better to get them than to pull them out of the air… literally. The journey into the Wyld-touched district of Firewander was not without hazard though, even despite the zone of order engineered by the master craftsman and were it not for Azir’s Efficacious Ignorance of Combat #1 (“Ignorance is Bliss! Available at good apothecaries soon!”), the chaos-rats might have dined well on fox that afternoon. Even the indomitable Kairos, having vented his fury on a creature that had the temerity to bite him, required healing ministrations… albeit of a different type than simple bandaging. But the quarantine zone wasn’t in place for very long. At least they managed to come away with a fairly significant quantity of jade and orichalcum.
Cut to an urgent request to return to Maluka where civil unrest was brewing once again. It seemed corruption and inefficiency had set in to the bureaucracy and the sudden explosion in commercial opportunity had adversely affected all sectors as people tried to deal with the new realities. Some farms in the north had even withdrawn their produce in protest at not having received the increased stipends. A thorough audit revealed cracks in the administration and punishments were meted out. But things still weren’t right. There was more going on under the surface and such was traced to the missing council member – Slavion Ysa, ex-Citizenry minister and confidant of the deposed God-blood. To have him sitting under their noses and causing trouble was a distinct point of concern...
Raiden walked unseen into Slavion's office and came out carrying his prone body. A series of disjointed interrogations later, Slavion's will was broken. Irresistable Questioning Technique proved irresistable, and Slavion poured out everything he knew. Which turned out to be more of a trickle than a torrent of information. One major fact emerged - Manaas' father is a member of the celestial bureaucracy, and likely to show up soon for revenge.