Shadowed Horizons – Act II Update
22nd Sep 2023
Dan Mapleston
Hey everyone, we’ve reached the end of the second week of the Shadowed Horizons campaign and it's been neck-and-neck (on land at least)!
If you haven’t registered already, get over to the campaign hub to play your part in shaping this chapter of Pannithor’s story: CLICK HERE
The second online ‘general’s choice’ is set to go live soon (this time for the EVIL generals)…along with specific story updates for both GOOD and EVIL, and you may find out things that the other side may not know...
At the start of each new ‘act’ we will reset the results tracker, so that it remains all to play for in each phase of the story. Let's go!
The War on Land, Act II - The Fight for the Ice Mountains
At the end of last week, the GOOD generals voted to rest their weary troops at the northern border of the Mammoth Steppe before crossing into the Winterlands to aid Prince Talannar's forces. This had two consequences:
Having recovered their energy, and with high morale, the expeditionary forces managed to get some of their troops up onto one of the high ridges. From up here they could see void energy streaming across the sky, from the web of void-cages and towards the Iceblood Fjord in the west.
This is a game-changing moment in the campaign, and you can read all about how it unfolds HERE in 'The Path to Discovery'.Having deduced that the purpose of the void-cages is not simply to unleash Nightstalkers, the focus of the expeditionary forces will now shift onto destroying void-cages throughout the Winterlands.
The forces of good haven't had an easy week though (see above), and their failure to dominate among the Ice Mountains region has meant that the Northern Alliance patrols recalled to defend Chill have been slaughtered. You may remember reading about them HERE in 'The Long Road Home'...hopefully you didn't get too attached to the characters!
Meanwhile, an earlier General's Choice vote (from our pre-Clash of Kings HQ participation battle) finally revealed itself. We gave the Nightstalker players the choice of whether they were going to assault the city of Chill, or follow the mysterious streams of energy west - and they chose the latter!
It's just as well for the Northern Alliance defenders, given the consequences that your choices and battles have been stacking up against them! Prince Talannar's ravens won't be coming back (as EVIL won the opening battle), his recalled patrols were slaughtered (EVIL winning the land war in Act II), and the expeditionary forces are now diverting from the relief effort to hunt down void-cages (due to their discovery enabled by the last GOOD General's Choice). When we said that the potential is there for big changes to happen based on your decisions, we meant it! A narrow escape on this occasion...
Fast-forwarding to this week, as Chill braced itself for a protracted siege, the Nightstalker horde continued on its course west, effectively sparing the city. The mixture of relief, suspicion and distress is captured amazingly in another awesome short story HERE: 'The Battle Within'. Go and read it!
So, going into Act III, a big part of the finale is going to come down to how many void-cages you can close...
And because the forces of EVIL won on land this week - they have their own big decision to make over the next 24hrs! Go and check it and cast your vote on the campaign hub HERE.
The War at Sea, Act II - The Battle of Brokenwall
It's been a climactic week on Pannithor's oceans as well, with the forces of GOOD continuing their unbeaten naval record for a second week!
This means a great victory for them at the Brokenwall Islands, the elven sea forts built atop a long-submerged mountain range. The consequence of their victory is the total destruction of the Abyssal Dwarf ships tasked with protecting the Twilight kin fleet as part of their uneasy alliance.
Amid the chaos and cannonfire, and rather than stay to defend their former allies, the Twilight Kin slipped through into the endless sea - but they are now left vulnerable to any pursuit without their heavy escort!Can they be stopped, or diverted from their course and mission? It will have a significant impact on the end conditions of the campaign. The choice of the EVIL generals in their vote this week will also impact on the Armada result - we'll have to wait and see what they choose to do!
To those of you who chose to align with the forces of EVIL - if you've been following the story on the campaign hub, you already know what the Twilight Kin ships are carrying. You may even have most of the pieces now to see their grand plan! But will it work? Can they be stopped? What will happen?
So keep playing, keep voting, keep logging those results, and let's all find out where Pannithor ends up!