The Siege of Kandorr

Enemy forces lay siege to Kandorr City

Current Campaign: The Knights of Eaton

Episode 03: "The Siege of Kandorr"

Year: 1753 Fall

Location: Kandorr City, Lowleaf

Previous Episode: "Orasi In Darkness"

Next Episode: "Bloodlusting"

Previous Campaign: The Thuzuulan Heresy

Tasselhof runs afoul of a secret enemy. Kandorr City is besieged by the combined forces of Dellforth, Ananberg and Argonheim and what follows is a legendary battle. Cast Player Characters Ambrose the Elder (H. Cannon) Borric Simonson (A. Mater) Conan (C. Jemison) Drake (C. Jemison) Flanagan of Osgud (A. Mater) Margaret Kelleck (D. Honore) Simon Aylay Windsor (H. Cannon) Tasselhof Kelleck (W. Griffin) Non-Player Characters Alaric Windsor Alva Cromwell Grindstone Croyd Simonson Deslaine of Barleystoke Edwyn Kelleck Elwin Kelleck Colonel Evans Garn Simonson Gregory Simonson Grespin Kelleck Jacob of Loth Kuth of Memnod Noma Migorak-Saldura O'Brien Pavel Durskow Tobias Victor Cozann Story Act One: Betrayal And A Secret Kept Lieutenant Tasselhof, chief ranger of the north-eastern sector of Eaton, receives a report of ghoul sightings near the villages of Lowleaf and Crookhill from one of his rangers in that area. Tas leaves early in the morning to investigate and he travels until late in the afternoon, where he sets up a hidden camp outside of Lowleaf. During the night he witnesses strange activity along an old deer path—the lights and noise compel him to sneak closer for a view. He arrives at the secret encampment of a platoon of soldiers—whom he identifies by their language as Belosians—and he overhears its commander discussing secret troop movements throughout the area north in Dellforth and into Eaton. Tas is spotted by a scout who raises an alarm and he flees deeper into the woods. He is surrounded and puts up a valiant defense but is ultimately wounded, disarmed and captured. He is dragged to the command pavilion where he sees two Eatonshiran lords among the commanders; he recognizes the lords as Edwyn Kelleck and Victor Cozann. Tas is interrogated but refuses to answer queries; he struggles to fight his way to escape but he is beaten by the guards and lashed to a tree. The troops decamp and move out, leaving Tas for dead. When night falls and Tas fails to turn in, Margaret and Jacob take a small squad out to track him down. They find him the next day and heal him and he reports what he has seen. Margaret orders him to track down the Belosians and Tas leads the group to the enemy's new encampment, which they haven't yet completed. Margaret realizes her group has an immense advantage and she orders an assault on the sleeping camp. Her squad targets the soldiers who are toiling to build up their battlements and she successfully dispatches them without alerting the main body of the camp. They kill another dozen men who are sleeping in one of the tents before an alarm is raised. A large-scale skirmish erupts and continues until only Margaret, Jacob, Tas and twelve enemy Belosians are left. The Belosian commander, Lieutenant Durskow, leads everyone to a small village graveyard and orders the three to dig a mass grave. While they are digging Tas uncovers a tiny portion of an underground tunnel, which he relates to the other two; they hide its presence from the Belosians and continue digging the grave, which takes most of the day to complete. Durskow commands them to fill the pit with corpses and then climb in and his men pour oil into the grave. As Durskow lifts his hand to toss a fireball into the pit the three push their way through the dirt into the small opening and clamber into an underground tunnel; they escape the searing flash of heat from the mass grave. The Ghoulie Kingdom Half-blind in the darkness and weary from exhaustion, they stagger into an antechamber and collapse. In the moments after their eyes adjust to the darkness, they realize they are surrounded and captured by ghouls armed with spears. The lead spear-man puts a finger to his lips and then points upwards and whispers, "If you make a sound we will send you back out there." They are led tied together and led through a labyrinth of tunnels that get darker the deeper they go. After several minutes of walking they are instructed to sit and a small circle of polished skulls glows dimly in front of them, revealing a large catacomb filled human skeletons stacked in decorative arrays. The ghouls offer them an ultimatum, swear the Oath of the Bitten Tongue: Reveal us to none and hunt us no more; agree to a Greater Geas to secrecy and avoidance and we will permit you to leave this place. They comply and they are led through the underground terrain for a day and a half; they arrive at a steep ladder made of bones which leads them up to a mausoleum; when they get their bearings they realize they are standing alone in the graveyard outside of Kandorr. Act Two: Argonheim Strikes File:Kandor-siege.png Three armies converge on Kandorr Margaret reports to Borric who in turn alerts his, father King Croyd. Croyd calls an emergency lords' council to command his generals to prepare the city for siege defense. He orders his magi to alert the countryside and they use the Voyeur's Pupil to contact Kandorr's nearest allies, the lords of Greendale and Elkor, Captain Cromwell, and the Ashakre ambassador Grindstone. Scouts return with reports that three separate armies are on move towards Kandorr city: Dellforth from the north, Ananberg from the south, and Argonheim from the east sea. The enemy armies meet outside of Kandorr City's outer walls, where they set up camp and build siege engines and battlements; the Argonheim navy blockades the port with its mighty fleet. On the seventh day of the siege, Chaos Warlords breach the outer wall and their soldiers pillage and set fire to the east area of the city; the heroes fall back behind the massive inner wall but sneak out to launch small counter-strikes within the city. This slows the enemy's approach and allows the inner walls defenses to be fortified. Heavy street skirmishing continues for three days until the heroes are forced back to the inner wall for good. The Walls Are Breached and Ambrose Dies On the third week of the siege enemy sorcerer Noma destroys a section of the inner wall before he is killed in magical combat by Kandorran court wizard Ambrose, who himself dies in the conflict. The fight escalates at the breach and enemy archers of all three armies concentrate their fire there. This deadly hail disables Croyd and kills most of his bodyguards; he is thought dead by the enemy but in truth he is whisked away to the safety of the hidden tunnels beneath the city. The Traitor Cozann Is Killed Margaret commands Simon, Tas and a small group of knights to flank the invading force, and they skirt the city's inner perimeter on horseback until they come against a squad of soldiers led by Victor Cozann. In the ensuing skirmish Margaret wounds Cozann and is nearly killed by him but is saved by Simon, who mortally wounds the traitorous knight. They destroy Cozann's squad and fight their way into the enemy's right flank, where they surprise and rout Dellforth's archers with a deadly charge. Cromwell's Forces Arrive As the fight rages on against Dellforth's heavy infantry at the main breach, another portion of the inner wall is destroyed and Argonheim's heavy cavalry charges into the second breach. The inner bailey is soon so thick with combatants that there is little room to maneuver. A fresh alarm is raised and Kandorr sees Captain Cromwell's flagship appear in the distance, leading a full fleet of privateers and warships and the knights of Barleystoke, led by their count, Deslaine of Barleystoke. This force immediately assaults Argonheim's navy. Cromwell's ship, with aid from ship's magi O'Brien, rams through the blockade and makes it to port. Flanagan and Conan disembark The Molly and lead its forces in a counter-attack. The combat intensifies as Argonheim unleashes its terrors upon the troops in the inner bailey: Chaos Warlords, minotaurs and Firelords assault and push the palace guard against the walls of the castle. Sir Alaric leads a valiant charge against the minotaur squad and cuts down a few of them before he is killed in the struggle; Grespin and Simon successfully rout the remainder of minotaurs and chase them into the castle, where they hunt them down and destroy them. Upon seeing Lord Deslaine's forces overwhelmed by the Belosian vanguard and Deslaine himself killed, Conan spurs his horse to charge Captain Kuth of the Chaos Warlords, who cuts its legs out from under him; as Conan struggles to rise and lift his sword defensively the warlord swings his battle axe hard at him, shattering his sword and cleaving away the top of his head. Flanagan wounds the warlord captain, but his second attack is parried and the warlord cuts off Flanagan's arm at the shoulder; before he is able to deal a killing blow to Flanagan, Kuth is thwarted by Eatonshiran pikemen. He falls back among his men and disappears back into the fight. Ananberg soldiers wrest control of the main gate from the guards and they pour onto the walls, where they fight against Kandorr's archers. Colonel Evans, captain of the archers, is knocked from the wall, where he suffers grievous harm. Tas fights his way through the enemy forces towards Evans and he retrieves the wounded colonel's unconscious body and magical bow but he is surrounded by Argonian spearmen. Tas defends himself but is overwhelmed by the pikemen and he collapses, unconscious and bleeding out. Jacob tries to fight his way to them but he is grievously wounded by a Firelord and he is pulled to safety by Tobias. Drake takes Jacob's sword and kills the Firelord. The enemy forces gain control of the inner bailey and they move the bulk of their forces through the breaches in the wall. Prince Gregory orders the palace guard to fall back to the castle and they make a defensive retreat. A Storm From Keldoras Gregory sounds a final alert and his commanders fall back and away from the main body of the enemy army, who organize their units for a final assault on the castle. From the distance a shimmering host approaches in the sky from the direction of Keldoras and within minutes a horde of snow dragons begins strafing the enemy forces. Ananberg's army is the first to lose its nerve and it immediately retreats, quick-marching into the outer city where the main body of Kandorr's reserve troops are waiting for it; Ananberg is attacked and its retreat becomes a bloody rout as its soldiers run confused through the city streets. Dellforth, which has taken the heaviest losses of the three invading armies during the siege, turns its attention to breaching the castle but is fought off by Kandorr's palace guard. Argonheim attempts to fight the Keldori dragonmen, but their units of Chaos Warlords and Firelords are the first to be targeted by the dragons and they are left with little defense. Soon the inner bailey is covered in ice and snow and panicked and screaming men, half the invading army is frozen in agonizing death and the other half routs only to be attacked in a counter-assault by Kandorr's forces. Aftermath The battle becomes little more than an wintry abattoir and only a few thousand invaders escape Kandorr City, most of whom are Belosians; in the weeks that follow they will be tracked, hunted down and executed where they are found and only 100 Belosian survivors will return to the shores of Argonheim. Only 800 of Dellforth's forces, exclusively cavalry, make it back to their homeland. The entire invading army from Ananberg is destroyed. The survivors of the conflict walk through the snow-blasted cityscape and Simon spies someone in the distance leaning over Tasselhof's corpse, before he can get close enough she is gone and Simon notices Tasselhof's ring finger is missing along with his magical ring. He tracks the woman and finds Flanagan's arm, but the sword is missing from the hand's frozen clutches. Simon loses her at the docks and sees her board a dinghy and row towards The Molly. He returns to Tas and casts Sense Life and is shocked to realize a faint sign of life; he shouts for assistance and the royal healers attend to Tas and carry him off to be restored. Prince Borric wanders the city with Margaret that night and meditates on the brutality he has witnessed. He is approached by his father, Croyd, and a small contingent of elite warriors. All men are incognito and equipped for travel and Croyd tells Borric that he has formally abdicated the thrown to his eldest son Gregory and he plans on traveling to Avandell with the intention of putting an end to the threat of Argonheim once and for all. He embraces his son and advises him to live honorably and he makes for the docks to The Molly. Later that month after the walls are restored and the city in repair, Gregory calls for a week-long celebration and festivities. Tasselhof is promoted to ranger Captain, Simon is knighted, Margaret is rewarded with a leadership position in House Kelleck, Drake is granted a lesser title and claim to a plot of land in Greendale and the others are given medallions and prizes for their valiant defense of Kandorr City. Meta Game notes played Plot Points Deathist X of Argonheim wishes to avenge the death of his father who was murdered by Croyd Simonson; the regicide is remembered as a national insult by the lords of Argonheim. The Dead Ambrose Conan of Balthas Victor Cozann Tasselhof Kelleck Noma Migorak-Saldura Alaric Windsor Points Awarded 4 point for all Season Pool 14 points