War of the Blank Shields
| Year: 1758 Winter—1764 Fall | |
| Location: Kandorr, Eatonshire, Dellforth | |
NPCs:
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| Previous Episode: "The Fall of Kandorr" | |
| Next Episode: "Random Acts" | |
The War of the Blank Shields was a 6-year series of battles in central Bereth that destabilized the realms directly involved. Concurrent with the first battles was a plague and a heavy winter that hastened the country's slide into a lawless chaos.
History
Prologue
The events immediately preceding and during The Fall of Kandorr.
The Falling Out of Langmere, Norwold and Grey-Eye
Crow Fodder Brotherhood Commander Graham Grey-Eye's fury over the tactics of Lord Aston Langmere and Lord Rafe Norwold during the Battle of River Gate, and the refusal of those lords to make reparations for the "friendly fire" deaths of Sweet Egon and his companion Crows—compelled the mercenary leader to seize control of Kandorr and to take hostages of the nobles of Langmere, Polidon, Norwold and Crastyl, who had been their clients during the siege of that city. The Crow Cloaks barred entry into Kandorr and demand that the hostages' ally, Lord Declan Crastyl, lead the remainder army back to Dellforth. They sent along a delegation to collect their pay.
The Battle of Rainbow Bay
King Orkan, furious at the upstarts, executed the Crow delegates and furnished his cousin Lord Aston with fresh troops and contracted the Dread Legion to lay waste to the Crow Cloaks. He commanded Lord Wymun Rosemurk to sail the assembled forces to Kandorr and besiege the city anew. When Wymun landed he found that the Cloaks had abandoned Kandorr to plunder the manors along the countryside of Eaton. Wymun in turn was confronted by the Eaton navy, who had come to rescue its sister city. Eaton's navy was strengthened by Cromwell's dreadnaught Black Abyssal (captained by Sascha Midoria). The two navies collided in a savage sea assault, the Battle of Rainbow Bay, in which Lord Wymun's fleet was annihilated and he taken for ransom. During the heat of battle the Dread Legion abandoned their crippled vessel and rowed ashore, regrouped outside of Kandorr's walls and continued into Eaton to track the Crow Cloaks.
The Plunder of Dellforth
Over the course of the next two years the two mercenary companies skirmished and plundered the countryside for sustenance. Eaton bled from the protracted warfare and those lords who could not defend themselves payed tribute to one or the other company. Pestilence and famine followed in the wake of each winter and war, and in the winter of XXXX, while King Orkan took advantage of Eaton's weakness to lay seige to Eatonshire, the Crow Cloaks made a bold move and marched upon Dellforth. There they penetrated the city walls, put its soldiers and able-bodied men to the sword, and plundered the city. As a final insult, Grey-Eye hanged his noble hostages from the stone arches of King Orkan's ancestral home. After three days of sacking the city the Crows marched north, leaving Dellforth in flames.
The Battles of Stone Fist Bridge and North Fork
Grey-Eye sought a buffer between his company and their pursuers and so contracted The Grief Eaters with his new-found wealth. He charged them with scourging the countryside of Dellforth to draw out Orkan. The Grief Eaters landed outside of Treefall in the fall of XXXX and immediately set to work burning the farmlands and pillaging the winter stores of Dellforth, while the Crow Cloaks trekked north to plunder the riches of Kel Kozaad. The Cloaks were decisively rebuffed by the Kozaadi army at the Battle of Stone Fist Bridge and so journeyed east to Tieremond, where they took over the castle and set camp for the winter. The Grief Eaters, commanded by Rezla Spearbreaker, destroyed Orkan's army at North Fork—Lord Aston and King Orkan were both killed in battle. Rezla enslaved the survivors and force-marched them north to combine her forces with Grey-Eye's.
The Cold Ruin descended on Bereth and the privation of war hastened widespread pestilence, famine and death. Lakes and rivers froze, roads were impassable, bays unsailable. Refugees of the war froze in their makeshift huts outside the walls of the major cities, and within those walls those who didn't hoard food starved. At Wymarch and Riverfork the citizens revolted, breaking into granaries and tithe barnes. The tenants of Kesley Soke stormed the nearby abbey at Waterford, robbing the stores of food and making off with the livestock.
The Battle of Tieremond
Queen Lyra Kess of Kel Kozaad answered the entreaties from her Dellforthan allies and led her Kozaadi army to lay seige on Tieremond. Her army was joined by those remnant lords who survived the Battle of North Fork, reinforced by the Dread Legion, commanded by Mikael Voren. Two months into the stalemate at Tieremond, the beseigers were stricken by the pestilence that had ravaged the countryside. Queen Lyra ordered the corpses of diseased draft animals, livestock, and deserters to be flung over the fortification walls. Weeks later, the pestilence ravaged those defenders within the city. Grey-Eye was among those who perished from the contagion.
The Crow Cloaks were divided between which leader to elect as commander; half of them desired negotiating a surrender while the other half suspected the Kozaadi and Dread Legion would show them no mercy. Signas Stonehand, nominee of the latter group, had once been a Kozaadi captain and asserted that Queen Lyra Kess likely viewed their assault on Stone Fist Bridge an insult that could only be repaid by blood. A heated debate escalated into a sword-fight between the divided camps and Rezla lent her sword to Signas and those who forswore surrender. The skirmishing within the city lasted the night and was checked only when a unit of Crow Cloaks from the other party opened a gate to the besiegers. The Dread Legion vanguard pushed ino the city, followed by Lord Rafe Norwold and his contingent. The orders given by Queen Lyra and Norwold to their warriors was unambiguous: no Crow Cloak or Grief Eater was to leave the Tieremond alive. The Crows, who had earlier been violently divided, immediately rejoined into a unified fighting force.
Although the assembled besiegers greatly outnumbered the renegade mercenaries, the fight was evenly matched—they weren't as seasoned, hale and well-rested as their enemies; more importantly, many of the battle-hardened Dellforthans were killed earlier at North Fork, and this army was fresh and undisciplined in comparison. Sickness and the fatigue of a winter march had further weakened the Dellforthan forces. The Crows and Eaters had also lay traps within the city and were fully prepared for street fighting; a large number of infantrymen were led into kill zones and dispatched with ease. All of these factors contributed to a number of key strategic blunders that favored the Crows and Eaters.
Outside the Kozaadi sappers made quick work of the walls, now unmanned due to the skirmishing within the city, and Tieremond was exposed. Inside, the Dread Legion, unwilling to risk leaving a single renegade mercenary alive, slew any able-bodied male they came across who did not wear Dellforthan colors—and so they methodically cut a swath from the west gate towards what they believed to be the enemy barricade at the center of the city. Spying the familiar black feather coats of the Crow Cloaks assembled in the square, Commander Voren ordered the Legion to attack. After killing a handful of Crows without resistance, they discovered that the men wearing the mercenaries signature coats were actually the hostage lords of Tieremond, whose tongues and eyes had been removed. Voren ordered a full retreat but the trap had been sprung: a sudden and immense explosion immolated the city square, killing hostage and Legionnaire alike. Flaming debris rained down on the rooftops, sparking fires in the city and triggering other traps set by the Crows Cloaks.
Rezla led the combined Crows and Eaters out of the tumble-down east wall and they charged directly into the flank of the Kozaadi heavy infantry. Queen Lyra launched a counterstrike and met Rezla in the fray, where she slew the mercenary and cut through the Grief Eater line. Rafe's cavalry divided the Crow Cloak line while the Dread Legion drove out from the city walls and into the rear flank of the Crows and Eaters. A slaughter commenced on all sides. Signas ordered his crossbowmen, archers and spear-men to spend their strength taking out the enemy cavalry and commanded his shield bearers to force a moving wall to cover their retreat into the forests outside Tieremond. After the cavalry was counterchecked, Signas ordered a fighting retreat into the woods and remained at the rear van to safeguard the flight of his companions.
Flight of the Grieving Crows
The forces of Lord Rafe Norwold and Mikael Voren gave chase, to the retreating mercenary army, slaying any who fell behind. Norwold sent messengers to the lords of Dellforth, alerting them to the retreating train and compelling every available citizen to harry and slay any member of the fleeing host for a reward. The Crow Cloaks and Grief Eaters split their forces at North Fork, with the Crows continuing south while the Eaters cutting southeast towards the coast. Rafe and Mikael followed the Crow host. Lord Wymun Rosemurk, whose ransom had been paid by his sons, led his host to join with Lord Angbad Kulayn's and together they smashed the Grief Eaters in the Battle of Howling Hills. Rosemurk crucified the surviving Grief Eaters along the coast of Dellforth upon posts set at every 500 meters; the ghastly display stretched for 160 kilometers.
The Crow Cloaks' grueling march out of Dellforth—hampered by terrain, climate, hostile opposition at every turn, and sickness—lasted almost two months and reduced their number by nearly half. They slogged bitterly through blockades, traps, and ambushes set up by local lordlings and freemen while Lord Rafe and Mikael chased them mercilessly, nearly cornering them three times and being fended off in heated skirmishes that were more costly to the pursued than the pursuers. Their final confrontation was at the Battle of the River Bank; as Signas led the Crow Cloaks across the Essa River, Rafe's army and the Dread Legion charged their line from opposite sides—it was in this battle that the Crows suffered the heaviest casualties. Within view of the Crows, Rafe defiled the corpses of their companions and shouted threats from across the river while his archers shot arrows at the retreating line. The Crow Cloaks have not set foot in Dellforth since that moment.
Upon arriving in Eaton, the Cloaks set camp and held a moot. A tally revealed that a little over three hundred souls remained. Signas dissolved the contract and thus released any obligations the Crows had. He expressed his intent to return to Ulmeth and fifty of the Crow Cloaks chose to go with him. The rest appointed a nominal commander—Quent the Wolf—and made plans to sack Eatonshire. Signas and his fellow Crows departed while Quent led the others south to Eatonshire.
Notable casualties
- Lord Aston Langmere, killed in The Battle of North Fork
- King Orkan Langmere, killed in The Battle of North Fork
- Rezla Spearbreaker, killed in combat by Queen Lyra Kess during the Seige of Tieremond
- Graham Grey-Eye, dead by pestilence during the Siege of Tieremond
Thereafter: The Defenders of Eatonshire
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