The Ress knights on horseback form their ranks into two long wings, a broad wedge shape. Knights from Castle Morin form the right wing; knights from Eryth the left, and the King's bannermen ride in the middle. Long green pennants, bearing the white horse of Ress, trail behind. Drums beat, and Captains shout and curse their men into formation. The wedge paces forward, into the long vale formed by the shallow Morden Creek. These men are Ressi, born to the saddle, and there are no finer cavalry in all the Seven Kingdoms. Behind them march the Ress militia, bearing long spears and shields.
The night still clings to this valley, the crescent moons high in the clear skies, now that the snowclouds have left. Drums beat out the march as the army moves forward.
In the left flank, Rhyan scans the terrain ahead, two long lines of hills with the stream down the center, looking for some sign of the foe. "Do you think our allies will hold true, Garvin?" he asks the rider beside him. Garvin grins in response. "Khom-Bei, Kane, and Thragga, I'd bet me life, Castellan. They've shown it time and again. The greenskins are another matter. Yarga thinks we are in his tale..."
Rhyan nods. "We'll have to prove him wrong!" Horns blare. From the rightmost hills, just ahead, a force of Tol Nedran infantry, led by Vorghol on horseback, sweep down in a flanking attack, and from the other side, sweeps another force, to crush the Ress in the center. From the front of the wedge, KIng Garrovic raises his sword. "Sons of Grimyr! Charge!" Banners flutter, the great horns blare, and banners flutter as the Ress army surges forward towards the foe.
A mile to the north, on a hillside on the western side of the creek, Kane, Khom-Bei and Thragga crouch, watching for the flaming arrow signal that will summon the hidden forces: a hundred Urag, a hundred more Northerlings, and nearly as many Ress men-at-arms. In the moonlight, you see the Ress forces enter the valley, and form up into a vast wedge, charging forward.
Thragga chews on some dried meat while he watches. the
Yarga, standing nearby, rumbles, "I propose a new plan."
Kane sits upon his mount, waiting for the signal. He can feel the tension in the air and the bodies around him He turns to Yarga and says, "What would that be Yarga? We don't really have time for changing our plans."
Yarga snaps, "This is a fool's battle! My Yaragai can take the Nedri in their rear. Their camp must be just the other side of the creek. We can cross it , burn their camp and wagons, and cut off their lines of retreat!"
Khom-Bei mutters to himself, "Well, now there's a surprise."
Even from here, a thousand long paces away, you can hear the clash of steel against steel. Horses and men shriek and die. The Ress banners press forward.
Thragga frowns.
Kane says, "If you wish to deal with the Vorgal's cooks and camp followers who am I to stop you."
Jenn-Dai says, "Yarga's war is one of terror, not of open battle."
Kane says, "As for me, the glory of true battle calls me. There comes a time when all must meet their enemies, face to face, toe to toe."
Yarga says, "I know my enemy, Kane! Many Vorghol will meet the true death tonight at our hands!"
Khom-Bei says, "And instead of the Hammer of the North, what will history call you when you miss the anvil?"
Yarga hisses, baring his fangs, "Yarga does not answer to history! History is what the Reith put in scrolls! Yarga answers to Rugash!"
Kane says, "Do what you will, Yarga, I will not argue with you at this point, when all is ready to go. If needs be we will beat the Vorghol without you."
To the south, the Ressi charge smashes the Tol Nedran line. The Tol Nedran flanking attack breaks, the two sides uniting, and then falling apart. The Tol Nedrans are driven back to the eastern hills, their forces swirling and re-forming. From here, you can see the Beast on a white horse, ordering his men to stand their ground.
Oathkeeper horns rally the Reith warriors. You can see the Ress re-forming their charge as well, at the base of the hills on the eastern side. No flaming arrows have been fired yet.
The Ressi near you cheer as their kinsmen drive the Tol Nedrans into disarray and ready another charge.
Yarga snarls, "You are indeed short-sighted!"
Khom-Bei leans close to Jenn-dai, "Why do they wait to signal? And where are the rest of the enemy?"
Yarga's warriors look restive and anxious. They don't want to be left out.
Kane says, "Yarga, do as you will. The Urag are yours to command not mine." He turns back to the scene below, "Perhaps they wait to flush them out. The signal will come when the time is right, of this I am sure."
Khom-Bei says, "A good hammer knows that the fire takes time to heat the iron for the strike."
Thragga is watching something in the woods across the creek from you. He squints, then nudges Khom-Bei, pointing.
Khom-Bei strains to see what Thragga is pointing out.
Another force has emerged from the woods on the opposite hillside. Led by six dark, inhuman shapes, the new column shambles from the woods and heads south, towards the Ress force. The soldiers are clothed in torn, dirty armor: gleaming bones show through rents in their uniforms, which hang on them like rags. There are at least a hundred of them, headed south with the speed of the dead. The six dark shapes can only be Khazines, undead shadows with a chill touch, and the soldiers, Zimir, the reanimated dead. Even from here, you can smell grave-rot.
The Ress to the south prepare their charge, but the horses can smell the undead ranks emerging from the woods. Primitive fear of the living dead will grip these animals unless this threat is extinguished.
Khom-Bei says, "And here is the iron, heading into the fire, ready for the hammer-fall."
Harrion, the Ress commander of the men-at-arms, says, "If we don't stop them...the horses will flee in terror..."
Khom-Bei says, "Kane, I think that it may be wise to move without the signal."
Yarga, Jenn-Dai and Harrion look to Kane.
The King's riders seem to have no notion of their peril yet. A horn blows, and the wedge begins to reform.
Kane looks back and says, "Well, commanders lets go to war!"
Yarga shrieks in Urag-ta, sword held high: "Cleanse the land!"
At Harrion's orders, his spearmen form a column in the center and the archers form a line to the right. Harrion is in front, sword drawn. The archers stand. "Nock---arrows!" comes the cry. "Draw!"
Yarga's Urag race down the slope before you, hooting and shrieking, a mad mob of green shapes barreling forward towards the undead foe.
Kane says to Jenn-dai and Khom-bei "Is the hammer ready, I would charge down on the Vorghol?"
Jenn-Dai says, "Let us strike before that fool Yarga leaves none to strike!"
The Ress spearmen stand ready to charge as well.
Khom-Bei says, "I think it is time to take the fight to the enemy."
Kane raises Light Bringer and shouts, "Forward!", then charges down the hill. Thragga roars as he charges behind Kane, his axe gripped in both fists. Khom-Bei follows on Kane's heels, screaming into the night "Cold Wind!"
Ahead of you, the Yaragai pour down the hillside, roaring and hollering, and splash into the shallow stream. Behind them come the Ress spearmen, and behind them, the Northerlings.
The undead force at the hilltop stops and turns to meet this new threat.
The Yaragai race up the hillside, the Zimir meet them halfway, and now the hillside is a storm of flashing blades and shattered bones. K
ane, Thragga and Khom-Bei splash into the stream now.
"Loose!" comes Harrion's command from behind. A storm of arrows lands on the undead enemy, but the arrows do little damage.
Kane calls, "Save your arrows for the Beast's main force, they will have little effect on the likes of these!"
As you race up the hillside, two Urag drop before you, beheaded by the jagged, rusty Zimir blades. These skeletal warriors bear the armor of long-dead Crusaders.
Khom-Bei stops short of the line of combat and raises his arms to the sky, "Great Father, chase these foul beings from this place!"
In the stream, Jenn-Dai holds her hands high and calls out. "In his name, be gone!" Holy fire pours from her hands, driving back many of the skeletal warriors.
Yarga and his warriors are in the thick of it, cutting and thrusting.
The Ress spearmen mill into the stream, their charge slowing. These men have not fought this foe before.
Kane charges the nearest skeleton warrior and swings Light Bringer. Lightbringer beheads the skeleton and Kane's foe drops. An Urag nods to Kane in gratitude.
Khom-Bei's prayer is heard and answered. White light rakes into the skeletal forces, dissolving bones, dropping rusty armor to the muddy hillside.
Harrion's archers loose arrows again. They fall on empty cloaks, armor, and pass through undead flesh.
Thragga's axe cuts the legs out from another Zimir.
Khom-Bei calls to the Ress commander, "Harrion, draw swords and close in, arrows do no good!"
Harrion signals to his archers to draw swords and follow the main attack.
Your charge has come to a standstill at the stream as the Ress spearmen are uncertain. The Northerlings cannot push past to continue. Yarga's men are locked in combat on the sloping hillside before you.
Kane shouts, "Fight, warriors of Ress! Fight like your lives depend on it, for it does!"
As Kane's foe falls, one of the Khazines flutters forward. It's tall, shaped like a man, but more like a living shadow, which is what it will make of its foes, given a chance. A tall, dark blade is in its hand. It hisses at Kane, "Come to me, little fool..." and aims a blow at him.
Kane ducks under the blow.
A second Khazine's blow sinks into Thragga's shoulder. Its touch is icy cold, and Thragga topples back, splashing into the shallow stream. Thragga grunts in pain, as the Ress spearmen fall back in the face of this fearsome foe.
Kane raises Light Bringer and says "May the light of my blade banish your foul soul to the darkest hell, demon!!" Kane's blade pierces the leader's chilly vitals. Kane can see light through the other side, but the undead horror battles on. Kane deflects the dark sword's blow.
The Khazine who stabbed Thragga screams an inhuman keening and dissolves in white light flung from Khom-Bei's hands.
Bringing his flaming sword in an arc over his head Kane again strikes at the shadow thing.
Jenn-Dai dispels two more of the shadows with fiery white light.
Kane's blade slices off a piece of shadow, which flickers away. The thing hisses and redoubles its attack on the man in black.
Thragga stumbles up and hacks at it. His axe slices the shadow clean in two, and a blast of cold air explodes over all of you.
Kane nods to Thragga and then immediately looks for his next foe.
Khom-Bei thrusts his hands toward the undead horde, "In his name, be gone!" He fairly glows with divine fire as it streams from him, dissolving the last of the Khazines.
A cheer goes up from the hillside. With three shamans, you've made quick work of the undead force on the hill. The Urag mop up the last of the Zimir. In triumph, Ressi salute and embrace Northerling.
You have just crossed the shallow stream, and now stand at the base of the hillside on the eastern side of the Morden Creek. A mile to the south, the battle rages on, horns blaring, men and horses screaming and dying. The Ress knights seem to be driving back the Beast's forces.
Yarga roars, sword held high, "Yarga smells sorcery!" His men growl and hiss in disgust.
Kane calls back, "Surely the hand of Xoth was with this force of the undead."
Yarga calls to Kane, "This Xoth was a friend of yours? He was no friend, Kane!"
Kane says, "True enough, he is no friend now. Beware the colossus if he is near."
Thragga asks, "What now, Kane?"
The hillside is purged of Zimir and Khazines now. To the south, with the Beast, are several centuries of Tol Nedran infantry and horsemen, and Vorghol. It is hard to take an accurate count, in all the melee.
Yarga says, "I say we hunt down this Xoth and put an end to him!" The Yaragai cheer at these words.
Kane says, "That we will do. But first we must deal with the Beast."
Khom-Bei says, "All in good time, Yarga, first there are the Dark Ones to deal with."
Yarga shrieks, "Foolish Reith! Xoth is near! Let your mighty Ressi deal with the Beast!"
Kane says, "Do you sense him Yarga? Which way?"
Yarga points up the hillside. "He is near! Rugash tells me!"
Now three flaming arrows pierce the sky, climbing up and up and then dropping into the dark woods.
Oathkeeper horns sound again. At a quick run, it will take a few minutes to join the army to the south, some thousand long strides away.
Harrion calls, "The signal! It is given, lads!"
Khom-Bei says, "Now is the time for the Hammer of the North to strike the blow, Yarga. Crush the Vorghol now and we can hunt Xoth for sport tomorrow!"
Kane shouts "Xoth can wait, the Ress have need of our help now!"
Khom-Bei thrusts his hands aloft and calls out, "Kinsmen! We go to fight the Dark Ones!"
Yarga says, "Fools! The necromancer is close! He watches us even now..."
Kane leads the charge to aid the Ress, not looking back and trusting the Urag will follow the smell of blood.
The Northerlings cheer at Khom-Bei's words. Dai-thon says, "True death to the Dark Ones!"As he turns to the south and runs for the battle, Khom-bei calls to the Urag in their tongue, "Kai Uraga! Kai Yaragai!"
Your force streams into formation. Urag on one flank, Ress in the center, Northerlings on the right. It turns and heads south.
The small force races along the line of the stream. Ahead of you, you can see the Ress in pitched battle with the Beast's main force. The slope ahead of you is a killing ground, becoming slick with bloody mud. You can see a squad of Ress knights gallop to the aid of an unhorsed knight as he battles three Vorghol.
The knight's helm is knocked clear off, and you can see it's Garvin on foot now. The man is a like a whirlwind, in spite of his girth and recent injuries. He slices the head off one Vorghol, and then the other two barrel down on him.
Kane lets out a battle cry: "Tame the Beast and send his whelps back to the pit they crawled out of!"
The Beast's army wheels to engage you.
The King's colors flutter at the bottom of the hill before you, surrounded by his bannermen, including Joric.
Kane looks to Thragga and Khom-Bei and says, "Today the Beast dies for good. Are you with me brothers?" He plans on fighting his way to the Vorghol overlord.
Khom-Bei nods a sharp nod and looks about for sign of the Beast.
The main Ressi force is midway up the hillside, in vicious melee. You can see Rhyan from here, right on the front line. Beside him is Thorvic, the Castellan of Castle Morin.
The top of the hill is held by the Beast's forces: two hundred infantry, a small number of cavalry, and Vorghol officers. As your assault crumbles their right flank, the two sides break off, re-forming again, setting up for another charge on each other.
Thragga holds his axe aloft. "Kai Hunters!"
Khom-Bei says, "Harrion! Now is the time for your archers!"
Garvin finishes his other foes as you arrive. He mounts a horse and rides up to you, on the hillside.
"Lads! Damned glad t'see ye, I am!" Garvin says, grinning. he's smeared with blood and Vorghol dust.
Kane shouts, "It's a good thing you sent the signal when you did, we were getting sleepy back there."
Garvin says, "Signal? We sent no signal! Th'King thought to hold you in reserve..."
The Beast can be seen giving orders to his warriors.
"You saw a signal, Kane?" Garvin asks.
Kane says, "Indeed we did. The flaming arrow as we had planned."
Rhyan is now giving orders to his own side. The knights are gathering for another charge up the hillside.
Thragga gapes, looking at Kane.
Khom-Bei looks at Garvin, "If you sent no signal, where did it come from?"
More shapes join the massing forces on the hilltop, shambling, horrific figures like the Zimir you battled before. At least a hundred more skeletal warriors now stand there...the Beast's line swells with them.
Kane says, "Does it matter? The signal was sent and now we are here."
Jenn-Dai says, "A trick, Kane! We were tricked! Some scrying of the necromancer learned the signal and he spent some illusion to lure us here...where the Beast can crush us."
Kane says, "We are here and we will fight. We will not be crushed, but shall do the crushing."
Horns blow. Rhyan bellows, "Oathkeepers! To me! Kane, take your warriors and form on the left! Sons of Ress, on the right! Archers, open fire! Clear that hilltop for us! In the name of the Protector!"
The charge is prepared, across the slick and muddy ground. The Oathkeepers form on their leader. The Ressi line up on the right side of the hillside.
Garvin claps Khom-Bei on the shoulder as he goes to join his comrades. "See you at the top, lad."
Kane leads his forces to the left. He calls to the forces that have followed him thus far, "Northerlings, Urag follow me and we will crush the Beast."
Khom-Bei moves quickly to Jenn-dai, "Our clans must fight the Beast now, but we need the sharpest eyes to look for the knife aimed at our backs. Can Dai-thon do this?"
Jenn-Dai nods. "What knife? The necromancer, or Yarga's?"
Khom-Bei frowns, "It is hard to know which is the more dangerous."
"What is your plan, Khom-Bei?" asks the older shaman.
The Urag bang swords on shields as they line up.
Khom-Bei says, "Just a few eyes to keep us from being surprised while we fight, Jenn-dai."
Jenn-Dai says, "That is prudent. It will be my son's charge and his men, to watch for this."
At the top of the hill, the Beast pushes back his helmet and smirks. He calls down the hillside: "Surrender now, little Reith, and I will grant you eternal life!"
Kane calls back, "More like eternal death!"
Khom-Bei turns to Harrion and calls out, "Harrion, your best archer, quickly!"
The King and his bannermen ride to a central place in the line, the long green pennant of Ress fluttering in the night breeze. King Garrovic draws his sword and holds it high above him.
Harrion points to a young, keen-eyed archer, who nods to Khom-Bei. "What is your command?"
Khom-Bei pulls an arrow from the archer's quiver and bows his head, "Great Father, let this arrow be a light in the dark."
The breeze grows, kicking up mud and leaves. A greenish light issues from the sky above the hilltop. There is a sound like hundreds of angry voices.
Jenn-Dai does as Khom-Bei does with another arrow.
The King pauses. He draws his blade and snaps his helmet visor into place.
Khom-Bei hands the brightly shining arrow to the archer, "Pick a solid target on the hilltop and let it fly true."
A vast green shape lumbers into view on the hilltop behind the Beast's forces. Vaguely humanoid, it is like a living storm. The colossus is here. It strides to the top of the hill, a huge, swirling, green figure.
The young archer draws a breath to calm himself. Then he draws and looses the arrow. It arcs through the sky, then thunks down into an old tree on the hilltop, exploding in fiery fury.
On the hilltop, the light of day burns brightly. The Vorghol shriek in rage and terror.
Garrovic shouts, "For Ress and Inglorian!" A horn blows. As one, the Ress army surges up the hillside.
Jenn-Dai's arrow lands alongside Khom-Bei's, igniting another rage of daylight.
Kane shouts, "To battle while the light of day shines! Attack!", then charges up the hill also.
The great colossus storms forward, to meet the Ress charge.
The Tol Nedrans, now leaderless, stumble forward to meet their foe.
Kane urges his forces to the top of the hill hacking and slashing anything that gets in his way.
There is a tremendous crash of metal on metal as the Ress knights thunder up the hillside towards the zone of fiery daylight, led by their King, and slam into the Tol Nedran line.