Scroll: Fort Triumph - 3rd Battle

From FiranMUX

Summary

This scroll was written by Centurion Kelarik Cylisti during the Campaign for Ellish in 42 A.U.

Scroll Text

Fort Triumph

Zutiv's light broke the sky just before we marched on Fort Triumph, the glow on the horizon like a herald warning the Shamibelians of their doom. We had been divided into three sections for this battle, each force interchangeable at need, and marched on the fort from three different angles to act like a set of smithing tongs squeezing the Shamibelians.

Like the prior battle, I fought at my brother Yacen's back, spear to his sword. And it was a difficult fight this time. While the goats had been forced to a central point by our strategy, they still fought fiercely. I recall taking an arrow, again to my left arm - the goat archers seem to like shooting that full of wood - but otherwise, I was surprisingly unhurt. Not so Yacen, who was bloodied but intact by the end of the battle. Sometime during the process, when he rotated back to meet with the healers, we lost sight of one another, and he ended up defending another spearman elsewhere on the field. And so it was that we were divided.

Yet we triumphed over the beasts who we had circled round, enough so that some fifteen hundred of them surrendered to us. I cannot recall reading any prior war chronicle in which so many Shamibelians laid down arms and willingly gave themselves up to be imprisoned. Those who did not fall, and who did not surrender, retreated into Fort Triumph to await our entrance.

In the days prior to the battle, there had been explosions which we had heard from our camp - four of them, to be specific. The scouting party who inflicted those explosions, including Arinsana who had broken her neck, returned victorious; they had breached the side of the fort, and the Shamibelian forces boarded it up with mere planks of wood. Yet there was a breach there, one which our forces could utilize.

And so our divided forces marched on the fort. One third moved to the breach which had been created, fighting their way through mounting piles of dead goats to force their way inside. The second force, which I was part of and will relate more on, made for our siege towers and advanced on the walls. And the third force, which Yacen ended up immersed in, took the front gate.

I could not from my angle see the breach in the wall, and so I cannot state much on that battle, except that I know Lord Zafir fought there, as did Sir Parosh. Many, many other valiant fighters broke through that breach to take the rear of the fort under our control.

My vantage, however, was the siege tower. And we advanced, rolling the towers before us, pushing them close up against the walls. The base of the walls was a pit of deadly wooden spikes, and so it was a dangerous advance once we had climbed the ladders within the towers to their top - we had to navigate a plank of wood, no wider than two feet, and fight through goats at the top of the walls.

My squad here was made up of Niobe Istems, who was staff to my spear, and our defending archer Evius who stood behind us. We steeled ourselves to the task, then practically leapt up the ladder and began forward to meet the enemy. Behind us, within our offensive structure, was Karana.

As we advanced, the entire military was given pause as a warlord hung a captive - I believe his name was Villik, although I am not positive, as I did not know him. The warlord called out that for every battle, for every attack which was made, they would hang more prisoners. There was a flash of Kendra, one of our captured from a mission, but we did not see her again - after a few more prisoners were hanged, we lost sight of her. Yet we heard her shouting throughout the rest of the battle, especially when she heard Alastor's voice on the field, for that is her son.

It took time for Niobe and I to come up with a rhythm in which we could hammer the orange-skinned filth whom we were fighting. A staff, after all, is a weapon of blunt force, and its size makes it surprisingly difficult to stab around. But we finally got into a one-two hammering effect, staff and spear, staff and spear, with Evius filling the creatures full of arrows. The dead began to mount before us, and I recall knocking at least one corpse out of the way and down into those deadly spikes below.

At one point, Niobe took a rather vicious slash of a sword cm her knee, and she almost lost her balance then. While still off-balance, another swipe came, and she fell unconscious. I remember trying to grab her as she fell. Thank the Gods, she did not fall into those spiked pits of doom, but she was badly hurt and remained knocked-out at the base of the wall.

Princess Thaddia led our troops onto the walls, and while I cannot say definitively how many goats I killed, for there were many, I can say that every one who came within range of my spear tasted my iron and fell before it. I had no intentions of dying on a wall, and indeed, I did not.

We secured the walls even as my brother Yacen advanced on the gate. And the wooden gate of Fort Triumph sprang into flame, much as the hay bales in Judano's Field had burst into flame. It weakened the structure enough that our battering ram was able to plow through.

And it was at that gate where the most vicious injuries were dispensed, because the goats were prepared for entry, and had vats of boiling oil. While our fighting forces engaged, they repeatedly doused our healers and back lines with this boiling oil, injuring and nearly killing many - including Alastor. Yet, miraculously, none died. Yacen was one of the burned, his leg a violent red.

The fort, in the end, was secured, and the prisoners from the earlier part of the battle were stripped of their weaponry and their iron armor, which we used to reoutfit our troops. The vast majority of our soldiery now wears solid iron instead of bronze or leather, Gods be praised.

It was a violent, bloody battle... but few of our forces were killed while retaking Triumph. And it was a retaking, of the sort which has occurred time and again at the front. This time, we intend to keep it.

{Signature} The signature of Kelarik.

{Date} Dated Sep 21, in the year 42 A.U.