Scroll: Garen's Gully - 4th Battle

From FiranMUX

Summary

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

Scroll Text

Garen's Gully

Once we had fully secured Fort Triumph, and given time for the troops to rest and recuperate, aerial scouts and ground troops alike searched the landscape between our current position and Fort Zayes. The only accessible pass through the cliffs which could be navigated by our forces was through Garen's Gully.

This location is a loose, hilly pass through two steep walls of stone. The gully's base itself is about twenty-five feet across, the walls steeply rising about thirty feet overhead. Natural outcroppings of stone provide space for military forces to be stationed on either side of the ravine, creating a gauntlet-like space which is deadly, indeed.

Our forces amassed at the base of this, looking towards what many felt was sure to become a bloodbath. And, indeed, it was a deadly dangerous place to traverse. Loose shale and dust was underfoot, causing treacherous footing for all who navigated the terrain, and Shamibelian archers had claimed both sides of the pass, with a vicious army beneath and the skies filled with their griffons. They looked nigh unto invincible.

But they were not. As in Judano's Climb, the first to move forward was Sharin atop his giant eagle, Garissa. Her sheer size alone scared the enemy griffons, most of whom fled back to Fort Zayes immediately, decimating the numbers of their aerial forces. The infantry stood below, with the exception of a team led by Princess Thaddia, who began creeping up a sharply-angled path that led to one of those outcroppings stealthily.

They engaged the archers there as our air force made short work of the remnant of the enemy's griffons, and with that strategic goal accomplished, the air force dropped vials of something that was hideously-scented on the opposing archers. I am not sure what they used, only that the stench was appalling, and we barely could smell it from our vantage point.

The princess and her troops valiantly fought, taking out the archers on the other side as the air force rained down doom upon both outcroppings, taking out goat archer after goat archer in a steady progression. I could hear Norik's voice bellowing out the volley progression - team one, team two, team three - and watched the arrows fly towards our foe. But down in the pass, one of the goat's warlords stepped forward and called out for Donos to face him in one-on-one combat, claiming that should he do that, both sides should not have to fight.

Donos stepped down into the mass of the Firan infantry, vanishing amongst them, and within moments, a hand shot up into the air holding a general's insignia. But the hand was not Donos's, and Prince Argin stepped forth from the front of our infantry, accepting the challenge in his name. We cheered him forward, calling out for 'Donos' to destroy the challenger, and after moving between the two infantry forces, and with arrows still flying above - and the occasional volley raining down into the infantry - their fight began.

Truthfully, I believe it seemed longer than it actually was, simply because each of us was hungry to fight that day, to carve ourselves a passage through Garen's Gully that would be lined with the blood of the fallen. And so we hung on every swing, every swipe, every slash of the swords, our hearts thudding impatiently with the ringing of iron against iron. But yet in short order, Argin delivered the killing strike to their warlord, and the Shamibelian forces began marching forward. And so did we.

We met them in the middle, Argin vanishing into the melee a triumphant hero. This time, while I saw Yacen from afar leading his own squad, the squad which I was spear in was made up of Prince Lucas and Lord Talion before me, the Fifth division cook Rally behind me with her bow, and Amadea, a priestess of Unot, defended behind her. Rally had just barely learned to use a bow as part of the compulsory archery training which we'd instigated in camp, and yet she was in battle, and doing very well for a newly-trained archer.

Slamming into the enemy, we engaged in combat. I recall I struck before the prince on our first goat, my spear slicing through his military skirt and leaving it on the ground tangled around his feet. The prince's first strike cleaved through the goat's backplate, shattering it into useless hanging pieces of metal. I struck again - the goat's breastplate snapped in half. And around us on the field, iron goat-armor was being decimated as though it were no more than papyrus, cracking and failing before our weapons. I offered a prayer to the Gods for their aid.

We quickly dispatched two or three goats, I cannot recall which, before it seemed that fully fifteen percent of the goat forces on the field swarmed around us. I do not know if they were drawn by the Prince himself, or by Lord Talion alone, or by the knowledge that both swordsmen ahead of me were vicious with their blades. I remember counting eight who Talion was trying to stave off, one of them a warlord, and I remember six on Lucas, one of those a warlord as well. My spear slammed in quickly between the two swordsmen, stabbing holes in whichever goat it made contact with, but it was not enough. Talion fell then, taken down and dispatched by the warlord in front of him.

I then dispatched the warlord. It seemed only appropriate for the beast whom had been the downfall of an Iberik nobleman to be destroyed by an Eagle.

Three more were on me, and I dodged their blades, fighting suddenly on my own to protect Rally behind me - for Lucas dropped back to find healing. Methodically, I took each one down, only taking one minor injury from a warlord who thought my left ear would be a wonderful trophy. I do not know why it is that the Shamibelians find wicked pleasure in attacking my left side, but so it goes.

At one point, I found that there were no further attackers on me, and so with a deep breath, I plunged forward to seek out goats to slay, Rally still behind me and firing into the creatures we faced. I remember seeing Yacen being sliced at by a goat, and I moved in, getting one good, solid spear thrust in on it before the falling swords of our comrades sliced it down, and Yacen took down the other goat who had been haranguing him seconds thereafter. I nodded to my brother, then moved on into the fray in search of more blood to avenge Talion's death.

I was bloodthirsty in Garen's Gully. And it appears that the others in our army were bloodthirsty as well, for blood spattered the walls of the gully, slickened the ground beneath our feet. Other brave men fell in that deadly attack - Lord Esen, Lord Katarus, Timon, Kaedin... many others died to secure that gully.

I recall afterwards moving over to find Talion's body again in the crush, and seeing Amadea standing beside him, guarding and protecting his body so that it could be safely delivered to our temple-tents and his soul properly given into Lord Unot's care. I remember staring around at all of the carcasses of the dead afterwards, the residual stink of the vials our forces had dropped still lingering in the air, and whispering a prayer to the Gods that our injured and dead could be found in the gory mess.

And we found all of our dead, and all of our injured, and brought them to safety in our camp. But Garen's Gully was secured, and the march to Fort Zayes was ensured. All which was needed now was healing and rest for our forces to prepare for that undertaking. But we were nearly halfway to our eventual goal... Ellish. We could see the light of our victory ahead of us, the future freeing of the slaves who were held in that city under siege for over forty years. We knew the cost would be dear to reclaim that city as our own once more. But... we were halfway. And there was no turning back.

{Signature} The signature of Kelarik.

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