The Battle of Blue, Part 4

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About the Saga

Weri has been defeated, but at a terrible cost. Now the Blackrazors and the Obsidian Bay Expeditionary Force must fight the battle of their lives -- the final Battle of Blue!

Timeframe

Cast of Characters


Notable Quotes

  • "That’s a lot of cavalry," -- Luc

What Has Come Before

At the Battle of the Flame, the leaders of the Blackrazors Guild ambushed Weri and his High Orc honor guard as they prepared to feed the mage's red dragon, Inferno. The Blackrazors were triumphant, slaying Weri and all of those with him. Their victory was marred, however, by the death of Killian, the party's lead ranger and one of the founding members of the "new" Blackrazor Guild. It is now the 28th of Wealsun

The Saga

Wealsun 28, CY 587

The Army of Burning Glory

"Locusts."

"Hmmm?" General Stefan Warrick replied absently to his second’s comment. The general’s attention was focused through the long, slender barrel of his spy glass. The hardened leather seemed almost ready to crack in the terrible heat of high summer.

"That is what they remind me of sir," the second said. "Locusts."

"Indeed." Warrick refocused his attention focused on the field in front of him. Nearly 1 mile away he could see the advancing ranks of the Orcish Empire’s Army of Burning Glory … and they did look like locusts. Their low, black forms destroyed everything they touched, just as surely as if they had been ravenous insects. And they were legion – advance scouts reported that the opposing army had more than 5,000 creatures in it, many of them orcs.

He’d split his army of a mere 3,200 normal men into three groups. The Orcslayer guildsmen led the left flank while the Blackrazors led the right. Warrick himself led the central army. The odds were not very good that they would survive this battle, but they were better than they could have been of course, thanks to the Blackrazors. Those bastards of guild society had succeeded as Warrick knew they would, killing the pyromancer/army leader Weri, his advisors, and his treasured red dragon, Inferno. No, things could have been much worse. Much, much worse.

Sated for the moment, he lowered the spyglass and issued a single order to his second: "Prepare for battle."

The Right Flank

"That’s a lot of cavalry," Luc said in his traditional, gruff tone. The dwarf had one hand on each of his weapons’ hilts. His fingers gripped and on gripped them as he and the other Blackrazors tried to plot their strategy.

Across the field from them, perhaps a 1,000 yards away, were their opposing numbers in the Army of Burning Glory. That force numbered nearly 2,000 troops, and the more the Blackrazors looked at them, the more nervous they became. There were nearly a thousand orcs on foot, but there were also two full units of their evolved kin who had chosen to ride horseback. There was a contingent of ogres and a loose tribe of hill giants that looked remarkably similar to the ones the Blackrazors had fought and defeated in the Drachensgrab Mountains.

On their side, the guild had the 600 veteran warriors who had served under them during the journey to Blue. They had been augmented by poorly equipped and trained militia men from Blue as well as additional units of Obsidian Bay’s Citizens’ Guard and militia.

The other side looked much, much bigger.

Along with Luc, the Blackrazors force was led by the human invoker Falgar, the half-elven mage/rouge/warrior Aaron Windstalker, the human cleric of St. Cuthbert Calvin Cloudmore and the human ranger Kannett. The Blackrazors planned their attack, and then waited.

Challenges

The two armies stood assembled at either extreme of the battlefield, and waited for the other to make a move. Wanting to set a tone for the battle, Luc challenged one of the opposing army’s officers to a one-on-one fight. They accepted, and sent one of their elite warriors who fell before Luc’s brutal axe in the short combat that followed.

Luc issued a second challenge, but the orc forces refused it. The Blackrazors could hear what sounded like orders of restraint going out among the orc forces. Frustrated, the Blackrazors decided to advance their own forces. The orcs fired their catapults and ballistas at the opposing force, but they fell short. They then decided to advance their own forces, moving their cavalry units to the arms of their army and slowling moving forward in a V-shape. The Blackrazors matched with a V-formation of their own, and the two armies closed into combat range.

The Battle

Not much of the actual battle of the Blue made it into the history books. It was a chaotic, tragic fray that saw half of each force annihilated in the fighting. In the early fighting, as the two armies closed to combat range, their heroes clashed. Aaron Windstalker fell in the initial fighting, and Kannett died soon after. In the initial fighting between the units the Blackrazor forces faired poorly. Citizens’ Guard and City Guard units took heavy casualties but remarkably the Blue militia stood tall.

As more and more of the Blackrazors fell to the orc offensive, they thought they might lose the field. Then suddenly reinforcements arrived. General Warrick had known that he was facing a much more powerful enemy than had expected by General Mooresend and her command staff in Obsidian Bay. A week ago he’d sent word back to Obsidian Bay that reinforcements were needed, and the city answered his request with additional cavalry units. Two of these units were led onto the right fields flank by the Blackrazor’s barbarian prince, Ragnar. Ragnar led his forces onto the field and leapt into hand to hand combat with the high priest leader of the orcs. He closed to attack the priest but suddenly faltered as encountered a powerful magical aura of fear. He gave into the fear and immediately fled from the battle field.

The rest of the Blackrazor offensive faired better and they soon had the advance orc units in full retreat.

While they tried to rally their frontline orc forces, the leaders of the Burning Glory army sent their cavalry and hill giant units into battle. Falgar, who had used many of his spells against those advance forces, used the staff he’d picked up off of Weri’s body. He held the staff before him and summoned powerful fire magics to devastate the hill giants.

As the inferno incinerated the monstrosities, something evil ignited inside of Falgar. He was suddenly overwhelmed with chaotic impulses. He lashed out at those nearest to them with the power in his hands. He sent a wall of fire cascading through a friendly army unit before turning on one of the enemy’s forces. He then met and destroyed the lead general of the orcs, a high orc cleric of Ati. Soon afterward he returned to his senses, but not before killing dozens on both sides.

The remaining high orc leaders were able to rally their forces, and then it was the Blackrazor’s turn to retreat. The battle waged on. Eventually Calvin and Kannett also fell in battle, leaving only Falgar and Greggor standing. The high orcs suffered similar losses though, and after hours of battle the two sides realized that that neither of them could hope to win the field.

A white flag of truce was run up and after a short negotiation, the two armies agreed to gather their fallen and withdraw. The battle was over.

Battle’s End

The battle played itself out in an identical fashion on the other two fronts. Although it ended in a stalemate, the Obsidian Bay forces could claim at least a nominal victory. The advance of the Army of Burning Glory had been checked. The mage Weri and his dragon, Inferno, had been slain. The city of Blue was safe.

The cost had been high: of those who left Obsidian Bay, only half of them would return to the city alive. Warrick withdrew his army to Blue and left a force of 500 there to bolster its defenses. He then turned his weary forces back toward their home and began the long march.

Experience & Loot

  • No experience and/or loot is available for this saga.