Post by Timeon on Jun 26, 2015 20:57:32 GMT
A formal first-hand account of the Battle of the Clockwork Army, as told by Astrid.
Hallyn and Era'Tir have never been friends. But in all the weeks of sailing together, there were no incidents between my knights and the elven nobility sworn to Mennas under Aerien Moonbeam. If anything, we had more in common than just Mennas. Moonbeam's elves were stripped of their lands and titles when they left Eral'Tir. That made the elf king an enemy in both Aerien's eyes and mine.
We landed our army near the Gnomish city of Tarqam and set up camp. It did not take long for Mennas himself to find it. The years had changed him greatly in some ways, and not at all in others. But that is another story.
A portal was opened, taking our army to the Gnomish city of Sholla on the other side of Gnomeland. We arrived just in time to find dragons torching it. Clockwork Dragons. Our first encounter with the notorious Clockworks was to watch them destroy an entire city. There was little we could do. President Rolstein arrived shortly after Mennas and Ash drove off the dragons, and the refugees were tended to and then evacuated by morning. Where they were sent, I do not know.
Gnomes are not too different from halflings in appearance, but I was not sure how well I got along with Rolstein's soldiers regardless. I do not think they were too happy to be there. That did not change anything, of course. Morale did increase when we were joined by an army from a land across the sea I had never even heard about until then. Keshan, they call it. A gigantic island of city-states, dragons, vagabonds and wild beasts. A place obsessed with bananas and shoes, according to Mennas. Some of those dragons came with them, and also some of those beasts - elephants. There were at least four-thousand of them in all, if not more. Elf, human, halfling, gnome, dragon and elephant stood side by side against the coming tide of darkness.
First Night
The Clockwork Army arrived by sunset of our second day in Gnomeland. We had made all the preparations we could. The city of Sholla had been garrisoned with two-thousand archers. Mennas, Richard, Ash, some magi and some dragons held the walls, with the city filled with traps around them.
Meanwhile, out on the fields, the rest of the army stood ready. The elves had even set up their ballistae. We were led by Hechin of Keshan, Brokk of Talland, Dakara of the Stepfathers and an adventurer called Whitemane. In the back, the famous Silver Fox, Navashal of Arratel, took care of the bigger picture. We were joined also by Agathions, and a Draconic Agathion called Munsterhjelm, who would prove to be the most powerful combatant on our side.
It started with the Clockworks attempting to ram down the gates of Sholla, but the defenders there halted that with a Wall of Force and a bombardment. Then mounted Clockworks leapt through gaps in the city walls, while Clockwork Dragons did battle with our heroes, keeping them busy.
The rest of us met the Clockworks in the field. It went well at first - but then we were horrified to find that another Clockwork army had emerged from the nearby town of Olla - they had used tunnels beneath it to take us by surprise. Our flank was smashed. Then they brought forward their Goliaths - hulking monstrosities of metal which destroyed our lines with boulders. Hechin, Brokk, Dakara and Whitemane took down half of the Goliaths between them, buying us time. When our lines were again nearly overwhelmed, the Keshanites sent their elephants stampeding forward, elven archers and Mindforge magi atop them. It saved us, yes, but the Clockwork tanks shot those elephants down, killing all save for one.
In Sholla, I hear, our heroes took down many dragons before retreating to the northernmost walls. If Sholla fell, the Clockworks would circle around us. So the defenders in Sholla did everything in their power to prevent that. But our heroes there noticed that the Clockwork Dragons were flying over the ocean, flying in to hit Navashal's camp.
As it was later revealed, Gazi Hasir himself had joined our heroes in defending Sholla, and joined them when they went to Navashal's camp to hold it against the dragons. The dragons were beaten back there, but at the cost of many lives, including the ogre Rullok - who, I hear, was a great friend of Brokk and a champion of the revolution in Talland.
It soon became clear that we had no choice but to retreat. The hard lesson we learned that first day was that we had not come up with a proper plan of retreat. Though the soldiers in Sholla joined back up with us in time, the retreat was a disaster. We trampled many of our own to death. The Rising Fire were the last to pass through the portal, but not before some Clockwork Dragons flew through to Port Security. Those were dealt with quickly enough.
When the dust had settled, the lamentations of the elves let it be known that Aerien Moonbeam had fallen in battle.
Morning of the Second Day
On the morning of the second day, our camp was attacked by trolls.
Yes.
Trolls. Nobody said anything about trolls.
The trolls came at us from the north, and counted amongst their number some truly ancient of their kind with many heads. The Rising Fire was there to meet them, and the Keshanite dragons played a crucial part in preventing a disaster from unfolding. I hear that Dakara knocked one of the troll lords unconscious, and it was then teleported to Sholla to wreak its havoc on the Clockworks.
We thought that we could rest after that, while the other lines of defence fought against the Clockworks in the south. But Port Security was soon attacked by kytons. KYTONS. Beings obsessed with self-modification, creatures exiled to the Plane of Shadow from Hell itself. Rolstein's people took the worst of it. Inzen was torn in half, I am told, and Xr'vsr beaten into the ground. Tuyja held out long enough for the Rising Fire to join up with her and take down the kytons. Hechin managed to save Inzen and Xr'vsr, somehow.
After that, the Rising Fire grabbed Whitemane and went to join the Clockwork battle north of Sholla. There, Alexander Propson was faced with a dilemma. The Clockworks had kidnapped Gnomish civilians and were marching them before their army. Rather than attempt to save the civilians and risk the lines of defence, Propson let the civilians be killed. This prompted a defection of many of the Gnomish soldiers, but Mennas Merniso intervened, and managed to convince at least half of them to rejoin the battle.
The Turnian navy had also arrived, under the watch of a certain Admiral Jetrak. Turnia. Another nation I had never heard of - one renowned in it own part of the world for being a naval powerhouse. Mennas had made unlikely allies. The Turnians prevented the Clockworks from sailing behind Propson on rafts, but the Clockwork Dragons reduced a quarter of the navy to cinders. That, and a Goliath had walked beneath the waves to smash the ships. But Mennas and Ash were there, with some mind-slaves (one of whom was the former director of the NSA, Oiral Oddfellow). Oddefellow lost her head fighting those dragons, but the Turnian armada came out of it alright.
Meanwhile, Dakara, Brokk, Whitemane and the front-line heroes played their part. A tragedy befell them when one of their treasured friends, the Agathion known as Adlai the Hound-Archon, was destroyed by the fire of Clockwork tanks. Adlai had fought beside them in Abaddon, and was leader of the Brotherhood of Talland - a daemon hunting organization. I am told that Brokk's mentor, Voytek, has taken her place. It was Hechin of Keshan who had been hit hardest by her death, having been the one to convince her to join their struggles in the mortal realm.
The retreat was more organized this time. I watched as the Hawksteeth mercs, Pine Guild knights and Gnomish soldiers streamed into Port Security to set up camp beside our own tired soldiers. I spoke briefly with Propson and learned of what had transpired from him.
Afternoon of the Second Day
The next line of defence was one which had been brought over from Xhas'Wlef and Minaerum. Many of the monsters were led by a famous adventurer, Ölnar White-Eyes, who had been commanded by Wlef himself, or something of the sort, to help the Rising Fire. The rest of the monsters had come over to help end slavery and answered to Mennas - via their chief, Rueln. Aside from the Gnomes, there were also the Stepfathers present at that line of defence. The Stepfathers - a Minaerite organization dedicated to taming the monsters of Xhas'Wlef - the champion Dakara hailed from their own ranks.
What they did not expect was that the Agathions scouting in the mountains would let a part of the Clockwork Army slip past them and Mennas' tengu volunteers. The Clockworks hit Rueln's force first, while the Stepfathers stepped aside to let that happen to spare their own numbers, and to flank the Clockworks. This selfish but tactically effective choice nearly led to a duel between White-Eyes and the commander of the Stepfathers, but Mennas and Hechin reportedly broke it up.
Then they met the main Clockwork host in battle, and Hechin and Mennas held the line against the odds, it is said.
All seemed to teeter on the brink, when White-Eyes led a barbarian charge into the Clockwork tanks, taking many down, but at the cost of his own life. Again, all was threatened when more Clockworks promised to flank the army. Thelning suggested a risky choice - to call in the forces at Port Security to join for a final desperate stand down the road from Port Security. And so it was done.
We all fought together in this final stand - and we were met with fresh faces, too. New allies. Volunteers from Talland, led by the elf who had been Bearnald's second - Byrnes, along with a handful of the famous PLAHs, joined us. I watched as Byrnes and Mennas took down the last Goliaths - one each - using special weapons designed by Brokk himself.
We won the day.
Or so we thought.
The remnants of the Clockwork Army had slaughtered most of the tengu in the mountains, down to their leader Rakeno. They had managed to sneak a large force past the Agathions, somehow. And that force was bearing down on Port Security.
Fortunately, Dorathion Ash was able to open a portal to get our forces back to the Port for what turned out to be the genuine last stand. In the final hour, the Clockworks broke through our lines, but the Dawnflower met them and finished them off.
Aftermath
Amidst the chaos of that time, two attempts were made to steal the Pillar of Light from the Empire of Atar, which had been used to destroy most of the Clockwork Army in the south of Gnomeland. The two attempts happened simultaneously. Both Gazi Hasir and the Stepfathers attempted to steal the Pillar - or at least Dakara. Those attempts failed, we have learned, as the Atarite camp in Gnomeland was a trap. This was learned when Richard was sent to Purrsia to warn Hasir.
And now as the dust settles, rumours are afloat that we are not done. That our work may yet take us beyond the Godsbrige. For as long as the Godshards threaten the world, no one is safe.
Hallyn and Era'Tir have never been friends. But in all the weeks of sailing together, there were no incidents between my knights and the elven nobility sworn to Mennas under Aerien Moonbeam. If anything, we had more in common than just Mennas. Moonbeam's elves were stripped of their lands and titles when they left Eral'Tir. That made the elf king an enemy in both Aerien's eyes and mine.
We landed our army near the Gnomish city of Tarqam and set up camp. It did not take long for Mennas himself to find it. The years had changed him greatly in some ways, and not at all in others. But that is another story.
A portal was opened, taking our army to the Gnomish city of Sholla on the other side of Gnomeland. We arrived just in time to find dragons torching it. Clockwork Dragons. Our first encounter with the notorious Clockworks was to watch them destroy an entire city. There was little we could do. President Rolstein arrived shortly after Mennas and Ash drove off the dragons, and the refugees were tended to and then evacuated by morning. Where they were sent, I do not know.
Gnomes are not too different from halflings in appearance, but I was not sure how well I got along with Rolstein's soldiers regardless. I do not think they were too happy to be there. That did not change anything, of course. Morale did increase when we were joined by an army from a land across the sea I had never even heard about until then. Keshan, they call it. A gigantic island of city-states, dragons, vagabonds and wild beasts. A place obsessed with bananas and shoes, according to Mennas. Some of those dragons came with them, and also some of those beasts - elephants. There were at least four-thousand of them in all, if not more. Elf, human, halfling, gnome, dragon and elephant stood side by side against the coming tide of darkness.
First Night
The Clockwork Army arrived by sunset of our second day in Gnomeland. We had made all the preparations we could. The city of Sholla had been garrisoned with two-thousand archers. Mennas, Richard, Ash, some magi and some dragons held the walls, with the city filled with traps around them.
Meanwhile, out on the fields, the rest of the army stood ready. The elves had even set up their ballistae. We were led by Hechin of Keshan, Brokk of Talland, Dakara of the Stepfathers and an adventurer called Whitemane. In the back, the famous Silver Fox, Navashal of Arratel, took care of the bigger picture. We were joined also by Agathions, and a Draconic Agathion called Munsterhjelm, who would prove to be the most powerful combatant on our side.
It started with the Clockworks attempting to ram down the gates of Sholla, but the defenders there halted that with a Wall of Force and a bombardment. Then mounted Clockworks leapt through gaps in the city walls, while Clockwork Dragons did battle with our heroes, keeping them busy.
The rest of us met the Clockworks in the field. It went well at first - but then we were horrified to find that another Clockwork army had emerged from the nearby town of Olla - they had used tunnels beneath it to take us by surprise. Our flank was smashed. Then they brought forward their Goliaths - hulking monstrosities of metal which destroyed our lines with boulders. Hechin, Brokk, Dakara and Whitemane took down half of the Goliaths between them, buying us time. When our lines were again nearly overwhelmed, the Keshanites sent their elephants stampeding forward, elven archers and Mindforge magi atop them. It saved us, yes, but the Clockwork tanks shot those elephants down, killing all save for one.
In Sholla, I hear, our heroes took down many dragons before retreating to the northernmost walls. If Sholla fell, the Clockworks would circle around us. So the defenders in Sholla did everything in their power to prevent that. But our heroes there noticed that the Clockwork Dragons were flying over the ocean, flying in to hit Navashal's camp.
As it was later revealed, Gazi Hasir himself had joined our heroes in defending Sholla, and joined them when they went to Navashal's camp to hold it against the dragons. The dragons were beaten back there, but at the cost of many lives, including the ogre Rullok - who, I hear, was a great friend of Brokk and a champion of the revolution in Talland.
It soon became clear that we had no choice but to retreat. The hard lesson we learned that first day was that we had not come up with a proper plan of retreat. Though the soldiers in Sholla joined back up with us in time, the retreat was a disaster. We trampled many of our own to death. The Rising Fire were the last to pass through the portal, but not before some Clockwork Dragons flew through to Port Security. Those were dealt with quickly enough.
When the dust had settled, the lamentations of the elves let it be known that Aerien Moonbeam had fallen in battle.
Morning of the Second Day
On the morning of the second day, our camp was attacked by trolls.
Yes.
Trolls. Nobody said anything about trolls.
The trolls came at us from the north, and counted amongst their number some truly ancient of their kind with many heads. The Rising Fire was there to meet them, and the Keshanite dragons played a crucial part in preventing a disaster from unfolding. I hear that Dakara knocked one of the troll lords unconscious, and it was then teleported to Sholla to wreak its havoc on the Clockworks.
We thought that we could rest after that, while the other lines of defence fought against the Clockworks in the south. But Port Security was soon attacked by kytons. KYTONS. Beings obsessed with self-modification, creatures exiled to the Plane of Shadow from Hell itself. Rolstein's people took the worst of it. Inzen was torn in half, I am told, and Xr'vsr beaten into the ground. Tuyja held out long enough for the Rising Fire to join up with her and take down the kytons. Hechin managed to save Inzen and Xr'vsr, somehow.
After that, the Rising Fire grabbed Whitemane and went to join the Clockwork battle north of Sholla. There, Alexander Propson was faced with a dilemma. The Clockworks had kidnapped Gnomish civilians and were marching them before their army. Rather than attempt to save the civilians and risk the lines of defence, Propson let the civilians be killed. This prompted a defection of many of the Gnomish soldiers, but Mennas Merniso intervened, and managed to convince at least half of them to rejoin the battle.
The Turnian navy had also arrived, under the watch of a certain Admiral Jetrak. Turnia. Another nation I had never heard of - one renowned in it own part of the world for being a naval powerhouse. Mennas had made unlikely allies. The Turnians prevented the Clockworks from sailing behind Propson on rafts, but the Clockwork Dragons reduced a quarter of the navy to cinders. That, and a Goliath had walked beneath the waves to smash the ships. But Mennas and Ash were there, with some mind-slaves (one of whom was the former director of the NSA, Oiral Oddfellow). Oddefellow lost her head fighting those dragons, but the Turnian armada came out of it alright.
Meanwhile, Dakara, Brokk, Whitemane and the front-line heroes played their part. A tragedy befell them when one of their treasured friends, the Agathion known as Adlai the Hound-Archon, was destroyed by the fire of Clockwork tanks. Adlai had fought beside them in Abaddon, and was leader of the Brotherhood of Talland - a daemon hunting organization. I am told that Brokk's mentor, Voytek, has taken her place. It was Hechin of Keshan who had been hit hardest by her death, having been the one to convince her to join their struggles in the mortal realm.
The retreat was more organized this time. I watched as the Hawksteeth mercs, Pine Guild knights and Gnomish soldiers streamed into Port Security to set up camp beside our own tired soldiers. I spoke briefly with Propson and learned of what had transpired from him.
Afternoon of the Second Day
The next line of defence was one which had been brought over from Xhas'Wlef and Minaerum. Many of the monsters were led by a famous adventurer, Ölnar White-Eyes, who had been commanded by Wlef himself, or something of the sort, to help the Rising Fire. The rest of the monsters had come over to help end slavery and answered to Mennas - via their chief, Rueln. Aside from the Gnomes, there were also the Stepfathers present at that line of defence. The Stepfathers - a Minaerite organization dedicated to taming the monsters of Xhas'Wlef - the champion Dakara hailed from their own ranks.
What they did not expect was that the Agathions scouting in the mountains would let a part of the Clockwork Army slip past them and Mennas' tengu volunteers. The Clockworks hit Rueln's force first, while the Stepfathers stepped aside to let that happen to spare their own numbers, and to flank the Clockworks. This selfish but tactically effective choice nearly led to a duel between White-Eyes and the commander of the Stepfathers, but Mennas and Hechin reportedly broke it up.
Then they met the main Clockwork host in battle, and Hechin and Mennas held the line against the odds, it is said.
All seemed to teeter on the brink, when White-Eyes led a barbarian charge into the Clockwork tanks, taking many down, but at the cost of his own life. Again, all was threatened when more Clockworks promised to flank the army. Thelning suggested a risky choice - to call in the forces at Port Security to join for a final desperate stand down the road from Port Security. And so it was done.
We all fought together in this final stand - and we were met with fresh faces, too. New allies. Volunteers from Talland, led by the elf who had been Bearnald's second - Byrnes, along with a handful of the famous PLAHs, joined us. I watched as Byrnes and Mennas took down the last Goliaths - one each - using special weapons designed by Brokk himself.
We won the day.
Or so we thought.
The remnants of the Clockwork Army had slaughtered most of the tengu in the mountains, down to their leader Rakeno. They had managed to sneak a large force past the Agathions, somehow. And that force was bearing down on Port Security.
Fortunately, Dorathion Ash was able to open a portal to get our forces back to the Port for what turned out to be the genuine last stand. In the final hour, the Clockworks broke through our lines, but the Dawnflower met them and finished them off.
Aftermath
Amidst the chaos of that time, two attempts were made to steal the Pillar of Light from the Empire of Atar, which had been used to destroy most of the Clockwork Army in the south of Gnomeland. The two attempts happened simultaneously. Both Gazi Hasir and the Stepfathers attempted to steal the Pillar - or at least Dakara. Those attempts failed, we have learned, as the Atarite camp in Gnomeland was a trap. This was learned when Richard was sent to Purrsia to warn Hasir.
And now as the dust settles, rumours are afloat that we are not done. That our work may yet take us beyond the Godsbrige. For as long as the Godshards threaten the world, no one is safe.