Battle of Mothsville

Date March 14, 376
Location Mothsville, Tryr
Result Decisive Brunian Victory	Date March 14, 376
Location Mothsville, Tryr
Result Decisive Brunian Victory
Belligerents 	Belligerents
Kingdom of Brun 	Kingdom of Tryr
Commanders and Leaders	Commanders and Leaders
King Bard Gilead
Lord Protector "Snowfire" Gilead
Lord Wulroth Ironhand (w)
Lord Caeseth Craw
Rossarch	King Slovak Auchmes
Prince Trenchon Auchmes (w)
Prince Fentic Auchmes (k)
General Gordon Onock
Commander Shannon Escott (pow)
Strength 	Strength
17,000 	23,000 total
4,000 Initial
Casualties and Losses 	Casualties and Losses
3,274
(1,203 killed,
2,055 wounded,
16 captured or missing)	10,101
(2,285 killed,
3,910 wounded,
3,906 captured)
Preceding 	Subsequent
Battle of Toth 	Battle of Hentoil's Hill
== Background ==
Over the rest of the fall and winter, Bard's army was bolstered by the arrival of the Blackdaws, whose leader Markul had quickly realized the foolishness of his position, and small numbers of Brownbacks and Fragas. His army swelled in size to 25,000, though he decided to retain the same command structure that had won the Battle of Toth. 
Now that the emergent situation of the Tryrian attack was handled, the next matter at hand was to crown a new King of Brun. All sovereign lords gathered in Teraholm to The obvious choice was Brack's chosen successor, Bard, himself the crown prince and having just successfully led the Brunians to victory at Toth. The majority of the Brunian lords seemed to be in consensus with this. Snowfire Gilead and Caeseth Craw were immediate supporters. Wulroth Ironhand was more reticent, believing that Bard had not pursued the Tryrians fiercly enough after Toth, but was not going to stand in the way of his coronation. Damos Fragas and Markul Blackdaw were both moderately in support, but not entirely convinced by the young Bard. He had after all only recently turned twenty years of age. Cravis Brownback did not even bother showing up, instead sending in a surrogate, who of course advocated for new, fresh leadership; possibly Cravis Brownback, he offered. This led to much shouting and arguing amongst the gathered lords, all of the disputes of the past bubbling up. That's when Bard stepped in. He was calm but authoritative, his words measured but defiant. He promised the assembled lords that if they made him king, Tryr would never again be a threat to Brun, that their people would know the happiness and success that his father Brack always wished for them to have. This speech stirred the hearts of the assembled lords, remembering Brack and the sacrifices they had made during their war for independence, and more than one wept. The vote was called, and not even Cravis's surrogate offered up his dissent, choosing to abstain instead. The choice was unanimous: Bard would be the second king of Brun. 
Following his coronation at Teraholm, Bard refocused his concern back to the war. Tryr had been defeated in their invasion, and now with the majority of his troops gathered, he felt confident enough to go on the offensive. He left a garrison of 3,000 under Markul to defend Teraholm, as well as another 3,000 south to Toth. This left him with 19,000 troops at his camp on the western Noan. 
Meanwhile, the Tryrian army had somewhat recovered from the disaster at Toth. Onock had spent the winter drilling the Tryrian conscripts and forming them into a more viable fighting force. The Tryrian coffers were significantly diminished from sustaining such this force (more than 30,000 men) but they were not at the point of panic yet. The treasury would last them a few months longer before they needed to start asking for loans or raising taxes. Before that, though, Slovak wanted to achieve victory. He left a sizable garrison of 5,000 under the command of his second son, Fentic, to defend the capital of Garrick, and amassed some 28,000 men at their army camps. Having learned his lesson of dividing his forces and spacing out his troops too widely, Slovak planned out a complex 3-pronged attack with three armies of 9,000 men apiece led by himself, his son Trenchon, and General Onock. Onock was to command the southern group, marching out towards Toth and seizing it if possible. Slovak's northern army was to march slowly and deliberately westward, and lay waste to the countryside. Meanwhile, Trenchon's legion was to support both others from the center, crisscrossing back and forth and providing support both armies if needed. That way, if any one army needed support, Trenchon would be there to close by to support them. Slovak's plan was for each army to not be too far away from each other, all within a few short miles, so that they could not be easily surrounded and destroyed. However, this plan also required a great deal of discipline, skill, and luck to pull off, with each force having alternate routes and complex maneuvers to perform. It was possible, but it would be quite difficult for the unseasoned Tryrian army. 
Bard did not care about any of Slovak's plans. He had driven the enemy from his lands, and was planning on letting them gain a foothold once again. He began to plan not a defense of his kingdom, as leaders on both sides were expecting, but an invasion of Tryr itself. Leaving behind a token force of 2,000 at the camps to keep the Tryrian focus, Bard marched his main force of 17,000 south, bypassing the fords and the Western Noan completely. He counted on his men's superior constitution to ignore the effects of the winter snows. As Slovak was formulating his own plan, just waiting on the winter snows to melt, it was not until March that he heard of a Dragonborn host entering Tryr through the Lothic valley to the south. Initially he did not believe the news, as Bard's ruse had worked so convincingly. After all, it was impossible for an army to march so swiftly during the winter, and they dragonborn were right across the river from him. It was only when reports arrived of Bard laying waste to the countryside that he realized he had been fooled. He quickly put his and Trenchon's men on the road south, leaving most of Onock's army behind to protect the crossing into Tryr. Bard kept his army relatively centralized, intact, and orderly during their raids, having learned his lesson from Toth about letting his troops becoming disorganized. 
Meanwhile, Slovak's younger son, Fentic, was distressed by the reports of the raiding. Fentic was a sympathetic soul, and cared greatly about the lives of his subjects. Wanting to protect the people, he took most of the garrison from the capital to meet Bard in battle, not really considering that 4,000 men would be easily destroyed by Bard's 17,000. It was near the village of Mothsville that Fentic engaged Bard's forces, with 18,000 men under Slovak and Trenchon over 5 miles away. Unfortunately for Fentic, kindheartedness and bravery did not equal tactical skill. His decision to fight Bard in the open field in front of the village was meant to prevent collateral damage, but it abandoned the high ground in the town itself. Bard easily outflanked and utterly destroyed Fentic's army, killing the young prince and annihilating the entire force without suffering many losses to his own. 
Slovak received reports from Fentic of his move far too late to save him, and the king panicked. Unaware of his son's death and wishing to save his life, Slovak force force marched his army those last few miles, exhausting them. Bard, having finished mopping up the Tryrian force, ordered his army to seize Mothsville and the high ground, anticipating a Tryrian response within the week; he was surprised to find the Tryrian army in force arriving later that day. Both sides quickly deployed and fought a pitched battle. Both armies were relatively winded from the day's exertions, though Bard's men had the advantage of the high ground in Mothsville. 
The right wing of Bard's army under Wulroth Ironhand eventually managed to push back his counterpart of the Tryrian army, and called for reinforcements even as he pushed forward to press the advantage. Prince Trenchon quickly arrived on the scene with the Tryriran reserve, rallied some troops, and led a countercharge against the advancing dragonborn. Wulroth found himself surrounded and was grievously wounded in the shoulder, his force beaten back with heavy casualties. Bard had received his call for reinforcements and sent his own reserve under Caeseth Craw to reinforce him, even while telling his longtime friend and personal confidant Rossarch, a water genasi who had grown up with Bard, to take a portion of Snowfire's force and swing around the Tryrian right. Tryr's high command was so concerned with beating back Wulroth's excursion that it left their right exposed, and Rossarch's assault caused their line to collapse in on itself. 
With their right flank collapsing and the center exposed, the battle quickly spun out of control and turned into a complete rout. Slovak detailed the Hydra's battalion to cover the Tryrian retreat, but Commander Shannon Escott chose to surrender rather than fight as a sacrificial lamb, disgusted as he was by the Tryrian's inability to achieve victory. This allowed the Brunians to bypass them and run down many fleeing Tryrians. Those who returned to their camps or Garrick were completely demoralized. Escott himself offered his sword and services to Bard, but Bard chose merely to strip them of their arms and armor and sent them north and east with the task of never fighting against Brun again. 
Bard ordered his men to further burn and pillage the countryside of southern Tryr, and split his forces into smaller groups to cover more ground. The remnants of Slovak's army was entirely too weak to prevent them from doing so, and the king worked on fortifying the camp and the capitol city. He had lost more than 10,000 troops in a single battle, a third of the entire kingdom's army. The scattered and panicked nature of the retreat meant that many of the troops who had fled the battle were not going to return to service, and the constant, pitiful crowds of refugees from the south lowered morale even further. Desertions rose rapidly, leaving Slovak with a mere 5,000 men on hand to defend the capitol. General Onock had gathered another 2,000 in addition to the 8,000 that were still at the camps, meaning that the total size of the Tryrian army had diminished to just over 15,000. It seemed as though all Bard would have to do was just put his troops on the march and seize Garrick to end the war. However, he was content for now with laying waste to the country, a vengeful move that prolonged the war. 
On the foreign politics level, the battle was decisive in proving that Bard's victory at Toth had been no fluke. While Tryr was commonly considered the weakest of the five River Kingdoms, the fact that a group of transplanted barbarians not only defeated their main army, which it was outnumbered by, but had invaded their land and began laying waste to their countryside was seen as a shocking development. Upon hearing of this disaster, the Council of the Federation of Rangos was forced to come to terms with a possible Brunian victory, which would mean the loss of their only current economic and military ally, and leaving them with a potential rival on their western border. They already were already concerned with the rapidly growing power of the Kingdom of Brell to the east, and while they had been allies in the Second Mineralian War, attempts to solidify an alliance with Brell had soured. Rangos did not wish to be sandwiched between two powerful opponents. Tryr had been a longtime ally, though a relatively toothless one, and their status as a buffer state was deemed more important than other concerns. Therefore, the council voted unanimously to enter the war on the side of Tryr, and Geckos Witvote was elected to serve as their temporary dictator. 
== Opposing Forces ==
Brun order of battle
* 4,000 Ironhands
* 500 Brownbacks
* 700 Fragas
* 3,300 Blackdaws
* 4,000 Craws
* 4,500 Gileads
Tryr order of battle
== Battle ==
== Aftermath ==