Hemdorkas Incursion

==1508==
In early 1508, huge numbers of Grell appeared in the Hemdorkas Hills at the far north of the Eridonian kingdom.
Queen Kiara Sanguine, age 19, in the first year of her reign, asked Nixiem to drive back the monsters. Nixiem refused, telling her that this was her first big test as a queen and that she would never earn the trust or respect of her people if she didn't do something about it herself.
After much arguing, Queen Kiara called her banners and sent General Mofkers to quell the grell. Mercenary companies, such as the Black Cross, were hired to support the main military efforts.
The grell proved to be more troublesome than expected. Their abilities of levitation surprised the Eridonian forces and many men died when swarms of grell descended from the sky at night onto unsuspecting troops camped below. This would prove to be a favorite tactic of the grell, one that gave them their best victories, and one that eventually would be their downfall.
After their defeat at the Battle of Highland Camp, where the Eridonian forces set an ambush for the grell, they fled back into the hills and vanished. The ambush, comprised of building a fake camp for the army while hiding bowmen and wizards on the back edge of camp, resulted in the deaths of many Eridonian soldiers by friendly fire. Some would go on to call the use of soldiers as live bait, and the indiscriminate fire into their ranks (which were swarmed by grell), a betrayal of the very soldiers sent to fight these monsters.
The source of the grell was never found.
==Aftermath==
The incursion lasted 9 months, and badly bled the kingdom. So many soldiers died in the first four months of the campaign with no sign of progress that barons began appointing new landlords to replace knights sent to war under the expectation that they would not return. Many knights returned to find their lands and holdings given away or repossessed. Soldiers that were paralyzed by Grell, but ultimately survived, were shunned under the belief that grell reproduced by laying their young inside those they paralyzed but did not kill.
The veterans of this war, known as the Bastards of the Firewood, felt betrayed. Based out of the Firewood led by Kerak the Vengeful, a cleric of Velthara, and the disavowed knight Zaerin, they raided and sacked nearby villages and even Anvil itself. The area was attacked repeatedly in the last six months of 1508. In December 1508, one of the temples in town was burned, and the keep was attacked. The gatekeeper and guards on the walls were slain, the keep itself was raided, but the captain of the guard and the men in the keep managed to push back the Bastards of the Firewood, who fled with a sizable amount of loot. The captain of the guard died from his wounds.
In response, Anvil called it banners and marched into the Firewood. Somehow, the bandits got word of this plan, and used it as an opportunity to sack and burn to the ground the keeps at three different villages. In exchange, the Bastards of the Firewood lost all of their supplies and the fortified camp they had built in the woods.
20 February 1509: The Bastards of the Firewood seize Anvil. Kerak declares himself lord.
20 June 1509: Count Vicious finishes "raising" his forces in Fortune and marches on Anvil. By the 30th of June, he has taken Anvil back for Eridon and Flat County.
1 May 1510: Grell were seen again in the Hemdorkas Hills by Zweihard Blacksteel.
Category:Lore
Category:Wars