Massacre at Rosseth's Ford

Date August 23, 375
Location Rosseth's Ford, Brun
Result Brun Victory	Date August 23, 375
Location Rosseth's Ford, Brun
Result Brun Victory
Belligerents 	Belligerents
Kingdom of Brun 	Kingdom of Tryr
Commanders and Leaders	Commanders and Leaders
Prince Regent Bard Gilead
Lord Protector "Snowfire" Gilead	Captain Callos "The Gallant"
Strength 	Strength
3000 	200
Casualties and Losses 	Casualties and Losses
281 (62 k, 219 w) 	200 killed
Preceding 	Subsequent
N/A 	Battle of Toth
== Opposing Forces ==
== Background ==
== Battle ==
Lord Callos was the deliberate first recipient of the news, with King Slovak Auchmes ordering him to return to Tryr immediately. He thanked him for his service against the barbarians, but the time had come to gather their armies. Callos received the news, but he tarried, deciding to further pillage and plunder before he crossed the western Noan. 
The court at Teraholm, which had been urged at the bidding of King Brack to wait for negotiations to conclude, impatiently remained for news from the king. Finally, nearly two months after the King had left, on the 23rd of August, a messenger pigeon arrived bearing news. Snowfire was the first to receive it, and the message shook the normally unshakable warrior to his core. He dismissed all other attendants and told the prince alone. Bard was quite for a time, and then left the room with nary a word. In an absolute blind fury, he ordered all of those in the capitol to accompany him, as well raising the levy of Teraholm proper, giving him a total of about 3,000 men. They set out quickly towards Rosseth's Ford, a crossing from the western fork of the Noan into Tryr and the most likely place Callos would attempt to cross. 
On his journey, Bard's force happened upon the recently razed homes and massacred Brunians by Callos, and their marching rapidly increased in speed. Callos's raiders slowly continued their path, their commander's arrogance that the Brunians could not possibly respond in time dooming them. By the time they had reached the ford at high noon, Bard's army was already there -- but in a small number. 150 men held the ford, a small enough number that Callos thought he could storm the ford and cross there. He hid the vast majority of his men in the treeline nearby. Callos took the bait and ordered his troops to charge the dragonborn defenders. The dragonborn at the ford held for a time, but the raiders actually managed to shatter their defensive line, and they began to cross over the fords. As the rest of the 3,000 emerged from the treeline, they saw the raiders starting to escape, and to a man fell into an utter bloodlust. Bard's orders for the day were to take captives, particularly knights, so they could exchange them for any prisoners Tryr had taken. These orders were ignored, including by Bard himself. 
Callos's forces, for their part, were not well equipped for fighting a pitched battle. While consisting mostly of knights and their retainers, they were equipped for riding, not fighting, with light armor, lighter weapons, and light horses. They loosened several volleys of javelins and arrows towards Bard's force, even as they attempted to splash through the shallows, which caused moderate losses in the Dragonborn ranks. However, even if the volley had taken out three quarters of their force, the Dragonborn would not have stopped charging. They were upon Callos in just a couple of minutes. 
The engagement itself was a rather short affair. Every single one of the raiders was cut down within five minutes, no quarter given. Callos's raiders, for their part, fought well enough; they were professional killers after all. though they were no match for the Dragonborn. Callos himself attempted to charge his way out of the throng of Dragonborn with twenty of his best riders, though his plan quickly fell to pieces. A particularly vengeful Gilead slipped through his bodyguard's horses, and, swinging a massive greataxe with catastrophic strength, struck Callos's out from underneath him in a single blow. Callos's fell into the water, back breaking against the rocks on the river floor. However, this crippling injury did not matter much seeing as how his assailant swiftly bisected him at his torso, spilling his guts into the water before the dragonborn was surrounded and slaughtered by Callos's guard. Callos surprisingly clung to life for a few moments, bleeding out even as the rest of his guard was encircled and destroyed. Not even a single horse was spared, so completely ferocious was Bard's task force in fulfilling it's butcher's duty. 
After this, Bard quickly regathered his troops, and marched them across the river into Tryr proper. This surprising move caught the Tryrians before they had defensive forces on hand to match them. By the end of the day, he had laid waste to the nearby villages of Pris, Cross, and Shepherd's Croft, and then pulled back across the Noan to Brun unmolested. 
News of the calamitous defeat at Rosseth's Ford quickly spread to the people of Tryr, who were shocked to learn of their gallant young Callos's brutal death. Slovak Auchmes of Tryr, who had not expected such a rapid and violent response from the Dragonborn, sped up the mustering of his forces to respond to this threat, bolstering his numbers with the hiring of the mercenary group, the Hydra's Battalion. He also sent a request to his allies in Rangos to join the conflict, but they were not quite yet willing to engage their country in warfare if not absolutely necessary and so declined. Their refusal did not concern Slovak at all, as he was confident a Tryr completely undistracted by other conflicts could easily deal with the Brunians itself. The people of Brun, for their part, felt a grim sort of satisfaction in the killing of the raiders, even as they buried their dead and mourned their losses. Most of the sovereign lords of the six tribes of Brun had returned to their lands after Brack had departed for Tryr, and so Bard commanded them to raise their forces and prepare for war. 
Lord Snowfire's hopes that the conflict would end with the punishment of the raiders quickly dissipated as he saw the eagerness of the dragonborn in their response. King Slovak's plan to incite Brun to war had worked perfectly even if he hadn't anticipated the complete destruction of Callos's forces. 
The Great Riverlands War had begun.
== Aftermath ==