Battle of Toth

Date October 11, 375
Location Near Toth, Brun
Result Brunian Victory	Date October 11, 375
Location Near Toth, Brun
Result Brunian Victory
Belligerents 	Belligerents
Kingdom of Brun 	Kingdom of Tryr
Commanders and Leaders 	Commanders and Leaders
Prince Regent Bard Gilead
Lord "Snowfire" Gilead
Lord Wulroth Ironhand (w)
Lord Caeseth Craw
Rossarch	King Slovak Auchmes
Prince Trenchon Auchmes
Prince Deon Auchmes
General Gordon Onock
Commander Shannon Escott
Strength 	Strength
16,000 	30,000
(15,000 Engaged)
Casualties and Losses 	Casualties and Losses
2,061
(849 killed,
1,200 wounded,
12 captured or missing)	5,322
(1,630 killed,
2,339 wounded,
1,353 captured or missing)
Preceding 	Subsequent
Massacre at Rosseth's Ford	Battle of Mothsville
== Background==
After Rosseth's Ford, Bard was faced with a bit of a predicament. His father was much beloved and the his death would have a great impact on the people of Brun; however, the tribes of Brun were notoriously fractious and squabbled with each other constantly. If he were to unite them to face Tryr, he would need support. Rather than return to Terahollm, he quickly headed southwest towards the city of Toth, the largest settlement in Brun. There he met the forces of the local Craws under Lord Caeseth, a competent and fiercely loyal leader who was sure to bolster Bard's standing. Bard decided to concentrate his troops here, and sent messages out to the other lords to bring their troops to Toth. In addition to the troops he had at Rosseth's Ford and the Craws, he was soon joined by the Ironhands under Wulroth, a steely-eyed veteran and tenacious fighter, and the rest of the Gileads under his uncle, Lord Protector Snowfire. 
Bard wished to amass more troops from the three other clans: the Fragas, the Blackdaws, and especially the Brownbacks, the largest clan of all. However, his hopes were dashed for a series of reasons: the Fragas under Damos could be counted on to support him, but they were the farthest away; the Blackdaws under Markul were reluctant, and provided the excuse that they wished to keep their troops to defend their own borders; and the Brownbacks were led by Lord Cravis, a curmudgeon who had his own list of complaints and desires. Cravis's uncle, Lorax Juntlix, had been one of Brack Gilead's first and greatest supporters, and the Brownbacks had suffered greatly during the First War of Brun's Independence while forming their new kingdom. Lorax Juntlix died securing the future of Brun during the war of independence, and Brack had to make some significant promises to Cravis in order to keep him in line. These included the first choice of weapons, territory, infrastructure, and trade, preferential treatment during tribal disputes, and many other concessions. Several of the other Brunian lords grumbled at Cravis's greed, and had complained to Brack about acquiescing to his desires. They said that as king he could simply remove him from his position and establish someone more loyal. Brack preferred the diplomatic approach, and hoped that over time the Cravis would mellow. Unfortunately, time did not bear out to see if Brack's desires were true, and the time for war had come. One of the promises made to Cravis was the offer to make a Brownback the Lord Protector during his rule, a promise he could no longer fulfill due to his untimely death. Bard was a young man and educated on the tenuous ties binding the clans together, he saw the foreign invasion at their doorstep as a greater concern than appeasing the petty desires of Cravis. Cravis did not see things this way. He saw this as yet another Gilead war where thousands more of his clansmen would needlessly die. So, he elected to keep his troops home, and sent a bitingly sarcastic message to the prince: "...Unfortunately, the paths to the battlefront are blocked with carrion, perhaps from the previous incursions to get us here. Once the corpses rot and decay, the Brownbacks will join the Gileads once more." 
Caeseth and Wulroth were furious, with Wulroth offering to lead a detachment to bring Cravis in irons to Bard. The prince did not accept, deciding to focus on the pressing matter at hand, that being Tryr. So, with that, Bard had only half of the troops that he would have liked to, about 16,000 men. Bard's main desire was to take the fight to his enemy, but recognized it was foolhardy to invade Tryr without his full force. On the other hand, King Slovak Auchmes of Tryr was perfectly inclined to take the initiative and invade Brun, as he was wont to do. 
Slovak's efforts in raising an army was much more successful than Bard's. Tryr was smaller in size than Brun but the population was much more concentrated, allowing Slovak to raise 30,000 men by the end of September. Tryr was also a traditional absolute monarchy unlike Brun, which warranted stronger obligations between vassals and Slovak. Fervor in Tryr was high, prominent memories of their shocking defeat during the dragonborn invasion twenty years previous echoing through the public consciousness. With him, Slovak had several commanders: his son Prince Trenchon, his heir, a young and brash man who was eager to prove his mettle against the dragonborn, but whose strategic abilities were significantly lacking; Gordon Onock, perhaps Tryr's best commander, a common-born man who had diligently worked his way up through the ranks of Tryr's military to a senior leadership position, a significant feat considering Tryr's extremely hierarchical society. Onock was highly experienced and unshakable, though he was all too used to being commanded by incompetents. Both Onock and Slovak had fought the Brunians before under the previous king, Slovak's father Meriadoc, and Onock had no particular desire to fight them again. He recalled them as absurdly fierce fighters, tenacious, strong, and with high morale. They would be an extremely difficult foe to fight, especially considering they were now united and very mad. Onock, wishing to develop his own strategy and avoid dealing with Slovak, suggested that the king remain home at Tryr to direct the war effort. Slovak, however, felt like he had something to prove, to restore his and his father's honor by defeating his old foes. He knew there were those who questioned the strength of his royal house, and the threat of a coup was a real one. However, while outwardly confident and belligerent, he was secretly harboring feelings of deep-seated fear. He had taken part in the war of the past, when Tryr was defeated, and was part of the army that had been cut off from retreat and surrounded. The fear of those nights still lived in Slovak's head, and he was all too-informed he was of the viciousness of the long-ago Draconic empire. Yet, the king wished to play soldier and pushed aside his apprehension.
The plan he concocted did not lack in ambition. He divided his army of into two halves under Prince Trenchon and General Onock, 15,000 men apiece. Trenchon's force was to go south and distract the main Brunian force near Toth, while Onock's was to go north, muscle their way past any possible resistance and seize Teraholm, the capital of Brun. With Bard's base of power gone, his horde of mindless dragonborn would surely abandon him and return to the wastes from whence they came. He gave his son command of the majority of their heavy cavalry and knights, as well as the famed Hydra's Battalion mercenary group under Shannon Escott. Escott was fairly well known for his service under Rangos in their campaigns against the Bandit kings five years previous, and he was a very capable warrior. Onock cautioned the king on dividing his forces as his father had infamously done twenty years previously, but Slovak dismissed his concerns, and, perhaps believing Onock to be insulting his father, asked the general if he had given his father such sage advice before he was defeated. Slovak himself set up his headquarters at the small Dragonborn village of Gumtren on the banks of the western branch of the Noan River. He wished to be close by to personally give orders to both wings at once, much to the quiet consternation of General Onock. As such, the marching was slow, with repeated starting and stopping as Slovak waited until he had the exact location of both forces to release orders every day. Escott was made nervous by the heavy vegetation approaching Toth, and he asked the prince if he might increase the number of their scouting parties to eye the land ahead. The prince agreed.
Bard, utilizing the Craw's superior knowledge of the terrain, recognized almost immediately what Slovak was pulling. The Tryrians had even done the courtesy of splitting their forces to make themselves easier to annihilate. He was heavily reliant upon Caeseth, who was not much of a warrior but was very familiar with the terrain of the Craw's land. Bard marched his army from Toth towards Trenchon, positioning himself on the left flank of the Tryrian army. Upon hearing reports of Brunian troops amassing, Trenchon was delighted, as he was performing his part of the plan excellently. His first error was in sending several units of cavalry into the underbrush next to the road he was following to engage the enemy, which soon got tangled up and disorganized. Trenchon was following the creed of a cavalry-heavy engagement, but this approach did not work in the wild terrain of Brun. Bard could not believe his immense luck, and ordered a full-scale assault all along the prince's line. 
Whatever advantage the Tryrian forces might have had with their superior armors and weaponry was utterly nullified by Brun's sudden and overwhelming attack. Thousands of screaming scaled warriors filled the previously empty woods. Hastily assembled flaming logs paved a burning path down the hillsides, crashing into the Tryrian ranks. Their heavy cavalry was left with no room to maneuver in the thick shrubs, bushes, and trees of the forest, just as Escott had worried. He attempted to shake his men out into a defensive position, but he roared himself hoarse to no avail; the complete and utter chaos of this disaster rendered any remaining semblance of order to disintegrate. The superior physicality and size of the dragonborn overpowered any defense the Tryrians could give. Trenchon's forces were launched into utter chaos, and were driven from the field, with Bard in hot pursuit.
Slovak heard of the disaster in mid-afternoon, and while he was afraid, he thought of his son and rode to the field. Broken elements of Trenchon's army limped past the king, and he was able to rally some of them to form a rearguard. Bard's forces were flush with victory and quite disorganized, and when their lead elements under Wulroth arrived at Slovak's rearguard, he assumed he could brush them aside with and finish off the rest of their army. The rearguard however consisted of a good number of dismounted knights and mercenaries, and beat back the motley assault. A decisive countercharge ordered by Slovak drove away the rest of the dragonborn, and Wulroth was badly wounded in his torso. The Tryrian army was saved for now.
Gathering up what men were left, the Tryrian forces retreated back to Gumtren, where Slovak was relieved to find his son alive and well. Over a third of the 15,000 men in Trenchon's force were gone, with many more scattered across the countryside. Slovak, filled with anxiety, sent two conflicting orders to Onock to continue on while also defending Tryr itself. When Onock's response questioned if he wished him to continue his campaign, Slovak quickly lost his nerve and ordered a full-scale retreat back across the Noan. He set up camp on the eastern bank, while Bard set up camp on the west. Both armies settled in for winter, the Brunians having won the first round.
== Opposing Forces ==
Brun order of battle
* 3,000 Ironhands
* 6,000 Gileads
* 7,000 Craws
Tryr order of battle
== Battle ==
Though the Hydra's Battalion were rough and tumble fighters, these Dragonborn warriors were masters of chaos. Their advantage in size, number, and muscle allowed them to inflict terrible casualties upon the
== Aftermath ==