Session 309

# June 15th, 2023 - The Calm Before the Storm

## The Calm Before the Storm

The session began the morning after the party completed plundering the liberated guard tower overlooking the ravine near the Trollclaw Hills. They had loaded up their wagon and horses with all the weapons, gold, and armor they could - including two sets of plate mail. One set Carlton planned on getting fitted for himself, and the other they would sell to help finance that modification of the first. The group then began the two day horse journey back south to the small town of Grainvic where the Red Sun army camp resided, the same they passed through almost a tenday before. This time, instead of being lead out of the town by Lord Joffrey, they now returned to it with the traitorous noble in chains.

As they approached the town the morning of the third day of their travel, they saw many of the soldiers away from the camp at the bottom of a long sloping hillside nearby digging trenches and cutting up trees. When they last passed through, most of the army was among their camp, but today there was a flurry of activity. Carlton led their group towards the commander’s tent and after showing their writ of authority they were granted an audience with the commander. They brought in Lord Joffrey, still in chains and looking ragged from his journey - not to mention being mostly buried in dirt by Watch. The leader of the Red Sun forces here, Commander Foxworth was busy surrounding the table within with the various captains of his forces when they arrived, and they were puzzled that the noble was tied up.

Carlton recounted their tribulations over the last few days, unable to obtain the aid of the enemy rebels, as most were slaughtered by loyalist forces, the flight of Lord Joffrey to the guard tower, and their subsequent assault on that tower. The collective Red Sun officers were stunned that the party of seven spellcasters seemed to singlehandedly take out an entire company of enemy soldiers and succeed in their mission. Not only did they clear out the tower, they also destroyed the bridge over the ravine, and recovered important enemy documents with the first magic gem that decodes their communications. Lord Joffrey was taken out of the tent as the Commander told the party of their situation. The second battalion of soldiers the parties communications spoke of indeed landed east at the peninsula by the sea, and have been marching towards Grainvic for days.

With the bridge at the Trollclaw ravine taken out, the first battalion that was approaching by land was stopped, so at least now they had a chance. However, the approaching forces still outnumbered them and had mounted knights on horse and wyvern, as well as numerous guard drakes and artillery. The Red Sun forces were mostly infantry troops that had no calvary or artillery support. The scouts had been returning daily with updates, and the only silver lining they brought was that there appeared to be no dragons with the forces. There were reports of numerous dragons landing at Ironbay with the invading army, so the Commander was concerned some would join this assault. That did not seem to be the case. The commanders had setup a map on the table with icons to represent the relative sizes of the forces, and showed what they plans were for defense.

With Carlton and the party being conscripted into the mercenary army by Alburt, and their proven effectiveness against the enemy troops, the officers assumed they would join the battle - and be key to their victory. Fax and his study of wars of the past made a number of suggestions for how to set up their defenses at the base of the hill to help protect against the enemy soldiers waves of breath weapons. Not long afterwards, a commotion from out in the camp stopped their deliberations as a guard entered and proclaimed, “he has returned with reinforcements!” The guard held open the flap to the tent as none other than Alburt himself strolled in with a blank look upon his face. It was clear this was not the ‘real’ wizard, but a simulacrum of Alburt, carrying a basic magic staff not the wizard’s Staff of Fire.

The officers welcomed the aid none the less, as the guard reported the portal Alburt arrived through also let pass another two hundred conscripts from Black Landing. Unfortunately, these appeared to be meager, untrained soldiers that likely were taken from the prisons of the city - just like the party. Simulacrum Alburt proclaimed he was here to ‘cast meteor upon the enemy!’ The Commander added two company icons to the battle map to represent the new soldiers, and added them to the front line, being the meat shields they were. This made the numbers of combatants closer, with their forces totaling around eight hundred soldiers and the enemy having around a thousand. However, the enemy also had nine trebuchets, about forty horse mounted knights and just as many wyvern mounted knights. They also appeared to have around a hundred guard drakes, like war dogs but much more vicious as the party knew.

Talk turned to strategy for the upcoming battle, which would likely occur the morning after the next, as the enemy forces would likely arrive near the end of the next day. The officers discussed their horn signals as the party were not well trained soldiers, and one of the Red Sun captains volunteered his company of a hundred soldiers to work with the spellcaster party. Commander Foxworth wanted to use the party and their skills to help even the odds of the battle by taking out one of the enemies key advantages, their artillery, or perhaps strike the enemy leaders from the rear. They discussed having the party and their company hide in the nearby woods until the enemy army passed and began to engage, perhaps after simulacrum Alburt cast his meteor on their masses would the party attack from behind.

The main worries were the enemies mounted knights, for if their wyvern or horse soldiers stayed back to protect the flanks too long the party and their soldiers may not stand a chance. So, they had to wait long enough for the enemy to commit their specialized troops to the battle, when it looked like their side was losing, only then would they have a good chance of eliminating one or both of the priority targets and hoping to even the odds. It was a risky plan, but if they committed too early the enemy wyvern and calvary knights would likely cut them down. Those mounted soldiers needed to engage against the Red Sun spearmen who would be holding the flanks as the lesser trained soldiers engaged in melee. The Red Sun would use their terrain advantage to fire their bows from high ground and rely on their defensive emplacements.

The officers knew there would be massive losses no matter how the battle turned out, and so as the planning came to an end Orsais announced he would hold a concert for the troops that night. As night fell and all the soldiers returned from their hard labor for the evening meal Orsais gathered many around a small hill were he set upon playing his lute and singing songs of inspiration for the troops. They clapped along and drank merrily, many for their last time. And that is where the session ended, on the evening of the fourteenth day after the party left Black Landing.

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