Siege of the Cinderforge

**The Siege of the Cinderforge** was a battle in 499 AC to recapture the Cinderforge, a fortress in the Nuramek undercity and the ancestral home of the Cinderforge ducal family. The battle brought together human and dwarven forces and united many of the noble families of Nuramek under Finnbjorn Cinderforge Queen Valona Stonesong I to combat the forces of Falrik Clanless.

## The Fall of the Cinderforge

In 452 AC, the Cinderforge was attacked by an army of fiends. With no mage powerful enough to operate the castle's magical defenses, the Cinderforge fell to the attacking army and the Cinderforge family was forced to retreat to Nuramek. Due to the family's longstanding friendship with the ruling Stonesong family, the family was provided with a manse in Nuramek by King Brynjar Stonesong.

## First Siege

A few years after the fall of the Cinderforge, Baern Cinderforge, younger brother of Duke Bjermund, decided to lead the Cinderforge army in an attempt to reclaim their home. Bjermund advised against it, fearing that the Cinderforge army was not strong enough, but ultimately gave Baern his permission to lead the attack. Unfortunately, Bjermund's fears became reality, and the attack failed. Baern never returned from the attack, and was presumed dead.

## Gathering Armies

In 399 AC, ducal heir Finnbjorn Cinderforge left Nuramek, hoping to find allies who might help him retake the Cinderforge. He traveled first to Westmarch, where he hoped to find support from his old friend Tiberius, now the Margrave of Falkenried. Falkenried was unable to provide him troops, needing all of his men in anticipation of a siege by the Silver Inquisition, and so Finnbjorn decided to redirect his focuses, hoping to gather an army that he could bring back to Westmarch to help defend the city.

Traveling to Crownport, Finnbjorn was given funds by Queen Calliandra to hire a mercenary company to support Westmarch's armies, and employed the Cat's Claws. He also recruited Elend Tavore and his company of cavaliers. With these new armies, Finnbjorn returned to Westmarch and helped break the siege of the city.

Victorious at Westmarch, Finnbjorn returned to Nuramek, with the Cat's Claws and Elend's cavaliers accompanying him, ready to begin his own attempt at reclaiming the Cinderforge.

## Uniting Nuramek

Finnbjorn's attempt to unite the Nuramek forces began at King Brynjar's funeral tournament, where he gathered support with victories in both the melee and the joust. He then began to gather support for Valona's rule over that of her brother Ilmar, garnering support for his siege in the process.

After placing Valona on the throne, he finally secured the support of Ilmar's mother's family by putting Torvald Stonesong and Danvar Goblinsbane in joint control of a portion of the Nuramek armies.

## Preparations for the Siege

To prepare for the siege of the Cinderforge, Finnbjorn journeyed into the undercity to deal with the hobgoblin warlord, Dolorek. He attempted to negotiate with the hobgoblins to ensure that the dwarven armies would be able to move through the undercity unmolested. Failing this, he killed the warlord, ensuring a few days of disorder and chaos among the goblin armies while Nuramek's armies recaptured the Cinderforge.

The gathered armies then marched on the fortress. A group of Citrine Tower mages, led by Saladin, provided support for the armies, and Elend's cavaliers covered the rear while dwarven infantry and archers, supported by the Cat's Claws, besieged the walls of the Cinderforge. All of Falrik's armies of abominations were positioned on the walls, but they were eventually beat back by the dwarven forces.

## Capturing the Forge

After the outer walls of the Cinderforge fell, the magical defenses sustained by the castle's spellforge needed to be dispelled in order to allow besiegement of the inner keep. To this end, Finnbjorn and his companions used a teleportation circle to travel into the forge room of the castle. There, they faced Baern, now turned into an abomination and forced to work the forges of the castle. After defeating him, they continued into the room which powered the magical defenses and fought against Falrik, his mage allies, and several draegloths. Defeating the mage, they were able to take control of the magical defenses and allow the dwarven troops into the castle.