Siege of Castle Chrisvania

## Prelude

Prince Lylas Tyrnea’mitore had a victory against the Vampire Count Voloch at the Battle of River Marilla in the summer of Year 0. However for this victory to be a decisive win towards ending the Chrisvanian Aggression; Lylas knew he had to act swiftly and take the war into vampire heartland.

First Lylas called a meeting of the council at his army camp on the banks of River Marilla. Elven scouts’ reported that Voloch was indeed alive and had retreated to his capital, Castle Chrisvania, to regroup. Both Narmacil and Angol’tur had their armies near the border with the vampire capital.

The decision was made. Lylas would continue towards the vampire castle near Marilla and lay siege to it while Narmacil and Angol’tur would besiege the vampire capital.

Preparing and maneuvering the armies took the entire fall and the elven forces were only in position at the beginning of winter. This allowed Count Voloch to recover his losses and move back to Castle Marilla for another battle against Lylas. Voloch’s first lieutenant, Cicatrix, positioned her army inside Castle Chrisvania to defend it against elven attacks.

## The Battle

Elven scouts reported sightings of the Vampire general and her knights near the valley to north of the city. Narmacil decided to test the city defenses while their general was away and ordered an attack. He didn’t spend any time to build siege engines and only used undermines to breach a section of the city walls. Narmacil knew his forces only needed an opening in the vampire defenses and siege engines wouldn’t give him any real advantage.

Narmacil was somewhat disappointed but unsuprised that the siege didn’t really have any effect on the shambling undead within the city, with only a few decomposing enough to be rendered useless. However, the elven undermines did work and the section protected by a unit of grave guard collapsed.

Somewhat hastily Narmacil attacked a section protected by ghouls while the rest of his army moved towards the breached section. The poisonous ghoul attacks surprised Narmacil and rapidly sickened his ancient dragon. The beast struggled to maintain its hold on the city walls. The necromancers of the city resurrected fallen ghouls as quickly Narmacil and his mount felled them.

At the breached section swordmasters and frost phoenix attacked and pushed the grave guard from the walls.

A second unit of ghouls attacked Narmacil. The mighty dragon couldn’t endure the foul poison, lost its footing, and fell from the walls. Narmacil stood by his loyal mount and passed the command of the army to Goredhwin and his bannerman.

Cicatrix emerged to the east of the castle with her knights and moved closer to the castle. A giant eagle flew towards the knights, blocking their way. This allowed enough time for the spearmen and highborn lancers to position themselves in preparation for a possible charge from the knights.

The swordmasters and the frost phoenix once again charged the grave guard, who had just regrouped after being pushed from the walls. The swordmasters turned the grave guard to dust and turned their attention to the group of zombies crowded around the necromancers. Elven martial prowess was beginning to prove too much for the vampire magicians and they weren’t able to raise any more bodies to replenish their losses. The elven archers in the center kept moving and shooting at the ghouls finally killing them all for good.

Cicatrix butchered the giant eagle and turned her unit towards the spearmen as a flock of fell bats crowded over the breached section trying to delay elven advance.

The swordmasters charged at the unit of zombies protecting the necromancers while the archers claimed the walls above the gates. The elven spearmen charged at Cicatrix’s unit.

The swordmasters made short work of the zombies and moved towards the far tower where an ethereal unit was garrisoned. The archers killed the bats crowding the walls. Unfortunately, the spearmen were no match for Cicatrix's Black Knights. Despite killing two of the knights they lost eight of their numbers and broke off from the battle. Luck was with the fleeing spearmen, however, as the knights were not able to catch them.

Realizing she had to move towards the gates, Cicatrix ordered charges against the spearmen and the highborn lancers. Both units fled to a safe distance, leaving Cicatrix in no man’s land.

The swordmasters killed the all ethereal warriors and took control of the tower, while the frost phoenix flew over to control the breached section of the wall. The spearmen and highborn lancers rallied and positioned themselves between Cicatrix and the city gates. The elves were in full control of the city and only needed to stop Cicatrix’s advance until Angol’tur arrived with his reinforcements.

Cicatrix saw her doom waiting on the walls, and decided to run off the battle field towards a small vampire settlement located to the east.