The Battle of the Scorched Wolf

Combatants| * House Verdant
* House Starkwood
* House Griften
* House Blackwolf
* House Subare
* House Arachnid
* House Redwater
* House Mallery

Commanders| * Lord Daemon Verdant
* Ser Tion Raine
* Lord Artos Starkwood
* Ser Robb Griften
* Lord Shamus Blackwolf
* Ser Ethan Lash
* Ser Cinna Subare
* Lord Gerold Arachnid
* Ser Jory Redwater
* Ser Marq Mallery

Casualties| 1000 soldiers killed | 3200 soldiers killed* Tavion Lash

## Prelude

> *Daemon: I will not allow my home to be endangered by these men. Tavion leads from the front, ill be sure to make it cost him.*
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> *Tion: If we pull this off the war might end, if we lose your at risk. I dont know how much its worth.*
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Tion's pushing and prodding of the forces told him many things, an open battled seemed ill-advised, The Redwater's and Lashes were still too powerful of an army and fighters that they would be risking too much trying to best them even with the Verdant's money. Though while the rest of the army pulled back Daemon moved up with more men and the forces of the North that had come to his aid, the rest of there forces either back in there castles or in Castle Claw which was under Rickard Starkwood's control for the time being. Daemon had a plan, no longer seeing a battle as a viable option he had his men try and cut off the spies while ordering his Northern allies to close in on the front of the campaign forces. He was hoping to throw off any chance of a comeback by decimating the army and potentially taking the Lashes prisoner which would be invaluable leverage for him. He acknowledged the negative ramifications that might occur if they ended up killing said lords or anyone else in this situation but he felt losing so early in his Houses existence to two powerful houses who would no doubt covet the gold he know possessed outweighed the risk of the venture and slowly he set about his plan.

Tavion had been confident with all the progress they made feeling that there victory had scared the Verdants. The Redwaters were more cautious but nonetheless pleased with how things had gone so far and there host was going onward much longer. There scouts had told them that the enemy was another day or two's march which they were sure was the last time the enemy would fall back, anymore and they would be too close to Castamere, which they knew they wanted to avoid. Taking a break when the sun started to go down Tavion set up camp up front and thought about the end of the war and namely telling Ethan about the opportunities a victory could afford them.

## The Battle

> *Daemon: Surrender or die Lord Tavion my men wont hesistate to cut you down.*
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> *Tavion: No matter how many men you throw at me House Lash wont surrender!*
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As the smaller Verdant forces circled around the head of the camp, Daemon sent a small group lead by Robb to try and sneak in and hit there supplies, of which they carefully took out the sentries and started to work there way towards the stored food when they were discovered. Thus Robb only had time to light up a few of the camps before they had to fight there way out. As the camp came alive Daemon started to open fire on the camp with his archers. The camped troops came out and were surprised by arrow fire, a burning camp, and later a bunch of Northern men coming in and attacking them en masse as they struggled to move around or defend themselves from the growing threat. Marq Mallery and Gerold Arachnid were one of the first few up and Marq quickly tried to fire back before he was attacked by Shamus Blackwolf who had joined the fray and knocked him to the ground before trying to fall back. Tavion Lash and Ethan also awoke and tried to fight, though Ethan attempted to focus on stopping the flames from spreading while Tavion lead a party to try and fight his way out of the camp and force the enemy into a retreat. His efforts brought him directly into a clash with Artos Starkwood himself, during the fight with the fellow Lord and his men many on both sides died and Tavion was knocked into a fire that set half of his face and his shoulder alight. This was enough that Artos had assumed he was beaten until a hellbent Tavion arouse and smacked him across the face when he least expected it and nearly knocked Artos out with one surprise hit, Tavion then rushed him and knocked him down and started to rush in the direction fo where some of the arrows were coming from, many of his men following him.

Tavion and daemon Verdant met for the first time and only time on the battleflied where by some luck Tavion had run right into the forces Daemonw as directly leading, though Daemon offered to halt the attack if Tavion surrendered the burnt Lash was seemingly beyond any sense of reason and rushed the forces front of him. He and his men fought through his forces, one by one all of them were being killed off in there nonstop rush to Daemon, many of Tavion's Elite guard did a great deal of the work for the injured lord according to Daemon but the end result was the same, by the time Tavion was nearly alone he had cut his way to a surprised Daemon who quickly tried to draw his sword to defend himself, the two clashed for roughly a minute Daemon was a decent fighter but always acknowledged his skill was in his strategic planning not with a sword in hand, even still Tavion was burnt and had been hit by a few arrows during his charge, and though he was far better of a fighter then Daemon those wounds allowed the Lord to hold his own agaisnt Tavion until finally, Daemon seemed to get the upper hand and Tavion collapsed to his knees in pain. Daemon knowing the Lord looked beyond any saving offered him one more chance to surrender for the sake of his son. Tavion's face couldnt be seen from his helmet but he spat out another refusal and with what seemed to be the last of his strength attacked the Lord again, surprised he still had power to stand and slashed across his chest, wounding Daemon before finally Tavion fell again, succumbing to his wounds and blood loss and dying in the forest. The battled had turned agaisnt Daemon by then and the remaining Red forces started to push forward, Daemon eventually opted to retreat, having not accomplished what he set out to do, the victory to secure the war but he knew Tavion's death would suffice.

## Aftermath

> *Ethan: Father...to die like this...I didnt even know he was gone for hours after the battle*
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> *Gerold: He died fighting, trying to save this war for us. We better not let it be in vain*
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The battle was a brutal affair that cost both sides. The Lashes, the technical winners had suffered far more losses and most importantly there leader Tavion Lash was found when the sun rose and his corpse, burnt and filled with arrows and cuts was brought to Ethan Lash who nearly broke down at the site of it, and now had to lead the broken Lash military which had suffered the most in the attack. Marq Mallery had gotten injured as well and the campaign was stalled due to some of the food being destroyed meaning they had to inspect everything and decide how to proceed from there. On the Verdants side Artos was battered and seemingly unable to continue, and most of the losses had been on the Northern end as Shamus had also gotten injured dragging Artos out of the fray and Robb Griften hadn't been found, since the battle, the Verdants fearing he may have been captured though later reports would indicate Robb had simply had to fall back further East and unable to regroup with the rest for a time. Though the Northern forces were still fighting for Daemon there leadership was badly hindered and any future battles were uncertain for all sides.