Battle of Mothsville

**Location** Mothsville 376
 Kingdom of Brun
 King Bard Gilead
Lord Protector "Snowfire" Gilead
Lord Wulroth Ironhand (w)
Lord Caeseth Craw
Rossarch
Prince Trenchon Auchmes (w)
Prince Deon Auchmes (k)
General Gordon Onock
 17,000
 3,274
(1,203 killed,
2,055 wounded,
16 captured or missing)
(2,285 killed,
3,910 wounded,
 Preceding

## Background

Bard's army was bolstered by the arrival of the Blackdaws and small numbers of Brownbacks and Blackdaws, swelling his army to 25,000, though he decided to retain the same command structure that had won the Battle of Toth. Following his coronation at Teraholm, he left a garrison of 3,000 to defend it, as well as another 3,000 south to Toth. This left him with 19,000 troops at his camp.

Meanwhile, the Tryrian army had somewhat recovered from the disaster at Toth. Onock had spent the winter drilling the Tryrian conscripts and forming them into a relatively viable fighting force. The Tryrian coffers were somewhat diminished from sustaining such a large fighting force (more than 30,000) but they had enough money to last them a few months longer. Slovak left a sizable garrison of 5,000 to defend the capital of Garrick, and amassed some 28,000 men at their army camps. Slovak planned out an extremely complex 3-pronged attack of three armies of 9,000 men apiece led by himself, his son Trenchon, and a third under General Onock. Onock was to form the vanguard, marching out towards Toth and seizing it if possible. Slovak's army was to march slowly and deliberately westward, and lay waste to the countryside. Meanwhile, Varagyr's legion was to criscross back and forth supporting both armies when possible, with each force having alternate routes and complex maneuvers to perform. It required a great deal of luck and skill to pull off, of which the Tryrian army did not have in excess.

Bard did not care about any of Slovak's plans. He had driven the enemy from his lands, and did not particularly desire to let them gain a foothold once again. He began to plan not a defense of his kingdom, as leaders on both sides were expecting, but an invasion of Tryr itself. Leaving behind a token force of 2,000 to stay at the camps, Bard marched his main force of 17,000 south to bypass the fords completely. He counted on his men's superior constitution to ignore the effects of the winter snows. It was not until March that Slovak heard of a Dragonborn host entering through the Lothic valley to the south, which initially he did not believe, as Bard's ruse had worked so convincingly. After all, it was impossible for an army to march during a heavy blizzard. It was only when Bard began to lay waste to the countryside that he realized he had been fooled. He quickly put his men on the road south, leaving most of Onock's army behind to protect the camp. Bard kept his army relatively intact and orderly during their raiding, having learned his lesson from Toth about letting his troops becoming disorganized.

Meanwhile, Slovak's younger son, Fentic, was distressed by the reports of the raiding. He took most of the garrison from the capital to meet Bard in battle, not considering that 4,000 men would be easily destroyed by Bard's 17,000. It was near the village of Mothsville that Fentic engaged Bard's forces, with 18,000 men under Slovak and Trenchon over 5 miles away. Unfortunately for Fentic, kindheartedness and bravery did not equal tactical skill. His decision to fight Bard in the open field in front of the village was meant to to prevent collateral damage, but it abandoned the high ground he had held in the town itself. Bard easily outflanked and utterly destroyed Fentic's army, killing the young prince and annihilating the entire force without suffering many losses to his own.

Unaware of his son's death and wishing to save his life, Slovak force marched his army those last few miles, exhausting them. Bard quickly ordered his army to seize Mothsville and the high ground, anticipating a Tryrian response within the week; he was somewhat surprised to find the Tryrian army in force arriving later that day. Both sides quickly deployed their armies and the two sides fought in a pitched battle. Both armies were relatively winded from the day's exertions, though Bard's men had the advantage of the high ground.

The right wing of Bard's army under Wulroth Ironhand eventually managed to push back his counterpart of the Tryrian army, and called for reinforcements even as he pushed forward to press the advantage. Prince Trenchon quickly arrived on the scene with the Tryriran reserve, rallied some troops, and quickly ordered a countercharge against the advancing dragonborn. Wulroth found himself surrounded and was grievously wounded in the shoulder, his force beaten back with heavy casualties. Bard had received his call for reinforcements earlier and sent his own reserve under Caeseth Craw to reinforce him, even while telling his longtime family friend Rossarch to take a portion of Snowfire's force and swing around the Tryrian right side. The Tryrian high command was so concerned with beating back Wulroth's excursion that it left their right exposed, and Rossarch's assault caused their line to collapse in on itself, the battle turning into a complete rout. Slovak detailed the Hydra's battalion to cover the Tryrian retreat, but Commander Shannon Escott chose to surrender rather than fight for no particular reason. This allowed the Brunians to bypass them and run down many fleeing Tryrians, who returned to their camp or Garrick completely demoralized. Escott himself offered his sword and services to Bard, but Bard chose merely to strip them of their arms and armor and sent them north and east with the task of never fighting against Brun again.

Bard ordered his men to burn and pillage the countryside of southern Tryr, and split his forces into smaller groups to cover more ground. The remnants of Slovak's army was entirely too weak to prevent them from doing so, and the king worked on fortifying the camp and the capitol city. He had lost more than 10,000 troops in a single battle, a third of the entire kingdom's army. The scattered and panicked. nature of the retreat meant that many of the troops who had fled the battle were not going to return to service, and the constant, pitiful crowds of refugees from the south lowered morale even more, which hit an all-time low. Desertions rose rapidly, leaving Slovak with a mere 5,000 men on hand to defend the capitol. General Onock had gathered another 2,000 in addition to the 8,000 that were still at the camps, meaning that the total size of the Tryrian army had diminished to just over 15,000. It seemed as though all Bard would have to do was just put his troops on the march and seize Garrick to end the war. However, he was content for now with laying waste to the country, a vengeful move that prolonged the war.

On the foreign politics level, the battle was decisive in proving that Bard's victory at Toth had been no fluke. While Tryr was commonly considered the weakest of the River Kingdoms, the fact that a group of transplanted barbarians not only defeated their main army, which it was outnumbered by, but had invaded their land and began laying waste to their countryside was seen as a shocking development. Upon hearing of this disaster, the Council of the Federation of Rangos was forced to come to terms with a possible Brunian victory, which would mean the loss of their only economic and military ally, and have a potential rival on their western border. They already were already concerned with the rapidly growing power of the Kingdom of Brell to the east, and did not wish to be sandwiched between two powerful opponents. While they had been allies in the Second Mineralian War, attempts to solidify an alliance with Brell had soured. Tryr had been a longtime ally, though a relatively toothless one, and their status as a buffer state was deemed more important than other concerns. Therefore, the council voted unanimously to enter the war on the side of Tryr, and Geckos Witvote was elected to serve as their temporary dictator.

## Opposing Forces

Brun order of battle

Tryr order of battle