Siege of Carhilll

Military action

The defence of Carhill by Lanceron of House Guidel, the first act of the house that led to their influence and respect being as high as royalty.

The town was finalising its defence as the Elves began to setup the camp, when the first Elves began to advance at the walls arrows began to fly from the city. However Lanceron had given strict orders to limit usage of arrows, only firing when a shot was clear to a mage, he knew they needed to conserve ammunition. As the first ladders reached the town walls the attackers began to climb up, but it was a tough journey to the top, the mages were firing fire and lightning at the towers, but anything that was highly flammable had been removed and the towers had water ready to douse fires. The Mages had bombarded the gates but the reinforcements to them meant the damage wasn't enough to break them down. As the first hour passed the Elves had made no progress, losing several hundred and barely getting anyone onto the walls. The Elves made the decision to send the siege towers forward, despite the ground being wetter than they had hoped for. The towers slowly advanced, being pushed by the mages with the help of a group of soldiers. It took the 3 towers over an hour to reach the walls, all the while the Humans were pouring oil at the ground where the towers were aiming for. As the towers reached close enough to drop the bridge the mages fired a huge round of fireballs and arcing lightning, the defenders were hit hard by the spells and as the bridges came down the Elves pushed onto the walls, getting a substantial force in through the towers. The intense fighting raged on, Lanceron himself fought on the top of the walls, repelling the Elvish invaders. Stories tell of Lanceron wielding a great war axe to chop down 5 Elves at once. After a while of fighting the Elves were beaten back, after two of the bridges were knocked down and one tower was set alight. As the first night fell the Elves had made little progress, but they had made the Humans have to defend incredibly hard. The mages spent the first few nights approaching the town in darkness and firing flaming haystacks or fireballs into the city, in the day the Elves bombarded the walls with arrows, whilst the town returned little to none. After a week of the siege the second major push came, the Elves had broken the gate down to the point of collapse, so that morning a siege ram was brought forward, being heavily bombarded by arrows on approach. It smashed through the gates and hundreds of Elves charged the entrance, but Lanceron had prepared the night before for such a strike; The entire gateway had been blocked by rubble and rock. The Elves tried to retreat but the archers were slaughtering them as they ran. The mages tried to push on, blasting some of the rubble out the way but it wasn't enough, as oil was poured through murder holes many tried to run but were set alight and burned alive. Over a month had passed since the siege began and the Elvish army had sent part of its force to take villages, burn small settlements and harvest the nearby farmland. Heavy storms had started and put the siege on hold due to massive amounts of rainfall. The Elves had blockaded the town and were now planning on waiting out the Humans, to let them starve and then surrender. The fireballs sent into the town were doused by the rain before even landing, so the mages decided to give up for a while. This began the few months of fairly quiet activity from both sides. As Winter came the Elves moved back slightly, opting to keep warm and lose fewer men to the cold, it was particularly harsh that year and some Elves mutinied or left in the nighttime, wanting to return home. The mages that remained tried several times to bombard the city again but the cold and rain meant they were not much use. At one point, at the height of winter, the Elves tried to push into the city, using the cover of a misty day to advance at the town. But as they reached the walls the fighting began again and the cold was enough to make climbing the ladders too dangerous. Many Elves fell and quickly they fell back. As winter came to and end the Elves were reinvigorated and made another attempt at the siege, they knew supplies must be running low in the town so for several days, and during the nighttime, the Elves bombarded the city with fireballs, charged the gates, scaled the walls and fired arrows at the defending archers. During this time the most died on both sides of the fighting, the Humans lost many of their archers, at one point Lanceron himself had to join them to help fight back. Days passed and the town refused to fall, many buildings had burnt down, food was running short and the men were tired. Lanceron made a point of flogging any men who refused to fight or spoke of surrender, making sure the town never considered that option. Once news came of the Human army fighting at Mountmend, Goldside and Ashton the Elvish army began to split up, heading back to defend their cities. Lanceron gathered his soldiers and, once the Elves had fully left the region, headed to Vaes Dor, deciding not to go and join the main army.