Battle at Leng Forest
The Conflict
Prelude
The events described in this article
Before the battle, Osiris knew he would have to face the Emperor´s Wrath, his mighty warhamer that Ares bequeathed him. And so, he would need a weapon to match his.
Hastur devised a blood ritual to conjure up such a weapon.
The Émigré Ritual.
Twenty Empaths of great power gathered at the behest of Hastur, who began to inflict minor wounds in their bodies. Drawing the blood out of them and placing it into a small pool in the ground. At her orders, the empaths started to chant, singing with low voices at the same time, unifying their minds into one mind melding ritual, placing their egos into the blood, all their collective thoughts and wishes into them. Theiy poured their strength inside it, seeing how the red liquid abandoned completely their bodies. And at the same time they beginning to faint from blood loss, and their corpses were latter chopped into pieces and mauled into a mushy paste that was later added to the pool of blood. When the first part of the ritual was finished and in death the empaths gave the pool of blood their strength and minds the Flesh weavers started to mix alchemical compounds into the concoction of blood and gore.
Osiris drawned himself in the pool, helped by Hastur, and with the help of the warlocks and the Rock Elementals bounded to them draw the little iron on the blood they had. The alchemical compounds took care of the rest, transmutating them into the wished materials, and two more empaths started to focus their minds on Osiris, mind melding into giving him the necessary knowledge to finalize the ritual.
He, along the ghosts of the empaths in the pool of blood drawn out their collective ego and placed it into the iron in the blood, melting it with the blood and gore to create a form similar to a sword.
Finally it ended, and the blood and the mushy paste was transmutated into a sword for the use of Osiris, a red barbed sword that had the ego of the twenty empaths that were sacrificed. The sword had at least five fire elementals bound to it, helping it to solidify after its creation, and could cast flames. The alchemical process created a powerful sword, metal capable of being conduct to energies of the astral plane.
Deployment
The Forces of Osiris advantage of the mountain range and the river, stationing their forces in a small fort divided in two parts separated by the river and joined together by a wooden bridge. They were small in number and didn’t want to have a siege in the city of Carcosa, and so they have thrown their forces in a small fort constructed merely days before the engagement to concentrate the battle in the chosen terrain.
The first fort was commanded by the legionaries, armed with strong shields to gain time, behind the shield walls there was the warlocks, waiting to hurl their spells against the enemy. As shock troops there was the werewolves, the immortal werewolves, vulnerable only to the Silver Legionaries, located in the sides of the forest to ambush the charging knights.
The army of Argalak of House Zelenin was large, to large for his own good. The terrain was difficult and prone to ambushes, and so it didn’t had the width to accommodate his large army. His deployment so corrected this failure. He deployed his legionaries into columns instead of checkerboard pattern, using the bottleneck that the enemy fortress created to easily maneuver his forces to replace them with fresh troops and allow easy retreats helping it midbattle.
His cavalry was going to deploy when the legionaries had captured the first half of the fort, to use brute force to finish of easily. The bottleneck created a situation where he could only use a small portion of his army at a given time. But still, he marched on.
Battlefield
The Black Forest of Leng was a gloomy place, a cold and somewhat snowy area during winter. Not a lot of snow, not enough to warrant a winter army, but certain preparations had to be done.
A river crossed to the north, being born on a mountain and dying in the mouth of the Hadryan Sea.
The rest, covered in thick black forest, a forested mountain range. And between the mountains the yellow city of Carcosa was located, housing the expectation Lupercal family.
The Engagement
Osiris was at the top of the first fortress, seeing the enemy approach from a distance while his troops were preparing to face the enemy advancing slowly.
His Warlocks were busy, stopping the enemy from launching fiery projectiles on top of them. Catapults and even fire elementals that the enemy warlocks were launching at them. And so, his warlocks were busy and would not help his forces, using wind and water elementals to negate the damage done with the projectiles. Sometimes using rock elementals to form protective barriers, others using water elementals to smother the fiery projectiles. It was a battle that could have been lost right then and there.
That’s why the enemy forces were marching so slowly, they were draining them and leaving then vulnerable. Osiris took his mounted knights and werewolves, hop onto his Thracian horse, and marched on to battle, to force the enemy forces into conflict, avoiding death by artillery.
Knights and wolves, dancing as one rode into battle against the legionaries while flaming rocks descended from the sky. Osiris charged, plunging into battle in a gory melee, with the first line almost breaking in the first charge. The columns were weak to frontal charges, where the men were unprotected.
And then the werewolves came.
Great beats of war, breed for gore, grey and white, sometimes black and sometimes brown, clawed the eyes of the soldiers, plunging deep into their hearts. Letting out a grey howl that terrified the minds of the slave-soldiers and instruct them into retreating. With claws and fangs they murdered every one of them, leaving a pile of corpses in the road to the fortress, charging and retreating, charging and retreating along with the cavalry.
By the end of the charges almost half of the knights were dead on the floor, but none of the werewolves. Their bodies knew about no harm at all, only but a few instances. Only magic and silver can harm them, or a damage so cruel and destructive that their bodies are not able to function properly, like a bone shattering explosion or fire that could melt steel.
And, when the praetor could not control their men’s and they retreated from the battle, they could count that from the 12.000 legionaries at least 5000 were alive. The rest was dead or maimed on the ground, with their head splattered, hearth ripped out or head cut off. The horror of Osiris Lupercal was visible on earth, and the ghost´s danced accordingly.
The emperor rally his troops, yelling orders and taking his Warhammer. The rest of the legionaries flock to his side and he called the Silver Legionaries. Normal troops from Carthago, but to him were special because they specialized in falconry and used silver coated weapons, and so they would be deadly against the werewolves.
Osiris and his knights came back to the fortress, but the werewolves retreated into the woods to hide. The silver legionaries, along their normal counterparts advanced with various rams and ladders. The Traitor ordered the wolves to hide for now because use them now would be a suicide.
Meanwhile, the warlocks were still defending the fort against the siege artillery.
The plan of Osiris was to drawn the enemy forces into battle, instead of dying of artillery, a battle of attrition were he could win if he defended well and had more winning streaks like the first wave. An impossible task, but at least he would die battling against one of the most powerful being in the universe, he thought.
He dismounted, and his knights followed. He replenished his knights with fresh and unwounded ones, dismounted knights with no horse. And so, with his dismounted knights, psychic warriors and half of the man-beasts he abandoned the fortress and marched forwards against the enemy army.
Again, a charge, with Osiris being at the forefront of it. His bloody sword sang a powerful song with rock inside it, a song like the cracking of bones, the sounds that one makes when sanity slips away. Dripping blood of the steel, he charge with his entire army in a desperate attempt to break the enemy before they broke him. But he sprung the trap.
It was too late for them, but a group of archers of the pearl had manage to sneak in the forest and started to pelt them from their hiding place, killing a great amount of armored knights with their special arrows. Even the half man-half turtle with their shells fall down prey to the pearl archers. The charge was stop on its tracks, and Osiris blow a whistle that made no sound at all. And so, he called forth the wolves to prey upon the pearl archers. A battle in the woods developed while Osiris continued the charge, with the copper skinned pearl archers falling prey against the wolves, being eaten alive and getting their arms ripped.
Too many of his soldiers died from that barrage, ignoring shields and armor, but still he marched. The legionaries in front of them thrown their pilum but he, being a warlock blow it of course with a gust of wind. And so his knights and man-beasts charged the infantry, metal clashing against metal, bones cracking. Monstrous men, and men like monsters battled for the end of time, chaos creatures in torment roaring, seeking marshals for the final fight, seeking the rule of earths old might. Raising their eyes to the howling sky, raising their arms for the haunted moon. And the battle cry that shattered the souls of all the mortals when the God-Emperor Argalak clashed arms with Osiris.
Warhammer against Longsword, the might of the conquerors heir against the blood dripping sword of the traitor for the ruinous powers. They both clashed against one another, throwing jabs against the other, chipping his armor away and drawing blood when they could. His sword endured the blows of the hammer, but not the arms that held them. They were starting to break, bones cracking and fire being thrown as projectile. His men were being slaughtered around him, the psychic warriors flocked to his aid, casting illusions and psychic pain in the minds of those who dare to harm Osiris. Many foes fall down to the ground when the empaths entered the fray, when their hearts stopped after having their minds melted.
The Monstrous men and men-like monsters were almost dead, with the silver legionaries cutting the throats of the wolves and the normal legionaries being decimated by the psychic warriors, unable to resist mental powers and illusions they started to battle an illusionary army and were cut off easily.
Osiris had great victories, but at a great cost.
The God-Emperor was better than him, far better, single combat would turn into his demise. His arms now broken and useless in war knew of it. But he could still stand still, he could still rally and order his men. He was now a commander, not a fighter.
The legionaries abandoned the first fort, after seeing half of their army rout and the enemy knights closing in. It was a lost battle, and so they retreated to the second fort, at the other side of the river to concentrate their forces in it.
The first fort was overrun and burned to the ground, the knights killed the stragglers and the battle came to a standstill. The two sides were facing each other, and the siege barrage finally ended.
The warlocks were almost exhausted, almost to the point of breaking, and so they could finally rest.
But rest indeed they did, because Argalak did not waste any time after the two parts settled, and send a Varangian war party down river to fetch some boats and start crossing the river.
The varangians, Hrismarians breed for the Edekhans, crossed en mass the river and started to besiege the sides of the fortress, pelting and setting fire the towers, while the Satyrs, half minotaur and half Edekhan slaves, started to push the bridge.
Osiris was lost, he was convinced he was going to lose the battle. He quickly shifter to his dear sister, Hastur, a large almost ghastly figure, a genderless demon with cryptic writings in its skin. She smiled at him, assuring of the victory to come. “It would come at a great cost, dear brother, but it will come”.
The red sword feed him with the strength of the empaths sacrifice to power it up, and so Osiris grabbed it and launched himself to battle one last time. Hastur smiled again, a grim and maniacal smile that stretched from cheek to cheek, she had him in her power.
Osiris using ropes attached the sword to his hand and continue to fight on. With his legionaries he battled the Satyrs, cutting heads and talons, impaling hearts with his sword, singing a violent song of blood and steel. The Satyrs were no match for him and him men, but still the loses were great among his people.
The fort was almost on fire, the smoke did not let him see beyond his extended arms, the sound of clashing arms charged his senses, and the smell of blood left him with a wicked sense in his stomach. He was in the point of breaking, he had stared the abyss but the abyss stares back even the boldest gaze. Amidst salt and smoke he lift up his arms, howling at the moon, feeling the world trembling as the blood seeped out of his body in his countless wounds.
A fiery final bolt of fire clashed from the heavens, the aurora that brought with it was green and yellow and pink, and the colors out of space stretched from north to south, to pole to pole and sea to sea. Lupercal brother’s onward fight! Chaos summons all her might! The color out of space draws nigh. Come to fight the final fight.
The sky trembled with the Green Comet, the empaths died on the spot from sensory overload as their hearts stopped beating, the earth filled itself with all the colors of the rainbow as the color crashed against the ground, rising earth and fire filled the lungs of all the present, like a tidal wave of rocks and soil, a mushroom cloud and a sonic explosion that killed instantly all the army of the emperor, and buried the emperor himself right then and there.
Hastur has been expending this a long time ago, and finally the Green Comet had cometh. The radiation from it killed the remaining legionaries, and put Osiris into a torpor. Hastur walked forward to meet with her destiny, something awaited her inside the crater.
Belligerents
Imperial Elite Force
Osiris, The Betrayer
Strength
12.000 Legionaries
25.000 Household troops that are:
- Th rest are miscelaneous troops from the side
- 600 minotaurs
- 300 Archers of the Pearl
- 12.000 mounted Knights
- 3500 Varangian Guards
- 5000 Silver Legionaries
- 600 werewolves
350 mounted and dismounted Knights
5000 legionaries
3000 mutationts like man-boars, monitors, bear-man, etc
500 Empaths
120 Warlocks
Casualties
Objectives
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