The Battle of Redroad

Military action

A bloody battle fought on the road of Redroad the famous road between Fauxville and Clifford Bay, between House Grattanion and House Spikewren.

On the evening of the 22nd of Forlorn, approximately 400 soldiers of House Spikewren, led by Commander Guxxard Moroz, ambushed a large Grattanion caravan of supplies travelling from Clifford Bay to Fauxville. In the dead of night, Spikewren soldiers hid themselves along embankments either side of an elevated road. As expected, the Grattanion caravan, only lightly guarded by exhausted soldiers, came along the route. The 12 wagons were carrying large amounts of gold and luxury items from a successful trade deal between two affluent families in Grattanion territories.   The caravan trundled past the 100 soldiers lying in wait, and the soldiers were able to time their attack perfectly. Long spears were produced and driven through the legs of horses or the wheels of wagons. This brought the entire caravan to a halt; wagons toppled, horses shrieked and kicked up into the air, unseating those travelling in the wagons, and the soldiers hidden in the embankment emerged silently with small daggers and pots of acid. Behind one line of soldiers was a thick, shadowy forest. From this forest emerged the remaining 300 Spikewren soldiers armed with long spears and scabbards.   The 50 or so Grattanion soldiers, either thrown off the wagons or bundled about in the back of them, gathered together on the road with their small swords brandished. From one of the wagons appeared a powerful wizard by the name of Erra the Illusionist. One of the Grattanion soldiers, Henry Gaston, unhooked an unharmed horse and made quickly uphill for the town of Redroad, about half a mile away.   Erra the Illusionist thrust a mob of advancing Spikewren soldiers back spilling acid onto themselves and their fellow soldiers. Using this as a diversion, Erra attracted two overturned wagons together for cover while the remaining Grattanion forces gathered themselves and formed a defensive perimeter. Erra used this time to focus. At this point, the soldiers from the forest were only 300 meters, 60 seconds, away, and picking up their pace. A huge flash occurred and a bright red flare shot up from Erra's wrists, hundreds of meters into the sky. It crackled and popped showering the field towards the forest with small balls of pointed metal. This slowed the Spikewren advancement but the 50 Grattanion soldiers were quickly being cut down by soldiers from the embankment, led by fearsome Spikewren warrior named Creggan Klarnex. The stories say that Creggan Klarnex took the lives of 20 Grattanion men that evening.   More skirmishing took place and the Grattanion men continued to fall. Erra was being overrun by the sheer volume of Spikewren soldiers that had now began to reach the top of the embankment. He lit a wagon full of exotic goods on fire and force-pushed it down the embankment, smashing dozens of Spikewren soldiers back down the slope. Unable to deal with more flanking enemies, Erra was stabbed to death. Only now a dozen Grattanion men remained, swarmed by Spikewren soldiers.   It had been five minutes since Henry Gaston rode for Redroad when House Grattanion banners appeared on the crest of the hill. A hastily mustered force of 100 men, some even from the town guard, but reinforcements nonetheless for the remaining dozen Grattanion soldiers. Significantly, Colonel Malcolm Orwell and Lord Joren Grattanion were flanked by two pyromancers: Agni the Bright and Rybran Sunspear. The remaining Grattanion soldiers used this distraction to bound down a side of the embankment and run towards the advancing Grattanion reinforcements.   The soldiers of House Spikewren spotted numerous Grattanion archers. Their only two options were to fight uphill to meet the oncoming Grattanion force, or flee back towards the cover of the forest taking damage from arrow fire. The decision was made for the Spikewren command when Creggan Klarnex began his charge toward the Grattanion forces. The remaining 300 Spikewren soldiers rallied and charged after their de facto leader.   The battle was won and the Spikewren soldiers routed when Lord Joren Grattanion and Rybran Sunspear overcame Creggan Klarnex and killed him in the middle of a brutal brawl on the uphill thoroughfare to Redroad. Over 100 Spikewren soldiers managed to flee the scene into the forests or nearby caves, heavily wounded and deep in enemy territory. The rumours were that the creatures of the forest finished most of the Spikewren force off in the following weeks.