The Battle of Oros Bridge

On a rainy, late spring day, almost 7,000 rebels met Lord Kranos Stross and his 1,400 retainers and 2,200 allies at the Battle of Oros Bridge. The revolutionaries’ numbers and bravery overcame their shortage of training and proper arms and armor. Peasant archers, kobold miners, stout mercenary pikemen hired by merchant interests, and the wizardry of Marcenzo formed the backbone of the Free City’s Army. A few dwarves had worked tirelessly to make spears, shields, and armor for hundreds of the most experienced warriors, but more than half of Zobeck’s army carried little more than knives and hate. The Watch, now firmly committed to the revolt, formed the remainder of the force, with the priests of Yarila the Harvest Goddess and Volund the Forge God providing support. The Free City Army’s anger gave them courage against their better-trained foes.
The first morning, the Free City Army attempted to use that rage and courage to retake the bridge. The nobles held against repeated attempts to drive them off by magic and numbers, however. Confident in their superior skill and equipment, the Stross alliance counterattacked around noon. Cavalry poured over the bridge, shattered the front ranks, and overran the Free City Army’s supply area. Almost as soon as they reached the reserves line, though, they fell into a clever trap. A field of holes and mud prepared by miners ensnared the advancing horses. Kobolds, artisans, and peasants dragged almost 50 knights down into mud and death.
Both sides retreated in good order. The second day was clear and sunny enough to see the muddy mess of the previous day’s struggle. The battle continued into late afternoon with only skirmishes, feints, and small probing attacks while the Stross forces waited for the ground to dry sufficiently for another cavalry charge. That delay undid them, however. The wizard Marcenzo had taken his best men across the river during the night to join a large contingent of kobold reinforcements freed from the Stross silver mines and moving fast over the drying river bank.
Suddenly flanked, the Stross line at the bridge collapsed, and the mercenaries took flight, leaving the cavalry to struggle alone. In two days of bloody ruin, the peasants and kobolds took hundreds of noble prisoners and finally ended the reign of the Stross family. Kobold archers, owl-flying raiders, and other deadly night fighters prevented the remaining army from retreating to Strossheim, the Stross family’s castle. The stragglers instead retreated east, seeking shelter at the village of Briarwood.
The looting of the upper halls and the death of the inhabitants turned the castle into a place haunted by new ghosts. Fortunately, the fires started in the Great Hall failed to catch (or were suppressed by summoned water elementals). Many looters sought to find the “hoard of silver” the Stross family vaults contained, though they never did. Some claimed demons had guarded it, others vanished in the search, and some were driven mad by the terrors they saw below the hill. The army sealed up the entrances to the kobold’s silver mines for a few months, until the kobolds offered to work the mines in exchange for a fair share of the silver and a permanent position on the City Council. The city gratefully accepted over the objections of those who still saw kobolds as nothing more than slaves.