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| Action Id: 3931 | Crisis: | Participants: Reese, Rymarr(RIP), Rey, Bedivere, Jessa, Rhiannon and Liam | |
| Status: Resolved | Submitted: March 14, 2020, 1:31 p.m. | Public: True | GM: Apostate |
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Economic Resources: 1000 Military Resources: 6500 Social Resources: 100 |
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Action by Reese
3871 Reese is going to be leading the Crownlands Defense at the Mouth of the Gray River. She is coordinating her action with an action to help the defense that will be lead by Marquis Malesh. She is heading to the mouth of the Gray River with a good portion of the Grayson military and with allies. The goal of this defense is to make sure that the Eurusi do not enter the Crownlands through the Gray River route. The goal is to protect Grayson lands, The lands of Grayson vassals and to protecte the crownlands. In order to be mobile, Reese will be bringing the Grayson navy along with her. Everything done here has been coordinated with Princess Liara.
She will bring the cavlary with the hopes that they can be mobile, moving to differen stations along the river as need be. They are sending some of the Archers, Pike men and Infantry to Thrax and a few will need to stay in Compact as well. STill she will have 1000 infantry, five hundred pike and 500 archers with her. This will be the less mobile force stationed near the mouth of the river where she thinks the eurusi would land. If they do land she hopes to attack the Eurusi right as they dock to get the upper hand if possible.
The cavalry and ships will be ready for movement. She is working the House Deepwood (Rymarr and Jessa), House Whikehawk (Jauffrey) and house Ashood (Rhiannon). House Stonewood is doing a seperate, but related action at the same area and Reese plans to communicate closely with them. Reese wants to be ready to move as needed, to response to orders and to be alert to any messages from the King or Liara. 4
Action by Rymarr(RIP)
The 1st Banner under the command of Marquis-Consort Rymarr Deepwood sets out from Old Oak to join with the gathering banner of the Crownlands. Under General Reese Grayson's instruction the plan is to wait for possible incursion by the Eurusi into the Compacts lands and catch them when they're making landfall. So that's the plan he intends to follow. On the prospective battlefield he sets himself about the task of organize his troops, conveying orders through Captains, and delegating some of the command responsibilities to Lady Jessa Deepwood. If this will be their place to defend, then Rymarr sets about the task of ordering defenses and pickets established in order to defend that beachhead against a threat to the Compact.
Action by Jessa
The 2nd Banner under the command of Lady Jessa Deepwood is called to arms. The Infantry is set in parallel to the 1st Banner. Jessa and Rymarr have coordinated a tag-team cohesion, ensuring their armies can have each other's backs in a pinch. Her defense is primarily for the innocent people in the area, focused on being the solid line (or wall of Woods) between Eurus at the coast and the rest of the Compact.
Action by Rhiannon
Rhiannon, as the Ashford General, is bringing all the Ashford troops to bear that are not under other leadership for this engagement. She leads the bulk of the Ashford troops to protect Grey River. Rhiannon doesn't just have the Ashford Infantry, she is a scout at heart and she will have some scouts at her disposal to be located along the river mouth and the land leading to the river. These scouts have ways to signal through sound and hidden markings in the forests to share information with infantry or cavalry to have a heads up on any movement toward the river by hostile forces. She leads these Ashford information networks just by sending out troops to keep an eye out.
The bulk of the Ashford Troops will be at the river at the possible landing spots into Grayson and Crown lands. They will coordinate with Princess Reese in protecting the river mouth and ensuring that this location can be defended and not used as a site for incursion into Grayson and Crown lands.
Action by Rey
While not of a military mind, Rey is assisting House Grayson and Princess Reese with the defense of the Gray River by making sure that Brighthold is able to support the troops, offering the city and port as a place for rest and supplies. Rey will also be sure that there are mercies on hand should anyone be need in medical attention, first aid supplies and medical tents at the ready. As well as a place to use to send out patrols and the like from. Including adding Laveer's army to the troop numbers.
Action by Bedivere
Cabbit must stay home this time while Bedivere heads out to the Crownlands Defense at the Mouth of the Gray River : with a whole slew of Solace and Whitehawk (with a siege weapon) behind him to join up with his fellow commanders.
Action by Liam
Liam will join Reese with a force from the Riven lands to join in the defense of the gray river mouth. He and the Riven warriors will deploy with the main detachment allowing others to handle more scouting duties. Liam will offer what insight he can to preparing their defenses and readiness happy to hold the line in case of invaders.
Result
It's a good, sensible plan to defend the mouth of the Gray River. Of course, it's often said that no plan survives contact with the enemy, and in this case well before it, as the strategic position has greatly changed since they first received their orders. The Eurusi fleet is being met at Sungreet by the combined forces of the Lyceum, the Mourning Isles and the Faith, and a great whirlpool now blocks Arx's harbor. This has made a defensive position there to intercept incoming Eurusi forces not as pressing a need as was originally planned.
Which is not to say that they don't have threats they need to respond to.
Word comes up from House Leary lands that a great many of the refugees may, in fact, be dangerous and they had to stop some refugees that were clearly advanced scouts of Skal'daja sent with orders to torch the farms and villages of the Crownlands. There's indications of fires and attacks throughout the Crownlands, and their forces are the ones in position to respond. So they march upriver in search of hostile forces.
Princess Reese directs scouting missions with the different forces under her command, finding evidence of minor villages being attacked and farms being burned throughout the Crownlands, and some murders of Eurusi refugees with evidence that suggests it was from Skal'dajans trying to stop innocent Eurusi from giving warning. Ashford troops under Rhiannon's command report movements from along the Gray River and the groups of refugees that have turned inland, and Laveer and Riven forces under Rey and Bedivere respectively track inland giving aid to villages that were attacked. And then it falls upon Rymarr and Jessa leading their Deepwood banners north from the river to hunt down the Eurusi saboteurs.
Rymarr and Jessa march quickly passed torched farmlands, and tragic signs of farmers put to the sword, of Grayson, Bisland and other vassals cut down as they worked their land. As Rymarr presses his troops for speed, the first signs of smoke are seen, and he steadily follows a line of ravaging towards Deepwood lands, including passing a slaughtered picket near Deepwood's borders. Several dozen dead soldiers, but they had bought time, and it's not long after that at a small hamlet named Lost Tree near Old Oak that Rymarr and Jessa find the raiders.
There's not many of them. A few dozen mounted Eurusi who had been riding hard and burning and killing everything on their way. The hamlet of Lost Tree is aflame when they arrive, the huts burned and bodies of cut down villagers in the street. There's the sounds of battle as raiders ride down villagers, and Rymarr sees a pair of templars desperately trying hold the door of the local church, where the children had managed to be ushered for safety. There's only a handful of armed villagers, and a robed Eurusi barking orders is pointing his scimitar at the church.
Rymarr and Jessa lead the charge, their archers taking mounted Eurusi off their horses while some crossbow fire comes in return. Jessa brings her forces around to encircle the village and to be certain none of the mounted raiders could ride off into the woods and continue their slaughter, and her pikemen manages to plug potential escape routes as Jessa matches swords with an Eurusi raider. The clash of her diamondplate sooted blade Storm's Fury splits the air as the Eurusi slashes again and again with his scimitar, but Jessa finds and opening and cuts the man down.
Rymarr is charging through the hamlet, cutting a rider off his horse that comes at him, and Rymarr doesn't even break stride as he parries another charging Eurusi and cuts the man in half.
The robed Eurusi points at the templars guarding the church, and both of the men scream and tumble over, bursting into a black flame that turns them to ash where they stand. The fighting is quickly dying down with most of the Eurusi down to Deepwood soldiers as Rymarr and as the robed figure turns and starts to gesture towards Rymarr, the Marquis of Old Oak cuts the Eurusi's arm off, sending him sprawling off his horse and mortally wounded.
There's a haunting bubbling laugh that comes from the dying Eurusi bleeding on the ground, who with his remaining hand lifts a dagger up and then plunges it into his own heart, his laughter silencing. And then the ground rumbles. Jessa, Rymarr and most of the Deepwood soldiers struggle to contain their footing as the ground shakes from a sudden, impromptu earthquake, and Rymarr is coming to his feet when he is thrown back towards the church as the ground by him and the corpse of the Eurusi suddenly erupts in a gyser of flame and a beastial inhuman roar that further shakes the earth.
From the cracked earth, a clawed black fist as large as a man rises from the ground, slowly pulling a mishapen beast from the earth. The scaled monstrosity looks like a mix of alligator, ox and man, with horned tusks, scales and rows of fangs in an elongated snout. Covered in flames and hulking at twenty feet at the shoulder, it bellows in rage and stares at the church where the villagers and their children are hiding and starts moving forward, as Deepwood archers feather arrows at it.
And the only one standing between the demon and the church is Marquis Rymarr Deepwood, once of the King's Own.
What stands in the memory of the Deepwood soldiers afterwards is the complete lack of hesitation on the part of the Marquis of Old Oak. The roar of the beast has hardened soldiers turning pale and stumbling backwards, screaming in terror, and Rymarr is running as well- but he's running directly at the beast.
The beast's clawed fist swipes at Rymarr, and he batters away the claw, his alaricite shield bending under the inhuman pressure. Rymarr's alaricite sword flashes, cutting the hand away as he charges, slashing the underbelly of the beast and drawing a cry of pain and rage.
A frightening fast turn of the beast's body and a massive tail slams into Rymarr from the side, but he rolls away on the ground before its maw finds him and snaps him up. Rymarr then slashes into it's jaw, drawing another roar as he's splashed with the black acidic ichor of its blood, and Rymarr's shield is torn away by another claw that finally catches around his waist as his alaricite armor makes a shrill squeal as it bends under the demonic strength.
The Marquis slashes off a demon's finger, but the beast lifts him into his maw. Its fangs that are the size of a man's arm closing in on him, and biting through his armor with a horrifying crunch as it tries to swallow him. As the fangs pierce through Rymarr's chest and his upper body enters the beast's mouth, he thrusts his sword up with all his might, the blade piercing all the way up through its skull.
The beast's monstrous body turns black and begins to disintegrate into ash and smoke, with Rymarr falling to the ground as Deepwood troops rush and surround him. His body ravaged, the Sir Rymarr Lyonesse and Marquis Rymarr Deepwood of Old Oak lets out a final shuddering breath. It's silent in the village, save for the sobs of relief from the villagers in the Church. Not much is said for a very long time, but all the soldiers and villagers agree.
None had seen a man die as valorously as Rymarr.