Marquess Leonardis Purple, Warden of the Northern Shore had ordered the Rangers to evacuate all non-essential personnel from Mittfield before he left and send them back to the safety of Big Bear, which was duly done; he didn't want to put any more pressure on Jade City, which would have it's own problems were he to fail in his duty and fall. The days were shorter in the North and the Nights longer, and it was still two months before the Winter solstice. It would be a hard Winter for the people even without a War.
The unexpected manner of travel, despite the still falling snow, meant Marquess Leonardis Purple was able to march his Army with the Ironchest Golem's assigned to the Army marching in a wedge formation, clearing the snow drifts by stamping them down and smoothing the way, making it a much easier march for the troops and allowing for much quicker progress from Mittfield towards Farreap. Based on his journey to Mittfield from Jade City, he and all the rest of the Army had predicted it would take 7 or even 8 days to make the second half of the journey. Still, they were on track after three days to make the journey in five as per usual, Despite marching a little sooner and finishing a little later than previously. The Marquess had decided to push matters and issued the order that they wouldn't be stopping at the end of day four. Instead, they would continue to march through the night and arrive in the morning of day five. The cavalry went first, leading or riding their horses so that they could rest first. If ever a fast response was required to Iceflow Keep, they would be it. This would stretch the men but be achievable, and thanks to the Rangers, he knew they'd be plenty of hot meat and accommodation ready for the men to eat and fall into a warm bed.
The Marquess had mused that he didn’t want to be where the enemy might think he would be, and the night march achieved this. It also kept the men busy and, therefore, warmer, which was good in this cold weather.
Farreap was two days from Iceflow Bay, with high cliffs surrounding the Northern Shore everywhere else, this is where the Icekin Alliance landed their forces, and they attempted to do so while creeping or running past the ever-watchful Iceflow Keep, which was the Kingdon’s first line of defence against invasion from the Northern Waste and made any landing here pay a toll in tax if legitimate or pay a toll in blood if nefarious. Iceflow Keep was originally a large rectangular building which had been designed around a very large catapult being on top of the keep, and successive Warden of the Northern Shore had added a wall extension to the sides and then added higher flanking towers for Archers to help defend the Keep that overlooked the keep and then the wall had been extended again with a further flanking tower set on each side. The Aldabern Clan had reinforced the four flanking towers with a ballista each and put two extra ballistae on the front corners of the keep. Neither the flanking towers nor the ballistae on the keep were where they could constrict the catapult's field of fire towards Iceflow Bay. Besides the Warden and Ur'sid, the Army was unaware of these upgrades. They also didn't mention the various rune ward enchanting of the individual bolts that had been worked on tirelessly for decades. Such rune wards could be used with arrows imbuing them with additional power, but this was harder to do, and such arrows were consequently in short supply but even so, each Tower and the Keep had a limited supply to bolster their defences.
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The Rangers had set spiked covered pits along the shoreline as well as leaving snares along the gravel incline and then the grassed rise up to the Keep at the top of the incline, where what had generations ago been a river had gently poured down into the bay. There were 1,000 Rangers now watching the Iceflow Bay to act as additional artillery to repel an attack and the 120 Defenders at the Keep, with a further 20 defenders assigned to each of the 4 towers, each with tower had a healer, offensive cleric, mage as standard the other roles being artillery, archers and an Officer.
Two Carracks, the bulk of the Kingdom's navy, one moored on each side of the Bay and heavily defended and warded, both stood ready to intercept any incursion by the Icekin Alliance. The Kingdom's Navy also has a third Carrack and four other Caravels in total, with the others already prepared to over winter at Grey Isle quite some distance to the West South West.
The Northern Channel had been on and off stormy during September, and now they were at the end of October. The weather was only likely to worsen, but when there appeared to be a lull in the Weather enough for a crossing, Chillblood gathered the War Horde. The infernal magics of Chillblood Walrusslayer, the Orc shaman, had infused his bodyguard, the Giant Ice Troll, known as “The Voice of the Ice Elf King”, with cunning and courage, and they would have need of both not to anger their master. The Orcish armada of large walrushide canoes could take a crew of thirty rowers or twice as many Goblins. This wave of the army consisted of heavy infantry Orc Horde, the light infantry goblin army, Ice Elves for archery and magic artillery and Werewolves as calvary. Together they set sail for the three day crossing. They would take Iceflow Keep as the Kingdom forces reached Farreap. Establishing a Bridgehead for when his Master’s Master decided to freeze the Northern channel and sweep all before him.
The quiet before the storm would not last long but long enough for the armada fleet to draw close to Iceflow Bay three days later.