Reinforce the ramparts and gates

The Silver Stags Squad carried tools and wood lumber as they followed Melislav to the front gates of the keep. Just about any other officer and specialist of the legion would probably take offense to being given this assignment, and he really was the best at organizing men. Melislav had not only a squad to direct, but also the vast horde of dozens of laborers that followed them.

He found a slab of stone in the main chamber that overlooked the whole of the gate and defensive positions around it. He rolled out a map and a series of plans for various defenses.

Tyvina Blightshot walked up to Melislav Adrimirovich and saluted. She’d felt slighted by the commander’s of the legion after her foray so long ago in Plainsworth. She’d lost two squad mates, Taki Crimsonflight and Copper Arrow Notch to werewolves at the pauper’s ball. Ever since then, she’d sat vigil for those two and had even written down all she could remember about their past, to one day hand to their families.

Tyvina held out a hand towards Melislav. “We are prepared for your first set of instructions. I can handle the squad if you wish to focus on the laborers.”

One thing that was important about being a good leader was the ability to delegate in the proper places. Melislav had always known that Tyvina was a capable soldier and cared for her squad mates. “But of course. Here, take this and start to set up the primary defensive positions to the flanks of the gate.”

Hold the Lower Pass

The legion needed time to set themselves up for the big battle with the main Broken forces and it was rumored that the Cinder King was on his way with the bulk of the army. If the Legion was to have time to get the keep prepared for the siege to come, the vanguard of the enemy force needed to be vanquished. There was an obvious leader for such a bold frontal attack, Colay Viltoryevich.

Such an important task could not be left to chance, so the veterans of the Ghost Owls squad were called up to fight the good fight and take it directly to the head of the enemy army.

Sverina, some still called her the rookie, but she was one of the staunchest combat veterans, Ivanik Mishra, Bapsta Romnyv, Azure Twig Fingers, her explosives in tow, and Freriya Zayovna, Sverina’s devout sister, had all been through quite a lot together. They’d lost Taupe Runner Bear to several injuries and squad reassignment before he’d returned to meet his end against the werewolf, Bhed.

The team followed their too fearless commander for this mission down the winding mountain road until Freriya and Bapsta picked out a good rock outcropping that looked not only ideal for the team to seek cover in but also perhaps even purposefully designed as an old fighting position. None of the squad had been here before and so it was just a hunch, but the spot had cover from long range enemies and had a great vantage of a sharp turn in the mountain road around a ridge.

Colay spoke up about his desire to stand shoulder to shoulder and hold the path like the heroes of old but Azure Twig Fingers flexed her fingers into each hand and smiled. “I have a better idea boss. Why don’t we rig that spot there with all my demo charges and see if we can’t halt their advance for longer than the Commander expects?”

Colay did like a good explosion. He smiles and his teeth almost glisten with satisfaction. “And we shall detonate it when a nice chunk of the vanguard is in range. Any survivors on our side of the damage will be ours for the crushing.”

With that, the squad got to work setting up firing positions and rigging the explosive charges for the best spot on the path to remain out of sight and to hopefully bring down just enough of the rocky ridge to crush the enemies.

Unfortunately, time was of the essence as Ivanik looked through a telescope and then dropped it as she called back to her friends. “The hexed and a shadow witch are on their way up the pass. We’ve got maybe two minutes.” She starts back and Colay motions for everyone to get back into the rocks and out of sight.

Azure looks up from where she is still on the rocky wall, working the wires. “I need more time!”

Colay shakes his head. “We have no time. Get your ass back here and get out of sight. The set up you have there will have to do.”

Sverina rushed down to stand below Azure as she tried her best to unhook from the pitons on the rocks where she wires the explosives. She sighed and muttered something about brash and reckless leaders. She saw Sverina summoning her to trust her and drop from her spot on the mountain face a dozen feet above.

Azure dropped down as Sverina caught her around the waist and helped her to the ground. They both carried the detonator and strung the wires along as they got up onto the rocks and ducked down out of sight with less than a minute to spare.

The Shadow Witch, one they’d fought before outside Fort Calisco, followed behind a massive formation of Hexed soldiers in heavy armor and wielding fine looking weapons. The witches skull necklace dangled down covering all of her torso and dangled even betwixt her legs as she danced along and chanted some alien sounding chant. The soldiers marched in a tight formation in perfect lock step with each other and the runes on their faces glowed and gave away just how powerful the magic ruling over their minds was.

The formation moved forward and to the location of the explosives and Azure looked to Colay for the perfect time to signal the detonation. He was such an impatient man as he nodded immediately to set off the explosives. Azure triggered the explosion but nothing happened at first. They all looked down and could see a nearby spot where the wire had disconnected.

“I got it,” Freriya said and without waiting for a confirmation, she popped up from the rocks and started done the rock face along the path at a blistering pace, stumbling and drawing attention.

Colay shrugged. “Charge?” He said softly and then stood up as the Hexed started to march toward the squad. “Charge.” He screamed out and Sverina was quick to follow and run past where her sister worked on the disconnection.

“Kill me.” The shadow witch called out as she spun her arms around her head and a magic dark bolt of energy shot up and hammered into Freriya’s arm. It wasn’t enough to stop her though as she finished her job and Azure triggered the detonator with just enough time not to catch Colay and Sverina in the blast.

The explosion above their heads was impressive. Debris of stone and dust followed the blast wave and sent the entire middle of the enemy formation reeling. Guns opened up from the rocks behind to pick off the stragglers as Sverina and Colay valiantly waded in against the tough warriors. Their coordination did not continue in the chaos of battle as the Legion showed their mettle. The witch suddenly appeared, bursting forth from the skin of one of the Hexe d as she hissed and leaped up to Freriya where she stood tall over her. Her weapon, sharp and poison dripping, raised up above her and about to strike down on the legionnaire. Sverina wasn’t about to lose her sister at this late stage as she screamed and surprised the witch with the noise. Sverina shouldered the witch into the ridge face and then spun and buried her battle axe in the witch’s side.

As the witch started to fade from life, the enemy broke and scattered.

The Ghost Owls and careless Colay had done it again. They all cheered as their duty was finished. They remained to watch the rocky and wilted path until they felt the gates would be secured.

Assemble the siege weapons

The hordes of the Broken could not be held off without the assistance of massive siege weapons, and fortunately, over the months, one after another, the Legion had acquired various cannons and devastating weapons. Now, Commander Dame Albrecht had charged the ever vigilant Elaina with leading the engineers and sighting the guns.

She looked over what would or should perhaps be the easiest of the missions when she saw one of the reserves of the Shattered Lions squad running to her. “We have a problem.” Camila Luloni limped over, her leg still festering with corruption from the pits of the tainted battlefields not long after this all began.

Elaina grinned a tenacious grin. “And what would that be?”

Camila motioned down the ramp that led to the pads for the cannons. “Tomon spotted gliders with Rotters floating towards the siege positions.”

Elaina looked about and saw a limited number of available soldiers. “Gather the rest of the squad and meet me here in five minutes.” She said with a cold tone as she rubbed her hands together and quickly dug into the reserve supplies of Quartermaster McKellum.

When Camila returned with the rest of the squad loaded and ready not five minutes later, the Shattered Lions armed and ready for glory, Elaina stood on top of a perch with her rifle out and smirked.

Tomon gasped. “What the hell is that thing?”

The perch was an extension of what looked like a wagon, but it was no ordinary wagon. In this case, it was a wagon covered in armor and small turrets and blades, handles, triggers, axes, and spikes. “Oh this? It’s a little thing we got plans for back in Plainsworth. The instructions called it... a murder barge.”

Tora Malichiv walked over and petted the tiny bit of the horse’s snout that was open from the armor to allow her to breathe. “Wow.”

Elaina motions for them all to climb on board. “Time is wasting, we need to get those weapons deployed or this whole defense will fall apart.” She doesn’t even offer a hand as she adjusts her mechanical eye and sights her rifle even as the squad can hear the mass moaning of the Rotters nearby.

Each of them climbed into a position on the barge as Soren grabbed the reigns and Elaina gave the order to begin the attack. It first felt as though the barge wouldn’t even move but then with a lurch, it began to pick up speed, especially as it hit the ramp down to the gun positions.

Each of the soldiers, led by Elaina pulled up their guns and started to fire the moment the rotters came into view. They could see along the edge of the room all the gliders crashed and piled up. The Rotters spread about to fight them and a couple of Crows led them from behind. There was little chance for them though with the Murder Barge between the squad and the enemy.

It rushed down to the enemy and just as the first Rotters got up to the edge of the wagon, handles were cranked and Soren pushed buttons and blades and axes dropped down and chopped and started to mow down the enemy that got too close.

Elaina cackled with a certain butchers glee as the undead piled up around them. The battle was quick and followed the curse of the Murder Barge until it ended its path at the end of the long hallway, undead bodies piled up along both sides of where the barge had traveled.

Stop the Main Force

Emerald Shadowed Glade and Rainn now lead the Ember Wolves Squad, Cer’tan Blackmarh, Tyr the Dauntless, Calaban Solo, Evelyn Ulster, and Valori Couth, making up the squad since the remnants gathered after the battle of Ettenmark Fields.

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Rainn was in charge of the mission but in all essence, it was really Cer’tan who led the squad. Rainn spent too much of her time ranging ahead into the mountain ranges. Emerald stuck with the squad most of the time, but used her own apt maneuvers to assist in the scouting and the traverse of the rocky slopes. Snow was deep up here at the higher elevation that overlooked the keep in the distance and the valleys that led up to the gap.

Calaban was already questioning and muttering to himself as to why they were picked for this mission. The two or three best experts with explosives were known and they weren’t in this group. Cer’tan gave him a questioning eyebrow raise and he quieted down.

As usually, Tyr the Dauntless stood close by Evelyn Ulster, his self declared charge to defend. Evelyn had never minded and they’d both survived this long.

Valori played with a little trinket in her fingers to keep her mind from wondering as they trudged through the snow. She paid careful note to the fact that they could all hear the sounds of the vanguard fighting their friends.

For Rainn, this mission felt like déjà vu. Even as she had back up this time, she went far and wide ahead of them with only Emerald as a bit of a tether to report back generally. She was good at finding her way through terrain like this, unlike any other in the legion. She was just about to slip back and give orders on the perfect spot for the explosives that the squad was hauling when she noticed a shadow flying along the snowy white ground.

Rainn looked up and whistled as she quickly looked back at Emerald. Emerald looked up and cursed to herself as she dove into the snow. The two of them both spotted Chimera, the Broken’s flying monstrous scout and hunter.

Chimera’s wings were out as it floated through the high mountain air and its three various heads pivoted and looked around for enemy activity.

Rainn slid down a snowy slope and out of sight with such swiftness that she’d never be spotted and Emerald stayed put.

Rainn worked her way around to whistle to the squad and that got their attention to go on high alert. Tyr the Dauntless saw the beast first, but at that time, it was too late. The thing swooped down, all three heads screaming as it went for the squad. They all began to scatter as Tyr grunted and put his shield between himself and the Chimera that dove onto their breaking formation.

Tyr screamed and hit his weapon against his shield.

Chimera quickly closed the distance as Valori took a shot with her rifle that bounced harmlessly off its thick hide. “We have to use black shot. Who has black shot!?” She called and the thing slammed into Tyr.

Chimera did a hit and run as it yanked at the shield and lifted Tyr into the air. He fortunately managed to disconnect himself from the reinforced handle and plummeted into a nearby snow bank.

Rainn called to Cer’tan, who looked as though he was preparing to fight the thing. “This is our only chance to plant these demolitions. Get over here.”

He grunted an approval of the order and motioned for the split squad to hurry to the sheltered valley that overlooked the enemy camps that still grew in numbers.

Emerald came trudging out of the deeper snow banks and hit her chest as she lit a flare and held rope in her other hand. Chimera noticed right off this perfect distraction, but it saw an easy target rather than something to avoid.

It dove down with all the speed and ferocity as it had before and made its attack on the legion’s veteran medic. Emerald had had a reckless hot streak over since Plainsworth, always pushing her limits and this was no exception. Just as Chimera’s front feet tipped with big claws like a bird of prey, Emerald threw a lasso of the rope up and Chimera flew right into it as it went around its neck. Chimera’s grasping claw did not miss though as it dug into Emerald’s torso.

All the air left Emerald’s lungs as she was lifted high into the sky, holding on to the rope for dear life as the big beast’s heads turned to try to bite at and free the rope from its neck. It couldn’t drop Emerald to her death while she had the rope in her grasp.

Emerald knew she had to act fast as she saw the creature’s beaked head starting to work at the rope. She produced her ritual dagger that she’d actually often used for medical procedures and in venerating the forest spirits and stabbed the twisted blade into the creature’s leg right above the bird like appendage.

It let out a scream that filled the valley as it took a rare stab wound and reflexively let go of Emerald. She fell a few feet as she now dangled from the rope that was around its neck. It now redoubled efforts to free the rope as the squad watched below in horror, from several hundred feet away.

Emerald gritted her teeth and started to climb and then swing with the rope and after a few attempts dangling back and forth launched up as the creature descended in a dive.

She reached out and then stabbed at the back of the creature’s necks and the dagger found home and gave her a grip as she now mounted its back. She twisted her arm in the rope to better secure herself. She then started to repeatedly stab the thing over and over as it screamed and tried to bite back but she was just out of reach.

The thing weakened and then started to float and then dive as it lost strength and power. Emerald held on for her life as she tried to get the Chimera between her and the fast approaching ground. It collided into the rocks and snow too far from the squad.

Rainn waved her arm. “Now is the time. We have to hope Emerald is okay. Plant the explosives around here and hurry.”

The commotion of the aerial conflict had gotten the attention of some of the broken as they started to prepare some big long range ballistae to attack the legionnaires.

At that point, even Calaban pulled his weight as they set up the charges. It was over in moments and before the Broken could get their weapons trained at the top level of the mountainous ridge where the Ember Wolves prepared to give the Broken another big setback.

Rainn guided the squad away and gave Cer’tan the trigger detonator. They all ducked down behind the nearest thick rock cover that was not likely to be disturbed and Rainn nodded to Cer’tan. He pressed down on the trigger and a few moments later, explosions started to rock the mountain side. One thing they could say, years after, the scars of this conflict would show on the side of this mountain where the ancient rock deep below would be exposed and the rubble would form a great glacier culminating in the bodies of the Broken soldiers down below.

Hold the Second Wave

Voyis Kariyevich and Johanas Parnov played an old and no longer popular game of cards on a small crate outside of the gates, listening to the sounds of the workers inside preparing the defenses.

The Star Vipers Squad wasn’t far from them, sitting and killing time. Bindi Yelzin looked over their horses, brushing them and looking after their sore hooves. He fed them from some of his own personal stocks that he made sure to gather along the journey, thanks to Quartermaster McKellum.

A runner came huffing and puffing out of the gate from the keep. “Commander Albrekt has orders for you.” She leaned over to catch her breath as she handed the writ of command to Voyis.

“Thank you. We can handle it from here. Why don’t you take these?” He nodded to the cards on the crate as Johanas cleaned up the cards from their last game and gave a gross teethed smile to the runner.

“I’ll help you find a place to rest.” Johanas smiled as he knew his hunger for blood was growing as he stood to walk into the keep but Voyis reached out to grab his arm.

“I’m afraid there is no time for that.” Voyis said as his eyes darted over the command on the scroll. “We need to leave by horse immediately.”

Johanas cursed inwardly and let the runner go. “What’s going on?”

“Well, one of the Broken’s Lieutenants was spotted with a cohort headed this way. The defenses aren’t ready and she’s activated us and the reserve squad here.”

Nomi Kennik with the thrilling knowledge that they’re about to charge in to save the legion. Bindi Yelzin blanches and pets the horse he is tending to. “We’ll get through this together girl.” He has always loved the horses and though they are great allies in battle, each fight is one or two more horses exhausted or dead.

“Mount up.” Voyis calls as he mounts the largest of the draft horses turned into a war horse. His heavy plate armor still makes the beast of burden sink down from the pressure. “Its our turn to bring the Broken to their knees.” He puts on his Kingfisher helmet with its long weaponized and sharp beak.

Johanas’s horses seems frightened even before heading into battle. Rumors have spread around the legion in recent days that all animals seem to hiss and scurry nervously when he is around. This is the bravest of Bindi Yelzin’s horses.

Nomi mounts. “We always ride in to save the day on the big missions.” Which some of the other squads would argue is false, but none of the exhausted survivors watching from the walls say a thing.

Adan Schaut, Clairmont Noter, and Dumgar mount up behind her, a little less eager to rush off, but she’s been a little off kilter since she nearly blew herself up outside of Fort Calisco.

Bindi Yelzin is the last to mount as he checks over each of the Star Vipers saddle straps as they go by.

Melislav and the workers watch as they watch the final squad still available trot off and down into the valley, soon out of sight. “Do you think we’ll see them again?” One worker asks and Melislav puts up a finger and shakes it.

“They’ll make it. We’ve encountered worse odds before.”

But, when the cavalry came over the hill and seven brave souls mounted a counter attack against the Broken forces, they were not prepared for the numbers that faced them.

Voyis gritted his teeth and bit down on his lip as he kicks his horse’s flank to force her to charge down into the fray. The collapsed pass had been overtaken by a variety of nasty beings, including a crimson armored knight that stood the height of two men. His sword was long and thick in the same ratio to even Voyis’s corpulent and muscular old man body.

Nomi cackled with glee as she also got her horse charging into the Rotters, Crows, Burned, Horrors, and Shadow Witches all flanking the big Crimson Knight.

The surge of charging undead hit up against Voyis and soon Johanas, who for a medic, fought valiantly as he reached down and pulled up the less disgusting of the creatures and took unsettlingly large bites out of them.

This gave Nomi and the squad a shot at the Crimson Knight. Nomi lead the V formation of horses as they slammed into the enemy lines. She pushed through while the others got bogged down in the mire of the melee. She raised her sword and whooped as she headed in for their leader.

The next moment Nomi could recall, she was looking up at the underbelly of a couple of Horrors that had flanked the Crimson Knight. She moved to stand and found that she could not. She saw her horse frantically attempting to escape, her lower torso still mounted on the horse in the saddle.

She looked down and screamed as she saw her entrails forming a pool at the base of her dismembered torso.

The Crimson Knight’s bastard of a sword slid into her chest and the light went out of her eyes as she slumped against the muddy, bloody ground.

That was the moment that Voyis could see this battle was going to be a losing affair. It didn’t matter, he knew that the Keep needed them to hold out as long as possible. He blew on a part of his helmet that simulated a horn through the long beak and he reared his horse back to form a new line.

The Star Vipers had just watched in horror as Nomi was cut in half by the giant knight. They came to to the sound of their leader calling them back to reality. The horses were well trained and followed to get back into formation as they used their superior speed to reform.

Johanas fell back as well, his horse now lost to the horde and Bindi said a little prayer for the immortal spirit of horses.

Johanas licked away some of the blood from his own wounds. Voyis shivered but there was no time to worry about the freakish medic that had been rescued at Fort Calisco. “We stand here and slowly fall back until I call a hold. We need to give them more time to set the defenses.”

The Broken had reformed their horde and pursued the squad up towards the Keep, their ultimate goal. The battle commenced again and the squad could not hold steady together. They were forced into pockets of resistance as they attempted to reform.

Voyis saw the squad gather back around him but they were missing one. He surveyed the enemy formation.

Dumgar swung his great axe high over his head in an excited arc as he screamed and broke at a full sprint, now on foot, trying to make the formation’s position. His axe carved through lesser enemies, Burned exploded into gouts of flame but then, like Nomi, the Crimson Knight was on him.

The Crimson Knight practically plucked the axe out of the strong barbarian’s hands and tossed him to the ground. The Broken formed a ring and the squad watched helplessly as Dumgar attempted to fight the giant. It was a short fight that ended with the Crimson Knight’s gauntlet squeezing around Dumgar’s head and causing his head to crack and practically explode.

Voyis tried to catch his breath as he saw that and then looked back to the front gates and saw Melislav there. Melislav motioned for them to retreat and come back to the gates. Voyis ordered one final volley of shots from any of them that had guns still.

Voyis reluctantly grabbed Johanas and pulled him up onto the draft horse and then led a retreat back through the gates that swiftly shut.

Commander Dame Albrekt saw the final fight outside the keep’s walls and looked around at her command staff. “And now, the siege is upon us.”

The Final Wave

The legion was prepared and arrayed along the walls. Commander Dame Albrekt and the rest of the command staff watched from the highest tower while The Horned One perched upon the edge of the tallest stone on it.

They all looked out through spy glasses and by shielding the sun from their eyes. The Broken armies had gathered now and were arrayed out in all the open ground in front of the fortified walls and down the valley and in the camp beyond.

Some of their forces even attempted climbing the mountainous terrain around the valley and get a better angle on attacking Skydagger Keep.

Several lookouts started to scream out.

The Horned One turned to watch and stare up into the sky.

The command staff all slowly looked up one after the other as they gasped.

There, up in the sky and quickly swooping towards the command turret was Silver, the flying steed of one of the Broken Commanders. It descended like a soring torpedo of destruction. There was only a split second to react as it was hard to see whether the target of the attack was the Commander or the Horned One.