Eternal
Year 45
“They’ll probably attack at night sir.” Dawn says to you.
“Yeah, gnolls are predictable that way. Is Blossumdale under control?
“Yes sir, we executed most of the rabble rousers, the rest have shut up complaining about food rationing and troops permanently stationed in the town now sir.”
“Good. Ooooooh I’m gonna hear it for that one.” You groan.
“I don’t see why sir, you were merely keeping order and doing what needed to be done to help protect the kingdom.”
“Perhaps, but the top brass won’t see it that way. There won’t be any way to keep this one quiet. News is going to travel eventually, despite the fact that I’m already keeping a lot of stuff out of the reports as it is. Hell, I’ve been getting blamed for stirring up a so called hornet’s nest with the gnolls since this war began.”
“That’s not true sir, if you hadn’t sent me into those hills all those years ago, we wouldn’t have found out that they’d been planning a mass invasion for quite some time.”
“That may be the case, but it doesn’t change the fact that they need to blame me for whatever reason.”
“Sir if they’re so displeased with you, why have they not just replaced you?”
“Good question. I imagine it’s because the gnolls are a very real threat and that I am actually doing a good job at holding back the gnolls with what little resources I do have. Everyone is still so worried about the Eternal Dominion possibly invading that they’re shoving all the troops along that border. Oh well, I guess I should be grateful they finally sent us some new cannons, though it took three years to get them. Okay lieutenant, that will be all, I suggest you prepare everyone because I get the feeling the gnolls’ attack tonight is going to be a big one.”
Dawn nods and leaves your office. She’s a good second; you couldn’t have picked a better choice. You’re actually proud of how all your soldiers have stepped up over the past few years. All they needed was a little more discipline and something to keep them focused like a relentless army of hyena men eager to rip them apart and feast on their bodies.
Despite the fact that the top brass nearly hates you and you’re on the eve of what is probably going to be a vicious battle. You feel good, like the best you’ve felt in years. You have a command, you have soldiers that are utterly dedicated and you have a ruthless enemy to fight. The excitement of battle is near and you can’t wait to bask in the violence of it. This is what you were BORN for.
As darkness falls, you stand on top of the battlements and see the gnolls arrive right on time. They might be fierce warriors, but their ongoing crap strategy of throwing as many troops at you as possible isn’t working for them. You think orcs might’ve even been smarter than that, well at least Gruz would’ve been. There are an awful lot of them though this time, it appears that you were right, tonight’s battle is going to be a big one.
As the horde gets closer, you also see several flying creatures in the distance. Wyverns. The bastards actually managed to tame wyverns. Looks like they’re a little brighter than you initially gave them credit for. You tell the cannon crews to fire upon the wyverns as soon as they get in range, all musket men on top of the fort as well.
You stare down at the temporary wall you’ve built around the fort where some of your other troops are guarding and hope it’ll hold up well. They’ll eventually break it down, but hopefully not before heavy losses. You also hope the fortifications at Blossumdale will hold out. You couldn’t spare as many troops there, but you’re confident that Dawn will be able to handle the situation if the gnolls split up their attack.
The battle starts off with the gnolls attempting a rain of arrows technique, fortunately you prepared for that by having everyone equipped with shields nearby. The Felkans as a general rule don’t use them too much anymore due to their reliance on firearms, but your re-emphasis on close combat training made your request for a shipment of shields quite logical.
The wyverns then dive in from above while the horde concentrates on below. A couple of your new cannons prove their worth by landing a nice cannon ball into the side of one their heads, even better when it crashes into the gnoll horde. Another cannon ball tears a hole in the wing of another causing it and it’s rider to attempt a crash landing in the distance.
Out of the remaining three wyverns, one veers away and heads to Blossumdale, while the other two focus on the fort. You order all your men to fire upon one of them which riddles it with gunshot wounds. Not enough to kill it however as lands on the fort and manages crush and bite some of the cannon crews. It’s rider fires a bow taking out a musket man next to you, and that’s when you make a running leap forward to stab the wyvern right in the neck. Blood gushes out and the beast flails about, causing the rider to fall off and over the fort walls to the ground below.
You dodge the beast’s attempt at biting you in two and make a long slash cut through one of it’s wing so it can’t fly away. It tries to smash you with it’s tail, but you roll out of the way and finally land a killing blow by jumping on its back and running your sword through the top of it’s head.
The other wyvern has been faring better against the remaining men on the fort roof, though it’s rider lies dead with a gunshot wound to his face. Since the beast is intent on hovering above rather than actually landing you have to make another running jump to grab on to one of its feet. The creature attempts to shake you off, but you manage to hang on long enough to stab upward several times into it’s soft underbelly. The creature twists and roars in pain, this time managing to cause you to fall to the fort roof, you are then covered in gouts of wyvern blood and chunks of entrails. You order your remaining men to fire upon it as it desperately tries to fly away. The musket balls do their job and the beast falls to the war zone bellow, unfortunately crashing into one of the temporary walls you put up. Granted the dead beast’s bulk is now acting a small block now, but the gnoll horde has a slightly easier access than it did before.
You tell your men to start firing upon the horde, which is starting to surround the entire fort, while you rush down to the ground floor to help out the rest of your troops. You also notice that some of the horde is indeed breaking off into a separate group and moving past the fort towards Blossumdale.
Ladders go up to scale the walls, and axes attempt to bring them down completely. Some of the gnolls have already gotten in. Won’t be long before they completely overrun this first layer of defense. After hacking down several of them, you tell all your men to fall back to the front gates and inside the fort. You have everyone barricade the doors as best you can while telling several soldiers on top to start dropping firebombs on the gnolls from the roof.
Several explosions deafen the ears of all involved in this battle, smokes completely envelopes the fort and gnoll body parts are covering the battlefield. After briefly falling back, the gnolls continue their attack and try to scale the fort walls with ladders and break down the front gates with a battering ram.
“We’re out of firebombs and we’re running low on gunpowder sir!” one of your men says.
“We’ve greatly decreased their numbers now, we can take the rest of them hand to hand, hell just start dropping the rest of the cannon balls on their heads when they try to come up!”
The gnolls fail at scaling the walls, but their size and strength makes their attempts at breaking down the front gate a lot more successful. Dozens of them come pouring in and you’re the first one to charge into battle. You aren’t even paying much attention to the rest of your troops at this point, you’re goal is to just kill as many as these gnolls as possible. You were covered in blood already, now you’ve just replaced one coat of blood for another.
Eventually after lopping off the heads of several of these hyenas you see one their number arrive standing much larger than the rest. It’s the leader. The biggest one is ALWAYS the leader with these types.
After making that annoying laughing growl sound that they love to make the gnoll leader sees you and swings his huge morning star into the floor near your feet. When he lifts it up to strike again you attempt to close the gap and you duck just in time for it to miss your head. You bring the gnoll leader down with a chop to his shins. Like a great tree he falls to his knees and you chop his head off like you’ve done with so many of his other kin.
One of the gnolls seeing their leader dead, and already taken considerable losses, the gnoll shouts something in his strange language and they begin to retreat.
“We’ve won!” a soldier shouts.
“No, not yet, we’ve still got gnolls at Blossumdale, not to mention not all of these fuckers are running away yet.”
While you are pretty certain the battle here is indeed finishing up, you aren’t sure what the situation is at Blossumdale. Besides Blossumdale, part of you is specifically concerned about Dawn, you know you really shouldn’t be as she’s a very capable soldier, but the concern is still there.
There is still mopping up to do around the fort, but you really should send reinforcements to Blossumdale, the question is whether or not you should lead them personally.
“They’ll probably attack at night sir.” Dawn says to you.
“Yeah, gnolls are predictable that way. Is Blossumdale under control?
“Yes sir, we executed most of the rabble rousers, the rest have shut up complaining about food rationing and troops permanently stationed in the town now sir.”
“Good. Ooooooh I’m gonna hear it for that one.” You groan.
“I don’t see why sir, you were merely keeping order and doing what needed to be done to help protect the kingdom.”
“Perhaps, but the top brass won’t see it that way. There won’t be any way to keep this one quiet. News is going to travel eventually, despite the fact that I’m already keeping a lot of stuff out of the reports as it is. Hell, I’ve been getting blamed for stirring up a so called hornet’s nest with the gnolls since this war began.”
“That’s not true sir, if you hadn’t sent me into those hills all those years ago, we wouldn’t have found out that they’d been planning a mass invasion for quite some time.”
“That may be the case, but it doesn’t change the fact that they need to blame me for whatever reason.”
“Sir if they’re so displeased with you, why have they not just replaced you?”
“Good question. I imagine it’s because the gnolls are a very real threat and that I am actually doing a good job at holding back the gnolls with what little resources I do have. Everyone is still so worried about the Eternal Dominion possibly invading that they’re shoving all the troops along that border. Oh well, I guess I should be grateful they finally sent us some new cannons, though it took three years to get them. Okay lieutenant, that will be all, I suggest you prepare everyone because I get the feeling the gnolls’ attack tonight is going to be a big one.”
Dawn nods and leaves your office. She’s a good second; you couldn’t have picked a better choice. You’re actually proud of how all your soldiers have stepped up over the past few years. All they needed was a little more discipline and something to keep them focused like a relentless army of hyena men eager to rip them apart and feast on their bodies.
Despite the fact that the top brass nearly hates you and you’re on the eve of what is probably going to be a vicious battle. You feel good, like the best you’ve felt in years. You have a command, you have soldiers that are utterly dedicated and you have a ruthless enemy to fight. The excitement of battle is near and you can’t wait to bask in the violence of it. This is what you were BORN for.
As darkness falls, you stand on top of the battlements and see the gnolls arrive right on time. They might be fierce warriors, but their ongoing crap strategy of throwing as many troops at you as possible isn’t working for them. You think orcs might’ve even been smarter than that, well at least Gruz would’ve been. There are an awful lot of them though this time, it appears that you were right, tonight’s battle is going to be a big one.
As the horde gets closer, you also see several flying creatures in the distance. Wyverns. The bastards actually managed to tame wyverns. Looks like they’re a little brighter than you initially gave them credit for. You tell the cannon crews to fire upon the wyverns as soon as they get in range, all musket men on top of the fort as well.
You stare down at the temporary wall you’ve built around the fort where some of your other troops are guarding and hope it’ll hold up well. They’ll eventually break it down, but hopefully not before heavy losses. You also hope the fortifications at Blossumdale will hold out. You couldn’t spare as many troops there, but you’re confident that Dawn will be able to handle the situation if the gnolls split up their attack.
The battle starts off with the gnolls attempting a rain of arrows technique, fortunately you prepared for that by having everyone equipped with shields nearby. The Felkans as a general rule don’t use them too much anymore due to their reliance on firearms, but your re-emphasis on close combat training made your request for a shipment of shields quite logical.
The wyverns then dive in from above while the horde concentrates on below. A couple of your new cannons prove their worth by landing a nice cannon ball into the side of one their heads, even better when it crashes into the gnoll horde. Another cannon ball tears a hole in the wing of another causing it and it’s rider to attempt a crash landing in the distance.
Out of the remaining three wyverns, one veers away and heads to Blossumdale, while the other two focus on the fort. You order all your men to fire upon one of them which riddles it with gunshot wounds. Not enough to kill it however as lands on the fort and manages crush and bite some of the cannon crews. It’s rider fires a bow taking out a musket man next to you, and that’s when you make a running leap forward to stab the wyvern right in the neck. Blood gushes out and the beast flails about, causing the rider to fall off and over the fort walls to the ground below.
You dodge the beast’s attempt at biting you in two and make a long slash cut through one of it’s wing so it can’t fly away. It tries to smash you with it’s tail, but you roll out of the way and finally land a killing blow by jumping on its back and running your sword through the top of it’s head.
The other wyvern has been faring better against the remaining men on the fort roof, though it’s rider lies dead with a gunshot wound to his face. Since the beast is intent on hovering above rather than actually landing you have to make another running jump to grab on to one of its feet. The creature attempts to shake you off, but you manage to hang on long enough to stab upward several times into it’s soft underbelly. The creature twists and roars in pain, this time managing to cause you to fall to the fort roof, you are then covered in gouts of wyvern blood and chunks of entrails. You order your remaining men to fire upon it as it desperately tries to fly away. The musket balls do their job and the beast falls to the war zone bellow, unfortunately crashing into one of the temporary walls you put up. Granted the dead beast’s bulk is now acting a small block now, but the gnoll horde has a slightly easier access than it did before.
You tell your men to start firing upon the horde, which is starting to surround the entire fort, while you rush down to the ground floor to help out the rest of your troops. You also notice that some of the horde is indeed breaking off into a separate group and moving past the fort towards Blossumdale.
Ladders go up to scale the walls, and axes attempt to bring them down completely. Some of the gnolls have already gotten in. Won’t be long before they completely overrun this first layer of defense. After hacking down several of them, you tell all your men to fall back to the front gates and inside the fort. You have everyone barricade the doors as best you can while telling several soldiers on top to start dropping firebombs on the gnolls from the roof.
Several explosions deafen the ears of all involved in this battle, smokes completely envelopes the fort and gnoll body parts are covering the battlefield. After briefly falling back, the gnolls continue their attack and try to scale the fort walls with ladders and break down the front gates with a battering ram.
“We’re out of firebombs and we’re running low on gunpowder sir!” one of your men says.
“We’ve greatly decreased their numbers now, we can take the rest of them hand to hand, hell just start dropping the rest of the cannon balls on their heads when they try to come up!”
The gnolls fail at scaling the walls, but their size and strength makes their attempts at breaking down the front gate a lot more successful. Dozens of them come pouring in and you’re the first one to charge into battle. You aren’t even paying much attention to the rest of your troops at this point, you’re goal is to just kill as many as these gnolls as possible. You were covered in blood already, now you’ve just replaced one coat of blood for another.
Eventually after lopping off the heads of several of these hyenas you see one their number arrive standing much larger than the rest. It’s the leader. The biggest one is ALWAYS the leader with these types.
After making that annoying laughing growl sound that they love to make the gnoll leader sees you and swings his huge morning star into the floor near your feet. When he lifts it up to strike again you attempt to close the gap and you duck just in time for it to miss your head. You bring the gnoll leader down with a chop to his shins. Like a great tree he falls to his knees and you chop his head off like you’ve done with so many of his other kin.
One of the gnolls seeing their leader dead, and already taken considerable losses, the gnoll shouts something in his strange language and they begin to retreat.
“We’ve won!” a soldier shouts.
“No, not yet, we’ve still got gnolls at Blossumdale, not to mention not all of these fuckers are running away yet.”
While you are pretty certain the battle here is indeed finishing up, you aren’t sure what the situation is at Blossumdale. Besides Blossumdale, part of you is specifically concerned about Dawn, you know you really shouldn’t be as she’s a very capable soldier, but the concern is still there.
There is still mopping up to do around the fort, but you really should send reinforcements to Blossumdale, the question is whether or not you should lead them personally.