Session 17 Recap

Cathal, Reynhild and Mara return to Fulcairn to find the castle town in chaos. A steady trickle of refugees is arriving from the south. Finn has returned with his men and tells Cathal that the Duene forces have already occupied Firstcairn, the village on the border between Seamist and Wilder’s Gorge.

A council meeting is called and battle plans are arranged. Reynhild sends two of her youngest Ghosts to the west to raise a levy to protect the western border, as Cathal is suspicious of Geoffrey Khorien. Cathal and Reynhild themselves travel south with Cathal’s men-at-arms and the rest of the Ghosts. Mara stays at Fulcairn at Melehan’s request. The wizard says he can help prepare Mara for the battle to come. Reynhild sends more birds to Bayside and Islien, confirming that the Duenes have attacked, and requesting aid.

Before leaving, Cathal meets with Gwenevere, a novitiate priestess of Haelyn who chose to stay and help when news of the Duene army arrived. Her superiors all fled. Cathal promises her whatever help she needs to offer succor to the refugees.

Cathal and Reynhild ride Southeast, looping around the expected route of the Duene army. They split up in the woods outside Firstcairn. Cathal rides at speed to the South, into Seamist, to harry Duene supply lines. Reynhild further splits her small band of Ghosts; Adair and three others move to reconnoitre Firstcairn, while Reynhild takes Asha and Syggi North to trail the Duene army.

In Fulcairn Keep, Melehan provides Mara with a powerful scroll of conjuration magic and gives her a crash course in realm magic. He teaches her a spell of such power that it requires the magic of the mebhaigl, the deep well of divine power within the land of Wilder’s Gorge, to complete. Mara studies as astutely as she can, as she has mere days in which to learn.

Cathal comes upon a Duene wagon train guarded by a small cadre of Duene footmen. He and his horsemen strike the first blow of the conflict for Fulcairn, crushing the Duene soldiers under mace and hoof. They steal what supplies they can carry ahorse and destroy the rest. Cathal then turns Northward once again to rendezvous with the Ghosts.

Reynhild trails the Duene army. One night, she manages to steal deep into the enemy encampment and eavesdrop in a conversation within the army’s command tent. She recognizes the voices of Vulpina and Nyrian Duene, the wizard Faysal, and one other, who comes as a shock. The representative of the House of Wind, with whom Reynhild thought she had built a rapport, was discussing the unfurling of a scheme years in the making with Vulpina, saying that “the charade will soon be over.” Troubled by this, Reynhild tries to focus on Vulpina’s voice and uses the silhouettes cast upon the pavilion’s walls by the flames within. She raises her bow and fires into the tent, but narrowly misses the noble lady, and is forced to flee.

Reynhild and Cathal rendezvous outside Firstcairn. Adair reports that the village is held by a token force. Cathal wishes to move to retake it by stealth. At the last moment, they spy Nyrian Duene and his cavalry arriving to bolster the village defenses. Cathal reluctantly orders their group North. They circumvent the Duene army, and return to Fulcairn.

Reynhild and Cathal report their experiences and organize the keep defenses. The Ghosts are all sent south to disrupt the Duene army's supply lines. They bring all refugees possible into the town’s walls and build barricades on the three bridges that link the island to the mainland. The Duene army arrives and camps out of bowshot of Fulcairn’s walls a few days later. They send a messenger demanding that Cathal turn Mara over to the Duenes. In return, they will lift their siege. Cathal ignores the message, and the Fulcairns dig in for the long haul. The Fulcairn soldiers are outnumbered in the field more than two to one, and Cathal is reluctant to waste them in an attempt at a decisive battle. They wait.

Nearly a month passes. Cathal organizes regular events to keep spirits high among the civilians in the castle town. The soldiers are kept well fed and rested in case battle is joined. The Fulcairns, knowing their supplies are limited and that the Duenes know this as well, do not expect imminent attack.

One morning, a banner appears on the horizon: an azure field bearing the charge of a silver lion’s head. Cathal recognizes the Silver Lions, a Brecht mercenary company that Corlis Isilvere once claimed to have spent some time with. A clarion of trumpets arises from the ranks of the mercenaries, and Cathal rushes to organize a sortie. The Wilder Billmen and Archers are mustered in the main yard, with Cathal, Mara, and Reynhild taking up their mounts to ride with Cathal’s small contingent of Cavalry. Gwenevere, the brave priestess of Haelyn, blesses the Fulcairn forces with the word of her god, and they go forth.

The Duenes send a block of infantry to face the Brecht greatswordsmen to their rear, but turn the rest of their army on the Fulcairns. A block each of pikes and infantry, one of archers, and a small group of heavy infantry, in which Reynhild is certain the Duenes and their mage are hiding.

The Duene forces are still forming battle lines when the lesser Fulcairn force takes the field and Cathal uses this to his advantage. He sends is billmen to the right to engage the Duene infantry, thinking their polearms will give them a slight advantage over the better armored swordsmen that they would not have against the pikes. He sets his archers on the rise of the bridge, where they open fire on the more ill-trained and equipped Duene archers. Cathal then rides his cavalry around the flank of the Duene pikes, where Mara finally unleashes her magic upon them.

The conjurer summons a living vestige of the very land itself, a walking hill-side that rises from the earth and smashes into the center of the Duene pikes. The Fulcairn bills fight stoutly against the Duene infantry, who hold their ground. The pikes are useless against Mara’s creature, and it sets to work turning Duene soldiers to pulp. The Duene archers attempt to return fire against the Fulcairn archers, but their weaker bows and the cover of the barricades minimize Wilder casualties. Reynhild snipes the captain of the Duene pike block from horseback and sends the pikemen into further disarray.

Across the field, the Silver Lions are making quick work of the Duene infantry sent against them. The Duene armour is no better than leaves against their greatswords. The other Duene infantry unit pushes back against the Wilder infantry, inflicting some casualties, but also catching themselves on the points of the Wilders’ bills in the process. From within the small block of the Duene Honour Guard, Mara senses Faisal’s magic. The sky opens, and bolts of lightning strike Cathal’s wedge of cavalry, killing three horsemen and their mounts outright.

Incensed, Mara unleashes devastating balls of magical fire upon the block of Duene archers, killing dozens. Using the magical onslaught to his advantage, Cathal sounds the charge and the Fulcairn horse gouge into the archers’ flanks. Reynhild once again finds the flesh of a Duene captain with her deadly arrows. The Duene pikes attempt to disengage from Mara’s elemental, but leave themselves open to a storm of Wilder arrows in doing so. They are raked by Cathal’s archers and lose a great number from their ranks. The Wilder billmen fight on, their ferocity and heart overcoming the better equipped Duene soldiery. The Silver Lions eradicate their foes almost to the man, the few survivors rush from the field, fleeing South toward their homes. The Duene Infantry facing the Fulcairn polearms also break and run. 

Cathal’s cavalry are pressed, however. Heavily outnumbered and now engulfed between the remnant of the Duene pikes and now regrouped archers, they start to take casualties. Cathal calls upon the power of Anduiras that runs in his veins and bellows with the voice of a dead god. The power of the divine blood shatters the morale of the Duene soldiers, already shaken by Mara’s magical power, Reynhild’s systematic removal of their commanders, and the unshakeable fighting spirit of the Wilders. Cathal calls for their surrender, offering succor to those who will throw down their arms and beg it. 

The Duene Honour guard flee, presumably with Faisal within them. Cathal, Reynhild, and Mara give chase. After a short pursuit, the honour guard stop short and close ranks to intercept the Fulcairn Cavalry. Faisal, astride a ghostly steed, sprints from within them, and dashes off to the west. He is too fast for the Fulcairn cavalry to catch, so Cathal reigns up before the mage’s honour guard and demands their surrender, which they offer readily. Alas, the Duene siblings are not among them.

The Fulcairns win a decisive victory, despite inferior numbers and resources. Captives are stripped of their armour and detained. Cathal greets Corlis Isilvere with great joy and offers his hospitality to her and the Silver Lions. A feast is held within the town that night, and then rest, for soon the Fulcairns must march on Seamist, and end the machinations of Vulpina and Nyrian for the good of Taeghas.