1868-08-17: An Urban Fight
An Urban Fight
Summary: Baron Thomas surveys the situation in Goldhollow and calls the troops to arms.
Date: 17 Aout, 1868 IE
Related: Siege at Goldhollow Pt I, Send Swords, Journal - A Traitor's Grave, Westwar
NPCs: {$npc}
Players:
Thomas  Aethelwulf  Belladona  Jarret  Inga  Ranulfr  Sonya  

It's a rude way to wake, having someone barge into your room, out of breath, sweaty and thumping on the ground with the weight of an armoured fighting man. That's how Baron Thomas Chandus woke up. Grumbling, he stumbled out of bed and stared with bleary eyes at his Serjeant at Arms, Lawrence Verus. The bearded, middle aged man and aspiring bard was panting. "Sir."

Thomas knew it couldn't be good. Verus was nothing but respectful. And yet, he fixed the Serjeant with a gaze that seemed to say that the man better have a good reason for the interruption. "Sir. They're here." The pronouncement was followed by a number of faint explosions, far off in the distance.

And so it was a good reason.

A few minutes passed before Thomas had strapped on his lorrica cuirass, his helmet, greaves, grabbed his long shield and affixed his sword belt on, and he was soon out in the central square of Goldhollow. The light of the sun barely crested above the city's walls and buildings; it was still nearly night, and he ought to be asleep. No matter. Five days in Goldhollow, a city he'd only known from battle once before and not particularly liked even then. Too much blood in those times.

A massive impact was felt in the direction he'd be heading - the western gate. Only one, but it was loud and the vibrations reached him all the way in the city square, by the Goldhollow Cathedral and large keep that they'd been fortifying over the last two weeks. He quickly mounted up alongside a few soldiers who'd been on duty and trotted to the western gate, to meet the Hobelars who'd been tasked with keeping in contact with the Lord Marshal, Duke Gauvain. Goldhollow is a fairly large city. Even knowing the paths, it still took him fifteen minutes to ride there on a fast horse.

When he got to the gate, a troop of twenty lancers wearing his house's sigil on their tabards awaited him. They were filthy, exhausted looking. Their troop commander, a Lieutenant from Thomas's regiment, was white with fear. He handed the Baron a piece of paper. "My lord. The enemy let us through by the intercession of their commander, the Templar Rollo Tusca. They are…"

Thomas nodded briskly. "I know, Lieutenant. Six thousand or so. No mean force for us. Well, what is it?"

The Lieutenant gulped. "The moongazer that Duke Gauvain sent back to you. They shot it out of the sky. Then uh… they shot it into the town on a catapult."


Thomas,

You are alone. Teleko is attacking Oracla as I write this. I will do what I can, but for the moment, we are dug in.

Gauvain


Thomas looked down upon it, his watery blue eyes quickly passing over the words. 'You're on your own', popped back up at him. Though he wanted to crush the message, throw it into a fire and somehow will away the enemy army, he didn't.

Soon after, the second troop of Hobelars trotted in from the eastern gate, having dodged Rikton's patrols and gotten in with the Knight Marshal Duke Letholdus's reply to the request for help.


Baron Chandus,

I regret to inform you that we are also under attack in our fortifications by the Kentaire 5th Legion. One speed to you, and I pray that you find your way to victory.

Duke Letholdus Romante


Same slim pickings. Same nothing. They'd be on their own. Thomas knew that the time for petitions was over. Now, it was the time for action.

As the morning ground on and scouts piled into Goldhollow through tunnels, or scrambling up walls, the situation became very clear. The full strength of the army of Rikton was outside their gate, commanded by Templar Seigneur Rollo Tusca. Other armies occupied both their base at Oracla and Duke Gauvain, allegedly led by Cardinal Teleko himself, and Duke Letholdus to their east. They'd be getting no help.

The army facing them was massive. They were outnumbered over three to one, that was for certain, and while the enemy were mostly professional, the Galenthian one was a mixed bag. Rikton had both crossbows and longbows, heavy infantry, some light spears and over a thousand light cavalry. They even had a regiment of 200 Templars. The enemy also had substantial siege equipment - 10 cannons, 20 catapults, four trebuchets. Siege towers. Ladders. Rams. They were prepared. How did they get up on the garrison so quickly? Well, they did.

On the other hand, while the Galenthians were unlikely to repel enemies at the gates, they knew the city. Many of the Chandus soldiers, and nearly the entirety of the Royal Regiment of the Burnished Spur had fought at Goldhollow during the Second Succession War two years prior; all of the city troops knew it far better than that. Beyond this, the real reason of those explosions the night before came out with some analysis by the Ranger Troop Commander, Lieutenant Franz Smith. Evidently, the Rikton army was short some troops - not many, but enough, and given the types of wounds that the Rangers were observing on the walls, it appeared that Rikton had been hit repeatedly by Kaedon traps. It showed that the Kaedon Shadow Snakes were true to their word, and their traps worked.

These things mattered in an urban fight. Urban fights are the worst of all fights, especially for those that are attacking. With a good dollop of decent soldiers who knew the city well and a strong group of expert guerrilla fighters, the plan was quickly coming into place. It would be bloody, but they could do it.

Thomas called in his commanders.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License