Initium!

February 22, 1012:

Alsoria, Steinlands:

An outbreak of harpypox spread among the towns behind the war front in autumn, as the influx of soldiers and the conditions in the war camps brought disease -- all too often a companion of war.

An infection that causes reddish blisters as well as fevers, chills and nausea, harpypox is spread (like most infectious diseases) through bad vapors that pass into the body and upset the balance of bodily humours. There are some herbal draughts and charms that are believed to ward off the vapors, but the herbs for the draughts are in short supply during the war, and the charms are expensive.

In some of the towns along the Bilgosh border that suffered an harpypox outbreak, the death toll was about 1 in 20, with many more surviving but covered with pock-marks and scars. Many other towns further up the trade roads have posted militias who refuse passage to anyone whose skin appears to have reddish marks.

Lupmunte, Bilgosh:

The village of Lupmunte and its manor house were recaptured by crusaders after a well-coordinated two-front assault.

During Overlord Emilian's coup, two senior werewolves, Morlay and Rupert, took over the village itself and its lord's manor house. They had divided the land between them, with Morlay living in the manor house, Rupert living in the guard tower just north of the village.

The attacking crusaders snuck through the woods and besieged and captured the manor house from the north, splashing holy water in the doorframe hoping to trap the wolves within. The manor house had walls of stone, but the crusaders focused their attacks on a window until it collapsed; they then hurled fire-arrows and oil through the gap, burning the manor from within. The wolves then attempted an escape charge out the main gate, but were caught in the crusaders' gauntlet, and slain.

Meanwhile, the crusaders' second group came up from the south, past the village and approaching the tower. This second group blocked off the bridge that led from the village to the tower to prevent reinforcements, and then both groups attacked the tower. Overwhelmed, the wolves within the tower attempted to escape out a window and head for the woods, but were caught, and their corpses burned.

Efalau, Bilgosh:

The Allondine armies were devastated during a battle at Efalau against Dark Lady Trandafira when their front line was accidentally destroyed by a newly-discovered spell from their own wizard.

The mage, Warner Wispington, had prepared a spell based on a recovered page from the spell-books of archmage Gilliam Stenn, books lost when they were seized by orcs during a raid on Stenn's estate. The spell, which Wispington called a "preventative aura", was supposed to protect the crusaders from the malign magics of the Bilgosh forces. When the battle began and Wispington invoked the spell, however, a pulsing rainbow-colored burst covered the front-line of knights and then incinerated them, turning them instantly to ash.

Among the dead were Baroness Winifred of Almendon; Mother Marianne Pilcroft, Brinnigite Bishop of Ardensford; Sir Leonard Dellemont; and Dame Eleanor of Berset.

"Gilliam Stenn was such a responsible mage; why would he publish a spell this dangerous?" asked a dismayed wizard in the Allondine ranks. Wispington, horrified, fled the battlefront and is believed to have been secreted back to Allondell.

Rhonovia, Bilgosh:

The island fortress of the necromancer Erkesal survived a siege by crusaders, who suffered a devastating defeat and the loss of many ships to the evil Dark Lord.

The crusaders had hoped to starve out Erkesal and his soldiers by destroying the bridge to the island, then blockading the island with ships. The crusaders' plan hinged on their belief that since vampires and werewolves cannot cross running water, the other Dark Lords would be unable to resupply the island.

The Allondines and Chardrois had few ships of their own at their disposal, since most captains are unwilling or unable to cross the Marakh straits and reach the Bilgosh coast. Thus, the crusaders hired independent ships from Zdunarova, paying a high cost to convince them to enter into dangerous water. The ground troops under Sir Pascal d'Ordenne were able to repel Erkesal's scouts and sentries and set fire to the bridge while the ships surrounded the island.

However, the crusaders were caught off-guard by zombies and skeletons, monstrous creations of the necromancer, who could move undetected through the water. These creatures then emerged from the water and surprised their foes, as they had done at the disastrous first Battle of Duvarna.

Erkesal's monsters were able to kill the crews of half the crusader ships and seize them, while puncturing holes in the bottoms of the hulls of several more. The remaining crusader ships were forced to retreat, as were the ground troops when the undead then shifted their focus to the troops on the shoreline.

Erkesal has raised his own standard atop the captured ships, and the crusaders fear he will use them to disrupt any further sea adventures by the crusaders.

Gri, Bilgosh:

Chardrois crusaders failed to capture Castle Gri from its Dark Lord, Beryx, after their plan to tunnel beneath the castle was unexpectedly cut short by a surprising counterattack.

The crusaders' plan was to surround the castle with siege armies and attempt to burn down the neighboring forest to prevent a forest-based counterattack by wolves or other creatures. While the siege continued, the plan called for hiring a dwarven mining crew to tunnel beneath the earth and under the castle walls, so that the crusaders could hasten the siege and capture the castle.

While the crusaders were able to surround the castle and prevent its resupply, they proved unable to burn down the forest; with each attempt, the woods itself seemed to grow more tangled and the terrain more difficult. The few small fires that the crusaders were able to ignite seemed to rapidly attract bands of wolves who would scatter the crusaders before them.

Lady Aurelie Pernaine, the leader of the sieging armies, had difficulty finding a dwarven crew willing to participate; most dwarves have a fear of open spaces and thus the surface world, and the battlefield conditions made this particular job even less appealing. Lady Aurelie was eventually able to find a dwarven company under Guildmistress Radakonn Bronzemender who were willing to dig the tunnel, but only for extraordinarily high pay.

The dwarven tunnel had dug about halfway to the castle walls when, without warning, the tunnel wall before the miners crumbled, and ghastly warriors burst through the other side from what appeared to be their own tunnel. The undead warriors quickly slaughtered the defenseless miners and then scattered the human soldiers behind them. Meanwhile, creatures both wolf-like and otherwise poured forth from the forest towards the tunnel entrance, cutting through the crusader armies who were caught off-guard. The siege armies now collapsing, Lady Aurelie sounded a retreat.

"It's like they knew we were coming, like they knew our plans ahead of time," remarked a horrified soldier fleeing the area. The dwarves who survived the slaughter immediately renounced the job, claiming they were deceived into believing the surface-worlders would protect them, and they returned to their caverns.

Lunapaza, Bilgosh:

A crusader company was able to sneak into the village of Lunapaza and capture the village's manor house from its werewolf occupants.

The crusaders believed that significant numbers of the villagers had been turned into werewolves or willingly supported them. Accordingly, rather than approach the manor house directly with a larger force that would alert the village, Lord Tristan Merrimont assembled a smaller company, a select group taken from among the Allondines and Chardrois, as well as the religious orders and the recently-arrived Venezans.

The crusaders first sent a diversion force in boats up the river past the village mill and the central houses. This successfully drew away the attention of the village militia, but at a high cost, as none of the diversion force survived the attack.

Meanwhile, the rest of the company moved around the village and blockaded the manor house with barriers of holy energy while the company readied its full attack. They then struck at the manor house, collapsing one wall with a battering ram and lightning spells and rushing through the breach. The fighting was bloody, with the back ranks having to clamber over the corpses of the front line. The battle went room-to-room as the werewolves resisted, distracting crusaders by attempting bites at their flanks; many of the crusaders would rather perish than be bitten by a werewolf. In the end, the crusaders were able finish off the last of the wolves, though at terrific cost to their own numbers.

With the manor house captured, the werewolves in the village rushed to recapture it, failing. The village's mortal residents then surrendered, and the crsuaders' bell standard was raised over the manor house.

Among the dead were most of the clergy who had used their gifts to blockade the house with divine prayers. In addition, only one of the Venezan knights survived.