The Wyvern Moves

This is the saga of the empress Ghaiya T'Aclatan and her magic advisor lady Daryah, and Inholanthe.

The Situation

    Saralis after being unified by Ghaiya and Anmurdio is still a very conflict filled country, the states is placed with hostile countries in between. It is only a couple of months after the crowning and the nobles in the country have not yet accepted the current rulers.

    In additions of this, the war with Dorman is on it's second year and even though the opposing forces is being driven back no short end to the conflict is at hand, the last final victory was the city of ******** that feel after a couple of days of intense battle. The battle marked a new era for the empire when the empress herself was actively leading it.

    The empress is still new at her vocation, and hence she is of need of an advisor, there the Dyari woman Daryah came into picture. Trying to aid the empress in her hard decisions.

    Varch is making ready to leave; he is in his final stages of training both Ghalena and the new sorceress, Daryah, of the court.

    Ghalena is to learn the arts necessary to run an effective police force, he has been training here for the past several months, and he is expecting there to be troubles, but hopefully not more then they can handle. She will also get a new apprentice, Inholanthe, a young girl that is to work closer to the empress, acting as both servant and bodyguard. A person who also will be able to hear what is going on around the Empress.

    New - Inholanthe is most capable in her doings, and pleases both Ghalena and the Empress, her foremost task is to find out the motives about a man called Marten. But also investigating the people that lives in the castle, looking for their different motives and schemes.

    The Sorceress, Daryah, is to take over the police work that requires spell abilities; he is to train her with the spell that binds promises to people, thinking that will be a good start for her. He will also instruct her a little on the fine art of interrogation and torture. The reason he is leaving behind the half demonic wyvern-rider, Zion, is mostly because it will be a great test on her, even if she does not know it herself, if she manages to handle him, maybe even turn him, Varch thinks there might be hope for her.

    Daryah proved to both Varch and the others that she could manage the task without any problems, the Empress is a little concerned about who is controlling who though.

    Major problem for Daryah is that she is developing deep feelings for the beast, something she is both unprepared and inexperienced with.

Enemies:

THE WHITE LORD

    This is the major opponent of Saralis, it is not so much known since the seen enemies are Dorman and some others less combatant.
He is the primary force of Unlife in the entire Jaiman continent, compared to the most powerful evils on the entire face of Kulthea.

DORMAN

    This country is since many years the enemy of Saral, due to the current duke of Dorman the country is unknowingly fighting for the Unlife. The state religion is a dark good called Scalu, which has in the last couple of years grown to be imposed to everybody in the country.
    To aid them in the battle against their neighbors they have accepted the help of the white lord, not knowing what he represents, and since they have that, they have Lugrôki warriors fighting with them against their opponents.

THE WYVERN RIDERS

    These warriors are especially feared in a country as Saralis, since the Wyvern is the most legendary creature in Saralis myths. They are not entirely humans either, seem to be part demonic in their nature and have an innate talent of mental powers, it is said it is with this power they can control the untamable Wyvern beasts. They are true evil and loyal only to Lorgalis himself. They are faster, stronger and more durable then normal humans, all of them in some degree insane. Some people relate them to the 

THE FLOATING FORTRESS

    A new threat has emerged recently (fall), a floating fortress of the white lord has been sighted of the capital of Saral, they know this ship contains more troops they have within the city and can alone pose a serious threat to the entire country's defense.

    The fortresses are almost the size of a city and can contain up to 10.000 troops, it is not known how many of these terrible constructions that exists, but at least two have been sighted.

    Each one of the fortresses is propelled by magic, so several evil magicians are suspected to be onboard. The bulk of the troops are of Lugrôki origin.

Persons of note:

Timeline

6.055 T.E.I.

FALL

Other things under work

The Guard and the fortress - The Red Guard is being formed; soon there will be a ceremony that will knight several of the members in the guard, and a title for the guard captain. While this is going on a fortress is being rebuilt 5 miles south of the city, that fortress is going to serve as a base and training facility for both the Red Guard and the Black Guard. Red Guard being trained more in warfare and knightly work, while the Black Guard will take advantage of the Red Guards training in personal protection and body guarding.

The building of this fortress has been delayed of the fact of war and most workers are working on a temple to Inis and Moralis inside the city and a Temple of the Burning Night a few miles SW of the City.

The work on the fortress is further delayed by the sudden occupation on it by strong Lugrôki forces. It cannot get started until the enemy forces are driven out.

Marten - Ghaiya's Conversation with Marten did not go all as she planned, since he could not send his friend back, not without taking back the help and support he has given her with the defense, like the Galley he is building, and the guardian that is protecting the harbor.

Ghaiya is putting Inholanthe on investigating the motives of Marten.

The Galley - Marten is nearing completion with the Galley and will probably have it ready before the 50th of the month (Fall), once ready he will leave it over to Ghaiya herself.

Due to the landings and the loss of his base Marten moves to the castle, they flee the southern coast using the galley, now operational.

THE SEA FORTRESS

The Lugrôki and other of Ulor forces at the sea fortress will prepare to launch a great attack before the winter, they will not attack straight into the city, rather trying to go around it, tying up as much as they can of the city's forces. When the army is all over the country they will try and launch a tree front attack, up in the north, against the city, and against several smaller cities

The total number of forces they will put ashore is roughly 5000 men, mostly 'lesser Lugrôki', which leaves them with approximately 5000 men to do the assault against the city. They have had great losses so far so this time they will try harder on sheer mass of number, with more 'lesser Lugrôki' just in from the isles.

New - Due to a heavy fog they try a surprise assault by a landing in the northern coast by 2000 Lugrôki, that assault failed though

ESPIONAGE

Ghaiya as a Gartyl rider can easily find out that they are bringing in reinforcements to the sea fortress. The sky will become a little more dangerous too when two new wyvern riders gets stationed there (to a total of three), and they will try actively to hunt down any Gartyl in the sky. All the reinforcements are made up of Lugrôki, with lots of ships to replace those they lost in the last battle, they will lead with more smaller ships this attack, leaving the heavier to go in when the guardian can be destroyed or with shields of smaller ships.

Unless the reinforcements are stopped they will attack in about 30 days depending a little on the weather, if land operations are possible, they will not attack the city without having an army on land.

Events during the winter

When the winter falls and the attack has been, enemy forces will dig in wherever they are, including inside cities and the likes, chances are that Saral has not fallen and fighting is still going on inside the city. Then the enemy will try and cut of the supply lines for the city and starve it out from within, that and keeping a constant pressure on the humans, waging a offensive war until they have won or are killed to the last man.

Since Lorgalis controls the Bay of Ulor he will have an easier time to bring in supplies and reinforcements.

The only good thing about this very devastating and offensive war is that it brings all the people of Saralis together, the nobles accept the government for the first time and will fight side by side with them to defend their homes and city.

It will also help the various priests that are starting their churches here and there, since people need something to believe in at such desperate times. See religion.

Pups - Finally during late fall the Sailor pups that Ghaiya has ordered for her friend the Rhakaneese Ambassador come to the country, two of them.

Zion - Zion is a half demon, and a believing follower of Unlife, to get him to change that will prove very difficult. He has started to develop an interest for Daryah, more of a lust perhaps, he knows he wants her, not sure what to do about it though, he's natural instinct is most likely to just rape and kill her.

If Varch's plans falls as he wants them Daryah will learn to control the beast, and in that get herself a very good and dangerous bodyguard and a little better confidence when it comes to her powers.

After Daryah's encounter with a Wyvern and the poisoning that came with it Zion has saved her life, now she has freed him and he remains under her supervision. They are both getting very strong feelings for each other, and neither knows what to do about them.

Marten - Marten, his appearance in spite is not a man that is experienced by women, he has a little hard to relate to Inholanthe's straightforwardness and interest for him.

His only interests in her this far is that she is a way to get close to the empress and a good card to have if the situation should change a little between them.

The major reason Marten is not a man that is so experienced in those tasks is that he has not lived in that body so very long, he is one of the great High Nurieti Sorcerers that lived there before the Great War. The body belonged to a Fulcrummian Captain that he has possessed, so even though he is large and agile built he is very inexperienced in using his body and can sometimes be rather clumsy.

Marten's greater plans are to build a large church and a city around it in this country, and he is well on his way with such tasks. As soon as the church is up and 'running' they will actively begin to search for believers, and with the war going on people need something to believe in very much. He is hoping to turn Inholanthe to that faith in time too. She could be a very useful ally, and since the Empire don't seem to mind so much what religion people are it should not inhibit her ability to keep working there.

Black Rose - Vil Henos will take advantage of the coming way as best as he can. He is not so very fond of the explosion of new religions that is coming, since he wanted to be the only one himself, but he will not be discouraged about such a thing and he will certainly not lack followers either. He is a very charismatic man, as none knows better then the Empress.

Church of Eissa - The Church of Eissa that already is in the city is also making plans as fast as they can, the characters may think that they are a bunch of old mans that can't take any initiatives, but that is not entirely true. They are not very fond of the idea of all the new religions either, but they know better then to go up to the Empress to complain, since she would definitely not listen to her. Instead they have began putting money into the rebuilding of the Fort of the Wyvern Order, with its Church of both Kuor and Cay.

They have also sent messages down south for priests of Valris who they know is the strongest religions with elves, and since the Empress is an elf… Several Priests of Valris is already on her way, also a detachment of the Sisterhood of Eissa is on their way to Saralis, to Aid the church there and to offer their help with the wounded.

Religion

The entire campaign will get a very religious tone during the winter, since much of what is happening is circling around the churches that is being built and the people that is building them. Religion can be both the way to salvation and the way to damnation for the characters and their friends.

The Temple of Moralis will be done inside the city, and both rich and poor will become more decadent at once, growing more and more popular as the time goes by.

The ambassador if U-Lyshak will ask permission to build a temple outside the city dedicated to the sea drake; if they get that permission the forces of evil will have a stronghold inside Saralis.

If they don't get it they will build it in secret and the only ones that will notice them are the forces of Ulor that are in the forest, but they will not interfere.

The Citadel of the Burning Night will stand ready at early winter, and even through the hard winter and dangers of traveling they will gather more and more followers.

If all these places will be left alone Saralis will become known to have religious freedom and many priests will come there to ask permission to build churches. Some of them will be dark, some pure evil small cults, but it will also result in larger number of 'churches of Orhan' being build. The first is the Temple of Kuor that was destroyed a year ago, the church of Eissa will help them to rebuild it again, and with that one the temple of Cay will be rebuild and the order of the wyvern will once again have a home base.

Other are Andaras (Neutral God), Scalu (Hidden Cult, Very evil), Reann (Small temple), Kieron (Temple), Church of Eissa will expand a little.

Churches in Saralis

Church of Eissa - Big church in Saral, temples and Shrines all over the country

Church of Kuor - More of an Abbey, inside a knight's fortress just outside the city of Saral.

Temple of Cay - Inside the same building as Church of Kuor.

Temple of the Burning Night - 15 miles SW of the Capital, will expand with a shrine inside the city.

Tower of Yarthraak - If permitted will build a tower north of the city towards the Bay of Ulor (Probably will anyway).

Church of Andaras - Will build a small church out in the country if permitted.

Temple of Scalu - Have no worries about being permitted, will have a Shrine in a house inside the city of Saral, and Build a Temple at some remote location.

Temple of Reann - Lord of the night will raise a small temple inside the city of Saral.

Temple of Moralis - With the empress permission built inside the city, a house remade to temple

Shrine of Inis - In the same building as the temple of Moralis.

Shrine of Kieron -

Shrine of Valris -

Temple of Shaal - Already inside city of Saral

Church of (Shaal's Daughter) - One of the most popular gods in all of Saralis, have churches or shrines in every little village alone a river or the coast.

Templars

After the church of Eissa sends out their distress about the religious situation in Saralis knights and templars will come in hundreds, seeing to what is right for the church, most knights will be hired into the army or into the church as templars. A couple of Templar orders will also interest themselves in the country, and they serve the church and do not answer to any government. They will freely and willingly participate in the battles on the Saralii side, but between the battles they will mostly harass the government and most churches that are not Lords of Orhan.

EQUES KUOR (KUOR'S HORSEMEN)

Eques Kuor is a Templar order that originates from Rhakhaan, to counter the power of the Imperial legions the church in Rhakhaan began to invest in their own armies, favoring knights instead of infantry, considering it to be nobler and more "churchly".
The order quickly grow to be an own part of the church, not recognizing national borders anymore, with the aid of mighty nobles and merchants in Rhakhaan the order soon got very strong economically too, and grew to fearsome strength in military force. What makes them even more fearsome is their very strong, almost fanatically believes in what they do is the right thing.

Today (6.055) the Eques Kuor numbers 800 Templar Knights and twice as many squires, a force to be feared by any power, their base of operations is located just outside the city of Lethys in Rhakhaan, but they also have fortresses in Kaytha, Haalkitaine, Vorn and soon in Samâla.

ORDER OF THE WYVERN

With the help from the church of Eissa the Order of the Wyvern will get back on their feet, the church will hire workers and pay for the rebuilding of the Wyvern Castle just outside the capital of Saral. In the castle they will build the church of Cay and the Church of Kuor, and shrines to all the other gods. They will also give them some troops that can train their new squires, Eques Kuor will help defending the Castle while it is being build, against inner and outer enemies. 

War

Here is a more detailed description of the events of the war with what is happening at the different sides at the different fronts.

Battle places

SARALIS/ DORMAN BORDER

All fall has it been a stalemate here, the front has not moved at all and both sides have been fortifying themselves. No conflict will occur here until the war has gotten new speed down south, then the Dorman forces will start with many small attacks on lighter targets. They will also try and get smaller bands through the lines that can wreck havoc and confusion among the civilian population and try to draw away enemy forces.

The Saralii forces will send reinforcements south to aid the capital and then try and hold the fortresses against the Dormanian forces, they will not have the manpower to hunt down smaller bands of enemies that have slipped through the lines, so many smaller villages will be virtually unprotected. Saralis only chance to get that situation under control is to ask for aid from a neighboring country and get foreign troops behind their lines, for example riders from Karima.

SARAL CAPITAL

In the capital most of the Saralii forces are gathered, still outnumbered by at least two to one, but in a defensive situation should be able to manage to defend themselves at least, but many fear that if they attack again it could be a very drawn out battle. The longer it takes for the enemy to attack the stronger fortified will the city be, every day more troops are coming in, from neighbor cities and counties.

The Ship - A larger attack is being planned, thousands of extra Lugrôki are being shipped to the sea fortress and dozens of smaller ships that can reach the shores and leave troops are gathering too. To aid in defense to from flying forces they have flown there a couple of more wyverns, they are only there to keep control over the Saralii scouts, and if possible take them down. In total before the attack they will mass over 12.000 men strong army, 5000 of them will be set ashore south of the capital and attack it from the south or move across the moors east.

A week or so after that the sea fortress will for sure have recalled all their ships, and will be launching an all out attack against the capital itself. Almost 7000 Lugrôki will attack, aided by some magicians, some human commanders, even a Herald of the Night will be among the leading forces.

No matter how large an Invading army is, a city at the size of Saral is not taken quickly when it is aware of the attack. The prime directive of the invaders is to take a beachhead in the harbor and fortify themselves there, always putting pressure on the defending forces by constant offensives. The main reason for them to fortify themselves is to be able to keep the fighting constant inside the city so the defenders will get no respite or rest. In the end they are sure they will wear them out.

New Events - Since the Saralii forces acted with such force and caution the immediate attack is cancelled, instead they will wait until early winter, then move the ship closer and launch the major attack wit support from the ships catapults.

The closest the ship can move is around 800 meters from the harbor, and that is close enough to use the large catapults and trebuchets

SARAL COUNTRY

A massive force of about 5000 men will be launching an attack inward through the land or turn north against the capital, these forces will almost only be 'Lesser Lugrôki'. Most likely this army will split up in two or more armies, each going their own way, attacking any targets of opportunity. They will be luring away the defending forces or sacking several other cities, if they are not defended by a very large army.

The forces will not move fast and need to rely on plunder to survive since it will be active through the winter, but since they are Lugrôki they have no problem with either endurance or any moral problems with plunder or pillaging.

At least one of the split up armies will try and get as far east as possible, threat the city of Samâla and perhaps the country of Arran, even an army of 1000-1500 men can be very devastating to have on your back yard. One of the results will be thousands of refugees on every road, and probably thousands will freeze or starve to death in the harsh winter.

New events - Since the discovery of the abandoned fortress they have decided to make a base of that one, not moving out the major part of the forces before the winter comes, they still need to make raids to gather supplies needed to survive until the winter. Small bands of 50 to 100 Lugrôki will make up these bands, consisting almost only of smaller Lugrôki and a few large leaders, they will rely on stealth and subterfuge and will start harassing the villages and smaller towns south and west of their position. Such small bands are no problem for the larger towns and cities, but quite devastating for the country around, the forces will wipe out farms and small villages.

Weapons of War

BALLISTA

Looks mostly like a large crossbow, made up by a large composite bow over a wooden frame with a trigger in the frame that launches the projectile.
Common load for these weapons are either long bolts of wood with a metal tip, or round stones or metal projectiles.

KATAPULTOS

Similar as the Ballista but is not powered by a bow, but instead it was powered solely by twisted sinew ropes. This made the Katapultos smaller to take with and also more powerful, and it could fire heavier projectiles longer.

See http://www.nzp.com/0503stages.html for more information in this technique.

CHEIROBALLISTAE

The cheiroballistae was a small but powerful arrow throwing engines mounted on a wheeled carriage that allowed it to be quickly maneuvered.

MANUBALLISTA

The manuballista was small torsion arrow throwing engine, similar to the Cheiroballistae only without the wheeled carriage.

ACRUBALLISTA OR ARBALLISTA

The acruballista was a very small non-torsion engine, the smallest of which were handheld. This engine was the forefather of the crossbow.

(http://www.nzp.com/0602cheiro.html)

CATAPULT (THE ONAGER OR SCORPION)

This is probably the most famous of all siege weapons, essentially an arm fitted on a wooden frame, powered by sinew ropes that propelled the arm upwards and forward, thus hurling a stone projectile very far.
It was capable of throwing a 5-kg stone 350 meters.

TREBUCHET

This is the larges non-magical siege weapon in existence; it uses a very heavy counterweight to propel the projectile and can throw 50-kg projectiles up to 800 meters.

This is a very cumbersome weapon and is usually build at used at the same place, since with the counterweight it weights several tons.

LONG BOW

The long bow is an excellent artillery weapon, as it has been shown in many historical battles, it is a fast reload able weapon with great accuracy and range. Effective range is about 200 meters, and against unarmored targets it can be used for about twice that range, with a great loss in precision though.

A skilled archer can fire 10-15 arrows a minute; which gives a devastating firepower when many archers are together.

NURIETI FIRE, SARALII FIRE (GREEK FIRE)

This is a highly volatile mixture of oil and some other ingredients that makes a sticky fluid that burns on just about anything. It is equal to modern napalm, and it can burn on water even.

It is originating from the Nurieti Empire in the far south of Jaiman, the empire is now long gone but its secrets have spread north to Saralis.

THE SEA FORTRESS

This is one of the most ultimate weapons when it comes to sea warfare; it is a ship, roughly the size of a city, capable of housing 10000 troops. The monstrous ship is propelled and kept afloat by hundreds of magicians, each dedicating most of their magic to that purpose.

One ship of that size is fully capable of itself laying siege on an entire country.
As if the sheer size of the ship was not enough, it is well armed with Ballista's and Catapults, some of them of magical design with increased ranges, the largest catapults can fire at a range of 5-10 kilometers, hurling boulders at the size of 50 kg. This outweighs most artillery by ten times.

MAGIC

A magician can make a very big difference in the battlefield, they can summon up armies to fight for them (summoners and necromancers), hurl great balls of fire and bolts of lightning into the enemy lines. Most importantly though are the psychological effect they have on the morale of the troops.

Fortresses

DUN MARAS

This fort is being completed in the spring of 6.056 and named then, it has since long been the place where most of the foreign forces has been located. It is located 5 miles east of Saral.

DUN TÎR

This is a new fortress at the border of Dorman and Saral, next to the river Tîr. Completed in spring 6.056.

DUN GÔL

This is the fortress made by the Lugrôki over the city once known as Gôl, when retaken it was to be used as a fort only. This mighty fortress town is capable of housing 5.000 troops.

DUN GREHM

This fort is build on the old Grehm ruins, it was taken by Ulor troops during the Fall offensive and was before that planned on being the home and training base for the Black and the Red guard, still is as soon as it is being liberated and restored.

TOWER OF YARTHRAAK

To be build winter/spring 6.056, located 20 miles north of Saral. Not knowing to the government in Saral it will be a stronghold for the Unlife in the country, they will have a strong garrison and training center for messengers.

© 2000 VWD

©2000 by Drac, VWD
Last updated 2004-03-24 23:16