Campaign Timeline
6.050 T.E.I.
380 Yinka Timeline
Fall
For another day the ravaging of Antia continues, leaving not much left of the city, women and skilled workers enslaved, most of the others slain. The commanders gather in the palace and discuss where to go finding some maps they get a little better overview on where to go, Meluria seem to be a good place for a army to over winter, with it's warmer climate and dense jungles they could stay hidden from any pursuing foe.
The day after the army heads west instead of south, evading their enemies just barely, the elven army is still
on their tracks but not strong enough to pose a serious threat.
After half a week of strenuous march they arrive to the river **** just above the city of Hœnydar, needing some way
to make it across they attack a small settlement just a day and a half north of the city to take it's ferries and boats.
At the city and army under Viscountess Isador has started to gather and quickly march north to engage the Yinkas.
The ferrying over the wide river mouth takes a very long time, in the afternoon the day after Isador's army attack the few remaining Yinka, most of the three hundred left there is slain, a handful reach the boats but many are slain on the by the two galleys Hœnydar sent to reinforce Isador. Koch is mortally wounded and also Tadjeb is wounded, but they both manage to reach the other side.
They are not so well received in Meluria but manages to bribe their way south, heading towards the official capital of Meluria. After a week and a half they camp a day outside the capital, staying there for a few weeks resting and learning more about the culture and language
Treachery
The large Yinka army is getting a bigger and bigger problem for Lord Arona and finally he decides to do something about it
The character has started to plan their departure towards the western parts of Meluria, wanting to put a lot of jungle and mountains between them and the Rhakhaaneese warrior princess as soon as possible, Raznir leaves the group and heads south with a few trusted men to Lindasa to meet some people, and after that he is heading towards the isle of Plasidar.
Tadjeb receives a message from Lord Arona where it says that all the generals for the Yinka army should report to the castle for negotiations, gathering up the others, bringing Rafur as translator, Cyrus as spiritual guidance and Marduk for protection they come to the castle.
The negotiations is very one sided, Lord Arona tells them they need to leave with their army in a day and also has to pay 1/5 of all their treasures for damage they caused while being in Meluria. Severely offended Tadjeb and the others turn to leave the lord, then the doors close, hidden crossbow men come out behind the pillars, almost two dozen of them. Not giving them a chance to react they fire, and fast draw swords and pick up pole axes to finish the job. Rafur, severely wounded falls quickly under a hail of blows from the axes and swords, the other have time to close up and start defending themselves. Tadjeb orders the retreat and starts moving to the closest window, then a guard bury his axe deep in his abdomen, a fatal blow. The others manage to fight their way out, Cyrus gets the body of Tadjeb out, and Ashdar takes him to safety. Scattered in the city, lost contact with each other most of them hide and await the darkness, Ashdar gets unexpectedly helped out of the city by a mysterious man who also says he can save the life of Tadjeb, Cyrus glides out of the city as darkness falls.
The battle for Bazilaar
Enraged by the treachery of Lord Arona, Ashdar gathers the army for attack, sending a messenger to the city with a ultimatum, the messenger returns headless as an answer from the city.
As darkness falls the Yinka scouts locate a northern army heading towards them, not wanting to be trapped between two armies Ashdar makes the decision to attack the city...
The attack against the fortified city without any siege equipment seems both futile and suicidal
They Yinka army are effectively stopped by the great city walls and their numbers getting decimated
by the archers on the city walls, then with a great light the great gate explodes, burning splinters
go everywhere, wounding friends and foes, with great losses they also get open the big iron bars that
block the gatehouse under heavily losses and close range crossbow fire.
With the gate open the invading Yinka army pours into the streets of Bazilaar, against most other cities
the battle would already be won by now, but the stubborn Melurians fight for every feet of city streets
and the losses rise to catastrophic proportions on both sides. Outside the Yinka cavalry is attacked by
the combined cavalry of Isador and Bazilaar and are nearly annihilated to the last man.
The main Yinka force in the city works it's way slowly down to the harbor, there they get under attack
from the archers and ballista's from the two war galleys that is in port, desperate with no way to turn
they board the dozens of smaller boats that lay in the harbor and boards the galleys, in the fighting
one of the galleys is rammed and put on fire, the survivors take the surviving galley and take it out
of the city, heading west.
Ashdar abandon ship as it heads west, swimming to shore and finding the mysterious man he left with Tadjeb, they round up some horses and head on the roads west in a very high pace, not stopping until he is almost unconscious and then just resting a couple of hours and riding again.
For the remaining Yinka forces in Bazilaar the situation is hopeless, the Melurians are hard and experienced fighters and never giving up and the new Rhakhaaneese force shows a brutality never before encountered, showing no mercy, even to disarmed and wounded. By dawn the fighting has ceased completely, every Yinka that remained in the city has been slewn and decapitated, over a thousand spears outside the city walls are decorated with the heads of Yinka warriors. Several hundred Yinka has still escaped during the chaos of the battle when they saw how the tide was turning and without their leadership, and are loose somewhere in the jungle around the city.
Lady Isador and lord Arona sets out a price to kill of the remaining Yinkas in the forest and a great
manhunt is starting, the cavalry is quickly finishing of the Yinka they can find on the roads, but in the
deep jungles they loose the remaining survivors.
The few surviving Yinka fighters are slowly heading west towards Fulcrummia where they know their leaders wanted
to take the army, slowly making their way west through the jungle many dies from fever or the venomous snakes
and they need to take to brigandry to not starve to death. Marduk is one of the few leaders that also was cut of
and forced to take the hard way west he leads around 200 men west, Korch is another with around 100 men, they are
attacking farms and small villages to survive but keep in the deep jungle as much as possible to avoid the armored
cavalry.
For the crew of the galley, they count almost two hundred, that survived after the battles in the harbor, they head west for 4 days before they stop at a sheltered river mouth, hiding and resting there for a couple of days they get joined by Korch and his hundred surviving men, and they are discussing how to continue. To avoid mutiny they execute the crew of the ship, trusting that now they have enough men to take them away anyway.
After a few days they are joined by a tired and worn out Ashdar, with a pale and slightly confused Tadjeb, who seems very much alive after the circumstances, the men are confused by this but takes it as another sign that he is set by Yugal to lead them to glory. They rest for another day before continuing west with the galley.
Lindasa
After a few hard days of travel, Raznir and his small party arrives in Lindasa, they stay there for a week or so making some connections with local people and also finding out as much as they can about Plasidar and how to get there. During this time Raznir hears rumors about what has happened in the city of Bazilaar, none of the rumors seem very reliable though, but he knows for sure something major has happened there and when he searches for his friends he can't pick up any trace of Tadjeb.
Just before leaving he hears a disturbing rumor from the north, someone is paying a hundred silver for every Yinka head, something makes his stay a lot more risky, he get room on a Fulcrummian ship for him, his companions and their horses and head towards Plasidar.
The Boiling Seas
After a couple of days they begin to be having problem with thick fog banks that makes navigation harder and harder also the temperatures are rising to disturbing levels, still continuing they have to go slowly and check how close they to the coast by checking the depths, many of the men starting to suffer from heat strokes as temperatures rise above 50 degrees (120 F).
After a couple of days in the dense fog limiting their sight to a few feet in the near boiling waters they are close to perish from heat and fatigue, the water and supplies are running out fast, then they hear a horn further ahead, something that could be another ship, as they go further they see the shadow of a ship passing them and shortly there after almost crashing into a pier.
Fulcrummia
Stopping and going ashore they find the other ship is secured against the pier too, ignoring it they go on land instead. They can hear the horn again as they pass the ship and know they been sighted, the small scout part prepares for battle, as no danger appears right away they continue a little further where they run into a group of pirates accompanied by a demonic beast in black armor, the beast attacks and the pirates withdraw from sight. The battle is short but bloody, but Cyrus, enraged by the demonic presence slays it, as the beast falls it withers away into nothing, only the mighty pole arm it wielded is still laying there.
The characters turn to go to the boat for reinforcements, Tadjeb, in spite of Cyrus protests picks up the demonic pole arm, but lets it go again after a brief discussion. Cyrus stays to deal with the weapon while the others start down to the boat. They suddenly hear a beastly roar and the sound of combat and fire, running through the fog they hear the battle end before they are within visual, then in the fog they can see a large black beast coming against them, roaring it attacks. This battle is also fast and bloody, the beast dies from the hands of Tadjeb(?), who stays to pick up the wounded Cyrus as the others continue down to the boat.
A scouting party lead by Tadjeb and Ashdar leaves inland to scout out what is there. After an hour or so they find a old fortress, being so close already they are discovered too, Tadjeb returns to bring reinforcements while Ashdar continues scouting the area, just a little while after Tadjeb left the scouts are attacked by a force of pirates from the fortress. The fight is bloody but Ashdar manage to lead his men to victory, but loosing 8 men and over a dozen wounded, they withdraw to wait the reinforcements, the least wounded of the scouts continue to investigate the area further away from the fort.
As Tadjeb comes back with over 200 men the scouts has found a small fortified village further south. They gather up and discuss a short strategy about what to do, and then Attack, the small village only having two dozen defenders falls quickly even it is fortified by stone walls. Ashdar and Tadjeb goes towards what they think is a church to take that with a following of men, well there the slaughter begins, at once side of the doors a large black demonic creature attacks the characters, being virtually invulnerable to the Yinkas weapons, some shadow starts at the same time ravaging the attackers and one by one the men combust into flames and die screaming. Finally and with combined efforts Ashdar and Tadjeb manage to personally destroy the beasts, but they have lost over a dozen men in the few minutes of the battle, more then the losses for the whole village.
After a few days at sea Raznir and his companions stop at a small Fulcrummian town to refill their supplies, their journey is made harder by heavy storms and rains, they only stop for a night though before continuing towards the Plasidar city of Gūl.
The Stranger
Watching the village from a distance the tall man was trying to judge the treat these foreigners were making, seeing a cleric and a couple of men managing to flee the village as it is put to the fire he decides to contact the invaders.
Apparently surrendering to the Yinka the stranger is quickly surrounded by the aggressive Yinka raiders, after a lot of problems with languages he manage to get them to understand he can help them take the fortress, all he wants in exchange is some books if there is any there. At the fort the dozen or so defenders can't put up so much resistance, being suppressed by the Yinka archers the elven stranger uses magic to burn down the doors, after that the fort falls within minutes. Before the fort falls they see a great shadow of some flying beast leaving the roof of the fortress, it looks like he has some rider.
Down at the boat Cyrus has been forced to abandon the galley since it is leaking too much water, instead they have taken the Fulcrummian ship at the pier and most of the troops has put up a camp on a little higher ground where also the temperatures are a little cooler. Laying and resting from his wounds on the boat he suddenly get a feeling of something being wrong, running up on deck he barely have time to react to the colossal flying beast almost landing on him, he calls upon the fury of Yugal and minutes after both the beast and it's rider is burned to ashes.
When the rest of the army returns the day after they also see the problems with the galley, being close to three hundred men and only having a ship that can take a hundred they have a problem, after a while they decide at least that the main force should march south while Cyrus, taking 50 men tries to get the ship around Fulcrummia to the southern shores.
The main force travels deep into the northern Fulcrummian wastelands in the next couple of days, a volcanic landscape that is covered by ash and brimstone, as they go deeper both Tadjeb and Ashdar starting to get more and more worried. One night they wake up by terrible screams, in the morning they find that eight guards are missing, the army turns sharply east, ordered by Tadjeb, continues in that direction until they reach the jungle. There they begin a hard march south through dense jungle filled with venomous reptiles and insects, many of the Yinka dies in fever and from the venomous reptiles.
Plasidar
Raznir arrives to Plasidar and makes himself at home in the city of Gūl. He starts looking for the Dyari that he heard a lot about there, he hears that a carriage leaves every midnight from a square close to the Doves Inn.
One day passing a small slave market he hears something familiar, going there he see a man trying to sell a Gark, getting a little sentimental he buys him. The Gark is very intelligent for his race and able to talk Rhaya even, he introduce himself as Nak-Enog and Raznir soon finds out he is an assassin. Maybe the beginning of a long and beautiful friendship *smile*
Aranmor
The ship after leaving immediately comes into trouble, not being able to travel by oars it gets stranded by no wind in the boiling seas and after a while the current takes them north west instead of west, the Yinka being inexperienced sailors is without the means to take the ship out of the current.
After a couple of days the fog clears up a little and they sight land to the North East, with the fog clearing they get a little wind in their sails and steer towards the isle, seeing that the isle is surrounded by dangerous reefs they steer until they come in from the northern side where it seems easier to approach the coast. Still as they come close to the shore they hear a crashing sound and the ship starts taking in water. They still manage to go ashore and begin trying to repair the ship, something that is hard without a single shipwright among them, scouts get sent out to look around.
Morning the day after only one of the scouts come back, completely insane and in rags, they begin to understand the danger of the place they have come to. New scouts are sent out and discover a wooden fort a couple of hours up a river. Cyrus decide they need to try and contact whoever living here. Ten men stay behind trying to repair the boat, the remaining thirty go with Cyrus to the fort. Approaching the fort they can see a ship next to it, a Fulcrummian ship and before they get any closer a alarm is sounded. Cyrus wanting to negotiate to force the enemy to give him the ship approach only with ten men, leaving the rest as support, but battle start and the Fulcrummian pirates are slain or burned when Cyrus ignites the fortress. While the battle rages a galley comes from upriver, stopping a couple of hundred feet from the fort they land several dozen men and a few large warriors clad in black demonic armor.
Cyrus and his men turn to escape into the forest from these demonic knights and inside the deep forest they soon get separated from each other, all day Cyrus hears the screams of his dying men, when he the morning after reaches the ship he finds all the men there slain and the ship destroyed.
This page is a part of
by Jonas 'Drac' Cedher.