Breach

So in this late summer, what had been both hoped and feared happened. As expected, the whole of Agartha’s army fell mercyless on the fortress of the Mountains of Evernight … but if that wasn’t that much of a surprise, an unexpected event came as a shock and broke off all the plans. Indeed, the Pale ones were very efficient for sieges and as such they breached the stronghold much faster than expected.

This unforeseen situation was unsettling, the plan was to first Earthquake them, and then only bring battle to them. That couldn’t be done at the same time given throwing a massive Earthquake in the middle of a battle meant death for both sides … Furthermore, most of the troops planned for an attack were not ready yet, particularly the Jotun wolves, and a battle made right now in these conditions was a sure path to defeat.

So choices were to me made. The Serfs and the Archers were trapped into the fortress, with no hopes to escape. However, the many Vanjarls waiting there could sneak out without much risk thanks to their mastery of illusions. Also, the Earquake commando team could make their expected sortie and deal their blow to the enemy, and right after that retreat safely in the neighbouring provinces.

As it was expected that the enemy would assault the fortress, it meant that there was still a month ahead to finally regroup the army designed to defeat them. However, they were scattered all around and could not regroup immediatly into one place. As such, it was decided to press a psychological advantage by completly surrounding their troops, from every single side. The point was to make sure that after taking the place they would want to retreat to their main territory, which would mean retreating to the north-eastern province of Jelenia Gora.

So, again, raiding parties were sent on their backs, especially Skaljv and her rebuilt army of 110 Valkyries. In Jelenia Gora itself, all 30 Jotun Wolves were sent to cut off the enemy retreat whereas the Barbarians and some additional undead troops closed the trap on the remaining sides.

While these orders where given and the fortress evacuated, a lone Vanjarl named Jatmund agreed to stay and sacrifice himself to lead the remaining serfs and Archers in defense of the stronghold. The troops were lied to, to keep their morale high, but they were doomed …

Earthquake !

A total of 4 Svartalf had been trained for this mission : Harek, Ragnar, Andvare and Sessrumner. Each one of them was fully equiped to be able to resist both heavy thunderstrikes and mind blasts. With them, 6 Vanjarls had the mission to draw enemy fire while the deadly spell was cast.

As expected, the enemy army was a scary sight. But everyone was ready to fulfill his role and if things went as planned, no one should be harmed appart from the enemy.

And so the dark dwarves started to summon the deepest powers of the earth. Together they drew from the Core of the world huge forces and slowly built an immense shockwave that began to quickly move to the surface. And without warning, the whole battlefield started to shake ! Every being was thrown out onto the ground, falling on the rocks, hitting the trees, sometimes even stumbling on their own weapons. And if that wasn’t enough, the earth completly collapsed in some places, engulfing the poor beings standing there. After 60 endless seconds, it stopped as suddenly as it had started … and that was it. When the Agarthians recovered, they could only count the bodies as about one third of their army was laying dead on the ground.

However, they could also thank their cleverness. The Crystal sorceresses had been protecting themselves with their astral powers, projecting their body partly into the Ether dimensions. Thanks to this trick, only 6 out of 15 had indeed died, a number that would have been much higher otherwise. Anyway, as planned, the Magma children had taken a heavy toll: the fire surrounding them did not protect their fragile bodies and 38 out 61 had perished. A few Great Olms too had been destroyed along with 2 pale one mages, and overall the mission could be considered a great success.

So as the survivors of the enemy army recovered and continued its assault, both the Vanjarls and the dwarves started to retreat. However, the surviving Great Olms, furious against their enemies, put all their power into their mind attacks and successfully paralyzed 3 out of the 6 vanjarls. Those, sitting like ducks were quickly burnt to death by the Magma Children, eager to avenge their brothers.

And though the 3 other vanjarls successfully made a retreat, the Svartalf found themselves in an unexpected position : their Lead Shields were so heavy that it slowed their retreat terribly ! And they didn’t want to let them down, they were precious, and they were still protecting them against the relentless mind assaults from the Great Olms.

But soon, it became clear that this had been a mistake. Rapidly, the Earth elementals were on them and trampled all the 4 of them to an horrible death. There was not much left of their bodies afterward, just a few scattered puddles of flesh embedded into the ground …

Desperate defense

Despite the heavy toll, the pale ones kept their assault on the fortress. It was their time for revenge, for all these humiliations suffered during the last months. Helheim would suffer, that was plain and clear.

80 archers, 110 serf warriors including 20 serf archers on the walls, all commanded by Jatmund the Vanjarl, faced the enemy army. Ho, yes that was quite a lot of troops but against the Agarthian’s might, that wasn’t that much …

Even though outnumbered 2 to 1, the Agarthian army went forth without hesitation. The numerous arrows raining on them were mostly little stings whereas the puny serf warrior spears were mostly a joke. Nonetheless, volley after volley, thrust after thrust, the vulnerable magma children – the main targets according to the plan – were falling one after the other. And while the serf army was routed, either burnt to death or crushed under tons of living rocks, the Agarthian mages started to throw tens of flying blades on the battlefield, striking indiscriminatly anyone on their paths. Even though this killed a lot of the still fighting human archers, some of the surviving Magma children were too taken down by this friendly fire.

And so, even though this was a really unfair fight, the whole human force being annihilated, the main objective of their last stand had been met : almost no Magma children were left alive.

Close the trap

Surrounded on every side, weakened and vulnerable, the Agarthian’s army was is in a difficult position. Their only way out : the mountain lands of Jelenia Gora.

The war council of Helheim was really afraid that the enemy would choose to push further into friendly territory toward the capital itself but … this would have been foolish on their part and what the previous fightings had shown was that the enemy was not reckless and would act in the only reasonable way : retreat and try to save what could be saved.

As such, every possible unit was ordered to move on the planned battlefield. Skaljv, mustering the largest ever force of Valkyries for a total of 119 of them. 35 newly summoned Jotun wolves, trained to tear apart the enemy earth elementals. And several other units, particularly barbarians who had been trained too to destroy the rocky beings with their large hammers. And with them, 3 enchanters dedicated to summon all the living wolves in the vicinity to come and help harrass the enemy troops during the battle.

The plan was set up, the orders given, and an unbearable tension began to rise in the hearts of the members of the war council. This time, there could be no failure, this time, they HAD to win.