Laying the siege

Unlike the southern thrones, the Throne of the Moon was in a peaceful region. No wandering armies, no unexpected surprises, the situation was the same there as it had been for the last 6 months, just after the final demise of Mictlan.

Surely the enemy had no idea of what was to come, Helheim’s armies were completely invisible for him and only Lord Kall’s vague threats about stopping the Arcane Nexus was a hint of a possible military action in the vicinity. How could they know that a 100 strong army with massive mage support was just on their border ? There was no way … and that was the beauty of it !

So, unlike the other thrones, there was nothing special to plan before the assault. Ho, sure, a scout had spotted a very strong defense over Mictlan a few months ago and a Hangadrott was specifically designed to deal with it … but it appeared that they had moved on and his attack was a cakewalk.

Anyway, as happened on the other thrones, a glitch came to cast some doubt. Indeed, standard province defense of Tien’Chi consisted of a Noble commander mounted on a chariot. What’s so special about it ? Their main battle tactic is to trample their enemy, and they are large enough to trample enemy cavalry. And … that was a problem for Munin the Vaherse sent there. Surprised by this unexpected resistance he couldn’t rout the enemy before being crushed under the wheels of the chariot. That was unfortunate … especially given he was a famous hero from the campaign of Agartha. However, as sad as was his death, that did not change anything : the enemy had no army close enough to exploit that little breach in the elven deployment.

So, the main army could easily lay the siege above the fortress protecting the Throne and still stay invisible to the eyes of the enemy. The Vanjarl appointed to defeat the province defense prior to the arrival of the army was lucky enough to avoid the fate of Munin and could open the way for the army to get there unseen.

The siege in itself was an easy task, especially given the Crumble spell cast on the gates to break them. Within 2 weeks the gates were breached and preparations for the assault devised shortly thereafter.

The final battle for Ascension

The scouts had estimated the enemy force inside the fortress to about 15 mages and a few support troops. There was a risk that with careful planning and unexpected teleporting reinforcements they could put on an unexpected resistance. In that, it was imperative to weaken them as much as possible before the engagement.

A Kokythiad and 4 flame spirits had been gathered on the Throne of Elements to benefit from its power and throw cheap powerful attack spells on the fortress. The Kokythiad, strong in water magic was ordered to cast a Murdering Winter which, given the Illwinter still raging over the world, would be particularly deadly. The Flame spirits on their part were to do what they knew best : rain fire on the ennemy and burn them to death. The Fire from Afar spell did that, and pretty well. It was estimated in the end that about 9 enemy mages out of 14 were killed in the process. A strong result that surely proved decisive in the battle that ensued …

However despite these very good results, when Kubrat the Bishop and his army finally shown up at the gates, they were for a suprise … they knew the enemy would probably send a few golems to reinforce the garrison but … 9 of them, 9 fully equipped battle golems, no, no one had imagined they could muster such a force !

Thankfully, the troops did not know exactly how strong these creatures were. They had already fought the giants of Agartha, so sure they were bigger, but so what ? The leaders on their part knew perfectly well what that meant and how these monsters could jeopardize the whole plan. However, they did their best to hide they fears and proceed as planned : that battle HAD to be won, it was an all or nothing. And, despite the surprise, there were still 2 Dis trained specifically to deal with them. Hopefully, they would isolate the golems and take them out one by one.

The first phase of the battle was a display of magic. Helheim’s battle plan was to use powerful battlefield spells, first to ensure the survivability of their troops and second to make sure the enemy would give up the fight as soon as possible.

The enchanters formed a communion along with the Crystal sorceresses and made their army a tough one to crack : Antimagic to protect them from enemy spells, Relief to ensure everyone would not fatigue out of a long battle, Thunder fend to protect the front line troops from the Thunderstrikes of the sorcerecesses, Fog warriors to make them almost impervious to non-magical weapons and Mass regeneration to sear the wounds of anyone injured in battle. And, last but not least, the fearsome Wailing winds began to roar in the enemy ears, instilling fear and terror in the enemy ranks.

On the other hand, the enemy magic was rather unimpressive, probably due to the fact that so much of their mages had been killed before the battle. Nonetheless, they still had a few tricks that proved challenging. First, they cursed the entire army of Helheim, Dooming them to bad luck for the rest of their lives. That was unfortunate, though just a minor advantage. Their best move came when they summonned about 200 giant insects that started to harass the wolves on the frontline.

This horde of little creatures wreaked havoc in the battle line, sometime surrounding a wolf and biting and stinging it to death. Indeed, the Jotun wolves had charged through the gates and were closing on the few mages and golems when they finally met the insects that stopped their advance. And while on one hand they were fighting the tiny stings and bites, they had on the other hand to face the giant clay creatures trampling them mercyless.

Many wolves died in the process … and when the riders and footmen finally arrived, it was a relief that finally helped to destroy the insects much faster and to concentrate on the clay giants. Indeed, the golem were really fearsome beasts, and equipped with such powerful magical items as they were, very difficult to destroy. Both the hirdmen and mounted hirdmen could but scratch they armor. If not for the tremendous strength of the Jotun wolves, these 9 monsters would have won the battle by themselves. Thankfully, the pure raw bestial strength of the wolves proved a strong match to the golems armor and they started to be slowly, but surely, dissassembled piece by piece.

Thanks to the Wailing Winds and the blood and death occurring all around them, the few enemy mages broke off one by one, letting the golems alone. Meanwhile, the 2 Dis appointed to deal with the golems had flown to meet them upfront. Skuld, a war hero from Agartha, tried her Moonblade against a golem with some success, but his counterattack was rather harsh and, badly injured, she flown off the battlefield.

Hleida on the other hand had another battle altogether. Alone in the middle of the enemy insects, she started to crush them with her huge Gate cleaver and soon, as they were scattered away, she began to do her dirty work. If the Gate Cleaver is such a heavy and cumbersome weapon, it’s for a good reason : it can slice through armor like butter. The main strength of the golems was their armor, so … like a lumberjack she did her job : chopping them off one by one.

At that moment, the battle seemed like it could go either way. The wolves had sustained heavy casualties and the 13 survivors looked unable to finish the 6 golems still standing. The golems for their part were trampling mercyless the hirdmen and mounted hirdmen that were dying like flies … thankfully, the sorceresses had started to invoke phantasmal warriors and phantasmal wolves, a good diversion to save the lives of the surviving warriors.

But the intervention of Hleida was the nail in the coffin. The poor golems looked powerless and, slowly, she cut them down one by one. After a while there was only one of them left in the middle of all the riders, footmen, wolves and phantasmal creatures. At this point most of the leaders were relieved as the battle was about to be won … So, in the middle of this carnage, Hleida made her last move and cut him in half from top to bottom. And that was it.

Hleida the Golem slayer, Hleida the blessed one, Hleida herald of Lord Kall, Saint Hleida … Never a being got so much love from so many people in such a short amount of time. Her name began to be praised and she became a revered saint all over the empire for the years to come.

After securing the fortress, healing the wounded and burying the deads, came the time to finish this war once and for all. The 3 bishops appointed to the former Therodos Thrones had already given their power to Lord Kall, along with the thrones of Ulm and Niefelheim. The Throne of the Moon was the last key, and Kubrat was charged to open it.