Under heaven

The Jotun will not give up the wealth of Skallahn without a fight.

Dark Clouds Gather

The heroes who will take part in the second Skallahn raid come to the Marches and to Wintermark. At Odd's End and Westerhal they gather, grim faced or jocular as suits their temperament. For some it is a chance to catch up with old friends, for others a chance to renew old rivalries. The earlier raid was turned back, but it paved the way for a more serious attempt to take war to the homes of the Jotun, to give them a "taste of their own bad cooking" as one Marcher puts it.

The raid commences just as the first black clouds are sleeting across the sky, the apocyan sea a mirror to the brooding sky, as the supernatural storm breaks in rumbling thunder and snapping lightning. The heat of the great drought is broken, but the deluge that follows will be just as devastating in it's way. The mystics suggest this is a good omen - to ride on the wings of the storm against the foe. The more practical people of the Marches roll their eyes and suggest that perhaps now is just a good time to be away from Imperial shores.

Some of the Winterfolk vessels gathered at Westerhal are joined at the last minute by small bands of quiet hunters and fishers attired in the Suaq style. Armed with ivory spears, they are a civil bunch, soft spoken, but not especially communicative. They are the people of the lakes - the hylje. Though they are few in number their understanding of the way that water and wind move together allows them to provide valuable aid to those they travel with. Yet just before the raid begins, a mystifying message dances like beacon flames between the warriors. "Anyone who falls overboard will be prey for the cousins of the hylje," it says. "Use ropes, use nets, pull our people from the water as fast as you can but do not compromise the raid." A strange, somewhat disheartening way to start the raid, and one that perhaps raises more questions - questions the hylje refuse to answer.

The priests of the two nations have chosen a raid leader - the Marcher Orrick of House Boholt - and on their signal the ships and boats begin to move across the Gullet towards the shores of Greenwall. With the storm at their back, the warships, trading vessels, and repurposed fishing boats set out across the Gullet. The Jotun have raided the Empire many times throughout history; now they will see what it is like to be on the receiving end.

People of the Empire, and allies. We are travelling to Skallahn to deal a blow to the Jotun. We give thanks to Ergot and the other brave souls who blazed the trial last season. We also thank the Quay Stone, and Casper of Wintermark for all their work in making this raid happen. The Mediator, and Imperial Fleetmaster also have my thanks for their work, plus so many others who have worked to make this a reality.

We strike the Jotun not only to take their production, but for a chance to disrupt the entire Western front and speed the return of Bregasland and Semersuaq to Imperial hands. I dedicate this Raid to all those of ours under the Jotun yoke- this is for you, hold fast the Empire has not forgotten you.

Orders have gone to the fleets and military units. It is time to sail and bring the might of the Empire down on the Jotun.

Orrick of House Bolholt, Skallahn raid leader

All That Glitters

The strategy is straightforward; the host of champions and warriors will alight on the beaches of Greenwall, there to ravage across Skallahn. They will favour military targets - the thralls will not be touched and places dedicated to the Jotun ancestors will be spared. Those ships capable of doing so will continue along the coast, to Bjarkey and Keirheim, attacking Jotun boats and striking against settlements on the shore. When the season begins to turn, the raid will turn with it, regrouping in Greenwall, embarking on the returning vessels, or retreating into West Marsh via the shallow straits that separate Skallahn and Kallavesa. Whatever happens, there will not be another chance to raid Skallahn. The Jarls are cunning; they will take steps to ensure than any future invasion of their territory will need to be backed with armies. Skallahn may be a patchwork territory, with each region ruled over by its own Jarl, but in the face of external threat they will put aside their rivalries and come together under the banner of Ustigar of Keirheim.

The disembarkation proceeds without difficulty despite the limited number of places along the coast that the Imperial ships can safely reach. Hundreds - thousands - of Imperial champions alight on the shores of Greenwall and immediately begin to move inland. For a territory on the border with the Empire, Greenwall is surprisingly vulnerable. Dominated by large grazing lands given over to herds of cattle on the lowlands and sheep on the hillsides, scattered with crofts and farms. This is a region of thralls, not of warriors. The farmers and fisherfolk flee or hide - they do not take up arms under any circumstances - but they light beacon towers to warn their masters that there is danger. It is perhaps a shame that the beacons cannot communicate the scale of the danger to the Jarl and his warriors, who arrive expecting perhaps a few hundred raiders to encounter many times that number of organised, methodical attackers.

The Jotun are taken by surprise - the idea that the Empire might follow a defeated raid with another, larger raid, has apparently not occurred to them. The smithies, the forges, and the smattering of mines in the region are all attacked by Imperial warbands. The warriors of Jarl Asbjørn Dalgaard do their best to try and face the attackers but they are outnumbered and overwhelmed. The Jarl's hall on the border with Iron Strand is attacked, looted, and burnt. Jarl Asbjørn himself falls in battle against a warband of Imperial Orcs - although whether he is slain or survived his grievous wounds is impossible to say with any certainty.

From Greenwall, the raid proceeds into Iron Strand and Ulfrsmoor. They fight across open plains, rolling moors, and gentle hills. It is the height of Summer - the days are long and warm and bright, and the nights short. While Jarl Asbjørn's warriors might not have been able to hold the raiders' advance - barely slowing it in fact - they have provided time for the warriors of Jarl Ebbe and Jarl Alvilda to gather their households, to send word to those champions who owe them loyalty or who revel in the opportunity to fight Imperial heroes.

Near the centre of Iron Stand lies the ruins of the Iron Banner - the fortification established by Emperor Guntherm when Imperial armies sought to conquer Skallahn. Some Winterfolk warbands in particular make a point of traveling to the site - and to the town of Overgaard that surrounds it, and the fortified hall of Jarl Ebbe built in the shadow of the ruins. They do not enter the town - not because of its low walls but because they are not here to raid merchants, or herbalists, or farmers but to strike at the Jotun's ability to make war on the Empire. They withdraw before the Jotun are even aware they are present.

Likewise, the raiders give the temple of Ulfrskelf, and its rich herb gardens, a wide berth. Instead, the knights and yeofolk of Dawn lead the way in a daring raid against the great quarry of the Broken Chasm. The thralls flee; the small garrison here has been heavily reinforced by warriors loyal to Jarl Alvilda Ottesen with competently-made barricades strewn along all approaches. Here the raid falters for a few moments; the initial attack repulsed by the Jotun defenders. Jarl Ebbe of Overgaard sends warriors south to aid Alvilda, attacking the Imperial forces from the flank. It is not enough - as more and more raiders gather, they eventually overrun the defenders, shatter the barracks, and manage to seize temporary control of the Chasm - enough time to loot wagon loads of precious white granite. From there, it is only a short march to Ulfrshal - the castle of Jarl Ottesen. Pursuing the defenders of Broken Chasm, a short siege ensues before the gates are breached and the Jarl's storehouses looted.

Not everyone is interested in the Broken Chasm and Ulfrshal, of course. Other raiders race across the moors to the hills of Eyrarfell where they encounter serious opposition. Jarl Gilla Sverrisdóttir is a veteran of four decades of war with the Empire, and her heavily armoured ulvenwar are more than ready to face the Imperial raiders. There is a real danger of being overwhelmed here - but the rewards more than justify the risk. There is no chance of overcoming the defenders of Einarshal - but threatening one of the most prosperous Jarls in Skallahn will send a salutary message to the others that none of them are safe from the Empire. Eyarfell is dotted with deep delving mines that pull great wealth from the bones of the earth, and the raiders hit almost all of them. Sometimes they are driven back; just as often they are able to break through the defences, loot the precious ores, and escape before Jarl Sverrisdóttir's forces arrive. The Jarl herself, an old rival of Ustigar of Keirheim, is said to be filled with a cold fury at the temerity of the Imperials - a rage tempered only slightly by her grudging respect for their audacity.

This includes the Shining Caverns. It would be folly for even an organised band of raiders to attempt an attack against the great mithril mine that stretches beneath the mountains of north-western Eyrarfell. There is little time left to plan such a raid, not if the attackers wish to get out of Skallahn with their lives and their loot. Some Navarr scouts who do get close report that the normal garrison has been swollen by several hundred troops sent south by the Jarl of Tromska and his allies. Unfortunately for the Jotun, the caravans and storehouses that support the mine are vulnerable to attack. A great deal of mithril is liberated, and warriors that might otherwise have been free to engage the raiders in the passes and the foothills forced to remain at the mine to ensure it is not breached.

Likewise, Steelweaver's Crucible is threatened but not sacked. A vast forge at the foot of a great mountain, the Crucible is built on a scale that dwarfs anything found in the Empire. The forges run day and night, and even with the threat of attack from Imperial raiders thralls labour tirelessly to provide weapons and armour for the Jotun armies. As with the Shining Caverns, the defenders garrisoning the Crucible are reinforced by additional Jotun - this time with orcs from the west arrayed alongside those of the Jarls of Tromska and Skallahn. Yet there is still ample opportunity for savvy raiders to seize some of the wealth that flows from the forges here.

In the end, the raid into the heart of Skallahn is a resounding success. At the appointed moment, the Imperial champions pull back toward the borders, ready to meet up with the boats and ships that will carry them safely back to the Empire, laden down with the wealth they have taken from the Jotun.

Gauntlet and Sentinel

While the warbands of the Empire sweep through Greenwall, Iron Stand, Ulfrsmoor, and Eyrarfell, the ship captains surge along the coast. There is no doubt that they entirely dominate the Gullet for a season - a few of the more daring captains even brave the northern coast of Hordalant. The Jotun are not a seafaring nation. Their boats are almost always built for fishing or transporting warriors. There is precious little in the way of a naval force to resist the Imperial ships. Instead, engagements tend to go the same way. The thralls immediately flee for shore, and the sturdy defences of the towns and villages. Even many of the smaller settlements have defences strong enough to see off casual raiding - catapults, sea walls and the like - and all seem to be built with a sturdy keep or tower where the thralls can take shelter from a more committed raid. Most of these defences are very old, however. Indeed it's not clear who they are supposed to protect against - the Winterfolk and the Marchers are no more given to raiding coastlines than the Jotun themselves.

Furthermore, most Imperial captains are careful not to unnecessarily sink thrall-crewed boats. They are not here to kill the fisherfolk, after all. As much as anyhting they are here to show the Jotun that they do not control the Gullet - and in that regard there is no doubt as to their success. Imperial fleets bedevil Jotun boats the length of the Skallahn coast, culminating in a lightning raid against the docks at Kierheim itself.

This latter is one of the riskiest endeavours of the entire Skallahn raid. Keirheim is a fortified city, the heart of Jarl Ustigar's power, and the ruler of Keirheim is also the defacto ruler of Skallahn and one of the most powerful leaders of the entire Jotun people. Yet he is also taken by surprise. With most of his attention focused on the raiders threatening Steelweaver's Crucible, or sacking the Broken Chasm, he is apparently blindsided by the attack against his own city. He is not slow to respond however. While the Imperial fleets are able to rush past the long white-granite arms of the seawall that surrounds the mirror-clear bay they are unprepared for the siege weapons that are immediately brought to bear on them, nor for a series of surprisingly ingenious chains and barbed hull-ripping metal bars that are raised across the bay. Great iron bells toll a warning as soon as the Imperial ships approach, sending thralls fleeing the waterfront but calling hundreds of Jotun to the defence of the quayside.

There are not only Jotun vessels here - noticeable among the small number of warships and the many fishing boats seeking refuge here are half-a-dozen sleek Grendel trading ships. They raise flags announcing their neutrality as soon as they become aware of Imperial ships, hurriedly gathering their crews and their merchants back on board. They make no effort to fight alongside their fellow orcs, and are clearly ready to flee the city if it looks as if the Empire means to include them in its attack against their hosts. For the most part they watch, impassively, crossbow, sword, and shield at the ready, as the fighting spreads across the docks and into the lower streets of the Jotun city.

The fighting is intense - a match for any of the similar encounters between Jotun and Imperial warriors on Iron Stand or Ulfrsmoor. Warehouses and trading ships are looted but there is absolutely no opportunity to damage the city itself. By the time the raiding ships are ready to pull back - the waters around the docks full of the bobbing corpses of orcs and humans alike - the Jotun have brought many of their peculiar sea defences into play. Only the most cunning captain makes it out of the bay below Keirheim without at least some damage to their ship. There is a great deal of speculation in the weeks that follow as to why, exactly, Keirheim has such an intense fear of being attacked from the sea.

One possible explanation - and the answer to the questions raised by the strange message sent by the raid marshall before the attack began - might be to protect against the "cousins of the hylje". They make their presence known during the attack on Keirheim, and from that point on are present at every major struggle between Imperial and Jotun. Most of them take the form of sleek black-and-white orca, or stocky dolphin-like creatures twice the length of a human with a light covering of pale, downy fur. A few appear as nothing Imperial sailors have seen before - blunt torpedoes of flesh and bony carapace capable of splintering the hull of a warship by ramming it at incredible speed.

Yet these are not beasts. They are in truth the cousins of the hylje and the "people of the salt" are just as bloodthirsty and terrible as the people of the lakes had hinted. Sometimes they take on the form of half-naked orcs - or occasionally humans - armed with savage bone greatspears or terrible harpoons. In beast form they try to kill and eat anyone who falls into the water - they are not fussy about whether their prey is human or orc. In human form, they revel in bloodshed, often luring their opponents into following them into the water where the foe has little time to appreciate what a mistake they have made. A few use a particularly cruel tactic where they assume human form in the water, and hurl their barbed harpoons into oblivious sailors, dragging them off the deck of the boat and to a watery demise. They don't use this tactic against Imperial mariners - not in this raid at least. The hylje clearly hate them and the feeling is obviously mutual. But the Jotun, for the most part, are terrified of them. The presence of a pod of these ravenous marine shapeshifters is enough to send a crew of thralls into a panic that, tragically, often leaves them easy prey for these dreadful predators.

They are there at Keirheim, and in the scattered engagements that follow, and they are also there when the Empire begins to dismantle the Kongegőr - the land bridge that connects Narkyst and Kallsea by linking Skallahn and Hordalant to the south. There is no single coordinated attack here, not like the assault on Keirheim. Rather individual captains or groups of captains - lead by the WInterfolk and the Marchers - attack the defences all along its length. Bridges are destroyed, watchtowers and garrisons overwhelmed, and a thousand years of infrastructure dedicated to allowing the armies of the Jotun to walk across the gullet are torn down.

These attacks ultimately spell the end of the raiding by sea - in response to an assault against the vital bridge between north and south the Jarls of Hordalant finally respond. Their warriors join those of the Jarl of Keirheim in defending the Kongegőr. The initial successful attacks are followed by several more that are turned back by the orcs - but the damage is done. It will be months of work to repair the destruction the Imperial captains have caused, and it will cost a fortune to do so. The raid also forces the Jarl of Keirheim to focus all his forces on defending the Kongegőr - preventing him from sending more than a token force to support those Jarls besieged by the Imperial war captains.

As the tide begins to turn, and the season with it, there is a brief moment of time where it is too dangerous to attack the Kongegőr, where the fishing fleets are unassailable, where the remaining coastal settlements are simply too well defended to raid, when the Empire utterly dominates the Gullet. Some of the fleet captains return to Greenwall - to begin the task of ferrying their land-bound fellows and their loot back to Westerhal or Odd's End. Others, though, push west past the Kongegőr into the Sea of Snow.

Some Marcher and Winterfolk captains are familiar with this great expanse of frigid water - they have passed through it before on expeditions to distant lands. Those captains whose ships normally berth on the Bay of Catazaar must have passed through the sea on their way to the rendezvous in Kallavesa, in Mitwold, but they do not spend any more time here than they have to. All agree that it is not a welcoming expanse of water, and captains know to move through it quickly. There are too many stories of ships that simply disappeared into its ice-haunted depths - and the cause of those disappearances has never really been examined. Imperial cartographers know very little about the Sea of Snow. There is at least one more Jotun territory here, out beyond Skallahn and it is believed that there is a navigable passage through the choking ice that might allow a small number of ships to reach the coast of Otkodov - yet there are few concrete facts about the western coast of the Empire's landmass.

The cousins of the hylje at least seem at home here. There is a kind of malicious glee in the voices of those who encourage Imperial captains to push on, to explore the Sea of Snow with them. An edge of threat as well, and no captain is foolish enough to travel far beyond the Gullet in the company of these dangerous allies. Yet the stark beauty of these rime-bound waters cannot be denied. The skies are clear, and there is an awe-inspiring frozen majesty to the slow-moving mountains of ice caught in the gentle illumination of stars and the dancing lights of the far north. Easy to become entranced, to lose track of time, to slowly freeze to death without ever really noticing...

The ships that push past the Kongegőr also report odd encounters with numbers of actual orc warships. There aren't many of them, they seem extremely cautious, and their designs are unfamiliar, but it seems there are at least a few orc warriors in the west who are not so terrified of the sea that they will not risk it. There are no engagements - the orcs flee rather than face the overwhelming force of the Imperial navies - but they are there. Those captains who encounter them suggest that they are scouting the extent of the large force that has so brazenly taken control of the Gullet.

Regardless, the time has come to pull back. The raid at sea has been an unmitigated disaster for the Jotun and a grand triumph for the Empire and their allies. There is little difficulty evacuating the raiders from the shores of Greenwall - ending the raid proves significantly less fraught than starting it. One of the more significant threats facing some of the ships is that, laden down not only with exhausted warriors but with the treasures they have looted from the forges, smithies, mines, and quarries of Skallahn, they risk running aground in the shallow waters of the Marcher and Wintermark coastline. Which is, as one Freeborn corsair points out, an undeniably good problem to be having, in the long run.

Game Information

Wealth

The raid has been a resounding success. In addition to the basic wealth they are able to recovery, every military unit and fleet that takes part in the raid will receive an additional 4 ingots of random materials, 2 measures of random forest materials, 2 ingots each of green iron, weltsilver, and orichalcum, 20 rings in valuable goods, and a pouch of warm ashes. Each fleet gains the above additional wealth, but also gains another 20 rings and 2 ingots or measures of random metals or forest materials.

Military units and fleets also have a chance to gain one of the 20 wains of white granite, 10 wains of weirwood, 10 wains of mithril, and 5 rings of ilium. The raid marshall receives 5 wains of white granite, 3 wains of weirwood, 10 ingots each of green iron, weltsilver, and orichalcum, 10 measures of warm ashes, 5 wains of mithril.

War

Disruption to this wealthy territory means the Jotun will be unable to carry out either natural or emergency resupply, nor raise a new army for two seasons following the Autumn Equinox (that is, until the Spring Equinox 385YE). Furthermore, the damage done to the Jotun defences means that until the end of the Autumn Equinox 385YE, Imperial armies will require one fewer victory point to capture Greenwall should they decide to attack Skallahn.

Although the Jarl of Kierheim knows about the spy network in Skallahn, the chaos in the wake of the raid will mean he will be unable to do anything about it before the start of the Winter Solstice 384YE at the earliest. This creates an opportunity for the Imperial Senate or the Imperial Spymaster to take advantage of the confusion to extend their intelligence gathering operations into any territory in Kallsea at a cost of only 5 weirwood for each spy network as long as the Skallahn spy network persists.

Along the length of the Kongegőr, the raiding fleets have fired bridges, burnt watchtowers, and inflicted lasting damage on the causeway. Armies moving between Skallahn and Hordalant will need to stop as soon as they reach the other territory, greatly restricting the ability of the western orcs to move their armies between the northern and southern theatres. It will take at least six months for the Jotun to repair the Kongegőr and will cost them a significant amount of white granite and weirwood.

However, the Jotun are also alert to the threat of future raids - or of actual invasion. As such, the Jarls of Kallsea are likely to begin making preparations to resist such an invasion. Furthermore, the northern Jarls are furious about the attack - while they might appreciate the daring they will not let it go unanswered. What form that answer will take remains to be seen.

Wonders

As detailed in the Take it further wind of fortune, the statement of principle by the Marcher assembly, and the success of the raid, means that Jarvey "Strongoar" Oddsboy, the steward of the small Marcher household who oversees Steward's Landing, has been able to put their plan into action. Oddsboy and his fellow coastal stewards have scouted out the waters of the Gullet sufficiently that they can turn Steward's Landing into a permanent staging post for Marcher ship captains - such as they are - to raid the coastline of Kallsea and take the wealth of the Jotun. This creates a permanent option, available only to Marcher fleet captains, to raid settlements and boats along the Gullet during downtime securing both valuable metals and money.

Also as mentioned in the wind of fortune, the Winterfolk of Westerhal in the West Marsh helped transport warriors into Skallahn. They believe that it would be possible to transform Westerhal; with the support of Winterfolk war-vessels, their fishing boats can now fish the rich waters of the western and northern Gullet, and bring in a great deal of Prosperity to western Kallavesa. This creates an opportunity to give Wintermark fleet captains a permanent downtime option to Escort the Fisherfolk of Westerhal, an action that will reliably generate money and small amounts of magical metals taken in battle from Jotun sailors.

Finally, there will be an opportunity during the Autumn Equinox for the Imperial Senate to commission Imperial fleets to scout the seas west of the Empire, along the coastlines of Kallsea, Narkyst, and potentially the Faraden lands, as they once did with the Bay of Catazar. This opportunity will be presented in the Autumn Winds of Fortune.