383YE Spring Equinox winds of war

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Mission

The Quayside

The Ships are ready! Splitting my legion, those eager to spill Grendle blood and free slaves set sail to Mareev. Raid those shores and break these chains. Slavery has no place in these lands and we shall see its end. Vetrans, for countless year we have fought and bled for this Empire, our Empire. My loyalty is to the throne, but also my nation, my kin. So I must give this order never given before... Raise our banners, join me in song. We march to Skarsind. My kin we go home. Be alert and hit and run foes that follow. Eat heartily and drink deep.

Morgor, General of the Winter Sun

The raid against Beoraidh begins on the quaysides of the Necropolis and Redoubt. With the Grendel armada anchored off Sarvos it is considered too dangerous to risk so many ships full of armed warriors passing beneath their gaze. For a short time a great forest of masts sprouts in the Bay of Catazar off Crown's Quay, Sanctuary, Elos, and Visten. These ports are not really equipped to cope with the huge number of vessels - and the soldiers who come to board them - but they do their best.

More than one-hundred-and-fifty ship captains outfit their vessels to transport armed soldiers - and rescued slaves - while some hundred-and-twenty-five heroic captains commit their warbands to the endeavor. The numbers of soldiers swell dramatically when three thousand Imperial Orc reavers arrive from the north. While the Winter Sun itself has marched home to Skarsind, nearly half the orc soldiers that make up its ranks have chosen to request furlough so that they can actively support liberation of slaves from the Grendel.

Several ships find they have additional crew. Any ship enchanted with the power of Golden Voyage discovers that they have gained half a dozen blue-skinned mariners with great fin-shaped ears and easy smiles - heralds of the Regent of the Eternal Sea eager to help support the daring raid against the Grendel. They are surprisingly strong and agile, but well versed in all the sailors arts, as well as bearing terrible weapons of gold and silver that they wield with adept skill. They are cheerfully up front about their wider duties - they are here to ensure the Imperial armada reaches its destination safely.

The Open Sea

Time is of the essence - the strike must take place before the Salt Lord of Beoraidh is able to complete the fortification of the town and while the slave markets are swollen with gladiators and raw "recruits". Less than a month after the Winter Solstice, the Imperial vessels set sail - a grand armada of mechant ships and corsairs following the coast east towards the Broken Shore.

The southern coast of Spiral is given a wide berth - unsurprisingly. The emanations of that place which lurks at the heart of Screed stretch some distance out to sea, it seeems, as well as assailing those on land. There are a few reports of hallucinations, and dark thoughts assailing sensitive sailors - but the Imperial ships do not take the risk of anchoring within sight of the rocky cliffs of the south-easternmost territory of the Empire. Instead, they hurry on toward their destination.

Some of the ships know these waters, having been involved in the original scheme to Map the Bay. They point out the ruined lighthouse that stands high above the water here. It is obviously Urizen in its construction, but now the broken walls shelter a large community of orcs. Still, despite the obvious damage, a single tall tower of white granite stands at its heart, topped with an immense globe of tempest jade. it is a powerful symbol, especially to the Urizen among the armada.

It also means that the orcs of the Broken Shore must now be aware of the storm that is coming. The sand begins to flow through the hourglass - the armada must reach Beoraidh as swiftly as possible before the Grendel are warned and able to prepare a reception for the Imperial force.

As with Spiral and Redoubt, much of the coastline of Mareave is composed of vertiginous rocky cliffs that offer no berth to ships and no place to disembark. Beoraidh itself represents the first real opportunity for the Imperial ships to unload their steel cargo. As the armada sweeps south, it encounters the first Grendel warships - pirates and privateers who engage the first Imperial ships with relish but who break and scatter when the true scale of the assault becomes clear.

The first sign that the ships are approaching Beoriadh is the great stone colossi that flank the crimson cascade the falls from the high cliffs south of the port. Then, rounding a headland, the wretched sprawl of their destination is finally visible.

The Port

Beoriadh is more a ruin than a town. Many of the older buildings are sunk into the waters of the Bay, some drowned so deep that no part of them pokes above the surface even at low tide. Others are only partially submerged, their roofs and upper windows connected with makeshift bridges of driftwood and rope. Despite its ramshackle appearance, the port swarms with life - thousands of orcs clearly make this drowning city their home. Above the city, on its landward side, the skeleton of a stone fortification rises, pale stone gleaming against the backdrop of dark eastern mountains. This is the nearly completed fortification that will defend the town and serve as a base of operations for protecting the entire territory, and the first target of the raid.

There are few actual sea defences to slow the ships in the bay - beyond the danger presented by submerged buildings of course. It might prove difficult for a naval force to approach the port, but the smaller vessels that make up the armada are much more comfortable navigating independently, and in tight quarters. The Freeborn ships take the lead - the corsairs who crew them particularly adept at navigating treacherous coastal waters. They are the first to gain the docks, and in a trice warriors of the Brass Coast and Imperial Orc reavers pour forth to secure a beachhead.

The town is not entirely unprotected however. Seven squat towers are scattered along the waterfront, garrisoned by warriors and topped by heavy ballista. As the alarm is raised - great iron bells tolling desperately - the ballistae are brought into play sending bolt after bolt against the attackers on the docks. Between the towers are two raised platforms of heavy stone - both partially sunk in the waters of the Bay - on which stand two great catapults facing out to sea. These present a much more significant danger to the armada. The orcs clamour to load them not only with stones, but with chainshot to shred sails and burning oil to set wooden hulls afire. They fire indiscriminately - barely concerned about hitting Grendel ships or half-sunken buildings - and score several crushing hits against Imperial ships before a combined force of League and Wintermark soldiers are able to reach them and smash them.

It falls to the soldiers of Highguard, Dawn, and the Marches to capture the garrison towers - all the while fighting against orc warriors who spill forth from their homes to engage in chaotic melee that soon engulfs the seaward side of the port. Yet the town itself is not the target of the raid. Once the docks are secured - more or less - the Imperial forces split up. Mariners and sailors focus on keeping the waterfront secure - turning the weapons atop the captured towers on any who try to push through - while the soldiers split into two groups.

One heads directly for the almost-completed castle, while the other dash quickly through the streets of Beoriadh heading for the colliseum and the slave camps that lie to the south-east.

The Castle

The fortification stands just outside the town, although there is already a cluster of new buildings rising outside its walls. The outer walls are mostly complete, with the large workforce slaving to complete a central keep. The overseers and soldiers who keep a wary eye on the construction would normally be little match for the large number of Imperial soldiers arrayed against them - but they have the advantage of a literal fortification albeit one that is not yet complete.

Indeed, once it is clear that the Empire is coming for the fort, the order is clearly given to close an bar the gates... but for some reason the gates stop moving before they are half closed. The first soldiers through the gate - a mixture of Imperial Orcs reavers and Urizen battlemages - quickly understand why. The slaves set to work building the fortification are in open rebellion against their oppressors. Those who can are quick to rally around their liberators - the majority are orcs but there are a few humans among their number. They know the castle and the keep intimately - having built it themselves - and despite their chains they courageously fight for their freedom.

Battle rages through the partially-complete structure, and blood slickens the white granite halls and courtyards. As the sun begins to fall into the west, the Imperial forces and their rebellious allies have been victorious. There is hurried talk of how best to take down the castle. Flames are the obvious weapon of choice, but what to fire? The answer is provided by one of the most outspoken of the slaves - a grizzled orc woman leaning on a blood-and-brain spattered mattock - who quickly leads the Empire to the supports holding key parts of the half-built fortification in place.

Working feverishly, the slaves who until only recently had been charged with building the castle set to work preparing to take it apart. More soldiers arrive - but this time it is the Empire that has the advantage of walls and gates. As the sun falls toward the horizon, the soldiers and slaves charge out through the gates, through the Grenddel soldiers trying to get 'in. As they escape, with a terrible groan the central keep begins to list to the side - fatally undermined - and then with a terrible roar it collapses, smashing through the wall as it does so, and as great plumes of smoke rise from the towers along the walls.

With some seven hundred orc slave-warriors in tow, the first assault team fights their way back to the docks as behind them the burning ruins of the Grendel castle provide a blazing beacon in the gathering twilight.

The Coliseum

Just to the southeast of the port stands the grand coliseum. A massive structure of white granite and precious weirwood, it is almost a castle in its own right. It is surrounded by rings of tents and smaller buildings - and by a great open-air slave market. The alarm has been raised, the orcs aroun the colliseum know that something is coming and they are prepared to meet it.

Again the Imperial Orcs lead the way - on land at least. Some of the corsair fleets make use of a narrow waterway that leads to a second, smaller set of docks just south of the coliseum itself, and release several hundred fresh warriors to capture the waterfront there. Here they also find signs that they are not the only human vessels at Beoriadh. A pair of Asavean galleys are moored at these docks. Their crews panic when they see the Empire - trying to escape through the Freeborn fleets. One of the ships founders, fatally holing itself below the waterline, but the other makes open water and escapes. The crew of the damaged ship are rescued - the slaves liberated as a matter of course - and it is quickly revealed that these are vessels belonging to the corrupt Tarquinius family of Nemoria, continuing to supply white granite to the Grendel to build their Beoriadh fort as they had done previously in Apulian - and trading human slaves to the Grendel to supplement their income.

While the Freeborn secure the docks, the main force of Imperial troops assaults the coliseum and the slave-cum-training camps that surround them. As with the castle, almost as soon as the assault begins the slaves and gladiators join the fray. They burn with fury, joining wherever possible with Imperial Orc reavers to take vengeance against their captors. The slaves in the camps fight with only their anger to sustain them at first but they soon wrest weapons from their Grendel opressors. The gladiators from the arena itself are a very different matter. Hundreds of trained fighters spill out of the pits beneath the coliseum and set about the spectators on the stands. Their weapons may be outlandish, and their armour designed as much as costume as protection, but their skills cannot be denied.

There are many wild beasts in cages beneath the coliseum as well - and someone releases them all. Cunning contraptions allow them to be raised to the arena floor, and several dozen wild cats, wolves, drakes and even a few mandowla are suddenly unleashed to add to the chaos. Their attacks are indiscriminate - they are as likely to attack slaves and Imperial soldiers as Broken Shore orcs - but for the most part they seem more interested in chasing down fleeing Grendel than engaging with armed warriors.

As the day draws on, it is clear that the victory lies with the Empire and their sudden allies. At around the same time that the skeletal fortification above the town begins to burn, the grand coliseum likewise is set aflame. The weirwood burns quickly, but even more effective are the fires set in the chambers beneath the structure which quickly spread and begin to collapse large parts of the arena. The fire swiftly expands, burning the camps that ring the colliseum as the Empire and their new allies retreat back toward Beoriadh itself.

The Escape

The defenders of Beoriadh continue to harry Imperial soldiers as they make for the docks. The two halves of the assault force come together on the waterfront, catching the Broken Shore orcs between themselves and the mariners occupying the quayside. They force their way through, and begin the chaotic loading of orc slaves onto ships. Some do not want to come - inspired by the soldiers of the Winter Sun they want to stay in Beoriadh and continue to fight - but some two and a half thousand orcs scramble aboard the Imperial ships.

As each hold fills, that ship pushes west into open water to make way for another vessel. As quick moving Navarr skirmishers move back and forth between the quayside and the town, striking at the Broken Shore orcs and then retreating to safety, bands of brutal Varushkan warriors stand guard over League saboteurs who set a number of fires in the garrison towers. Expertly laid, a wall of flame soon begins to spread forcing the Grendel warriors to break off from their attack on the quayside or risk seeing their entire town consumed in a conflagration.

The last ships out are Imperial Orc vessels, wallowing heavy in the water with their holds groaning with slaves and soldiers alike, ready for the long journey back to Necropolis. As they sail north, two great columns of black smoke rise into the star-studded skies, marking the destruction of the Grendels' new fortification and their grand colisseum - and perhaps their immediate plans to invade the Empire.

Perhaps.

The Aftermath

The Imperial armada makes Redoubt without encountering any further Grendel. Indeed, they enjoy excellent sailing winds - the best possible weather in fact - for their swift retreat back to Imperial waters. Even the malign presence of the Black Plateau is not sufficient to dampen the high spirits of the victorious humans and orcs.

A small handful of ships, their crews, and their cargos are unaccounted for - the heralds of Rhianos aboard several ships are a little cagey and will only say that adventures can sometimes take an unexpected turn. They quickly change the subject, preferring to dwell on the great adventure they and their Imperial friends have just enjoyed, eager to gather stories of risk and reward from as many of the ships as they can.

There are plenty of such stories - but some with a more mysterious timbre. For example, the slave-workers at the castle cannot give a clear explanation for how they knew the Empire was coming, nor who first suggested that this was their chance to fight free. Nobody from the coliseum can guess who freed the animals from their cages, nor set the mechanisms going that raised so many of the beasts to the floor of the arena. Some of the wilder coincidences can be laid perhaps at the door of Rhianos but most seem too subtle to be the work of the Regent of the Eternal Sea.

In addition there are a handful of stories of orcs nobody knew urging their compatriots to take up makeshift weapons - and that those weapons seemed almost preternaturally effective at breaking chains and slaying slave overseers. A few of these items - mostly clubs - bear odd lingering traces of Spring magic enchantment when examined by magicians.

A few soldiers and sailors talk of a more spiritual experience. Of being seized with the absolute certainty that tearing down the slave-masters, and freeing their slaves, was unqestionably the right thing to do. Their eyes burn with passion when they speak of it - of how they had never really understood the true evil of slavery before but now they had seen it with their own eyes they would do anything to end its grip of the world forever. A few who experience these bursts of insight quit their commissions, or their crews, with half-formed plans of finding some cause to give their support to.

Regardless of strange experiences during the raid, the Empire has achieved its objectives and more. The castle is in ruins, the Grendel training grounds scorched to the ground, and thousands of orcs freed from bondage.

Unlike the slaves freed from Dubhtraig, there is no question where these gladiators and slave-warriors are going. Apart from a bare handful, these twenty-five-hundred orcs (and most of the human slaves for that matter) accompany the Winter Sun reavers north to Skarsind. They are enthusiastic about their new homes, and about the chance to serve alongside their liberators. It may take time, but once the Imperial Orcs have gained more territory, they will be able to field a third army whose hard core will be former slaves who know what it means to fight for their freedom - and who owe a debt of gratitude to the Empire for bringing them their liberty.

Game Information : Beoriadh

The raid on Beoriadh has been a complete success. The Grendel fortification there has been destroyed and must begin again, and the Broken Shore orcs will not be able to raise an army in Mareave for the next year.

The Imperial Orcs numbers have been swelled by two-and-a-half thousand warriors, and several hundred more orcs who are not fighters but who are keen to embrace their way of life. Escorted by the Winter Sun orcs from Necropolis north along the Blood Red Roads, they are ready to begin new lives in Skarsind.

Everyone who took part in the raid has received shares of the Imperial Guerdon, but no other rewards beyond the knowledge that they have struck a serious blow against the Grendel and freed thousands of slaves from bondage.

Any human character whose military unit or fleet supported the raid is free to roleplay that they had a profound spiritual epiphany during the raid. In game terms, they were enveloped by a spontaneous aura that gave them a profound sense that they were doing something righteous, heroic, or courageous in fighting to free the slaves of the Broken Shore. While that aura lingers for a time, it will have faded completely by the beginning of the Spring Equinox event.

Imperial orc players will not have experienced this peculiar ephiphany. Instead they are encouraged to create stories of hearing the voices of their ancestors during the raid urging them to fight to free the orc slaves. Any such orc may continue to hear such an ancestor clearly from that point on - representing a connection to one of those slave voices that are more often impossible to distinguish from the storm of angry slaves. Such an ancestor is unlikely to like humans very much, but that hatred is likely to be secondary to strongly encouraging their descendant to free orcs from slavery.

In addition to these immediate effects, some more durable auras have been observed on weapons used to fight the Grendel. Anyone whose military unit or fleet supported the Raid of Beoraidh action can e-mail plot@profounddecisions.co.uk and request one of these ribbons which will be available in their pack at the event. The deadline for these requests is midnight on Monday 10th. This opportunity is available only to people who took the appropriate downtime action; please do not e-mail in to request one of you did not take this action.