The Enemy of My Enemy [Ceaden]

[Joukaai]

The Enemy of my Enemy

"Bring war, pain, and suffering to those who have abandoned the way for they must be punished and you are our lash" - The Book of the Dragon.

Devils & Sea Demons. The word Hjaarlmarchen is oft whispered softly for fear that saying their name too loudly might draw them in. Coastal village myths of their deeds, religion, and capabilities abound and vary, often wildly exaggerating tales of giants appearing from the sea and slaughtering everything in sight. Like any myths however, there is always a grain of truth. The myths of the Hjaarlmarchen are no different. The oft called "devils" and "sea demons" while not actually demons, are quite deserving of the name. You see Hjaarlmarched are religiously obligated to bring suffering and devastation to others. Their creation story holds that after beings on the earth corrupted the paradise they had been given and betrayed the true gods, the Hjaarlmarched were created to punish them for it. Jarl Ulfric Oddgeir was especially devout in this idea.

He was the head of the Clan Oddgeir, a powerful but minor Jarl in the land of Hjaarlmarch. His People were hardy but had little to live on other than the fishing they did. To survive they had to fight. They pillaged and raided across the world, masters of the Hjaarlmarch raid tactics - Strength and speed. Their boats were easily twice as fast as any boat in the world and they were so lightly armed that they could move in and out faster than their victims could cobble together defenses. They seemingly appeared from the waves, raided, and left in an instant leaving behind the rotting carcasses of their victims and the burnt rubble of their homes.

Today, Jarl Ulfric and his men would make Shor well pleased. They set out on a raid campaign, to the far shores of Fardoor.

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"Brothers, today we shall bring the God's Wrath to the people of Fardoor. They are weak and disunited, their perversion stunts them and we shall reap the reward. We will take their ill gotten gains and make off with their women. For Blood and Glory!"

"For Glory and Blood!" rang out among the crowd of warriors.

With that the reign of terror would begin. The sea demons would emerge and bring death and destruction to Fardoor. They set sail on their longships. The god of the seas must have been smiling upon them because the winds came and guided the ships quickly and smoothly. The Jarl looked out from across his Drekkar. His mind wandered back to home and his family, this disturbed him however. In Hjaarlmarch culture thinking of home before entering a battle means you shall soon return there - dead or in shame. He paid little mind to such superstitions here however. He doubted these fractured peoples could put together a real fight against them. This would be a field day for him and his men, making easy pickings of the valuables along the coast. He saw the coins falling before his eyes. He had his mind set on a golden tankard with which to drink from.

Quickly and silently the small fleet and is charge of 300 warriors made its way to the shores of Fardoor. Each with rapacious intent. The law of the raid was the success of the raid was shared among the party, nothing was prohibited (besides stealing from or killing a Hjaarlmarchen), and everything was up for grabs - people, things, weapons, flags etc. If only the people knew their fate.

(Sorry about the short post but I didn't want to do anything too major yet, you can set your own stage and then we can move in. I think this can go small raid party goes in has success, locals begin to unite and push them out, I come back with even more troops, have success again, you all unite and we deem it unprofitable to battle your combined forces and leave?)

[Durmatagno]

(Yeah, thats what I was thinking. Sorry for the bad post, I got writers block)

Drake Daggari was the ruler of one of the six larger tribes in the land deemed Fardoor, a rough collection of squabbling lords wanting to kill the others to gain power, Drake however had a secret that he hoped would allow him to do what no other lord in the land had been able to do, unite the land. The secret he kept from the other rulers was his friend and mount, Yah'Men, a dragon sent by the gods to him to do their bidding and unite the land. Running his hand across the black scales on Yah'Mens back, Drake tapped his finger on his hammer as he looked out over the plains is walled tribe resided in.

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The village of Grundy

The few warriors the small tribe had were either sleeping or lounging on top of the small wall surrounding the village. The small stream bubbled around the rocks as the wind blew the hair of the old man sitting on the wall, looking out over the ocean, a deep longing feeling his bones as a small wave rocked the fishing boat out on the water. Slowly standing, his red robes and amulet seemed to hold a un-natural aura around him, and the studded staff in his hand seemed to glow slightly in the darkness. The grey clouds that had hung in the sky all day finally started to release their load, reducing how far one could see down to about ten feet. A few of the guards that hung around on the wall readied their cross-bows as rain was always the cover a neighboring village used to attack.

[Joukaai]

The skies released their burden upon the land in a fury. Jarl Ulfric was both delighted but perturbed by the turn of events. The added cover would improve their surprise but they had calculated their attack to coincide with the night. They did not require much more cover. The issue he had with the rain was that it would make burning the village... difficult but not impossible. He remembered the oil in the dragonships. He smiled devilishly. The rain would now not protect the city from flames, but feed them (link). The loss of some of the oil for his dragonships would be an acceptable sacrifice for punishing these people. The rain would also cover the noise of his already quiet oars allowing him to land even closer. The cover, plus the night, plus the noise from the rain would allow his men to almost walk into the settlement. There was a reason he was the admiral of the fleets. He beamed with a kind of reserved excitement, which his men fed on. He looked to his thane, "Fetch the oil from the dragonships. I thought Shor was testing me, he was and I have passed his little test, I believe he has now given us a boon..." The Jarl turned back around and watched the open sea as they approached the target.

Just as they had predicted, night came a little early tonight as a result of the season. The rain continued to fall. The archers wrapped their arrows in cloth and dipped them arrows in the oil and waited for the command to jump ship. The warriors eagerly armed themselves and watched the shore. The archers landed at the edge of the longbow's range, a considerable distance, and began the first phase of the plan - cause confusion. They set their arrows aflame with the special oil arrows, also enchanted with fire by the dragon cultist with them, and fired them. During this time the warriors landed even closer to the settlement. The arrows would burn intensely in the water-soaked village. People who suddenly find themselves looking at intense flames are usually quite distracted, particularly in the middle of a rainstorm at night where visibility is extremely limited. After waiting for a minute or so after the arrows landed and would begin distracting everyone inside, but not given them enough time to investigate, the warriors ran toward the village as silently as possible carrying ladders, but the rain and darkness would largely cover their approach. If the plan held they would seem to appear at or over the walls while the people were concerned with their village burning. The raid commenced and the age of the Hjaarlmarchen had come.

[Durmatagno]

The flaming arrows came out of the sky, many landing in pools of water, the old man raised his staff and slammed it into the ground, putting out some of the flames and catching more arrows mid air, the archers and warriors rushed to the wooden wall, many only wearing half of their armor, to try and find what was attacking them. "Selena has cursed us with this wretched rain-fall" the old man said to no one in particular as he weaved a spell around the village, nothing more than an illusion of the wood being stone and the warriors being twice their number. His spell was interrupted as a flaming arrow he missed exploded in a barrel of oil, setting seven small shops on fire. Villager ran around with sacks of sand to try and put out the fires, the water only seeming to make it worse and spread it faster.
The thirty archers spotted movement in the darkness, and let lose their arrows, most hitting only trees, five or so flying towards the group, the archers thinking they had only shot in the wrong direction.

[Joukaai]

The arrows that landed in pools of water erupted into flames, the water spreading the fires further burning the area. The effect of the burning on the village was an extremely advantageous one for the raiders due to simple science, light. The lights inside the village clearly (or as clear as could be expected) illuminated the village for people outside of it. People inside however, would have their night vision severely diminished (think of turning on a light in your car at night), just as the raiders had planned for. They could now watch the defenders but move under ever increasing protection - darkness from the night, the severely reduced visibility from the rains, the cover from the trees, and now the night-blindness of the defenders. Under these conditions anyone trying to hit a target at a range outside of a few feet was a futile endeavor for they couldn't feasibly see anything. The movement spotted by the warriors in their one minute dash to be under attack, on fire and battle the flames, and rush to the walls was an understandable error for in truth it was nothing but the rain. The attackers now, they could see the village due to the illumination and knew the general area of where the defenders were by previous knowledge of the villages location. The Hjaarlmarchen archers, not particularly aiming any where but continued firing in the angle of their initial volley, again with oil flaming arrows. The defenders, not knowing where the attack was coming from, would have had to spread out along the walls in order to view a wide area or they could have huddled together for collective protection against the attack. If the former was the case, the covered defenders would expose themselves and charge towards the nearest least defended area and begin to swarm in numbers in the lightly defended area, or if the former, find the area where they were not gathered and charge the wall unopposed. The berserkers would lead the charge up the ladders to quickly create a bridgehead. Whichever one, the battle would commence.

Ulfric was among the group and he continued to smile, Shor would grant him victory this day, he just hoped it wouldn't be too easy. Things were going perfectly to plan, the weather and time conditions had only improved his strategy. The terrain gave him further advantage. He only hoped his men remembered to defeat those inside before they would begin looting. While he was assured of his own victory, his father's warning came to his mind, "Don't be so overconfident. Live in the moment, you haven't won until your enemies are slain." He almost brushed it aside and pushed forward. Today would be his day of glory.

[Durmatagno]

The wizard gestured with his staff putting out a section of the flames while a you boy of maybe fourteen finished a chant and the water froze in mid-air, forming hundreds of icy daggers that flew out in all directions from the village, a bear roaring in pain out in the forest. A section of the wall that had only three men on it was quickly swarmed by whoever the enemy was, the men over there were wearing heavy steel plate with steel axes and iron tower shields, they would kill several men before forming a ring, pressed back to back to fight for as long as possible. Some of the flaming arrows impaled into the soldiers rushing about the wooden village trying to put out the fire, many of them dying while a lucky few managed to put themselves out and rejoin the defenders who were quickly forming a circle around the remaining villagers, many of which had grabbed their own weapons to assist in trying to repel the still unkown enemy, as they were dressed as none seen in this area before.

[Durmatagno]

The village lay in ruins on the ground as the raiders left with their spoils of war, the galleys from the cities on the port firming a wall around their area, blocking off any more raids without first receiving naval resistance. A united army now stood in the area that was once just a collection of squabbling tribes, Drake and his dragon easily cowing their neighbors with their power. With his hammer at his side, the cities were quickly walled off and the minor tribes moved into them, most of the builders in the land were set to building a fort on the border with a strange people who had raided that border many times throughout the month. Even as the embers of the village still burned, people were settling into a new life under one ruler and the more fair laws they were now subjected to. Farmers plowed in their fields, the military was still large, but with only one king not scared of being overthrown, disbanded quite a bit of the military and gave them their homes and small farms as promised to them upon sign up. With the village gone, plans were underway to turn that spot into a monument to celebrate to mighty warriors who continued to fight despite overwhelming odds against them, Fardoor had risen, and with it a uncertain future.