Entry #1
The Fall of Pranzis
What happened prior to our battle from within Pranzis hadlittle baring on the outcome of the battle in its self so I will spare any future readers the bore of hearing howwe sang and talked of war and valor before the largest battle of our lives. I will spare you the bore of hearing how we oranigzed our units before leaving Lorindar. Last, I will spare you the bore of reciting who I fought with. Names are not important, only the acts are. Let's skip ahead then...
We had separated our units into four troops. One at the Main Gate (West), one at the East Gate, one in the Merchant's Quarter and a small group at the Citadel to guard in the event of a breech. I, of course, was at the West Gate when the siege actually started. We were awaiting at the gates, the rumbling thud of thousands of dwarven boots, like the rolling and crashing of a mammoth wave or a low gutteral earthquake weaved it's way through the city. Fear struck the soldiers, gripping their minds with it's skeletal fingers as a booming voice struck through the city, "I am the herald for General Boerger who demands your unconditional surrender. It is unnecessary that lives be lost. Surrender and you will be spared."
I expected the self proclaimed "heroes" to hold fast and stand their ground against Bloodstone's General and was pleasently surprised to see that I had recieved nothing less than selfless courage as my ally in the battle. Though I care not for Pranzis to prosper, the war affects all beings of Layonara on one level or another and my people, however deep they dwell, are no exception. It may be in our best interest to have the city in the hands of Lord Boerger at this time, yet had Bloodstone not been killed it would have left him with a firm hold on the surface, thus at the time it was all I could do to attempt to fend off the General.
The voice boomed through the city upon recieving our answer and instructed us to await our deaths. As I have already stated, I was at the West (Main) Gate when the siege actually began. The walls of Pranzis were besieged with what seemed magic but could have most certainly been trebuches or catapults; I was not in a position to desphier which it was. Our barred gates held only so long however, and soon after the beginning of the assault they were breeched. With Matilda and Varka holding the front lines they had no chance of breaking through, the walls however, were already beginning to weaken and the troops were slowly becoming more and more demorilized as they began to understand our predicament.
Soon after the first assault, I was approcahed by Katrien Hommel and Varka Cleavesonwho insisted thatI help them both; Katrien, to helpher song's inspirational melodiesto reach more of the city and Varka, to help alott him magical protections that would grant him strength while fighting the General, whom he was to sneak out into theenemy encampmentto face. I helpedVarke first and then turned my attention to the morecomplex situation of Katrien's.It took several hours but after examining some arcane syllables for different "sounds" and percieving what the correct spell component would be, I was able to allow her song to permeate the entire city.
Not long after I finished the spell, we were once again beset by the grizzly beast that wasthe dwarven war machine.The soldiers of Pranzis could only look on in horror as aterrible phalanx of dwarven war axes, dripping with acidapprocahed our walls with fear of neitherelf norman nor death. It was a close and costly battle, one that lasted for hours, but eventually Matilda and her soldiers turned back the dwarven lines. It was at this time though that what little moral was left slipped through our fingers; the lifeless body of Varka was hurled back overwhat was left of our walls.
Our healers did what they could and were able to ressurect him, however the damage was done. It had been several days at this point, since the siege had started; our walls were weakening to the point where our archers could no longer patrol the ramphearts in places and towhere there were visible gaps in others, what few soldiers we had left were tired from lack of sleep, food and almost constant medical attention to the wounded and the civilians were of no help in the matters of war. Our "leaders" began to speak of what action would be taken next. Several people wanted to break the siege and assault LordBoerger's troops in the open, however, after some scrying done by Rhynn and my self with the aid of Katrien and Freldo, we realised that that was simply not an option.
It was decided that we would, instead, try to hold out against another assault before considering breaking the siege. Our walls still gave us an advantage against their greater numbers and to forgoe the use of such an advantage would have been foolish. Before the next assault was mounted by Lord Boerger's troops I left to check on the East Gate. It seemed what I arrived that they were doing well, however I quickly learned that they did have some problems early in the battle and were forced to fall back to a line of overturned wagons. It was apparently the quick thinking of a man named Pyyran, who manned a ballista after the first assault, that kept the East Gate standing strong.
It was perhaps half an hour before the third and what would become the final assault on Pranzis that I recieved a message from Matilda instructing me to send the commanders of the East Gate to her after our next fight. That was not to be. The Merchant's Quarter was breeched and those who defended it were forced to fall back to the East Gate. We made a stand there and were able to hold them off expecting at any moment for the East Gate its self to become flooded with troops. We were surprised to find that General Boerger had, instead, funneled more troops to the West Gate and mounted a heavy assault on it, leaving the East Gate alone entirely. The West gate fell and a flood of demons and dwarvestrampled through to our hold. I vaguely remember the command for retreat being called as I, in Slaad form, held off several demons at a time. We retreated to the Guild's District and observed our enemy as they reorganized for a final assault.
East Gate, West Gate, Merhcant's Quarter, all fallen. We fought our way, tooth and nail, though the Guild's District, making LordBoerger pay for every inch of ground he gained. Dwarves, rogues, masterfully crafted undead, a demons such as succubi and maraliths flooded the streets killing those who stood in their way. Pranzis had fallen.
