The Battle of the Snowflake Keep

[Karyete]

Karyete rose, and called out, "8 soldiers and 2 mages! Follow me to the hill. We're the first line of defence."

Followed by his squad, Karyete walked briskly towards the hill.

[Megar]

"No words, huh?" Robin grins, stepping outside. He starts trying to put out his orders, but snow ends up getting in his mouth. He pulls the scarf he's wearing over his mouth in response to it. "That's better." He remarks, his voice slightly muffled. "Okay, so! I'm no good at commanding, that's not my thing."

Robin calls for two bowmen, two mages, and then six lightly armoured knights to go along with him. "As I said, not good with commanding so I've not the most complex stategy. The knights and I are gonna go forward, I want the bowmen and mages to cover our advance, one on each side of us. If you mages have any sort of defense enhancing spells, now's a good time to use them. Try and help the bowmen get better shots, while you're at it." After any mage prepararations are done, he looks at the knights. "Next up, us lot. We're going to blitz them, but don't go so fast you get tired. Let's roll!"

And so they head off.

[1018peter]

CONFRONTATION

Spoiler: show

The Decemian bowmen fired hundreds of arrows at the same time, wait no, thousands, tens of thousands! They're duplicating in midair! The arrows, cloaked by the blinding snow, weren't noticeable until they were just a few meters away from their targets!

The Novemian bowmen hastily hid behind the wall, but several of them weren't able to evade in time and were wounded! They're now being sent to the military surgeon. Karyete's squad noticed the arrows flying over them, but luckily, they're not the intended targets. The squad advanced, and it wasn't long till they went face to face with Robin's squad.

Robin's bowmen and Karyete's mages exchanged blows. The mages cast fireballs at the bowmen and hit them first. The bowmen's arrows were handicapped by the height disadvantage, and were not able to land clean hits, only able to glaze their targets. Luckily, the bowmen were clad in shield spells, halving the damage dealt, but the knockback still persisted.

Robin's mages saw the bowmen getting pushed back, and quickly fired several jolts of lightning at the opposing mages, stunning them and netting an opportunity for the knights to advance. The knights took it and clashed with Karyete's knights, but the height and number disadvantage made progress difficult. It was a deadlock!

Meanwhile, Kerri's bowmen regained momentum and returned fire to the Decemian bowmen. Although, the snow hinders their accuracy, causing less arrows than expected to reach their targets. Some Decemian bowmen, lacking any cover, were wounded by the arrows. They too were sent to the military surgeon. Perhaps, you should fire at closer targets?

[Megar]

"Bowmen, finish their mages off while they're stunned! Mages, help me out with assisting our knights." Robin nods to himself, heading over to engage one of the enemy knights with his electified sword. He hoped that, in the meantime, his knights' hopefully superior agility allowed them to gain the upper hand.

[Harmless]

(I meant to make this post last update but then i had to leave for a few hours to work on storage stuff...)

Harmless thinks for a minute.

Holding the gate, huh?

Looking over his 10 soldiers with spartan-like shields and 5 foot spears, a thought comes to his mind.

You know... I could actually imagine forming a wall with these guys.

Harmless brings his men outside, rallies them in a horizontal line, and stands in front of them, walking back and forth while giving his speech.

"Iron shields, fine spears, sturdy bodies and clear minds - The perfect foundation for a solid defense. Nothing matches that more than all of you, soldiers." Leader Harmless takes a pause and stops walking, glancing to the soldiers. "But of course - We can do so much better than that. I'm only going to say this once, so listen up."

"Our primary objective is to make sure the gate stays intact. Nobody - and I mean NOBODY is allowed to go through it. As for how we will protect it, we will be using Phalanx formations. Raise your shields high, keep your spears pointed forward, and balance your posture. I'll be providing cover fire with my Crossbow, picking off ranged targets. Only should I give a command will you break off from your formation.

Should we receive artillery fire, you will bunker with shields protecting yourselves overhead. We will not retreat - Keeping this chokehold is vital to our defense. Understand?"

-After the soldier's reply...-

"Good. Let's move out, on me!"

Leader Harmless mobilizes his squad to reinforce the Novemian forces. Should he receive the opportunity to flank, he will change his tactics accordingly.

[Vajrin]

"Ok my bowmen, you should take a rest here. My knights and mages, come on!" Damien's knights sit on the steed. His soldiers and himself cloak themselves with snow. They run into Novemian's gate. "CHARGE!!!" Damien put his Dreamcather Talisman and cast magical shield for his soldiers and Robin's. He also tries to cast the blinding spell on Novemian's soldiers, making them can't see anything (for a while). Mages cast fireball on Novemian's soldiers and knights intensely strike the gate.

[NanTheDark]

Here's a map I made to make things clearer for myself at least...



"So begins our little dance. Bowmen, fire away! Mages, think you can imitate that double arrow trick?"

The Bowmen shoot Robin and his troops. If possible, the Mages will imitate said double arrow trick to double our Bowmen's damage output.

"Harmless, everything ok down there? I got some nice tunes to spare ♪"

Kerri plays a tune to buff Harmless's next action.

[Oranjui]

Name: Weasel
Gender: Female

In truth, it had been meant as a cruel mockery of her meagre appearance by her foster siblings several winters ago, and yet she had grown fond of the nickname, and even adopted it as her own. Somehow, "Weasel" had a nicer ring to it than her birth name... and it reminded her less of the fact that her parents were dead. Largely as a result of the Novemians' gluttony, if she could trust the city officials. She counted herself lucky even to be alive at this point, after so many blizzards and famines ravaging the northern plains. Weasel was glad to be able to finally serve in this war, even under the command of her brutal artillery sergeant, whose name she had never chanced to learn in her months of training since joining the militia. She didn't imagine orphan girls were afforded the opportunity to serve often, so she felt it best not to object to his harsh treatment of the troops.

Weapons: regular + fire arrows, 1 catapult and 1 trebuchet
Faction: Decemia (warrior, not commander)

Their leader had made the decision to march up the western side of the mountain pass, hoping to gain a better vantage point over the fortress, but it took the better portion of a day to haul the siege engines and ammunition up the rocky slopes. Thankfully, the snow was falling hard enough that no one had seen the scrappy squadron on its grueling trek up to the little ledge--or, at least, nobody had bothered to fire upon them.

Weasel was able to catch short and infrequent glimpses of the Snowflake Keep, glowing with torchlight, in between periods of heavier snowfall. So magnificent. There was something beautiful in the sight of the snowy castle, with the dark silhouettes of blanketed mountains periodically emerging through the blizzard across the way; it almost made her a bit sad that they were going to attack it... But war was war, and this was for the sake of all her friends fallen, and all the strangers starved, all those Decemians who had perished at the hands of the selfish southern rule. For Mother. And for the father I never knew.

They reached the ledge by sundown, she judged by the darkening of the snowy air, and Weasel was left to man the trebuchet with another soldier as two more were put to work on the catapult and the rest, six bowmen and the sergeant, sought higher and better protected ground on the mountain face. She patiently awaited further command, and sat down to sharpen her knife in the meantime.

OOC: I assume I'm allowed to use this perspective?

[1018peter]

OOC: @Oranjui It's fine, I'll let you slide this time since the battle's at a point where inserting new commanders is difficult.

SNEAK OPERATION - WEASEL

Spoiler: show

Weasel's commander, Sergeant Axel, carried out her operations long before General Otto gave orders to the other two commanders. In fact, Axel's the only Decemian commander of the battle aside from Otto. Unlike Otto, she's a young woman known for her reliability in siege operations.

"Aim for the top of the keep. Its defenses were only reinforced on the sides." Axel pointed at the area just a bit behind the wall. You and the soldiers followed the order and launched two large boulders at the target. Just as the sergeant said, the ceiling was easily torn by the boulders. The boulders seem to have crushed quite a few guards below, too.

Axel unstrapped the silver crossbow on her back. It is intricately designed, capable of shooting across large distances without loss in accuracy. "Fire at the hole!" You followed the order again and fired several arrows at the hole made by the boulders. Your arrows caused the exposed hallways to catch fire, while the others were able to score direct hits against the enemies trying to rescue wounded soldiers.

Axel took out her enchanted paper and passed a message to General Otto. Perhaps she's passing on her success.

The Novemians looked so helpless, still unaware of your location...or were they? A new figure appeared on the wall, donning a white cape, almost unnoticeable without sharp eyes. They rushed up the mountainside, and before you knew it, they were just several hundred meters away from your post.

"Tsk, that She-Devil, always on the move! We can't let her get here, fire at will!"

VORTEX OF STRATEGY - KERRI/ROBIN/KARYETE/HARMLESS/DAMIEN

Spoiler: show

"Understood!" The soldiers answered, and moved according to Harmless's plans.

Robin's electrified sword sank into the gaps between the knight's armor plates and completely fried him. The two bowmen quickly recovered and took out the mages with swift shots, before moving onto concentrating fire on the knights. The mages charged and fired lightning bolts again, stunning two enemy knights, who were promptly killed by the Decemian knights. The rest of the knights rushed once more, trying to push back the Novemians, but suddenly- A storm of arrows rained upon Robin's squad. The Novemian mages couldn't replicate the arrow duplication spell, but raw arrows ended up being more than enough.

Cover-less, the mages and the bowmen went down hopelessly. Your mercenary instincts guided you to roll aside, evading the arrows. The knights, although bearing armor protection, suffered from wounds, making them unable to advance. The Novemian knights saw the opportunity and advanced forward, killing one weakened knight.

Luckily for Robin, Damien came to the rescue! He cast a blinding spell at the Novemian bowmen on the wall, ending the arrow storm. He and his riders get by the knights quickly. But there stood one more obstacle between he and the gate - Harmless's garrison. Damien's knights tried to attack the phalanx, but they weren't able to approach as the lances could easily hit their rides. Two of the knights tried to leap at the phalanx, only to be brutally skewered by the lances. The mages charged up fireballs and prepared to launch them at Karyete's troops, but Harmless shot them down quickly, giving them no chance.

Suddenly, explosion came from the inside! Siege weapons?! After that, the sound of arrows? The soldiers defending the gate could hear their comrades dying, crushed by boulders and pierced by arrows. Yet, they stood, knowing to trust in their commander. Kerri, recovering from the blindness, saw the unholy hole caused by boulders out of nowhere. Some of her bowmen weren't able to dodge due to blindness and were brutally crushed. General Audrey rushed to the top of the keep. "Kerri, I found the location of their siege weapons. I won't be in the keep for awhile, but I need you and your bowmen to keep your posts. I can see two of their commanders already near the gate, do not waste the opportunity to take them out!" Audrey said, before revealing her twin lances and rushing up to the mountainside. The rest of the bowmen were recovering from the blindness, as more bowmen appeared from downstairs.

Meanwhile, back in the Decemian Camp, General Otto received news about the situation of the keep. "Just as I have planned...but, that General Audrey...she must have found Axel's squadron. Even if they survive her assault, they won't be able to keep the siege weapons intact. The only choice I have now is to advance the camp." Otto got on his steed, and turned to the rest of the Decemian Army. "2nd Calvary Brigade, advance!" Six knights, two mages and two bowmen rode their steeds up the hill. "2nd Scout Brigade, assist the 1st Siege Brigade's retreat, move out!" Ten scouts, armed with knives and bows, swiftly scaled the mountainside, approaching Weasel's post."

Before General Audrey's leave, however, she gave complete orders to the patrolling soldiers. In response to the drastic turn of events, they mobilized a giant bell to the top of the keep. One of them soldiers told Kerri, "Sir, we're told to slam the bell as hard as we can once the Decemians are slamming down the gate. The general also told us to immediately retreat to the inside once the bell is rung, shutting all doors to the outside." You can see the large letters "P R O T E C T O R" written on the bell's sides. What could it mean?

COMMANDER UNIT LIST: show

Kerri: [ACTIVE]8 Bowmen + 2 Mages / [DEAD] 4 Bowmen
Harmless: [ACTIVE] 10 Knights / [DEAD] None
Karyete: [ACTIVE] 5 Knights / [DEAD] 3 Knights + 2 Bowmen

Damien: [ACTIVE] 6 Knights (Calvary) + 2 Mages (Calvary) / [DEAD] 2 Knights (Calvary)
Robin: [ACTIVE] 5 Knights / [DEAD] 1 Knight + 2 Mages + 2 Bowmen
Axel (Weasel's commander): [ACTIVE] 10 Bowmen (Including Weasel) / [DEAD] None

[Harmless]

(Requesting a list of heads for who's alive and who isn't, including how many units each commander has.)