"Only when we have finally defeated the Bandits will our borders be secure."
(The Emperor Kostof I)
"Believe not the words of thieves and kings."
(Attributed to Xudar)
"Hey ho, hey ho, it’s off to death we go."
(Ancient Dwarvish dungeoneering song.)
The eyes of the world are still upon the Bandit Kingdom. For the first week of Sarm 2501 the Battle of Rockholme Mount raged at the foot of the mountain, on the summit of which is perched the Bandit capital. There the Imperial Army of the Third Valdrean Empire, under the personal command of their Emperor, Arril I, confronted the surviving elements of the Bandit field armies, regrouped and dug into hastily erected defensive positions, for the protection of Rockholme. In overall command of the Bandit forces was General Maglan. Kelvan and Ardfast were his sub-Generals.
As the first day of Sarm dawned, although he still awaited the large part of his forces, Arril assaulted the defenders under cover of a dense morning mist, which had suddenly, and surprisingly, arisen. Kelvan and Ardfast’s flanks held, but the Bandit centre, under Maglan, fell in. Nevertheless, Arril was forced to withdraw (shielded by another sudden, and extremely local, mist), in order to avoid encirclement.
Reinforcements came up - on both sides, and battle was re-joined on the 3rd. The dawn mist rolled back, and behind it came the Valdreans. The pattern was repeated, Maglan’s centre only being saved by timely intervention from his more successful flank commanders. Maglan himself was less fortunate, being deposed from the position of commander-in-chief by Ardfast.
The 4th was another pause for breath, and on the 5th General Ardfast seized the initiative, the expected Valdrean dawn (or any) attack not having materialised, with a night-time raid on the Imperial camp. This led to his, and the Bandits’ undoing. Arril beat off the attack, led by Kelvan, and followed up with an immediate counterassault. Kelvan stood his ground, withdrawing in good order to his previous positions. But the Valdrean counterattack on his flank continued into the day of the 6th. Then, at dawn, the Valdrean cavalry launched a surprise attack on the other, right, flank, where Maglan commanded. Maglan’s men were routed. Meanwhile the Imperial Guard, held in reserve until now, moved against the Bandit centre, and Kelvan was in danger of being outflanked on the left by Valdrean infantry.
After a bitter, and close-fought struggle, Kelvan threw back his assailants, and, restraining his men from the pursuit, was now able to go to the aid of Ardfast, now being flanked on the right by the Valdrean cavalry. As Kelvan’s now weary fighters engaged the Imperial Guard, Arril threw in his last reserves.
The Bandit resistance collapsed under this final pressure, and they were thrown into headlong rout. The Empire was the victor beneath Rockholme Mount.
Those Bandits who survived the carnage of the immediate pursuit fled up the mountain to the city. Hard on their heels came Arril, and many more were cut down on the long climb up to Rockholme. Ardfast had been killed in a valiant, but hopeless, attempt to stem the final collapse on the 6th, and Maglan was now back in command. But he was not able, in the general confusion, to mount any organised resistance to the Valdrean advance up the mountain, and by the 12th the leading elements of Arril’s forces had reached the Field of Blood, before the Gates of Rockholme.
Meanwhile, inside the city, Hugran, the Valdrean Military Governor, continued his offensive against the Bandit Generals there; Cromach and (now) Zergal. He had sallied forth from the Citadel behind the deadly Yellow Clouds at the end of Varech, and now had Zergal pinned in his fort whilst he overran Cromach’s positions around the Citadel. Cromach was compelled to withdraw to his fort too, and the continuing Battle of Rockholme entered a further phase of limited street-fighting.
Hugran now began to re-establish some control over the lower areas of the city, whilst the Bandits rallied and regrouped their scattered forces. Then, on the 9th, Hugran made a sudden assault upon, and took Cromach’s fort. Cromach escaped to the Lower City, where he re-established his command, as General of the Bandit fighters there.
Zergal came to Cromach’s aid, in an attempt to draw Valdrean troops away from him to defend their flank and rear. But he was too late, with too few men, and now he was left to resist alone in the Upper City.
With the refugees from Rockholme Mount, Maglan and Kelvan came to the Lower City. The latter took overall command over Cromach and Maglan, and those loyal to each, and led them in a sally onto the Field of Blood on the 16th. The Valdreans were driven back from the Gates, and clear off the Field. But many more were coming up.
By the 19th, Arril’s forces were digging siegeworks across the Field of Blood, to guard against further such attacks. They were still being harassed by Kelvan, but he, in turn, was now under pressure from Hugran, who was sending raiding parties and squads of adventurers into the Lower City.
That night the tables were turned once again, as Zergal went onto the offensive, and Hugran made a fighting withdrawal to the Citadel. Zergal then attempted a link-up with the Bandits in the Lower City, with a view to re-establishing the siege of the Citadel. He achieved the link-up on the morning of the 20th, only to find his allies fighting amongst themselves!
Zergal now found himself overextended, but he held his ground when Hugran counterattacked the following night. The Valdrean adventurers joined the attack, but this time the Bandits were ready for them. Whilst rebuilding his strength in his fort, Zergal had been drilling men in anti-adventurer tactics.
When the adventurers appeared, Zergal threw against them suicide squads, whose sole purpose was to separate individual adventurers from the main body. The regular troops, with the benefit of some special training, and backed up by the handful of Bandit adventurers at Zergal’s disposal, were then able to deal with the isolated Valdrean Champions. It was a swift and bloody struggle, and the adventurers quickly withdrew. But they immediately redeployed to the other side of the Citadel. Zergal had committed his anti-adventurer reserves, and here the adventurers cut through the thin cordon he had been maintaining around the Citadel. He pulled his surviving forces back to the defensive area around his fort, and so lost the contact he had established with the Lower City.
Down in the Lower City Maglan had been taking advantage of the fact that both Valdrean armies were occupied to seize command from Kelvan. His loyal troops had suddenly and treacherously turned on Kelvan’s, and now Maglan was General, Cromach (who had kept out of it until the result was clear) his loyal sub-General, and Kelvan missing, presumed dead.
By the end of Sarm, the Empire had closed its grip around Rockholme, and upon its heart. Arril was ready for the final battle that would put an end to the two thousand-year old war between the Empire and the Bandit Kingdom, and confirm the new western borderline.
Elsewhere in the world things were quiet by comparison. It did seem, however, that something had been going on in the Kingdom of the North. Rumours continued to circulate in Bjarmigen that the former Lord Treasurer (who had been arrested and thrown into the dungeons of the Castle a month ago on charges of "treason and financial irregularities in connection with the Aptal Relief Fund"), had been put to death without trial. A Royal Proclamation in response stated that the rumours were the work of the Thieves’ Guild, to divert attention from their own part in the affair. For the King would never do such a thing, and who else could get at a man in a locked dungeon? Rumour now had it that there was some kind of dispute between King and Guild, and that, instead of working for the security of his Castle as (it was now said) they always had done in the past, they were actively undermining it.
Then, it was said, the Earl of Sitael had been shut up inside his castle recently not because he was sick (as he had given out), but because he was also under suspicion of treason. King Bjørn, the story went, had made secret visits to Sitael Castle, placed the Earl under house arrest, had a priest of ESCUS take his confession, and taken his eldest son back to Bjarmigen, ostensibly to join the King’s bodyguard, but in reality as a hostage.
The Churches of ESCUS and SARAN added their voices too, denouncing all rumour as "the work of DALA, and so certain to be dangerously misleading".
The Dwarves are up to something too. Large numbers of soldiers and adventurers have been gathering in the port of Barrakkizdin, whence they were shipped to Dwarf Hold, the Dwarvish Dungeon-adventuring fort. Apparently, the Dwarves are engaging in Dungeon expeditions on a massive scale.
The month of Jerem looks like it will be an interesting one.
Your orders are requested for the month of Jerem 2501, which I shall be running during February and March 1985. Two sessions, face-to-face or postal, will be allowed per player. If more than one players run together it will count as one session for each, but they will be allowed an appropriately longer session. Experience updates will follow.
© P.R. Wild, 27 January 1985
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