The Battle for Eclano Continued

It was then that Volker and his large relief force began to arrive. Their sudden appearance, so soon in the struggle, made it immediately obvious that the Portomaggiorans were very unlikely to prevail, being both outflanked and vastly outnumbered (despite the fact that the admiral had left several regiments and hissecond wizard at Scalea to continue its plunder). It was not entirely impossible that Lord Alessio might appear with his own army, returning from the ‘holy war’ against the vampires in the north, for he had a reputation one of the best generals in Tilea, with many victories under his belt. But everyone, on both sides, knew this was unlikely, for he was reported to be many, many leagues from home. For reasons known only to himself, he had not embarked his force, or even a portion of it, onto ships in Remas to make the last part of the journey home by sea (as many in the city expected), but had taken the longer route over land.

Admiral Volker himself led the largest regiment (the goblins having lost much of their number during the squabbling in Scalea), consisting of his own crew.

His trusted navigator, Ubaida el-Noor was by his side in the front rank, making quite a contrast, what with the admiral in a black coat, hat and dull green waistcoat, while the arabyan wore blue, yellow, red, green and grey!

Topping the rise on their left flank, and matching their advance, came the newest reinforcements in the Sartosan fleet – the ogre Captain Kroll’s crew of axemen.

Kroll’s pet parrot, a giant amongst its kind, as befitted such a hulk as he, flapped down a few yards ahead, while he himself surveyed the enemy to decide what exactly to do.

A moment later these two regimented crews were joined to their right by the rest of the force.

Close enough to Volker that he could smell them, came the sand trolls, each of whom, were it not for the bent and bowed nature of their spindly limbs, would have stood taller than Kroll.

Beside them came the rest of Volker’s crew, a large company armed with blunderbusses. Out on the far right of the relief force advanced Captain Fark’s goblins, ordered to that position by Volker, who wanted to avoid any further outbreak of greenskin squabbling hindering his victory today.

Losing no time, the Sartosans moved on, the trolls outstripping the rest to close on the dwarfs, while Kroll’s axe-weilding warriors came very close to the crossbow regiment’s flank.

Captain Fark, however, ordered his regimented crew of greenskins to turn to face the three pistoliers …

… which might seem a waste of his crew’s fighting strength, but he had been looking for every chance to prove he really could shoot his pistol well since fighting the Luccinans ten months before, and had got it into his head that with a well-placed shot he might dispatch not one but two of the riders.

As he brought the enchanted pistol to bear, delaying just enough to shout out “Watch dis, lads!” once again, he was dismayed to see the swivel gunners blast and kill all three riders befoe he could even pull the trigger. Behind him a goblin laughed, so he turned and shot him instead!

Volker’s force advanced …

… while the sorcerer Adus Arcabar hurled a fireball at the pistoliers in the orchard, which was again dispelled by the enemy’s magic users.

In fury, he instead wove a magically flaming cage around the riders, killing two, then two more when the survivors attempted to flee through the flames. Moments later there were explosions as the flames heated the riders’ powder flasks! This pleased the old wizard, but he cared not if anyone had noticed.

Taking a chance before their line of sight might be obscured, the two sakers that were able to fire (the crew of the third struggling to make it ready after a misfire) took aim on the dwarfs.

Their chain shots tore four dwarfs apart, then felled one of the brute ogres behind. The dwarfs, however, no doubt unwilling to perish before they caused some harm to the foe, charged the trolls.

Volker watched with fascination, having never seen two such opponents embroiled together.

Even Kroll found himself momentarily distracted by the sight!

Out in the centre of the field, the Sartosan dwarfs and Van Baas’s crew now saw where things were going, as they watched the enemy’s large regiment of elite swordsmen face about and begin marching away.

They were unsurprised to see that the enemy’s missile troops did no do the same – presumably they were to linger a little longer, to wreak some harm from a distance before departing themselves. Perhaps dismayed at the thought that the battle was already lost, the Portomaggiorans magic users failed to conjure any successful spells, although it could not have helped that one of them had his back turned as he left with the Sea Guard.

The ogre leadbelchers …

… joined with the dwarven crossbows, the Eclanian crossbows and the handgunners to pour a veritable storm of lead and bolts into Van Baas’s crew, killing ten of them.

While somewhat concealed by the walls and buildings of the villa, the last company of pistoliers, who had been making heavy work of crossing into the yard, began to file away from the field. The crew of the organ gun up were also dragging their burden away, giving thanks to Myrmidia that the pirates could not see them.

The Portomaggioran crossbowmen on the far right, somewhat desperately considering how close Kroll and his crew were, loosed their bolts to kill five of Volker’s men massed down below.

Then they were surprised to see Irongrim’s dwarfs cut down one of the trolls, wound another …

… and break them. When the trolls lumbered away, the dwarfs hurtled forwards into Admiral Volker’s regiment.

So it was, and somewhat unexpectedly, Volker found himself in personal combat with Thane Girseak Irongrim, the two quickly drawing blood from each other as the warriors around them hacked and hewed with swords and cutlasses.  

End of turn 2