Ninth Collateral Session

Ninth Collateral Session

Wildfire rages in the Balagash Forest

Campaign	The Collateral Campaign
Game Date	Wednesday, September 29th, 2021
Start Date	Tamiz 14th, 261 IM
Start Location	Halperion, Halperion Prefecture, Jalinjeri
Ending Date	Tamiz 14th, 261 IM
Ending Location	The battlefield of southern Jalinjeri
Next Session	Tenth Collateral Session

There was considerable preparation for this battle as the Garis fell back from their ambitions to invade Halperion Prefecture. Rayjok Halperion, armed with great insight into the instincts of the Garis aligned his forces to prepare for their incursion on the southern border of Jalinjeri.

Spire, Earth Builder

Spire, a curious character from Rayjok Halperion's cabinet. He was prompted to communicate with the local stone giants to release one more aquifer from the mountains to cross the Jalinjeri landscape. Hedgewind Jalinbeti had employed Spire for this exact same enterprise when he first rounded the town of Jalinbeti.

The exact time for the release of this new river was to coincide with the advancement of the Garis military. Spire, did exactly what was asked, sorting out two possible paths for a new river based on his understanding of the lay of the land. He seemed to be able to draw from a knowledge of the composition of the various geological formations that exceeded that of the most knowledgeable wizards. Some speculation suggests that he may have borrowed a Meme of Aspan, specifically the meme On the Craft of the Miner to help his insights.

Rayjok, Diplomat

To change the ridiculous odds stacked against Jalinjeri, Rayjok Halperion sent embassies to Soltistik, Maercland, Ælfwode, Shuwalu, and even the southern nation of Kiskentay. His message was simple; "Join us now to crush the Garis together, or wait your turn to be overrun." This message certainly rang true as the Garis had already taken possession of Batis, Ortalyk, most of Aydahar, and all but the capitol of Ontustik.

All of these nations responded positively, if not enthusiastically... save Shuwalu which favored neutrality in this affair, not believing the Garis would attack them. Queen Kara Muz of Soltustik immediately mobilized her army with orders to march south. Dana Agash, the king of Ælfwode mobilized anyone capable of wielding a bow. Zhandos Kirgin, Warmaster of Maercland rallied the Grendel to arms, with no shortage of recruits.

Meanwhile to the south. the Queen Mother of Karazalik, Lyailim Ali, sanctioned the use of force against the Garis already threatening her country's borders. They vowed to cut off any retreat to the south that the Garis might make from Jalinjeri should their forces somehow be stopped.

The Adversaries Square Off

The sixty divisions of heavily armed Garis arrayed themselves in the mountain pass in southern Jalinjeri, their rear flanks protected by mountains on either side. They did not expect a large contingent of the Karazalik military to come up on their rear, but did not concern themselves as they did not consider the Karazalik to be a viable threat.

To the north of the Garis, the Jalinjeri forces made up the vanguard, with Soltustik and Maercland divisions on either flank respectively. Interspersed among all of the defending divisions to the north were the Ælfen archers who provided continuous and deadly support to the infantry. In all nearly 600,000 Grendel troops faced off against a combined force of nearly one and a half million souls, arrayed in 144 divisions.

Given the success of the Garis military and the superiority of their weapons, the lack of numbers was of little concern to their general, Zhannur Timurlan. Each of the generals of the defending forces knew, however, that had they not joined together on this day, they would only have had to wait for the day when they would have had to face this army alone.

A River Runs Through It

The morning of Tamiz the 18th, both armies awoke to the distant sounds of crackling in the mountains. A growing roar of unbridled ferocity grew until inexplicably the Garis forces woke to face a surging wall of water. The flow of the water and timing of the surge was calculated quite carefully by Spire who took to the work like a raven to a collection of shiny things. He had found his purpose.

The torrent of water was devastating for the Garis. The allies, who were warned the evening before where not to set their camps, watched the carnage. The wall of water and uprooted trees smashed through the Garis camps, first crushing, then washing the victims away as the unrelenting torrent swept through without mercy. In all, a dozen divisions, nearly 120,000 troops were crushed and washed away by the surge, which calmed to form a slow-moving and corpse-filled river. The surge, continued on into the Ungir Federation where the new river joined with the Ungirsi watershed.

The Battle Begins

Queen Kara Muz flanks the enemy Garis.

Led by Rayjok Halperion the Jalinjeri divisions formed the vanguard and charged into the forward Garis divisions, separated from the rest of the army by the newly formed river. The debris in the river made it difficult, if not impossible to ford, thus there was no escape for the Garis who were decimated by the combined forces of the Jalinjeri military. From screaming Grendel flowing between their ranks, the relentless rain of arrows from Ælfen bows, to the deadly wrath of the allied dragons, the Grendel vanguard was soon on its knees.

The overwhelmed Grendel fell back to the river and were forced to stop. As the onslaught continued, the 100,000 Grendel, were soon reduced to to a mere 14,000 dropped to their knees in supplication and begged for mercy from the Jalinjeri forces. Already awash with camping equipment, the Jalinjeri military was quick to set up prisoner of war camps for the captured Garis.

The Battle Continues

On the other side of the river, much of the main Garis force and the rear guard remained intact, if not disheartened by the morning's events. They were flanked to the west by the Soltusik military, complete with a good deal of heavy cavalry. To the east, was the Grendel military who was cut off from most of it's divisions on the other side of the river. To its credit, the Grendel did cause the Garis to rethink any notion of trying to ford the river as this looked like certain death.

The Soltusik military, led by none other than Queen Kara Muz advanced on the eastern flank and took heavy casualties at first. As the rain of Ælfen arrows continued, however, it wore down the Garis resolve. The Soltusik cavalry proved fearless in the saddle as they rode freely through Garis ranks cutting them down, while the Garis scrambled for cover from Ælfen archers. With his vanguard destroyed and heavy casualties to his main force, Zhannur Timurlan ordered a retreat.

The Battle Ends

A Karazaliktar slinger.

An orderly retreat for the Garis should have been all but academic. The Garis had superior mounts, lighter weaponry and armor, and previously claimed territory behind them, having left the Ontustik military in shambles, the last of them defending the capitol of Anar. What Timmurlan didn't expect was the appearance of the Karazalik military.

While the Garis had the most well-trained and well equipped military in all of Otan the Karazalik military was a comparative joke. They were poorly, if at all, trained and equipped with stone age weapons. While their slingers were reputed to be deadly, they were only slingers. The Garis expected to sweep through Karazalik in a few days after the fall of Anar and the Caliphate of Ontustik.

For the average Karazaliktar, an invasion by the Garis would be a tragedy on several levels. First, they feared that they would fall into disfavor with the gods, because they would no longer be able to maintain their stewardship of the animals and the Karazalik environment. Greater than this fear however, was the fear that the male Karazaliktars would not be able to continue their studies on the completion of their souls. This would exclude them from the possibility of reincarnation and ultimately bring an end to the Karazaliktar on Otan. With political, religious and existential fervor and dread shocking them to the depths of their very souls, every able Karazaliktar in the country volunteered for service. In the end, some 200,000 were chosen to sweep up behind the Garis.

When the battle began, the Garis were at first surprised by the resolve of this unexpected new enemy. As the battle raged on, they learned how deadly the enemy could be. Soon after they discovered that the Karazaliktar were without fear; they had only rage. Garis cornered in the battle who attempted to surrender were torn limb from limb. Their tails, ears, or heads were taken as trophies as the Karazaliktar blood lust grew. Ignoring their own casualties, the Karazaliktar became consumed with a desire for more and more of these macabre trophies, painting themselves with Garis blood after every new kill.

Simultaneously terrified and horrified, the remaining [[Garis formed a second retreat, this time toward the Soltustic/Ælfen forces, where the begged the mounted northerners to take them as prisoners. Showing compassion, Queen Kara Muz ordered her ranks into a formation that would allow the Garis to flee into to save their own lives. The horsemen dissuaded the Karazaliktar from giving chase to within their ranks.

When the battle was done, the Soltustic military withdrew toward the Jalinjeri POW camps with another 58,000 prisoners. Not a single other soul of the Garis forces survived.