Part of Winds of the World - Summer 223
There is little more that can be said of the war in Bolsterlee. The Sailors of Liberty’s Fist are no longer stitching campaign tallies into their ensigns, and every army under a Concordian banner has seen the inside of The Striving, the waters of The Bolsterlee River and the slack-jawed faces of the Illsevir. A kind winter in Resinderholz is a good posting and Windholme is second-best, but Bolsterlee is not desirable.
In the season past, the force of ‘The Marlin’ strikes out once again. They cross the plagued Bolsterlee River and march onwards. It doesn’t take a tactical genius to realise that they are erring to the west, hugging the coastline and attempting to draw a noose around Lerona Mere. But to hug the coastline is to be driven on the siege weapons of the ships anchored offshore. The artillerists of Liberty’s Fist cast catapult stones, ballista bolts and arrow shafts into many Illsevir brutes from the comfort of their ships as the forces of The Marlin, once known for being some of the fastest moving on the field of battle, trudge northwards.
For their part, The Legion of the Blackheart Bear, fresh from controversy in Resinderholz, have wintered in Low Valley hospitality. The Striving, the-small-village-grown-big atmosphere, and the cautious nature of General Fischer’s orders, give The Legion plenty of time to relax in the villages of Bolsterlee. But when the fighting does occur, The Legion is at the forefront.
The fighting is largely relegated along the coast in the west and the foothills to the east. Along the coast the Illsevir are a dull march, bombarded by the Lerona Mere fleet and stopped in their tracks by The Legion. The fighting here is strange; an uncaring and unafraid mass slamming into a prepared defence. In the east, along the foothills, the circumstance is different. The Illsevir are frenzied, and the fighting over Athermers Folly in particular is a brutal back and forth affair. The miners from across The Concord struggling to resume the workings of the mine are disrupted by repeated assaults by the Illsevir, who have picked up a strange habit of howling and screeching on the field of battle.
When Spring approaches and the enemy appears repulsed, all cannot help but feel a strange sense of unease over the campaign. The Marlin has acted so odd - equal parts rabid beast and stumbling buffoon. As The War Chamber reviews reports from the frontlines across The Concord there is a growing sense that something is changing within the Illsevir, although what that is eludes them, for now.
Regardless, The Legion marches northwards to home, depositing their leaders in Passage. They are battered and wounded despite the kind surrounds of Bolsterlee. There are a great many of them buried among the trees of the Bailite hills, corpses of those slain by the sea's anger among foreign forests. The Liberty’s Fist, for its part, returns to a home port much changed in a very short period of time
Game Information
The fighting in Bolsterlee is equal parts strange and banal. Once again, The Marlin attempts to push up into The Low Valley and is once again thrown back. The Legion of the Blackheart Bear suffered more than 700 losses in the process but gave far better than it got thanks to the presence of The Liberty’s Fist.
In the process of works at Athermer’s Folly, a number of mining crews have suffered casualties due to the predations of the Illsevir and are considered damaged:
- Theron Raven
- Dyri Fjornen
- Bevedes
- Etoile
- Kolgir Shatter-Hand of Abelard
Characters who would like to roleplay as being a part of the campaign in Bolsterlee can tell tales of the Illsevirs’ strange tactics, watching the foe march headfirst into the ballistae and catapults of the fleet or fighting like cornered beasts in the high hills. The battle in Bolsterlee is distinctly off- putting. Something has changed in the Illsevir and it may not bode well for The Concord.