Part of Winds of the World - Summer 222
As the Winter Summit ended, it was said that you could see the war banners of Sister Oak and her Zekartaal raiders from the tallest spires of Obregon. Nearly thirty thousand nomadic refugees surrounded the City of Spires and there were fears that the city would become a charnel house as the Zekartaal put it to the torch. Some fled south and eastwards, but for many this was the last stand of their people.
But slowly the city began to fill and not with refugees, but soldiers. Mercenaries from across The Concord honoured their contracts to the Jannissaries Guild. The Summer Vale Militia share taverns with The Company of Heroes, Andashi Delver gangs share fires with Bordevarian Knights. With the arrival of the 1st Andashi Army, all of these forces departed to fulfil the Champion's promise.
Obregon would not fall. All these people would be safe within the shadow of its walls and the moon would shine bright over a safeguarded Andashi people.
---
The fighting itself was long and disparate. Sister Oak, warchief of the Zekartaal, was dedicated to a wide reaching campaign of bloodletting and aggressive assaults across a wide front. This forced the 1st Andashi Army and its mercenary allies to fight in small groups of rarely more than a hundred all across the largest warfront in The Concord.It was not uncommon for single groups of mercenaries to be stuck in desperate defences among half buried ruins, waiting for a group of the 1st Andashi to arrive. Bordevarian knights holding the line against cultist warmongers atop a shifting sand dune, Iron Valley summiters clashing with Zekartaal scouts in rockstrewn badlands, Andashi youths fleeing through trap-laden canyons. All became common sights through this winter of carnage.
The 1st Andashi, for its part, was marched to death. From one emergency to another it travelled, constantly relieving beleaguered mercenaries and being too late more often than it would like. When the army itself was finally pinned in place it was a slaying to rival any cautionary tale of war. Known as ‘The Battle of Kodiri Temple’, the 1st Andashi held a ruined temple complex deep in the Tanebar against a splinter group of the Zekartaal, led by an Eagle of Oak. For five weeks the 1st Andashi held before being supported in a breakout by a mixed force of Iron Valley Irregulars.It is said that so many Zekartaal and Andashi bled their last on that ground, that the water of the life washed away the sands revealing the temple itself stained sanguine.
---
Throughout the campaign the forces of The Concord were beset by a strange foe. The massed force of mercenaries bore many marks of the Spheres. The blessings of Stallia and Panoply that were forged en-masse by The Church at the Winter Summit were essential in empowering these forces. But so many divine gifts in such a large cohort lead to strange results. Mercenary Commanders refuse to move off positions until their warriors are adorned with medals and accolades. A whole tavern in Obregon was infested with High-Valley Crown Beetles in an attempt to stop a rival mercenary group from staying there.
While a humorous view from without and this level of shenaniganry certainly kept the combined forces on their toes, the blessed mercenary cohort of The Concord was a menace to itself and to others. Obstinate, combative and greedy. The Andashi people look to their own Janissaries, considering that perhaps the traditional role of ‘honourable mercenary protector’ is a tradition best swallowed by the sands.
---
As winter turns to spring, the wounded defenders return to Obregon. When all is said and done, they have been victorious. The 1st Andashi Army is a skeleton of its former might and while it threatened to break, it never did. The mercenary cohort is bled dry, ornery and shattered, but never gave ground. The Concord led a dedicated defence of the Tribelands, allowing scouts to move the warfront forward.
As mercenaries return home and the Andashi people look to the future of a burning sun, Sister Oak and her forces marshall around Abqala. The North-Eastern reaches of The Tribelands still belong to the enemy. A hateful enemy. Oak looks upon the City of Spires as a symbol of all the Zekartaal stand against. She knows the Andashi are near to breaking. She knows they are weak. And she will break them across her knee, burning the marrow and salting the corpse.
Game Information
Outnumbered and facing a heroic attack from Sister Oak, the 1st Andashi Army and the combined mercenaries of The Concord lead a daring defence, augmented by divine ceremonies and sheer bull-headedness. A brutal campaign with nearly three thousand combined casualties, The Concord manages to defend The Tribelands, securing another point of hold and tipping the scales back in their favour.
The 1st Andashi remains, but only barely. Certainly risking being disbanded due to losses.It will be some time before this army is able to take the field capably without support. Similarly, many mercenary forces take considerable losses in this harsh campaign. The following Military investments are ‘damaged’:
- Vendetta El’Andash
- Wulfwaro
- Sir Didraine the Just
- Eshaan
Characters who fought on the front in The Tribelands this past winter will have tales of heroic last stands, daring relief efforts and an enemy that will hurl itself at you with blood curdling violence. Of dangerous Eagles of Oak skewering heroes with arrow after arrow, of long nights in frozen sand dunes and fighting from dusk to dawn. All of this among shifting sandy deserts, lost sandstone ruins and rocky scrubland.
There will be decisions and opportunities at the Summer Summit relating to the actions of this campaign for Andashi Leadership. There will be opportunities for the Andashi people relating to Kodiri Temple.
Sister Oak does not appear to have been beaten and the war in The Tribelands is set to continue through the coming summer.