Assault on Whitewall

From: jeffrichard68 <richj_at_...>
Date: Wed, 03 Mar 2004 06:14:10 -0000


Hey gang -

I thought I'd jump into this thread before it disappears. The long battle for Whitewall and the saga of the "last Orlanthi" is something I've long been interested in (as Joerg can attest - has it really been seven years since we had our marathon chat about Heortland?).

A bit from CHDP:

"In 1619, the Lunar armies marched southward. The first opponent was
the army of Volsaxland, which was driven into the walls of Whitewall. Jorkandros Blinder of the Untarl family of Yuthuppa, was given command of the siege. The rest of the army pushed on, assaulted Smithstone, then marched down river to Karse."

So to begin with, the Lunar army drove the Volsaxi into Whitewall, detached a besieging force, and then proceeded on the Karse. I find it interesting that Dara Happans seem to be the siege-engineers of the Lunar military - I don't think that siege warfare is one of the strengths of the Tarshites. Fazzur appears to practice a war of manoeuver and speed; cities and fortresses are to be blockaded and removed from the main action. The Dara Happans seem to concentrate on taking cities through long and costly sieges - even at the expense of ignoring mobile forces.

"At Whitewall the commander order the Crimson Bat to assault the city
and exterminate the defenders, whom he called "the last Orlanthi." Astonishingly, the bat was repelled, though at great cost to the defenders. Jorkandros the Blinder was replaced by Tatius the Bright, dean of the Lunar Field School of Magic."

At this point, Broyan is "the last Orlanthi" king. I assume that he is mythically identifying himself as Vingkot - the sole king of the Orlanthi. His hall is filled with heroes from Sartar and Heortland (and beyond). Maybe this is where and when his title "High King" comes from? Must give him one heck of a bonus when performing Vingkot magic!

BTW, what is the source of Broyan's Larnsti association?

I know it was once assumed that Broyan and his companions defeated the Crimson Bat by teleporting atop him and killing its priests. Is that how we now think it was done? Or were there heroquests and ancient rituals that enabled Broyan and his companions to repel the Bat? It would seem to me that the 1619 assault on Whitewall would make one heck of a fine Heroquest scenario - along the lines of the Battle of Iceland.

During 1620, the Lunar army reorganizes and reforms in strength around Whitewall. I would assume that the once sparse pickets of Jorkandros Blinder (which the Volsaxi and their allies could easily bypass) get tighter and tighter as Tatius gathers more and more soldiers and magicians to take Whitewall.

"Whitewall was more important religiously than it was militarily,
hence Tatius the Bright had been given command. This stronghold was believed to be the last city of Orlanth, the god who was a rival to the Red Goddess of the empire. To take it would end the worship of Orlanth in all cities; a great victory. Tatius spared to preparation for the assault and naturally got special magicians from the emperor. Fazzur, Tatius' nominal commander, had no part in this battle."

Presumably, all Tatius' preparations raised the stakes dramatically - we get to set the scene for OiD. I'm sure, storms brewed all across Dragon Pass and all the Orlanthi were made away of the importance of the siege. Again, this would make a fun and interesting scenario - I assume Broyan and his companions are heroquesting to figure out a way to cheat the all-but-certain coming Lunar victory.

Then we get to the assault:

"The Lunar assault went well. To start, seven meteors were hurled
from the moon and struck precisely. They destroyed key parts of the city, including the Orlanth Temple. When it was buried a great gout of lightning burst forth, arching over the walls to sear many hundred troops who quietly awaited the assault. The Seven of Vistur built seven long ramps from the ground to the wall, and although they thought it would be easy, several hundred troops whose souls served as a power source died in supporting the deed. Ten thousand archers loosed their shafts, and the noise from the flying arrows hurt the ears of listeners. The Imperial hoplites, glowing with protective magic, led the attach up the ramps. They were met by rocks which hurled themselves from the ramparts and rolled down the assault ramps. Yet the Lunars pushed onward. Without doubt, the assault would have been as heroic as the Battle of Boldhome, if anyone alive and corporate had defended Whitewall. But there was almost no one there. The Lunar troops found only twenty three corpses. None of the leaders were found."

So, assuming we were writing this scenario from the Orlanthi point of view, what happened? We know Broyan and his companions escaped using their Larnsti magic and hid in the frozen hall on Stormwalk Mountain. But how did the other Orlanthi heroes - Kallyr Starbrow, and others - make it out? What kind of amazingly cool and fun to game heroquests did the defenders of Whitewall conduct in order to pull this off?

Anyone else interested in playing around with this as a potential scenario?

Jeff

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