- Joined
- Jan 5, 2011
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The day began normally enough for the city of Toste. The first hints of daylight appeared, turning the black skies a dim blue. The wall-dwellers of Toste rose from their slumber, mostly begrudgingly, and began the daily work that kept the dying city from falling entirely apart. The farmers left through the only city gate which hadn't been permanently sealed, the one in the middle of the great stone wall that ran across the southwest, in order to work the fields. The smiths made due with what little steel they had in order to keep the tools in working order and the remnants of Toste's military equipped. The barkeepers, perhaps possessed of the most important job of all, immediately opened shop so that all those who had fallen irrevocably into misery could drink to forget their sorrows and the darkness looming over the once-proud city.
All that normalcy was broken, however, when the bell above the southwestern gatehouse began to ring moments after the sun first peeked over the horizon. Great signal fires began to crop up all along the wall which served as the only barrier between the inhabitants of Toste and the increasingly unknown wilderness surrounding it. Those who could see or hear would know that Toste was under attack. And those who couldn't see or hear would soon be alerted as Toste's scouts began to sprint through the streets not five minutes later, clad only in hard leather in order to accommodate the time limit on their mission. The reason for their haste would quickly become obvious. "Barbarians are rushing the palisades! Hundreds of them with ladders! Any and all volunteers who can hold a weapon are to report to the Lord Commander at the southwest gate! You will be rewarded!" They shouted repeatedly as they ran.
It was grim news. Barbarians had never dared to attack Toste in such numbers before. And while Toste was once a city that boasted a population in the hundreds of thousands, that day it held no more than ten-thousand of which the majority weren't fit for any sort of combat. Moreover, while the barbarians could never successfully assault the stone walls if the remaining gate was closed, giving up the fields wasn't an option for the decaying city as it had no more than a month's worth of food stored inside even with heavy rationing. Everyone would be needed to stave off the assault, because if the barbarians were successful then the city and everyone inside would die a slow, agonizing death.
Those who heeded the call and ran to the southwestern gate would find the lord commander of what remained of Toste's military, a man named Eilert Sverdsson most commonly addressed as Commander Sverdsson, awaiting them just outside of it, along with a small retinue of elite troops. He was a tall man, at least six and a half feet. At that moment he was wearing full plate armor and a greathelm painted with the symbol of the war god he worshiped, a carmine-colored upright longsword surrounded by a similarly red circle. He was armed to the teeth, with a poleaxe in one hand, a longsword at his belt, and at least three visible daggers on his person.
The lord commander was well known in Toste for his personal prowess in battle and his preference for leading by example, though his tactical prowess and logistical abilities often left something to be desired. Some of the lower castes in the city honestly believed he was the only reason barbarians hadn't overrun them. Eilert was also known for his complete adherence to the word of the lord of Toste and the lord's council, following each order to the letter no matter what it cost or how unsavory the task might have been, a fact which had earned him the derogatory nickname of the council's wolf among some circles.
For the moment, however, he was just trying to raise volunteers and organize whatever small force he could muster quickly. He stood beside a few dozen scribes who was sat at a table with quills, ink bottles, and rolls of parchment in order to take the names of volunteers and soldiers alike. As dozens of warriors filtered through the gates, they gave their name to the scribes and were immediately ushered into groups by the impatient lord commander, and so would it go with any others who stepped forward. Looking across the massive fields showed no sign of the barbarians having gotten over the palisade yet, but there was likely precious little time left to organize a proper fighting force.
(OOC: Any PC with a valid character sheet can join in on this. It will still most likely be segmented on a per PC basis, but this way I don't have to keep track of who's actually got a character sheet ready at this very moment. This also allows me to type out things pertaining to the general flow of the raid one time instead of many.)
All that normalcy was broken, however, when the bell above the southwestern gatehouse began to ring moments after the sun first peeked over the horizon. Great signal fires began to crop up all along the wall which served as the only barrier between the inhabitants of Toste and the increasingly unknown wilderness surrounding it. Those who could see or hear would know that Toste was under attack. And those who couldn't see or hear would soon be alerted as Toste's scouts began to sprint through the streets not five minutes later, clad only in hard leather in order to accommodate the time limit on their mission. The reason for their haste would quickly become obvious. "Barbarians are rushing the palisades! Hundreds of them with ladders! Any and all volunteers who can hold a weapon are to report to the Lord Commander at the southwest gate! You will be rewarded!" They shouted repeatedly as they ran.
It was grim news. Barbarians had never dared to attack Toste in such numbers before. And while Toste was once a city that boasted a population in the hundreds of thousands, that day it held no more than ten-thousand of which the majority weren't fit for any sort of combat. Moreover, while the barbarians could never successfully assault the stone walls if the remaining gate was closed, giving up the fields wasn't an option for the decaying city as it had no more than a month's worth of food stored inside even with heavy rationing. Everyone would be needed to stave off the assault, because if the barbarians were successful then the city and everyone inside would die a slow, agonizing death.
Those who heeded the call and ran to the southwestern gate would find the lord commander of what remained of Toste's military, a man named Eilert Sverdsson most commonly addressed as Commander Sverdsson, awaiting them just outside of it, along with a small retinue of elite troops. He was a tall man, at least six and a half feet. At that moment he was wearing full plate armor and a greathelm painted with the symbol of the war god he worshiped, a carmine-colored upright longsword surrounded by a similarly red circle. He was armed to the teeth, with a poleaxe in one hand, a longsword at his belt, and at least three visible daggers on his person.
The lord commander was well known in Toste for his personal prowess in battle and his preference for leading by example, though his tactical prowess and logistical abilities often left something to be desired. Some of the lower castes in the city honestly believed he was the only reason barbarians hadn't overrun them. Eilert was also known for his complete adherence to the word of the lord of Toste and the lord's council, following each order to the letter no matter what it cost or how unsavory the task might have been, a fact which had earned him the derogatory nickname of the council's wolf among some circles.
For the moment, however, he was just trying to raise volunteers and organize whatever small force he could muster quickly. He stood beside a few dozen scribes who was sat at a table with quills, ink bottles, and rolls of parchment in order to take the names of volunteers and soldiers alike. As dozens of warriors filtered through the gates, they gave their name to the scribes and were immediately ushered into groups by the impatient lord commander, and so would it go with any others who stepped forward. Looking across the massive fields showed no sign of the barbarians having gotten over the palisade yet, but there was likely precious little time left to organize a proper fighting force.
(OOC: Any PC with a valid character sheet can join in on this. It will still most likely be segmented on a per PC basis, but this way I don't have to keep track of who's actually got a character sheet ready at this very moment. This also allows me to type out things pertaining to the general flow of the raid one time instead of many.)