Quest The Insurrection of Vel Fael

[Selene Avar]

Vel Fael

Rebellion was uncommon within the lands of Vel Anir.

Insurrection occurred every now again, the Underground took Dreadlords, but outright Rebellion? That had been unheard of for nearly a century. Rising up against the Houses simply wasn't down. History had not been kind to rebels of Vel Anir, nor had the Fortress City itself.

Thus, Selene was very confused when she'd been informed Vel Fael had declared Open Rebellion against the City of Vel Anir. It's Governor and Ruling council, along with the three Anirian Guard regiments within Vel Fael had all declared themselves as an independent kingdom. It was a surprising move, and why Selene now found herself at the head of an army.

No war had officially been called, but the Houses had all scrambled. House Virak had been the first to act, sending several Dreadlords and the main contingent of it's own House Guard to quell this insurrection.

If they could take the city back before the other Houses acted, then Virak would be seen as heroes.

Selene was no stranger to the idea, but as they crested the hill and Vel Fael fell into sight she couldn't help but think this would be more difficult than the Masters of House Virak had foreseen.

It was a Forest Keep, built not for beauty but sturdiness. Thick trees surrounded the Fortress, a moat had been dug long ago, and sturdy walls sat high over the town itself. "This will be quite the task."

Selene commented to her companion.

 

[Sagarus]

Insurrection - rare, but not uncommonly so. He felt the left corner of his lips twitch as he studied the bastion before them. It did little to improve on already successful and battle tested principles, but just because you knew the demon before you didn't mean it had no claws. Mounted atop a warhorse armored in basilisk scale, he let out a breath that said he acknowledge the challenge ahead of them.

They had plenty of men behind them, and siege engines were already being built. But they didn't have months to sit this out and batter the walls down.

"The moat is of little concern." Either of them could create the bridge necessary to traverse it, even if that bridge was just channeling the water elsewhere. The walls were an issue, of course, but ultimately, as they didn't know of any secret routes into the castle, they were at the mercy of using the gate.

Releasing the reins, he folded his arms across his chest, brows narrowing as a critical eye was used to appraise the keep. A hand lifted, brushing across the tome bound by chain to his pauldron. "We are on a tight schedule, which means wasting manpower to break down the gate. What options do you see on the table?"

 

[Selene Avar]

Selene looked down a the fortress.

Vel Fael had been built as a bulwark against the Elves. The City was meant to withstand sieges and battle, given enough time they could simply starve out the inhabitants, but Sagarus was right in that they didn't have the time.

"I'm not sure." Normally such words would never have left her mouth, but Sagaruss was a fellow Dreadlord, and more than that he served House Virak.

He gained more leeway from that.

"A river runs on the southern side of the Castle, there's a cliff." She had seen the maps before leaving. "It may pay to send scouts there."

Especially if the cliff could be scaled.

 

[Sagarus]

That could work. Just to open the gate. Though that gave him another idea. Running his tongue over his teeth, he nodded once, something locking into place in his mind. "Send the scouts." He replied. It sounded like a command, but truthfully, if they both agreed, it was already going to happen.

You didn't often second guess a Dreadlord. And if you did, you'd better have information they didn't.

"Wait for nightfall," he continues a moment later, "I may have a way to break the gate." It was doubtful they had any significant magical presence within, but he couldn't take the chance. The Hanged Man wouldn't work, but perhaps the Knight of Pentacles?

"The Eight of Cups." He says aloud, several heartbeats of silence later. Turning to a nearby page, he gestured to the men forming camp behind them. "Start the earthworks, I want them to think we're settling in for a long siege."

 

[Selene Avar]

"This all seems..." Selene frowned slightly, running a hand through her hair as she sat upon her steed. The castle was becoming clearer now, and she could hear warning bells ringing throughout the city.

"Too easy." She finished. "They had to have known we would come, and yet here the city is; ripe for the taking it."

It seemed off.

Vel Fael was not exactly inexperienced when it came to warfare. The City had been founded as a bulwark against the Elves of the Falwood. Much of the third Elven war had been fought here, and she knew the population prided themselves on survival.

Something did not sit right with her, though Selene could not say exactly what.

 

[Sagarus]

He sat there, a gentle breeze brushing across his nose and cheeks. It rustled the branches and shook the leaves, scraping them against each other in a familiar autumn melody. The cascaded down to the ground, or caught the wind and spun on invisible currents, drifting wherever nature took them.

How suitable this place was so close to a home for elves.

Somewhere, the scouts were sent out to look for alternative routes into the keep. Around them, men began creating earthworks at his command. The appearance of preparation was all they really needed, but sometimes having the entrenchments was necessary regardless.

"Do you think it's a trap?" He asks, a brow arching in silent challenge. He'd never heard of Selene backing down from one of those.

"Perhaps they've filled it with flammables? Or they're waiting to ambush us from behind once we breach the gate?" You didn't hide three regiments that easy. But she was right - the walls should be crawling with men.

 

[Selene Avar]

"It's possible." She said slowly looking around the small camp that was beginning to form.

She did not know much of the people here besides what she'd been told before the start of all this. It wasn't a complete mystery of course. She'd been taught the histories of the wars and what role Vel Fael played in it, but just because you knew history didn't mean you knew a people.

It took more than simple stupidity to incite a true rebellion. "Or perhaps...they're not in the fortress at all."

Slowly she looked around the forest.

It was not quite the Falwood, but close enough that many of the same tactics applied. A frown crossed her features, and she was was about to open her mouth when suddenly an Arrow flew from high above.

The head immediately pierced through the neck of her horse. The great beast cried, and then reared up as it went falling to the ground.

 

[Sagarus]

His horse shook itself, threatening to rear as shouts and hollers were mingled with the thud of too many arrows hitting the murk. So far as ambushes went, he found this one lacking. "Form ranks!" The command carried with it the wisp of magic, imbuing those around him with calm.

Their line of battle didn't need to form immediately, but it did need to start forming immediately. Men dropped their tools and grabbed their weapons, but after the initial onrush of arrows, their opponents melded into the trees.

As quickly as the ambush was sprung, the trap was reset. Scowling, he cast his blood-red eyes across the treeline. Easing his armored bulk from his horse, he looked to Selene, hefting his helmet from where it'd been hanging off the side of the horse.

"Let's say we chase them into their hole." Pulling a card from the pouch at his waist, he flung it to the ground. Quick as you could blink, and almost as if stepping from the shadows themselves, a pack of eyeless canines appeared. Each was built with the lean, agile grace of a hunting hound. Yet, despite their obvious builds, one would be hard pressed to ever reach calling them a dog.

Their mouths, when opened, revealed short, serrated teeth and long, slashing canines. But unlike normal teeth, these seemed to grow from the same murky substance that made up the beasts' skin. They were an impression of shadow, with a distinctly sickly green hue in their throat like a guttering candle.

"I doubt they left the keep entirely empty, so we'll still need earthworks." And it went without saying that it would keep the men busy. But as the eyeless pack gathered around his heels, he dropped his helmet onto his head, prepping himself for the inevitable.

They couldn't sit still, but they couldn't foolishly gallivant through the glades. So, a compromise - a small, well equipped scouting party. Find the base, crush it.

 

[Selene Avar]

Selene pulled herself from underneath her horse, pressing a hand into aching legs to make sure no bones had been shattered. Lips thinned as she grimaced in pain, fingers digging into cold soil as she pulled herself up.

Sagarus moved quickly, pulling together a scouting party and summoning his hounds.

The intent was clear, Selene nodding as she dusted herself off. A breath filled her lungs, eyes fluttering over the forest around them. Fire danced across her fingertips, irritation blooming in her chest as she considered simply burning this place to the ground.

Leave the scum no place to hide. She thought to herself bitterly before adjusting herself and motioning to Sagarus.

There was no point in delaying, and she disagreed with none of his words. They would still need to take the Keep itself, and no matter how many men were running through the forest Vel Fael could be held with just a dozen men if they really tried.

"Let's hunt." She growled.

These rebels would pay.

 

[Sagarus]

He sincerely doubted there was more than a token force within the keep, but right now they were going to have to split. The longer they camped out here, the worse it was going to be for them. It was a particularly challenging strategic conundrum, splitting your forces both to take and hold, and to search and destroy.

"Who do we send to assault the keep?" There was likely only a token force inside, but that didn't mean it was going to be easy. But he'd rather have a defensive force bottled up in a final bastion while using their own walls for protection than stay out here.

Already, their commanders were organizing hunting parties. Ferreting out elves wasn't an uncommon thing, but the precise scenario they were in required finesse. Finesse required time, and unfortunately, they didn't seem to have a lot of that particular resource at the moment.

Yet, a few particular units came to mind. Perhaps Astigern's 45th? His scowl deepened. "We wait out here and they'll just use their own walls as the anvil to their hammer."

 

[Selene Avar]

She frowned for a second. "Which has the most reputation for brutality?"

Selene did not often interact with the House Guard of Virak that often. In her own tasks she preferred to utilize the Vel Anir's central Guard Regiments. They were less reliable, but also less likely to speak of her actions to House Virak.

Plus, she had ensured the loyalty of one or two of the regiments.

She knew that Sagarus would have more insight into the House Guard.

"If the banners are recognized." Her head turned towards her Fellow Dreadlord. "It might...persuade, some of those outside the walls that they need to return."

Lest their homes be burnt completely.

 

[Sagarus]

A hand lifted to stroke along his scruffy jaw, thinking over the units deployed to see to the fall of the keep. "Labeck and his Jackals." He gestured vaguely to a particularly loud group of warriors who seemed more intent at shouting slurs at the woods than actually doing any scouting. Their lethargy did them no credit, but if one wished to sully the honor of their forces then the Jackals were what you wanted.

After all, no one called themselves the 'Jackals' because they prided themselves on stoic dedication to duty.

Fronting the group was a tangled mass of red hair and spittle flecked teeth, pounding the face of his axe against his breastplate as if beating the drum of war into his very being. It was a particularly onerous display in his own estimation, but the results spoke for themselves.

"But I'll send Astigern with. They won't have the discipline to carry the ladders under fire - they'll just drop them in a rush to get to the wall."

 

[Selene Avar]

"Good enough." She said plainly, frowning for just a brief moment before she turned her attention back towards the pack of dogs.

There was no doubt in her mind that the real battle would take place not within the walls of the Keep but in the area surrounding it. The men of Vel Fael wanted to keep them moving, wanted to try and outpace the forces of House Virak.

It was a good strategy, but a misguided one.

Briefly she wondered just what had stoked this rebellion. Why did these people think they had a shot against the might of Vel Anir? Something about all this wrankled her, but she could not say why. Lips thinned, and she motioned to her companion.

"Let's go." She bade Sagarus. "I don't want to be here a minute longer than I have to."

 

[Sagarus]

The woods were far from his favorite thing, but with a sword and his hand and magic at his command, he knew they'd face little they couldn't surmount. Falling in at her side, he scanned the darkening treeline. With the dark came the problem of sight, but they'd manage.

Finding a scent would be easy, it was the following that would prove difficult.

But if they were lucky, they could cut the head from this rebellion well before it got any further than it already had.

"That makes two of us."

 

[Selene Avar]

Quickly they moved into the forest. From somewhere behind her a whistle echoed, and then the pack of dogs broke away.

Selene followed after as fast as she could.

Tracking had never been a particular specialty of hers. Face to face combat had been where she'd always excelled above the others. She much rather would have preferred to assault the Keep than scrounge around the woods for their foes.

Yet fate was set.

Within five minutes the dogs had their tracks, and the first of a discarded scrap of cloth was found.

"This way!"​

One of the soldiers called as the dogs broke off to the left and away from the Keep.

 

[Sagarus]

He was not keen to leave the dogs to run for long, as they were, at heart, still quite wild. Like many beasts, real or magic, it was power - or more importantly, the fear of it - that kept them at bay. So, as a reminder, he banished all of the back save for one.

That draw of power left him briefly winded, but he followed after the soldiers as best he could.

Now, with a lone, ethereal wolf to guide them, they would find at least some of their prey before long. And they did, where a small rise in the woodlands fed into what appeared to be a manmade dugout. Likely, it fed into a tunnel where the others could traverse the woods at will.

With a spoken word of power that left his lip split and his throat raw, the last beast vanished, and he pulled his sword, gripping it tightly in an armored fist.

"I can only imagine the number of these that exist in these woods... and where they all lead."

 

[Selene Avar]

"There is something...off about this." Selene said with a quiet frown as she glanced through the forest.

She did not draw her blade, but instead allowed a trickle of flame to slowly flow down her forearms. The magic lingered there, barest wisp of fire as they continued to trudge deeper and deeper down the path.

Her eyes narrowed as movement caught her sight. "Something's th-"

A twig snapped to her right, and without even a second of thought Selene launched a needle point thin line of fire through the wood. A scream echoed as it sliced through flesh, a man dressed in drab browns and covered in leaves catching just a thin sliced of her attack.

That was when the others appeared.

Dozens of soldiers, all dressed in the same odd camouflage.

 

[Sagarus]

She reacted a little quicker than he did, but that's because she saw the situation differently. To him, the tunnel was an obvious method of transportation - one commonly used by insurrectionists. To her, it had been a trap.

He'd have smiled if he were capable. Turning, he an arrow ricocheted off his breastplate, though the head snapped off and nicked his cheek, leaving a thin slice through the skin. The impact made him take a step back, and lightning bundled around his fist before it was flung into the group.

It arced and leapt through a clustered handful, who charred and twisted in a macabre dance that ended with them slumping unceremoniously to the forest floor.

"It's either the entrance to the base, a trap, or both. Only one way to find out."

He took a step back and down towards the tunnel, intent on seeing their reaction as another arrow made him stumble, embedding itself in the ground back to his right.

 

[Selene Avar]

A wall of fire erupted behind Selene as another arrow flew through the air.

The instant it touched the flames even the metal head burned to dust. A scowl flittered over her features and Selene realized she was hesitant to go underground. Earth was an element she was comfortable with, but fire did not do well in tight alcoves with little oxygen not space to grow.

She would rather have stayed on the surface and burned the forest to the ground.

Yet her fellow Dreadlord was right. The passage could be something else entirely and right now a stray arrow could kill them both. With a one more quick cut of her hand she sent a whirl of fire around her, quickly stepping behind Safaris into the tunnel.

Behind her she flicked her wrist, the ground compacting and suddenly closing off the tunnel behind them.

It paid to learn more than one form of magic