Tasunke rides to war!!! (and other things happen)
The Khazad mining party had set up camp on the mithril. Tasunke's windriders had reported to them that one dwarven scholar and miner has learned how work the metal.
Tasunke decided that now was the time to strike a decisive blow. The hippi "bezerk roni" scouts went into a playful battlefury, and saw how fast each could kill their assigned sentry, and bring the ear back to Tasunke, the first one to arrive to get a gold bonus for their success. Tasunke was just about to order the Urak-clan riders to the frontlines, when an auspicious character burst forth from the shadows, halted only by Tasunke's Sword-tip pressed against his neck.
"Is that how you greet a business associate? My name is Mal'deGrashni ... and my shadows are offering our services."-Mal
"What is this foolishness eh? Why should I not just kill you, its suspicious that ye be offering your services for free!"-Tas
"Consider this a bonus on YOUR payment for helping ussss. We know you want access to the mithril mines, if for no other reason than to deny this from the Khazad. However, not only do we already have their encampment surrounded, with their scouts ALIVE as to conceal our presence, and prove our skill further, as they have been their for 5 days now as you rode from the capital, BUT also we can provide you with working mithril weapons for some of your most promising men.
We can't assemble a whole team to work mithril, but we have ways of torturing people, and otherways making them to talk, with more ... polished methods.
We will glean the knowlege from Hedgar the Dwarven scholar, and we will teach ye how to work this metal. You can use it for arrow tips, and your Lieth-Clan bezerk-riders, and yourself, will be able to use mithril longswords, and the mithril lance, to good effect. I hear your Elite Grendidor Clan Riders even prefer short-swords and light bows, as they oft like to dismount and get into the grit, as well as preferring their overall flexibility. - Mal
"Bah ye silvertounged mongrel! around here you have to earn your trust, through worth in battle. Secure us this mithril, and I will decide what to do with it. Kill an advancing army to the man, without losing a rider, or er, shadow, and then we will talk."-Tas
"There are only three companies defending the mine, most are garrisoned in the nearby settlement. After we take the mine, we will lure their army into the open for your war-hungry hooligans to cut down in their customary fashion. We on the other hand will .... heheh .... "take" the walled settlement." - Mal
"very well ye slimy bloke. If ye do well in battle, you can have the trust of the grunts, but im yet not sure o' ye. Provide us with the mithril, and some gold pay for your REAL plans, and then we will talk. Even then, I wont be satisfied with this war against the Dwarves until they are cryin and snivlen up in a corner, when have all the gold, and they are trapped, leaven the good foothills to us, and them lost in the tall mountains for good ye see.
Well, unless they come back, but they better not come out after their defeat unless they have some more gold ta steal! har!" -Tas
"Very well, we will aid you in the taking of HALF of the current dwarven lands. no more. once the mighty Vice-city of Hallowell has fallen, then we will have some instructions for YOU, for once."
(and the battle commences)
fingers so quick, hands so nible, their couldnt have been but a few dozen agents hidden in the trees, but the number of arrows loosed could have been from twelve different companies. Some of the arrows were tipped in poison, others in withering acid. Its strange to see a whole in a mans face start to expand and sizzle, as his head is melting at the flesh.
They waited until nightfall of course. some of the more rowdy agents decided to attack the guard huts, throwing a torch inside and then nailing the doors shut. Would burn those sleeping alive, while their escape was impossible without organization, which was unlikely in the burning smoke. Those that did make it out, were cut down immediately by the night riders. Shapes that moved so fast and so silently, you might as well have dropped dead with no more than a gasp, for the ears to observe. a few of the more ... grotesque corpes were transported over-night to outside the Walled dwarf settlement of Kadar. (in Kuriotate terms, Kadar might still be in the suburbia of Rockhomme, however it was far enough away that the slow dwarven couriers wouldnt wait to ask for reinforcements, and besides, they will be enraged and arrogant, driven by emotions)
Just before daybreak, the walled guards were notified, and one was stuck with a poison arrow in the neck, another struck in the eyeball with an acid arrow. They then saw 3 VERY mutilated and defiled dwarven corpses nailed up to their front gates. Furious, the commander ordered his warriors to chase them down. They lured them right to the Pemnar fields, where the hippus sat waiting, using half of their number on the field. The dwarves saw the army, and Tasunke rode out himself, using a Ramhorn to project his voice he shouted "Im sorry you had to see your kinsmen in that way, but its more than you deserve! now come and get spanked ye bispectacled lump-warts!!" seeing that they were roughly equal in numbers, they decided to charge full speed a head. Uncharicteristically, the hippi warlord simply sat there waiting, looking at his fingernails.
The commander first noticed the screams as he was nearing the Hippus commander, still sitting there, with a stupid grin on his face. After the screaming, he then noticed the thunderous sound of a horse charge. IN all their charging, the dwarves had lost all coordination, flank defense, or rear defense. The other army group had trotted a full several miles out of the way in order to be fully behind the dwarven army. A few paces after their charge had picked up, The hippi riders, led by the Tarna-riders with extra long lances for dwarf-kabobs, charged full melee into the Dwarven backside.
Once the commander realized they were all but surrounded, he called a halt, and then to turn and face the enemy. Then to face forward. The commander was confused, astounded, and scared. Half the army was turned to fight them, in the front, while the ones in the back were charging onwards. There was so much confusion, once the dwarves were able to rally a defense against the chargers in the rear, the Horsemen threw down their lances and galloped back, letting loose their composit bows into the advancing enemy. Some battle was done, but it was such an organized attack it was practically a slaughter. maybe 10 hippi riders died, as opposed to 2,000 dwarven kin. The hippi army had 4,000 riders, 200 scouts, and 500 archers. And this was just the advance army. The defense and reinforcement core, led by Rhoanna, was much more than this, not including the guardsmen riders scattered across the sheppards' settlements and hippi cities. the overall dwarven and hippi forces may be roughly equal, although the dwarven-kin may be faster at throwing armor on any fool, the hippi were better trained and better paid. The strength of a hippus army was gold. The more they were paid, the harder they fought, and nothing can replace being led directly by the famed tasunke, thats worth at least a hundred gold per 'ead right there.
As the hippus were approaching Kadar they were singing the merry songs of victory. However the air felt a bit ... off. The first they smelled was the smoke. As they got closer, they also smelled the stale and ragged smell of death. The field and walls were littered with the bodies of wounded dwarfs that were killed while trying to escape their fate.
The hippi warlords had seen cities put to the flame before, but this was different. There was pure malice in these walls, hatred, and senseless loathing and contempt. Things that were done to these bodies ... are unfathomable. Twisted in strange positions, some left in cooking pots to boil, some nailed onto the walls in a pattern for the purpose of drawing a simple picture, a picture drawn with the stroke of organs and blood, hair and skin.
Tasunke renounced the shadows immediately, but then the aid that was handing him his riding coat saw a poison arrow run through his skull. Tasunkes eyes narrowed as he cursed himself for not being more wary of the company he kept. He then gently laid his aide to rest on the ground, and turned to face Mal'deGrashni.
"You already owe us warlord. We have kept our word and taken the city. Now lets conquer the rest of these fool dwarven cities, you already owe me the amount you bargained on when you wanted half of the Dwarven land. Now you only need to accept our help in capturing up to Hallowell, and then lend your aide to us. its quite simple really, you have already sold the souls of your army to the great lord Esus ... whose followers happen to currently be possesed by some ... quirks in their behavior. Like slaughtering entire cities, and doing .... things .... to the dead bodies. Whatever it is though, its making them stronger. I would advise you to just do your job, while we do ours."
The hippus made camp a few miles out of the ruined city, and tasunke sat pondering at the weight of what he had done, what kind of servitude he had sold his people into. For once gold didn't seem like the most important thing in the world, and Ironically it was the followers of the god of Deception that lead to this revelation. These were no sinister tricksters though, this company was pure evil. The taint of agares smelled strong, although not a priest, Tasunke wasnt sure if it wasnt just Aeron or Camulos, or even a darker side of Esus he had not heard of.
Luckily the shadows kept to the shadow, and most of the army didn't see the extent of the cruelty visited upon Kadar. He returned to the city with only a small guard of trusted riders, and the city was miraculously cleaned spotless. However it wasnt really a city anymore, but some nice looking walls, with some rubble in the center. Spirited by the Lack of Death, Tasunke felt confident he could play the role of the confidant and spirited general on the warpath. This was no time for doubts, this was a time to conquer!
He would deal with these Dwarves now, and then deal with the shadows later. Tasunke sent a messenger to Rhoanna, saying that a small contingent of guards would be needed to guard the lands of Kadar, as well as a stronger force to directly control the mithril mine. True to their word, the Esus provided enough mithril weapons for over 30 hippi warriors in the first week. The khazad were just now gathering their forces for war. The Confident Dwarven War-King did not even realize he was at war until a trading shipment didnt return from Kadar, and a provincial scout saw and reported what had happend. Now, scared as he is Furious, the Dwarven king readies for battle. It was almost a full week before high king Arcturus, and the rest of the Dwarven oligarchy, realized they were under attack. Any dwarf to come anywhere near Kadar were never to be heard from, and after a few days more and more farms and cottages were found on fire outside of Rockhomme. It wasnt until the week was done that the entire Rockhomme countryside was inflame or rubble, until then any kind of scout was cut down before even a messenger hawk could be sent, it was like sending poor dwarves into a black hole of shadows.
Mal'deGrashni notified Tasunke once Kandros had gathered up an army. It was a good 9 days after the fall of Kadar that Kandros lead an army out of the mountains at Hallowell, into the foothills at Rockhomme. Mal'deGrashni would pepper his forces at night .... while Tasunke sat waiting, outside the walls of Kadar, for that little blur at the horizon which meant they were about to see battle. By this time the advanced force was almost doubled in size, compliments of Rhoanna, and Tasunke's personal elite company was fully fitted with mithril.
War is on full flame between the hippus and the dwarves, and the hippus have help from a vile and mysterious source.