After the skirmish in front of Aubastia, Comes Elias draws up his legion and besieges the city.
Challenges
The Legion must overcome some challenges to secure the city.
First, do you starve the undead into submission? You can't. Which means Elias has no choice but to order an assault on the city.
Second, how do you prevent the undead from rising again? The Legion's priests supply the answer. To maintain control over a large force of ghuuls, the Dark Magi rely on totems to amplify their evil magic. The totem is probably in the center of town. Destroy it and the necromancer will not be able to raise up any ghuuls beyond his physical reach.
The Plan
Elias prepares a two-pronged assault.
- Ulveblod will lead a diversionary attack on the main gate.
- Elias will then lead the main attack against the secondary gate.
Ulveblod's Attack
The Legion priests use divine fire to blast open the gates. Ulveblod then leads the assault.
But the ghuuls flood out of the gate, pushing the Legion back. Ulveblod's troops hack and stab, but the ghuuls keep coming.
"We must get inside and destroy the totem!" yells one of the priests.
While Ulveblod draws out more of the ghuuls, Raph launches a flank assault. He bypasses the bulk of the ghuuls and heads for the gate. But there are more in the gateway.
Raph strikes, gutting one of the ghuuls. His attack creates an opening. Raph leads a rush into the heart of the town.
Elias's Attack
Meanwhile, Elias dons his heavy armor and leads the main attack. His priests, led by Centarch Basilius, blast an opening. Elias rushes through. He is swiftly overwhelmed by hordes of ghuuls. They push his force back, but Basilius leads a flank attack that reaches the center of the town.
The End
Suddenly, resistance falters. Elias advances to the center. He sees the totem, smashed and lying on its side. Raph stands triumphantly over it.
One of the legionaries with Raph quips, "welcome to Aubastia, commander."
Elias smiles and offers hearty congratulations.
The Citadel
Elias surveys the town. All the ghuuls appear motionless. Perhaps they are finally dead.
Elias approaches the citadel, the former stronghold of Imperial troops. A chill voice calls out from above.
"Enjoy your victory while you can, Imperial." the voice calls.
Elias looks up. A death knight stands upon the citadel's ramparts. It continues.
"But as long as we hold the citadel, the town is ours!" The death knight laughs.
As Basilius approaches, Elias remarks, "Looks like we have some more work to do."
THE GAME
This is an account of our battle from November 12. As always, I took a few dramatic liberties.
The scenario is a castle battle. The attackers have to power their way through a gate (two trees) and then reach an objective point in the defender's rear.
Brett (Ulveblod) and Raph represented the attacking legion. Robb and I were ghuuls. Raph bypassed Robb, stabbed me, then rushed to the objective for the victory.
For kicks, we reversed the scenario. Now Robb and I attacked. I describe this in the narrative as a two-pronged attack. Once again, the attackers won.
