A Look Back on the Year of War in Kaurath

 

The past carries with it a myriad of secrets, have we learned enough in order to determine our fate?  Only time can tell. 

 

This past year’s war dealt innumerable blows, but we are happy to say that it was by far one sided.  The Barrowheart and their minions managed to enslave an entire nation of the Barbarians, the Ram.  They used the Ram’s knowledge and survival skills of the some of the most remote mountains to obtain a metal.  Nothing is known about this metal, only that they succeeded in capturing all that was in the mountain they mined.  But, with the help of the brave adventures who frequent the Gatetown of Celtios, the survivors were freed and the presence of the Barrowheart was all but eliminated; only their leader, known as the Ice Queen, survived and took with her the last of the metal. 

 

The Village of Deathach-Watch was taken by Lord Grim, the Barrowheart’s magistrate.  The inhabitants of the town, all of them Kaurathi, did not survive, and instead the watchtower became the Barrowheart’s. With his superior tactics and the backing of his forces, it seemed like this victory would become a permanent place for Lord Grim to conduct his war strategy from the Kaurathi side of the wall. It became clear that he had plans to take over the Gatetown of Deathach and then march the bulk of his forces right down the king’s road.  With his undead Knight General Leviathan, he seemed unstoppable. When, something at long last was discovered by the forces of Kaurath.  Lord Grim, it seems had a weakness, and one that the people of Kaurath were able to use to their advantage.  When General Leviathan moved the bulk of his forces to take the Gatetown, the allies struck Lord Grim hard while the king’s forces held the Gatetown. Equipped with some sort of secret weapon, a force of the bravest adventurers led by Sir Grackleflint and Sir Jarnok and the Raven Court penetrated the remains of Lord Grim’s forces, and confronted him.  With honor, righteousness and their new weapon at their command, they fought for their lives and the people of Kaurath.  Cheers erupted as Lord Grim fell, but the real victory came as his form itself was destroyed.  The bravest had found a way to end Lord Grim forever, and he was not only felled this time, but completely destroyed.  There has been no greater victory against the Barrowheart.

 

Bellatrix, the child of the Barrowheart was also destroyed.  On her lips, came the name of her destroyer, although some call him a savior: Videl.  Not much is known about this man of honor, but that he came from a southern land ready to lend his hand and sword to the kingdom of Kaurath in order to see this foe gone.  Rumors of her life, or un-life as it was, are spreading like wild fires, but there are some that could be proven.  She was, a very long time ago, a child of Briar Hollow.  She was a thing of plague and was to blame for the great Bleeding Sickness that struck Kaurath after the Battle of Karsia.  For pleasure or for the pain of it, Bellatrix captured children and while she took over their bodies, she trapped their sprits in wells that were deep under a long haunted and long avoided barn in the Hobbling countryside. Only after all the sprits were freed, and only after their tale of their abduction was told to their families, did they agree to help. With the last of their energy, and with the help of the formalist who had to withstand the ire of Bellatrix herself, the barn came down.  Were it not for the brave adventures of Kaurath to help ensure this victory, Bellatrix would have no doubt continued her torturous ways of finding new bodies to inhabit.  With the sprits gone on to a better place, Videl struck the last blow to the black heart of Bellatrix.  Her sprit was wretched from the last body she had, and as it went, the original could come back.  Julia lives now and is whole again and has vowed to become a great fighter in this war when she comes of age. 

 

Another ill fate fell upon the Sprit Horse clan.  The Barrowheart’s high mage, the bleeding corpse known as Lord Rot, started out as the prey, but became the predator.  The Sprit Horse clan declared him as their next target, but to their dismay, he did not go down, not even with a fight.  With the help of his troops he calls the Blood Guard; the sprit horse clan lost some of their bravest. They are, however still on his trail, but he continues to be elusive and difficult to hunt.

 

Then, a toll was paid; a deadly and sorrowful toll was paid to Lord Scythe of the Barrowheart. In order for the peacemakers on the Barrowheart side to include the Vaeltaa of Kaurath to be part of the terms of war, Lord Scythe demanded a blood price of two innocents.  Two came forth, a man named Fenyx, and a woman named Tatiana. While those gathered watched in horror, Lord Scythe cut their unguarded throats and let their blood spill upon the land.  Satisfied, the peacemakers agreed on the terms of war that shall be followed hence.

 

But, as time has shown, their sacrifice became a legend for after it, and after the tenets of war were followed, one of the biggest blows to the Barrowheart took place. At the end of the last of the great gathers this year, their knight known as the Butcher, fell with an earth shaking thump.  The Butcher, the bane of Kasember, the murderer of thousands of this kind is gone. We can only thank the bravest of the Vaeltaa for this, Tatiana.  Adorned in her ancestor’s ancient armor and armed with her own deadly skill with the blade, she bested him and delivered vengeance for her clan.  Tatiana is perhaps the youngest, but defiantly not the last, to fight for her clan’s honor. 

Honor is the way of the Kaurathel, and history has shown that this is the only way to win your battles. 

 

The tenants of war must be followed, else you risk defeat.  Defeat comes at great loss, and no one but the brave who have fought and fallen in this war knows better.

 

Praise to the Fallen

Devana Slavenshire