[Apologies for delay as had a few queries about rules I put to Jadli]
Valano watched over the city, as the forces of the dominion moved below. Skywatch had a port at the eastern side and the two main gates [the only other way into the city] stood , on the western wall. The city sloped upwards towards the east and the three clear districts each had a tier on the hillside. The upper tier was where hightide keep and guilds stood , with the lower tiers containing the parks and the merchants areas . Even ,his forces continued to search out the forbidden races which polluted the race of mer, within the city.
Soon two more forces joined the forces of Urcelmo, there banners clear in the evening light. Banners of both Bosmer elfves and even some of those despicable cats, he grimanced at such a sight, and he moved towards the stairs at the keep to direct the defences of the veiled alliance. As he moved down the spiral staircase to the keep below , he muttered under his breath...
"Fools! Think you can mess with the Veiled Heritance and live to tell the tale?"
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Back in the Dominion Camp , the new forces settled in the Mer encampment outside the city, the guards where doubled on the command tent ,where Battlereeve Urcelmo commanded the subcommanders of the army, to their various postions for the morning. When the two "eyes of the queen"[Razam-dur & Cariel] entered , he pulled them to the side, and communicated with them , in a low voice.After that he pointed at a area of the map of Skywatch.Both Razam-dur and Cariel of the Bosmer looked at each other for a second , then Razam-dur shrugged and then nodded his asset and they both left the tent with Razam deep in conversation with Cariel.Urcelmo watched them both leave , for a while and then turned to his undercommanders and reviewed his briefing.
The next day came more swiftly than most would apprecraite, and in the early mist of the day, several giant siege towers , rams and ladders where broughtout of there places of construction and allocated to various units.The defenders on the walls of Skywatch were already in place and ready for battle , and Urcelmo knew this fight would not be easy as it was the self proclaimed capital of the Veiled heritance alliance, and to show the people of the dominion that Queen Aryeen was still in command ,He knew that this would have to be taken quickly to show they were in control of the situation, no matter the losses.
The battle started before midday, as mer archers unleased misslefire from both the defenders and attackers. The attackers had units of swordsmen allocated to , protect the archers with their shields and to give some semblance of protection, whilst the skirmish continued.Whilst this was going on , the siege towers moved ever closer to the walls. Occasionally the defenders changed their volleys to target the towers with fire arrows, to try and set them alight.But the siege towers had been soaked last night and the outer surface's had been kept damp, making it hard for a flame to take hold.Eventually they reach the walls, and with there ramps collapsing onto the walls., it became a bloody hand-to-hand struggle, as Mer fought Mer on the walls. Every now and then , a small Mer horn tooted out, and another Mer cavalry sally left Skywatch to plunge into the Dominions lines and inflict more casualties to the Dominion ground forces. The Mer cavalry lowered there lances and hit home with a great charge into the Mer foot troops, before Mer archers targeted the riders and they rode back to the safety of the walls.On the third occasion, the "veiled" cavalry nearly broke the Dominion defensive lines but the day was saved , when Cariel lead her rangers into the fight hitting the Mer heavy calvary in the flank. With swords drawn and amazing dexterity they darted amongst the nearly victoriousriders , cutting down a score. The riders soon spotted Mer pikemen moving to reinforce near the breakpoint and they began to lose morale and broke for the safety of city once more.
By four in the afternoon it was clear , that neither side held the advantage. The wall fight had become a bloody struggle of attrition and it would be hard to make headway to control the walls , as the Mer dead blocked or impeaded most routes down from the wall.The veiled Heritance's cavalry was deleted, so much that they left their horses and joined the others on-foot to defend the gate. But soon the unexpected happened, as Many houses and homes inside the city burst into flame, and thus took some of the defenders away from the wall and gate defences to put out these fires. At this time ..a small green smoke arose in one segment of the city near the southwestern wall , and the cats raced forward bring there ladders quickly to the wall.Catquick they stormed this quiet segment of the wall, and such was the speed of the cat advance that they easily took the segment of the wall before the veiled heritance could re-adjust their forces and send a force to counter this action.It was learnt later in the day , that Razam-dur had taken a few cats with him and quiety sneaked across that wall that night..and lit those critical housefires at the righttime and assisted in helping the taking of the wall from inside the city.
The attackers seeing the Cats banner on the wall, redoubled their efforts, and soon more troops had been sent to support their push on the wall . The siegetowers were reinforced with fresh troops and finally rams were brought to the two gates, to push a way into the city. The first rams where set alight with Merish fire arrows but eventually one ram got close enought to the gates to break a way in and the Mer of the Dominion flooded into the city district.The veiled heritance having spent all there effort trying to contain the intial attacks, had now little reserve to resist the flood of numbers that entered the city and they tried to extrudate there troops from the wall, to rush back to the keep.
Here and there , small engagements began within the city streets , as withdrawing Veilied Heritance Mer tried to slow the advance into the city, to allow their comrades back to the keep . Battlereeve Urcelmo entered the city at this point, observing the square within the city, where they celebrate the New Life Festival with "the Mud Ball Merriment",a strange tradtion brought over by the Bosmer.
The streets were a shambles , beaten and broken homes lay in ruin or burning, sometimes the odd house had escaped destruction . In the streets , the floor ran with blood and water , and smoke and the smell of death hung heavy in the air. A few Bosmer elfves and Cats ran past the general moving quickly into the city , eager to do the will of the dominion and to uphold there pledges. Seeing the last of the Veiled Heritance fortifing the castle, Urcelmo turned to a young mer messanger and said.
"Send this message to the Queen , that Skywatch stands conquered this day", he nodded looking at the desperate defences of the castle , knowing that it would be easily stormed within the day.
"I will try and capture Valano and get some intel from him , but dont hold your breath", he smiled at the young elf, "Get this to the queen and Tell her, that I will soon return and be at her side".
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile.../?id=958443799
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile.../?id=958443877
North of the Summerset isles , are the lands of Hammerfell , where the Redguard dwell. Here BattleAdmiral Cirion, was surprised to see the Redguard charge out , despite being massively outnumberd.
"you mad fools!!", Cirion commented as he saw the valiant but mad act , "This is why , you men need the Mer to rule you!..."
Soon they had taken both Abiban-Goran and Admiral Peregrine had also reported that he had captured Hegathe against the same fanatical type sally. The Queens plans in the north were well on the way to fruition. BattleAdmiral Cirion had to lead his cavalry out into the desert sands to push back some mobile forces of the Redguard, these fights where both quick and bloody , but ultimately successful , as the desert folk did not have the numbers.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile.../?id=958443989
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile.../?id=958444121
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile.../?id=958444214
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile.../?id=958444307
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile.../?id=958444375
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Back in the Summerset isle , the Queen's council had announced her marriage to "Ranalie" , who was a son of one of the major nobles of the isle. Ayreen didnt really care for the match, but she realised that in such time of strife , that some cementing of her power in the isles was vital at such time , until the rebellion was put down...
Note : the turn has already been passed to Valenwood[Narsil] but he equally has another problem for the admin to solve[Jadli] - who is away on holiday for 3 days..either when he returns or another admin can be asked to help out valenwoods problems then we can continue. - apologies for the ongoing delay]