Battle Report: Red Blade vs Naga Army
We always knew they were coming, maybe some of us wanted to think they would come later and in fewer numbers than they did but they were always going to get to us.
If only we had more time.
It was just before dawn when those restless souls who could not sleep recognised the thrum of large numbers of enemies moving in swiftly upon our position. Quickly orcs mustered to either side of the camp. Many of us in the beginning simply stared out across the darkness of blue o’clock in disbelief. The numbers of enemies we faced were almost uncountable, they weren’t here for capture, they were here to take down an entire clan, such were their numbers.
Rapidly, orcs manned the two cannons in the camp and the kelp bales we had prepared were lit, smoke choked the skies over head and we made ready for the coming wave. Naga split their forces at the foot of the ramp. A huge hulking brute creature stormed towards the hill on one side while another force slithered around to the far entrance.
Battle thought so distant was finally upon us. The cannons in the camp sounded, Thronk taking shot at the brute while Ragehowl took aim and thinned the swarm on the opposite side. The Brute didn’t fall to the first shot but it definitely looked like it was reconsidering its life choices. Orcs on both sides of the camp cut the Naga down, some claiming three or four as they pressed forward into the enemy charge but for every one we took down, many more took its place. It was like wading through a tide of snakes.
I confess, in the first moments of the fighting it was almost like the Naga couldn’t hurt us; they were ineffective in their attempt to ambush us unprepared. Sure some orcs were a little nibbled and scrapes were had but there was nothing major to report.
The fight dragged on, the never ending tide of Naga thrown against us left walls of snakey bodies before our fighters. Notably Zelyr was the first to fall over, injured but fighting with their crude axes on the floor and if you didn’t know better you might have believed that was the plan all along, she was determined not to die without making a heap of enemies around her. Some noticed the Sorceress leading the Naga force, Lady Shivass. Karnna Blackfeather insisted on trying to get to her, take out their leader and stop the attack. Many of us spoke out against this, I tried to order her to stay on our line and for once, she remained. I feel sure now that if she had gone she would have almost certainly died.
On the far side of camp our spell casters fought a dogged battle against the Naga. Draz’hul Dusklight, Bashul Starsong and Meri Soulwalker. Zelyr fighting in front of them and Gul’rok Ragehowl manning the cannon.
While on the hill side of the camp there stood a line of skirmishers the Mercenary Sootskin, Takkat Warwolf and Karnna Blackfeather. Behind them and up on the rise, Thronk manning the cannon and Urzoga the Unbroken firing arrows down upon the Naga.
I was with neither group. Ready to bolster their ranks should any fall but mostly rolling balls of flaming kelp down the hill when needed and protecting the Duke Salinius.
It was clear our position was going to be over run and though we were going to give it our all to hold out as long as we could, the outcome was unavoidable. We would show these Naga how orc clans fought and they would pay a heavy price for every orc slain.
The little Duke Salinius had other ideas, taking up a position at the center of camp and defended by my sword he began to cast a ritual. Salt glittered across the limbs of every orc and some of the supplies. Even as we tried to rouse those who for many reasons could not defend the camp.
The plan changed. It wasn’t about taking victory here any more but for the orcs to hold off the Naga for as long as the Duke needed.
By now injury had brought half our number to their knees. Draz’hul Dusklight fought valiantly from the floor with his spells, Ragehowl on the cannon went down to a Naga weapon strike, Sootskin rallied from a bitey wound and these were the orcs I could see. Somewhere beyond the rim of the hill they needed to fight a moving retreat, they were almost beyond rescue. I called for them to pull back and heard my words echoed by Warwolf.
It was in these moments that orcs like Urzoga the Unbroken saved many. Her shots at incoming bolts of cold ice shot by Naga witches, showering us in nothing more harmful than salty snow.
Just when things were about to get much much worse.
At the point when orcs would fall to their wounds and not rise again…
Magic happened.
The Dukes ritual completed and we were enclosed in a bubble of watery magic, nothing the Naga shot at us mattered any longer as we were gently lifted from our positions. The orbs that we were within rapidly picked up speed and floated hurriedly across the night sky, any hope of charting our path back to the old camp was lost but it was also lost to the Naga we had evaded.
Dawn broke over the great sea wall and for a moment you could forget that we had been inches from almost certain death. Then the bubble burst. Flinging us to a place the elemental Duke could recall would not have any Naga. A ruin of ancient Kaldorei design, among a vast pinkish coral forest. We were miles from our start point, lost again and without much of the shelter we had come to appreciate at the old camp.
As soon as orcs could walk, we salvaged the meagre supplies the Duke deemed worth of rescue to keep us alive and headed out to a more enclosed set of ruins scouted out by Karnna Blackfeather. There, many orcs exhausted and wounded from battle dropped to rest.
I have requested for now that there are no campfires and all orcs are cautious when exiting our location. We might have a roof protecting us from flying Naga scouts for a time but with the force they expended trying to take our camp, it will not be long before they are hunting for us again.
Those who are able are to do so take their turn on watch. We don’t know where we are right now or what dangers the red coral forest or Night Elven ruins might hold. There is some talk of restless spirits?
Water is our biggest pressing concern. The glass vials we had been distilling with are damaged and we are at the mercy of when rain falls. We have lost much and I do not have all of the answers to the problems we might face in the coming days.
We must be cunning now if we are to survive the next few days and nights.
Look after each other, Red Blade.
–Verzan Skywise–