My Pictish Campaign.

[tarkhan bey]

Brant steps forward and Rufio introduces himself. He tells that General Conan has risen in rebellion against the tyrant Numedides and his pet sorceror Thulandra Thuu. He has crossed the border from Zingara at the head of an army. Count Trocero of Poitain, the Countess Albiona and a number of others have declared their support for the rebellion.
Aquilonia is in a state of civil war. General Conan,he adds, asks for no troops. He is well aware of the situation on the frontier. He asks only that the provinces of Westermark declare their support for the rebellion.
Attalus is furious,he rants about blackest treachery and orders Diomedes to cut down the traitor Rufio.
The Baron is promptly informed that he has no jurisdiction in Thandara and that he would do well to remember that.
Swords and axes are drawn,arrows are nocked and violence looks certain until the Kothian throws down his sword. He has judged the situation correctly. Many of the people here know the rider personally and most appear to have some sympathy with his cause.
Near apoplectic with rage, the Baron is bundled off to his lodgings whilst his men are disarmed.
The council is convened at the meeting house where after some deliberation, Thandara declares for Conan.Some voices call for the imprisonment of the Baron and his soldiers. Brant is insistent that they are released."They came here in good faith and in good faith they may leave."
Rufio leaves Thandara on a fast horse and two days later the Baron and his men are released.
Brant apologizes to the Baron for such poor treatment and explains that the people of Thandara owe the Cimmerian a debt of blood for Conajohara.
It is unfortunate that the Baron has chosen to oppose the rebels but that he is now free to go.
Attalus swears that he will return with an army to destroy Thandara. "None will be spared,not man,woman or child. Every cabin and every barn will burn and those of you who do not fall in battle will swing from a gallows. Such is the deserved fate of traitors and rebels."
Other such sanguinary threats are exchanged between the Thandaran's and the Baron's retinue as they depart but no blood is spilled. The locals hold to the word of Brant and the soldiers weapons have been peace bonded until they have been escorted out of the province by a company of rangers.
For nearly a month the rangers watch the borders of the Barons fief and patrol the little wilderness for signs of ever hostile picts. Finally a ranger arrives at Thandara with the news that the Barons army is on the march.

 

[tarkhan bey]

The ranger had been hiding out in the Bossonian marches for several weeks posing as a royalist sympathiser. The information he was now bringing was to prove invaluable to the defence of the province.
Attalus had raised a force of almost two hundred Knights and mounted men at arms from his own fief and from those of his neighbours.
He had also raised two companies of Bossonian archers and two companies of footmen numbering some four hundred,all told.
The rangers could field slightly smaller numbers and so they were not too concerned about being outnumbered.
The bad news was that,somehow, Baron Attalus had managed to secure an alliance with several small clans of Panther picts and had close on three score of these savages to scout for him.
Never before had Hyborians managed to gain an alliance with the notoriously belligerent Panther clans.
The characters were rightly disgusted that the Baron could turn these savages loose on Hyborian folk and wondered what the swine had promised the painted devils in return for their help. It was clear that he intended to live up to his promise to kill every living person in Thandara.
It was soon clear that the best place to oppose the invaders was in the little wilderness.Two companies of rangers including our heroes were immediately dispatched to delay the advancing column and to deal with their savage allies before they could get to Thandara.
Most of the remaining rangers and a militia comprised of old men and boys would fortify Hatchet creek and attempt to make a stand there. The women and children would stay in the fort along with a handful of the militia while the remaining company of rangers was charged with bringing in to the fort as many settlers as they could find.
Hatchet creek was the unofficial border of Thandara and marked the beginning of the fifty mile trek across the little wilderness to the Bossonian marches.
It lay in a wide meadow and although slow flowing ,it would be thigh deep and had a strong current. The western bank was also several feet higher than the east bank and if barricaded it could be used to form a defence against the Baron's Knights and mounted soldiers.
At the ford,Brant put his men to work cutting down trees to form an abatis with which to block the ford's wetern exit. Mantlet's too were built to shelter the defenders from the arrow storm of the Bossonians and arranged along the bank for a distance of 30 yards to each side of the ford,three feet back from the bank.
The only chance that Brant could see was that the Baron would be as foolhardy as he seemed and commit his cavalry to a pointless charge against the defended western bank.His hope was that Attalus would not expect them,as mere peasants ,to face him in open battle. The chance of a glorious charge was generally more than these noble fools could resist.

Two bloody days and nights of ambush and counter ambush followed before the Panther warband was caught in a defile and slaughtered to the last pict. It was now also apparent that the column was advancing without a supply train.Baron Attalus obviously expected this to be a short campaign and aws heading toward a hasty conclusion.
Bloodied and tired,but unbowed,the two depleted Ranger companies made their way back to Hatchet creek.
In the fighting,Captain Garret had been killed by a pictish arrow and Drada was chosen to be his successor.His new command were to hold the barricade along with Brants companies and the militia. A hundred ranger's moved over the creek to the east bank and dispersed into the woods which lay beyond the meadow.
After two nights of sniping and raiding BaronAttalus was impatient to get to grips with these Thandaran traitors. He marched his small army into the meadow and saw that they had barricaded the western bank just as he had expected. They also expected him to order a futile charge by his horsemen against the opposite bank but he was not so foolish as they believed him to be.
The rebels had also built mantlets to cower behind. Good,he thought, the Bossonians can keep their heads down whilst the footmen wade across and hack their abatis to bits. He silently congratulated himself on his foresight which meant that half of his footmen were armed with timber axes instead of pikes.
His cavalry was arranged in a single battle,four ranks deep in the centre of his formation. The Bossonians were arranged on their flanks. These Bossonians were raw and inexperienced troops having only recently been raised but this was unknown to all save Baron Attalus and his advisors.(The best of the Bossonian archer companies were already fighting in the war to the east.)
The Barons footmen were drawn up in a tight phalanx in front of the Knights.
As the rangers watched the Bossonians let fly with a series of volleys at the opposite bank. Most struck the mantlets but the occasional gasps or cries of pain suggested that some few had found a target.
At a wave from the Baron the footmen marched into the spring chill of the creek to begin chopping furiously at the abatis while their pikemen stabbed through the barrier at the defenders.
Seemingly oblivious to the arrows that sprouted from him like porcupine quills, Drada climbed atop the abatis and hurled himself into the fray cleaving heads and sundering pikeshafts until the attackers retreated before his wrath.
To rousing cheers,he was helped back over the barricade where he stood roaring his defiance at the Baron and refusing all offers of medical attention.
The Baron was furious.Two score of his men were dead or dying in Hatchet creek from the arrow fire of the defenders or from the axe of that madman.
A similar number would not fight again for weeks thanks to their wounds.
Ordering his knights and retainers to dismount he led them to the banks of the stream. Turning to the Bossonians he cried,"Keep their heads down you dogs or by Mitra you will each dance a gallows jig ere this day ends!"
Turning once again to his knights and retainers and waving a greatsword in the air he yelled "Follow me Kings men,Death to the traitors!"
Lennart and Lett could hardly believe what they were seeing.The entire mounted wing of the Barons army was now advancing into hatchet creek on foot armed with greatswords,battleaxes and heavy maces. The Bossonian's were plying their shafts at the opposite bank at a furious rate. Now was the time to strike. The hidden rangers were amongst their foes befor they were aware of their presence. Hatchet and knife did its work and within moments the survivors were in full flight back along the road.
The few men left to watch the horses were dealt with similarly as bit and bridle were cut and panicked horses were driven into the ford and into the rear of the Barons forces.
The Barons knights and men at arms began methodically hacking away the abatis that blocked their exit from the creek.Even Drada's whirling axe could not deter these men,the cream of the nobility of the Bossonian marches. To the Baron's delight the defenders seemed to be streaming away from the barricade toward the safety of the forest.
"They are breaking,up the banks and at them. For Aquilonia and the King!"
Around him his men ceased to attack the abatis and began to haul themselves up the high sides of the west bank,desparate to come to grips with the few rebels who remained.
Suddenly above the din of battle could be heard the strident call of a war horn. The Barons elation quickly turned to dismay as the rebels toppled the heavy mantlets over the banks and onto the top of his floundering army.
There was pandemonium in Hatchet creek as the rangers charged into the fray over the top of the toppled mantlets.The knights and men at arms who were not trapped and drowning in their heavy armour under the mantlets put up a token resistance until they were assaulted in the rear by scores of panicked horses and dozens of Thandarans who charged wildly into the midst.
Packed tightly the rest of the battle was a slaughter which only ceased when arms were too tired to hack at enemies anymore.
Attalus was captured by Lett and Lennart about a hundred yards doenstream. He had discarded most of his armour and was choking up river water when they found him attempting to make his escape.
Diomedes the Kothian had met his demise in the brutal melee at the hands of Captain Drada. It was not a good death for the man,half drowned as he was. Drada did express some regret about it afterwards but then pointed out that this was war and not the tourney field.
Less than a fifth of the Barons army escaped that day. The Baron and a dozen knights were taken prisoner and held for ransom at Fort Thandara until the end of the war.Threescore of men at arms,footmen and archers were captured and then freed after taking an oath that they would never again take up arms against Thandara ,General Conan or any of his allies.
The rangers of Thandara for the loss of just over a hundred men had inflicted the first defeat of the war on the King's supporters.

 

[Supplement Four]

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