Fae and fare, p.123
Fae and Fare, page 123
part #2 of The Wandering Inn Series
We may never know if the Queens intended to journey to this continent or not; nor do we know what they did in those few months, although we can speculate that creating a Hive and replenishing their lost Workers and Soldiers was their main focus. The next documented encounter was with the port city of Nasserous, in which the Watch Captain* details several unusual occurrences nearly eight months after the Antinium left Rhir.
*Watch Captains hold a higher position of authority than in Human cities. Among Drakes, the Watch Captain generally shares the same rank as members of a ruling Council and is usually given complete authority in local military matters.
From the journal of Watch Captain I’sl
“…do not know where they have gone. A second patrol found no bodies, but did mention four shipwrecks along one of the beaches. They thought the vessels looked empty, but I will send more men to scout later. If there are Krakens or some other monster capable of downing ships in the area, we must know immediately.”
Several days later, Captain I’sl recorded another entry.
“…all missing. Now I am certain something is out there, but I fear to send any more guardsmen to check. My last patrol had five [Guardsmen] above Level 20 in it; a lone [Scout] found no traces of them or even any violence done. I am posting a double-watch on the gates and putting a bounty up for Silver-rank adventurers or higher to investigate.”
The Watch Captain did just that, but neither adventurers nor later patrols would find any signs of these mysterious assailants. It is believed the Antinium left their position on the beach and avoided further contact while they journeyed north, into the rocky highlands. There they continued to hide until a chance encounter some two months later.
To Guild Master Jekra of Talvasor
“I am writing to you to detail an unusual circumstance which has happened in my guild today. Not an hour ago, a Gold-rank [Ranger] entered my guild bearing four corpses on a litter which caused quite a commotion. He says he found these monsters hunting together on a rocky hillside and they attacked him on sight.
I have inspected the corpses myself, and I must confess, they gave me quite a stir when I saw them. These new monsters are like nothing I have encountered either as an adventurer or Guild Master. They are some kind of insect, with black bodies and tough exoskeleton, and yet have four arms and two legs and apparently walk on two legs like Drakes and Gnolls. Their blood is green, and their eyes are multi-faceted like an insect, and they have wicked mandibles with which they might bite.
I have never seen this kind of monster before. I am unsure if it is some new dungeon-spawn or a species of some kind. I am writing to you in hopes you will know their species and know of an appropriate bounty to reward the adventurer with. He claims the creatures fought with unusual ferocity, not ceasing until he shot each one through the head and hacked off their heads. Please advise soonest,
–Guild Master Pessia
Fortunately, Guild Master Jekra was able to connect the bodies of the Antinium with the rumors from Rhir and immediately raised the alarm with each of the Walled Cities, urging immediate action and mobilization of each city-state’s standing armies.
It is here that multiple written accounts of the following events begin, and so the decisions made by the leaders of each Walled City* cannot be cast into doubt. For nearly a month, authorities debated and argued against the presence of the Antinium within Issrysil. Lacking evidence of the Antinium outside of eyewitness accounts (the bodies of the slain Antinium had long since been disposed of by the time others could verify the claim), and due to the lack of any prolonged conflict, the collected authorities failed to take decisive action.
*The famed Walled Cities are not all ruled by the same methods of government. Some espouse an elected official, while others are managed by a body of powerful individuals or, in some cases, a hereditary leader.
A few leaders of Walled Cities posted hefty bounties for Gold-rank adventuring teams to explore the area where the Antinium had been sighted, but again the Antinium preferred to avoid combat where possible, and thus the adventurers returned empty-handed, emboldening the claims that this was merely a false alarm.
On the outskirts of civilization near the mountains and in the highlands, further reports of mysterious monsters and strange people moving about at night continued to appear, in growing numbers and proximity to towns and cities. [Strategists] believe that these were the first scouting groups deployed ahead of the main assault.
However, word of the Antinium’s arrival had been kept to a bare minimum of people, as the leaders of the Walled Cities did not wish to start a panic. Only a few other individuals of note knew of the Antinium’s presence, including the young Lady Magnolia Reinhart, Lord Tyrion Veltras, and General Sserys.
It is unknown how Lady Magnolia and Lord Tyrion learned of the Antinium, but it is speculated that both Humans had access to powerful magic spells which alerted them to this issue. While Lord Tyrion knew of the Antinium, he took the view that any conflict would only weaken both Antinium and the Drake and Gnoll populations, allowing the Human cities to easily crush all sides after the war ended.
By contrast, Lady Magnolia took the news of the Antinium most seriously out of all the three, and immediately began contacting other prominent lords and leaders of the Human city-states. Her actions would later impact the course of the war, but at the time, even the word of a young Reinhart failed to sway all but the most cautious of listeners in the north.
On the other claw, General Sserys of Liscor was imminently poised to deal with the situation when he was alerted to the Antinium, and he took decisive action. This is also the first instance where General Sserys’s personal diary reports meeting the Antinium, on a routine guard mission with the Liscorian Army*. He records an unusual patrol and the losses taken by his men.
*The army of Liscor is renowned as being one of the strongest forces on the continent, and most notably for selling its services to any nation who will hire them. As such, the soldiers and commanders seldom stay near their city and instead fight constantly on battlefields for pay.
From the Diary of General Sserys of Liscor –
“Today marks what would have been an uneventful day in our patrols around the city of Ussls. Our subjugation of the local Goblin Lord’s forces has been bloody and hard-won, but I now believe we have stamped out the last of his Chieftains and scattered the few remaining Goblin tribes to the wind. All things being normal, I would not expect more than a few encounters with local monsters, but one of my patrols has been attacked and now six of my soldiers lie dead after facing some unknown enemy.
To summarize: a patrol of twenty Drakes and Gnolls met with a group of fifteen black individuals in a forest, busy harvesting trees with crude weapons. Upon realizing they had been discovered, this strange group immediately attacked my soldiers before an overture could be had. Before they retreated, they killed six of my soldiers – running into the barrier of spears my soldiers had formed to hack apart the front rank. Thereafter, the black creatures retreated, carrying their dead. The patrol leader declined to give pursuit and immediately reported back to me.
I have sent out three forces of sixty warriors each to work with patrols to locate these creatures again, but they have turned up empty-clawed thus far and I am not confident they will find any trace of them. These creatures seem to disappear easily, and had it not been for this chance encounter our army might have passed them by completely.
I am deeply troubled by this. Equal losses against a numerically inferior foe is not acceptable, given the strength of our soldiers. Moreover, the willingness of these strange enemies to throw themselves on our spears and then their desire to remove their fallen brethren is also concerning.
I will see if more work can be had for our forces in this region, even if it means less pay. My commanders will not like it, but my instincts as a [Strategist] tell me this should not be ignored.”
General Sserys did indeed remain in the area for several days afterwards, and his worries would soon be proven extremely prescient: it was five days after this encounter and nearly six and a half months after the Antinium had landed when fifteen villages and a small town were all destroyed in a single night.
The attacks occurred almost simultaneously, and left no survivors. Merchants, adventurers, and a patrol from one of the Walled Cities found the deserted buildings and raised the alarm. Every settlement within a hundred miles was put on alert, and that allowed several survivors to escape when the next wave of attacks began.
Over thirty small villages were attacked two days after the first attack, and several high-level adventurers and groups of soldiers managed to hold back the Antinium long enough for civilians and Runners to raise the alarm. But when a retaliation force arrived, all the villages were found deserted, and both bodies and Antinium were gone.
However, multiple eyewitness accounts confirmed the worst fears of the Drake leaders. Although magic could not locate their hives, these attacks matched the first ones suffered by the Blighted Kingdom in Rhir, and the previous reports of Antinium sightings only confirmed this fact.
Faced with the inescapable realization that the Antinium had landed on their shores, the leaders of the Walled Cities reluctantly began discussing the formation of a coalition army, although several held out hope that teams of adventurers would be able to root out the Antinium by themselves. The lack of any serious attacks meant that negotiations bogged down until spring of 3 B.F., when the Antinium launched an all-out assault on the cities of Ys, Beresslars, and Washaven.
Every city had been put on alert and soldiers and the local Watch vigilantly manned the walls. However, at this point the Drakes and Gnolls had little experience battling the Antinium and made preparations as if they were in danger from a conventional force, rather than the Antinium’s unique style of tactics.
The Walled Cities nearest to the three cities received a panicked [Message] spell just past dawn, and then nothing. Although a force of riders immediately rode to the aid of the cities, it was too late. The Antinium attacked and withdrew before the cavalry reached the city, and the [Captain] in charge declined to give chase.
In less than two hours, the Antinium managed to kill or maim over 80% of the population in each of the cities. The walls and conventional defenses that make the city-states so difficult to take by conventional siege fell within seconds of the attack.
Recorded testimony by the few survivors reports a horde of black Soldiers and even Workers swarming up the walls, building living ladders and overwhelming the adventurers and City Watch by sheer force of numbers. So fierce was the assault, half of the city’s forces were caught in their beds and slaughtered there.
This was the beginning of the war in earnest. The city-states immediately declared a state of emergency and began raising as many soldiers and warriors as possible. However, each city preferred to raise their own armies and retain former alliances, rather than join together.
This was the second mistake made by the Drakes. Initially, the Antinium war force was outnumbered by the numerous Drake armies on the continent. But the separated armies and reluctance of the cities to work together allowed the Antinium to attack with local superiority and quickly overrun countless cities around their Hives.
While the Drake cities had existed in a state of enduring war and skirmishes with each other, one of the factors that prevented most of them from being conquered was the difficulty of taking the city before reinforcements could arrive. Even the largest of forces would take time to breach the walls and other magical defenses that guarded each city, in which time another army would surely launch an attack on the attacking force or their home city.
In this way, a city-state could easily remain autonomous or at the very least, retain much of its independence by forming alliances with nearby settlements and Gnoll Tribes. However, the Antinium’s style of attack was to overwhelm the walls by sheer numbers and relentless speed. Relief armies would find the cities already full of the dead or find the Antinium had already retreated by the time they arrived.
In less than a week, eight cities had fallen and the Drake city-states had realized the magnitude of their error. But while all agreed a coalition army was needed, no city wanted to send their armies past their walls, for fear the Antinium would attack while they were undefended. And while they hesitated, the Antinium swarmed over their walls and slaughtered them regardless.
Only a few armies achieved any success against the Antinium during these initial assaults. A few city-states with superior forces pushed back the Antinium and General Sserys’ army achieved several definite victories before retreating in face of overwhelming numbers.
A Drake [Tactician] recorded several initial observations after one battle, which he immediately passed on to every city-state via mage spell and Courier. She describes the Antinium as an extremely dangerous threat, despite their apparent lack of high-level warriors and magic:
“…While these ‘Antinium’ do not appear to have any individuals within their ranks with unique Skills, I believe their warriors are the equivalent of any Level 15 [Warrior], and are perhaps even stronger when fighting in tandem.
There are two types of Antinium I have observed: the massive Soldiers and the smaller Workers. Of the two, the Soldiers are vastly more dangerous. They fight hand-to-hand and charge into pikes and magical traps without regard for their lives. They will continue to attack even when mortally wounded, and they are capable of bludgeoning even the most well-armored warrior to death given time.
Their shells are as tough as any leather armor and the Antinium fight and move together like a professional unit. Our army was only able to achieve victory by using our superior vantage point and numerous area of attack spells to decimate their formations. Our elite soldiers carved through many of the Antinium, and it appears the lack of magic and any high-level warriors is their only weakness.
The Antinium have no mages, and their ranged weapons are primitive bows and crude stone arrows. Nevertheless, their numbers and efficiency more than make up for this gap. It seems even the “Worker” class can use a bow to fire arrows, so their ranks of archers are capable to matching even our best divisions in terms of sheer output of missiles.
Be warned however: our warriors found themselves under attack from behind our lines at multiple points, and our group of mages found themselves under attack as the Antinium burrowed out of a tunnel. I recommend posting sentries to watch for these surprise attacks, and to fight on hard stone or in marshland if at all possible.”
The most troubling advantage the Antinium had over both Drakes and Gnoll species was their ability to tunnel. Entrenched positions with vulnerable elements such as command headquarters or areas with high concentrations of [Mages] or [Archers] would find themselves under attack by teams of burrowing Soldiers and Workers who would inflict as much damage as possible and then retreat.
These surprise attacks led to a diversification of valuable soldiers, and a standing policy among Drake armies to never have more than one Level 30+ soldier stationed in a squad at one time. This policy is still enforced within all Drake standing armies to this day.
However, even with their mages hidden and protected, there were never enough with levels high enough to turn the tide of battles. The Antinium gladly sacrificed thousands of their Soldiers and Workers to kill even one high-level individual. Slowly, the mercenary armies retreated, forced to abandon their client cities as their forces were gradually worn down.
Sserys made several overtures during this time to local cities, sending requests for their soldiers to join with his to repel the Antinium’s advance, but he was rebuffed and eventually led his soldiers far to the east as cities fell around him. Thanks to his slowing of the Antinium’s advance, several cities evacuated all their civilians and soldiers, but in terms of the overall map of the war, the Antinium were barely slowed as they continued to rampage across Izril.
One month after the start of the First Antinium War, the Antinium paused. It is believed they spent a week replenishing their lost troops and reinforcing their armies, and perhaps, digging and constructing more Hives. No army dared to launch an assault, and the few places where the Antinium had been stopped remained locked in semi-constant combat.
The Black Tide of the Antinium began to march once more, sweeping east, south and north with such ferocious speed that any hope of mobilizing a response force was lost. In an instant, the Antinium had captured nearly thirty percent of the southern half of Issrysil and seemed to be poised to sweep across the rest. However, they met their first obstacle as they encircled and began sieging the Walled City, Zeres.
The Antinium had successfully bypassed four of the Walls built by the Blighted Kingdom in Rhir, but they found the superior construction of the Walled Cities a different challenge*. A huge army began to lay siege to Zeres, but after a week of day-and-night warfare, the Antinium found themselves rebuffed with extreme casualties on their sides and virtually no losses by the defenders.
*The famed Walled Cities bear an entirely different type of fortification than smaller Drake cities. Their origin dates past recorded history, and the magic that allows the three-hundred foot walls to stand hardens the stone and even allows it to repair itself given time. No army has ever taken one of the remaining six Walled Cities by siege, although several coups and betrayals from within have seen the famed cities fall over the millennia.
The living ladders the Antinium used were far too short to reach the battlements of the Walled City, and the defending archers and mages could rain down fire with impunity, as the Antinium found that it was impossible for their arrows to reach the defenders from their superior vantage point.
