User:Shovelwithasprout/sandbox

Battle for Mossfall

A picture of most, if not every person who helped defend Mossfall against the orc raids. The members in the front are either a part of Mossfall or Mirewatch.

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Date Occurred: Vale 29, 30 3E
Lore Importance: Heavy

The Battle for Mossfall was a series of orc-led raids against Mossfall and other members of Mirewatch. In total, including the preparation and aftermath, the event took about 4 days.

In this article, I will break down the events into stages. For example, Stage 1 will cover the initial envoys that the orcs had sent to the swamp. Then, Stage 2 would cover preparations that came the next day.

Stage 1: The Envoys

In the dead of night, the rats of Scavenger's Mire received a letter. It was delivered by a couple cold, quiet orc envoys. The letter set an ultimatum.

Give us our land. Or give us blood.

The letter then went on to threaten that if the bog lands weren't deserted and empty before they returned in three days, the orcish horde would rise again in war.

Of course, the rats wouldn't listen to the orcs. The swamp was their territory.

The Rats of The Mire respond to the Orcs

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Big, green not-rats threaten the swamps.
Rats nest on homes of long dead green not-rats. Rats have been here before brick and stone, and will be after. Rats gnaw on bones of Not-rat ancestors, build with them in rat structures and wear skulls as party hats.
Not-rat send mailmen to swamp, and by law mailmen are FORBIDDEN and to be killed on sight. But Rats are merciful, and imprisoned Not-rat mailmen in timeout cage where 'food' will be supplied. Rat mercy is rarely given.
Rat god watches over the swamp, and brings judgement to the land. Rats know the swamp better than all Not-Rats. Plus, only 80 green not-rats died, not too bad.
And to all towns of the swamp, Rats are willing to give aid to them all, for the Swamp Not-rats will need our help.

The Rats are the true horde of the swamp
Towns and nations are temporary, rats are eternal

• Prophet Kaarot of The Mire

Kaarot, the leader of the rats, also spread the word to other leaders in Mirewatch. It wasn't long before Old Man, the founder of the Adventurer's Guild, had an announcement of his own.

The Adventurers Guild offering merc work against Orcs

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The Orcs have delivered an ultimatum to the swamp folk. Unluckily, the Guild is in that area as well as rats, druids, bridgemakers, and other folk. While everyone panicked, the Old Man was thrilled since all he could hear was "more adventure".

The Guild has posted mercenary work against Orcs! There will be other Orc-related quests soon, after we learn more about their whereabouts and intentions. A spying quest is on its way.

The guild hall is full of troubled people discussing the orcish invasion and the future of the swamp. 'These are troubled times. The best times for adventure!'

At this point in time, there still was nearly no information about the orcs, besides their letter. Mirewatch didn't know exactly where they'd swarm, or when they'd arrive (besides sometime on the 3rd day), really everything unknown. But this didn't stop the leaders from making a plan.

Stage 2: Preparations

As soon as they were able, Bendigo, Old Man, and Kaarot set up a council meeting at the Adventurer's Guild. Unfortunately, however, plans fell through for Bendigo and he had Willow fill in for the meeting.

A photo of the first Mirewatch meeting. They discussed the upcoming orcs, among other topics.

As for the plan itself, it was "simple". First, it is important to understand that Orcs are especially susceptible to chronomacy, or in layman's terms, time magic. Old Man theorized that if a mage were to, with the proper catalyst, age the opposing orcs via chronomacy, they would eventually be too weak to pose any real risk to the swamp. But, chronomacy ages areas, not specific things.

The second idea was to lure the orcs into one area, as to contain the magic within one zone. This was better, albeit harder to accomplish. The swamp wouldn't be as affected, and more orcs could be aged in one go. But this wasn't enough for the leaders. The swamp needed to be unharmed, not just fine. Then came the third revelation. If casting this dangerous magic while in the swamp is a bad idea, what if we just did it outside of the swamp? Not inland, or in the sea, but above it.

Old Man had, in his younger days, witnessed whole mountains seemingly floating in mid-air. If he wanted to separate the chronomacy from the swamp, he had to find somebody willing to make them levitate. And thus, two movements were began. Old man began constructing a clock tower, atop an especially unstable chunk of land. The edges of the land were chained down, as to not float away once levitating. He also requested help from any mages nearby willing to help.

Bendigo, after being relayed the contents of Mirewatch's first meeting, went on an expedition looking for any mages.

Without a mage, the plan was doomed to fail. If neither Old Man nor Bendigo were able to find a mage, their last resort would be Hawthorne, a schemey, selfish rat who would only help if it benefited himself.

In the next couple of days, tension rose as the search continued. Willow wrote in her journal, fearful for the future.

The Newcomer

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-- Excerpt from Willow's journal --

Under the cold moonlight did a new face arrive in Mossfall. Despite the threat of orcs invading the bog lands of Almuren, or ever-increasing prejudice against the swamp folk, he showed up. He treats this world in a way I haven't seen before. In a way that reminds me of myself, in a way. I don't know why now of all times he shows up, or where he came from, but I hope this is a good omen for the invasion. For the first time in over a century, I feel truly, utterly scared.

-- Excerpt from the day prior --

Our Ríhluadh is out looking for mages. I saw the message from the Adventurer's Guild calling for any mages to help, as was discussed in our meeting, but I don't know if the message was spread far enough to be seen. I mean, if I was a mage, I wouldn't ignore a call-to-action like that! I suppose it wouldn't hurt to tell more people and make more signs about it. After all, we still have some time before the Orcs arrive. I think I'm prepared enough for battle, as is our Ríhluadh and a few of the Gnáth.

-- Excerpt from an hour ago --

I have to go tend to the crops now. If I had to collect all of my thoughts into one phrase, I'd say that the orcs are going to have a lot coming for them!

From Mossfall