The Siege of Stormfort

In the infancy of the Adventurers' Guild, General Rolph Novin led the armies of the disaffected nobles against Stonespire. They were hampered on the journey south by what was at the time just an outpost. A motley of adventuring companies occupied the surrounding area which contained a great number of unexplored openings to the labyrinth. At that time the Adventurers' Guild had not established branches beyond Stonespire, and the Guild was not considered part of any garrison, guard, or army. The organized militaries looked poorly on the Guild's loose structure and lack of backing by any meaningful noble. They considered the rumor that it was sanctioned and aided by the Alvar utter myth and hogwash. General Novin and his lieutenants shared this attitude.
Fortunately for the adventurers at the outpost, they had a coordinator that was as stubborn as she was crafty. Formerly part of the inner council of Whiteneedle, Tenne Runegust had been ousted when she was accused as a conspirator against a member of the Central Council. She saw through their game, retired from the council with a smile, gathered her things, and took to traveling. She found the loose confederation of adventurers aimless and unsupervised. At first, the adventurers only humored the bossy old woman, but they were slowly convinced she had the better ideas. In a few months, they had the beginnings of an outpost, several rough buildings were built to house the injured, supplies, and craftsmen to make or repair equipment.
When the scouts reported the movement of a large number of people coming from the north, they described their leaders to Tenne. She recognized the descriptions as the upstart children of corrupt Whiteneedle councilmembers. A wicked smile spread across her wrinkled face as she declared, "Let them come. Tell them they are late for their appointment with Runegust!" She then called for the most powerful mages among the adventurers and laid out her plan to stop the army. Sections of palisade were erected between the approaching forces and the outpost, through an area with hidden falls and drops that led into the labyrinth. The mages left to the hilly valley to the east and spun mists, illusions and summoned things of nightmares to dwell there. Tenne herself reached up to the clouds and the sky darkened as they began to circle overhead. Messenging spells were sent to call on the Guild in Stonespire. Warriors armed themselves while rogues slipped into the darkening forest.
In Stonespire the messages fell on deaf ears. The captains of the guard and the nobles would pay no heed to the warnings of the Guild and would not consent to start gathering the army to march north. The Guild had to tell the adventurers of the outpost that no answering force from the Stonespire military would be coming. The Guild summoned all it's members from the area around Stonespire and risked using the ancient slipgates to send them into the labyrinth below the outpost.
General Novin marched his army straight to the outpost without heed of the looming storm, nor of thought that an outpost of nothing more than derelicts could impede his march. What followed was the grim struggle of a vastly outnumbered company of adventurers bound together by Tenne's whiplash orders. The storm overhead raged, barked and spat lightning into the forest. First one noble led their company into the eastern valleys to shelter from the storm and catch their breath. Then another, and another fled to the east until the entire flank of the army was gone. To the south of those valleys was a blind cliff. Of the survivors of that ordeal, only a few retained their sanity and none could bear the sound of running water.
For a week and more, General Novin would pull his army back, regroup and try to push through. Companies sent to circle through the eastern valleys disappeared, and any sent west into the Parus Barren were struck by lightning as soon as they left the shelter of the trees. Finally, the General pulled back to the north to get out of the storm. They encamped north of the Parus Barren. By then one third of the army had either been slain in combat or was missing. When they awoke to clear morning skies, the camp had been surrounded by a hedge of thorns as tall as three men and four times as thick. A careless soldier near the thorns found they gouged armor as readily as flesh.
The adventurers of the outpost lamented their slain, but for every fallen adventurer, it had cost the enemy dozens if not a hundred or more. A very weary Tenne took to bed and was ill for many days. When at last she awoke the outpost was quite changed and messengers from General Novin, the Guild and Stonespire were waiting to speak with the mayor of Stormfort. While she was infirm the people of the outpost had named their settlement and chosen their first mayor.
The Guild officially recognized Stormfort as the first settlement of the Adventurers' Guild. The emissary from Stonespire argued that wasn't the right of the Guild. The messenger from General Novin demanded that the Guild stop interfering with the business of their betters and abolish their outpost, the curses in the eastern valleys, and the plague of thorns. Tenne ran out of patience and ordered the arrest of both the Stonespire emissary and the General's messenger and to put them in the same room.
Eventually, Stonespire recognized the Guild but rankled at having what amounted to free agents guarding a northern outpost with an angry neighbor. A garrison was dispatched to reside in Stormfort, but quickly discovered the Guild treated them better so were unofficially absorbed by the Guild. Guild members began to take garrison posts and garrison soldiers took Guild contracts.
General Novin's bivouac became known as Thorn's Rest and was later shortened to Thornrest. The general became a Duke and the two towns struggled to maintain civil trade. Tenne kept spies in Thornrest for the rest of her days as Mayor. With the support of Stonespire, Stormfort grew quickly and three new outlying settlements were founded. Dawnwick to the north provided timber and later grain crops and stone, Hillcleft to the east had timber and livestock, and Rivercliff's rich soil yielded vast quantities of produce. Nobles of Stonespire that itched for a chance to expand their influence established manors in Stormfort and opened direct lines of trade with Thornrest.
Even after hundreds of years the Ducal family hasn't forgiven Stormfort and has been steadily undermining the influence of the city. Large trading companies have cut off the outlying towns which now trade among themselves and no longer look to Stormfort for support.

Conflict Type

Siege