The New King

In 901 AG, so claimed outlawed and banished members of House Battenmore forces crossed the borders into western Kerak, claiming to be accruing alone with no influence from Mountbatten or The Kingdom of Battenmore. They occupied the major passes and settlements in the Prayer Mountains, making their Vanguard for the winter at an Old Kerakian Ruin called Hammerfall, at Vihenic Pass. The Battenmore contingent dared The “New King” in the west, Aglidir Kerak, to assault them in their old mountain fortress.
When they learned that King Aglidir had mustered an army in the dead of winter and was marching to assault Vihenic Pass, they were elated. The pass was impregnable, the old keep on high cliffs overlooking the lower city, nestled in a high mountain basin with steep, unscalable cliffs in their rear.
The Kerak army was small, poorly trained and outfitted, short on rations, and unprepared for winter campaigning. As their ragged units assembled in the lowlands beneath the fortress, the Battenmore allies confidently assumed that their enemy had delivered themselves into their trap.
The fortress at Vihenic Pass, Hammerfall, was not only protected by an unscalable cliff in front and unscalable heights in their rear, but the entrance to the Keep was magically concealed under the appearance of a large mountain lake in the basin beneath the heights. Accordingly, the Battenmore allies left on a small force to defend the fortress, descending through lower passages to attack and overwhelm the cold, hungry Kerak forces before them. They expected to defeat, overrun, and annihilate King Aglidir’s army, leaving no one to oppose their springtime descent into the Heartlands of Kerak. Thus did “The New King” lure the Battenmore allies to their doom.
Leaving a weak force in the lowlands to draw out the Battenmore defenders, King Aglidir approached Hammerfall from the rear, descending the supposedly unscalable heights behind the fortress , and sneaking into the supposedly magically concealed entrance to the inner Keep. This remarkable feat is attributed to the agency of a single unnamed traitor, by tradition a Mountbatten turncoat wizard, who revealed both the existence of an obscure mountain trail down the heights behind the Fortress and the secret of the keep entrance concealed beneath its illusory lake surface. While the Kerak army in the lowlands fought a desperate defense against the Battenmore sortie, King Aglidir and his men entered the Keep, swept aside the sparse defense, captured the nobles and generals, and compelled them to surrender the Fortress and their armies. The Leader of the Battenmore group, Marcus Perriston swore allegiance to The New King, and even became one of his most trusted friends and confidants.
Thus was the concerted invasion of Kerak foiled, and King Aglidir' army swelled by the hardened Battenmore troops. That army he had now amassaed there played a crucial a role in The Kingdom of Kerak military campaigns which consolidated the lands of southern Battenmore seceding and joining the Kingdom of Kerak
Historians marvel at Aglidir Kerak tactical daring in assaulting a fortified mountain keep in the dead of winter against vastly superior numbers. Later Aglidir attributed his unwavering resolve against overwhelming obstacles to have been inspired by wanting to create a peaceful Kingdom for his wife. Her greatest desire was to raise their children in such a place. The young Aglidir may indeed have been inspired by his wife’s quest for love and peace, but nonetheless, this should in no way reduce our admiration for the dash and genius of this defining military triumph against impossible odds.