Battle at Crystal River
During The Great War there were hundreds of minor skirmishes that never really held any significance or titles, songs of lost battles and valiant stands that do not have exact dates abound as do stories of heroes with no name. The Battle at Crystal River would have been one of those were it not for the brave actions of a lone archmagus.
Historic Representation
Hanging in the The Bardic College is a painting of this conflict. The work is much debated by dwarves and elves, but authenticated by the one hero shown in the painting. The Archmagus Salen Alasari It shows the archmagus hanging in the air above the fleet, hands raised and eyes closed. beneath him the water swirls around like a tornado, spinning the ships in a whirlpool of death. Tiny hands are shown sticking out of the water and the elves are painted trying to reach for them. This angered some of the dwarven war prisoners who remembered crawling out of the water without any help from the resentful elves, yet they do agree that the depiction is accurate aside from that detail.The Conflict
Prelude
Towards the end of the long war the dwarves sought to sneak upon the elves and decimate their outer cities.
Deployment
Battlefield
The Crystal River, at one of the widest places. The river here reached almost half a mile across, plenty of room for the gearfleet to stay back from the land engagement.
Conditions
The bright sunny day in Riverswell saw the river at near to flooding
The Engagement
The dwarves had the elves pinned and outgunned, with only a single airship to fight 10 Warcraft on the water. The magus that were there tried using the river to capsize the great ships, but they were too heavy in the water to have any effect. Arriving out of happenstance, the Archmagus Salen Alasari flew in and used magic to soundly cripple the fleet assembled before the elves. Instead of water, he used a mix of air and wind, creating a cyclone that spun the ships in a circle, creating a whirlpool of sorts out in the deep river. Once the remaining magus saw this, they gathered their magic about them and added to it, sinking the fleet and drowning most of the dwarves. The dwarves that did make it to shore were taken prisoner and kept until the end of the war.
by Igor Kieryluk
Historical Significance
Testing their new creations, the Gerafleet, the dwarves rolled across the fields of Ja're (now called the Torn Lands) and hit the coastal towns along the Crystal Lake as they headed west towards the river. Taking supplies and leaving destruction behind them, the few sailing ships they encountered were holed and sunk as the Gearfleet moved on. As they reached the river they sailed down it in silence, surprising the elves along the border and overwhelming their defenses along the river. Staying out a distance from the banks, the dwarves pounded the elves with cannon fire until the archmagus came out of the sky.Technological Advancement
Gearfleet Ironships
by Warhammer
Included under Conflict
Conflict Type
Battle
Battlefield Type
Naval
Start Date
508
Ending Date
508
Conflict Result
The sound defeat of the dwarven Gearfleet this day pushed the elves to advance upon the fields of Ja're, forever scarring that beautiful landscape over the next fifty years in some of the bloodiest campaigns during the Great War
Location
Belligerents
Dwarven nation of Nagar
Strength
The elves had a compliment of 250 soldiers and 10 magus. (later an Archmagus)
The Dwarves had a force of 10 Gearfleet Iron ship class 90 Warcraft with 60 dwarves per ship and a cargo of coal.
Casualties
The elves lost 170 soldiers to the dwarven bombardment and 5 magus.
All 10 craft were lost and 530 dwarves on this fateful day
Objectives
To stop the dwarves from crossing into Syll
To sneak into Syll and overwhelm their smaller cities
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