Siege of Shadukar

Military action

After the Karrnathi army takes the City of Shadukar by surprise, the armies of Thrane set up a siege to break the occupation of their city.

King Jaron of Karrnath was barely six months in power when a Karrnathi army gathered for the promised Thrane assault. After staging maneuvers around Rekkenmark to draw Thrane's attention, the bulk of the Karrns headed south, crossed through northwestern Cyre (with little opposition), then traversed Scions Sound, landing north of Shadukar.   The forced march and soarwood skiff water crossing took the city completely by surprise. General Horacht and the Karrnathi troops looted and pillaged at will. Hundreds of citizens were massacred and hundreds more died of famine while the Karrns ran rampant. As usual, the corpses of the dead were animated to reinforce the Karrnathi ranks.   The Church of the Silver Flame sent soldiers and knights from Flamekeep to liberate the city, and the siege of Shadukar began. Thrane pressed the Karrns hard, but General Horacht proved himself a master of defensive strategy, making Thrane pay dearly for each assault, counter attacking with sallies against Thrane camps and positions, and using powerful wands and artillery forces to keep the muddy ground between besiegers and city walls a deadly quagmire. In the end, Karrnathi forces retreated by water when supplies and troops finally grew short in 962. Still, the withdrawal was anything but quiet—General Horacht ordered Shadukar be “put to the torch,” after sealing the city gates shut.   Although horrific, Horacht’s tactics worked. The Karrn line of withdrawal was mostly unhindered as the Thrane army, by direct order of Keeper Tagor, focused on the trapped citizens. A spearhead under the command of Captain Malik Otherro saved many people, but the city fires were too well entrenched—the city was largely destroyed.   In the weeks after the fire, the Knights of Thrane and their cleric allies struggled to destroy the remaining undead and rid the city of its Karrnathi stench, but the damage and loss of life were staggering. The city never recovered, and most today believe it is haunted by the ghosts of its burned residents.