The Siege of Crow's Crest Keep

"Another day of picking our friends from the cliffside, peppered with arrows, is it to be the fate of the entire army?" - Nameless soldier comments on the aftermath of a charge against the castle's gate.

The Siege was the most notable battle of the first half of Seriticus' expansion south. It saw around 2,000 soldiers fielded in encampments surrounding the cliffside redoubt, but the challenging geography meant that these overwhelming number could not be brought to bare on the measly 200 defenders. As Seriticus' first campaign was reaching its climax of sweeping through the western regions of the Marches, most of his army spent its time pillaging and looting the settlements they came across, sending most of their inhabitants to their deaths, and those left alive were kept under an armed garrison once the main force moved on.
However, this trend was brought to a halt with the stand at Crow's Crest Keep, as two groups of resistant dwarves met and decided to join forces. The first group to get to the Keep was a group of dwarves who had not travelled far, in fact clashing with Seriticus' cavalry in the quarry only 4 miles north east, and retreating when reinforcements arrived. This group was around 75 strong, and quickly barricaded themselves in before they could be overrun. About a week passed, and over the days the dwarves went out and gathered supplies and reinforcements of their own, recruiting any willing parties of fighters that they could find. After this, the garrison had grown to roughly 200-strong, comprised of mostly dwarves, but some gnomes and humans were found among the dead afterwards, denoting some diversity to the resistance.
The threat of this castle was grossly underestimated by Seriticus and his council who assumed it would fall by virtue of abandonment as the rest of the region had, so they has originally ordered the pursuing force away south to continue the push towards the coast. However, as supply trains began to suffer at the hands of the defiant guerrillas, Seriticus sent one of his marshals, Angus Raker, to dispatch of them. On arriving at the castle, Raker found it completely barricaded, and the bridge leading to the entrance destroyed. Without this bridge the only ways into the castle were a slim stone staircase that scaled the sheer cliff-face, reaching 200ft tall, or to bridge the 40ft wide chasm that now separated the gatehouse from the main castle.
Both options put Raker's men at great risk as they could be effectively ambushed and shot by the defenders, who themselves could use the safety of the fortifications. Raker's first instinct was to bridge the chasm in order to directly assault the entrance, through which he could leverage his superior numbers, however all efforts to create anything more than a thin wooden walkway were thwarted by a constant barrage of arrows, bolts and stones. This strategy was thus abandoned, and an assault on the staircase was attempted. This too ended in dramatic failure as the poorly trained and overly eager soldiers of the 116th Hightown Levy were drawn into sophisticated ambushes where they fell victim to boulders and other debris being hurled over ledges.
Within the first 3 weeks of the siege, Raker had sustained more than 500 casualties, while making no proper progress. Even when not attacking the castle, the army was at risk of being harried by sally-out night attacks by small bands of dark-clad dwarves who descended on isolated positions after scaling the cliffside under cover of darkness. These attacks were mostly to steal food and other supplies, and once this was discovered, Raker had the food supplies moved further into friendly territory. It was this move that changed the tide, as the defenders had only enough food for a month in storage, and their ammunition was running low after only 2 weeks. They had therefore been relaying on these night raids to supplement their stockpiles of ammunition and rations, and once the yield became unworthy of the risk, their situation became desperate.
The castle was, to all intents and purposes, the perfect defensive position, but the unpreparedness of the garrison was to be their undoing: and after 34 days of armed resistance, the garrison surrendered. The group opened the gates, and insisted on negotiating terms of surrender, but Raker remained adamant that the price they would pay for their defiance was death. In the end, sheer exhaustion and desperation forced those remaining to give up completely and some attempted to escape. However, learning from past raids, Raker had positioned a group of light cavalry- a detachment of the distinguished 19th "Feyhammer" Dragoons- at the foot of the cliff to chase down any who fled, and those who ran that way were slaughtered or captured. Those who were captured did not live long, as they were killed on the spot. The remaining members of the garrison, numbering 71 people, gave themselves in, hoping for merciful treatment. They were, however, hung drawn and quartered at the request of the soldiers who had lost many comrades to their arrows and ambushes.
The remains of the defenders were strewn in the nearby river after being paraded for a day, in a move that deeply disrespected the regional tradition of burning the heroic dead. As such, soon after the army moved on, it is rumoured that a group of women salvaged what remains they could, and lit a small fire while performing the rites afforded to the staunch defenders of Crow's Crest Keep. Whether this is true, or simply a wife's-tale to put to rest the injustice inflicted on those killed remains to be determined.

Conflict Type

Siege

Belligerents

Gwendor, under Seriticus

• The Gwendorian Army

Led by

• Colonel Angus Raker, Crow's Butcher

Defenders of Crow's Crest Keep

Strength

~1500 foot soldiers ~500 light cavalry
Notable Units Deployed:

4th Lords Own Infantry

7th Lords Own Infantry

16th Lords Own Infantry

116th Hightown Levy

Blackwater Company, Hawk Corps

19th "Feyhammer" Dragoons

~200 combatants composed of various groups of miners, foresters and other village folk who had fled to the fortress in search of safety.
There was also a debated contingent of wounded, women and children who were present throughout the siege, but Raker denied their existence afterwards, while many soldiers disagree.

Casualties

~600 men KIA (official records number the dead at 447) ~200 men MIA (official records do not account for desertions or other unconfirmed loss)

All those who fought fell

Objectives

End Resistance through destruction, starvation or surrender

Resist Raker's assault until the Marches army that was rumoured to be gathering came to their aid. There was no such army.