The Battle of Sweetwater Forest.

Military: Battle

Free folk from contested territory are in open rebellion, predominantly against the Hadovian Empire, however, Kingdom forces chose this time to also launch an attack.

Xumdione 4, 1257

Sartis Arlorin looked at the papers before him. Reports all of them, some more useless than others and the one that really played upon his mind highlighted two very problematic situations… Intelligence reports are clear – Geldheim forces are massing on the border near Sweet Water Forest, our border thought Arlorin bitterly. The second part of the report, the locals around Sweet Water are in open rebellion and pushing to reclaim their land from faction control. Sartis understood well the “free folk” did not want either faction ruling them, unfortunately for the “free folk” the succession war would ignore their neutrality. Of course, among all of the other reports there was not a single piece of news about reinforcements… Were he to have a larger force he would push into the Geldheim region on his border because they have a river at their back. It would be hard to reinforce if they were pressed, whereas presently they had an almost free run bringing forces over the river. It was going to be a tough few weeks on the frontier Arlorin thought to himself as he went outside to survey the defenses.

Xumdione 16, 1257

A long day of ferocious battle, saw the Empire forces initially hold the Kingdom onslaught at bay - with the rebellious free folk harrying both armies. With knew resolve though, the Kingdom army pushed again this time forcing Empire forces back, again, the free folk harried both sides but made little headway. Then, the free folk carved holes to capture the standards of several factional units and, in effect, harried both factions enough that the will to keep fighting eventually evaporated. The Empire dug in and secured their position - the Kingdom's general maneuverer his people back into their own thin strip of territory on this side of the great river coming out of Lake Moridale.

It was a bloody day with both factional forces suffering significant losses to gain no ground.

The free folk were still restless on the Empire border...