The Rape of Tilane

Disaster / Destruction

Tilane is destroyed by the dragon Ekraktiax at the head of a scalykind army.

The ancient red dragon Ekraktiax lands on the southern shore of Seaudyr. The fleets take nearly a week to finish mustering, while the Third Elector Council of Tilane put together some sort of defense against them. Jizam Balatar is elected to lead the ragtag force of frontiersmen and farmer militia. A large corps of red dragonborn called the Rose Knights spearhead the landing, with three hordes of lizardfolk auxiliaries and a fleet of wyvern riders dominate the skies. By the time Balatar meets them, he's hard pressed to even slow down the scalykind army and he retreats at half strength into the pallisade walls of Tilane.   Ekraktiax offers to only kill ten percent of the city if they surrender without a fight. The defenders decline to surrender. Jizam organizes a defense, but splits the civilian population in half. Most of the male civilians dig earthworks, extending the six foot wall nearly six times its original size. The rest of the men and the women and children start excavating a tunnel to take them north out of the city.   Just after noon on the first day of the siege, the wyvern riders start dropping jars of alchemist's fire from the sky. Balatar responds by cracking the cistern, turning the ground muddy and soggy to prevent the spread of fires but not letting his men get distracted by fighting fires. They hunker down for hours as the deadly hail rained down. Ever greedy, Ekatriax signaled an end to the bombardment to save his wealth and sent in the Rosethorn Knights. Instead of breaking the resistance as they had on the beachhead, they met stiff opposition as they tried to scale the berm. First, they endured a hail of arrows and slingstones, but as they approached the top they found hastily crafted charred wood coming down on them at a constant rain. They peaked the crest but found spiked clubs and an organized shield wall meeting their ragged and slowed line. In a few short minutes of intense fighting, the knights were driven away.   Twice more, the Rose Knights were sent forward, and twice more they were driven back with a much reduced force. At nightfall, Ekatriax attempted a flyover but found to his dismay that eight hundred organized archers and slingers are fully capable of harming even him, and he gave up after only two gouts of ineffectual fire.   The next day before dawn, work continues on the escape tunnel. The lizardfolk are at the base of the berm by first light, and they attempt to overwhelm the defenders with sheer numbers. Balatar orders the rest of the ammunition fired to force them back, and the base of the berm becomes a deep quagmire of blood-sodden dirt. The men at the top of the berm fight mightily, giving as good as they get, but they are soon forced from the crest. Balatar springs another trap: he had taken the one-in-one-hundred intact alchemist fire jar from the last day's bombardment and planted them all around the underside of the crest. Setting them off, he triggers first a holocaust which destabilizes the defensive motte and turns it into a flaming avalanche that descends slightly faster than most of the suddenly retreating lizardfolk.   The tunnel breaks through just as Ekatriax orders a new bombardment of the much more poorly defended colony. Balatar and the wounded of his militia cover the retreat of the civilians and the intact militiamen, braving the deadly rain and meeting another charge of the Rose Knights. The last Balatar is seen, Ekatriax takes advantage of their full engagement and unleashes the full fury of his breath on friend and foe alike.     The siege only lasted a total of forty one hours. The survivors scatter to make it harder for the scalykind to round them up.