Tragedy at Victer
Military action
4/5
5/5
The Cambreath Home Guard are ambushed in the fishing village of Victer. The remnants flee to a manitari grove to recoup.
Knight-Commander Sontaron of Krezzym meets with Bailiff Herald of Victer, a small fishing village on the coast of Wupan. Herald tells Sontaron that he will lead a balatar to reinforce Margrave Gims if they first help eliminate the local undead threat. The local Gray Tide splinter group appears to be about 1,000 strong, so Margrave Gims tells Sontaron to continue his rallying mission and sends the Cambreath Home Guard to assist. They gather two balatar on the way from the unthreatened villages of Gefar and Silney, roughly tripling their numbers to 635. Captain Illianic calls this militia the Central Wupan Balatar, and expects it to be 1,500-1,800 strong at full capacity. The combined force marches into Victer early in the morning, only to find the village deserted. A look at the empty homes reveals that whatever had happened had happened quickly, as there are plates of moldy food that haven’t been touched in months, yet the cutlery still lay where it had been dropped as if the meals had been interrupted. Illianic sets up a command post in the town hall to coordinate a search and investigation, looking for the missing townspeople. He sends cat paws out in timed spirals, immediately dispatching rescue contingents for any that showed up late. They find no sign whatsoever of the locals. Illianic decides to spend the night in the town behind a makeshift barricade and head back in the morning. The barricades are assaulted almost at the instant that the sun sets. All 369 townspeople had been turned into ghouls through some disease or ritual, the entire venture was a trap. Over the next eight grueling hours, all 424 balatari and an additional 62 Cambreath Home Guard are killed, while killing only around 20 ghouls. In desperation, Illianic orders the survivors to form a shield wedge and they desperately fight their way out of the city. They take another 20 or so ghouls to the grave, but only 149 home guard escape into the rising dawn.
