Falconer's Crisis

The Falconer's Crisis was a series of attacks on Willows road trade routes seemingly at random amounting to a major disruption of trade  to several major cities. These attacks were carried out by a group of bandits lead by a man known as Falconer, the goal of these attacks seems to profit for those involved. These attacks were carried out over the course of roughly a year and a half with sometimes months of down time between attacks, the brutality of these attacks has also varied wildly. After these attacks began to become a problem individual traders or trade companies began to hire private security for their shipments, as  trade began to have more security the attacks by bandits became more elaborate. The bandits began damage the road  there by causing caravans to slow down or stop. The bandits used these stops or slowdowns to launch their attacks from ambush. 
 After trade over the Falconers selected territory became untenable due to the trepidation by traders and prohibitive cost associated with hiring skilled security. Eventually the continuance of these attacks caught the attention of  the elderly Croak lord Sir Dunstan Kair. The old frog took it upon himself to reassemble his old band of warriors know as the Hickory Stumps , named for their resilience and tenacity to hold positions and withstand attacks. By this time the members of the Hickory Stumps were well into their sixties and seventies, despite this all the surviving members headed their old leaders call and gathered together for one last campaigned bringing with them their equipment and stories of the old days in campaigns long ended.  Having studied the attacks patterns and methodology of the Falconer, Sir Kair formulated a two part plan. First as it was known that the road was likely to be sabotaged an advanced group would head disguised as repair men mixed in with some local craftsmen so as not to raise suspicion as to why a repair crew would be completely composed of elderly frogs. This first group would serve to observe the road and repair some of the damage found to limit the ideal attack zones to specific areas not yet repaired. The second group would mix in with a trade caravan and to ensure that the Falconer would take the bait it was announced that Sir Dustan Kair had died and that his body was going to be transported in full regalia to his final resting place atop a hill at Smith's green a place just off the mid point of Willows road where the Hickory Stumps had been victorious in their first campaign over half a century ago. From their the plan was simple while the bandits "ambushed" the funerary procession allocating more of their forces do to the expectation of at least a small honor guard of old soldiers seeing their commander off to to his final rest, drawing their main focus away from the simple trade caravan not associated with the funeral. Once the bandits attacked the honor guard the trade caravan would run from the skirmish with the disguised soldiers rounding to attack. Then the those disguised as the repair crew camped off the road behind the procession around a bend in the road would attack the bandits in a pincer maneuver, and finally a very much alive Sir Kair would spring from his casket and engage in battle himself.
With the plan in mind and in motion the elderly warriors set off for one last campaign, and it proved to be one of their finest. By bringing the wisdom of age and the guile of the elderly the venerable Hickory Stumps added one last victory to their long list.

Conflict Type

Skirmish