BASTION OF THE FEY
(Report by Canaris Tegredir, formerly of House Gereshen)

Hearing that many old allies of Gereshen, and of my own personally, were coming together in the Lands of Lord Harriatta of The Vipers, I decided to travel there on a fact finding mission for House Tegredir. As I drew close, under cover of darkness, I could see lit-up with an eiry green glow the Fey fortress that was the objective of the muster, and the large numbers of Fey troops manning it’s walls and towers. Dodging a few Fey Scouts, I made contact with a silent patrol of Drow form House Zommorod A’Tesh, old allies of mine, and from them found my way to the camp of The Jhereg Faction. Here I discovered that many faces were familiar to me, and indeed I had campaigned often with both their Faction Leader Stixx of The Beastmen, and his second in command Hands. After some time I was able to speak with Stixx who invited me to shadow him as an observer and to keep him alive; having nothing better to do I accepted.

The mighty army had come together following the Fey massacre of a large merchant caravan not long before, and both the Vipers, under Lord Harriatta, and the Lions under King Carl Trueheart were well represented and grim of purpose. The Jhereg had various reasons to attend, trade being one, and recent discoveries regarding Jhereg History and the Fey’s part in it being another. Other units also chose to take part, most noticeable being the Fir Cruthen camped across the field and their games of ‘catch the arrow’ and ‘hit one-another with chairs’!

The time of The Jhereg, and particularly we Drow, is at night and so we marched silently through the darkness to the ritual circle, deep in the woods and not far from the Fey Fortress. The Holy Spider Warriors of Llolth had grown increasingly erratic, and Stixx had determined to ask The Spider Queen why. Even then, few were more surprised than he when Llolth herself appeared, and tested her holy warriors by sending automatons identical to their House members and allies against them. Some claim to have seen me at Llolth’s side during her appearance, but I have no recollection of having been so. Unfortunately for my brother Paladins, The Spider Queen took exception to them having eliminated a female, and stripped them of some of their powers, granting others in their stead. The march back was a thoughtful one, interrupted by the news that King Carl Trueheart had been captured by the Fey whilst guarding the ritual. Since the King had in fact been ‘body-guarding’ Stixx when he became separated, Stixx felt obligated to do something and so a small group of us moved stealthily down to the Fey Fortress and captured their Spy Master as he emerged. One way or another, we discovered that The Fey would move the King via a Fey Portal the next day; The Jhereg pledged to stop them. The Spy Master, sadly, did not survive the night.

The next day saw The Vipers, The Lions and The Jhereg forming up for what we knew would be a heavy fight. Having marched into the woods, The Jhereg positioned themselves in the Fey Portal’s clearing, with The Lions and Vipers covering our right flank. Looking at the huge shields of our allies, and the easy terrain between the Fortress and us, I knew we were destined to bear the brunt of the assault; as our scouts reported movement the adrenaline began to pump.

Sure enough, wave after terrible wave of Fey broke over the Jhereg, although many battled against The Vipers and Lions as well, and often the entire line seemed on the verge of collapse. Stixx dived here and there, using a powerful artifact to negate the Fey sorceries cast at his faction members, and the axe of Ordelin, Beastman champion, to bludgeon Fey into oblivion. Several times his wounds overcame him and we were forced to throw ourselves in front of him as healers rushed to his aid. Finally, sensing that a crux had been reached, Stixx ordered The Jhereg to hold the far gate of the clearing. A Fey Enchantress walked forwards from their lines, and with a staff of power entangled all unlucky enough not to be next to Stixx and his artifact. The Fey came in a rush, with even a Tree fighting along side them, but the trapped Warriors of all factions fought tenaciously and forced them back. It was then that we saw King Carl Trueheart, about to be marched through the portal. Without any command every troop that saw him charged The Fey lines, and The King wrapped himself over a bench , clinging grimly to it as the Fey tried to move him on and through the portal. Brave members of all factions died or were maimed, and atrocities took place, but at the end The King was safe and returned to his elated Faction. To the Jhereg though, this was secondary; we wanted the staff that could entangle.

Later that day emissaries from The Unseelie Fey came, and attempted to congratulate us on fighting their Seelie Court enemies. Unfortunately, they were even more arrogant and condescending than the Seelie Fey, and things very nearly turned ugly as insults were freely traded. During this confusion, rumour has it, the Healing Cup of the Viper faction was taken by the Fey. Lord Harriatta dispatched spies and scouts, who discovered that the Fey meant to corrupt the cup with a ritual. We rushed down to the circle as darkness descended, to be told that the ground had turned to blood for a short time just before we had arrived. Lord Harriatta and several brave members of his faction went into the circle and hid in the shadows, in wait for the Fey, as the rest of us waited outside the circle ready to aid them. The time slipped by, with mystical lights and strange mists filling the circle from time to time, but no Fey appeared. Finally, Lord Harriatta concluded that we had been too late and led his troops back to camp. As The Jhereg followed, suddenly scouts warned us that the Fey were on their way and any chance we had must been taken immediately. The Jhereg ran back up to the ritual circle, and without regard for the consequences Stixx plunged on into the still empty circle, followed by myself and another Jhereg ‘operative’. We were just in time, as no sooner had we settled into the darkest area we could, than a large host of Fey entered the circle from the far end and began their ritual. I counted around ten ritualists and the same again in bodyguards, but as the Fey Enchantress raised the cup above her head Stixx leapt to his feet and charged her; in utter disbelief I followed, convinced that death was surely upon all three of us, but Llolth smiled on us that night and Stixx demolished the Fey Enchantress and recovered the cup, whilst we other two fought with desperation against weapons from all sides. Finally I succumbed to a fear spell, but the attack had been carried and the Fey were in too much shock to mount an effective pursuit as the various factions covered our withdrawal. It was a stunning victory.

The morning of the final day saw all the factions fully battle arrayed, for today would be the day we took the Fey Bastion or died in the attempt. The plan called for The Jhereg to walk down the main path and engage whatever got in our way, in order to clear the route for the other factions. This sounded almost as unsound as asking Drow to take on a shield wall as far as I was concerned, and sure enough before long the advance to contact had become bogged down in a vicious stalemate. Once again the staff was used to entangle us, but with less success this time as we held our ground anyway. After what seemed an eternity, the other factions managed to get all the way round the left flank of the Fey and a group of heavy troops called The Ravens bolstered the Jhereg line, and we moved forwards into the area in front of The Bastion. The Fey Enchantress once again stepped forward, but this time we were ready and charged her immediately, hitting her with every kind of weapon available until she crumpled and died, conveniently leaving us her staff.

Now the assault on The Bastion could begin in earnest, and the mighty siege weapons opened up on the Fey and their walls. Archers loosed shaft after shaft into the mass of Fey troops within their compound, and flights of arrows in turn landed in the ranks of the Vipers and Lions as they stood ready to exploit any breach. Stixx and I had left The Jhereg at the front gate, where they were tasked with storming through the maze and into the compound as the other factions attacked the far side. With the walls weakened, the Paladins made an exploratory attack, but then attacked in full as the walls were breached and The Lions assaulted the Fey fighting platforms. The Jhereg ran through withering arrow storms and threw themselves at the besieged Fey, whilst The Lions, personally led by their King, cleared a way through the breach for Lord Harriatta and The Vipers for the final assault on the Fey, which cut them down en masse. All three factions found themselves standing in the middle of the Fey Bastion as silence descended across the carnage of battle.

However, The Fey had other ideas, and only a few moments later scouts reported that a large Fey battle group was approaching. Stixx informed The Jhereg that their job was done, and that any that wished to stay would do so as individuals rather than Jhereg. Most left, but predictably Stixx did not and so neither did I.

The Lions and Vipers seemed to have the Fey well under control as they forced them back through their own portal, and we had left the fortress to hunt down any stragglers when we came under attack from a group of Fir Cruthen and a Fey Lord. The Fey proceeded to kill one of the warriors of the Beastmen, who was attempting to protect the Beastman banner, and stand over his prone body taunting Stixx, who had but one arrow for his bow and no other weapons. The Fey challenged Stixx to a duel, and Stixx accepted since the blood of the Beastman had to be avenged; I handed Stixx my scimitars, drew my short-sword and hoped Stixx would win.

The Fey mumbled over his sword blade, and noticing this Stixx turned his back on his enemy and took something from his pouch which he wiped down the blade of one scimitar. Cheerfully the Fey announced that there would be no magic used; a lie of course, but Stixx agreed anyway. The two faced off, and then the fight began and ended in the blink of an eye as the Fey hit Stixx a wicked and magical blow on the arm, and Stixx sank the venom coated Drow scimitar into the Fey, who immediately swore and ceased to move. The Fey was lucky to die so swiftly after killing one of Stixx’s kin.

We returned to the camp elated at our victory, but saddened by the death of yet another of the Beastmen; however, all took heart from the fact that The Jhereg had achieved our aims, and aided The Lions and Vipers in achieving theirs as well. We had fought well that day, and now it was time to depart for pastures new.

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