Battle of Uraren Baso

Captain Nahiko sailed her ship towards the Dwarf Lands. The party was exhausted from their encounter with the she-demon, still weeping for Mistahimaskwa's slain mount. Ruban sensed the presence of the demon in the Dwarf Lands. Neith searched her list of Spessartite units looking for clues as to where a large number of Spessartite soldiers might be converging. Nahiko searched her memories to think about how the political situations among the Red Dwarves may affect the location of the demon.

The party finally concluded the final battle of the war they had spent so long avoiding would happen very soon and that the Civil Wat Demon would certainly be there. The group docked Nahiko's ship at a port town on the mainland of the Dwarf Lands closest the Spessartite Isles believing the final battle must happen somewhere near the town. After securing all the proper legal docking fees and paperwork filed; Nahiko and the crew- minus Mistahimaskwa- departed the docks and headed for town.

Ruban turned to bird form after forgetting to take his medicine. He flew south to look for locations for a weapon recently acquired from the Warehouse. Neith disguised herself on a rooftop and peered south toward the horizon finding large troop movement southward. Nahiko- after embarassing a dwarf in front of his wife- found her way to the brothels of the town. She and Ranodip found an awolled Gold Dwarf soldier with one of the "ladies" of the house, but failed to capture the pantsless dwarf as he hastened from the building. Mistahimaskwa saw the dwarf running from aboard the ship and ran to catch the soldier.

The soldier at first refused to give any information about his army. Mistahimaskwa searched the ship for a spare pair of trousers- but instead unleashed a mind flayer who surged the veteran of the Fur Dwarf Rebellion with trauma induced from past battles. Ranodip pounded the dwarf with his mace several times until the Gold Dwarf finally revealed the Gold Dwarf emperor hismelf would be at the battle.

The party reassembled and decided the best course of action was to head south to meet up with the Spessartite Army heading south. At the camp, Ranodip met with General Gloriosa who had been both an enemy and an ally in Ranodip's past.

(While in the Tea Lands, Gloriosa served as a captain during a war pitting Ranodip's people against the Spessartite colonists. Ranodip's elf-nation won the war. After the war, renegade elves began waging wars of terror against each other bringing Gloriosa and Ranodip together to bring peace back to the Tea Lands.)

The two old friends greated each other and Ranodip sent for the rest of his team to come meet with the general. In the tent, Gloriosa immediately recognized Mistahimaskwa, Ruban, Neith, and Bonastre who had served under the general during their second mission of the war.

"I'm afraid the situation is dire. A new war has broken out between my nation and the Fur Dwarves. My veteran soldiers have all been reassigned to Turtle Island. That makes all of my soldiers untested. To make it worse, I estimate the Gold Dwarf forces at twice my own," Gloriosa spoke. "But if I can pin this emperor down in a drawn-out battle, it may give my allies time to send their cavalry and prevent him from escaping."

Gloriosa assigned pairs of the group to differnt locations among his forces. The Spessartite army was drawn up along an earthen ridge. south of the ridge were three small fortifications at the left and right flanks and at the center. Neith and Bonastre deployed on the right flank with a group of longbowmen. There, Gloriosa hoped the Gold Dwarves would be forced to funnel their forces toward his center where the ridge would give his forces combat advantage.

At the right flank, Bonastre and Neith battled beside the Spessartite archer furiously as they fended off three waves of Gold Dwarf infantry attempting to breech the front gate. A handful of heavily armed infantry served under the two party members including one Reginald Sheakley who fought fiercely outside the fort. A picket fence surrounded a garden on the eastern side of the fort where a collection of heavy infantry guarded. When Gold Dwarf infantry breeched the garden fence, Reginald fought to fall back inside the fort. He was the only Spessartite to survive the Garden attack.

At the center, just north of the ridge, the Spessartite cavalry awaited orders to charge. A small road intersected the ridge which concealed the grayhoud-mounted Spessartite cavalry. Nahiko and Ranodip served in this group. After suffering an hour of artillery attacks, the "Grays" were ordered to charge forward. The central fort had been over-run and Spessartite infantry were attempting to recapture it from Gold Dwarf control. Ranodip, Nahiko, and the Grays charged forward to reinforce their numbers. When the Gold Dwarves saw their attempts to hold the fort were in vain, a second barrage of artillery was ordered and the Spessartite cavalry suffered greatly.

On the left flank, Ruban and Mistahimaskwa were stationed with heavy infantry on the ridge. A band of Gold Dwarf archers formed below them and began firing into their lines. The heavy infantry were ordered to charge downhill to sally with the archers. As the unit charged downhill, Mistahimaskwa saw a fatal flaw in their charge. Behind the Gold Dwarf archers was a unit of heavy cavalry waiting for this exact play. When the archers' lines broke, the Gold Dwarf cavalry surged forward into the Spessartites.

The Gold Dwarf victory was close. The emperor himself decided to thrust his crack troops- the Iron Legion, soldiers made up of the emperor's most seasoned veteran forces- at the Spessartites. The unit moved north to the right center (just east of there Neith and Bonastre were maintaining their fortifications) and slammed forcibly into the Spessartite infantry.

A horn blew in the east. As Mistahimaskwa and Ruban were using their final blows- preparing to die gloriously with their weapon of ultimate destruction- Gloriosa's allied cavalry appeared. The Gold Dwarf generals had been too focused on the Spessartite forces to notice their arrival to the battlfield. Half the allied cavalry pushed into the Spessartite left flank, saving it from destruction. It continued west all the way to the fort where Neith and Bonastre continued to defend. The other half of the cavalry rode south to capture the Gold Dwarf Emperor alive so that his surrender would formally end any chance of further war.

As the party revelled in their survival, Civil War appeared before them. Too exhausted to fight, the party members attempted to bluff the demon into thinking she was now powerless.

"Ha!" exclaimed the demon. "You think this is my end? This war was simply the appetizer. A civil war is brewing on Turtle Island that will be launch my thousand year reign of this Earth."

Civil War disappeared in a flash of green light leaving the party behind. Gloriosa summoned the group into his office after the battle. He told the group he had orders to bring each of them to the Spessartite capital in chains.

"I've lost a great number of soldiers today," the general spoke. "Missing in action, killed in action. If I tell my superiors you six were killed in battle, no one would question it. Let that be my gift to you. Your freedom."

The party members departed the battefield and went their seperate ways. Neith returned to her home in Upper Miseer. She married fellow soldier and the two lived to old age in peace. Bonastre went east serving as a mercenary among the gnomes until his death in battle twenty years later. Mistahimaskwa returned to Turtle Island where he lived on the Vast Plains among his people. He was killed in a bison hunt. Nahiko found a nice quiet island in the Tea Ocean where she opened a beach-side tiki bar and retired from the pirate life. Ruban turned into a bird after leaving the battlefield and was never seen again. Ranodip returned to the northern Tea Lands where he called home, but sailed south to visit Nahiko often.