Year 1461, February to June
Count Alistair spend a great deal of time together with the Duke of Cowen, Edward, in hopes of forming a friendship together with the Duke, as such he also stands ready if Edward needed anything. Over the course of the next few months, the ground basis of a friendship between the Duke and the Marquis started forming between them.
The Marquis also sends diplomats and tales up north to the Trivian city states trying to make people migrate down to his region, as such tales of employment and other goods start to flow around the city states. After a few months a minor amount of citizens had arrived in Upper Plait.
(+ Urban population to the Upper Plait)
The peasants under the Marquis is also trained in groups at a time to learn archery for the coming war, as such by the end of May a few of them are able to operate the bow properly.
New mines are opened up in the county of Artageth to help improve the economy, as more and more miners come closer it becomes clear that they now had too many, having invested too much into the mines and now had a bunch of miners in the city causing problems without work. But for the moment that is not an issue for the count as he seeks to profit from the war without any issue in his mind about who he is selling them to.
As such a large construction of weaponry and armour began and the count started to look for potential buyers, when he finally found one, barons under the Duke of Cowen himself, they only managed to send off one shipment before Duke William caught on to it. Outraged that the count sold supplies to his brother, he demanded the rest of the supplies for his own army, which the count could not go against at this time and as such ended up with a large loss in the treasury with little to show for it.
(+200 income to the county of Artageth, +300 treasury for the sale of supplies, -1500 to the treasury)
The count also invest money into the infrastructure of the county in the hopes of increasement in the trade, as such over the course he is able to find work for a large part of the miners otherwise stuck in the county without work. Despite this there appears to be problems with the coordination between the workers and as such the result ends up being fairly lackluster at the end of the first few months with only a slight increase in infrastructure.
(Infrastructure in Artageth is now 3/5, -500 treasury to the Count)
With his Grace, the Duke now having declared himself the real and proper King of Mivian, his first order is it increase his army which he is fully aware that he will surely be needing for the campaign against Duke Edward and his ever increasing amount of supporters. As such to prepare for the coming campaign he raises 750 infantry together with another 500 archers, luckily for the Duke the county has prepared and he is able to stack up on enough weapons and armor for a cheaper price than originally expected, as the new soldiers stand ready after a few months, while still lacking experience, they do have the equipment needed for the coming war.
(+500 archers and +750 infantry for the Duke of Temeria)
As the notion was ordered for the men to gather as well as the wedding to be organized, it didn’t take long before they were ready to head out, and as the order was given to move out the Count left it in the hands of his advisers to search the mountains for new resources, and so they began to search.
As such the council of the county quickly set to work exploring the mines for different resources to be found, but as time went on and on it became clear that they were running into problems and unable to find any veins to mine. The issues become clearer as the year advanced and they still hadn’t found anything, many worrying how the count would react upon his return to this sad work.
However word from the count had arrived to mobilized the forces, being able to raise the 3000 he demanded.
(-300 treasury to Louis Orléans, 3000 levies raised.)
In the beginning weeks of February, the activity in the county of Lydes began to quickly increase. Letters went back and forth between the count and several members of the nobility in the realm. Rumours started to spread first about the possibly support of the count in the civil war, but then later turned into rumors of courtship and marriage. When the Comte then ordered to different wagons with gifts to be filled and transported away under high safety towards the Duke of Hemritch and Alistair Sommet, Marquis of the Upper Plait, the rumours only increased until it later became known of the betrothal of both the Comte’s daughters, the elder to Hemritch and the younger to Sommet.
Despite the rather good marriages, many of the local gentry worried about the matches, as they both went to supporters of Cowen, a claimant which neither the county or duchy had declared their support for. Despite this these worries, it was still looked with joy from many in the region as a chance to bring them closer.
(-500 to the treasury of Richard, Comte of Lydes. +250 gold each to the Duke of Hemritch and the Marquis of Upper Plait)
When the convoys had been sent off, the Comte sat down with his advisors, with the civil war rising in tensions each day, many had may expected them to come to the conclusion to support their liege, the Duke of Temeria. But that was not the case, the topic for the day was the improvement of the textile industry in the region. The duke decided that it was needed for the perseverance of their wealth as well as the making of new trade lines that the Comte had set off funds for the buildings.
The Duke also set to work to improve the trade between the country and potential trade partners, he mainly found a small city in Trivia to which they started supply the textile they now produced, as such at the end of the year the county saw an improvement in both trade and production. (-2000 gold to to the treasury of Richard, Comte of Lydes, +250 production and +150 trade to Lydes)
The Duke of Edelwick begins February with planning improvements in the agricultural parts of his realm, which are large. He focuses mainly on a system called the three field crop rotation and it’s to be implemented to the farmers in his county. As he begins to implement it, several problems start to arise for the farmers and somewhat chaos ensues, it takes another month before it is properly fixed and by that time many has taken the Dukes advise to start focusing on the oil grapes instead of grain.
They already feel that they are amply supplied by other regions for their grain supply and that with the increase of sales within the recent years after the last conflict between Mivian and the Empire ended. As such they believe that they can make a bigger income if doing that and as such at the beginning of June it can easily be seen that the three field crop rotation turned out poorly to say the best. As such by June the production had increased, but the county more than before now relied on grain from other regions to sustain its population.
(+350 increase in income, -900 treasury to the county of Edelwick)
The Duke also sents out a message to pirates, smugglers and other men of low degree normally sought by the law, he tries to negotiate with them to rent their ships for an endeavor the following last half of year. However the Duke quickly finds out that it is very futile to attempt hiring pirates to do your work, many of them refuse to show up as they believe they are being offered too low a price, others simply fear for their lives should they come to port, preferring the open sea above that of a court room. The last but not least of the pirates, accepted the money to serve under the Duke, simply to sail off with the money after they had gained it.
This proves a problem after the Duke called up his leives, raising up 2700 men, his goal being 5000 men but quickly becoming unreal to attempt to raise such a force, now with the men raised, pitchforks and cloth for the majority, many wondered what he would use them for.
(-600 gold to the treasury of the county of Edelwick)
Count Claude “The Fat” begins February month with the attempt to increase the grain supply of his region, leaving jokes about how much more he could eat. The real goal behind the increasement was however to be able to supply the capital with food to a greater degree, while the year sees an increase in grain production it all turns sour towards June after horrible weather which destroyed most of the grain production and what was left was needed to feed the local population and Edelwick rather than Calne.
(-500 to the treasury of Lazuli)
The count also orders the expansion of the mountains in the county, as such he sends miners and stewards to the mountains to find the best regions for the new miners to dig into. For much of the year they are unable to find anything until towards the end of May when a lucky miner hits a medium silver vein, allowing the silver to be collected in the region.
(-1000 to the treasury of Lazuli, +700 to the income of Lazuli)
The Duke of Hemritch starts the month with sending off diplomats and emissaries to the Trivian city states, in hopes of aid from old friends and trade partners. His main focus is the city state of Riverside, a city about 70.000 people in the middle of Trivia, his hope is that they will be able to sign a trade agreement with them, in hopes that this will be easier to maintain his army in the coming war.
The original negotiations started off well between the two partners but it quickly started to become problematic when the negotiations over the price rose up, as well as who to guard the supplies on their way to Hemritch.
The issues where eventually overcome as the negotiations went on, the final trade order, being surprisingly light for Hemritch would give them both arms and weaponry. However they would have to pay for the guarding of the transportation of the supplies and as such it also came as a cost to Hemritch, netting them a much lower profit than otherwise possible, at least for now.
(+300 trade income to the county of Hemritch, armor and weaponry for 250 soldiers, 50 cavalry and 100 archers, -800 from the treasury)
The Margrave, Harrison-Peters who is the heir to Hemritch travels south with army of Hemritch, he travels with a diplomat who his father sent along in hopes of teaching the young Margrave the ways of diplomacy, As they travelled down to Eisenweir to the rest of the Cowen supports, the two spent a great deal of time together, with the Margrave starting learning the ways of diplomacy, with a lot still to learn. On his way south he also rounded up 1700 levies to serve under them during their campaign with Cowen, due to the late time of being raised they were only able to supply 250 of them with proper weapons and armoury, if more where to be supplied, it would end up being at a heavy cost to the Duchy.
(1700 levies raised, 250 of them equipped)
The Bishop of Caillaux begins to investige possible heretics in his Bishopric, the inquries starts quickly and within a few months they have been able to gather evidence of a lot of possible heretics. Many wonder what will happen, knowing the Bishops reputation all too well, many also fear for their lives. Two weeks later it turns out that many of those fears where not ungrounded, the Bishop ordered his guards to arrest the people and confiscate their lands, he then soon sat them to work in slave like conditions on the land, burning any who oppose.
It caused great problems in the country with many people fearing for their lives, someone even attacking the guards of the Bishop. The issue however was not looked at properly by the surrounding lords as no one really cared, that was until one of the captains saw this as a chance to get revenge on a minor estate owner, he ordered his arrest and while it was true that the agents of Gabriel-Hercule had collected minor evidence of heretical belief, this turned out to be a disaster.
As soon as he was imprisoned, his cousin protested to a local baron, and while the estate owner himself was unimportant, the baron wasn’t, as such a major political disaster happened. The baron being having connections in the capital quickly threw a bad light on the Bishop. As such they demanded that the estate owner be freed and the captain severely punished for overstepping his limits, and while there was no King to complain to, should the Bishop refuse, the people with the complaints where important enough to prove a challenge to any advancement towards any Cardinal's hat, should the Bishop want one, when the King is crowned.
As such the Bishop now stood with a problem, having both the fate of the estate owner and the captain in his hands.
(+300 income to the Bishop of Caillaux, the Bishop has a crisis on his hand and as such can decide how to proceed.)
The Bishop also orders the mining of new areas in the mountains, he hopes to hit rich in an vein and such to start mining more resources. The miners begin to dig the tunnels in and it doesn’t take long before they are able to hit a large iron deposit. As such the mining quickly increases over the first half of the year, the Bishop in turns demands that they use a large amount of the iron to make weaponry and cannons from, despite the large ore having been hit, it is still expensive to meet the demands of the Bishop.
(+500 income to the Bishopric of Caillaux, +5 cannons, +weaponry and armor made for 1000 infantry, 100 cavalry and 200 archers. -3000 gold to the treasury of Caillaux)
The Marquis of Mont Blanc ordered his knights and scouts out in the country side, worried that with the civil, the possibility of bandits and other types horrible people would start plundering the country side in hopes of riches and glory.
His riders scouring the country side killing any and all law breakers that they found in their wake, while it cause a slight bit of uproar due to the amount of people being killed in the end, no one could say that the Marche was in the wrong, and as such the stability of the region increased by the time of May.
Disaster struck as the news quickly spread of the plague in the county of Zaan, luckily the Duke quickly ordered the gates of Falcon’s watch shut and that no ship may leave port in hopes of containing the plague to the single city. While his quick reaction no doubt saved many lives, it also caused the city to be shut off, with its people and nobility within it. As days past by it quickly became clear that the Duke and his immediate family had been infected by the plague, a week later they all died one after another during the nights. The city only suffered minor losses but some was still suffered, but as news reached the nearby neighbors, high alert was hit as not only the Duke but also the heir was dead and the Duchy was without a ruler.
The center government had died on Zaan with a majority of the nobles and officials dying in the plague it left the county in a somewhat saddened state. As such when ships from Lord Loudamere arrived together with the Lord onboard and a collections of his troops, they didn’t meet any objections or obstacles. The Lord quickly set on to Falcon’s Watch and declared himself the new Duke in this disaster, with no other contester so far declared, and with the count of Niedervisse declaring his support and acceptances of Lord Laudamere, it seemed as if his accession was secure.
However as he was not safe, and did not feel as such either, he ordered his warships as well as those from Zaan to start patrolling the water and defend its shores. He also ordered new taxes to be increased back on the Grimlock Isles, which quickly turned out to be problematic. Multiple merchants simply refused to pay a higher tax saying it would damage their trade, with the Duke away on the island of Zaan, the local administration was unable to force it through and as such could simply not raise the funds needed that the duke had ordered.
He also sent ravens out to the Kingdom that he had no desire to intervene in the civil war of the Bastards, it was nothing that the Shield should be concerned with and as such they had no part in it, they also declared that trade would continue unhindered with any party on the mainland.
(Lord Loudamere is now Duke of the Shield and lord of the Grimlock Isles and Zaan, +40 influence)
The Duke of Ravens Hall begin preparations for the wedding of his only daughter, spending a lot of his time to go into great detail of the event.
Despite the civil war approaching on the horizon, the bishop of Mellions announced the holding of a peasant fair, as such great stands in the city of Thimbé was erected. As the months passed by and the years of the war, the fair came closer and closer and as such, partly due to the threat of war, many peasants came to Thimbé to escape the thoughts of war which so haunted them. It was a good success for the Bishop but at the same time it proved to be problematic for the Duke of Raven’s Hall as it meant that more of the people in his cities had travelled away, spending gold in Thimbé rather than back where they live.
(+600 treasury to Mellions, -500 treasury to the Duke of Raven’s Hall, -150 gold to Aksarben)
As the fair was underway, the Bishop sent a letter to the Patriarch to be asked for his blessing for the Bishop to stay neutral. The Patriarch gladly granted this to the Bishop on one condition, he would spend his efforts to find the murders of Cardinal Visran, if he did that then he would have his neutrality, if he declined, he would not have the blessing.
(Choice for the Bishop of Mellions)
The count begins febuary by hiring 500 miners to work for him, they together with the Steward coordinate their effort, as well as searches for new mines in the hills between Round Rock and Port Arthur, great effort was moved into this but as the months passed by, despite their heavy effort it became clear that no real mines had been found, only a smaller iron deposit was found, barely worth the effort.
(+100 income to the county of Aksarben, -700 treasury)
The count also orders the construction of a new harbor, in the beginning it goes very well and a lot of progress is done, but as April came around, a massive storm hit of the coast, destroying much of the improvements, as such they had to start over and by the start of June the results were clearly lackluster as the harbor was far from its potential, having cost the count a lot of money and little to show for it, multiple people feared for their jobs and lives as the count most likely would not be too pleased by the results.
(+200 trade income, -900 treasury, will need further upgrades to reach its full potential)
With the civil war breaking loose, the Duke of Calderia decided that he together with a group of advisors would travel to the Aruthian Empire to pay visit to the Imperial capital. Together with them they brought different amounts of gifts, they brought crafted goods both from Calderia and Mivian. As they traveled they were shown off with a great farewell from the people in the city. As they entered the Empire, they eventually where greeted by the Duke of Winddale, more commonly known as the Iron Duke due to his hard handedness in a recent peasant revolt within the Empire.
They gave some of the gifts to the Duke whom entertained them during the visit before they headed along to the Imperial Capital. When they arrived the feasted with the court and it didn’t take long before Calderia began to discuss possible marriage matches within the Empire, hoping to secure himself a match to bring his own province and standing within the Empire further up, as well as bringing the ties closer between Mivian and the Empire. Despite the long conflicts he would still make the attempt, and as such after lengthy negotiations, and a few more bribes, the Duke was allowed to marry a young daughter of a minor Duke in the northern part of the Empire. Her name was Ryleigh Mendenhall and was the youngest daughter of the Duke of Mendenhall.
Calderia quickly began speaking with his new father in law, not only securing a handsome dowry but also a lucrative trade deal with the Mendenhall. Mendenhall and Calderia signed an agreement between them that included the transfer of the dowry as well as Mendenhall using his connections within the Empire to help the trade from Calderia flow. As the wedding day came, Calderia was said to be overjoyed with his new bride, as well as his new trade agreements in the Empire, bringing the Empire and Calderia slightly closer together.
(-1300 gold to the Duke of Calderia. +500 in dowry. +400 trade income, + 10 influence)
Lord David, Count of the Lower Plait, just as his father before, is one of the biggest supporters of the “Rightful King” as his father before him amassing a large army under him to see his liege lord succeed in his battles. Together with him he raises the army with his master at arms, while travelling north to Eisenweir, on a more personal level he hires too advisors from the Aruthian Empire, one to teach him in tactics and one to teach him in swordsmanship. The more the travel the better the count gets, but it is clear that the count has more success in strategy than one to one combat, as he often ends up making a fool of himself in the latter and overall makes very little progress in it.
(Count David learns more strategy and sword fighting, -500 gold)
Lord Patrick Montague offer the guards of Calne to train them to prepare for the coming war, after heavy debate he is allowed to train a small amount of recruits, one of the main problems is the General of the Royal army, now without a King is the largest power within the capital. He takes it as an offense that Lord Montague wanted to train them, believing Lord Montague to be of to insignificance to allow it.
(400 guards trained to improve the defense of Calne, Lord Montague +5 influence)
Luke Somme-Chevalier spends his time in the capital spreading rumors of an incoming attack, much fear is stuck in the capital who demands an increase in guarding the borders, as well as sea. As such with such a fear in the capital, many where on edge, meaning it would only be a matter of time before something would erupt.
At the same time he starting spinning a web of diplomacy, whispering into the ears of merchants and peasants alike, that Calne needed new leadership and that Lord Montague was the right man for the job, as such as more and more of this spread it eventually reached the mayor and the general of the royal army, it didn’t take long before they put such notion out of the merchants head. Despite this the names of both Sir Luke and Lord Montague was remembered in the capital.
(+15 influence to Luke Somme-Chevalier, +5 influence to Lord Montague)
The search for a Shadow
As the news of the death of Cardinal Visran spread throughout the realm, the news of the situation became more and more dire with the threat of excommunication hanging over the heads of the realm. As such it was that Lord Starborn and Lord Orléans send agents under them to find the culprit and bring him to justice. They began their search in the capital, however when they arrived they found the city in a state of chaos, only making it more difficult for them to be able to gather any information as to the murderer.
The agents of Lord Starborn where quick to gather information and within long they had a name of the man responsible, his name was William, and they discovered that he had travelled east in a hurry after the assassination. The agents while worried about the name and the possible indication they their Duke was a part of it travelled East before sending the reports back to Lord Starborn as such still leaving him in the dark.
The agents of Lord Orléans learned much the same named, but they also learned about a location for further clues, they were able to pick up that the man named William had travelled to King’s Crossing. When they arrived the also searched for a man named William but so far had little luck, they did however have the time send a report back to the Lord of Orléans.
The battle of the Bay
In the early mornings of May, a fleet set off from the sourthern part of Lazuli, their goal was the island of Knifepoint, and more importantly the city of Seabreeze. The travel due to being fairly short had made Count Claude hope that they would be able to travel there without Lord Starborn realizing what would happen. The only problem to this was what Count Claude hadn’t accounted for, which was that Lord Starborn had expected an incoming invasion of Daggerfall and as such had prepared his ships for the defense of his island.
As such when Count Claude started to reach the island, he was met by the Daggerfall fleet, even in number they would fight, both hoping for the victory, the battle began with them tailing each other for the first two days, hoping to catch a favorable wind to engage the other with. Late the second day the chance appeared for Daggerfall and they sailed towards them with the win in their back.
The first two ships opened fire upon each other, both doing minimal damage to one another, but that only lasted slightly more as the other ships engaged. The next three hours would decide the outcome of the battle, with ships from both sides firing heavily upon each other it quickly became apparent that neither would escape this in good shape. The battle started to turn when one of Claudes officers decided to board a Daggerfall ship, what could have been a good trophy turned disastrous when another of Claudes ships shot at the enemy ship as the first one was getting close. A cannonball hit the gunpowder resulting in an explosing and catching both the Daggerfall and Lazuli ship on fire, burning both of them out.
As dawn hit after a night of bloody battle, count Claude decided to pull back what was the remaining parts of his forces, while only having lost one ship, the rest where heavily damaged and where taking water in, only barely making it back to port.
The ships from Daggerfall where less lucky, losing one ship in the combat, and one on the way back to Daggerfall to be claimed by the sea.
(-1 warship, -150 infantry, 15 cavalry and 50 archers for Count Claude. -2 warships for Count Starborn of Daggerfall)
The war of pretenders
The Duke of Cowen had called the realm to arms against his brother, Pilarch, and the Duke of Temeria over the right to the crown. Many in the Kingdom of Mivian feared for their lives, civil wars where some of the most brutal, brother against brother, father against son. Families split apart, as such many saw it as a blessing when the eastern part of Mivian united behind Edward, with such a large base of support it left many hoping for a swift war, but it was still unlikely as the Eastern half of the Kingdom was against him.
As such, Duke Edward, ordered the raising of his soldiers and his allies, they had selected for the province of Eisenweir for their camp during the starting months of the war.
As such over the course of the months the soldiers arrived, one Lord after another. At the middle of May, the army was numbering around 14,000 soldiers. As the time passed as they were getting ready to attack, the soldiers prepared themselves and trained hard for the coming battle, those training the most where the soldiers under Cowen himself and the Count of Lower Plait.
The Duke of Cowen also sent out scout parties, some towards Temeria and others into the Duchy of Ravens Hall under the command of young Edmund Steelbeard, on behest of his brother the Duke of Calderia.
(Edward and his supporters made camp South of Eisenweir. Army 1000 infantry, 100 Calvary, 5 cannons, 1700 levies and 500 archers Under the Duke of Hemritch.
3500 Infantry, 50 Cavalry, 15 Cannons and 750 Archers, Under the Count of Lower Plait.
4000 Infantry, 300 Cavalry, 10 Cannons and 600 Archers Under the Duke of Cowen.
2000 Infantry, 100 Cavalry, 10 Cannon and 600 Archers under Edmund Steelbeard, on behalf of the Duke of Calderia)
In Pilarch despite the lack of support, it didn’t waiver William or his own belief in his right to his father’s crown. Despite several letters and pleads from Lord Starborn, it didn’t change his mind in the slightest and as such he demanded the mobilization of his soldiers, both his own and those of his vassals. It didn’t take long before they started showing up, though to Williams dismay he found out that Lord Starborn had only sent half of his forces to help in the war. As such he sent letters of demand back to Lord Starborn that should sent the remaining parts of his forces. Lord Starborn however ordered his ships to start patrolling the shores to defend against any incoming attack from Cowen and his supporters.
After much bickering between William and his vassals, he was eventually forced to abandon what he had hoped would have been his spring campaign and instead was forced to simply defend the border.
As the Count of Aksarben retreated some of his forces from the border, the Duke of Pilarch sent a few raiders forward to fight against him, but at the end of it none where better off because of it, as it only resulted in some minor skirmishes across the border.
(Pilarch and Aksarben have both fortified their position, Aksarben has 10 cannons, 100 cavalry, 1000 infantry and 600 archers ready to defend against any incoming forces. Pilarch has 500 Infantry, 150 Arches and 50 cavalry under the command of Tybolt Starborn as well as 2500 Infantry, 600 Arches, 5 cannons and 200 cavalry under William, Duke of Pilarch)
In the Duchy of Temeria, the duke has called his banners to war as well, the only contender for the throne who is not a directly linked to the previous king. The Duke had ordered one of his loyal bannermen, Phillipe Framboise, to lead his forces Castle Blackstone while the Duke and his family went to Raven’s Hall for the wedding between Magnolia of House Blackgate and Henry Guerrin.
However as Framboise reached Castle Blackstone, it became clear that a big issued had arisen, neither troops or words could be heard or found from the Comte of Lydes or the Count of Carillion. Framboise then sent out scouts to find where they armies where and order them to come to Blackstone, they rode with the speed of light across the land and it took them a few days before they found the two armies. When he found them in Arnas where the army had camped, when the scouts inquired as to why this was the case, they found out that both the Orléans and the Remache, had travelled back to Carillion to hold the wedding of Catherine Orléans and Léon Remache, and had ordered the halting of the army. When the scouts told them to move on, they were simply told to leave if they wanted to be left alive. When news reached back to Framboise, he was outraged.
To the South, Duke Michael and his family had arrived at Ravens Hall for the wedding between the two Dukes children. They were received with great pomp and splendor by Duke Magnas, who welcomed Duke Michael with a great smile and hugged his coming son-in-law as if he was already part of his family. Some might have said that the Duke was being over familiar with the Guerrin and that the pomp and splendor was overdone, but nothing thought of it more than a new Duke trying to show the wealth and prestige of his house to the possible future King.
The wedding went on as the local priest came and wed them, as he did the couple actually seemed very happy despite just meeting each other, many things could be said about both sides but no one could deny that in that moment, Magnolia, looked like an angel that outshines everyone.
As the ceremony was done, the happy couple and their families entered into the great hall for what would be a grand feast for the families to enjoy. As the feast went on and more and more of the guests became drunk, Duke Michael, starting to feel a twisting and turning in his stomach but ignored it for the time being, not ten minutes later, he started to cough heavily before starting to spit up blood.
He closed his eyes trying to shake the feeling off him, as he opened them again and looked up, arrows where flying across the room, and daggers being pulled out, as he looked to his left he saw his daughter being stabbed by Magnolius Blackgate. As Duke Michaels personal retinue drew their swords it was all but too late, as one after another fell to the swords of the Blackgates.
However the guards of Michael put up a fight, enough of a fight to get their lord out of there, as Michael was being taken out, he turned around to see his son and heir William being pieced by arrow bolts, together with his wife being pieced by swords.
William Guerrin’s last moments
As his Grace, Duke Michaels, family died, Magnus Blackgate himself joined the fighting, he attacked the guards of Duke Michael in hopes of ensuring his death. It however turned out to be a mistake as he made a wrong step which resulted in Magnus getting his right hand, and sword hand cut off. Enraged by seeing his father injured, the young Magnolius, jumped into the fray and after a short duel, Duke Michael despite his injuries cut down the young Magnolius before he managed to escape down on his horse, having to leave his guards behind for the slaughter while he himself in bad condition rode away.
As he rode away, the riders of Magnus followed quickly in pursuit and so did the riders of Count Aksarben in the north in the hopes of cutting him off. As the riders of Magnus closed in on Duke Michael, they only backed off when a larger group of riders in the North under the different banners was seen in the Dark by the light of their torches. Michael tried to avoid them but was eventually captured, half passed out and without stringing a word together, he collapsed, only recognizing the banner of Edmund Steelbeard, who then with great haste rode back to Eisenweir with the Duke on his horse. The night forever more known as “The night that the
(Duke Michael, fate unknown, captured by Edmund Steelbeard and currently captive of the army of Duke Edward, William Guerrin killed, Henry Guerrin captured by house blackgate, Aveline Guerrin killed, Margot Guerrin killed.
Magnus Blackgate crippled -2 fighting. Magnolius Blackgate Killed, Magnolia Blackgate heavily injured.)
Outside Castle Blackstone, the night had come upon the forces of the Duke of Temeria, it was at this hour at the height of the night that cannons starting firing. The camp of General Framboise was caught unaware as cavalry rushed into the camp, infantry closely behind. Framboise own forces out of armor and not anywhere near being able to put up a fight. Many of Framboise’s men started fleeing back to into the castle or simply running away, the only things they saw Coat of Arms of Orléans and Remache, with their soldiers carrying banners of Edward, Duke of Cowen as well as their own, screaming “Long Live King Edward” “For King Edward” As they killed the forces outside of castle Blackstone and they put castle Blackstone under siege.
(Castle Blackstone under siege, 700 infantry, 80 cavalry and 300 archers under Duke Michael dead, 400 infantry, 20 cavalry, and 50 archers fled. The rest of Duke Michaels forces in castle Blackstone.
100 infantry, 5 cavalry dead under Comte Lydes. 200 infantry, 20 cavalry and 50 archers dead under Count Carillion)
As June started, Duke Edward now having the majority of the Kingdom behind him, as well as the major grain sources, the capital bend the knee and swore fealty to Edward and recognizing him as King, leaving only Pilarch left with his meager forces.
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