While Grettir and Paradoxides were chasing sphinxes in the 5th Circle of Hell, Ubaron and Trevillion had been hanging out in Telemark, in a tavern that Trevillion – always a man with an eye to a commercial opportunity – had bought up from an individual keen to depart town with some cash before the Imperials arrived. Ubaron was mostly upstairs studying new spells, while Trevillion did a roaring trade in the bar, gathering gossip and gauging the mood in Telemark. The mood was best described as mixed. There were a fair few who had voted with their feet and left. There were others who vowed to fight but who were sending their dependents away, mostly on the return voyages of the large Chittagong cogs arriving, as promised to Grettir by the King, with supplies and war materials. There was a small but vocal minority who were prepared to voice the idea that they could just give Thorkel up and the Legion would march away. However, for the most part Telemark seemed to be standing firm behind Thorkel.
A woman appeared at Trevillion’s door with eight young children, seeking assistance. Her name was Llynos. Ubaron immediately sniffed out that she was a sorceress. They lived out in the wilderness and had been burned out by the Imperials. She said her husband Deygulf was fighting the Legion in the field. They found her a room and then a berth on a Chittagong-bound ship. It was only subsequently that they discovered that she was wanted and that Thorkel had agents on her tail. Exactly why Thorkel had the energy at this time to be pursuing internal vendettas against his own people, was quite puzzling. It was clear that the woman was very much in favour of resistance to the Legion, as was her husband. As it happened, it turned out that Deygulf was a good man to be on the right side of, while Thorkel was shortly to be out of the picture.
Grettir reappeared in Telemark after an absence of about a week after spending a couple of days practising with Sadat at Sequarl. Sadat resisted the idea of a saddle but didn’t object to armour. In the first instance this was cobbled together horse caparisons, but something more custom made was promised. Grettir quietly added stirrups to the armour. Grettir contemplated a grand entrance into Telemark upon his new steed, but settled for discreet arrival by teleport with Paradoxides. It was surprisingly quiet in Telemark Castle. He was met by Ella, who looked uneasy. She told Grettir that Thorkel had mustered his troops that morning and had marched out of the city. Ella said that she had begged him to wait for him, but he had solid reports that the legion had split their forces into three units of 600 men. He thought he had an opportunity to isolate one unit and annihilate it. So he marched forth with 2000 men including all his household. Grettir could not imagine that this was anything other than a trap.
Grettir with Paradoxides, Ubaron, Trevillion and Samuel set off in pursuit of Thorkel, to see what assistance they could render, for Grettir was sure he would need all the help he could get. As they left the town, Grettir blew his whistle. A distant black speck in appeared in the sky which grew larger as it swiftly approached. Grettir mounted Sadat; Samuel summoned his own flying steed, pulling Trev up behind him; the magicians cast their fly spells. From the air, it did not take long to locate Thorkel. Already his dream of catching a legionary cohort isolated and unsupported had evaporated. His shieldwall of nigh on two thousand men was engaged along its front with two legionary cohorts. The vikings still had the advantage of numbers, but Thorkel’s huscarles aside, and a few outstanding individuals, these were mostly fyrdmen – recruits in studied leather, stiffened by a few veterans and experienced men. The Telemark fyrd had an advantage in numbers, but were fighting hardened professionals, with excellent armour and weapons, who trained and drilled in their formations every day of their lives – and were further supported by the subtle magics of their squad mages. Many of the Telemark men were already wavering. The Legion still had an uncommitted reserve at the rear.
Their situation was about to become worse. With their vantage point in the skies and their collective experience of sorcery, Grettir and his companions could see what the third cohort of the enemy were up to. Under cover of an elaborate illusion, they were marching upon Thorkel’s flank and rear. They were coming apace. Paradoxides flew off in that direction. The rest began to assault the legionary line. Grettir had brought with him a box of alchemical incendiaries, which he started dropping upon the enemy; Trevillion kept up a withering rate of fire with his bow from the back of Samuel’s steed. Ubaron too had a bow and magics to deploy. Meanwhile Paradoxides, used his powers to conjuire a line of deep fissures in the earth in the path of the oncoming flanking force. This slowed them quite effectively. Half of them stopped and tried to find some means to cross – with little success, the other settled for trying to march around the obstacle.
Inevitably Grettir and his companions ran out of ammunition. Meanwhile the Legionaries started to commit their reserves. Elements of the viking force were starting to break. The death of a fyrd commander saw a general retreat of his entire command. Grettir had Sadat put him down in front of them. He rallied them and brought them back into the line. Ubaron did something similar in another part of the line and even Trevillion found himself in command of a leaderless contingent of vikings. Through all this Thorkel and his household troops had stood firm, but as those around him retreated or fell, he found himself increasingly occupying a salient in the shieldwall, almost surrounded by the enemy. It was clear that he was their main target. Grettir and Ubaron were desperately trying to cut their way through to him at the head of their makeshift units when they saw Thorkel’s banner fall. Shortly after that the remainder of his household were overrun.
A wail went up from the viking ranks and a roar from the legionaries as Thorkel went down but the Telemark troops under Grettir and his companions stood firm and battled on. They were receiving support from Paradoxides who continued to deploy hostile magics against the Legion from the air. Dusk was falling. All of a sudden the legion as one took a couple of sharp paces back to disengage; then a few more paces. The exhausted vikings did not pursue as the Legion reorganised its ranks and marched away along the trade road to the west. The men of Telemark were left holding the field of battle.
Grettir first went to where Thorkel’s banner had fallen. There he found a knot of dead huscarles, but Thorkel was not to be found. Nor was his sword. Only one of his household warriors remained alive, a young huscarle called Harvald who had taken a headwound and was found lying semi-conscious on ther field. There was some cursory looting as the men of Telemark, took legionary souvenirs or reclaimed the swords of their fathers. Paradoxides found a magic gladius and Sadat an amulet. However, Grettir was keen to get back to Telemark, before rumours of a worse defeat than had actually occurred preceded him on the tongues of those fleeing first and fastest. He left the wounded in the care of a guard of steady men who would also keep the carrion from the dead, along with Samuel and Sadat. Sadat he quietly told that he might feed himself as long as he was discreet and restricted himself to those wearing legionary helmets. He thought there were perhaps a hundred and fifty legionary dead – many fewer than the Men of Telemark left upon the battlefield – but they still represented a grievous loss to the Legion. Many years experience and training died with them. Before he left he had Samuel cast an augury. This confirmed that Thorkel was with his Gods. This seemed a better outcome to Grettir’s mind than the possibility that he had fallen into the Legate’s hands alive.
As they trudged back through the night towards Telemark town, they were met by an exceptionally large man. He introduced himself as Ghie, son of Grettir’s friend Styrbjorn the Bear-man, and thus the brother of Ironbar. He had a message from his father. He said that the Legion marched in strength in the West. An Iron Man had broken the gates of Morthrondil and the Dragons no longer flew. Five hundred men had taken the Endless Stair from the Tower of Ymir into the Broken Lands.
This was surprising news indeed and raised more questions than it answered. It did explain all the Legionary activity they had discovered out beyond the Edgewere Mountains. It also explained why the Legate had not come against Telemark with his whole strength. If the Legate had sent a cohort of his men into the Lands of Dust, that Styrbjorn called the Broken Lands, then good luck to them. Grettir and Paradoxides had been there, with Gadan and Kiness, and nothing good was to be found there (see The Search for the Sarn Tur – C12). If the Legate sought the Sarn Tur – the Elven Gems of Power, then that was a rich joke indeed. For Grettir and his companions had brought them forth from there a full ten years ago – around the time that the Legion had occupied the Sand Lands. If the Legate had come to him in friendship, then he would have assuredly told him all this. Instead he had waged his nasty clandestine war against his people all this time – and to what end? Grettir thanked Ghie and bade him tell his father that he would call upon him as soon as he could.
When they came to Telemark, Grettir had his men march into the town in good order, heads held high. There were many fewer than half the number that had left with Thorkel, but Grettir would behave as if they had won a great, if costly, victory against the Legion. After all they had been left masters of the field of battle. Ella met him in the castle. She was plainly filled with grief for Thorkel and trepidation for her future. Grettir suggested that they immediately establish a ruling council for Telemark, headed by Ella until a new king could be crowned. Two of Thorkel’s thegns, Lief Eirikson and Kolvin of Dollarside had survived the battle and Harvald his huscarle. They too would be council members (though Harvald, still bewildered by the events of the battle and haunted by survivor’s guilt, took some persuading). Asking who else might be a useful member of the council, the name of Deygulf came up. He had distinguished himself during the battle, tirelessly swinging his axe and rallying men to him. He had disappeared after the battle but there were plenty of witnesses to confirm that he yet lived. His home was near the battle site. Grettir would not be a formal council member but he would be ready with support and advice as needed.
Over the next few days Grettir flew around on Sadat with Samuel, Paradoxides, Ubaron and Trevillion as needed. He visited the battlefield. There had plainly been some looting of the bodies and there had been others come to collect or bury loved ones. Barring the odd souvenir, most of the legionary kit was untouched. It seemed that short swords, large shields, crested helmets and banded armour were not to local tastes. He had Ubaron and Paradoxides teleport all the legionary equipment back to Sequarl where it would be put to some use – he had a few ideas. The loot included a lot more of the low-level magical imperial devices that they had captured in the sea battle and which bore some further examination.
While in the vicinity of the battlefield, they sought out Deygulf’s homestead to see if he was there. They found it burnt out, but a little poking around by Trev revealed a hidden basement full of supplies and some signs of recent inhabitation since the battle. No trace, however, was there of the elusive Deygulf.
Girindor and his elves, with Aderbarg and some human scouts had been keeping an eye on the Legion. Word came from them that the Legion was leaving and marching back to the Sand Lands. A careful exploration, alert to the possibility of traps, of the abandoned camp reveals only a body hanging from a beam. It is the body of King Thorkel. There is plaque hung around his neck, carrying words to the effect that he had paid for his crimes with his life. He seems to have died in battle and his wounds were to the front. Grettir carries the body back to Telemark on Sadat and presents it to Ella. He does not show her the plaque. A period of mourning is announced in Telemark.
Grettir returns to Sequarl. He needs to have a conversation with his wife.
G-26
OE Date: June 695
Characters: Grettir, Paradoxides, Ubaron, Trevillion NPCs: Samuel, the Army of Telemark
Real World: January 2012; Where: Milton Keynes
See also Ubaron’s Diaries