All across Mardrun the harvest season limps to a frigid close. Snow blankets the continent and the winter store houses latch shut, holding within the hoard of a year’s hard work.
Unfortunately, it seems that these increasingly sleepy villages are drawing the attention of outsiders. Longships bearing no colors or heraldry have been seen sailing up and down the eastern seaboard, some have even come further inland along the more navigable riverways. Memories of the unprovoked raid on the Village of Brattsholt earlier in the year has people on edge and soon Clan Leadership of the eastern clans have called forth their war parties to patrol the coastal villages.
Most of the villages feel safe with these roving patrols, but some of the more distant villages are worried that they will become easy targets if the official warpacks aren’t able to adequately stretch themselves to cover their location. To this end some of the villages have set out calls for martial aid to outside entities. One village known as Darkport, a smaller village made of Colonists and Ulven in the northeast of Clan Nightriver, has joined this chorus of aid requests. The local leadership has promised warm fires and eternal gratitude to any who are willing to come to lend their support. They are hopeful that if there are raiders on the waves that the presence of a defensive force will cause them to think twice about attacking.
Soon a great deal of support pours into the village and before long the area is a bustle of activity. A Nightriver Hersir has been dispatched to the area and soon The Village of Darkport finds itself acting as a staging ground from which support can be quickly mustered to the even smaller surrounding villages. As the month wears on, the people remain hopeful that no raids will come, but as the bitter chill of winter continues to settle in more and more people begin to think that any raiders in the area will start to set their eyes on one final score before returning home to ride out the winter months.
=UPDATE=
The hope for a quiet month was quickly shattered as a scout poured into Darkport warning of raiders taking to land and heading to a small village closer to the coast. A party mustered itself and marched to the village, but unfortunately arrived to late. As they came into view of the village they saw the defenseless civilians fall under the forceful blows of ax and sword. Some warriors rushed into battle with the raiders while the rest worked to build a formation. In the end only a very small number of villagers were able to escape.
The ire of the raiders turned to the approaching warriors and soon a pitched battle broke out. Though the defenders fought valiantly, they found themselves pushed back and eventually fell into a retreat back toward Darkport. The rest of the day found a series of skirmishes between the defenders of Darkport and the raiders in their countryside. Villages were sacked,as were some farm lands. By the end of the day though some of the plundered goods were able to recovered. Eventually the defenders mustered a large force and brought a decisive battle to the raiders. Though it was not enough to decimate their numbers, it did prove enough of a show of force to cause the invaders to take what loot they had managed to plunder and defend and return to their ships.
One strange occurrence was the appearance of a pair of the strange Syndar from the Outlands to the far north. They seemed to be studying the town and it’s defenders though surprisingly no one paid them much mind. One did end up briefly joining in the defense of the town and before nightfall they were both gone.
In the end the countryside around Darkport was dealt a heavy blow, but the bravery of the defenders in the face of a brutal foe helped keep the raiders from establishing a strong enough foothold to deal incredibly significant damage and eventually forced them into a retreat from the lands.