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--- campaigns:latitude_history:adventures:the-night-thydal-fell [2026/07/03 09:58] – Add Seraphina
+++ campaigns:latitude_history:adventures:the-night-thydal-fell [2026/07/18 22:56] (current) – Expand battle of Thydal recap: prep, PC beats, kill tallies, flight, Nidaross welcome Seraphina
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 ====== The Night Þýdal Fell ======
-Amelia's warning reached [[campaigns:latitude_history:places:thydal|Þýdal]] before the horde did. [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:jarl-hoffer-magnuson|Jarl Hoffer Magnuson]] called a Thing, and the village chose to defend the home it loved rather than abandon it without a fight. The time bought at Stonehome became a week of frantic labor. Gobber Haraldson oversaw a timber palisade. Messengers searched for help. Others brought back metal from a fallen star so the smiths could forge weapons that might bite deeper than ordinary iron.
+===== Party =====
-That same desperate preparation led to [[campaigns:latitude_history:adventures:the-amber-tower|The Amber Tower]], where adventurers freed [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:frod-erikson|Fróð Erikson]] from three centuries of magical imprisonment. When the horde finally came, Þýdal had walls, star-metal weapons, allies, and boats ready at the river.
+  * [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:amelia-frodedottir|Amelia Frodedottir]]
+  * [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:thordak-faerdhal|Thordak Faerdhal]]
+  * [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:sally-swift|Sally Swift]]
+  * [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:melody-marigold|Melody Marigold]]
+  * [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:buggy-uwu|Buggy Uwu]]
+  * [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:kris-stormblade|Kris Stormblade]]
+  * [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:crag-torson|Crag Torson]]
+  * [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:isar-geirson|Isar Geirson]]
+  * [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:screech-hawthorne|Screech Hawthorne]]
+  * [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:sanura-sefu|Sanura Sefu]]
-The attack began on a bright, cold, moonlit night. Giants crashed through the trees first, followed by orcs, goblins, and crude war machines that hurled fire at the palisade. Fróð answered with flame of his own. Hoffer, Gobber, Amelia, Kris, Melody, Screech, Sanura, Isar, Sally, Thordak, and others met the assault wherever it struck hardest. Goliaths charged from the north and nearly broke that wing of the army. For a time, Þýdal held.
+===== Warning and Preparations =====
-But the enemy was too numerous, and the palisade began to fail. The defenders had spent arrows, spells, strength, and hope. Hoffer called the retreat before courage turned into slaughter. Families, animals, and wounded defenders crowded into longboats while the last fighters pulled back to the docks. As the boats moved downriver, Hoffer vowed that he would reclaim his home.
+[[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:amelia-frodedottir|Amelia Frodedottir]] barely dragged herself back to [[campaigns:latitude_history:places:thydal|Þýdal]] from the scouting of [[campaigns:latitude_history:places:hearthforge|Hearthforge]]. While recovering from the edge of death, she warned the village that a large army of goblins, orcs, and giants was forming and aimed squarely at them. The horde was still busy occupying its latest conquest and rebuilding war machines, so the villagers had a short window to prepare.
-The refugees carried the warning through [[campaigns:latitude_history:places:aunet|Aunet]], [[campaigns:latitude_history:places:gressli|Gressli]], and [[campaigns:latitude_history:places:mebonden|Mebonden]] before crossing the fjord to [[campaigns:latitude_history:places:nidaross|Niðaróss]]. Þýdal fell, but its people did not vanish. The night became a wound, a rallying cry, and the beginning of the wider defense.
+[[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:jarl-hoffer-magnuson|Jarl Hoffer Magnuson]] called a [[culture:thing|Thing]]. A few people wanted to flee, but most chose to stay and defend the home they had come to love. [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:gobber-haraldson|Gobber Haraldson]] suggested a timber-pole palisade and was put in charge of building it. One small group set out to recruit warriors from nearby villages. Another went a few days' travel north to investigate a recent meteor, hoping star metal might make incredible weapons; they returned from a hazardous journey with a large amount of the fallen metal. The smiths of [[campaigns:latitude_history:places:thydal|Þýdal]] forged it quickly. When one of the new weapons showed magical properties, [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:alwin-silverthorn|Alwin Silverthorn]] remembered old stories of a wizard's tower.
+That search led to [[campaigns:latitude_history:adventures:the-amber-tower|The Amber Tower]], where adventurers freed [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:frod-erikson|Fróð Erikson]] from roughly three centuries of magical imprisonment and secured him as an ally.
+A little over a week later, a scout reported the army on the move. The horde had been building a crude road through the swamp so it could bring its war machines. The villagers scrambled for the next two days to finish as much of the defenses as they could.
+===== The Moonlit Attack =====
+The attack came on a bright, cloudless, chilly night under a full moon. The rumble of war machines in the distance gave warning before the sentries shouted. Everyone knew the plan. Women and children herded what animals they could and drove them to the docks, where the longboats stood ready in case a retreat was necessary.
+Giants crashed through the trees first. The defenders answered with stones, arrows, and every spell they had. Then orcs and goblins poured from the treeline in numbers greater than anyone had expected. Their rough-hewn war machines hurled flaming balls that set the palisade alight and rammed the wall with great force.
+When [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:frod-erikson|Fróð]] called down a huge ball of fire—catching two giants and a gaggle of goblins—[[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:jarl-hoffer-magnuson|Hoffer]] and [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:gobber-haraldson|Gobber]] jumped from the wall and attacked wildly with sword and axe. [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:amelia-frodedottir|Amelia]] and other warriors followed. Amelia swung her Dane axe with gusto, felling many goblins, revenge plain on her face.
+[[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:kris-stormblade|Kris Stormblade]] leapt into the fray, slashing orcs with seax and dagger while lightning burst from his mouth. [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:melody-marigold|Melody Marigold]] flittered about the field, singing praise to bolster her friends and skewering goblins with rapid rapier strikes. [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:screech-hawthorne|Screech Hawthorne]] flew overhead dropping glowing stones until goblin arrows forced him down; he turned into a giant spider, shooting webs that slowed the enemy for the wall archers, then became a giant wolf and tore into the goblin horde. [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:sanura-sefu|Sanura Sefu]], with a magnificent spear that shot lightning, flame, and ice, killed several orcs before she too took wolf form and ripped into the crowd. [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:isar-geirson|Isar Geirson]] held the palisade top, bolts of flame leaping from his fingertips at any climber. [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:sally-swift|Sally Swift]] raced the field, blasting enemies away from the fallen and carrying comrades to safety.
+When [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:thordak-faerdhal|Thordak Faerdhal]] struck a giant with his star-metal warhammer, the giant staggered him in return—but as the giant's fist landed it was wrapped in lightning. Thordak answered with a wave of thunder and the giant fell. The villagers cheered, but the numbers were still too great.
+Then more forces burst from the northern woods: the promised goliath support. With **Tor**, [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:crag-torson|Crag]]'s father, leading the charge, they nearly broke the northern wing of the invading army.
+===== Retreat =====
+As the fight wore on, ammunition, magic, and hope ran thin, and the wooden palisade began to fail. Hoffer called a strategic retreat to the docks. The goliaths melted back into the woods toward their mountain homes. Fróð twisted in place and vanished, presumably returning to his tower. The rest of the villagers boarded the longboats and shoved off downriver as hard as they could row, Hoffer shouting that he would one day reclaim his home.
+===== Flight to Niðaróss =====
+At [[campaigns:latitude_history:places:aunet|Aunet]] they paused briefly. Hoffer told the people there what had happened: the defenders had killed at least **three giants**, **dozens of orcs**, and perhaps as many as a **hundred goblins**—and the remaining army was still larger than that.
+Near sunrise they reached [[campaigns:latitude_history:places:gressli|Gressli]], stopped longer to eat, and Hoffer again carried the warning. By afternoon they made [[campaigns:latitude_history:places:mebonden|Mebonden]], ate on the shore, and slept beside their boats. In the morning they rowed out of the river and across the fjord to [[campaigns:latitude_history:places:nidaross|Niðaróss]].
+===== Welcome in Niðaróss =====
+In [[campaigns:latitude_history:places:nidaross|Niðaróss]] they were met by [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:anidori|Anidori]] and other young folk who had helped raise extra defenders and prepare the town in case the battle at [[campaigns:latitude_history:places:thydal|Þýdal]] went poorly. Many local [[culture:longhouse|longhouses]] had bits of **red cloth** tied near their doors to show they would take in strangers who needed temporary shelter.
+[[campaigns:latitude_history:places:thydal|Þýdal]] fell, but its people did not vanish. The night became a wound, a rallying cry, and the beginning of the wider defense that would culminate in [[campaigns:latitude_history:adventures:fires-at-the-fjordgate|Fires at the Fjordgate]].