Crockport Falls

4th Day of Coldeven, CY 592

From they Furyondy Beacon
Reports have been slow in bringing news of the fate of Crockport, capital of Kalinstren, but it is clear that the Armies of Iuz now occupy it. No official statements have been made as of this morning, but rumors are widespread.

Based on the stories that have filtered in, here is what can be pieced together:

At some point after midnight on the 3rd, fighting broke out among the tower guards at the west gate in Crockport. No sighting of an enemy had been reported, and there was no reason given for the internal fighting. Attempts by the officers to quell the melee were met with no success. The garrison commander, Colonel Robon, was not called to the scene, or he was called and did not show up. Reports vary on this point. In any case, it was over an hour before he issued any orders regarding the fighting. The order to sound the general alarm was also delayed by some indeterminate amount of time. If the general alarm had been sounded, it would have called additional forces to the scene along with the Knights of the Hart contingent quartered in the city.

The first report of an attack was not made until about one o’clock in the morning. The situation at the west gate had drawn all the soldiers within earshot, but word had not spread. Apparently, the local commanders believed the fighting was a result of the tension following the Flare Line attacks in the previous days. It became clear that something else was underway, when a number of men were attacked from the shadows by unseen assailants. The order was sent out to raise the alarm, but the lighting posts had been disabled. No alarm was raised. In that moment, everyone realized that the situation had escalated from an uncommon break in discipline to a plot to take the city from within.

Colonel Robon arrived on the scene issuing a number of orders including the opening of the west gate. Robon said that a group of soldiers were returning from a reconnaissance mission, and they could help with the situation. A number of protests were raised at this suggestion, since none of the other officers remembered such a mission. The ranking officer under Robon refused the order, because he believed that Robon was acting under duress. What happened next is not entirely clear, but the officer who refused the order was found dead the next morning. The gate had been opened from within, and the whereabouts of Colonel Robon has not been determined.

A large army of undead flowed into the city through the open gate under the cover of darkness. Fighting in the streets broke out. The strength of the undead was too great. Leading the zombie army was a thirty foot tall creature of utter darkness. Some reports indicate that this may in fact be Lord Sidow Noct. Rumors have spread for several years that this “shadow lord” is in league with Old Wicked. The Kalinstren armies were paralyzed as they drew close to the shadow lord. Calls went out to the Trithereon temple to aid, but they went unanswered. Some priests did attempt to turn back the armies, but the undead were shielded by some dark warding magic. The rest of the night was a slaughter.

When the sun rose the next day, the crimson standard of Iuz could be seen waving over the city. The road between Chendl and Crockport is filled with refugees from the fallen city. The Trithereon church was apparently attacked at the same time that the fighting broke out at the west gate. The bodies of the clergy were examined, but no official statement has been released. Some reports indicate that their souls have been enslaved. Casualty reports vary widely, but estimates exceed three thousand.

The Knights of the Hart displayed great valor when they were finally alerted to the attack. The knights with a group of Kordite priests from Verbobonc rallied the Kalinstren forces at the south gate. They kept the gate secured for over an hour. The majority of the refugees who managed to escape left through this gate. The fate of the forty knights under Lord Hargamac and the Kordite priests is not known.