Battle at Bilia
Journal of Librarian Enrico Nioso of Faralon Battle of Bilia
It was my intention to write up the day by day account of our journey up the Arwyn. However alas I suffered much from Mal de mer or sea sickness as it is also known. This should not be as we were on the river the whole time. Surely it should be called river sickness, Malate di Fiume perhaps? Then the fact is that not a lot of interest happened. Sometimes the wind was favourable and we could travel upriver but sometimes it was not and we had to tack from side to side or even stay anchored. We passed sundry uninspiring villages with alternately flat marshlands or flat croplands on either side. In due course we reached the city of Borolon in Thentis but made no stop there. It has a big drawbridge to let ships pass through. Then we had many myles of the Deowyn Forest on both sides of the river. On the left bank was Chaotic Narchad but we had no trouble there. Either the reported truce was holding or more like our three big vessels were too strong to be attacked. We were becalmed quite a bit on this stretch. Then we reached Ekthalon the Capital of Thentis on Hopeday the 19th of the Fifth Moon. Actually although we saw it in the distance, the Arwyn passes it a myle or more to the south. Thereafter it heads west through the Cleve, the gap between the great forbidding mountains. There both side of the river belonged to the dwarf King Druffin of Varadh. The rumour is that he might favour his daughter Draffa to be the Queen of Belmain. Yet others say that his tradition is that no female should hold sway over males. We next reached Dwarfbridge where the dwarves demanded tolls for us to pass the draw bridge in the middle of their great stone bridge. The Captain said that the dwarves of Dwarfbridge were friendly to mankind but they did not seem so to me! A day later we reached Tegalon the main port of Belmain. There we were welcomed by Count Morven of Cogwile. He told us that Queen Draffa had married the Dwarf Count Rankyn of Willen and King Druffin was claiming that county as part of his realm. Apparently some of it had been eight hundred years ago! Queen Parsifa was blocking the Chaos Deeps route to Narchad and Indrana was forming an army in Sigis. The routes through Sigis and Willen to Regalis were blocked. However Queen Gimawl had built a road to an ancient quay called Bilia and we were to use it to get to the coronation in Regalis. It was suggested that until nearer the time, we should anchor in the lake blockading the Sigis Hold. Chaotic forces from the western states had been arriving to assist Indrana. Comandare dei Cantiere Eusebio Querci declared that he favoured staying aboard ship as long as possible, preferable to camping under canvas. So after picking up some food supplies we sailed on into the Deepwater Lake. On the 1st of the Sixth Moon we anchored off the Rillo River mouth. From there we could see the Sigis Hold in the distance and also some the Unfriendly Isle and some mudbanks to the west. The next day Workday the 2nd of the Sixth Moon we saw two enormous Longships being rowed towards us from the north! Our sailors pulled up the anchors, erected great weights called dolphins on the ends of the yard arms and kept us hove to. The nearest Longships also hauled up two dolphins. Then we were under way. The Admiral Albert’s Urca the Dame Morgana was in the lead with we in the Sir Richard following and the Nef Oeririr behind us. Presently I noticed that the Nef was sailing to overtake us on the starboard side. Both Urca’s fired their heavy springalds at the foes and soon arrows and quarrels started flying in both directions. Our ship headed between the two Longships in fact we and the nef almost hit the banks of oars of the longboat Klaw. Its name was inscribed on it in Runes. We had grapnel ropes ready but from our stern castle we saw that there were masses of goblins packed on the Klaw so the order to use them was not given. I cast a fireball from one of my scroll spells and received an arrow in my shoulder as a result! Abigail Audacia immediately pulled the arrow out and applying some ointment bandaged it up. However it was very painful and I retired to the cabin below. Sad to say both Audacia and her fellow Ramenda joined me with bad head wounds later. I understand that both we and the nef were holed by the Klaw’s dolphins but bailing kept this under control. The two Longships escaped into the Rillo River mouth and thence to Sigis. Too late we had been joined by two Stetian ships. I have been told that the squadron as a whole lost the Seer Faenze dead and ten wounded. The arrow that struck me was a light goblin one. These are reckoned less dangerous than normal but there had been so many off them that they were bound to get the odd lucky hit.
Comandare dei Cantiere Eusebio decided that I with the two abigails were to stay aboard the ship and thus miss the coronation. Marshal Morgana of Bara took the Nef to the Bilia quay to have its leak repaired, it being somewhat worse than ours. So we now had four ships blockading the Rillo, the Urca’s Dame Morgana, Sir Richard and The Lady Abigail and the Lymphad St Hilda. The Nef had a row boat which they used to keep in communication with us and on the 5th we heard that Hanoes (a kind of large canoe) had brought two delegations to Bilia. These were of Queen Ancalime of Amazon Thalia and Queen Ephemera of Elvish Amelia. They would wait until all the assembled ones could move to Regalis as a body. We were joined by the Thentian delegation aboard two Lymphads, The St. Oswald and the St. Eadburgh. They were headed by Duke Franz Neuman of Lonnen and Dame Eloise du Rheine Librarian Royal. Both are reputed to be high in King Eudes favour. With them came Count Morven and some of his people.
On the 10th we disembarked our delegations and our Sir Richard remained at Bilia to have its leak repaired. The other six vessels returned to keep up the blockade.
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Marshal Morgana’s account
To Grand Duchess Maudette of Bara 2nd Sixth Moon
Your Royal Highness,,
I regret to have to write that your navy has suffered a reverse here in the Deepwater Lake. We reached Tegalon on the 28th of the Fifth Moon. There Count Morven of Cogwile briefed us on the current situation in Belmain.
On King Druffin of Varadh’s bequest ,Queen Draffa has married the Dwarf Count Rankyn of Willen. He now claims that Willen is now part of his Kingdom. Apparently, some of it was eight centuries ago! Count Gotmor has stopped all traffic on the roads into Millien on Queen Parsifa’s behalf. But the main opponent of Queen Gimawl’s coronation is the Durgid Amazon Queen Indrana. She has the support of Count Sharda of Sigis and his brother-in-law the Marshal Gildelm. They were thought to have around eight score troops in the marsh county but more were coming. Count Morven was expecting ships from Stetia and Thentis to join us so we sought to blockade the Rillo River near Bilia.
On the 2nd we were in place covering the river mouth which led to the Sigis Hold. .We then saw two great Longships approaching from the north! These furled their sails and put their oars out. So your three vessels hauled their anchors up and raised their dolphins. One of the Longships did the same! The one closest to us!
At that moment Captain Melville shouted “Look, there are two ships come to join us!” and there, well to the east there were two sails! So we remained hove to,, waiting to see what the enemy would do. Skipper James said “We must keep to the windward of them or they will use their oars to sneak past us! We have greater speed than the Urca’s so if you wish it , we could overtake them?”
So we sailed directly towards the enemy with the Sir Richard and ourselves passing either side of the Longship named the Klaw. We had grapnels ready but did not use them as it was packed with more goblins than we might have managed. We dropped a dolphin which landed in the sea although the Sir Richard had better luck. But both we and the Sir Richard were holed by the enemy’s dolphins. The Seer Faenze cast a Terror beam but was slain with an arrow. I fear that the enemy were better provided with missilemen than us though I saw the oars of the further longship put briefly into disarray. The Dame Morgana had strayed too far to leeward to give us much support. However the Stetian Squadron comprising the Urca Lady Abigail and the Lymphad St. Hilda came to join us and putting on a burst of speed the Longships sped past us up the Rillo River to the safety of the Sigis Hold. We made a tally of the Squadron’s casualties. We lost the Seer Faenze dead , Enrico Nioso the Librarian Royal of Fara , the abigails, Audacia and Rammenda,, an engineer, three crossbowmen, two sailors and the Thiefess Senorita Agridor wounded, a total of eleven. {Agridor was one of the damsels rescued from Rano the Frog Prince by Don Incio. Due to her later dishonesty she was sentenced to serve as a sailor ever since} The wounded will stay shipboard helping blockade the Sigis Hold. The Oeririr’s leak being rather serious I decided to take her to the Bilia Quay to have her repaired. This would also enable the unicorns to run free for they have suffered from being cooped up on deck all this time. This left four vessels maintaining the blockade. When the Nef is repaired I will exchange it for the Sir Richard whose leak was not so bad. Admiral Albert is worried that we expended three of our six dolphins, achieving only one hit. He has asked that we obtain some tree trunks of roughly dolphin weight in order that his vessels might practice dropping them. Bing wood they would floats rather than disappearing into the depths. I have asked that three replacement dolphins be forged in Tegalon to replace those lost. We have enough spare missiles to replace those expended in the action. The plan is for all the delegations to travel up to Regalis on the 11th and 12th in good time for the coronation. By then the Thentian one should have joined us.
I remain your obedient Servant Marshal Morgana Lefey
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Odd Gaffmaker’s account of the Battle of Bilia 2nd Sixth Moon 707ATN
By making the passengers take their turns rowing we made a much shorter time to reach the Deepwater Lake than in previous voyages. We arrived there in the early morning of the 2nd of the Sixth Moon. I kept the passengers rowing as we passed the Unfriendly Isle to starboard. As I had suspected there were Tarkgh vessels blocking the route to the mouth of the Rillo River and the Sigis Hold. But there were only three of them! Even so they appeared larger than the Lymphads I had seen before. The sluggish current flowing from west to east was a negligible factor but the brisk East wind would favour the opponents sailing vessels, as we near them we saw them weigh their anchors and haul up their dolphins. I had my men haul up mine and then replace the passengers at the oars. I would need their skill in the coming action. The enemy remained hove to as we approached and I decided how we should fight the action. Cnut’s Raven rowed abreast of us on my starboard side. Often the Lymphads would have a dart firer on their fore castle so my Klaw would be in receipt of what they had to offer. Having thought that, I noticed that the third Tarkgh ship did not have a fore castle! A strange blue painted vessel of a type I had never seen before. They were still waiting for us motionless when Oggi the Steersman said “Look yonder Odd, there are two more lymphads coming to join their friends!” and sure enough there were, a good way off to the East. However in this strong wind they might reach us sooner than we liked! So we headed directly towards them. Heavy darts were fired at us from the front two ships and when we came closer, quarrels and arrows. Cnut had a large number of goblin archers and they returned the fire with great clouds of arrows. I had my two bowmen plus some goblin slingers who did as best they could. I thought that the strange blue ship was intending to ram us but it shied off at the last. I dropped one dolphin on it and the other onto the green ship on my starboard side. They must have holed them as we saw them bailing water over the side afterwards. Unfortunately whilst the blue ship’s dolphin missed us the green ship did manage to hole us but not seriously. A magician on the blue ship cast a spell dismaying some of the goblins but he was shot down. Missile hits caused some problems with the Raven’s rowers but they soon overcame them. The enemy lead ship travelled too far to leeward to engage us so I considered grappling the blue ship but with two more enemy vessels approaching fast did not. Instead I shouted to the rowers to speed us up and Cnut did the same. The enemy being dependent upon the wind were soon left behind.
On reaching the Sigis quay we tallied up our losses. I had lost one warrior wounded. Cnut had lost one warrior dead, one wounded and a goblin archer wounded. Negligible losses but we had expended our two valuable dolphins and I doubt if any such can be provided at Sigis. I am sure our missiles did more damage to the enemy than we lost ourselves so it was a satisfactory fight. With the enemy having five to our two I told Cnut we might as well assist this Queen Indrana fight, assuming she can pay us. She did make a fair offer for me but Cnut would only reinforce the castle with his rations for pay. I shall leave Oggi with five warriors to guard the ship. Cnut has assured me that if I do suffer serious losses he will lend me men to help me row back home On the orders of The Horrub we are to sneak forces up into a forest near Regalis ready to assist the common people whom the priests of Hagoth are raising up against Gimawl.
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