NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DoctorB" data-source="post: 30662" data-attributes="member: 903">InterludeThe Sazon camp smelled like a dung heap.  Even the cold late-autumn wind could not drive it away.Petar, Captain of Sazon, looked over his bedraggled men and sighed.  The high walls of Sarande stood above them, defiant as always.  Though he trusted Lord Altan and his generals, Petar suspected that the siege of this powerful city would fail.  The Sarandi could always supply themselves by sea, while the army of Sazon had to live off the land.  The enemy had burned everything they could before retreating behind the walls and the great army had stripped everything else bare.  The besiegers were starving while the besieged lived in luxury.Well, most of the besieging army anyway.  Lord Altan lived in the huge tent in the center of camp.  The soldiers could hear his laughter and that of his family at all hours of the night.  Somehow, even while he flaunted his comfort in the midst of their misery, the soldiers remembered his victories and kept their silence… so far.As dawn broke over the encampment, Petar walked to the edge of their lines and looked at the great city.  Sarande fairly glowed in the sunlight.  He could make out the sentries on their rounds on the walls.  Both sides had given up firing arrows.  The Sazoni were almost out of arrows and had moved their encampments out of arrow shot of the walls.  After the destruction of the siege engines early in the attack by a Sarandi sortie, both sides had little appetite for fighting.   The Captain wondered again if they would all die here.  Sazon had the greatest army on the Dibre Coast, but the weakest navy.  Sazon’s ships were manned with impressed enemies and the destitute.  They were no match for the mighty navies of Koplik and the others.  Only at land could Sazon succeed against her enemies.  But they must take the cities by storm.  A siege without a navy was futile.Movement stirred around Lord Altan’s tent.  Runners spread throughout the camp.  They were to prepare for battle!  For the first time in weeks, Petar’s soldiers would have something else to do but gamble and brawl amongst themselves.  Now at least they would have an enemy to spend their frustration on.  An enemy of stone anyway.No new siege engines appeared.  Were they to storm the walls with nothing but their dead to climb upon?  Nonetheless, it seemed a cleaner death than slow starvation.In their ranks, with lion standards raised, they marched toward Sarande.  Petar braced for the hail of arrows.  Surely the city’s supply would not be exhausted.  Nothing came.  As they marched closer Petar could hear the sounds of battle inside the walls.  Abruptly, the gates began to open.  A grin spread across Petar’s face.  The old bastard had won again!  Not only through great arms were generals made but through guile and cleverness.  He had subverted some of the Sarandi.  Let him have his parties!With a cry, the army of Sazon rushed into the city.  They swept aside the remnants of the defending army and began their well-earned sack of the city.  Smoke rose over the proud harbor of Sarande.</blockquote>

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