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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 1844304" data-attributes="member: 99">Some good news finally arrived on the fourth day after the Orcs had invaded.  The first Legions withdrawn from the Northlands arrived in Opal on the north coast.  They immediately disembarked and began marching south toward Emor and the lands beyond where the invasion had taken hold.In addition, the Legions headed west from their posting along the Sythian border managed to reach smaller bridges across the Arno River and were again on the march toward the areas now held by the Orcs.  But it would still be at least three days until they were close enough to attack the Orcish army and they would be tired when they arrived.Throughout the day the Orcs reformed the core of their army and struck north and inland again using the excellent Imperial roads to great effect.  They rapidly approached the city of Nepet that lay roughly half way from Hadria to Saleria.Fearing that the fall of Nepet could put the Orc army only two days from attacking Saleria itself, the Imperial War Wizards ordered everyone withdrawn to the northern half of the city and proceeded to destroy the bridge across the small river that ran through the town.  This would not likely stop the Orcs but it would slow them a bit and make the north bank easier to defend from the bulk of the Orcish army.That night the Auxiliary garrison at Nepet was bombarded from the air by Wyvern mounted Orcish wizards.  The Imperial War Wizards on hand returned fire with magic of their own and managed to down two of the Wyverns while suffering few losses themselves.  But the barracks was burned to the ground and scores of the Auxiliary forces were killed and more were wounded to badly to fight until they got treatment for their burns.By morning, the Orcish flying column had forded the small river the small river that split Nepet and made their way around to the north side of the city.  There they proceeded to burn down a number of farmsteads and cut off retreat along the road to Saleria.  When the main body of the Orcish army approached the southern edge of the city, they sent a prisoner, the Regional Governor of Hadria, into Nepet to demand its surrender on behalf of the Orcs.  With most of their troops dead or wounded from the previous night’s attack, and with retreat cut off to the north, the surrender was given.  At dusk Orcs crossed makeshift bridges and occupied the town in force.  The War Wizards used their magic to escape the city, largely undetected.As morning arrived on the sixth day most of the Orcish army remained encamped within Nepet.  A sizable occupying force still held Hadria to the south and the flying column surged north again on the road to Saleria.  But by late afternoon, the column left the road and turned to the west, striking toward the small mining towns in the foothills.  The populace there was forewarned of this by the War Wizards who had fled Nepet the night before.  Most of these people took refuge in the mines and caverns at the southern edge of the mountains.  Fatigued and isolated with no supporting troops, the War Wizards decided they would join the people in their refuges and try to protect them if they could.  The tight confines of the mines were places where their small numbers would be best able to defend against the hundreds of Orcish attackers and they were tired of running.  As they huddled in the dank mines, they waited, hoping beyond hope that the Legions would arrive soon and begin to drive the Orcs back into the sea.Late that night the fleet of Imperial Navy ships and the commandeered merchant vessels arrived once again in the northlands to take aboard the waiting Legions.  Men boarded the ships throughout the night using the hastily constructed floating docks the Imperial Engineers had been building for the last week.  At dawn they set sail for the Empire leaving the last two Legions in the Northlands.That same morning, Scrying by the Imperial War College showed that most of the Orcish Army had departed Nepet and headed south again.  They left behind several hundred troops as an occupying force but it seemed too small to hold the town against even one of the Legions on their way to the region.Scouts from Sutrium and Vulci, reported sighting the main body of the Orcish Army, now only some seven thousand strong, headed rapidly toward Hadria.  They made the city by mid-afternoon and continued without stopping toward Sutrium.Sutrium held within its walls the largest concentration of Auxiliary troops in the South.  These men had been drawn down the coast and were rallying there for a possible attack to liberate Hadria if the largest concentration of Orcs had continued northwards.  Now they were about to find themselves on the defensive.Sutrium was far enough west to have suffered few attacks by the Sythian privateers and piracy was seldom a concern.  Thus her defenses had not been well maintained.  But if a stand was going to be made anywhere, Sutrium offered the best chance.  That night, Imperial War Wizards began Teleporting from the War College into the city armed with whatever magics had been hastily crafted to aid them.  In the pre-dawn hours the troops manned the eastern walls of the city and prepared for battle.Hundreds of miles north, in the tiny town of Hrongar’s Hill, a small band of friends also prepared to go to battle.  They were going to take the fight to the heart of Bane’s leadership, even if they had to go to Hell to do it.</blockquote>

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