Black Axes & White Lances - An EB AAR

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Chapter One: Abuses
Illriya, 6 AD
A line of men under arms was marching down the valley, marching towards their destiny. Their leader Bato of the Daesitiates had been for a long time now attempting to make this happen. As the scared and battered veteran rode down the Roman rode towards the meeting point he thought back upon what had been done, not only to his people, but to their entire land as well. He had seen his mother raped by Roman soldiers when he was five, his father had been taken away to the mines at eight, a fate he had narrowly avoided due to being young, his sisters had been taken as Roman brides, a "willing" union that was more akin to slave taking under another name. He had finally become fed up with all of the evils that Rome perpetrate upon his people on a daily basis.
But at the age of 19, before he could go anywhere, he had been recruited into one of the numerous armies during the civil war after the first Great Caesar's death in 44 BC. He had fought for Rome in numerous places and had even been on one of the ships that had seen action in the great Battle of Actium. He had taken a bolder to the head fighting in Armenia,had been sliced up in Greece, and had even lost an eye in Rome itself to a cut-throat. All the while he and the men of his unit had received little to no pay, and had been abused by many of their Roman "masters", being forced to do slaves work, take the first waves in battle, dying so that Romans may live and a long string of other abuses that he couldn't even begin to count by now.
His unit had finally been released from duty about 15 years ago, when most of the armies that had been formed during the Civil War were released by the second Great Caesar, Augustus. When they finally returned to their village, all that they found was a ruined wreck, their homes had been burned during the Civil War, their families had been quite possibly raped and killed in horrible ways, and they had nothing left. Their pay was insufficient to even feed themselves for a month. They had wandered across Illriya for nearly 14 years, moving from horrible job to horrible job, guarding merchants that abused their services, being bodyguards for important generals in the region, ofter forced to foil many an attempt on said persons life, only to receive lip and scorn from the men whose lives they had saved. As they traveled they saw many such abuses against his people, men and women forcibly enslaved for not being able to meet ridiculously high taxes, families evicted from their homes so that settlers from Italy could move into their place without any consideration for the well being of those whom lost in this equation. Often times these people were enslaved when their taxes became overdue, or they were forced to live at their places of employment, which was usually under a Roman roof or bussiness. In many families sons and daughters were taken from mothers and father, sent off to other provinces and had gods only knew what done to them. All of this was done for the "Glory and Honor" of Rome, done in the name of peace and security and in the name of prosperity. All a lie.

But then, about a year ago, a call for troops had been sent out all across the province of Illriya, a call for an able fighting bodies to report for duty. Naturally, the Romans had come for him and his unit. When he asked the magistrate where their unit was to be sent to, the man had said a place that was far, far to the north called Germania, to subdue other tribes that were still free. At that he had finally had enough. All of the years of abuse, mistreatment, scorn and in many case outright hatred at the hands of the Romans had finally gotten to the old veteran. He became so enraged that he had wiped out his sword and took the magistrate's head off. When his bodyguards had tried to arrest him, the rest of his unit had sprung into action to defend him and they had killed all of those present with little fuss.
Upon leaving camp, events had happened quickly after that. The men of his unit had named him their leader in the rebellion that they were now undertaking, for they were all in on it now as far as Roman law was concerned. Upon arriving at the next town, word had spread amongst the Illriyans about the call to arms. Many were simply refusing to fight. Others were taking up arms against the Roman recruiters. What few Romans were in this deep mountain town had already fled. The confused men of the town, whom were now in rebellion naturally gravitated towards that veteran warriors that had entered the town. Bato knew that the Romans would be back looking for revenge and probably level the town as a result. So now he was marching towards an ambush point with his new-found army, hoping to stop the Romans before they killed even more innocents.

"My Lord.", a voice said that snapped Bato out of his reverie, "We are approaching the site for the ambush." Bato looked down at the man whom had spoke, called Juxta and simply said,"Yes, thank you." Juxta nodded and marched on ahead of Bato. As Bato looked down into the valley, he thought to himself,'I can only pray that this works.' He had no idea at that moment what his actions were about to trigger.