Between a Rock and a Hard Place (an Averni Story)

**Long lost Caesar** · 03-01-2008, 19:51

nice story, hope litanoas wins against 'zee germans'
keep it up man

**woad&fangs** · 03-04-2008, 00:46

The left flank was slowing folding inwards on the Sweboz. As each section of Sweboz found themselves surrounded they fled which in turn freed more Averni warriors to flank the next section of soldiers. As long as the center and right held then he would prove the victor. Litanos and his guards galloped down the line, shouting encouragements as they went. When he reached the far right he was presented with a startling scene. The Belgae had long since fled and now only the Gaesatae were holding off the Sweboz who were close to a dozen ranks deep. Yet not only were the Gaesatae holding, they were slowly advancing and pushing the Sweboz back. “Hmmm, that might not be such a good thing” thought Litanos. If they advance to far then the enemy can also flank us. Well, reasoning with drugged up men with long swords would be rather pointless so he’d have to find another way of fixing the right. Luckily, the nearby unit of Alpine short swordsmen had yet to engage the enemy line.

“You all, get over here and don’t retreat or advance no matter what.”

With the right now firmly protected Litanos turned his attention to the rest of the battlefield. With body guards in tow, He returned to the left where the Averni advance had ground to a halt. Litanos immediately spotted the cause of this obstruction. A handful of Sweboz nobles were still holding their ground despite being surrounded on three sides.

He lowered his spear point and ordered his horse forwards to strike the nobles from behind. Despite knocking down several of them they still held their ground. Litanos had to give them his respect. Contrary to his comments about their cowardice, the nobles were in fact exceedingly brave. He thrust his spear at the nearest noble but it merely glanced off of his armor. The noble thrust back with his own spear and Litanos blocked with his shield. Litanos raised his spear once again but before he could attack he felt himself being thrown backwards into the air and landing hard on his back with a very inelegant 'Oomph’.

Litanos quickly leapt to his feet to rejoin the fray. He was sore from the fall but he pushed the pain out of his mind with one thought. That son of a bitch had just stabbed his best horse. He drew his sword and advanced on the noble. The noble drew his own sword, having broken his spear while killing the horse. Litanos aimed a cutting blow at the noble’s hip and as the noble lowered his shield to defend, Litanos bashed him in the face with his shield. He crumpled to the ground and before he could regain his feet again he died from a sword through the heart.

The other nobles began to flee. Litanos then noticed how the noble he had slain was more ornately decorated then the others. He was probably a close relative of the king but he was too young to be the king himself. Whoever he was, he was obviously the commander of this section of the line. His death had begun a mass rout of the nearby Sweboz levies.

Litanos paused to catch his breath. The battle was all but over. Only a hundred or so Sweboz nobles were still fighting near the great rock. Litanos wondered where his mercenary cavalry had gone. He hadn’t seen them since the accidental charge and he now assumed they had run off when they realized their blunder. At least now he wouldn’t have to pay those greedy cowards. A great cheer arose from near the great rock. Even heavily outnumbered, it now appeared that he had come out victorious. A head which he assumed had previously belonged to the Sweboz king was now being paraded about on the top of a spear point by one of Gaesatae. All that remained now was to assign the post battle tasks such as chasing routers and recovering the wounded. Litanos slowly began strolling over to the mass of Averni gathered at the base of the great rock.

Under his breath he muttered “The little buggers will probably be wanting some sort of speech out of me.”

To be Continued….
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I guess it only took one long post to write the battle. The next scene will probably be a Prasutagos one but I still might change my mind.

If someone could give me a list of about 5 male and 5 female Celtic names it would be very much appreciated. I could maybe use a few Getai and Sweboz names too.

And as usual comments and criticism are greatly appreciated.

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**Ower** · 03-06-2008, 19:08

Nice one I like it but you should post a map of the world ans ome pics would bee nice.

**Long lost Caesar** · 03-08-2008, 13:58

haha this dude really doesnt want to give a speech. good description of the battle, hope more's to come!

P.S-Celtic Names- These are a few I know, not sure if they'll be of any help.
Male-Esca, Litivak, Crigonat and Wulfilla.
Female- erm...Marah...Boudica?

thats all man, hope it helps.

**woad&fangs** · 03-08-2008, 15:59

Ower- This story is only loosely following my real Averni campaign. However, I might be able to produce a screenshot of Europe as it roughly appears at this point in the story.

LongLostCaesar- Thanks for the names.

Sorry for the delay. I've been doing other stuff lately and the creative juices haven't been flowing. Once I figure out what to do with one character(or if I should include her at all) the next scene should come pretty quickly.

**woad&fangs** · 03-08-2008, 21:24

“Ei, Prasuta, I’ve got the tally of troops you asked for.”
As Ivo entered the tent a cool breeze ruffled the edges of a map at Prasutagos’ feet.

“Ivo, what does this say” he said pointing at some symbols written next to a town named Buriguza.

“It’s in Attic like a lot of my writing. It means ‘Here be Wine and Wenches’.”
Ivo sat down on the ground and Prasutagos followed suit.

Prasutagos glanced at the map again, “I’ve noticed that you’ve planned our march to go right through there.”

“Well the shortest route to Ak-Ink goes right through there.”

“But it looks like it will be faster to cross the river here” Prasuta said, pointing at another town.

“Yes, but you don’t seem to notice my note about that town.”

“I just said that I can’t read Attic.”

“That’s part’s actually in Getic”

“Well what does it say?”

“Here be a beautiful young maiden and the colossal father of said maiden who wants Ivo’s head impaled on a pike.”

Laughter from the corner the tent interrupted them. From the shadows a woman, a few years younger then Prasutagos, stood up and walked over to the map. She seemed to rise from the earth itself. Long chestnut hair, large brown eyes like that of a deer, and olive skin tanned even darker by the march from Kallatis.

“So what you are saying Ivo, is that even in the middle of an army you are still terrified by one man?” She said in the silky voice that Prasutagos adored so much.

“He’s a very big man.”

“And this is a big army.”

Prasutagos interrupted the banter before it had a chance to escalate, “Ivo was about to tell me exactly how big.”

The woman softly sat down on the ground with the two men.

“Yes, I was about to tell Prasuta that valuable knowledge before you interrupted us. Let me see… Prasuta, you have 400 Thracians, 150 Dacian falxmen, 150 Dacian pike men, 50 Scythian mounted archers, 50 assorted veterans of your campaign, and our two body guards total 47 men. So we have about 750 men in total. Esca is sending us 400 Illyrians from Segestica and I believe that we can expect to recruit about 200 Dacians between here and Ak-Ink which means that we will still be outnumbered by a bit but it shouldn’t be by too much.”

The woman spoke once again “We’ll be passing near to Singdidinum which is inhabited by Celts so I think we can find quite a few who are willing to fight for us. Silly Ivo. Forgetting our local base of power is such a childish mistake.” She chided, “Also,” she slid a piece of papyrus marked with Greek letters over to him, “In case you have forgotten, I can read Attic and I must say that you’re poetry is simply rotten. If you’re going to waste something so valuable then please use someone else’s.” She rose from her spot on the ground and leaned over to talk to Prasutagos. “I’m going to visit Wulfwilla. I’ve heard that he’s acquired some very good wine but I believe that a Greek should be the judge of that.” She ruffled Prasutagos’ hair and left the tent.

Prasutagos smiled at Ivo, “A Greek with a Celtic name who speaks nearly as many languages as you. The people of Kallatis never cease to amaze me.”

“You mean to say that Marah never ceases to amaze you, you love struck fool.”

“I’m not love struck,…”

“Then you’re lust struck. It doesn’t matter much to me but if it’s not one of those two than why is she marching with us instead of back at her home in Kallatis.”

“I needed someone more fluent in Greek than you and she volunteered.”

“Yes, because Greek is so common away from the coast.” sarcastically replied Ivo, “I’m going to go sample Wufwilla’s wine before that Greek bitch gulps it all down.” He said while replacing his insult with its Attic equivalent so Prasutagos couldn’t tell what was said. Ivo left the tent reciting some of his own poetry.

Even without knowing the meaning of what was being said, Prasutagos could tell that his poetry sounded terrible.

To be continued….
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To those of you who are going “Gag, why is there a love story in here” don’t worry. I plan on keeping the Battles to Kisses ratio firmly in favor of battles. She’s there more to progress the characters of Ivo and Prasutagos then anything else. Cocolitanos’ side of the story will also feature at least one and probably two new characters when we return to him. However, those characters will both be guys.

Thanks again for the names, Long Lost Caesar. Marah just sounds like the right name for her. It sounds kind of earthy to me which is the visual that I’m looking for. Wulfwilla is just mentioned in passing and if his role is expanded past that it will be by unplanned coincidence.

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