Siege of the Lunner Keep
| Siege of the Lunner Keep | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Part of the Skanarri War | ||||||||||||||||||||
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The Siege of the Lunner Keep was the first major siege of the War, and saw the forces of the United Skanarri Tribes attempt to conquer the marginally defended Lunner Keep. Utilizing their alliance with Yong Ping, King Sven of Norland managed to rally a relief force of 2,500 men to ride to the defense of the castle just before the Skanarri were able to break in, and were able to drive back the Skanarri forces with minimal casualties.
Prelude
A year had passed since the start of the war between Norland and the Skanarri. After finally winning a significant battle against Norland in the Skirmish of the Raenr Mountains, Chieftain Argos finally felt confident enough to attempt to besiege a Norlandic stronghold. He gave command of a 2,500 strong force to Grejon the Warrior as well as two catapults to act as supporting artillery. After a bit of preparations, the Skanarri forces moved to lay siege to the Lunner Keep. On the Norlandic side, Vane Freysson had ordered two ballistae to be moved from Varhelm to the Keep so that the castle could be easier defended. Vane also brought a garrison of 800 men to the keep to prepare for the siege.
The Battle
Just as the Norlandic Garrison had finished preparations, Grejon the Warrior had moved into position and began to immediately lay down artillery fire using the two catapults at his disposal while his infantry moved in with a battering ram the men had created out of a tree stump. The Norlandic ballistae returned fire and managed to destroy one of the Skanarri catapults before both Ballistae were destroyed by Skanarri returning fire. With the Norlandic artillery destroyed, the Norlandic forces lit a ring of oil with a fire arrow, which surrounded the Keep in a ring of fire. This temporarily prevented the Skanarri from charging the keep which allowed the Northguard inside to whittle the tribals down with arrow fire.
Eventually, the Skanarri managed to make a temporary bridge across the fire out of dampened planks which allowed them to carry their battering ram over the fire and allowed Skanarri warriors to continue their assault. The Skanarri eventually reached the gates and began to bash down the gate as skirmishers outside the keep fired arrows and threw javelins into the Norlandic defense, which wounded and killed dozens of Northguard. The situation began to become hopeless, as the Garrison knew that if the Skanarri broke in they would be overwhelmed in a matter of minutes.
Just a few moments later, the Norlandic horn sounded in the distance as King Sven of Norland came riding towards the Skanarri flank followed by 2,500 Yong Ping and Norlandic reinforcements. Before the Skanarri could react, the Norlandic reinforcements crashed into their flank and almost decimated the Skanarri lines. Taken by surprise and unable to hold off the reinforcements, Grejon ordered a general retreat back to Nueva Tierra. The Battle had been won by Norland thanks to the reinforcements under King Sven.
Aftermath
The Skanarri forces immediately retreated back to Nueva Tierra and were devastated by the loss of most of the attacking force and two of their artillery. Norland on the other hand, rejoiced in the victory and only strengthened their resolve to beat the Skanarri out of Norland completely.
