Tonight! I finally get to write one of the hockeylock scenes I’ve been eagerly looking forward to writing since I conceived of the thing, five years ago!
Which means I won’t get to it tonight, because it will require more set-up than I anticipated and my wrists will get achy from typing and it will get late BUT! Even if I don’t actually write it tonight, I’m FINALLY WRITING IT! TONIGHT!
The night toiled on as normal in D'Oro Tenuta. The family had been put asleep and the guardsmen lazily patrolled the walls with little a care. The night was dark as the remnant of a storm was passing over and the visibility to down in the valley at the watch point was poor and they could only discern a faint flame from the watch point’s flame far down in the valley below. Being as the guardsmen hardly saw any strange happenings and only the Cavalli family cam and went from the lonely estate they didn’t see that the watch point in fact had been over run and blood thirsty mercenaries were marching quietly along the valley to the long steps upward to the Estate.
Out from the quiet night came a shout as a escaping guardsmen ran to the gates. “To arms! to arms we ar-” he would not be able to utter any further as a deadly arrow sprouted from his back and he fell silent on the stone walkway. His cry did not go unnoticed as the captain of the guards was standing on a nearby tower over watching the storm’s progress. Hearing the mans cry and seeing the man being shot from the darkness turns and rings the old warning bell that seldom was used. His voice barks over the silent night. “To arms! we are under attack! Wake you bloody fools!”
At first the mans words were met with a odd look before realizing this was not some midnight drill. One of them rushes to a horn and blows it loudly. The sound echos across the mountain awakening the family and the sleeping guard. Springing into action the guards rush to the walls dressed for war as they wait to see their foe.
Part of the guards also went inside to batten down the windows and make sure the Cavalli family was awoken and informed of the situation and guiding older members to the safer parts of the Estate and making sure the men and women accessed the armory to get their weapons and armor on.
During this the mercenaries saw the lights and heard the horn the captain leading the group shouted. “Ploys up boys! lets show these noble tarts our steel! shields up move as one!” The men give a loud “HO HA” and raise up and the row in front raises their shields forward and the subsequent rows hold it above their head forming a wall as they walk.
Above the captain of the guard spots this and recognizes the maneuver as he was a grizzled soldier himself. “Archers to the walls! Light your arrows! make them fear each step!” he waves his men in order barking commands as he directs his sleepy guardsmen. “Prepare for them to come! bring the draw bridge up!” His commands were obeyed as quickly as the men could and the drawbridge was raised before the archers sent flying their arrows into the night, arching high before coming down on the shields of the advancing troops. “Marksmen aim for their legs if you can but wait until they are closer!” the marksmen held firearms poised at firing but they held back and waited for the advancing troops to come closer. “We hold this gate while we wait for our mages. You don’t let them come into this place!” he shouted as he drew his sword. “Let them come to their doom!”
The mercenary commander sneered as they walked slowly, despite the shields above them however a few of his men did get hit from arrows landing in a small chink between the shields. “Shore up! make sure there are no gaps!” He pushed two shields aside to watch as they steadily made their way along the long steps up to the gate. “That drawbridge is going to be a problem.” he turns and says. “Get the hook guns and once we are in place fire it and bring that bridge down. Archers make them duck for cover on my say” the word was passed on and the men ready for the command.
Meanwhile inside the estate Erick is directing the guardsmen to make sure every child and elderly person to the safest place down near the vault. He then orders one of the cavalli men to lead the group out if the guards could not hold off the men. “The caves will lead you out to a escape on the far side of the mountains. The way is marked but as you go pull up the markings, they are green flags. Keep together and make sure everyone has light.” he nods then moves to shut the large doors to the caves behind him before he pulls on a helmet and motions the guards. “Come with me, we are going to defend this estate and drive this filth from our doorstep.”
With that Erick walks upstairs and into the armory to grab a giant sword to sling on his back and a longbow. “Lock this armory so they can’t get in. You two go into the house making a final sweep of the house for any family members or staff. Make sure all the doors are secured to the private areas of the estate, if they do break in we need to funnel them. Go!” he shouts before moving to the tower near the gate to climb up and find the captain of the guards. “What’s the situation?”
The man turned and saluted Erick. “Sir! I didn’t think you’d come personally. The men are well trained and using tactics against us. They attempted to grapple the bridge down but they have retreated for now. They are still shooting arrows at our men as they pull back for now. unfortunately our men did not get many of theirs and I think we lost a fair amount.”
Erick listened to the grim news before nodding and gesturing to the few Cavalli men and women below looking up for direction. “I think it is a inevitability that they get in. I want you to command a fallback group. Make sure my family is safe. I sent those who cannot fight into the caves to escape. We need to buy them time to get deep into the mountain before they break through. Go.” he motions for the man to go. “Y-yes sir...I will follow your command.” he moves to descend down the tower and once down at the bottom commands a group from the walls to head into the estate and start barricading it. Erick looks over the scant amount of guardsmen at his disposal before his voice booms over the walls.
“Guardsmen! We need to defend this home, OUR home from these rabble. It won’t be easy and it will require you giving me everything you have. I won’t give you false hopes by saying this will end well, but together we can repel them and make them think again attacking my family, your estate! Give them hell, give them blood, give them no reason to continue.” he raises his bow and lets out a bellowing howl which his men enthusiastically copy before resolving themselves. Erick pulls an arrow out and lights it before firing it high into the air which comes down sinking into a archer killing the man.
It was several hours before the retreating mercenaries came back and by then dawn was upon them. With the light Erick looked over the Valley in dismay as he saw the extent of the troops, far more than he had and in the valley below they were building a ram with a shield in front of it to bring up with them and now some rock golems coming up. “Marksmen! aim for the golems! Shoot the explosive shots! Archers! Aim for the men behind. Arch your shots to get over the golems. Fire! fire!” he pulls his own arrow to shoot over the advancing golems into the troops behind.
The battle went on like this for a while as the mercenaries sent men up to the estate to try and break the gate and get the drawbridge down. After many attempts they eventually got the drawbridge down and brought up the siege ram but it was destroyed when Erick’s men killed the operators with explosive bullets. Despite Erick’s success with holding the walls the men were growing tired and the losses mounting and in order to keep his men alive he told most of them to go back into the main building while he and a few other men and women stayed out to defend the gate. Soon only a select few men were left with Erick as arrows pummeled them and magic from elementalists sent destruction against the walls. Thankfully the elementalists couldn’t just rip chunks out of the estate as the walls and ground had powerful and ancient seals on it preventing magic from tampering the area.
Erick looks at the remaining people. “I won’t ask my family to die here, So go back now and hold inside. The remaining men inside with the armory will be able to retreat into the caves and then hold there.”
Two of the people run back into the estate without thinking about it seeing it’s hopeless. Now Erick had only two at his side. A staff member and a family member named Grace. She had heavy armor on and at her side a large maul ready to fight. “I am at your side Erick. I don’t believe we met.” she gives the most cute smile as she reaches over to shake Erick’s hand. “I am Grace Cavalli. This is the most fun we have had in ages. Oh look they are coming up.” Eric looks over the parapet behind him to watch the advancing soldiers. “They have a fair amount left but they will be cut down once going into the estate proper. You...uh” the staff member turns and smiles. “Gastion...pleasure to meet you...” Erick nods before saying. “Gastion, open the gates. Then shut them and leave. Grace. I won’t ask y-” The woman perks up and a fire lights in her eyes. “Hell yeah we are going out there. We have to stop them getting that ram or at least destroy it. Come on Erick lets go out there and make a grand legend!” she gets up and hurries down to wait for him at the gate. He mumbles softly to himself .”This family is crazy.” he pats Gastions shoulder. “Open it then close it, jam the mechanism and then run inside.” He pats the mans shoulder again before getting up and moving down onto the gate as he walked down he grabbed a horn and says to Grace. “We should keep at a distance from one another. I don’t wnat to clip you with my sword.” he pulls off the giant greatsword off his back before she grins and spins her maul in her hands. “I don’t want to clock the head of the family now do I. Agreed. Lets do this.”
Erick Shouts up to Gastion. “Open the gates.” After a moment the gates open and the pair walk out onto the drawbridge and out down the path leading to the ram. He shouts over to Gastion as they walk. “Tell my wife I will see her soon. Shut the damn gate and get off that damned wall. NOW” he turns back to the advancing troop. “Well this can only end well. You take care of the ram I will hold them off. Then we retreat slowly back to the drawbridge. There we can knock them off.” Grace perks and nods. “Gotcha, I finally get to use this thing!” she gleefully giggles before doing a practice swing. Quickly they walk to the ram where she begins to breaking the thing apart while he stands in the way of the advancing soldiers. Who stop seeing him stand there with a giant sword almost taller than him. They whisper to each other before their captain barks his orders. “Take him! go on!”
Finding their bravery they advance forward quickly to try and end Erick quickly only to find him effortlessly swinging his large sword around smashing into bodies and hewing bodies.
Erick held the line until Grace destroyed the ram and as one they slowly retreated back as the mercenaries sent bodies after the two. Grace using guardian magic to protect both of them from projectiles while he let his deadly blade sing. The two Cavalli’s danced together as one cutting and smashing their fair share of mercenaries as they made their way to the draw bridge and there bodies tumbled off the sides and down the mountainsides. Unfortunately their stamina could not hold forever as the hours passed and Erick received a blade through his chest that was aimed at Grace. The fight fell silent as both sides could not believe a errant misguided blade that most likely would have missed grace fell the large bear of a man. So shocked was the man that stabbed Erick that he let go of the sword and backed off only for Erick to swing at the man and lodge the large sword in hsi side killing the man. With a long gasp Erick pulled the sword out of his chest and held his hand to the wound calling forth a spell to help staunch the wound for now. He then Rushed forward tackling two men coming at Grace and he fell off the side of the bridge with them in his arms.
Grace shouted trying to reach out and pull him back before he fell but he was lost below. Turning her eyes blazed seeing Erick fall and she called her strength forward and launched herself into the air slamming her maul down on the nearest soldier which had little time to react. She was outnumbered but alone and sadly that meant she was easy pray to be tackled and disarmed. Standing over her was the Mercenary captain as he sneered. “You Cavalli’s put a damned fight but you will die.” with that comment she spits in his face and thrashes about. “Kill her!” he wipes his face and looks up but not before a arrow sprouts from his eye and he falls back. Having seeing the fight from a higher level of the estate the Captain of the Guards called for all remaining men to sally forth and kill the men at the gates. With a renewed vigor and seeing the head of the family run through rush out of the gates crashing into the group of soldiers to kill them and push them back down into the valley.
Grace stands up and grabs her maul to join them but pauses thinking of something. She calls a few men over and peers down over the ledge. her intuition paid off, down below on a small ledge was Erick. He was limp and didn’t look like he was breathing. “Get some rope we need to get him now! he was run through.”
As they ran off to do that the remaining guardsmen pushed down into the valley taking out the remaining mercenaries and driving them to their horses and making them retreat and run. The Estate had been defended but at a great cost of guardsmen and family members being hurt or killed.
Erick was also saved from his ledge and brought to the doctors at the estate to be checked at and his status is unknown. Grace having taken charge for now ordered letters to be sent to all Cavalli’s giving a mass recall of the family and calling in assets to come to the estate. She personally writes a note to be sent to all Cavalli family members.
“Grace Cavalli.
Return to the estate immediately the family was attacked at the estate. Erick elwood lies on Grenths door. We need every Cavalli member at the estate now. This is a emergency and we can guarantee your safety but we cannot if you are in the Reach or Lions Arch.
