The battle of Miragliano Part 3

 The dark walls of Miragliano were not beautiful. They were rough but tall and thick, the kind of walls mercenaries would build. Now the descendants of those mercenaries mounted the walls to face the same menace the their ancestors had faced many years ago. The Undead.

Captain Leonard had taken up position on the right most wall along with Bly the wizard and a band of archers. The centre walls were covered by large groups of crossbowmen and hand gunners. The left most wall had a body of archers and an old and slightly unhinged fire wizard known as Shine. Behind the walls a noble knight called Sigurd and his bodyguard stood ready, as did a large group of elite city guard armed with greatswords and a small band of militia.

Leonard stood alone, apart from the archers and Bly. Despite his heroic victory at the crossing of the Trino river, he had lead the men of the river watch to disaster at the battle of Baliana. Now he clenched the handle of his sword in anticipation of revenge, and possibly redemption.

Zebulon was confident. The walls that faced him were large but his army was mighty. Vast numbers of skeletons, zombies and ghouls massed around him while the grave guard pushed a siege tower. Undead knights, monstrous bats, war machines and a mighty undead colossus all followed his commands. His lord, the mighty vampire Strogonov was there as was another bestial vampire know only as Blood Tooth and a banshee called Ezmerelda. The silent wight Hvitskirt was leading his grave guard and the faithful Gauk was by Zebulon's side as always. With a thought, the army began advancing towards the walls. Finally ,thought Zebulon, rubbing his corpse like hands together in anticipation, a really fine pair of shoes would be his.

As the undead advanced, the first wave of missiles arrived, several men were pitched from the walls by magic or arrows, while a cannon was damaged and its tower cracked by a catapult. The other catapult failed as a zombie got caught up in the mechanism.

The return fire from the walls cut down skeletons and bats as well as 11 zombies being blown apart by the mortar. However, both cannons failed to injure the undead colossus advancing on the gate. A cage of flame was conjured about the grave guard, burning 1 and preventing them from moving. The magical backlash from the over powered casting injured Shine.

The undead continued their advance, with the fell bats reaching the archers on the leftmost wall. 2 of the archers fell to their fangs, but the bats suffered worse to the sharp daggers of the desperate men and fled from them, flying back towards where they had come from. The skeleton archers' arrows found a single crossbowman while the catapult again struck the cannon, destroying it and cracking the wall. Zebulon cackled as he forced through an invocations and returned almost all of the zombies and skeletons that had fallen to life.

The undead were nearing the walls now, but a second volley from the defenders cut through their ranks. Across the battlefield 26 skeletons were felled from various units, including all but 5 from Stroganov's body guard. The remaining cannon again failed to achieve anything. A fireball from Shine incinerated 5 ghouls though Bly's burning gaze on the wraiths was dispelled.

The undead now charged the walls all across the filed. Against the left side ghouls and skeletons began to climb as bat swarms harassed the defenders. Near the gate, Stroganov lead his skeletons in a charge, only to find them blown away by the hand gunners. Still, he was full of confidence as he leapt with ease atop the walls, because a full unit of ghouls were with him. It was then that he notice that the ghouls were not with him, but had in fact stopped in front of the walls and were digging some tasty morsel up from the ground. (They failed an 8 inch charge.) The colossus charged the gate and set about destroying it, the first attack causing a few cracks to appear in the heavy wood. The Zombies with Zebulon and the ram did not attempt to climb but set about battering the already damaged tower. Finally on the right Skeletons and wraiths climbed the wall to face Leonard, Bly and the archers.

Fighting broke out all across the walls. The archers on the right took many casualties as they fought against the bats ghouls and skeletons. However, the presence of Sigurd below them meant they did not abandoned their position. Stroganov might have been alone, but he was still a vampire and fought viciously felling 2 humans. However, they did not break and closed in about him. Leonard finally had his chance and cut down 3 wraiths. They could not harm him while 2 archers fell destroying 1 skeleton. 2 more wraiths and skeletons collapsed as their magic faded against the spirited men.

The defenders reserves now began to move onto the walls. The militia joined the archers on the left wall while half the greatswords climbed through the tower and joined the hand gunners. The fighting continued all across the walls. Count Stroganov was unable to land a blow and was beaten down with crossbows and pushed from the walls, cursing the ghouls as he fell. The militia and archers suffered heavily but also dealt a lot of damage. They were holding on, but their numbers were dwindling as more ghouls scaled the walls. Leonard banished more wraiths while the archers destroyed the skeletons with little loss thanks to Bly's casting of a defensive spell. Once again the grave guard were also stopped in their tracks as a final spell from Shine trapped them in a burning cage. The undead colossus smashed the gate again, damaging it further, while the zombies continued their battering of the tower, achieving nothing.

Zebulon could see little from his position immediately under the tower, but his magical senses told him everything he needed to know. The gate was about to break as the cream of the undead army waited silently outside. The left wall was nearly taken and there were few living left on the right wall near him. Count Stroganov had fallen but now the next wave of ghouls were arriving. Victory would be his and the city would fall. Of that he had no doubt.

More undead assailed the walls while not once but twice the undead catapults missed their targets, both times landing on Zebulon's zombies, crushing more than half of them, including many Zebulon had just resurrected. The archers militia and Shine were wiped out to a man on the left and the undead seized the wall. In the centre the ghouls climbed and faced the greatswords. 3 men fell but so did all 5 ghouls. The rest did not flee though and prepared to climb. Leonard and his group were attacked by spirit hosts and a banshee as well as the wraiths. 1 man fell and Leonard was wounded, but he banished many spirits with his magic sword and the banshee faded from existence just as soon as she arrived.

Now combat was everywhere with men fighting desperately. The rest of the greatswords climbed up through the towers to the walls. More Ghouls fell and all he spirits were banished but only Leonard and Bly remained in that area. While this was going on the Great colossus finally smashed open the gate and prepared to move through.

With a thunderous charge the colossus smashed into Sigurd's knights and delivered a terrible deathshrike, against which armor stood as no defense. However, these knights were of stout hearts and only one fell from his saddle, dead before he hit the ground. In return Sigurd struck the beast a blow with his magic sword and it was weakened further as its magic faded.

On the walls more undead arrived as the siege tower with the grave guard and Hvitskirt pored them over the walls. Many men fell but the ghouls were wiped out. However, more ghouls were arriving from the captured wall section. Bats attack the remaining mortar with the other cannon having been destroyed by the catapults.

Seeing the battle was almost over Bly took position on top of a tower and let loose a burning gaze of great power. All of the vampire knights, who waited below the walls to advance through the gate were incinerated.

Sigurd lead his knights in a final push and together they slew the colossus, but were then immediately charged by the waiting black knights. All of the Sigurd's bodyguard were cut down and he could not land a telling blow on the armored skeletons. In a moment of panic he turned and fled, back into the city and away from the walls.

The city guard stood their ground on the walls and fought to the end, cutting down ghouls and grave guard until Hvitskirt put an end to their resistance.

Leonard and Bly were the only two defenders left on the walls. The gate and half of the walls had fallen. All around were scattered the dead. Many men had fallen defending the walls, but so had much of the enemy's best forces. From their tower, Leonard could see the wight, Hvitskirt, above the gate and swore that he would have his vengeance. Then both men turned, climbed down and out into the city, to lead what was left of the defenders in a final stand.