The Battle of Collinsport

And then a horn had sounded followed by the alarm bells set within the watch towers that overlooked the harbor. Rushing to the top deck Lord Quentin quickly discovered the cause of the alarm. On the horizon to the east, in the eye of the rising sun, a dark storm was bearing down on the fair city. But the winds that drove that storm were not those of the far deeps or the thunder-hardened skies; no, this storm was sped on by the winds of war.

A mighty fleet sliced through the white crested waves as it bore down on Collinsport. Quentin gaped, he had never seen its like before. This was not just a fleet of warships, it was an armada of death and destruction. And flying in the wind over each and every ship was the blue-green flag of Hespan.

With the alarm raised the ships within the harbor raced to ready themselves for the coming battle. The main force of the Allarian navy was permanently stationed in the harbor and, though caught off guard and obviously outnumbered, the men of that navy intended to drive off the attackers.

By the time the Hespan fleet reached the breakers of the outer harbor Lord Quinten and most of his ships were waiting for them. And the battle that ensued was fierce indeed. Square- rigged galleys, pushed along by rows of oarsmen, cut through the water toward the enemy. Coming in close to the invading fleet these small ships either ripped into the hulls of larger vessels, hammering into them with their iron tipped ramming prows, or else they moved along side and, under cover of archer fire, they hurled grappling lines onto their adversary's decks and boarded them to meet the opposing sailors in close-quartered combat. And along with the ramming and boarding ships sailed the much larger warships of the Allarian navy, the caravels and the galleons. From these ships' tall castles, fore and aft, archers and javelineers and slingmen sent a hail of stone and steel down upon their enemies.

But the Hespans had galleys and caravels and galleons too. They too rammed their ships into the wooden sides of enemy boats. They too grappled and boarded and fought man to man, with sword and dagger and cudgeol. They too rained down arrows and javelin shafts upon enemy sailors as ship struggled against ship. But unlike the Allarians they had the wind to their backs and the tide beneath their keels and the sea did not fight against them. And, though ships were lost, for every drowned Hespan boat two more seemed to spring up in its place, while the Allarians only dwindled as their ships were destroyed and for them there was no hope of reinforcement.

But still the captains and seamen of Allaria, the finest fighters and sailors of the Duchy Collins, fought on. For this battle they knew was a fight to the death.

But the odds were clearly against them and so, in the hope of turning the tide of battle in their favor, the signal went out to the Allarian ships to tack back to the inner harbor. From there they could face the oncoming Hespan fleet without fear of being surrounded for the strait leading into the harbor, though wide, was not so great as the open sea. And too the great towers that guarded the harbor could then rain down stone missiles from the catapults that were positioned there.

But this hope quickly died, for the Hespan fleet made no move to enter the harbor of Collinsport but stayed itself just outside of the breakwaters and just out of range of the powerful Allarian catapults. But the stalemate did not last long, for suddenly the ships of the Hespan fleet made way as new ships, not yet seen in the battle, sailed up to the forefront of the massed armada. And these were no ordinary ships. Black were their broadsides and blood-red their massive sails, and huge beyond belief were these strange, new ships. They dwarfed even the largest of the warships that hemmed in those bloodied waters, Hespan and Allarian alike. They sat low in the water, and squat. Their hulls stretched out wide from starboard to port and the maindeck spread out as flat as a board from stem to stern with only a stubby aftcastle to break that level, wooden plane. Five tall masts rose up from those decks but the sails, though great indeed, seemed small in contrast to the girth and beam of the mighty vessels. Unlike normal ships the sails did not billow out across the full girth of the vessel, but the deck was so wide that room and to spare was left on either side of the sails, unobstructed by masts and booms and rope lines. The great prows of each ship too were free of such obstructions. And this was as designed for upon the decks of these massive ships were built huge siege engines, catapults of poweful force.

This then was Allaria's first sight of Hespan's dreaded bombadier ships.

There were seven of these ships and once they gained their postitions four of them began to send a hail storm of stone against the proud towers and battlements of Collinsport harbor. The ship catapults, designed by the famed Hespan archmage and mechanist Marchavio, far outranged the Allarian siege engines and fired with impunity upon their chosen targets. The thick stone walls of the harbor defenses trembled and shook as the rain of heavy rock crashed down into them, the brick and stone of the walls and towers splintering under the onslaught.

But the other three bombadier ships, the Haelstrom, the Thunderer and the Stormquake, sighted their catapults not upon the harbor towers but upon the ships that remained to the Allarian navy. And stone missiles were not their fearsome cargo but instead they lobbed rounded, copper-bound barrels at the wooden ships. The impact of a hit would crash the barrels open, spewing out their vile black innards - a liquid that quickly burst into flame and that no water could douse.

And so, seaking respite and advantage in battle by retreating into the harbor, the ships of Lord Quentin instead found themselves caught in a death trap.

Quentin quickly saw that they had only one chance of saving Collinsport; they had to destroy the bombadier ships. The fact that it was certain suicide made no difference to the young man. He had pledged himself to his people and to his Duke, and his sailing men all felt the same way. And so the order to attack was sent out. And in the ensuing rush many of the ships were sent up in flames while others were broken open and sunk, and the screams of dying men reverberated over the sea and the battered hulks of warships drifted down to the cold, muddy harbor bottom. In that chaos of destruction Lord Quentin could not keep track of all the men and ships that were under his command but could only concentrate on his simple goal - to reach the bombadier ships with enough men and enough of his ship left to make a difference. And this he did.

Though his sails were torn and his masts splintered, Lord Quentin smashed his way through the protective screen of the Hespan armada and then rammed his mighty ship, the Osprey, into the flat edged prow of the Stormquake. Both ships shuddered and men were thrown from their feet, but that jarring concussion was as nothing compared to the bone-shaking explosion that came a moment later. For the cracked and jagged prow of the Osprey had broken through into one of the iron-cased compartments that riddled the inner hold of the bombadier ship, the compartments which held the fearsome cargo of black fire. And as those drums of black fire burst into hellish flame the front end of the Stormquake erupted like a wild volcano.

The front half of the Osprey was obliterated and any man still alive on that doomed ship was flung into the sea. And, as Duke Barnabas watched from the balcony of Collinswood, the valiant Osprey sank into the broiling, blood-stained waters never to be seen again.

With a half-choked scream Quentin Collins finally awoke from his dark, red- tinged dream memories. Looking about him he saw that he was in the hold of a ship, as were some of his crew. Each of them was chained to the wooden beams of the ship. Each of them looked more dead then alive.

And then a man entered the hold and strode down to where Quentin was locked in his fetters. The man tipped his head in a small bow to Quentin. "Bien taggen," he said in the Hespan tongue. And then with a grim smile he added, "Good day, Lord Quentin Collins. My name is Admiral Ramael Cortez and you are my prisoner."

1. And the war continues...

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