1211 RE-- The Punishment of the Mountain Boar Sept
Date: May, 1211
Outcome: Destruction for the Mountain Boar Sept; Disgrace for the Winter Owl Sept, Satisfaction for the Dane
Belligerents: Mountain Boar Sept of House Risten vs. Winter Owl Sept of House Risten, Dane's Bulwark
Bulwark/Winter Owl Commanders: Draunir Ringenn of the Dane's Bulwark, PC 11, Jarl Tanus Oblief.
Mountain Boar Commanders: Jarl Kilgare the Stout
Strength: Bulwark & Winter Owl: 40 warriors of the Winter Owl, 25 Dane's Bulwark and Shieldeaters
Mountain Boar: 60 Warriors
Casualties: Bulwark & Winter Owl: Negligible
Mountain Boar: Total Destruction
For the last generation, the neighboring Mountain Boar and Winter Owl Septs had been locked in a bitter feud, competing for favor and status within their ruling House, Risten. In the past twenty years or so, as the Winter Owl Sept rose and solidified their bond with Risten, this fighting grew more and more pitched, culminating in a nasty winter at the end of 1210, when members of both septs led raids on the other, slaughtered cattle, burned outlying farms, and killed or captured each other's warriors. When the snow and ice started to melt, in the spring of 2011, the Mountain Boar Sept decided to end the feud once and for all.
A force of ten warriors1+, acting on orders from Kilgare the Stout, the Jarl of the Mountain Boar, snuck out one night and destroyed one of the Dane's Roads that led from the main highway into the Winter Owl's lands, isolating them from food and reinforcments. They planned to lay siege to the Winter Owl's holdings and Clan Hall, and so destroy them utterly. Although they attempted to make it look as though the road had been damaged by the thaw, this did not fool the Herald2 from the Dane who came to investigate the inability of skalds and the Dane's officers to travel this way. This suspicion was confirmed by a Shieldeater named Tulsten the Boar, who recognized that his clan's action, a direct violation of the Gauntish Amphictyony (the agreement by which the infrastructure of Gaunt is maintained and defended, upon penalty of anathema) would end in swift and terrible wrath. With his immediate family, he defected to the Winter Owl Sept, and was tentatively accepted.
In the meantime, the Mountain Boar began their assault on the Winter Owl Sept in earnest, hoping that a sure and decisive victory would earn them a certain amount of leniency in the eyes of the Dane. This was a foolhardy hope, particularly as the Winter Owl, although badly crippled, maintained their defenses all the way through April and into the beginning of May. Further, while the Dane, and even House Risten, did not care which way the clan feud panned out, an assault on one of the Dane's Roads must be punished, and harshly. The Dane declared the entire Mountain Boar sept anathema, and dispatched a group of twenty-five Dane's Bulwark and Shieldeater warriors to carry out his will.
The Bulwark arrived in the lands of the Mountain Boar in the middle of their siege on the Winter Owl, and so split their force to ensure that none of the Mountain Boar could escape. A group of seven, including Draunir Ringenn, Grimheim of house Voluspa, another of the Dane's Bulwark3, and four Shieldeaters6-7, including Rorik Ismundson and Einarr Vidarrson, were responsible for destroying the clan holdings proper, slaughtering the adult inhabitants and putting the clan hall to the torch. The only building the Bulwark left standing was the Redwood Throne chapel. The aging Bannerman monk8 in residence there insisted that he had advised the Mountain Boar's Jarl against pursuing the feud with the Winter Owl so far in the first place. Deciding that it was not their place to pass judgement on a servant of the Throne, the Bulwark permitted him and his novice9 to leave freely.
The remaining eighteen warriors10+, including their Bulwark warleader11, made for the nearby Winter Owl holdings, to deal with the main of the Mountain Boar force there. The Mountain Boar found themselves the hot iron between hammer and anvil, utterly crushed by the Dane's Bulwark and their companion Shieldeaters on one side and the revitalized warriors of the Winter Owl11+ on the other. At the end, the courage of some of the Mountain Boar warriors broke, and it is possible that one or two of these escaped, though such cravens could hardly show their faces again anywhere in Gaunt, where they might be known.
In the end, but for such cowards, the entire adult population of the Mountain Boar Sept were slaughtered, their halls and houses burned, and their young taken in service to the Dane. According to tradition, the children will be made to work on the direct maintenance of the infrastructure of Gaunt, repairing and shoring up that which their elders willfully destroyed.
In the meantime, although they were technically victorious, the way in which the feud ended left the Winter Owl Sept in an untenable position. They were seen as weakened and untrustworthy, and as lackeys to House Risten. Other Septs have begun poking about the lands that used to belong to the Mountain Boar, challenging the Winter Owl's claim on them. In order to salvage some of their reputation and to gain some glory back for themselves, Tanus Oblief, the Jarl of the Winter Owl Sept, petitioned to have some of his people involved in the Expedition to the Shadow of the Hammer. Tulsten the Boar, and the Jarl's daughter, the alchemist Vendala Oblief, were chosen to represent the Sept.
Upon their return, the members of the Dane's Bulwark and the Shieldeaters were handsomely rewarded for carrying out the Dane's justice, receiving gifts of jewelry and choice positions in future endeavors of raiding and exploration. While there were very few casualties on the Dane's side, Einarr Vidarrson's companion, the Shieldeater Rorik Ismundson died shortly after the battle from wounds sustained. He and the few other casualties were given a personal remembrance from the Dane fitting to their service, and their portion went to their houses and septs. Currently, all of these warriors stand high in the Dane's favor.