The Battle of Sirocco

The Report of Her Grace Mineko Minamet, Marquess of Last Stand

This slim journal contains the observations of Mineko Minamet, the Marquess of Last Stand, on the battle of Sirocco in 212 and the events following the occupation, including the city's entrapment by foreign magic. The marquess is am exacting writer, with a keen eye for detail.

Possession of this tome is worth **** Research Point per session. If delivered to the Church, this tome is worth **** Prestige Point. With a year of study and **** Research Points, this tome will provide information on the topic of The Aten.

Operations to seize the desert serpent city designated 'Sirocco' began in the autumn of 211, after the destruction of the serpent temple in the lands nominally controlled by the Gitany people. Because of the unstable nature of politics within Komaru, the operation was initially planned to only use the forces of the Komaru and Minamet families, a decision that would prove increasingly wise over the duration of the effort. Initially proposed by Countess Aya Minamet at the suggestion of Count Yamato Komaru, the plan to counterattack the serpent holdings met with general approval from the Minamet council, although several voices dissented, stating the essential impossibility of holding the conquered land in the heart of the desert. Nevertheless, the council approved the operation, and efforts began at once.

...

In the summer of 212, we began our assault on the city. Although the Crown Prince nominally commanded the army with his wife at his side, he left the logistics of battle to his distant cousin Yamato Komaru, a veteran of the Interregnum. Yamato's army principally consisted of four legions of Komaru Royal Guard, supported by a force of Minamet cavalry and engineers as well as assorted ancillary units. Although several generals doubted the initial reports of the size of the desert serpent forces gathered at Sirocco, our first sight of the city confirmed the worst: the city of stone and canvas swarmed with thousands upon thousands of our enemy. At our approach, they divided into a number of war bands of varying discipline. Even the greenest soldiers could see the difference between the disorganized bands of the conscripted desert scum and the tight formations of the easterners themselves. While the scum claim that fear is enough to keep them bound to the easterners' service, I often wonder if it is more than that. If the duchess Verity Touraine lived, I would suggest asking her for her opinion on the matter.

...

We succeeded in dispersing the rabble time and time again, but as always, the easterners themselves proved more resilient. Eastern society appears to be based upon a well-ingrained hierarchical principle that aids their combat effectiveness immensely. While individually their physical skills are dwarfed by those of a well-trained Minamet samurai, their ability to anticipate each others' movements and act as a coordinated body far exceed those of the typical Komaran force. Furthermore, their courage, or at least their desperation, is sufficient to keep them fighting long after the typical levied peasant force would have broken.

...

In addition to more of the ammut riders, the maniacs who rise the desert lizards, the army also included a larger than normal number of easterner priests. Time and again, only the preparations of the Minamet engineers allowed us to avoid their sorcery. Having had the opportunity to learn the rudiments of the Dawning Star's techniques before my family turned their back upon them, I can safely say that the easterner magic and the Star magic are similar but not the same. The quick, localized item-based rituals of the Star are far different that the demanding, destructive sorceries of the easterners. I intend to investigate this further in the future.

Worse, though, was the fact that the priests themselves were calling upon the Aten directly. Each pack of priests seems to rely upon at least one Child of the Aten in some fashion. However, when working with others of their kind, they appear to be able to call more of the Children, or perhaps even the Aten themselves, into the battle. Twice during the battle, members of our army found themselves face-to-face with what can only be described as monsters: great beings with the bodies of perfect humans and the heads of animals. In several cases, I saw veteran warriors prostrate themselves before the creatures, the battle forgotten before their beauty. Then, I saw the Child kill them, or worse. I believe that Yamato's caution in dealing with them was wise; although I believe that we might have been able to destroy them with the aid of our detachment of Veiled Guard, the cost paid in doing so would likely have been worse than what we did pay to drive them away.

And drive them away we did. As night fell, the serpent armies pulled back, leaving the safety of the oasis and the city's walls to retreat into the desert. To the best of my knowledge, it was the first full retreat we've seen in this war. I can only assume that we damaged their ability to cooperate in some fashion, for as they fell back, what had been a well-compartmentalized army scattered into a wave of deserters. The city was ours.

....

Sirocco is know in its inhabitants' language as the Gateway to the Soft Lands, and is truly the farthest western holding of the easterners' mysterious civilization. I believe that historically it has fallen to Minamet armies in the past, although it has likely been many hundreds of years since last my family controlled it. Stories my great-grandfather once told hint that it was once on the western edge of the desert, but that over generations the desert has grown, swallowing up the steppes upon which the Minamet once grazed their steeds. Today, it is simply too inhospitable to our kind these days, lacking the material comforts to which we are accustomed. If it could be made into a walled compound, perhaps it would be a reasonable fortress. However, instead it is simply a sprawl of tents, cheap wooden shanties, and scattered stone buildings, all clustered around the dozens of springs that moisten and cool the sand. While the easterners' army retreated and left the city to use we still had to deal with the native population of desert serpent noncombatants. This proved to be a major undertaking.

...

Once we cleared out the refugees from our chosen quarter of the city, we sent teams of Minamet engineers to convert the area into something more defensible. Within a week, we had low walls of stone and scavenged wood around the Crown Prince's command post. Meanwhile, I set out to learn more about the enemy. I began my investigations among the prisoners we captured during the cleansing exercise.

...

The investigative efforts I learned from my exchanges with the late Duchess of Touraine proved invaluable by the conclusion of my effort. As we held off the serpents' probing raids, I used the new captives to expand my knowledge of the enemy's culture. In summary, I have gathered that the easterners themselves live in a long, fertile river valley less than a week's march beyond Sirocco. The valley is the home of the Aten, the supernatural monsters that control easterner culture. The Aten struggle amongst themselves continuously, each seeking to be the dominant being. The contest ends with the ascendant Aten imposing its will upon the civilization of humans living within the valley. The river valley itself is crowded with the ruins of dozens of civilizations, each one raised up by a dominant Aten in pursuit of its alien agenda. Today, the dominant Aten is, or at least controls, the Black Pharaoh, which may or may not be a human being. The Black Pharaoh's agenda is the conquest of Komaru, but its purpose is somewhat more complicated.

The Black Pharaoh and his priests are, like many factions within Komaru itself, aware of the imminence of the End Times. Their assault upon Komaru is their effort to impose their will upon the events surrounding the End Times. Because so little information on the nature of the End Times remains, I hesitate to even speculate at what they seek to gain by doing so. However, they are driven to control the locations that they believe will figure into the End. One of those locations is Komaru itself. Thus, they wish to see themselves in control of the entirety of the land.

...

The numbers of raids has increased. We believe that they easterners are trying to keep us from sending scouts out of the city by keeping us occupied with mop-up operations. With the assistance of the Veiled Guard detachment, we are managing to father some intelligence on the lands to the east of Sirocco.

...

The serpents are growing bolder. They send small groups of raiders into the city at night, which then hide in abandoned buildings. We've taken to flushing them out when we hear about them,. but often we simply do not become aware of them. The surviving desert-dwellers in the city are, of course, more than willing to shelter them.

...

Our scouts have returned. The desert ends twelve days' march to the east of Sirocco, suddenly transforming into a land of baked clay ruins and irrigated fields. The edge of the Aten's river valley, it is also a step towards victory. On the edge of the irrigated lands, the scouts have discovered another sprawling city, its low walls barely encompassing it. If a Komaran army could take this city, which the scouts have dubbed Spear, then further assaults could be launched against the Black Pharaoh's very lands. Already, I have proposed the idea to the Crown Prince in private. I am certain he understands the importance of arranging for such an assault.

...

The easterner activity in the city is increasing. Tracking them down is immensely time-consuming, and has hampered our attempts to coordinate an assault on Spear. Nevertheless, we continue the effort.

..

The easterners are building something; we found the first evidence of it last night, in the form of heaps of earth concealed within a rude wooden hut. Tomorrow, we sweep the town to pinpoint the location of the construction.

...

There are eight sites, arranged around the Crown Prince's post in a rough circle. I am nervous about the placement of the sites; it seems very deliberate, and I fear the serpents' magic. But they are only lightly guarded, and both Komaru and Minamet generals believe we have nothing to fear. We will send our forces out to sweep through the city and destroy the sites tomorrow morning.

...

Disaster has befallen us. Although the forces protecting the Aten construction were small, there were many of them. To destroy all of the sites, we divided out forces into four strike teams. I commanded one, while Yamato Komaru and the Princess Consort rode with two others. The final team came under the command of Tohru Komaru, the Count of Minaval. In each case, a team attacked the first site, and then moved on to a second site to finish the job. Or at least, that was the plan.

The sites we attacked were simply diversions. At each location, we found the entrance into a set of tunnels that ran into the earth. After a quick exchange of messages, Tohru Komaru decided to lead his troops into the tunnel system to discover more about it while the other three forces swept up more serpents. Needless to say, this proved to be a mistake. As soon as Tohru's men moved into the tunnel complex, it collapsed, and the true trap closed.

The earth began shaking. These sites were some distance from the heart of the city, and as we looked across the sea of tents and trembling shacks, we saw swirls of dust as the tunnels collapsed, followed by stone pillars that rose form the earth like claws. On my flanks, I could see the Princess Consort's army charge the city, but my cavalry were the first to reach the rising barrier of wind and sand. At first, it seemed like we were caught in a desert storm, but as we pushed onwards the resistance increased dramatically. By the last, attempting to push through it was like attempting to pass through a curtain of stone.

In the aftermath of the battle, we succeeded in eliminating many of the serpents responsible for this tragedy. They included several obvious priests, their tattoos burning on their skin like cold fire. They died rather than reveal the secrets of the barrier around the city. However, I have made some studies of my own, including this rough sketch of the city and the barrier surrounding it.

The focal points of the barrier are the pillars of stone the easterners raised. Each is inscribed with many runes, but the barrier renders them unapproachable. The barrier itself is roughly octagonal, save for a trapezoidal swath in the northeastern segment where a closer approach to the center is possible. Nevertheless, even this irregularity is insufficient to discover the fate of those within. It is my hope that those inside yet live, but with each passing day I realize that the chance they survive decreases.

In the hope that something can be done, I have contacted a team of engineers who worked with the Dawning Star team in Sabledown. Furthermore, I have already discovered that a circle of Church Illuminators wishes to learn more about them. Hopefully, the Church's hawks will be able to assist our engineers in breaching the shield's secrets. I wish that the Dawning Star were still around, or that I could send a letter to the duchess Verity to ask her opinion on the matter. As it is, I fear that all will be lost unless we can breach the barrier soon.