Not by the Soldier's Spear (Crandor)

[Rowanius 6]

Not by the Soldier's Spear

From the personal journal of Dame Nydia Garland, Aegis of Saradomin

 

Amazing what it is people can get done with a few thousand coins in provisions and some incentive.

It's been years since adventurers finally stuck a blade through Elvarg's scaly hide, but you could hardly tell from how Crandor is today. You would think with the dragon slain, there'd have been some hope to rebuild what was lost here. I was only young girl at the time, but even as far out as Yanille we would hear stories about this place. The heroes that hailed from it. A magical library to rival the Mages' Guild. I still remember the day news had reached us that a dragon had awakened and reduced the famous port to ash. I think it might even have influenced my desire at a young age to become a soldier like my father, so that I might defeat such a beast and let people live there again.

Of course, it's not so simple as just slaying a dragon and all living happily ever after. Elvarg's initial attack left nearly no survivors with any connection to the island, and the isle was since overrun by demon footsoldiers. Without anything inspiring people to come back and fight for what was lost, there was no justification to do the right thing. No money in it, people would have said, and so for years the island remained a desolate reminder of how fleeting a proud civilization can be even in recent times.

It just so happened that our needs proved different. Our new headquarters on Entrana is a sight to behold for sure, but we're still bound by the ban against weapons and armor on the island. A proper military headquarters would have to be established elsewhere. Crandor was a top consideration, both for its proximity to be able to protect the holy island, its available resources, and its storied past as a birthplace of great adventurers. Furthermore, given just how close it was to Entrana, it was deemed no longer acceptable to have such hostile infernal presence so close to the island. As the rightful inheritors of the charter of the Knights Aegean, we would prove our worth by liberating the island from the demons.

The fighting lasted the better part of he day. I personally lead our troops from a marine assault from our new ship, Saradomin's Crusader, landing on the coast and forming up on the beach. Even these lesser demons are infamous for their brutality and easily able to overpower a man, but without a more terrifying and brutal opponent leading them lack discipline in the face of a coordinated assault. Surely enough our advance took us up the central hill and drove the remaining demons to rout into the volcanic crater at the summit. They dare not come out from there; guards posted at the summit will have an easy time of skewering any unwelcome trespassers.

Looking over what little remains of civilization here, it almost seemed too easy. For all these years Crandor has gone desolate, and yet it took just a handful of troops with resolve a day's fighting to win it back. Of course, now that I look over the wastes of it, perhaps it should have occurred to me just how difficult the true battle will be. A lot of work will have to go into fortifying the island again, and even after that who knows how long it will take before traders wish to stop here again? How much longer still, before people feel it safe to have homes here again?

I suppose thinking about it, this too is Saradomin's wisdom in action. Crandor will be avenged for sure, and rebuilt greater than it ever was in the past, but not by the soldier's spear or the magician's staff. Now it is time for the carpenter's saw and the mason's trowel to take the field, and accomplish in peace what no war can ever hope to achieve. It's a perspective that has me looking upon the ash-blackened sands in a new light. Not of sorrow over what was lost, but seeing the potential in what may yet become. The true battle begins now.
 

[Rowanius 6]

A Perspective: Roland d' Lyons' Story of the Attack

Roland stepped onto the shore of Crandor sometime after his comrades made the claim for the land, finally being able to brandish his shining sword in the beaming light of the sun, as it was disallowed on Entrana. He was glad he was able to finally find himself among good company, questing and crusading against evil like the stories he read as a child. The years before joining the Aegis were hard on him. After having been torn from his family's estate in West Ardougne following the years of the "plague," he spent his time serving mercenary duty to care for his young sister and aging mother. He was forced to do things he wasn't proud of for the sake of his family. "A nobleman reduced to such a lowly position" he would think to himself. He scorned King Lathas for his betrayal of King Tyras the people of West Ardougne.

But that was all behind him. Lathas was gone and his family returned home under the new, kind and just King Thoros.

But that life was not for Roland. He saw too much in combat and such a pampered life in the kingdom's Parliament bickering among the other nobles was not for him.

There is evil to fight, sins to atone for, an order to keep, battle brothers to fight alongside. When he swore himself to Lord Siegfried and the Aegis, he finally realized his place in the world.

"It wouldn't hurt to embellish a few stories along the way will it? They'll be sure to impress the ladies." He asked himself. "Nah."

Edited November 14, 2017 by Rowanius