Bowstormers

Author: Dagorauk ©

I had a brainstorm at work tonight for a unit idea. It started from wishing for a SoK unit that could withstand missile fire to a full-fledged unit with fluff.

First...picture a human, wearing no armor...somewhat like a berserker, with an axe in one hand, and a roughly cut block of wood (with bark on one side and perhaps some vines, moss, or leaves for effect) that serves as a large warshield.

Background

The attempt to retake the Crystal Caves from the Elves was failing. Despite many efforts of the Untamed, led by Bran Il´danach, they could not enter into a true battle. The Elves had been pushed back into the caves, losing their outer defenses, but now had a small area to defend. Ranks of Elven Spearmen, supported by Militia behind them, kept charging warriors from reaching the Archers who rained arrows down on the forces of the Goddess Tribe with impunity.

During the height of this slaughter, a great Berserker known as Galv the Furious was the only one of his warband left alive after a viscious volley of arrows had fallen. He threw his swords down in utter frustration, and seeing the fallen Reaver Axes of his brethern, he had an idea. Grabbing two of the axes from the ground, he turned to a nearby band of Tribal Warriors, clustered around their leader who took an arrow to the head early on.

"Pick up the axes and follow me, or I´ll kill you all before the arrows do!" threatened the berserker as he brandished his weapons. With unsure looks, the young warriors willingly complied, each of them picking up an axe from a dead hand. Motioning for them to follow, Galv took off at a run for the forest behind them, and the warriors hurried after him.

In the heat of the battle, this movement went unnoticed by Bran until evening. When he realized what happened, he was enraged, swearing to hunt the men down if they did not return before the caves had been won from the Elves. Later that night in the camp´s silence, the sentries heard the sounds of wood being cut somewhere off in the distance. None of them could fathom what this meant, and even Bran was puzzled by the account.

But with no time to consider it, the Untamed took to the field of battle in the morning, with more failure and death at the hands of Elven Archers. The Sons of Kronos took more losses, and precious few Elves died that day under Untamed blades. Even then, many of the Elven deaths were from Bran´s great chariot as he covered the retreat of his army. After the morning, no one heard any sounds from the woods, and in the battle, no one knew when the chopping had ceased. The Elves for their part probably did not even hear what the humans had the night before.

The next day, the battle began as it had for too long, with Untamed dying by the scores, and unable to near the Elven lines without falling to copious amounts of arrows. Even mighty Viridian Lords were falling under the missile fire. Then as the warriors fell back and readied for another charge, the unmistakable, blood-curdling battle cry of Galv was heard. He and the warriors he took with him charged through the ranks of the Untamed, each with an axe in one hand and a great makeshift shield of oak in the other. They all met in the front ranks of their army, forming a wall of shields that only the most accurate (or perhaps most lucky) of Elven arrows could penetrate.

The Untamed cheered and rallied behind the warriors, advancing on the Elves, mostly untouched now by arrows. The ensuing battle was bloody, the Untamed releasing frustration and anger as they reached the Elven lines, attempting to cleave through the Spearmen and Militia, seeking the heads of the hated Archers.

Galv was the first to break through, driving a Spearman to the ground with his shield and then running over the pinned Elf, weilding a pair of Reaver Axes. As the Goddess forces now doubled their efforts to break through the ranks of Elven spears and halberds, they witnessed the most infuriated berserker they had ever seen. Galv screamed in incoherent rage, his face contorted in fury, nearly frothing at the mouth as he felled Archer after Archer, despite the many arrows that pierced him.

It is said he let himself fall dead after he slew an Archer for every one of his fallen Berserker bretheren in his dead warband. Bran, who had leapt from his chariot to enter the fray in the cave´s mouth, saw Galv fall, and immeadeatly rallied the Viridian Lords to himself. Together, the champion and the great living trees cleaved their way through the Elves, claiming Galv´s body and carrying it out before the rest of the massing Elven troops could take it.

In that day of retribution, Elves died in far greater numbers than the Sons of Kronos, the score between them now nearly even. That night, the Elven guards could see the great fire outside the Untamed camp that was the hero´s burial Galv had earned. Bran, feeling regret for having doubted the berserker, announced that Galv should no longer be known as The Furious, but as The Bowstormer. In his honor, Bran named the new warband Bowstormers, after Galv who had started them.

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First version from 23.03.2008. Last Version from 24.03.2008.