Editing Midnight RPG - Chapter 18.51

'''''"Along the Gamaril River, it is a brute called Belark the Blackheart who commands nearly 50,000 orcs and goblin-kin.  They try still to secure the river basin and cut off the Caransil villages north of the river. The great rivers of the Caraheen: the Felthera and the Gamaril, were once highways for traders and travelers from as far away as the dwarven city of Calador and the Erenland capital of Alvedara. They carried elven barques and canoes, Northman longboats, and gnome trade barges. They were vital links in commerce, communication, and culture, alive with activity and traffic. Many elven towns and villages grew along their banks and their waters truly flowed through the forest like a kind of life’s blood.'''''

'''''Now the rivers are hostile and dangerous battle zones. The orc hordes have constructed massive earthen battleworks where the Gamaril meets the Pelluria and where the Felthera leaves the protection of Erethor. From these battlements, they command access to the rivers with powerful war machines and elemental magics. From these forts, orcs use captured longboats to patrol far up the rivers and reinforce outposts along their banks. The banks of the rivers are dangerous for various reasons. At the queen’s request Danisil river hunters from the southern jungle have come north and now stalk fearsome creatures brought in by Shadow.'''''

'''''A 500-mile stretch of eastern Erethor borders the western shore of the Sea of Pelluria. At the mouth of the Gamaril, a large delta feeds vast swamps that flood the surrounding forests every spring. In the past, the annual floods were a boon to the wood, creating a verdant and bountiful ecology in which the local elfkin villages reveled. Now the swamps also serve as a refuge for elven armies fighting along the forest boundaries. The paths of the swamps are well known to the elves but seem to confound the orcs. The elves tread lightly along hidden ways and their narrow war canoes let them quickly cover great distances. The mud drags at the orcs’ heavy boots and the waters are too shallow and the trees to dense for their longboats. The forests are bountiful, providing food and shelter to the elves and nothing but biting insects, quick muds, and marshland predators for the orcs. The elves run their supply lines through the swamps to the central Caraheen and hole up in the marshes, making sallies against orc lines and patrols. Dangerous still, it is even rumored that a clan of dire beasts hunts this region.'''''

'''''The former capital of House Norfall is now an orc city and a critical supply point for the Shadow’s army fighting along the Gamaril River. The district extends from beyond Cale in the north, south to the Pellurian Sea and as far east as the Be’neeya River. The city is under the control of a warlord of the Gray Mother Tribe. The warlord must contend with two of the most active and two powerful resistance groups. To the west, his warbands protect supply trains moving down the gauntlet to the River’s Fangs on the Gamaril River.'''''

'''''The vastness of Erethor has created a war of ever shifting fronts, with individual armies seeking to penetrate elven defenses at several points. In the north, the ancient battlefront in the foothills of the Highhorn Mountains still rings with the clash of vardatch and snow elf fighting knives, but is well removed from the Shadow’s push toward the elven capital of Caradul. The Erunsil and the Shunned Mother orcs continue a deadly dance that has been passed down through the ages. Though seemingly fruitless, this conflict constantly bleeds at the snow elves’ strength, a strength that is sorely needed elsewhere in Erethor. With the Erunsil locked into the defense of the Coldest Wood and Erenland open to his troops, Jahzir has shifted his focus to breaching the elven defenses between the Gamaril River and the Druid’s Swamp, hoping to strike into the heartland of the Caraheen.'''''

'''''The Witch Queen’s spies hope to keep her informed of the armies gathering near Eisin and Cambrial. She is husbanding what scant reserves we can to attempt to blunt offensives.  The Autumn Guard are all that is left in reserve.  Elven assassins go to be set in place even now, awaiting orders to eliminate key legates and orc warlords. Our mages are considering building new defenses centered on the Keep of the Cataract in case the defense line breaks. Wherever she can, we are pulling warriors and mages from the Gamaril basin, the Green March, and the northern Caraheen. As painful as it is to withdraw troops from these areas, all but guaranteeing their comrades’ deaths, we must realize that holding these peripheral areas will be meaningless if the Shadow’s larger armies to the south are able to pierce the heart of the forest and stab into the Caransil heartlands.'''''