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**History of Peltarch, Vol. 5: The Eastlander War
By Sir Roland Brynmor**
Introduction
In the years following the Civil War, the character of the Senate changed considerably. The traitor Koreth's seat was vacated and left unfilled for some time, owing to the chaos that followed the war. Senators Vino Sten and Nico Black stepped down. In events detailed elsewhere, Senator Syne's true nature was revealed and he was executed for murder and treason.
A period followed known as the Long Senate, during which five senators – Delvin Gelon, Torin Bravickus, Rath Ashald, Roland Brynmor and Evendur Mildsilver – carried on without an election for the longest time in the Senate's history. This period was marked by increasing tension between the Seafarers' Guild, who held a growing monopoly on the city's trade, and the few remaining independent merchants who opposed them, organized mainly around the Wavebreakers' Guild.
During this time, tensions between the guilds spilled over into the Senate chamber. Open rivalries developed between Roland Brynmor and the Seafarer Senators, Torin Bravickus and Rath Ashald. Both sides vied for Evendur Mildsilver's support and above all, for the crucial tie-breaking vote of Elder Senator Gelon, who was ideologically opposed to the Seafarer monopoly but remained too personally indebted to Vaster Ashald to defy him.
Lavindo's Proposal
In this climate of political stalemate, Peltarch faced a new challenge in the growing might of the Eastlanders, bandits who had settled in the Nars Pass to prey on merchants and travelers. As their strength increased, the bandits became an army and began raiding the different settlements of Narfell. Several of these raids culminated in major attacks on Peltarch itself. These attacks were beaten back by the Defenders and local adventurers at the city's southern watchtower, though not without loss of life. In some cases, the bandits infiltrated the city itself, killing adventurers, soldiers and defenseless citizens alike. Following these attacks, General Kaster Lavindo came before the Senate with a proposal to declare war on the Eastlanders and remove their threat permanently. Senators Gelon, Mildsilver and Brynmor supported General Lavindo's proposal, outvoting Senators Ashald and Bravickus. The Senate issued the following statement:
_We the people of Peltarch do declare the so called Eastlander army to be a renegade faction that infringes on the rights and damages the livelihood of our citizens. We have on many occassions extended our hand in peace to meet with the leadership of the Eastlanders only to be answered with silence, murder and extorsion. As of this day, the city of Peltarch declares open war on those who wear the colors of the Eastlanders.
Any who wish to surrender may throw down their arms, remove the colors and turn themselves in to the Peltarch Defenders for mercy. All others will be destroyed.
Prosperity to Peltarch and death to her enemies.
-General Lavindo
-Senior Senator Delvin Gelon_
With that, the Defenders mobilized for war.
Peltarch's Plan
The elite 2nd Corps of the Defenders and the reorganized Far Scouts, now with the strength of a full Corps, were deployed to the Nars Pass. In this initial action, the Far Scouts eliminated most bandit patrols in the Pass in short order. Meanwhile, allied forces from Norwick pushed north, forcing the bandits to defend from both sides. The fighting was fierce and the allied forces faced heavy resistance by the bandits at the Nars Bridge and at the approaches to their tunnels. However, these early advances cleared the way for a combined assault on the bandits' caves and tunnels to the east, and their camp beyond.
General Grag and the Legion led the first attack on the tunnels, spearheading an incursion in order to draw a bandit counterattack. The bandits pursued the retreating Legion out of the tunnels and into the open pass. As they cleared the main ridge between their tunnels and the pass, the bandits realized that they had rushed headlong into an ambush. Over 200 Defenders waited for them in prepared positions, while additional Far Scouts emerged to block the bandits' line of retreat. Those few bandits who survived this battle did not reach their leaders in time to warn of the all-out assault on the tunnels by the full Defender force, together with numerous Legion troops and other allies from across Narfell.
The Final Days
In several days of fierce, close quarters fighting, the bandits were gradually forced to give ground. It was during this time that Rass herself, the ancient red dragon ally of the 'Bandit King' Atol, appeared in the pass to rain fire down on the Defenders and their allies. Many brave people held the line to give Defender artillery time to prepare, with the paladin Sir Mariston Thel himself charging the dragon alone head-on and surviving only due to Torm's protection. At long last, sustained Defender ballista fire forced the dragon to leave the Pass.
Finally, with their numbers dwindling, the Eastlanders made an orderly retreat from their caves to the valley beyond, where their camp lay. Here, Atol and his soldiers made their last stand, and were killed to a man. On General Lavindo's orders, the few Eastlanders who surrendered were taken prisoner. The rest were killed or scattered by the combined Defender, Legion and allied army, who burned the camp to the ground and vowed to keep the Nars Pass free forever after.
Victory and Aftermath
With Peltarch's victorious army returning home largely intact, and newfound allies to secure its southern borders, elections were declared. These would prove to be significant in ending the Seafarers' control of the Senate, but only after a series of clashes between the city's factions that nearly led to another civil war. In the result, Aarron Ashald and Mariston Thel joined the Senate, while a third Senator-elect, Tidus Clodpin, fled into exile when it was discovered that the ballots cast for him were fake. Through the efforts of Herald Thril and the Divine Shield, Clodpin's treachery was revealed, though this led to open fighting between the Divine Shield, their allies, and Blood Spiders in the Docks, an event that ultimately led to the revocation of the Blood Spiders' guild charter by the Senate. Clodpin was replaced by Eowiel Senella.
