Siege of Banua Day 2

 The following day, the armies of the beastmen started to withdraw.  From the watch towers, they were seen to pack up their encampments and move westwards, toward a long ridge.  They were many. Despite the resounding defeat the night before, they still outnumbered the defenders by 3-to-1.  And they were uncharacteristically quiet, strangely economical in their movements, as if moving under the direction of an alien intelligence.

Sensing deception, Bangqiu and Salt cloaked themselves in an invisibility charm and went to scout the enemy army. Evading yetis scavenging fallen beastmen, the two magicians, reached the ridge from its crest saw the beastmen horde surrounding a deep pit. The attackers were tunneling into the ground.  Based on the constant stream of beastmen heavy laden with dirt, something was progressing toward Banua at a preternatural pace.  Surveying the scene, they noted among the monsters, a solitary human in black armor.  Bangiqu and Salt blasted him with a bouquet of magic missiles, sending him into his tent. Bangqiu amplified the ensuing chaos by summoning a stone wall and dropping it at the entrance of the tunnel.  Bangqiu took the form of an owl and flew back to Banua while Salt made her way home on foot.

Few in Banua slept peacefully that night.  Flashes of red in the sky and the rumbling in the ground fueled rumor and speculation.  Some said the well water tasted wrong. Some heard screaming beyond the ridge. 

From the city walls, came reports of advancing beastmen, giants, and multiple juggernauts. Ganbaatar organized a defense, sending armed soldiers to the battlements while inviting the citizens of Banua into the barracks behind the inner gate. 

The rumbling under the town grew in intensity and the ground split.  The split widened and an enormous pair of claws emerged directly under the inner gate.  The gate collapsed and a giant, red-eyed, slavering badger burst out of the ground, followed by dozens of beastmen.  One slash of its claws were like a phalanx of heavy swords, crushing a man to death inside his armor.  A snap of its fanged snout broke a horse’s back. As soldiers fled these terrors, the badger greedily pursued, killing and devouring any it could catch.

Bo-Jing, with his stalwary henchmen and the bravest of Banua rushed to attack the badger.   Some drove long sharp spears into its flanks while others shot arrows into its neck and back. At first, the badger seemed impervious to pain, and dragged several bloody spears as it chased soldiers and horses.  But a well-aimed spear hit its underbelly and demanded its attention.  It stopped its pursuit and turned to face its attackers.  Bo-Jing slashed at its face, brutally cutting the soft flesh of its mouth.  Nar-Nuteng drew her sword and drove it into the badger’s flesh under its foreleg.  With so many brave and strong soldiers attacking on all sides, the ferocious beast was brought to the ground and destroyed.

The beastmen, meanwhile, had scattered throughout the town, some engaging with warriors while others massacred unarmed people and animals.  Others destroyed yurts and setting them on fire.

Three juggernauts reached the outer gate.   With Banua’s principal defenders occupied by the giant badger and ravaging beastmen, the gates were breached and the juggernauts rolled into Banua. 

The magicians—Bangqiu, Hyamsam, and Salt— targeted the wheels of the lead juggernaut with fire balls and magic missiles.  The first juggernaut was diverted into the pit created by the badger, and the other two crashed behind it.

The beastmen kept pressing toward the marketplace in the back in the town where the Nergui refugees had erected their tents.  While arrows pelted them from above, the beastmen went from one tent to another, killing their occupants.  Only when Bo-Jing and Nar-Nuteng rallied the warriors on the ground to mount a counter-attack were the beastmen deterred from further destruction.  In fact they were no match from Bo-Jing’s organized and powerful attack.  They were driven into a corner and destroyed.