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Grom's detachment moved stealthily through the passes - long, winding, densely overgrown dry valleys between the forested hills. The detachment followed the ancient tracks along the bottom of the valleys leading towards Maughthrond. Scak was following the nortern road through the wooded area, advancing on Arduthrond Glade, using the darkness to advance as far towards the village without being spotted as possible.
In the early evening of that day, the villagers of Arduthrond saw a stampede of all sorts of woodland animals through their streets (ok, honestly there actually are only two in Arduthrond) from out of the dense woods at the western skirts of the village. At first it was unclear what caused this behavior, although foraging goblins ranked high in the list of suspicions. But would a handful of goblins cause such an exodus...? The archers in the towers were uneasy and watchful. Something was in the air...
At dawn, the goblin detachments had taken up position at the fringes of the woods facing Maugthrond and Arduthrond, their deployment concealed by the morning mist. The sentries at Arduthrond did not detect any of the goblins. They were wary, though, due to the animals fleeing the woods earlier. And this morning, there wasn't any birdsong...
The lookouts in the watch tower knew the drill in case they spotted enemies or they were attacked. One of them would have to run out and light the warning beacon. This would warn the rest of the defenders and bring them to the danger spot. Meanwhile the lookouts would defend the tower as best they could. As mentioned previously, there were four such towers, guarding the north, south, east and west roads to/from the Arduthrond. When the warning beacon was lit, the village guard would see it from the village square and prepare for battle while their families would be gathered together and led away from danger. As a precaution, the village guard had already positioned their prized sea elf marine bolt thrower in the western tower just in case a foraging column of goblins should come from this direction, to greet them with the right skewering ability.
In the woods, hidden by the mist, Scak had advanced his detachment together with Yellow Toe Nail, the orc shaman apprentice to Black Tooth, Grom's loyal shaman, who had accompanied the army during its conquests. As Grom had a personal orc shaman, Scak of course also needed to have one in his entourage. The units were hidden among the trees and crags to avoid being spotted from the air by the occasional flying creatures that had been seen passing overhead during the march inland. Scak rightly identified these as griffin and pegasus riders, who were scouting to find the goblin forces.
It was easy to see where the goblins had been because of the smoke of burning villages and farmsteads in their wake, but less easy to count their numbers or follow them through expanses of rugged terrain. Grom had sent out many flanking columns of wolf riders to spread destruction over a broad front, making it difficult for the elves to tell which was the exact position of the main column of the horde and therefore identify where the main thrust would take place.
This tactic also had allowed Scak to remain undetected so far. He had organised his detachment into three units of archers and two of spearmen. The smaller bands of archers would go ahead followed by the rest of the horde. The tactic he came up with was to try and whittle down the number of defenders before the spear armed units clashed with the elves in hand-to-hand combat. Scak knew his troops were unlikely to put up much fight against elves unless they had overwhelming numbers on their side. If all of the before sounds familiar, that is because it is exactly the tactic and order of battle Grom used at Maugthrond pass. Scak was such a fanboy, that he also copied his idol's tactics - irrespecive of whether or not these tactics fit his current situation as well as the situation Grom used them in.
The orc shaman Black Tooth was determined to find the great standing stone in the village of Maughtrond and steal its magïck. Every elf village that they had encountered so far had one of these standing stones. Black Tooth had ordered each of them pulled to the ground once he had tapped into their magïckal power to enhance his own power. The night before the battle, Black Tooth went off into the forest, being accompagnied by his apprenctice Yellow Toe Nail only, searching for a special kind of stone that would serve a plan he had hatched. At daybreak he was still deep in the forest carving an amulet from a lump of blue-black crystal and muttering a strange spell; all of his actions meticulously being copied by his apprentice.
Scak knew there was no point delaying the attack waiting for the orc shaman apprentice to emerge; one never knew how long his sessions with his master would take, at times they were not seen for days. It was important to gain the element of surprise, especially as he knew Grom's attacḱ would start at the same time, so he gave the order to attack. He hoped that Yellow Toe Nail would soon swoop out of the sky riding his ferocious war wyvern Fleabite Worm.
As the sun rose over the horizon, silhouetting the coast of Ulthuan, Eltharion took off again from the deck of his flagship upon the griffon Stormwing, together with the unnamed other elves on flying creatures, which, as mentioned before, never found themselves recorded in history. Among them Tharhindrel on his griffon Breezeflap. The fliers headed inland for the wilderness east of Tor Yvresse, spreading accross the area hoping to relocate the horde and find out how much closer to the city it had advanced. This would be difficult. The landscape below was swathed in mist. As the sun rose higher during the day, the mist began to clear. Eltharion was flying high over the wilderness when, far below, the unmistakable shape of a wyvern flapped out of the trees and swooped low over the forest towards the west. Eltharion immediately followed the wyvern, knowing that it must be ridden by a great orc war leader or shaman and would certainly lead him to the main goblin horde.
About the same time, Tharhindel, further to the north, also saw a wyvern emerge from the woods; this being Fleabite Worm carrying Yellow Toe Nail, who only a couple minutes before had parted with Black Tooth once they had finished crafting their twin amulets. While Black Tooth flew to Grom to support him at Maughtrond, Yellow Toe Nail flew to Scak to bolster the attack on Arduthond Glade, and to tap into the magïck of the standing stone there, as Black Tooth had instructed him to.
Tharhindel was a distant cousin to Eltharion, both were born only a couple weeks apart, and had spent a great part of their youth togethers. When they grew up both joined the military of Ulthuan at the same time, advancing through the ranks. All the time, they were good friends, getting along well and supporting each other. Then they met Eleiri - only daughter of a minor noble, and a beauty to behold, even for elven standards. Both instantly fell in love with her, as did many other young elves. After courting her for some time, Eltharion and Tharhindel both seemed to be making an impression on her, all other contenders seemed to have fallen behind. Then Eltharion was sent on a mission to repel a localized dark elf invasion. When he came back victoriously, Eleiri and Tharhindel were espoused. Eltharion was not amused. He accused Tharhindel of treason, of using his absence in his favour. In reality he simply had not noticed that he was falling behind, and Eleiri choosing Tharhindel was a forgone conclusion even before his departure. But Eltharion would have none of it. As his family was more influential than that of his distant cousin or that of Eleiri, he pulled strings to discriminate against them. Tharhindel would never get another promotion in his life, Eleiri was socially left behind, suddenly not being invited to any relevant events any more. This also included making sure, that Tharhindel's role in Arduthrond that day, or the battle for Arduthrond at all, was not recorded in elven history, and Tharhindel's achievments remained unknown in the elven hierarchy. Tharhindel's next promotion was long overdue anyway, but somehow had not materialized... and also would not after this day.
Meanwhile, the great war drums and raucous horns of Scak's horde sounded, and the goblins were advancing out of the mist towards Arduthrond Glade. The elf lookouts were taken completely by surprise by the mass of greenskins advancing on them - these were not the few foragers they had expected! Thanks to the mist, the goblins had stolen the initiative and made the first move. As goblin arrows began hitting the structure of the watch tower, the elves knew that they must light the warning beacon at all costs or the village would be overwhelmed, and doom would be spelled for the villages beyond the wood and perhaps even Tor Yvresse.
