Drawing out the Herd

BR38
July 685
Tauro Nicodemus led his weary force through the defences put up
by men of the Alliance. They passed through dismounted, leading the
exhausted horses by their reins, and made their greetings to the men
who had been digging ditches and planting stakes since they left days
ago. Tauro was impressed at how well the Company of the Elk had done
designing these defences. He had never seen anything of the like and
couldnt see a way of getting through without being assaulted from
multiple angels at once. The line was drawn out between two almost
impassable obstacles. The first was a deep dried out riverbed and the
other was a steep sided knoll that their nimblest men had struggled to
climb even with equipment and ropes to aid them.
These defences would be tested in the next few days thanks to the
chaos he and his force had caused. He had led his thousand strong
force mainly comprising of mounted archers from among the forces of
the Alliance North towards the enemy column and had launched an
attack intended to draw some of the beastmen herds away from the
marching undead so that a force led by the Nature priestess Taria could
assault without their threat. It took perhaps half the day to reach the
enemy column. Tauro took his force around the eastern flank and began
his attack.
He took his men within long range and the first volley was loosed
followed swiftly by a second. It took a few seconds for the arrows to fly to
their targets, but when they did the results were more than he had
hoped. Scores of the beastmen went down to the volleys, and the
marksmen of the force finished off the last of the group they had
targeted. Tauro swiftly moved the force to pick a new target, this time
only loosing a single volley. The beastmen went down in droves, and the

survivors roared in anger, blowing war horns and working themselves

into a frenzied state.
The alliance force quickly turned their horses and galloped to the
east, followed by the now crazed herds of creatures. The pursuit lasted
for no more than an hour and many miles had been covered before the
beasts stopped. Tauro allowed his men to dismount and water the
horses, ensuring that scouts were out to keep check on the enemy. They
made no attempt to find his force, their presence seemingly forgotten.
The scouts reported that the entire beastmen force must have pursued
them as there were many thousands of the creatures milling around in
their makeshift camp, digging in the dirt for food. Tauro changed his plan
and ordered the officers to him checking the remaining ammunition and
state of the horses. He ordered the slower horses back to the camp, and
kept the faster light horse to accomplish the new strategy.
A few hours passed and the herd had still not moved. Tauros force
galloped in from the north, loosing a few volleys into the unwary foe.
Again the herds worked themselves into a frenzy and made chase. The
alliance men fled to the north this time with the beastmen pursuing in
their maddened stampede. The chase lasted a little longer this time, but
again the enemy grew weary and gave up the chase. Tauro led the force
in a long arc around the enemy, making camp to the south east. Again
his scouts reported that the enemy seemed to have forgotten them.
Tauro kept the pursuits up for another two days until all of the
available ammunition was used up, finally returning to the alliance
defence lines with horses and men that would take days if not longer to
recover from their ordeal. Hundreds of the enemy had fallen to their
missiles, but thousands more still lived and were now moving to assault
the alliance. Tauros strategy had separated the beastmen from the
undead, but now more than ten thousand of the creatures were no more
than a day away from the alliance encampment, and were braying for
blood.