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Atrocities too ghastly to describe here were his common practice.
As the horde drew near the city of Vo Mimbre, the west prepared
to close with the Angaraks in the ultimate battle.
The preparations had been long and difficult and had been
accompanied by grave doubts as to the eventual outcome. Kal-Torak
seemed invincible. Moreover, though it was assumed that his intent
was to strike south toward Tol Honeth, no one could be certain
exactly where he would emerge from the mountains. Thus it was
necessary for the forces of the west to hold themselves in readiness
until Kal-Torak committed himself to battle.
During the eight years of the siege of the Stronghold of the
Algarians, the generals of the west had studied a hundred possible
battlefields and prepared a strategy for each. It was during these
preparations at the Imperial military college in Tol Honeth that it
became evident that Brand, the Warder of Riva, was a tactical genius.
Assisted by the oddly assorted pair who advised him, he devised
tactics that took advantage not only of terrain features, but also of the
contrasting strengths of the widely varied armies of the west.
NOTE:At the time certain discreet inquiries were made as to the identity of
Brand's advisors, but without success. The man appeared to be aged but
vigorous and had an almost encyclopedic knowledge of not only the
west but of the Angarak Kingdoms as well. The woman, a strikingly
handsome lady with a silver lock at her brow, had the uncanny gift of
instantly perceiving the weaknesses and strengths of any given
situation. Although her imperious manner offended many of the generals,
they soon came to respect her intuition in such matters. It has been
widely assumed that the two were Rivan nobles, but sketches of them
made surreptitiously during the extensive meetings reveal that they
have none of the racial characteristics of Rivans. Unfortunately, their
identities are forever locked in the vault of time.
* This is one of those 'internal footnotes' I mentioned earlier.
In the early summer of 4875 the Angaraks deployed for the assault
on Vo mimbre. This was the commitment for which Brand and his
armies had waited. Though Tolnedran strategists had long believed
that a second Angarak force would strike west along the South
Caravan Route out of Cthol Murgos and had built a line of
fortifications in the mountains to meet that threat, their fears proved
groundless. As the woman who advised Brand pointed out, 'Vast
armies cannot fight in the mountains - they require open spaces.
And Torak is too arrogant for subterfuge. He will smash you, not
trick you.' Thus, virtually at the last moment, Emperor Ran Borune
IV withdrew the bulk of his forces from the eastern mountains of
Tolnedra and returned his legions to Tol Honeth
* This was modified later. Kal-Torak (Torak himself) did have a second army, but
it came
from the south, not the east, and it was bogged down in the Desert of Araga by
that
unnatural blizzard
Then it was that, for the first time in history' a huge land army
was transported by water to the scene of a battle, A huge Cherek
fleet arrived at Tol Honeth, and the legions embarked. The swift
Cherek vessels conveyed the legions down the Nedrane, north along
the coast and thence up the River Arend to a point some ten leagues
west of Vo Mimbre. The two-hundred league forced march from Tol
Honeth to Vo Mimbre would have taken more than a week, and the