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Once the
withdrawl of the "forest folk" was confirmed, Raevil sent out the
hunters to refill the stocks. The master of the third ship, impatient
to have travelled so far for nothing, told Raevil he was going to
travel up the coast to do some raiding, but would stop through to
gather what meat and skins had been collected and take it to King Hrolt
on their way back to Vikare.
Raevil was overseeing the final completion of his new
stronghold, when a messenger arrived telling of a large force of
"forest folk" marching against ForestGate. Raevil called his remaining
warriors and a third of the workers to arms, telling those who remained
at the stronghold to redouble their efforts to complete the hold.
Halfway to the pass, another messenger arrived telling him
that nearly half of the attackers had retreated at the sight of the
manned wall. Raevil turned to his men and ordered them to rush to the
gate. Unseen by the force moving against the gate, he set their ranks
well away from the wall's defenders. As he had expected the "retreat"
had been a ploy to allow half the enemy to move through a hidden pass
and strike the wall from behind. Their surprise attack having turned
into an ambush, the "forest folk" were quickly defeated, though they
were of similar numbers and had equal weapons and armor.
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The defeated
attackers race for the hidden pass, allowing Raevil to follow them and
take his force around to the flank of the main host. Seeing their lord
lead the charge against the unsuspecting army, the men of the gate open
the huge doors and pour out into the distracted frontline of the
"forest folk." The out-maneuvered host falls to a full rout, leaving
behind dead and wounded alike.
Raevil's men, flushed with victory, celebrate well into
the night. They collect the arms and armor of the fallen and find the
wounded have crept away or the survivors returned for them in the
night. The stonecutters, completing the finishing touches on the wall
are reassigned to put up a wall in the hidden pass and build a failsafe
device to fill the narrow pass with a mountain of stone should the
defenders fail to hold the wall. Both gates are built and theguards
doubled before Raevil returns to find his fortress complete in the
canyon.
His hunters have already begun to fill the caves with
hides, furs, and meat. Raevil adds the weapons and armor of the forest
folk to the stores. He, then, commissions a new ship to be built and
sets the stoneworkers to build a wall like ForestGate in the narrow
pass to the sea with a similar failsafe device.
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