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Chrombasia

CHROMBASIA PRE-STORY

The story so far ...

The grand master’s scouts hurried back. They had found out where the local Jarags’ dragon boats came from. They told of a distant island in the North Sea. An old fisherman told them of Chrombasia, the black rock island, surrounded by hard, rugged rocks with a coastline where no ship could land and where many had already been smashed. It had only one narrow approach road to the inside. A narrow ford which the Jarags, however, knew how to defend. One could not miss the approach road, since at its entrance stood a stone sculpture of King Chrombas rising up into the sky.

Instead of first attacking the rock castle on the north coast, the grand master pursued only his own interests. He equipped a fleet and wanted to attack the Jarags first on Chrombasia, their home island. Then their retreat would be blocked.

However, this proved a big failure. At the narrow ford by the port entrance a magic wall of fire destroyed most of the ships before the troops could even set foot ashore. With this fire gate, as it later became known, the Jarags protected themselves against surprise attacks by strange ships. The campaign had failed before it had begun. Only a third of the ships returned. The remainder of the army was lost.

However, the attack came to the attention of the dwarves, and the druids who lived there secretly. The dwarves were forced by the Jarags to mine gold from the mountain. And the druids were robbed of their powerful position after the death of King Chrombas. They sensed help from outside and felt hope that they might be able to make a move against the Jarags and their leaders the guards. At the behest of the leading druid Merano, Gnomli the dwarf abandoned the island and the aggressors to help find a way to land on Chrombasia.

Gnomli succeeded in escaping. In a small boat he simply followed the shattered fleet to the mainland so he could be brought directly to the grand master.

Much laughter rang out when the dwarf strongly advised taking one of the Jarag’s dragon boats by force. Then they could probably pass the narrow ford of the rock island unhindered. Special crystals incorporated in the dragon’s head of the ships reflected a radiated light signal in a special form and made it possible to gain entry to the island without activating the fire gate. They could get to the boat in dinghies and infiltrate the port at the fire gate with troops hidden in the ship’s hold.

It soon became quiet. The laughter died away and Gnomli now had the attention of everyone present. He reported further that the Jarags’ dragon boats were of course too fast when at sea. So to capture it safely it would be necessary to do so when it was anchored. A dragon boat with dinghies regularly shuttled between Chrombasia and the rock castle at the north coast. This should be our target.

The grand master interrupted the discussion and withdrew with his advisors. After some hours the plan was prepared to conquer the rock castle with the dragon boat. This must of course remain intact. So, preparations were made for an attack, a campaign against a powerful fortress whose defender was superior to them.

And yet the fortress was conquered and the dragon ship did fall into our hands intact. But would we manage to land on Chrombasia this time ...

Here begins the second part ...

© 2005 Andreas Marscheider
https://www.agearena.de/e2/e2_spiel/inhalt/chrom.htm

Translated to english by Stephen Richards