Historical Note: The following text is the logbook of Ehrit al’Yari, Mage-Captain of the Faendryl Ship (FS) Black Heron, one of the four Command ships coordinating the Faendryl assault on Ta’Ashrim during the Faendryl-Ashrim war. This text is comprised of the near-daily entries of the captain into her logbook, and remains to this day the sole surviving written record of the assault.

Following the siege and subsequent alienation of the Faendryl, al’Yari’s logbook was published and widely read throughout the Elven empire, where it became commonly known as ‘The Siege of Ta’Ashrim’. In particular, the final entries of the logbook have been extensively studied, and are one of the most recognizable pieces of Elven historical literature available today.

Translator’s Note: Several editions of al’Yari’s logbook have been translated into common in the past, however all of these translations are based upon subsequent Elven translations of the manuscript. This edition is based upon the original Faendryl language version, and in some places comes across as being markedly different from the Elven versions. Readers of the Elven edition will note that this translation casts the Faendryl in a less-villainous light, owing perhaps to a bias on the part of Elven scholars attempting to justify their hatred of the Faendryl with coloured wording.

For ease of reading and understanding, the translator has broken the logbook into four sections, titled ‘The Fleet’, ‘The Voyage’, ‘The Confrontation’, and ‘The Genocide’. They occur chronologically over the three week course of the Faendryl assault, and each comprises a major facet of the Faendryl-Ashrim war.

The Logbook of Ehrit al’Yari
Mage-Captain, FS Black Heron

Part 3
The Confrontation

1 Lumnea, 093

Another tragedy has befallen us.

The first skirmish occurred this morning, when elements of the Ashrim fleet began circling around to our North. Not wanting to be ensnared by the larger Ashrim navy, Faendryl ordered the fleet to move several dozen leagues south, far enough away to avoid the Ashrim, but close enough to hit the mainland with our spells of scrying. Everything appeared to go according to plan, until the command ship Trumpet’s propulsion spells failed her, leaving her dead in the water and slowly falling behind the rest of our fleet. Faendryl immediately ordered the Heron and her group back to defend the crippled vessel, but the Ashrim were on her before we could even fully come about.

The Ashrim never bothered to ask for surrender, or even fight by the rules of war. Seven of their small cutters raced across the waves towards the Trumpet, coming alongside her and throwing several mooring lines onto her hull. Most of these failed to find purchase and slipped back into the ocean, but three succeeded.

Instantly there were Ashrim upon the Trumpet’s deck, fighting hand-to-hand with the astonished Faendryl crew. A few of our mages were able to strike back at the attackers, but the Ashrim experience with piracy was apparent and overwhelming.

By the time the Heron reached the Trumpet, her sails were afire and she was taking water on all the lower decks. Several of her mages attempted to slow the progress of the fire, but each collapsed of exhaustion and had to be dragged off the ship. The Trumpet vanished beneath the waves a mere hour later, taking over fifty brave Faendryl warriors with her.

Faendryl was furious with this turn of events, and has promised us swift retribution against the Ashrim. Although I believe he is truly distressed with the loss of the Shift and the Trumpet, I wonder if perhaps he has an eye for the politics back in Ta’Faendryl, where already his enemies must be gloating over this latest failure. Only a swift and sure victory can make up for this embarrassment.

I called this day a tragedy at the beginning of my entry, and now it occurs to me that it is doubly so. A tragedy for the lost Faendryl sailors, who went down with the Trumpet, and also a tragedy for the fact that this marks the first time in living memory that elves have fought elves.

Perhaps our lost cousins are right--without unity, our empire will not stand. May it be that the Ashrim have not called down the curse of the Gods upon us.

2 Lumnea, 093

[No entry recorded]

3 Lumnea, 093

I have little time, but recording what has happened is as much my duty as insuring the safety of my ship. Therefore I do transcribe this accounting of events:

Yesterday morning Faendryl ordered elements of the Fleet to form up around the Arc Hammer, the Heron’s sister ship. The Heron herself, along with several support frigates and the destroyer Silver Wave, fell to the rear of the fleet to act as the Korthyr’s escort for the duration of the upcoming battle. The 27 ships under the Hammer then proceeded to arrange themselves into attack formation, and moved towards the Ashrim flagship Batholith and its escort. It was Faendryl’s intention that this attack element of our fleet should strip the Batholith of her support ships, disable the flagship with our magicks, and then proceed to capture it and bring its officers into our custody.

His intentions, sadly, did not live up to the reality of yesterday’s battle.

Rather than meet our fleet in honorable battle, the Ashrim immediately sank to the tactics of the pirate and the coward, fleeing towards their home isle. Sensing a rout was at hand, Faendryl ordered the Hammer to pursue at full speed. After only twenty minutes of pursuit, the Ashrim fleet immediately performed an about-face, arranging themselves in an odd, seemingly random pattern across the ocean.

The reasons for this pattern became immediately apparent when the first of our scout ships approached the Batholith and came crashing to a halt. Rather than attack the stricken vessel, the Ashrim ships held their positions while the rest of our fleet cruised to a confused rest.

A few minutes of panicked communications with the captain of the scout ship revealed the source of their problem; an extensive reef system had grown up out of the ocean beneath the Ashrim fleet, and the tips of the reef were concealed by the high tide. The scout had ground itself out against one of these reefs, and although not in any danger of sinking (our buoyancy spells would probably keep a ship that small afloat even if its entire hull was removed), she was stuck. Still, the Ashrim made no move against her.

Four hours later the tide had diminished enough to reveal the locations of most of the reefs, and Faendryl felt confident enough to order the fleet forward once again, this time with spells of detection in place beneath the water. Sensing their advantage had vanished, the Ashrim fleet immediately moved to engage us, their smaller ships darting forward across the waves before the Batholith.

At first it seemed as though we were guaranteed a resounding victory; warmages aboard our ships began plying their spells against the oncoming ships, destroying several in spectacular balls of blue fire that scattered planks and bodies for hundreds of spans around. Every few seconds another Ashrim ship was immolated, yet still they pressed forward.

At this point, it became apparent that there was a flaw in our battle strategy; our mages had assumed their magicks would be used to destroy heavily armored and resistant ships, not the tiny things we were fighting. Although we were doing an impressive job of destroying a few of their ships, our mages were rapidly running out of power while the majority of the enemy sailed past their burning brethren towards us.

In less than a minute, Ashrim ships were actually skipping between ours, far too close for the mages to attack without hitting our own people. This was no concern for the Ashrim, whose chosen weapons were arrows dipped in tar and set afire. Nothing, I would have thought, that could be any danger to our ships, given the magical protections they were under.

Then something occurred which I would not have thought possible, and has caused me to doubt the chances of this expedition succeeding or even surviving; the spells of warding on the Arc Hammer failed.

After the battle, my mages told me (rather belatedly) that the Ashrim were apparently employing mages of their own--rather good ones--and that these mages had managed to sever the connections between the wardings on the Hammer and the mages who were powering them. As a result, the wardings ran out of power and dissipated like so much mist beneath the sun.

The Ashrim were apparently expecting this to occur, and immediately focused their attention--and arrows--on the Hammer. Her hull, which was never meant to provide protection on its own, succumbed rapidly to the fire and within moments her sails were ablaze. Although most of her mages immediately Gated off the doomed ship when her sails caught, several valiantly stayed aboard and attempted to smother the flames with their spells, using their own energies beyond the point of recovery. The fires, however, were not fully extinguished until the Hammer finally slipped beneath the waves.

Absent the Hammer, the task force she was leading fell into chaos, each ship attempting to destroy as many Ashrim cutters as possible without themselves being attacked. By the time Faendryl ordered the task force to withdraw, four more ships of the line had joined the Hammer.

Today has been a day of reconsideration; Faendryl has ordered our mages to ward our ships wardings, something none had ever thought necessary or possible. Where the Ashrim managed to get mages of such a caliber remains a mystery. For their part, the Ashrim fleet has stood its ground in the reef system where they originally surprised us.

I have no doubts that our mages will prove more than a match for theirs. When this is over, there will be no question of who has better mastered the Flows.

4 Lumnea, 093

The Ashrim are planning something, they’ve moved their fleet away from the reefs and out to a deeper section of water. Faendryl has ordered us not to attack them yet, for fear of another trap.

More later, I’ve got to get back to reinforcing the Heron’s wardings.

5 Lumnea, 093

Our expedition has taken a turn for the worst.

More later.

6 Lumnea, 093

I regret the necessity of being brief, but my time is no longer my own.

Yesterday began poorly, with another strong storm system developing over the Ashrim isles. My weather mage believes that the Ashrim somehow managed to augment the system and send it in our direction. Although the storm was fierce, our wardings were sufficient to hold it away from our sails, and all it accomplished was to keep the two fleets apart for a few hours. It turned out this was the Ashrim’s intention; during the few hours we were occupied, they sailed their ships a bit further away from ours, away even from the Isles.

Faendryl was delighted, thinking that perhaps the Ashrim had chosen to capitulate and leave us to approach the Isles and arrest the Matriarch.

A few moments after the order to sail towards Ta’Ashrim’s port was given, a general alert was raised by several of the lookouts upon the highest of the Korthyr’s masts. Soon, the reason for their alert was obvious to those of us still on the decks.

A massive wave had appeared at the edges of our sight, stretching from horizon to horizon. I don’t know how fast it was moving, but it ate up the distance between our fleets with frightening speed.

It hit the Ashrim fleet first, and I was convinced that I was about to witness the deaths of tens of thousands of Elves. Their ships, however, were built for such things, and rose gently upon the wave, then settled down behind it. Only the Batholith appeared shaken by the experience, her size being too large to ride over that massive wave comfortably.

Once it was past the Ashrim fleet the wave seemed to rise even higher, and the top curled over as it picked up even more speed. There was a loud roar of displaced air, and the Heron began to shake as the water trembled under the force of the magic being used to propel the wave towards us. There was no chance of our massive ships riding over such a monster, only to go through it.

Ten ships--including the Heron and the Korthyr--were able to turn their bows into the wave before it hit, and all but one of those were able to hastily re-inforce their integrity spells enough to survive being washed over. Of the twenty ships that were unable to maneuver into the wave, only three were able to boost their wardings enough to survive. Our fleet has been reduced by over two thirds.

I’m told Faendryl has been in his cabin since the wave, and has refused to see even his most senior officers. My informants in the crew have told me the word ‘mutiny’ has been uttered more than once.

I do not foresee the situation improving.

7 Lumnea, 093

Faendryl emerged from his cabin today, announcing an ambitious, head-on assault upon the Ashrim fleet involving all of our remaining twelve ships.

Several officers, including an assistant to Faendryl’s Second and the captain of the scout ship Sunfish, were executed for refusing to carry out Faendryl’s orders to prepare for the attack.

Our assault begins tomorrow at dawn. I pray to whatever Gods may be listening that this does not end the way I think it will.

8 Lumnea, 093

This day has been filled with memories and sights that will haunt me for the rest of my days. We were arrogant to think we could challenge the Ashrim at sea, and now the Gods punish us for our arrogance.

I saw the Sunfish dragged beneath the waves by something that was not of this world. Another storm appeared out of the thin air above our fleet, sending pieces of hail the size of a giantman’s fist raining down upon us, shattering masts, tearing sails, and killing anyone unfortunate enough not to find a warded section of the ship. A massive whirlpool appeared a mere hundred spans off the Heron’s port side, and only the efforts of my entire corps of mages managed to disrupt it before it either dragged us under or spun us apart. The waters below our fleet have turned to blood.

What I cannot stop seeing every time I close my eyes, though, are the last moments of the Korthyr.

Somehow, through some impossible feat of impossible planning and inconceivable execution, the Ashrim mages were able to not only sever the spells of integrity upon the Korthyr, they actually managed to feed them back upon themselves. I don’t know how over three hundred mages were bypassed to accomplish this feat, but the results were instant and catastrophic.

The integrity spells upon the Korthyr were designed to hold the ship together against the strain of her own weight and the pressure of the water on her hull, something mere wood could never have withstood. There were literally thousands of individual wardings designed to hold her together, and when they were fed back upon each other the order and planning of their design was lost, while all the power and strength was multiplied.

The Korthyr was over five miles away from the Heron when she failed, but my ship is still attempting to affect repairs from the explosion. Several of my sailors who were looking in her direction at the moment of the failure but managed to avoid being blinded reported seeing her list suddenly to starboard, then slowly collapse inward upon herself, her majestic sails floating away in the breeze moments before being vaporized. Pieces of wood from the Korthyr’s hull were found imbedded in the side of my ship, and several holes of unknown origin appeared in the Heron’s sails at the moment of the explosion. Six additional ships were lost when the Korthyr died, either simply disintegrating under the force of her death or set ablaze by the intense flash that followed.

I have four ships left under my command, including the Heron. Lookouts report that elements of the Ashrim fleet have flanked us, and now cover our retreat back to Ta’Faendryl. Only the unexpected violence of the Korthyr’s loss has kept them from moving in to finish us, though I know that won’t keep them away for long.

[Editors' Note: Look for the final installment of the Faendryl Captain's Logs in the next issue of the Elanthian Times.]