Conquest

Sully

Sully led his men to the crest of the hill. He was mounted upon a komodon. All his men were on foot. They consisted mostly of poor farmfolk, crofters, and laborers. They wielded mostly scythes, sickles, hammers, cudgels, pitchforks, spades, and daggers. They dressed mostly in rags and robes mostly. They were the lost and forgotten. The displaced and discarded. The sick and dying. They were his people. 

Below them lay Hills Crossing, a central trading town buried like a valley between hills on either side. Two major traderoads crossed between the narrow path between the two hills. The town in between was naturally defended by the hills, making its fortification on par with castles. 

This was beyond the farmtowns they had claimed thus far. They had avoided all fortified towns and cities thus far, but due to its central locale, Sully and his commanders had determined that their successful campaign hinged on taking and holding Hills Crossing. 

Their previous success had emboldened them. The Hills would not fall without a fight. But Sully had a strategy. By climbing over the hills, they avoided the guardwatches along both roads. 

It had taken a full day and a night to summit due to the flat and slanted far side of the hill. The descent from the summit would take little time at all. They were all in place.

Sully looked down at his favored shillelagh. It was his weapon of choice. It was a massive knotty shillelagh filled with heavy metal meant to bash and bludgeon. It was too heavy for most men to lift. He raised the shillelagh high into the air, well above his head.

"Let's take back what's ours, brothers." He swung his shillelagh forward and charged. His brothers fell in behind him. The silent charge started in mass. Sully led that charge himself.

Sully looked back up behind him and saw the hill face drowned in people, his people. They were a tide of change. They could not be stopped. He rode faster and harder, leading the masses down the hill. The tide of farmers fell down upon the unsuspecting town. The people were most likely still in bed. The night watch would still be active, meaning most defenders were still asleep as well. 

They fell upon the guards who fought feebly despite their superior armour and weapons, and many komodon. They were no match for the marchers' masses. 

Sully personally bashed in the plate and brains of many a defender. His shillelagh's weight combined with his strength and the speed of his komodon made for a lethal consequence to any who opposed him. No armour would stop its destructive compressive force. The force made full-plate buckle and great helms compress under the force. It was a brutal weapon for a brutal warrior. 

Sully had little need for armour himself. His bone growths, spurring out of his shoulders, ribcage, hips, and head, provided more protection than any armour. They also impaled those who charged too close to into him. His best defense was also a powerful offense. Sully only wore thick leathers well-oiled against his skinless flesh and full of holes for his bone spires. It was also true that a suit of armour that fit Sully would require the greatest of artisan masters to build every piece custom to shape and size. The cost would be well beyond Sully's meager means. 

Sully slaughtered at least 14 defenders all on his own that day. The defenders were overwhelmed and surrendered well before darkfall. Sully surveyed the captives as they were stripped of their arms and armour. Chuck, one of Sully's commanders, met him, now amount on the back of his newly won komodon. Sully smiled at this. Good for Chuck. Good for the komodon too. 

"Report?" Sully commanded. 

"Yes, General. 23 captives taken alive, including three knights and the lord sire. We are searching for more in the barracks now," Chuck replied.

Chuck was a roguely sort. A thief, a robber, a spy, a scout. He had been on the wrong side of the Paxan long before Sully was. He had many skills that most of his new soldiers did not. It made him quite valuable. But he had his flaws, too. He was greedy and cruel. He would steal and torture needlessly. Sully kept him close to blunt baser instincts. Perhaps he could even grow into a finer man. Sully hoped this, but he wasn't yet sure. He had allied with many whom he would otherwise avoid or arrest. That was the price of war. The enemies of my enemies are my friends.

"Thank you, Chuck. Dispatch two scouts on komodon at first light to report to Grimm's forces in Milkweeds,"  Sully wanted the Messiah to know of his success. He had questioned the plan. Said they should stick only to farms and maintain a lower profile. 

"Yessire," Chuck obeyed, riding off no doubt to engage in some sort of crime. 

A Rott knight rode up to him next. One of the few in Sully's brotherhood. He had answered Sully's call to his Brothers for aid. Sully was grateful. He had also claimed a komodon. Sully dismounted and left his komodon with the knight. He dispatched two guards to bring Sully to see the lord of Hills Crossing. 

Sully was a man of faith. Specifically, he was a Helian, in contrast to the Many worshipping Green Growers. When Sully was afflicted with Rott he was disowned and disinherited. His little brother was raised to lord of Seacliff. Sully was allowed to enter the service of the church.

The Brothers took him in. The Order of Undien. It was an order of Rott-inflicted knights charged by the Sage Seir of Heliopolis with the containment and treatment of the Undien people and disease. Sully was a holy knight, a captain in the great order. It was through the Brothers that he had come to fight alongside his brother and father in the Civil War. He was restored when his brother fell during the fighting. Until he was stripped of his lands by the Duke. Since that day, he had been a wandering knight in service only to his people and his cause. Hopefully, many of the Brothers would answer the call and join him here. This was their fight too. They were displaced and dispossessed too.

Sully went down into the dungeons. They were damp, dark, decrepit things. His men had freed any prisoner who swore loyalty to the Messiah, so they were empty but for the surviving defenders. The lord was fat and old.

"Ah, finally someone smart enough to negotiate with. You will allow my men to leave as a show of good faith. My knight and I expect to be treated honourably and justly until our ransoms are paid in full. We can begin with a proper meal and a return to the manor. A lord is not like this."

"My Lord, I am General Sullivan, Viscount of Seacliff, Knight of the Undien Brothers, loyal servant of the Messiah, Grimm the Farmer. I have come to relieve you of your lands in his name," Sully declared.

"Grotesque rotten monster," the lord spat with vitriol and disgust.  

Sully bashed him with the back of his glove so hard that blood and teeth came out. Sully shook blood from his bandaged hand.

"I understand your frustration, lord. Never call Undien monsters in my presence again, or I will take your head with your lands," Sully stated. The lord was too stunned to speak. 

"Good. Now that you are listening. Most of your men and knights have already chosen to join me. Those who refuse will be executed. We cannot have warriors with a vendetta running loose. I do not intend to execute, unless you provoke me further. You are a lord no more. All men are equal in our Messiah's country. You will not live as a king while your people starve. You shall live with and work with your people from this day forth," Sully stated.

Sully had no intention of executing his men. He had given this speech to many a mayor and minor lord. It was the same everywhere they went. The powerful hoarded the food, land, and wealth, and left their people to fester and starve. To Rott. No more. They were building a better world. Grimm was building a better world. No matter how many Sully had to kill to make it. Everywhere they went, people rose up in support of them. Sometimes they needn't even fight. The people would turn over the lords themselves. Once the lord submitted, so would his men and knights. Sully knew.

"And if I refuse," the lord found his tongue after all. Sully wondered if he had broken the former lord's jaw.

"If you refuse, I will take not only your lands and titles but also your life. I will kill you and your sons and extinguish your family from the history of this land forever," Sully stated. That shut the lord up. "Take him away, and bring me my maps." He was done with him.