The Massacre At Black Cliff

Decisive actions are normally very brutal.  The idea being you want to crush your enemies in one fell swoop and break their spirits as well as their ability to wage war.  The problem with this strategy is that your enemy is also doing the same damn thing back to you! So generally you have two sides fighting small little battles hoping to catch the other in a devastating maneuver crushing their army, all the while hoping to avoid having the same thing done to them!

Which brings us to the Massacre at Black Cliff.  You can tell from the name of it, that it wasn't exactly a small battle with limited casualties. It was the battle thats noted for "winning the war" but the cost was fairly high for the Guard forces.  Black cliff, is technically a canyon with a gully (so like most things incorrectly named, it should be Black Gully).  There is a river running down the middle of it, and during the rainy season the canyon itself is flooded.  Not exactly a tourist destination, but a good place for merchants to hold up in a storm.  The cliffs themselves are difficult to scale and full of loose rocks for people to slip and fall to their deaths on, which made it not an ideal spot for an ambush, or at least appear not to be one anyway.

Preceeding the massacre the Red Hand had just routed the Guard at a nearby township, or I should they thought they had. Again setting up a crushing victory requires sacrifice and so the Guard came up with the ultimate gambit, they sacrificed a large number of soldiers in a pointless battle to bring the Red Hand running towards Black Cliff (in pursuit).  And while the Guard was suffering casualties the Followers of Fire had not and were ringed around the entire cliff with some of their best sharp shooters ready to rain down death (brought to you by Hanlon's new super accurate rifle) on everyone in the canyon.  On top of that, the river in the canyon had been doused with flammable liquid, that the Red Hand forces were splooshing their way through after the Guard forces (and wouldn't you know it there was a fire magical user nearby to ignite all those freshly dosed people...). 

To call it a massacre is understating things.  The entire Red Hand force was trapped in a canyon of death, and annihilated.  Much of the Guard force in the Canyon also suffered high casualties as well (due to the chaos and the flammable liquid, but they went in there knowing that would happen). Any Red Hand forces attempting to flee were met by a reserve of Guard forces also armed with Hanlon weaponry. Overall this was the battle that won the war.  It took a long time and a lot of dead people, but it was all over.

I was delighted I'd get to go home, unfortunately thats where my troubles began, and how I wound up in the damned Guard terroties subject to ridiculous rules! Its funny how often my life goes from joy to suck!  I'D LAUGH IF I DIDN'T CRY ALL THE TIME!