King Carloman III ordered the invasion of Cambria in the year 67 of the Cambrian calendar,
it is thought partly as a result of the Pelorean Church in Reetland canonising
St. James, who Carloman saw as a rebel, the previous year.
He and his military commanders assumed their would be little effective resistance to their
annexation of Cambria, a nation which he was assured 'had no regular troops and no generals'.
The Reetland army, on the other hand, was well drilled and its tactics were well rehearsed in defending
its eastern border.
At first all went well as the expeditionary force marched through towns and villages with
little resistance, replacing the mayors of the larger towns with military commanders and
small forces of troops to back them up. Eadric who led the force was somewhat disconcerted to find the
gates of Brimingstone shut, however, as he had hoped this town which had existed before the founding of
Cambria would be sympathetic to his cause. His force was delayed by 2 days before a combination
of threats and diplomacy gave him access to the town. The mayor with whom relations thawed
over time informed him that the Cambrian army was nearby in the hills and that he was unlikely
to reach Pell's Hold without battle. This news pleased Eadric who above all wanted to deploy
his troops in the kind of set battle in which their experience and discipline would excel.
As Eadric marched on, however, he received the first indication that all was not going as well as
he hoped. The scouts that he sent out to ascertain the exact position of the Cambrian army did
not return. Then he received word that the Elves of Silverwood had declared their support
for Cambria and cut off the road back to Reetland. Shutting the latter incident from
his mind he continued marching east only to find discover that the Cambrian army was
shadowing his movement on the other side of the River Glest. Eadric
unsuccesful attempted to force a passage over the river to engage the enemy losing many men. News from the east (conveyed
by pigeon) dried up. Morale began to plummit as the barely seen enemy,
whose numbers were not well understood, preyed on the nerves of his troops and occasionally shot volleys of arrows
from out of the woods where the trees came down to the riverbank. The ability of
the Cambrians to move through woodland at the same speed as a marching army was also
disconcerting.
Although his commanders and clerics had been picked for their loyalty to the king many
of the rank and file were either openly Pelorean or had some sympathy for their cause
and a trickle of desertions began.
Some of the enemy seemed to have slipped across the river and ambushes were becoming
more common. The Cambrians refused to engage in pitch battle, however, although their
bow fire was unnnervingly accurate and they had the knack of
slipping back into the surrounding woods rather than face melee combat. It was coming increasing clear
that some of Eadric's
troops had had enough and the rate of desertions increased.
Eadric nevertheless pressed on to Pell's Hold hoping that the more open terrain around that city
would gives his troops the advantage. At the Shuddering Falls he halted his troops
for the night feeling that another good days march would take him to more
favourable terrain but unwilling to march further due to a tricky winding ascent ahead.
The Cambrians, however, chose to reveal their positions overnight
by lighting camp fires on the hills to the north and south as well as those directly
ahead. A conservative estimate suggested that their numbers were three times those
of the Reetlanders (although it is also said that the Cambrians deliberately lit far more
fires than they needed to). In the morning
St. Olwyn rode into Eadric's camp
under a flag of truce and explained that all of the towns 'captured' by the
Reetlanders had in fact been already liberated. The terrain ahead made the next
few miles of road a killing ground and that the only way for the Reetland army to retreat
lay across
country to the south or via a long contested march back to the Reetland border. Were he by some miracle
to fight his way through to Pell's Hold he would find that a Dwarven arny had already reinforced the garrison
there.
Realising that he had completely underestimated his enemy and seeing (probably quite accurately) that his cause was hopeless
Eadric surrendered
on condition of safe passage for his troops.
It is said that the failure of this war led to civil strife in Reetland and the
end of the
Caravingian Kings