Liberation of Aurelia

The Liberation of Aurelia is an engagement in the Rys-Nevrakis Conflict in which Queen Kenna Rys liberated the city of Aurelia from the Military occupation of Prince Marco and a small Nevrakis army.

Prelude
After gaining a lot of soldiers from Severin's mercenary camp, Queen Kenna discovers that they have have a problem. They need to find a great amount of coin in order to afford better weapons and armors for her soldiers, since Marco's army has way better equipment than her. Val tells her of the legend of the Gilded City of Aurelia, a city with riches beyond imagination, and also offers to lead Kenna to the city.

Kenna, Leon, Gabriel, Val and a small army of Stormholt soldiers march through the forest to the base of a mountain range. After clearing a pile of boulders, they find a secret passage inside the mountain. When they enter, they find a guardpost at the outer edge of the city. Two Aurelian Guards notice Kenna and her party, they immediately stop them and demand them to state their intentions. Kenna explains that they wish to form an alliance and that their leader will surely want to hear her out. The guards allow to let Kenna in, but they will only permit entry to Kenna and her allies, her soldiers have to stay behind. They also have to hand over their weapons.

The guards lead Kenna and her friends into the golden hall of Aurelia where they find Annelyse Adair, the Ruler of Aurelia. Kenna states that she wishes to forge an alliance with Aurelia, but Annelyse doesn't think that joining a war will make the nobles of Aurelia happy, and that they would probably revolt if Annelyse were to agree to such an alliance. However, she still offers Kenna and her party to stay for the celebrations.

The next morning, Kenna heads to the Banquet Hall where she finds Annelyse sitted on the main table. Kenna joins her and Annelyse says that she hopes Kenna has a magnificent time the day prior, but she also says that unfortunately, they won't be having fun today. Annelyse states that she's sorry and that she did what she did only to protect her city. Suddenly, the doors to the hall are thrown open, and Prince Marco and a group of Nevrakis soldiers enter the hall. The soldiers surround Kenna and her allies. Kenna asks Annelyse why she did this. Annelyse explains that Marco threatened to destroy Aurelia if she didn't betray Kenna.

Annelyse approaches Marco and tells him that everything will go back to normal when he and his men leave. However, Marco states that he doesn't intend to leave. In fact, he plans to conquer Aurelia and add it to his rule by marrying Annelyse. Annelyse is furious and says that this wasn't part of their deal, but Marco backfires by saying that, if she doesn't comply, he's going to have her executed.

Escaping Aurelia
A few hours later, Kenna was forced to celebrate Marco's engagement party, while a dozen of Nevrakis guards watch her closely. Kenna asks Marco if that's the way he makes friends, but he aggressively replies by commanding her to be quiet, and that if she just had the guts for it, Aurelia could have been hers to command. Kenna backfires by saying that she's not like Marco, she doesn't need slaves to do her fighting.

Marco then commands Kenna to pour some wine for him. While she does that, Marco knocks his cup over, spilling wine on the floor. He orders Kenna to clean everything up, but then Kenna notices Raydan out of the corner of her eye. In order to get him closer, Kenna distracts Marco with a fake marriage proposal. Marco in incredibly confused, but before he can react, Raydan kills two guards with his daggers, seizing on Marco's shock. Kenna, Annelyse and her friends escape the banquet hall. Together, they all rush towards the narrow path leading out of the city.

Later, at Kenna's camp, Leon briefs Kenna's soldiers on what happened in Aurelia. Kenna stands on a fallen tree and makes a speech to her men. She tells them that Marco has taken over Aurelia, and that if they don't retake the city, in the coming Battle for Stormholt he's going to be invincible. Her army is clearly moved and they all start chanting her name. Now that her army has been encouraged enough, there was only one thing left to do, taking back the city.

The Battle
Since a direct attack could give Marco enough time to run away, Raydan and Annelyse tell Kenna about a secret passage into the gold mines below the city, where she can sneak inside with her army and land a surprise attack on the Nevrakis forces. Annelyse promises that if Kenna helps her liberate Aurelia, she's going to fully support her army with enough coin to feed her men and give them better weapons and armors.

Later that evening, Kenna, her army and her companions are walking through the dark mines below Aurelia. Raydan tells Kenna about Aurelia's mines and reveals that they haven't been mining only gold inside these mines, they were also mining an unique ore, used to craft Golden Mountain Fangs, blades capable of slicing through almost anything. He also says that Annelyse has some of these blades in her armory.

After rounding a corner, Kenna and her friends come face to face with a bear. The beast growls and slowly approaches them, Kenna notices that the bear has a jagged thorn stuck on one of its paws. She realizes that the bear is probably hostile just because it's in pain, so she can choose to slowly approach it in order to help, or tell Leon to kill it. Should the player choose to help the bear, Kenna holds up her hand so that the bear can sniff it. The bear is still visibly aggressive, but Kenna manages to quickly remove the thorn from the bear's paw. The bear roars in pain and almost claws Kenna. Her men rush in to protect her but she commands them to stand down. She touches the bear's nose and looks deep into its eyes. The bear understands Kenna's intentions and nuzzles her hand affectionately. After naming the bear, Kenna resumes walking through the mines, now with the bear beside her.

Shortly after, they reach a wooden hatch that leads to the city gardens. Raydan pushes the hatch aside and looks outside. He sees only two guards and states that they both need to get killed, otherwise they will sound the alarm. Kenna and Raydan sneak outside in order to take the guards down. Kenna gets behind a guard and hits him, but her blow doesn't deal any damage. She realizes that the soldier's armor is reinforced, while the soldier approaches her with his weapon drawn. She sees a statue holding a Golden Mountain Fang and can choose to take it. If she does, she swiftly snatches and swings it at the soldier who parries with his sword, but the sword breaks in half. The soldier is stunned but he tries to kill Kenna with his bare hands. However, before he can do anything, Kenna easily decapitates him.

Suddenly a Nevrakis Archer appears and hits Gabriel in the leg, but Raydan quickly kills him before he can fire another arrow. After dealing with the Nevrakis Guard, Kenna and her soldiers head towards the Banquet Hall of Aurelia. Kenna and her party sneak inside the Hall where they find Prince Marco, drunk, and Helene Leventis, who immediately senses that someone is watching them. Leon shows himself and is impressed by Helene's acute perception, but still, he challenges her to an one-on-one duel in order to allow Kenna to deal with Marco. A Stormholt soldier charges Marco, but he swiftly gets up from his seat and impales the soldier in the neck with his sword.

Marco tries to escape but Kenna chases him down until he finally stops, so they can duel. Marco manages to hold his own for a while, but Kenna gains the upper hand, but before she can finish him off, Helene shields Marco with her own body. A group of Nevrakis Soldiers get between Kenna and her army so that they can't reach Marco. Meanwhile, Helene safely escorts Marco away from Aurelia. Kenna, her army and The Bear (determinant) slaughter the remaining Nevrakis Soldiers left in the Banquet Hall, and shortly after, they gain their first real victory against the Nevrakis Family.

Aftermath
After the battle, Annelyse announces her citizens that the city has been freed from Marco Nevrakis's hold. She thanks Kenna for her help and tells her that her city coudn't be saved without her precious help. She also enlists 500 Aurelian Warriors to Kenna's army and provides her with a very large amount of gold, that she can spend in order to buy better weapons, armors, shields and food for her army. Additionally, she gives some of her Golden Mountain Fangs to some of her soldiers as a gift. However, she has one condition: she wants to travel with Kenna until she gets her revenge on Marco. Kenna tries to change her mind, but it's useless.

Later, inside Aurelia's Banquet, Kenna, her advisors and Annelyse plan for the coming battle to reclaim Stormholt. Leon points out that Stormholt's wall are incredibly thick and that they are going to need siege weapons. Raydan has the solution on this matter: he reveals that there is an hidden city in the desert, ruled by The Technocrats, a society of inventors, and that having a siege weapon crafted by them could seriously turn the tide of battle to their favor. Gabriel wants to head out for The Technocrats immediately, but his leg is still injured from his fight against that Nevrakis Archer. Kenna tells him to stay in Aurelia and recover since someone has to stay back and spend Annelyse's gold. He reluctantly complies.