Sack of Marienburg

The Sack of Marienburg was a battle that occurred in XI, 181 (2344 IC) between the retaliating High Elves and the city of Marienburg.

Guided by luck more than judgement, Otto Steinroth -- the infamous Red Pirate of Marienburg -- led a mighty fleet through Ulthuan's mist. His wolf-prowed ships laid waste to teh city of Sardenath and his crews plundered its treasures. Thus did Steinroth's ships depart for home far wealthier than they had arrived.

With these deeds did the Red Pirate bring woe upon the city of Marienburg, for he earned the wrath of Sea Lord Aislinn, whose fleet had come to Sardenath's aid too late. Aislinn's ships were swift, and could easily have overtaken the Red Pirate and destroyed him at sea, but the Sea Lord was determined to set an example not soon forgotten by the upstart race of Man. So it was that he shadowed Steinroth's ships across the stormy seas, using every ounce of nautical cunning at his command to remain undetected. Only when the Red Pirate's fleet was berthed once more alongside Marienburg's Guilderveld docks did Aislinn strike.

As the battle began, the gunners in Marienburg's coastal fortresses -- long practiced though they were at repelling raids from Bretonnia and Norsca -- found their aim cheated by an inexplicable mist that swept over the Reiksmouth the instant the first shot was fired. Under cover of the mist, the High Elf fleet took up blockade formation and began bombardment of teh port. Aislinn's flagship, the Brinedragon, its gunwales filled to bursting with the finest warriors of Lothern, sailed full into the harbour and disgorged its troops along the dockside. Had the Marienburgers known the reason for Aislinn's attack, they might well have stood aside and allowed his vengeance to proceed unimpeded, the better to end the blockade of their city. As it was, they knew only that their home was afire, and that Elven warriors marched in their streets. Thus, Aislinn's warriors found their path to Steinroth's wolfprows blocked not only by the Red Pirate's rough curs, bu some of Nordland's finest troops.

So began a confused battle along the dockside. The Elves had the better of it from the start, for the mist was their making and thus little impediment to their eyes. It was soon too much for the Red Pirate's men, who had no taste for fighting on the losing side. When Steinroth himself was cut down by Aislinn's blade, the survivors threw down their blades and dove into the water to escape. Yet there was no escape there from Aislinn's keen-eyed archers. The will of the pirates might have been broken, but the soldiers of Marienburg fought with all the desperation of men defending their home. Handguns coughed and boomed as Nordland marksmen vainly searched for targets in the mist. The harbour rang with the clash of steel upon steel as halberdiers and swordsmen sought to drive the Elves from the quayside. Yet they fought in vain. Little by little, the High Elves scoured the docks about the wolfprows. As the Lothern Sea Guard formed spear-walls to secure the quayside, other Elves boarded the wolfprows and retrieved all that was truly valuable: books of ancient lore, sceptres and circlets of rule and the weapons of Sardenath's princes.

Then, at Aislinn's command, the Elves retreated to the Brinedragon, taking with them not only their dead, but also a large number of (extremely vocal) Elven merchants whose stores of fine wine and eastern silks would now have to be abandoned -- no Elf could hope to remain free in Marienburg after that day's deeds.

As Aislinn's flagship rejoined his fleet, he turned back towards Marienburg with narrowed eyes. He gave a sharp nod to the mages assembled upon the foredeck, and they called down a conflagration of living flame upon the dockside. The fires quickly spread from ship to jetty, and from jetty to warehouse, consuming all in their path. By the time the Brinedragon had reached open sea, all Marienburg's merchant fleet -- and much of the city's hoarded wealth -- had been reduced to ashes upon the wind.

Aislinn returned to mixed a reception on Ulthuan. The kin of those slain at Sardenath hailed him as a hero, as did those princes who believed the power of the High Elves should be felt more keenly in other lands. Many others -- especially those who had benefited greatly from trade with Marienburg -- declaimed Aislinn's actions as unnecessarily ruthless and nothing short of declaration of war. In the months following the sack of Marienburg, the Sea Lord's standing at court diminished almost to nothing -- a situation not helped by Aislinn prosecuting new campaigns of reciprocity against Norscan settlements. Ironically, the same actions that isolated the Sea Lord amongst the courts of Ulthuan soon drew him closer to the Phoenix King, for Finubar saw a ruthlessness in Aislinn that Ulthuan could ill afford to lose.

Source
pg. 31
 * Warhammer Armies: High Elves (8th Edition)