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Ungatt Trunn is the main antagonist of Lord Brocktree, the thirteenth book in the Redwall novel series. He is the son of King Mortspear, brother of Verdauga Greeneyes, uncle of Tsarmina Greeneyes and Gingivere Greeneyes, and a distant relative of Squire Julian Gingivere and the brutish and sadistic warlord leader of a vast army he calls the Blue Horde, which he calls the Master Race, whom he uses to lead conquests on all sorts of places while massacring and enslaving those he deems to be of the lesser orders. Eventually, he comes across Salamandastron which he leads a conquest on before later meeting his end at the mountain's next heir for Badger Lord, Brocktree.
Biography[]
As the son of King Mortspear and brother of Verdauga Greeneyes, Ungatt Trunn was initially due to accept the Highland Kingdom when his father dies. However, Ungatt Trunn hated his family and had a considerable ego, deeming himself to be too fierce and strong to accept the kingdom and viewing his brother as a wandering robber dreaming of conquering some castle. He instead had his own ambitions to establish his own realm and rule it from a mountain that is greater than any other, which he firmly believes to be his destiny. As such, he abandons his homeland to fulfill said ambitions. At some point, he would form a gigantic horde that he called the Blue Horde and would lead. He would deem himself and his horde the Master Race and far more superior than any other creature. Commanding the Blue Horde, he would lead conquests on various places where he would slaughter and enslave creatures he deems to be of the lesser orders.
One of them involved the North Mountains where he would slay the hares and drive them from their home while having Bucko Bigbones, one of the surviving hares, be flogged by his Captain in Chief in all the wildcat's vast armada, Karangool. Another instance involved him slaying the family of a fox named Groddil, whom he would cripple and force to serve in his army as a grand magician, something he would cruelly taunt him about from time to time. Another one would involve having his vermin commandeer the best two ships of a group of sea otters down the coast. He would then get more creatures in his army like the Grand Fragorl and various searats who had lived their lives as corsairs like Ripfang and Doomeye. He would make a collection of skulls of some of the creatures he had slain as shown with an otter, whose skull he used to drink wine out of. In his stateroom would be thick chains, deep copper bowls that containted fire that burned blue and gave off a heavy lilav-colored smoke, oppressive heat, rotting flesh, and huge cobwebs with spiders that Trunn would usually observ
Eventually, Trunn comes across Salamandastron and has the Grand Fragorl and some of the Blue Horde go over to deliver a message to its badger lord, Stonepaw, telling him and his hares that all of these lands and the seas are his property and that they have until nightfall to vacate this place while leaving everything behind, including any serving beasts who are of use, or die. Stonepaw merely tells her to deliver his message to Trunn that he is accustomed to the blowing of windbags as he will find to his cost if he lands here. When she arrived in his stateroom, Groddil spoke a quote of praise to Ungatt while the Grand Fragorl finished it before she informed him of what Stonepaw had said and Trunn dismisses her. Turning to Groddil, Trunn has him reread his prophecy before demanding that he explain it like several times before. Groddil translated it, once again angering Trunn who threatened to kill him and dance on his grave if he fails him and demands he tell him about the badger lord. Groddil, despite knowing Trunn wouldn't slay him due to how valuable he is, explains that he is as his Fragorl described, but this only angers Trunn further. When Trunn tells him about the badger lord in his dreams being a badger of middle seasons with the mark of a warrior stamped on him and to explain it, Groddil merely tells him that it must be just a dream, followed up by Trunn threatening him again.
Ungatt Trunn later proceeds to lead his Blue Horde onto the shores of Salamandastron armed in masses and goes up to the rocky fortress himself with twoscore soldiers and Groddil holding a torch in his paw where he stares up at Stonepaw in his room in armor. He arrogantly tells him that since he chooses to remain, it will be his death not his to which Stonepaw replied by standing up to him. Angered, Trunn has Fragorl materialize out of the night and demonstrate how he always speaks the truth by creating an illusion that makes it look like the stars are falling from the sky as he says through having every beast of the horde onshore and every craeture crowding the decks of the hovering ships light their torches carried specifically for this purpose so that the land would appear ablazed and the intensity of light below would create a black void in the sky with no stars visible before Groddil has some guards yell of his success, shocking every hare on the mountain. After a whisperered conference with Groddil, Trunn declares to Stonepaw that now that he has witnessed his power, he will have his Blue Hordes camp on his doorstep and make the earth shake when dawn comes as he will have him reap the penalty now that he didn't retreat from the mountain before marching off back to his ship. A bit later, he comes hurrying from his cabin when the hares roared their battlecry to which Groddil scoffs at and Trunn dismisses, knowing they're trying to let them know they aren't scared either, not fearing this since they aren't enough in number to match them one to one.
In the dawn, Trunn notices while standing on a rock beside Groddil and his Grand Fragorl that his horde is in such great numbers that the sand is unable to be seen, pointing this out to the Grand Fragorl and Groddil, whom he calls out for missing another trick before explaining that he can make the land disappear while insulting him when Groddil doesn't understand. Groddil points out that Stonepaw doesn't bother to appear to witness his power to which Trunn explains that it is a mere ploy commanders of armies use upon one another and he is trying to fray his temper by keeping him waiting before insulting him even further and taunting him about slaying his family, having Groddil lower his head and thank him for sparing his life every day since. Trunn then mocks him even further by declaring that he must have damaged his brain when he crippled his back just as Stonepaw shows up at his window, getting Trunn's attention as he doesn't notice the hate-laden glance Groddil shot at him. After conversing with Stonepaw, Trunn proceeds to have his horde make it look like the earth is trembling by jumping up and down in perfect unison chanting his name, increasing their speed as Fragorl waved her banner, causing water to splash high on the tideline and clouds of sand to rise. After they stopped, Trunn brags about his ability before ordering Stonepaw to throw down his arms and come out to which Stonepaw replied by throwing a big war javelin at Ungatt Trunn, prompting his ranks to close around him as one, transfixed, fell dead with another behind him sorely wounded, officially declaring war. Ungatt Trunn then has his horde engage the hares in a bloody battle that gets many of them killed and the mountain conquered, leading to Trunn and some of the hares to go into the lower mountain passages and chambers.
As the conquest proceeded while being led by his officers, Trunn sat closeted in his humid stateroom observing the spiders pursuing and killing flies and has yet again another dream of a badger lord different from the one whose mountain he was conquering, being big, strong, and forbidding with his face being wreathed in a blur of mist surrounded by an army, trying to concentrate his thoughts on him. Hearing his voice, Groddil and Fragorl went to his door and asked if he wished for them to attend him before Trunn prowled out onto the deck in his armor and asks them how his conquest of the mountain goes with Fragorl assuring that he'll be enthroned within it by nightfall as the horde is already battering down its gates. Ungatt Trunn then commands them to bring a boat so that they will go ashore. Once they arrive, a female rat captain named Mirefleck informs him of two rats, Ripfang and Doomeye, from the seas having heard of Trunn's fame and wishing to join his Blue Hordes before the two show themselves as Fragorl tells them the terms of their service. After they introduce themselves and pledge their service to Ungatt Trunn, Fragorl held a small whispered conference with Trunn before accepting them into the army, telling them that beasts with skill with arms and useful in battle are welcome to the Blue Hordes and ordering them to put aside their weapons and come with her, fulfilling the instructions required for them to join.
Soon, Ungatt Trunn's conquest of Salamandastron would be complete as his Blue Hordes have burned and battered the gate down and slain many of the hares and the Badger Lord's great chair is brought out from the dining hall onto the beach where he sat watching smoke come from the windows while his officers, including a captain named Swinch, made their reports. Fragorl then praises Trunn when they reported that his victory is complete, though Trunn gets infuriated by her calling him "son of King Mortspear" to which he takes great offense at being called due to carving his own path and conquering for himself, leading to him strangling her and threatening to kill her by means of dying slowly over a fire if she ever calls him that again and ordering her to erase Mortspear's name from his list of titles before releasing her. Captain Swinch then continues his report, informing him that seventy-two of the hares are dead and sixty-two of them are captured awaiting Trunn's judgement. Remembering that his scouts that watched the mountain reported at least a hundred and a half of the hares, Trunn questions Groddil while stepping on his tail where Stonepaw is, shouting his last words at him before kicking him and sending him sprawling while ranting that he must be alive inside the mountain with a faithful few around him. Trunn then orders him to find him and bring the badger flat on his muzzle in front of him and the last of his hares alive or dead and to take some hordebeasts with him to search every crack or hiding place inside the mountain, with Groddil signaling to Captain Swinch to bring his soldiers as he scrambled off through Salamandastron's broken gates and following his command, proceeding to search the lower passages with them while having some of them get more torches and vittles.
Their search wouldn't be successful initially as Stonepaw manages to remain unseen with his hares by their troops in the dark while remaining quiet and manage to avoid them albeit starving in the process. They do, however, manage to get food by taking some from a couple of rats, Rotface and Grinak whom Stiffener, one of the boxing hares, along with other hares knocked out and survive with this. In the meantime, Ungatt Trunn took up residence in the mountain, enjoying the view from Stonepaw's chamber and sprawled on the bed while drinking the badger's best mountain ale and eating a savory cheese and onion flan from Blench's kitchen. Grand Fragorl then comes in with Groddil, Captain Swinch, Rotface, and Grinak being ushered in by a stoat Captain Fraul. Rising from his bed, he circles them slowly as they tremble and asks what their news are, blatantly admitting he suspects it's not good. After Captain Swinch reports that they were unsuccessful in finding the badger and his hares and has Rotface and Grinak explain what happened to them, Trunn proceeds to violently kill them by sinking his claws into their shoulders and snapping their necks before heaving their carcasses out of the wide window, doing all of this with surprising calmness. He then turns to Groddil and Swinch and orders them to return to their task tomorrow at first light and to take as many to assist them as they wish, threatening to kill them if they return empty-handed like the two rats he just killed, even emphasizing this by declaring that their deaths will take the best part of a season as an example to all. Before they leave the door, however, for his own amusement while under the pretext of their failures, he has Captain Fraul staked them out on the shore below where he can see them from the window, deprive them of food and water, and have two strong soldiers torture them by beating them with the flats of their own sword blades and to lay on hard before releasing them tomorrow to continue their search. He proceeds to watch as Ripfang and Doomeye, who were selected, carry out the punishment sadistically after he signals them with a wave of his paw while listening to their screams.
Turning from the window and going to the dining hall with his Grand Fragorl hurrying behind, he watches as Captain Roag has her Hordebeasts herd sixty captive hares into a corner before reporting that they await his judgement. The Grand Fragorl proceeds to address her master's words to the prisoners, telling them they live now only to serve him in slavery and that if their work is not satisfactory, one of them will be hurled from the top of the mountain each day. One of the hares, Sailears, in response to this cries out that they hope to live to see Ungatt Trunn chucked from the mountain, leading to a rat striking her inthe face with a spear butt before preparing to finish her off only for Trunn to stop him and order him to leave the creature be. He then approaches Sailears, saying that he wishes his creatures had spirit like hers and asking what creates such bravery and loyalty to the badger, getting in response from Sailears that he wouldn't know nor understand. Trunn admits that all he knows about is conquest and that he rules through fear, not affection before wagering she knows where the badger is at the moment with Sailears merely maintaining a defiant silence. Shaking his head admirably, Trunn comments on how he can see that she does and would more than likely rather die than tell him like all her comrades, though it is no matter to him as he'll find him before reinforcing that they are his slaves and are his prisoners until death. Sailears only places one paw against her head and the other over her heart and smilingly telling him that he's lost if that's what he thinks and that they are free in their minds and their hearts before the prisoners all shout their battlecry. Angered, Ungatt Trunn has the Grand Fragorl announce his decree that all of them starve for the next two days before having them be taken away and locked up. Instead, however, the hares form themselves into ranks and march off to their prison cave much to Trunn's further anger as he comments on them being fools. He then walks down to Groddil and Swinch and awakens them by pouring seawater over their head as they moan in pain, ordering them to find the stripedog. Before he could threaten any further, the vision of the other badger invaded his thoughts again, shaking his confidence.
With his soldiers requiring a lot of feeding, Ungatt Trunn plans to put them out to sea for fishing the next day, though some soldiers believe they're wasting their time since they killed off the seabirds out at sea before they got here and the rest flew off. He still occasionally carries on about Stonepaw and his followers hiding in the cellar caves, planning to have them die long and slow while trying to starve the captured hares up above so that sooner or later one of them will break and tell him where the badger has hidden himself. It's made clear that he would give them a long and slow fate once the badger and the others have been found as they would serve of no use to him anymore. As they pass through the chambers, Ungatt Trunn emerged with Fragorl at his heels and orders them to take all their troops down to the bottom caves and flood them and the passages with Hordebeasts to snare Stonepaw and some of his hares, declaring that he wants them taken at any cost and not to fail him. After they march off shouting orders to their column leaders, Trunn gives Fragorl a task to take whom she likes and find him some new spiders to bring to him in the badger lord's chamber so that they can build webs there and redecorate it for him with her doing just that. They eventually manage to find a hare named Purrlow, who was holding a torch while wandering the cave, and two horderats chase him down and get on him before Stonepaw, noticing this, dispatched both of them by smashing them head-on against the rock walls, causing the other vermin to discover the cave they were hiding in as well and pursuing them.
After a while of chasing them, however, Stonepaw proceeds to engage in battle against them while having Stiffener, who initially wanted to fight by his side only not to on Stonepaw's orders, help the rest of the hares escape through a ceiling hole. While the rats would temporarily overpower him at first using a net with lumps of stone tied to its edges as weights, Stonepaw would persistently rise up and attack Captain Swinch while setting the entrance on fire using a barrel of lamp oil and torches. He would use the net to capture three while holding four on his own to take to the edge of the bottomless poll with him, sacrificing his life to take them out and save the hares of his mountain. Ungatt Trunn would learn of Groddil, Fraul, and Mirefleck's failures to capture the hares and bring Stonepaw to him alive and despite not showing it, he was infuriated by this. As they lay flat on their faces in front of him, Trunn threatens Fraul with execution so that the flies would feed off his remains and get themselves devoured by spiders that would catch them while eating him in a roundabout way, expresses disappointment in Mirefleck as he assumed he was a good captain albeit telling him there may be time for him to reflect on his stupidity, and berates Groddil as the fox had ordered for Stonepaw to be killed in spite of Trunn's orders to capture him for him alive and for allowing the remaining hares to escape while asking him where they went to to which Groddil responded that they couldn't find a trace in spite of how long and hard they searched.
Disregarding the fox, Ungatt Trunn turns his attention to Ripfang and Doomeye and promotes them to captain while demoting Mirefleck and Fraul, having them exchange uniforms with the two rats and making them their servants to bring them food, carry out their wishes, and keep both their accommodations and their kit clean while permitting them to treat them as harshly as they please. Before dismissing them, Trunn assigns Mirefleck and Fraul with Groddil to stay down there until they capture the hares or at least find out how they escaped while tasking Ripfang and Doomeye to take an escort to guard them, telling them that each day they aren't successful in their task, they will be flogged with willow canes and starved while tauntingly telling them there's plenty of water there and they won't get thirsty. After they leave, Trunn expresses sadistic enjoyment in the sentence he gave them to the Grand Fragorl, bragging about how they seemed relieved when he spared and humiliated them before looking blank when he sentenced them to a living death, telling her that pleasure comes through power and power is everything. Unbeknownst to him, Ripfang and Doomeye had killed Mirefleck for their own amusement while Groddil and Fraul would escape later on albeit with Fraul dying due to being killed by spider crabs while Groddil escaped on a floating piece of wood to another island, swearing to himself that he'd return to Salamandastron to exact revenge on Ungatt Trunn.
Later on, Trunn has Ripfang and Doomeye, who had killed Mirefleck for their own amusement while on guard of them, be summoned to him and asks them about their times as searats, including questions about whether they ever encountered a badger with a double-hilted sword on his back in their travels to which they denied, leading to Trunn dismissing them. Soon, supplies would run low, leading to theft occurring amongst Trunn's Horderats, causing four of them to be brought over to Trunn by Karangool, the Captain in Chief in all the wildcat's vast armada who was a disciplinarian that lived by his master's rules and laws and allowed very little aboard the ships to escape his keen notice, under the charge of catching fish and keeping it for themselves to eat while roped together by a thick line about their necks. As they were knelt before him, Ungatt Trunn questions them if they know his law about what they do with any fish with Karangool forcing one of them to answer and the rat affirming it. When Trunn asks why they disobeyed him, another responded that they didn't have food for two days and were hungry. Smiling at the opportunity to punish them, Trunn berates them before beckoning the Grand Fragorl to give orders to all his captains to host an execution for the four of them the next day in front of his hordes to make an example of them. After they departed, Trunn asked Karangool if talk of mutiny was happening amongst the ships to which Karangool replied that there wasn't yet before Trunn has him follow him upon coming up with a solution to their predicament. They go to the prison the hares were in where Trunn subtly suggests to Karangool that they cannibalize the hares with Karangool taking him up on the offer before they exit to make preparations by having the captains send Ripfang and Doomeye to pick a nice fat one while they prepare the cooking pots for the next day. However, the hares manage to escape with the help of the other hares lead by Stiffener and the otters whom Trunn had stolen ships from.
The next day, Ungatt Trunn discovers their escape and stares blankly at the empty prison before angrily ordering the Grand Fragorl, the guard captain, and a patrol of Hordebeasts standing apprehensively in the passage to go scour the countryside, send vessels to search the waters and coast north and south from there, but not before having them come down to the shore to watch the four rats he sentenced be executed and threatening to give them a worse fate for them for letting the sixty hares escape. Karangool then comes in and reports to Trunn of two soldiers that found sentries who deserted, unaware that they were overcome by the hares and got their armour taken, and that they were found around the mountain. Trunn in response orders Karangool to have the two sentries be tied up with the four to be executed and to ensure that Fragorl informs everybeast why they must pay the penalty before asking Karangool what he did before he sailed for him. Karangool informs him that he was a corsair long ago, leading Trunn to ask him if he ever came across a badger with Karangool revealing he only came across a badger one time, a female one that he had slain. Losing interest in the conversation, Trunn heads down to the execution site, mumbling to himself towards the badger in his visions by telling him that they will meet and that he will see what a wildcat looks like before he dies, unaware that the badger was Brocktree and assembling an army elsewhere of squirrels and hares ruled over by Bucko Bigbones.
Eventually, his horderats would be regularly robbed by a group of bandits called the Bark Crew, who were really the escaped hares disguised as bandits to get suppliles from them for themselves, and have them march straight to the sea, wade into the sea up their necks, and go to the mountain to report to Trunn that this was the work of the Bark Crew and deliver insults to him. After one of the times when this happened, Ungatt Trunn spoke to Karangool about them needing wicked captains, cruel evil creatures who bend the rules to suit themselves and asks him if searats and corsairs were always like that with Karangool sadistically grinning while telling him how he sailed with bad ones back then. Trunn then ordered Fragorl to have the guards bring him Ripfang and Doomeye, whom he had earlier stripped of their rank and imprisoned in the dungeons for letting the hares escape, and to fetch food from the kitchens. After they were brought to him, Trunn had them be unchained before offering them food from his tray which contained a flagon of damson wine and the last of the fruit scones of Blench, the former hare cook at the mountain, having Karangool sip from the flagon and bite off a piece of scone to prove they're not poisoned. While they ate, Trunn discussed with them about how he knew all along that they killed Groddil and the other two for some reason best known to themselves and that he could have had them be executed but instead chose to have them locked up and starved until he decided what to do with them. He then asks them if they've killed a few in their seasons as searats with Ripfang telling him that he and Doomeye killed about anything that moved, all types of beasts, young, old, males, or females and slew them any way they could before Trunn tells them to listen to him if they want to keep eating food like that and be promoted back to captains before explaining it to them.
Later, prowling into Salamandastron's dining hall while followed by Fragorl carrying her master's plate, Trunn takes the plate from her and shoved the platter under the cook's nose, asking him what the poorly made food on it is. The cook explains that it is all they had left ever since he had the Fragorl take the last of the food stuff up to his chamber and that he had to drain the wine kegs to fill a pitcher in spite of the scones being stale as they were all he had left. Staring around at the deserted tables as the cook continued to explain that there's nothing to serve the beasts due to the Bark Crew's interference, Ungatt Trunn ordered him to stop babbling and keep his voice down, promising that there will be plenty of food the next day. He then marches hurriedly from the dining hall into a torchlit passage leading out to the shore where he comes across a shadow that resembled that of the badger in his visions. The shadow, however, turned out to be a couple of gaunt rats rounding the corner carrying three driftwood spars lashed together before they noticed Ungatt Trunn and saluted him while dropping the contraption. Trembling, Trunn hysterically shouted at them to burn the contraption before sweeping by them on his way to the shore, knocking them down. Then, sitting on the sand, he reminisces over how the specter of the badger looming in his mind was growing larger before staring disdainfully at the Grand Fragorl, asking her what he has to say for herself, berating her for saying nothing as it's all she ever says, and ordering her to get out of his sight. Trunn would be implied to go a little mad, laughing bitterly and talking aloud to himself.
When the Bark Crew tried to rob more searats again, Ripfang leads an ambush on them and forces the rats to chase them, getting some of the Bark Crew injured. While this was going on, Ungatt Trunn discovered that one of his captains had come across a hidden cupboard in the larders containing three casks of aged rose and greengage wine and donated two of the casks to be shared among his horde captains while keeping the remaining one for himself, drinking it all afternoon. He proceeds to fall asleep, initially dreaming about how proud he is of conquering a mighty mountain like Salamandastron before the vision altered to yet another dream about the Badger Lord smothering him, causing Trunn to panic. The Grand Fragorl arrived and removed the blanket from his head only for Trunn to catch her a blow that sent her spinning across the room and rip and shred the homely blanket from his head before sitting up panting with a headache. He berates Fragorl for entering his room without permission to which she responded by telling him he called for help and she came to assist him. Angered, Ungatt Trunn berated her for daring to think that she has the right to assist him before yelling at her to leave the room under the threat of throwing her out the window to her death. As she fled, Trunn rants about how he could have taken this mountain unaided and doesn't need any of the hordebeasts assisting him. The vermin themselves wind up coming across the hares' location and lead a charge into a battle against them only for Lord Brocktree to arrive with the help of Bucko Bigbones and Jukka and their armies and defeating them, having the rats bury those they killed before sending them off to Ungatt Trunn to deliver a message to him.
Noticing two sentries backing off down the path, Ungatt Trunn asks Karangool where they are going to which the fox notified him of the ambush party coming back. Trunn was initially satisfied at this news before they come back through the sea plowing their way forward. After coming onto shore and the party stumbled out of the sea, blue dye gone except on their heads, paws bound tightly, linked together at neck height by four long pikes lashed two to two with long metal spearheads at either end of the pikes twisted together, and collapsed on the sand fighting for breath, Karangool would have some vermin free them from the pikes and ropes that held them together before Trunn grabbed a cutlass from a nearby Hordebeast and put a sharp jagged edge on it, placing against Ripfang's throat and interrogating him on where the bodies of the Bark Crew are and where the hundred and a half soldiers he sent out to deal with them are. He steps back a pace and swings the sword high to one side, bringing it slashing down and stopping it a fraction from Ripfang's exposed neck, promising to spare him a slow death if he answers truthfully before Ripfang tells him he saw the badger, causing the sword to fall from Trunn's paw and him to order every beast to leave them. After they do so, Trunn promises to give him a half-cask of wine if he tells him all and begins asking him what the badger looks like, what he said, and what manner of beasts he is. Ripfgang first asks if he and Doomeye are still captains with Trunn affirming this before ordering him to tell him with Ripfang also demanding that he gets the half-cask of wine first out of thirst before telling him. After the discussion, Ungatt Trunn was unable to sleep and had been instead wandering the upper passages of Salamandastron until he came to a small chamber on its north side where he had chosen to store his own armor and weapons. He takes his trident, which he had used skillfully many times in battle, while monologuing to himself about how the mountain is his by right of conquest and will slay him once he comes to him, having learned of his name, Brocktree of Brockhall.
In the morning, Ungatt Trunn has his hordebeasts parade a third the distance from the mountain under the supervision of Karangool to show off their army before conversing in council with Karangool and Fragorl, asking if they saw the parade with Karangool, unaware that they had from a hiding place, telling him he did not see them and Fragorl, also unaware, explaining that she and the ambush party searched the dunes and found no sign of them. Ungatt Trunn only shakes his head at this news, claiming he knows they were there spying on the hordes and that the badger would have taken the opportunity to assess their strength. Ripfang suggests that they could have had the horde sweep up both sides of the cliffs and scour the enemies out, though Trunn declares that it would have left the mountain undefended and wants them to come to him. When Karangool asks what happens if they don't, Trunn declares that he will do as Ripfang says and send the Hordes to root them out. Later, Trunn paced the mountain passages agitatedly and arrives at the shore while passing by a bunch of rats. There, he converses with Karangool about how he believes it's too quiet and is as if something is going to happen. They stroll back to the main mountain entrance where Trunn questions Ripfang if there's anything to report with Ripfang giving one describing that there's nothing going on, though they're keeping a sharp lookout.
Fragorl herself interrupts, declaring that she saw a fire, started by Jukka by use of arrows, by the cliff northward, prompting Trunn to race inside to the highest level to see it for himself while followed by Fragorl, Ripfang, and Karangool. Noticing it, Ripfang starts to laugh, believing they set up a campfire while Karangool believes it's a trap and tells this to Trunn, who scoldingly told him he knew that already, taking this as a taunting gesture from the creatures. Trunn proceeds to give orders to Karangool to take half of the entire Hordes, split them in three columns with one either side clifftop and dunes and the third to go out along the shore and circle round them, and have them slay the creatures while leaving the leaders alive to be brought to him and to also bring the bodies of the slain creatures with him. However, before this order is carried out, a sentry post reports that there is fire happening amongst the ships, also caused by the creatures. Ungatt Trunn realizes the first fire started was merely a decoy to divert their attention and decides to try to turn it into a trap. As such, he orders Karangool to instead take some crews out there and cut the burning vessels away from the others while ordering Fragorl and Ripfang to take command of those attacking the decoy fire by the cliffs. He also has a guard in the upper passages gather together his captains and bring them to his chamber. Once they arrive there, he marched them out into the corridor, telling them he's taking over the defense of his mountain against any outside attack and instructing them to bar all entrances while ordering six to take their patrols, bring in all outside sentries, and repel any assaults from ground level and four others to spread their creatures about in the passages and watch out for enemy beasts trying to break in while he takes the top levels with a hundred or more troops sent up to him.
Unbeknownst to him, the creatures had a plan set up. Jukka herself goes in disguise as one of the horderats and manages to fool the guards while approaching the main gates before noticing Ungatt Trunn coming bounding past up to the high-level guard post with Jukka following him as she remained almost hidden against the mountainside. After tricking a few rats into thinking there is something wrong with a spear of theirs and taking a few out with her pole, she launches an arrow over the mountaintop, giving Skipper, Brog, ruff, and their army the signal to attack and engage in a battle against the Hordebeasts that got some killed. She attempts to escape the tower only to run into Ungatt Trunn and accidentally exposing her disguise and herself as a spy by speaking in her natural speech, causing Ungatt Trunn to order his guards to stop and kill her. This would lead to Jukka being chased for a bit before she fights against them alongside Fleetscut, whom she initially wasn't on the best of terms with, and dying alongside him too taking them out. Meanwhile, after this, a terrified Trunn would stand facing the barred main entrance where the creatures are trying to break in and take back the mountain. Giving a blow from his trident's shaft to a stoat captain Byle knocking him flat, Trunn proceeds to abuse him while telling him to get up and find Captain Drull and his sentries to bring them over immediately. As he paces nervously about waiting, Trunn yells at his quivering vermin to stand their ground as the doors will hold while threatening to use his trident to take the eyes out of anyone who moves without his permission. Spying Byle, who was dithering around at the hall entrance, Trunn dashes down and corners him, asking where Drull and the guard patrols are with Byle responding that he doesn't know due to the presence of the badger and his army who are coming this way fast, prompting Trunn to prod the stoat's neck with his trident and telling him to keep his voice down as they will be leaving. He then tells the Hordebeasts to hold their positions and stay, lying to them that Byle has found Captain Drull and the guard patrols and that they'll be going to fetch them while ordering them to hold the doors as they'll be back. When Byle protested, Trunn threatens to leave him behind with them before taking him with him to the second level.
Once they arrive there, Trunn notices a small band of squirrels below and tricks Byle into thinking it's all clear, getting him killed by a couple arrows shot from the band as Trunn pretends to yell to his hordes that the foebeasts are waiting below and to round to the south side, tricking the squirrels into departing while he descended to the ground and treaded contemptuously on Byle's carcass as he set off north toward the cliffs. After traversing the clifftops for most of the night searching for the mass of Hordebeasts he had sent to investigate the fire to the north, he eventually finds them in a camp with telltale spirals of smoke marking their campfires in an area between the dunes and the cliffside and walks on over to where Ripfang, Doomeye, and some other former searats were cooking things in their shields. Having not seen captives or the slain bodies of Bark Crew creatures nor as many Hordebeasts as left the mountain last night, he asks him what happened. Ripfang gives him a bowl of stew, noticing that he's tramped half the night, before telling him that they were chasing after Fragorl before finding clumps of charlock growing everywhere and stonecrop too along with a little stream of water with periwinkles and mussels off the rocks below the tideline, which they cooked up all together. Trunn then questions him as to why he chased after his Grand Fragorl to which Ripfang explained that she was with the band that was supposed to head out along the shore and circle back behind the enemy and flat out deserted with a third of their force with her. Trunn thanks him for this information, acknowledging them as trustworthy servants and telling him he'll reward them when the time comes, though he declares that for then, they'd best get back to the mountain, leading to Ripfang asking him how things are going back there. Trunn in response pushes his trident prongs either side of his paw and pins him firmly to the sand, sarcastically answering by suggesting they go back and see and threatens him if he's not loyal to his cause with Ripfang affirming that he and his brother were loyal to him from the start. Trunn lifts his trident and releases him before ordering him to get the columns ready to march with them doing just that.
Arriving back, he comes across Karangool, who had been hiding from Bucko Bigbones shooting arrows at him and confronting him for what he did to his people and family which was not something he could remember due to committing numerous similar evil deeds in the past, and asks him why he's hiding to which the fox responded by claiming he wasn't hiding and instead waiting for him. Due to being absent from the events which revolved around Karangool leading an attack on the creatures in the area, Ungatt Trunn tells him to make his report to let him know what has been going on. As they afterwards assess their own force numbers and lay their own plans, Dotti, one of the hares, carries out her scheme of showing the starving vermin there was no shortage of food on her side to dishearten them by tossing a pie crust or scrap of cheese from the second-level windows to give the impression that there was a limitless amount of food at their disposal. During this, Log a Log Grenn, leader of the Guosim shrew tribe, sand a song about nice things to eat while the Guosim cooks burned branches of aromatic herbs used in their cooking. This worked and caused a fight amongst the Blue Horderats for a bit. Soon, Lord Brocktree decided to settle this by means of a duel with Ungatt Trunn and as such, he sends a javelin with a message attached to it nearby Ungatt Trunn and Karangool. Reading the message, Ungatt Trunn is satisfied as he came up with a solution for his problems regarding the plan and has Karangool follow him.
Approaching a good length toward the mountain, Ungatt Trunn tells Lord Brocktree he accepts his challenge and agrees to the terms while pledging his word like the badger before they departed. However, Trunn had every intention not to keep his word. Singling out his best ship and mooring it at the fleet's south edge close to shore, he organizes a plan for Karangool, Ripfang, and Doomeye, first figuring out who the best archer is with them explaining theirs is Doomeye. Trunn then threatens to make sure he dies bit by bit if he fails him before telling him his plan: climb the mountain and find a spot where he can command a good view of the badger and to kill the badger with the arrow if the fight is going against him, essentially cheating in the fight in the process. After departing with Karangool, Trunn gave him his instructions to sail their fastest vessel away on the noon tide if all goes wrong with him on board as he will need to get away from there with all haste. Karangool gives his word that the ship is ready before Trunn departs to go aboard his own ship and spend the remainder of the night in his more luxurious stateroom. Unbeknownst to him, Karangool, Ripfang, and Doomeye had realized that Ungatt Trunn is wavering and made plans to kill him, masterminded by Karangool, by means ofshooting the badger first and then Trunn if the battle goes against his favor or kill Trunn if he wins anyway to overthrow him as the lords to take all.
In the morning, Karangool gets himself armoured with a round steel helmet with a spike on top and a shoulder-length fringe of fine chain mail while wearing a purple tunic topped by a copper breastplate and metal bracelets with spikes bristling from them above his paws while carrying his trident in one paw and a woven net edged with metal weights and goes to the sand arena where he and Lord Brocktree agreed to fight amongst their troops. Once they arrive, Trunn starts it without doing a proper salute and attacks Brocktree with his trident which would be blocked by his sword and lead to them clashing their weapons several times. During the fight, Ungatt Trun uses his net to bring Brocktree down and briefly gain the upper hand, though Brocktree's sword slices through the net meshes and punches a hole in his breastplate, causing Trunn to let go of the net and dance backward. He gets the upper hand a bit once again by whirling the net about his paw and battering the badger's face with the nets, enveloping his head while Trunn flings a pawful of sand into his eyes before hitting him hard on the side of his head with the lance end of his trident, causing the badger to collapse again. Ungatt Trunn prepares to finish Brocktree off with his trident only for him to roll over and haul sharply on the net, cause Trunn to stumble forward, and smack him with his footpaw. This causes Brocktree himself to gain the upper hand, prompting Doomeye to try to kill him with his arrow only for it to thwack through his left shoulder. Before he could shoot another arrow, Ruff, who had seen this, slew Doomeye by throwing a javelin at him.
In spite of the wound he got from the arrow, Brocktree still had the upper hand and proceeds to lift him up, break the trident shaft, and cripple Ungatt Trunn, who briefly begged for mercy after he was defeated, winning the fight before having the creatures toss him into the sea and attack his horderats, who were retreating. While they celebrated their victory at Salamandastron, Ungatt Trunn would wind up washed up on the far reaches of shoreline to the north of Salamandastron with salt water crusting his eyes and slopping bitterly into his half-open mouth, unable to move his body due to most if it being numb, frozen, solid while his head and neck were in unearthly pain. Despite this, he was still alive and felt the waves smash over his helpless body and move him down the slope of the shore while he grunted in agony. He then notices a fox nearby and initially assumes it is Karangool, asking him for help. However, when the fox came up close, he realized it was Groddil instead. In retribution for slaying his family, crippling him, and the torments inflicted upon him, Groddil pushes him further into the water, causing him to be swept away on the current drawn out to sea with rollers lifting him high on their crests and tossing him down into their troughts, carrying him out far into the sea to be drowned as Groddil chanted faux praises to him, giving him his comeuppance and ending his reign of terror once and for all.
External Links[]
- Ungatt Trunn on the Redwall Wiki
- Ungatt Trunn on the Pure Evil Wiki
