>>5305728

You had slept in an empty hut used by the hunter’s. They had built a number of these cabins all around your territory and near the mountains to act as places to gather and rest between hunting trips. They also have been used by the patrols to rest and sleep in and now one of them had the honour to have a royal guest in the form of you.

The ride next morning from Gavin’s Naze through Darrow Hill to Dawnholme had been a quick one. Having pushed your horse Epona to ride faster, you reached Dawnholme sooner than you expected it.

In just two weeks it felt like the town had seen a transformation. You only saw the City Guards doing their rounds with no sign of your soldiers to be seen, even the few streets felt somewhat empty. The barracks that was being built had its foundations ready and the blacksmith was covered in scaffoldings. The thing that hit you most was seeing your home of the past several years, the old Garside Farmstead being also covered in scaffoldings with numerous workers working on the building itself and around it.

You dismounted Epona and walked past the workers and entered your home. At least from inside it was just like you remembered it.

“I’m back!” You shouted as you took off your helmet and put it on the table.

It didn’t take long for Normand Garside to walk down from upstairs. You could see he was happy to see you.

“Welcome back Alric. How did the visit to Capital City go?” Garside said to you. “No, don’t answer yet. You must be tired, let’s get your stuff in and then we can talk.”

1/2

>>5305730

You had made sure that your travel chest was carried in and the knights had gotten their horses into the stables, after that they were free to go and tell Normand what had happened in the Capital City.

Maura Garside had brought you a cup of hot tea and you watched as Malevus cleaned your armour.

“They are going to build an extension to the farmstead, aren’t they?” You asked Normand Garside.

“Yes, Master Pelija drew the plans in one afternoon. There is going to be an extension with several rooms, cellar and fenced courtyard around the house.” Garside explained.

“That doesn’t sound that bad.” You said back.

“It does not, but how did the trip to Capital City go? Did you learn anything?” He asked you. “Did you have a chance to meet with King Terenas?”

And you had plenty to tell, the question was just what was important and relevant for Garside to hear and what wasn’t. You also felt like maybe you should tell him about you and Calia, after all he has been your foster parent for the past nine years, but Calia and you had agreed to keep the relationship a secret.


Lord Blackmoore’s tribunal:
>Tell Garside everything, including how Blackmoore had acted and what you had said about Thrall
>Tell Garside about the tribunal, how it had gone and the end result, but leave the worst bits about Blackmoore and how you spoke about Thrall out.
>Tell Garside brief details about the tribunal, you really don’t feel like telling about Blackmoore or Thrall is that helpful to Garside.

The Alteracis:
>Tell Garside everything, including what Beve had said to her magic teacher, what Trand had told you and how you were stopped and warned by Ieastyn.
>Tell Garside about your talks with Trand and what their situation is, but leave Beve and Ieastyn out.
>Tell Garside brief details about the Alteracis in Capital City, they couldn’t really help you so they aren’t worth mentioning that much.

Do you call the trip to Capital City a success?
>Yes, you did what you could do and achieved as much as possible.
>Only partially, there were mistakes done and you think you could have left with better results.
>No, you made mistakes and things didn’t go as planned.

>Calia Menethil:
>Tell Garside that you and Calia are in love
>Do not tell Garside anything about you and Calia

QM: Please vote in all four. The pastebins are all up to date.

>>5305732
>Tell Garside about the tribunal, how it had gone and the end result, but leave the worst bits about Blackmoore and how you spoke about Thrall out.
>Tell Garside everything, including what Beve had said to her magic teacher, what Trand had told you and how you were stopped and warned by Ieastyn.
>Only partially, there were mistakes done and you think you could have left with better results.
>Tell Garside that you and Calia are in love

>>5305732

>tell him how the tribunal went and our testimony in it
>tell him about alteracis in capital being prohibited from joining us by our brother and about our encounter with the syndicate

>express regret at being unable to do more during our trip due to time constraints, but even so it was a fruitful endeavour, especially for an event that started with Blackmoore's request.

>Tell him about Calia, and that we're keeping our feelings to ourselves for now
Garsides are the closest thing to actual family we have

>>5305732
As always, if the location is private and we can speak freely without risk of eavesdropping then:

>Tell Garside everything, including how Blackmoore had acted and what you had said about Thrall

>Tell Garside everything, including what Beve had said to her magic teacher, what Trand had told you and how you were stopped and warned by Ieastyn.

>Maybe, but going through the city unguarded was definetly a mistake. However, a thing that more merits regret is being unable to do more during our trip due to time constraints, but even so it was a fruitful endeavour, especially for an event that started with Blackmoore's request.

>Tell Garside that you and Calia are in love

>>5305732
Garside and his wife are quite literally our closest allies, if we can't be honest with them then we can't be honest with anyone
>Tell Garside everything, including how Blackmoore had acted and what you had said about Thrall
>Tell Garside everything, including what Beve had said to her magic teacher, what Trand had told you and how you were stopped and warned by Ieastyn.
>Only partially, there were mistakes done and you think you could have left with better results.
>Do not tell Garside anything about you and Calia
One exception really. We made a decision together with Calia that only the two of us and our respective proxies would know. Let's not betray that.

>>5306025
>We made a decision together with Calia that only the two of us and our respective proxies would know. Let's not betray that.
No we didn't. What was discussed was who knew, if they could be trusted and could they act as intermediaries but not that only they could know. Since there was no such promise, I don't see how telling what are effectively Alric's parents such a secret is a violation of Calia's trust.

>>5305732
>>5305937
Supporting. I am willing to trust Garsides with Calia. They are after all Alrics Foster parents.

>>5305732
>Tell Garside about the tribunal, how it had gone and the end result, but leave the worst bits about Blackmoore and how you spoke about Thrall out.
>Tell Garside everything, including what Beve had said to her magic teacher, what Trand had told you and how you were stopped and warned by Ieastyn.
>Only partially, there were mistakes done and you think you could have left with better results.
>Tell Garside that you and Calia are in love
Nice new thread

Normand looked at Malevus and then back to you. He had that ‘should she be here?’ look on his face.

“Don’t worry, Malevus knows what happened in Capital City.” You said to him.

Normand nodded and started to listen as you spoke about the tribunal and the events surrounding it. Normand was concerned when you spoke about Blackmoore and how he had acted the night before. And when you told him what you had said during the tribunal, he didn’t seem that happy.

“Alric, I know that you spoke the truth, but that place, the imperial chamber, wasn't the place to do it.” Normand said to you as he scratched his short grey beard. “The nobles won’t like it and probably the common folk don’t like it either.”

“I had to tell the truth.” You said and felt annoyed about the situation too.

“I know, it is just damned if you do, damned if you don't. You tell them that you hate orcs and they will doubt you because you are a Perenolde. You tell them the truth and they feel that they were right, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” Normand said and deflated a bit. “What else happened in the Capital City?”

And you told him about finding Beve’s magic teacher and as you told Normand how Beve had threatened the old wizard, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. And when you moved on Trand and then what your brother Aliden had said to him, Normand deflated even more.

“First Beve threatens to kill her teacher and Aliden threatens to replace Trand and others. I can’t believe this.” Normand said. “At least we now know the position Trand is in.”

“You served with Trand back in the day, what kind of a man is he?” You asked him.

“He is a good soldier, but maybe a bit too careful. If he can’t be sure that the plan works, then he won’t do it.” Normand said.

“It makes sense why Aliden’s threats then worked. If Trand can’t be sure that the Alteracis are safe, then he doesn’t dare to see through Aliden’s threats.” You said back and sighed. “And that isn’t the only thing that happened that day.”

You told Normand about your meeting with Ieastyn and Marcus, the two killers and agents of the Syndicate, and the warning they gave you about someone wanting to kill you and to not act against the Syndicate and your brother.

“You spoke with someone from the Syndicate?” Normand raised his voice and made both Malevus and Maura listen to what the two of you were talking about. “Are you out of your mind? They attempted to kill you already once and you just talked with one of their killers. Alric, we are just flesh and blood in the end, they could have killed you.”

“Yes they could have, but they didn’t. I don’t think Aliden wants me dead, but someone else in the Syndicate.” You said back to Normand who hadn’t taken the news that well. Neither had Maura, who seemed slightly shocked to hear this. “This could mean that the Syndicate isn’t exactly unified and fully behind Aliden.”

1/2

>>5306700

“You could be right. Alric, I must be honest, your trip to Capital City didn’t sound like it was a success.” Normand said to you.

“No, it wasn’t. Not enough time to do everything I wanted to do. Still for a relatively sudden trip started by Blackmoore’s request, it went as well as it could.” You said and shrugged.

“I guess you are right. Was there anything else?” Normand asked you.

“In fact there is.” You said. “Maura, you should probably listen too.”

“What is it?” Normand asked as Maura walked to him.

“I have found someone.” You said somewhat carefully.

“What do you mean?” Normand asked as he had no idea what you were going to say.

“Who is it? Who is the lucky girl?” Maura asked you and started to smile. It took Normand a second to realise what Maura had said.

“It’s Calia, Calia Menethil. And I… I love her.” You said to them.

Maura, having heard that, hugged you out of pure happiness.

“I am so happy for you Alric.” Maura said to you.

“I always thought that you would find some cute girl from a farm or some noble lady from nearby, but not Calia Menethil.” Normand said to you and still couldn’t believe what he had heard. “Alric, you know that is a difficult road, it won’t be easy to gain her hand.”

“Normand, I know.” You said to him.

“Then what else can we do, but to support you.” Normand said to you and stood up.

And you hugged him and Maura. You hugged your foster parents. No, you hugged your parents.

…

You felt relieved that you wouldn’t have to lie to your parents about Calia anymore or keep her hidden and your relationship with her a secret. If you couldn’t trust Normand and Maura about Calia, then who could you trust? Still you made it very clear that your relationship with Calia is a secret and something that shouldn’t be revealed.

The next morning after breakfast you planned what to do. Garside had told you that your soldiers had all moved to Tarren Mill and were waiting for your arrival. Here in Dawnholme only the City Guard and the Alliance Garrison remained and they would defend the town for the time being. The plan was for you to ride to Tarren Mill tomorrow and then launch the actual invasion day after.

But now you had things to do, being away for nearly two weeks required some catching up from your part. And you didn’t want to leave too many things behind for the future.

2/2

>>5306701


Choose two:
>Go see Eligius and hear his answer if he wants to be the spymaster. Ask him if he could provide magical aid to the invasion or just expertise if you were to require it.
>Foreman Davis has had his hands full with all the work done in Dawnholme. Go speak with him and see if he has any worries or things he wants to be dealt with.
>Sir Gravis and his knights have been acting as your bodyguards and getting stopped by Ieastyn and the previous assassination attempt got you thinking. Speak with him and ask how he could do his job better and keep you alive.
>Spar with Malevus and make sure she is ready for the invasion. She might end up fighting against men and you aren’t exactly sure if she is ready for that.

The payment from Lord Blackmoore had arrived. They had apparently misunderstood the orders and you had received the full payment immediately and not in two parts as planned. This means that you have the necessary Wealth to hire mercenaries if you want to do so.

Available Mercenaries:
>Harry's Harriers, 10 Regular Mounted Sergeants, 10 Wealth, 2 Supply per season
>Lyion's Rogues, 20 Regular Bandit Rogues, 2 Wealth, 2 Supply per season

Total Resources:
10 Wealth, +15 per season
18 Supplies, 0 per season
30 Peasants

>>5306702

To make it clear, you are not forced to hire mercenaries. They are just what is available right now. With you starting to gain some renown and make connections, you might get more different mercenaries available.

>>5306702
>Go see Eligius and hear his answer if he wants to be the spymaster. Ask him if he could provide magical aid to the invasion or just expertise if you were to require it.
>Foreman Davis has had his hands full with all the work done in Dawnholme. Go speak with him and see if he has any worries or things he wants to be dealt with.
I reckon we’re best served discussing with these we are leaving behind for the moment.
We can chat with Malevus on our way and Gravis is probably not critical unless he has something he wants to discuss.

Regarding mercenaries the mounted sergeants may not be the best match for terrain we’re taking although I may be wrong. Do we know anything about the rogues? They might be valuable or an outright liability, although I don’t think they’re likely syndies

>>5306707

The name Lyion is familiar to you. He was one of the ringleaders of the bandits from Hillsbrad which you helped to return back to the town. It most likely is the same man.

>>5306702
>Go see Eligius and hear his answer if he wants to be the spymaster. Ask him if he could provide magical aid to the invasion or just expertise if you were to require it.
>Sir Gravis and his knights have been acting as your bodyguards and getting stopped by Ieastyn and the previous assassination attempt got you thinking. Speak with him and ask how he could do his job better and keep you alive.

I think Malevus should be ready to at least kill bandit grunts, she will need to stick with us for the most. But we have also Gravis with us, so she wouldn't be alone.
Davis, eh i think we can deal with it later on when we are done taking the hills. Gravis i feel like we need to talk, the knights are going to stick with us in the battles in the hills, and our protection is a major concern for the immediate campaign and for the future. I am not sure but it could be that on the road for Tarren Mill and in the invasion, we will not have much time to discuss but more to plan and give orders ?

>Lyion's Rogues, 20 Regular Bandit Rogues, 2 Wealth, 2 Supply per season
This two mercs groups have been around for sometime if i remember, which is nice for us.
While i like mobility, 20 men for 2 wealth is good. And we can offer them the same deal, as the other mercs we have integrated in our army. The harriers would be also nice, mainly because our current cav consist of us and our knights bros with Gravis.
Since they are light cav they would be fast running around too, but their price isn't small. Next time maybe

>>5306702
>>Go see Eligius and hear his answer if he wants to be the spymaster. Ask him if he could provide magical aid to the invasion or just expertise if you were to require it.
>>Foreman Davis has had his hands full with all the work done in Dawnholme. Go speak with him and see if he has any worries or things he wants to be dealt with.

>>Lyion's Rogues, 20 Regular Bandit Rogues, 2 Wealth, 2 Supply per season
Two wealth for 20 soldiers is too good to pass on rn

>>5306702
>Foreman Davis has had his hands full with all the work done in Dawnholme. Go speak with him and see if he has any worries or things he wants to be dealt with.
>Spar with Malevus and make sure she is ready for the invasion. She might end up fighting against men and you aren’t exactly sure if she is ready for that.

Don't buy mercenaries.

>>5306702
>Go see Eligius and hear his answer if he wants to be the spymaster. Ask him if he could provide magical aid to the invasion or just expertise if you were to require it.
>Foreman Davis has had his hands full with all the work done in Dawnholme. Go speak with him and see if he has any worries or things he wants to be dealt with.
I'd like to square away these issues that can only be done in Dawnholme, we can speak with our bodyguards and spar with Malevus during travel or at Tarren Mill.

Im unsure about the rogues, I agree that 20 men for 2 wealth is a pretty good deal on paper but I question the discipline and ability of these mercenaries. I don't want to hire people that will end up being a liabilty. I guess I'll tentatively back it but I want their mettle to be tested, to have them be at the forefront of the invasion and not sitting in reserve. I hope we can all agree on that if we end up hiring them.

>Lyion's Rogues, 20 Regular Bandit Rogues, 2 Wealth, 2 Supply per season

With the invasion happening, you are going to require as many soldiers as possible. Hiring and recruiting your own soldiers would be impossible right now as you wouldn’t have time to train them, but mercenaries do exist. Hillsbrad hasn’t had that many mercenary groups around and the rumours Garside had heard is that many groups have moved to Stromgarde or to Gilneas where there is constant work and coin to be made.

Of the two groups in Hillsbrad, you were actually familiar with one of them. Lyion’s Rogues was apparently named after one of the forest bandits that you met and helped in Hillsbrad. Knowing who their leader was could prove to be useful and this would be twenty more men in your force. Twenty more men you require.

So you asked Garside to contact them and hire them. If they were in Hillsbrad, they wouldn’t reach Tarren Mill on time for the planned start of the invasion, but as reinforcements they could prove really useful.

…

You found Eligius in his room working on some scrolls and papers. He had been busy with the work as a scribe thanks to the Stonemason’s bringing their paperwork to him. He was in progress of keeping track of expenses when you entered his room.

“Eligius, busy with work?”

“Prince Alric, I heard you had returned.” Eligius said and stood up to give you a bow. “And yes, the work never ends.”

“And what about your other work?”

“Progressing, the book you gave me has been extremely useful.” “Eligius said and smiled. “You came to ask me about my answer to your question?”

“Yes.” You said to him.

“I agree. I thought about it hard and it is the least I can do to repay my debt to you.” Eligius said and gave you a respectful nod.

“That is good to hear. I should have someone arriving here to teach you and now that I know you have accepted, the work can start immediately after the teacher arrives.” You said to Eligius and continued. “Now that has been solved, I would like to ask you something.”

“What is it Prince Alric?” Eligius asked you.

“I want you to come with me to Strahnbrad Hills as your skills could be useful and this could be a way for you to learn.”

“But that would risk revealing who I am? Why would I even be there?” Eligius asked you.

That was a good point, why should Eligius be there as he was just a scribe? Then you realised the solution.

“I know, from this point forward you are my personal assistant. I am being buried with paperwork and as a scribe you are going to help me.” You said to Eligius. “I am not going to force you to use your skills, but if your knowledge could help us, I would appreciate it a lot.”

“Alright, I will do it. Thank you Prince Alric for trusting me this much.” Eligius said and bowed.

Now you have your spymaster, who still needs to be trained, and a reason for him to approach you when required. Step by step your retinue and court continues to grow.

1/2

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>>5307581

Matthew Davis had been acting as the foreman of Dawnholme since the town was just a group of tents and a few farms. The former miller had managed to keep the things together and organise the labour, but now it seemed that there were a bit too many things for a single man to handle.

“My Prince, good afternoon.” Davis greeted you with a bow.

“Good day Mr. Davis. Is everything in order?” You asked him.

“Sire, things are as good as they can be.” He said back.

“What do you mean?” You asked him again and Davis went to dig up another scroll that he handed to you.

“Sire, that is the recent purchases of tools, materials and so on. As my Prince can see, many of the purchases are all small in quantity.” Davis explained and what he said was true. Bunch of nails here, a pair of door hinges, a barrel of tar and so on.

“I don’t see a problem?” You said as you hadn’t caught the point Davis was attempting to make.

“We ermm… we have nothing in storage outside of lumber and now the garrison is going to use a lot of it for their palisades, houses and towers.” Davis explained to you. “If we need something then we have to order the materials.”

“And that causes delays.” You said.

“Sire, you are correct.” Davis said and sighed. “Our blacksmith can make most of the ironworks for us, but it will take a few days to finish the orders. Few weeks ago we went out to find bricks for fireplaces, but we found nothing in Southshore and Hillsbrad. Thankfully in the end we managed to find a source and acquired enough of them without causing major delays.”

Davis rubbed his brow and searched for a ledger that he gave to you.

“Sire, I have been keeping track of the small delays. And while we are managing, these delays are starting to pile up and I fear they might end up happening all at the same time.” Davis said to you.

“Are the delays serious or something you can just work through?” You asked.

“Sire, they are not serious yet and we can get what we need if we just work hard enough.” Davis said back.

“Do you have a solution to fix these problems?” You asked him.

“Sire, we need time and coin. Mostly coin. We have to build a warehouse and then get enough of everything to act as a buffer. Then we can take what we require from the warehouse and order replacements without causing delays.” Davis explained. “It won’t be cheap.”

Nothing is ever cheap and you require all the coin you have. Spending the coin now could solve the problems Davis were having, but he could be making a mountain out of a molehill as Davis has successfully acquired everything required without major issues before?

2/2

>>5307582


>Build a warehouse and buy required materials to have a buffer to remove the delays. Cost 5 Wealth, 5 Supplies
>Give permission to Foreman Davis to use some of your supplies for the time being. It won’t remove the problems completely, but will make them go away for some time. Cost 10 Supplies
>Tell Davis to make do. He has managed to acquire required materials before and he can do so in the future. You require the Wealth and Supplies for yourself and can’t give them to Davis right now.

Total Resources:
8 Wealth, +15 per season
18 Supplies, -2 per season
30 Peasants

QM: Total Resources are up to date.

>>5307583
>>Build a warehouse and buy required materials to have a buffer to remove the delays. Cost 5 Wealth, 5 Supplies

>>5307583
>Build a warehouse and buy required materials to have a buffer to remove the delays. Cost 5 Wealth, 5 Supplies
Sure, we can have a warehouse with the growth of dawnholme and our lands it's useful. Not counting our military growth.
Well we have still some coins left. And we might make some loot during the invasion.

>>5307583
Yay logistics
Build the warehouse, it will come in handy.

>>5305728
I commit suicide and offer my daughters to the Frostwolf clan

>>5307583
>>Build a warehouse and buy required materials to have a buffer to remove the delays. Cost 5 Wealth, 5 Supplies

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“You will get the necessary coin to build the warehouse and order the materials. We have had way too many delays already and I don’t want to hear that we have yet another delay in the future.” You said to Davis.

“Thank you my Prince.” Davis said and gave you a deep bow. “We should have the warehouse finished before winter comes.”

“Good, now did you have anything else?”

“No Sire, that was most of my worries.” Davis said and smiled.

…

The next morning you mounted your horse and left Dawnholme for Tarren Mill. With you were Captain Garside, Malevus, Sir Gravis and his knights and following everyone else with a horse cart was Eligius. Garside had side-eyed him after you told him that he would be joining you. Garside didn’t like the idea of having a warlock, even if he was indebted to you, following you around. But who else do you have who could be a spymaster and if you end up meeting with other wizards, Eligius could prove a very useful source of information and help.

The weather was fine, but noticeably colder than during the summer. You were somewhat worried that the autumn rains would arrive during the invasion and turn the hills into fields of mud and peat. Faster you deal with the bandits, the easier it will be to project your control over the region and less time you have to march under a rainfall.

It was early afternoon when you saw the spire of the church of Tarren Mill and then you saw several neat lines of tents having been pitched up. All of them had been dyed orange and each of them had the black falcon of Alterac sewn to them. You had no idea that anything like this had even been done.

“Normand, when did we get these tents?” You asked him as you allowed him to catch up to you.

“During the summer, I wanted to surprise you. I ordered the cloth and had the womenfolk turn it into tents.” Normand told you. “I knew that we were going to need them sooner or later.”

As you rode past the tents your soldiers greeted you as you passed them. The design of the tent was very simple, it was round with a single wooden pole keeping it up. From six corners strings and iron pegs were used to keep the cloth from not touching the ground and not saggy. A simple skirt had been then sewed on the cloth to keep wind and water away. Sure you practically had to crawl out of the tent as the door flap wasn’t that big, but a design like this was much more comfortable to be in compared to some other less waterproof tents.

1/2

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>>5307782

“Prince Alric, welcome to Tarren Mill!” Shouted Lieutenant Beckston,one of your officers and the leader of the Kul Tiran Swashbucklers, to you as he walked to you and greeted you.

“A nice camp you have here.” You said back and returned his greeting with a nod.

“It is a proper campaign camp for sure.” Beckston said to you. “But welcome back from the Capital City.”

“Did anything happen while I was gone that I don’t already know?” You asked the man.

“Well Sire, I finally had my marriage ceremony.” Beckston said proudly and was practically beaming with happiness.

“Congratulations and sorry for not being able to join the celebrations.” You said and remembered that Beckston had married a local girl and had invited you too for the ceremony. “Lieutenant Beckston, can you please inform other officers that we are going to have a meeting to plan out the invasion later this evening.”

“Yes Sire, will do.” Beckston said and immediately went to work.

Meanwhile before the evening you would have some other things to do and people to meet while you are in Tarren Mill.


Choose two:
>Go thank Mayor Fowley for his support of your invasion of Strahnbrad Hills. The help from him and the merchants in terms of providing logistics is really useful and won’t be forgotten.
>You should deliver the book and letter given by Lord Uther to Father Hampton and Raleigh the True. Hearing what Father Hampton has to say could be informative.
>Speak with Malevus about the invasion and what her role in it will be. You aren’t exactly sure if she is ready to fight against other people.
>Speak with your officers before the meeting. Get their opinions first and hear what they have been doing in the past two weeks.

QM: Malevus delivers the book and the letter if the option isn’t chosen. So don’t worry about them not being delivered. I also might be able to put out one more update today if there are enough votes.

>>5307785
>see mayor Fowley
>deliver the book

Our officers should be able to speak up during meeting, and we don’t intend to send Malevus into the thick of it. Did she learn any healing yet?

>>5307785
>You should deliver the book and letter given by Lord Uther to Father Hampton and Raleigh the True. Hearing what Father Hampton has to say could be informative.
>Speak with Malevus about the invasion and what her role in it will be. You aren’t exactly sure if she is ready to fight against other people.

>>5307785
>Go thank Mayor Fowley for his support of your invasion of Strahnbrad Hills. The help from him and the merchants in terms of providing logistics is really useful and won’t be forgotten.
>Speak with Malevus about the invasion and what her role in it will be. You aren’t exactly sure if she is ready to fight against other people.

>>5307785
>All of them had been dyed orange and each of them had the black falcon of Alterac sewn to them
That's pretty cool honestly. We are starting to look like a proper army again.
I wonder how the Syndicate and us will be different in battle, since we have the same colors


>Go thank Mayor Fowley for his support of your invasion of Strahnbrad Hills. The help from him and the merchants in terms of providing logistics is really useful and won’t be forgotten.
>You should deliver the book and letter given by Lord Uther to Father Hampton and Raleigh the True. Hearing what Father Hampton has to say could be informative.

>>5307815
I think the officers option is for have some casual talking before asking their opinions about what we should do in the invasion.

>>5307815
She has not. She definitely puts in the effort, but she is a slow learner.

>>5307836
And you would be correct. Casual talk and asking for their ideas, maybe you could learn something useful before the actual meeting.

Also no third update today, the vote will continue.

Riding into the town and leaving your horses into the stable, you immediately felt the atmosphere that was in the town. The locals knew that something big was going to happen as they watched the soldiers milling around and as ox carts were being loaded with tools, supplies and everything else useful. You made the decision to go see Mayor Fowley before the meeting as he had organised the logistics effort and gotten the local merchants behind your invasion, but before that you had something else to do.

Walking through the town to the church, you had Malevus to carry the book while you had the letter given by Lord Uther to you. You thought that both the paladin and the priest should be in the church and you were right. You found them discussing something and it didn't seem the most friendly discussion.

"Good afternoon." You greeted the two men.

"Prince Alric." Raleigh greeted you.

"Prince Alric." Hampton greeted you next.

"I have something for both of you. Lord Uther asked me to deliver these for you." You said to them as you passed the letter and Malevus gave the book wrapped in leather to Raleigh.

"A book? I will go see what book this is and leave you two be." Raleigh said and excused himself.

"Nice for you to act as the messenger Prince Alric." Hampton said and investigated the letter with his one good hand before tucking it inside his robe.

"I was coming here either way." You said and shrugged. "I do have to ask, your discussion with Raleigh didn’t seem the most friendly one?"

"We don't agree on all things, we never have." Hampton said and gestured for you to follow him. "He is a good man, but puts Silver Hand above everything else, just like I have said to you before."

You remember that. Hampton hadn’t exactly warned you about Raleigh, but made sure that you knew what his allegiance in the end is.

"Prince Alric, you probably want to hear what I have to say about the invasion?" He asked you.

"That would be correct. You have given me a lot of good advice before." You said back.

"And this time I don't have much to say." Hampton said to you as you had followed into the infirmary of the church. "War is ugly business and there will be dead and wounded. We are ready to tend them, care for them and help them as much as we can."

"Thank you Father Hampton." You said back to him.

"No need, that is our duty. Just like it is yours to defend your people and the people of Tarren Mill." Hampton said to you.

1/2

>>5308726

Father Hampton had said a short prayer and given you his blessing. Immediately you felt the tiredness from several days of travel disappear and you left to find Mayor Fowley. Malevus meanwhile decided to stay in the church for a moment instead. She apparently wanted to speak with the former paladin and most likely pray with him.

Fowley as expected was in the town hall going through his paperwork and seemed to be somewhat stressed when you entered.

"Prince Alric, it is good that you are here." Mayor Fowley said and the small bookish man stood up from behind his desk.

"Good to see you too Mayor Fowley." You said and shook his hand. Fowley had been your ally basically from the start and you counted Tarren Mill to be your closest economic partner. "Is there something wrong?"

"It is just the amount of work. I had no idea that handling the logistics was this difficult. I have no idea how Captain Garside manages to handle all of this." Fowley said to you.

"Well he was a quartermaster once, he understands how campaigning works." You said back to him.

"And I will happily leave that to him." Fowley said back and continued. "So Prince Alric, any specific reason why you came to see me?"

"Just to thank you for the help. I appreciate it a lot that Tarren Mill has agreed to help with the logistics." You said.

"We have a common goal Prince Alric. Security of both Alterac and Tarren Mill depend on this." Fowley said. "But there is one thing I would like to ask."

"What is it?"

"Tarren Mill wants its share of spoils and we would appreciate it a lot if we could get exclusive trade rights with the village of Stonedon." Fowley said and continued explaining. "I know this request comes very late, but I am under pressure from the merchants to gain something out of this."

"Isn’t the improved security and keeping their investments safe enough for them?" You had to ask Fowley.

"They cannot sell improved security, but they can sell a bundle of furs." Fowley said and was somewhat annoyed.

You had gotten to know Stonedon when you visited the village a few weeks ago and you learned that they were very content at staying neutral. While technically part of Alterac, you thought that allowing merchants from Tarren Mill to have exclusive rights for trade wouldn't be that bad of a thing, but it would still restrict your own traders. Beric probably wouldn’t like it, but Tarren Mill would.


>Promise Tarren Mill the exclusive trade rights with the village of Stonedon.
>Tell Fowley that the territory belongs to Alterac and consider the Tarren Mill to be trading with Alterac if they do business with Stonedon. No exclusivity.
>Stonedon is an independent village. They have their own chief who decides things like this. You cannot make the decisions for them.
>Other, write in.

QM: Been trying to get the update out for a few hours and finally my internet is working. No idea what the problem was.

>>5308728
>>Promise Tarren Mill the exclusive trade rights with the village of Stonedon.

>>5308728

>Stonedon is an independent village. They have their own chief who decides things like this. You cannot make the decisions for them.

Furthermore we're not exactly raiding a wealthy and developed settlement. Bandits may have some spoils to repatriate but principal gain of this enterprise should be control over territory. What we can offer is unfettered access to the route to Strahnbrad once it is secure, they can sell the furs there and more besides as the land traffic to Durnholde and Arathor is routed this way.
From what we do recover we will see that they receive fair share.

>>5308728
>Tell Fowley that the territory belongs to Alterac and consider the Tarren Mill to be trading with Alterac if they do business with Stonedon. No exclusivity.
How could they reasonably expect to be given such privileges? It's a ridiculous request. A deal is a deal so they'll receive exactly what was agreed upon beforehand.

>>5308728
>Tell Fowley that the territory belongs to Alterac and consider the Tarren Mill to be trading with Alterac if they do business with Stonedon. No exclusivity

Still talk that, it would be still profitable. And we have all the intentions to continue improving our lands, Dawnholme would become richer same for the rest of the territory under us, like Stonedon. And they can trade more with us.
We might want to talk with the Chief first, about the vassal treaty we will do with him, and this.


>>5308791
Beside the small bandit bands loot, and the one bandit band that is absorbing the small ones there is still the Syndicate fort. They where working on it when we scouted sometime ago, and added a ballista if I am not mistaken.
Capturing it would be pretty good for us especially if they decided to expand it further.

>>5308728
>Stonedon is an independent village. They have their own chief who decides things like this. You cannot make the decisions for them.
Very tempted to just tell him he'll have to tell the merchants to sod off with that. Part of this is us calling in a very clear favor that Tarren Mill honestly owes us at this point with all that we've done for the place. But I suppose we should be diplomatic with our allies.

>>5308728
>>5308774
I'm changing my vote to:
>Stonedon is an independent village. They have their own chief who decides things like this. You cannot make the decisions for them.

>>5308791
>>5308944
>>5309403
Are you all saying "Stonedon is an independent village" because it de facto is right now or because you don't want to control it like we said we would?

>>5309573
The only reason I have changed my vote from the first option to the third option is because no one else voted for the first option.

>>5309591
If that's your reason then why choose the third over the second?

>>5309573
because it is right now and because we sort of promised them to respect their self determination. In any case agreeing to something for them would be a dick move.
Although we can also point out that it's kind of absurd to promise Tarren Mill exclusive access to our detriment just because they are helping us with logistics.

>>5309596
Because I don't want the second option to win.

>>5309647
From what I remember, we said that we would give them some autonomy with the reasoning being that we don't really care about micromanaging what they do. It'd be just like the other territories we control that aren't Dawnholme or the silver mine, it's pretty offhands besides the occasional building or two.

>>5309652
Then you should have said so. Also, why don't you want it to win?

>>5309659
>Also, why don't you want it to win?

Because Tarren Mill is our ally.

>>5309679
That doesn't explain anything. How is us controlling Stonedon village prejudicial to Tarren Mill?

“Stonedon is an independent village and I cannot make decisions like that for them. If they want to trade with you, then you have to talk with their chief.” You said to Fowley.

“I expected an answer like that.” Fowley said and seemed somewhat relieved. “I told the merchants that you would most likely disagree and now I can tell them that.”

“Good. How's the rest of the business?” You asked him.

“Going well, I just had to do some rearranging as your new garrison is using some of the timber instead of we being able to sell it to the naval base.” Fowley said.

“Well the timber still goes to the Alliance.” You said back. “But it is good that everything is going well.”

“And I hope that your military operation goes well.”

…

To allow Fowley to get back to work, you left him alone and walked across the town hall and stepped into a room that your officers had turned into a makeshift headquarter for the invasion.

“Welcome to Tarren Mill Prince Alric.” Lieutenant Cromwell said to you and gave you a salute.

You saw that most of your officers were already in the room.

“Good afternoon everyone.” You said to them and watched as they greeted you with nods. “First I have to say that my quick trip to Capital City had the worst possible timing and I feel like I have let you down by not being here.”

“Sire, don’t worry about it. Captain Garside and us have handled everything.” Lieutenant Beckston said to you.

Speaking of Captain Garside, he was the only one missing from the room. So as you waited for him, you took the time to have some casual talk with your men.

1/3

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>>5309746

It thankfully didn’t take long for Captain Garside to arrive and you had nearly everyone here. He joined the group of Lieutenant Cromwell, Lieutenant Beckson, Sergeant Maxwell, Sir Gravis, Sir Radan and both Alfred and Arthur Rover.

“Alright gentlemen, tomorrow we are going to march into Strahnbrad Hills and I hope you have everything planned.” You said to them.

“Yes, the work has been done. We just need to agree on how we are going to do this.” Garside said to you as everyone in the room gathered around the table to look at a crudely drawn map of the region.

“Good, because our goal is to defeat the bandits and clear the Syndicate presence from the hills. We also need to secure a clear and safe route to the village of Stonedon and then find a route to Strahnbrad itself.” You said to them and continued. “Now how should we do this and what are we expecting to be facing?”

And the discussion started. Rovers had interviewed hunters and others who had been doing ‘business’ in the region to have a better idea of what you would be facing. What the brothers had learned and your officers had managed to gather from other sources, it soon became clear that it wouldn’t be easy to enter the Strahnbrad Hills with a force of your size. A large force like yours could be easily seen and outmanoeuvred, not forgetting the ox carts that you would be using to carry supplies for you.

You looked at the crudely drawn map and saw how the region had been divided into six regions. To enter Strahnbrad Hills you would either have to come from Sofera’s Naze or from Tarren Mill. The locals called these places the lowlands and here the hills and forest mixed with each other. According to Rovers you would be facing scattered farms and dwellings with most poachers and hunters using these forests. It could be likely that some bandit groups would also be operating from these lands.

Beyond the lowlands and in Strahnbrad Hills proper would be the village of Stonedon and close to Darrowmere River would be the bandit camp. You only knew what you had seen in your scouting missions, but the common belief was that there could be more bandits and other ruffians here than you had seen. Compared to the lands closer to Tarren Mill and Sofera’s Naze, the Strahnbrad Hills were quite bare with little to no tree coverage. Just swamps, peat, big rocks and plenty of hills.

Finally there were the hills beyond Stonedon and closer to Alterac Mountains and the hills closer to Darrowmere River. Of these lands you didn’t really know much outside of there could be a combination of trolls, Blackrock Clan orcs and bandits there. Even the poachers apparently avoid these places.

2/3

>>5309748

“As you can see, Strahnbrad Hills is a vast place and because the terrain is so hilly, it is going to feel even bigger.” Cromwell said to you. “It is going to take time to clear the whole place.”

“Can we do it before winter and snow comes?” You asked.

“Sire, most likely not.” Cromwell finished.

“Then what about our enemies?” You asked and let your officers speak again.

As they had said, scattered groups of bandits did exist all around the hills and there could be some other creatures or beasts hiding in caves and other dark places. You would have to march into the hills and then systematically clear every hill and valley to be truly sure that no one is going to slip past your patrols and evade you.

Stonedon was seen as neutral and wouldn’t be working against you, but it was plausible that there were bandits nearby. The bandit camp near Darrowmere River meanwhile could hold maybe a couple dozen bandits. It wouldn’t hold against your assault as there were just low palisade walls there, but it wouldn’t be an easy assault either and you had no proper idea how many bandits or members of the Syndicate were there exactly or could come from elsewhere. At least from your previous encounters with bandits, you had learned that they wouldn’t be as well armed or experienced compared to your soldiers, but if you were to face troops from the Syndicate, you didn’t know how good they could be.

Anything beyond these parts and closer to the mountains was a big question. And outside of what was mentioned earlier, no one had a proper idea what to expect.

“So we have two routes to enter from of which we are going to use Tarren Mill, six distinct areas that we have to go in and clear, in which all there are potential enemies and in one there is a camp that is probably the biggest threat to us. And winter is practically our deadline to accomplish at least some of this.” You said to your officers. “It won’t be easy at all.”

“No, it won’t be easy.” Garside said to you.

“We could split our forces to cover more land.” Beckston carefully suggested.

“But we do not know how many bandits there are in the camp. Still, that could work. Cover more land, beat the smaller bandit groups and then group up to destroy the camp.” Maxwell said back.

“Bandits don’t want to fight if they don’t have to, but if they find strength in numbers, they could be brave enough to oppose you Prince Alric.” Sir Radan said and he had most experience about the subject, he after all had previously been a bandit.

3/3

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>>5309750

And this probably was the most important decision you would have to make. In what order would you attempt to invade Strahnbrad Hills and defeat the bandits. And would you split your forces to cover more terrain and accomplish more before the winter comes? If you decide to go straight towards the bandit camp, you might be able to cut the head off the snake, but then you would be in the middle of Strahnbrad Hills without a secure path back to Tarren Mill. Could it be more worth it to clear your rear areas first and then deal with the bandit camp, or would that give them too much time to call up reinforcements?


Retinue and companions:
Captain Normand Garside, a knight of Alterac
Lieutenant Austyn Cromwell, a lieutenant of Alterac
Lieutenant Richard Beckston, the leader of Kul Tiran Swashbucklers
Sergeant Jon Maxwell, the leader of Stromgarde Guards
Raleigh the True, a paladin of Silver Hand
Sir Gravis of Knott, a knight in your service
Sir Alan Radan, a former bandit and a knight in your service
Alfred and Arthur Rover, rangers of Alterac
Malevus, an Elf squire
Eligius, a scribe and a warlock, currently spymaster in training

Troops:
Total: 85 Footmen, 30 Archers, 5 Knights, 35 Bandit Rogues
-10/10 Veteran Footmen
-10/10 Veteran Footmen
-10/10 Veteran Archers
-20/20 Regular Archers
-20/20 Kul Tiran Swashbucklers, Regular Pikemen
-10/10 Stormgarde Guards, Veteran Footmen
-5/5 Knights of Gravis, Regular Knights
-15/15 Benedict's Blood Alley Boys, Veteran Footmen
-20/20 Regular Pikemen
-10/10 Veteran Archers
-15/15 Sir Alan Radan's Men, Regular Bandit Rogues
-20/20 Lyion's Rogues, Regular Bandit Rogues, will arrive in one week


Invasion plan, vote for one or vote for two if you support splitting up your forces:
>You will clear the smaller bandit groups first to prevent them from joining up with the bandit camp. Make sure that no bandits end up threatening your supply carts and rearguard.
>Reaching and clearing a way to Stonedon should be accomplished first. That way you have a safe haven in the middle of Strahnbrad Hills.
>Both border areas to Sofera’s Naze and Tarren Mill must be cleared first to be sure that your people aren’t in immediate danger. This also allows you to go back to Dawnholme without taking a detour to Tarren Mill.
>Destroying the bandit camp first removes the largest singular threat in Strahnbrad Hills against you.

Splitting your forces:
>Yes
>No

QM: If you have any questions, please go ahead and ask. I attempted to make this as clear as I could and even used my great artistic skills. Though there is a chance that there won't be an update tomorrow.

>>5309753
>Destroying the bandit camp first removes the largest singular threat in Strahnbrad Hills against you.
>No

Destroy the greatest threat quickly first, march straight towards it.

>>5309753
>You will clear the smaller bandit groups first to prevent them from joining up with the bandit camp. Make sure that no bandits end up threatening your supply carts and rearguard.
>Reaching and clearing a way to Stonedon should be accomplished first. That way you have a safe haven in the middle of Strahnbrad Hills.

>Yes
Depending on how heavy the resistance we can expect in the lowlands is, I would argue for splitting our army in two waves. The first taking over the region bordering Tarren Mill. Once that's largely done and they've started dealing with stragglers and healing their wounded, a second wave of reserves will storm the Stonedon region to secure a friendly (or at least neutral) rear for when the two army groups advance on the camp in an encirclement.
The main thing I'd fear with this is we might lose the element of surprise and have camp forces rallying out to strike us in the back and encircle us in Stonedon. It's a risk I'm willing to take however.

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>>5309748
>>5309753
>Destroying the bandit camp first removes the largest singular threat in Strahnbrad Hills against you.
>No
I agree that the fort should be the priority since it's the biggest and most important enemy asset in the region. If we take it, we can use it use as a base of operations for the expeditions to clear out and establish control over the hills. Maybe we could even supply the fort through the winter by ship? If they've built it up enough, It'd be a shame to have to destroy it when we leave.

>>5309753
As tempting as it is to go straight for the bandit camp I'm worried about a few things.
1. by rushing B we are exposing our supply lines, our own lands and the approach to Tarren Mill. Although the bandits might not be inclined or organized to carry out punitive strikes, they may become a threat to our people on top of leaving our main force isolated...
2. We don't know how whatever is living in the hills up north will react to our advance and if we take everyone down the south approach they might bypass us and actually threaten Dawnholme.

Although both Tarren Mill has some forces and Dawnholme has the alliance garrison, I'd really rather not have this fight bleed out heartland, or our closest partner.

3. We can't really assume we have element of surprise because of syndicate infiltration. Even Alliance knew we have business planned, we can't honestly expect the syndicate presence not to be aware of our movements.

That's why I'd advocate for
>>You will clear the smaller bandit groups first to prevent them from joining up with the bandit camp. Make sure that no bandits end up threatening your supply carts and rearguard.
and
>Yes
although not as much to clear more objectives simultaneously, rather split off smaller part of skirmishers and some archers as a quick response force to intercept any movements that could be launched by enemy into our rear.

>>5309753
>>You will clear the smaller bandit groups first to prevent them from joining up with the bandit camp. Make sure that no bandits end up threatening your supply carts and rearguard.
>Both border areas to Sofera’s Naze and Tarren Mill must be cleared first to be sure that your people aren’t in immediate danger. This also allows you to go back to Dawnholme without taking a detour to Tarren Mill.
>Yes

We need to crush this smaller groups, our supplies lines are at risk of getting assaulted by this opportunistic locusts and there is more enemies than just the syndicate around, not having the nuisance of this smaller groups would benefit us. In addition we also need to keep safe our lands and tarren mill.
And we have no ships presence in the river, so that can't be used.

I expect syndicate elements or the other bigger enemies up north, to start moving when we approach Stonedon or the camp.

I can work with this. Can you please give me a roll.


>1d10
>Best of three

Rolled 4 (1d10)

>>5310588
cursed roll

Rolled 9 (1d10)

>>5310588

Rolled 8 (1d10)

>>5310588
Can you? Aren't playing whack-a-mole with the bandits and taking a fixed fortified position mutually exclusive?

>>5310609
The "You will clear the smaller bandit groups" vote won 3-2 vs "Destroying the bandit camp". It was more about the votes for Stonedon and Sofera's Naze/Tarren Mill.

That being said, no update today, but I would like a vote to go with that good roll of nine.


Rover's are going to take the archers and scout ahead, how far will they be from the main group of your forces?


>Rover's stay close, this way we can help them immediately, but their ability to scout and spot potential enemies is hampered by the presence of your main force.
>They will move a decent distance away. Supporting them will be more difficult, but they should be able to scout without big issues.
>Scouting will happen as far from the main group as possible. Supporting them will be very difficult, but they should be able to do their scouting without any problems.
>Other, write in.

>>5310715
Shit you're right, I missed >>5309916 this vote.

Still, I think it's a terrible idea. The bandits have no reason to engage us in a battle and an army isn't speedy or subtle enough to catch any small band that may be hiding in this region. Marching around looking for them is just asking to get harrassed, attritioned or ambushed and splitting up only worsens ALL of that. And the justification for it doesn't even make sense, how would the supply line be secured in this hostile territory without snaking our entire army beside it? If we go through a position and make sure it's clear, there's nothing preventing the enemy from just going there once we have left. And to top it all off, doing all of this gives the enemy even more time to reinforce and fortify the only position we can actually engage which we know will be the most costly to take and making it even more so.

Anyway, regarding this decision, I vote for
>Scouting will happen as far from the main group as possible. Supporting them will be very difficult, but they should be able to do their scouting without any problems.
because staying near the army is even more dangerous than staying far away from it. It's the thing that most attracts attention so any opposition will have the most amount of eyes on it. Therefore, staying right next to it is safe but scouts little, scouting kinda far is the most dangerous and scouting very far is riskier than staying close but gives us the most info. Their defence will be to simply not get spotted at all when scouting and then coming back when they have to rest at night.

>>5310715
>>They will move a decent distance away. Supporting them will be more difficult, but they should be able to scout without big issues.

>>5310765
>coming back when they have to rest at night.
Unless they are willing to sleep without a fire that is.

>>5310765
Oh and you can disregard all of my reasoning if Medivh wants to treat this more like a videogame than real life (which is fine btw).

>>5310715
>>They will move a decent distance away. Supporting them will be more difficult, but they should be able to scout without big issues.

“This is the first military operation by us, led by Alteracis and involving over one hundred and fifty soldiers, not counting the ox cart drivers and other helpers.” You said to your officers. “That is why we are going to do this invasion by the numbers and carefully for we cannot let this fail as we need this success and the experience from it.”

“Prince Alric, what are you suggesting for the plan?” Lieutenant Cromwell asked you.

“We enter the lowlands and make sure that there will be no bandits or other groups that could threaten Tarren Mill or our supply lines. To achieve that, we will split our forces and cover more land.” You said to them. “I don’t want to hear the news that bandits or worse have raided our supply lines or appeared behind us.”

“So we are going to take and hold the area closest to Tarren Mill?” Sergeant Maxwell mused aloud.

“Yes, after we achieve that, we can look at what the situation is and then react accordingly.” You said to him.

“That will tip off the bandit camp, we won’t have the element of surprise then.” Captain Garside said back.

“That is true, but it is better for us to take things steady instead of going directly to their camp.” You said to him.

The idea of marching your men and following the river to their camp intrigued you a lot, but then you would be in a position where there could be enemies all around you. Dealing with supplies or getting wounded back to Tarren Mill could be very difficult then.

“Alright, it is settled then. You know the orders and we will march tomorrow morning.” Captain Garside said to the men around the table. “Any questions?”

There were no questions.

“Then tomorrow we will go to war.” You said to them.

1/3

>>5311688

You had difficulties sleeping, the idea of commanding your men into battle that you had chosen and of this size worried you. This would be your first real campaign in which you just wouldn’t be one of the men, you would be their leader. This reminded you of your first battle against the kobolds and the feeling and tiredness afterwards, but now the battle hadn’t happened yet.

The morning after eating breakfast, you put on your armour and stepped outside Monica's inn. Sir Gravis had brought Epona to you and as you mounted her, you saw that the people of Tarren Mill had come to see you and others off. They lined the main street and watched you and the rest of the soldiers walk out of the front gate to the field and road beyond. The tents and everything else they would be requiring had already been packed into the ox carts who had their drivers ready and waiting.

You asked Captain Garside to get your men in order as you wanted to speak to them. It didn’t take long for your officers to sort them out and soon you had all of your soldiers presented in front of you.

“Captain, is everything ready?” You asked Garside and handed him your bascinet.

“The men are ready Prince Alric.” Garside said back to you.

You rode forward and faced them on horseback. Looking at your footmen, pikemen, archers and the irregulars, you didn’t really feel like a Prince. Your old half-plate had been beaten and then fixed many times, you didn’t use a circlet or a crown to depict your status as a royalty nor did you wear fancy livery. If people didn’t know who you were, they could easily mistake you as a sellsword. But in front of you were your men and not every sellsword has this many soldiers serving them. Most importantly the men knew who you were and were ready to act on your orders. They would follow you through hell if required.

You looked around and saw your men waiting for you to start. You also saw Eligius standing nearby with quill and paper at hand to write what you were going to say down, this most likely would end up in the history books.

“This conflict started centuries ago when my predecessors failed to bring Strahnbrad Hills under proper Alteraci rule. Since then the land has been used as a hideout for bandits and recently by orcs and trolls. A hideout from where they could launch their raids against the people of Alterac and of Tarren Mill. During all this the will of the locals was crushed; its people, brutalized. And several months ago, another group of bandits entered the region to continue this, to bring battle to the people of Strahnbrad Hills. Today, the battle has been joined.

This military action, taken in accord with the laws of the Kingdom of Alterac and with the consent of the King Terenas of Lordaeron, follows months of scouting and preparation on the part of the Alterac. Now the Alteraci forces are ready and have no choice but to drive the bandits from Strahnbrad Hills by force. We will not fail.”

2/3

>>5311691

It wasn’t a complex speech and not fully truthful as you opted to not name Syndicate. Still you weren’t really a speech giving person, so you were quite happy about it.

“Alterac Stands!” You shouted.

And the men replied with the same shout.

…

The men had marched for several hours already towards the edge of Strahnbrad Hills and away from Tarren Mill. They had scouted several routes earlier this week to use and you didn’t really have problems with the ox carts, at least not yet. As the men marched, some of the workers from Tarren Mill followed right behind you, clearing the marching route and preparing it for future use. This would be your main route of supply into Strahnbrad Hills.

When the forests that were common in Tarren Mill or Sofera’s Naze started to grow more sparse and the terrain turned more hilly, you knew that you were approaching the border of the region. With that in mind you send Rovers ahead with some archers. They would range a decent distance away, looking for threats and planning a good path for the main groups to march.

…

>9

Having marched through the day, you had ordered your men to set up a camp in one small valley and send sentries on the hills around you. For you Captain Garside had made a somewhat bigger tent that was quickly furnished with a cot, folding table, a pair of wooden chairs and a brazier to keep the tent warm if needed. It frankly was quite cozy.

The first night had gone without issues and you woke up early in the morning to reports from your men. The sentries hadn’t seen or heard anything close to you, but they had seen smoke rising from the west in the distance. Rovers had also sent a runner and reported that they had found a small tent camp with maybe a dozen men or a bit more. The men were clearly armoured and armed, so they weren’t just common poachers and apparently it seemed that they were packing their belongings. Finally Eligius knew to say and you double checked this information from what your officers had learned while you were away, that a small village, just a handful of farms were nearby.

As the plan was, you were going to go by the numbers and clear the small groups of bandits away first and now you had your first known group of bandits within your reach, but maybe your presence could be required in the village? In addition last night you had planned the split of your forces with Captain Garside. For if you wanted to cover as much territory as possible, you needed to do that and sending Garside to accomplish that with small patrols could be done.

Now you just have to choose what you will do personally and what will Captain Garside, who is leading the second group do?

3/3

>>5311694

Troops:
Total: 85 Footmen, 30 Archers, 5 Knights, 15 Bandit Rogues

Group Prince Alric:
-5/5 Knights of Gravis, Regular Knights
-10/10 Veteran Footmen
-10/10 Stormgarde Guards, Veteran Footmen
-15/15 Benedict's Blood Alley Boys, Veteran Footmen
-15/15 Sir Alan Radan's Men, Regular Bandit Rogues
-20/20 Regular Archers

Group Captain Garside
-10/10 Veteran Footmen
-20/20 Kul Tiran Swashbucklers, Regular Pikemen
-20/20 Regular Pikemen
-10/10 Veteran Archers


Rovers scouting group:
-10/10 Veteran Archers


Choose two, first choice is for Alric and second choice is for Garside, put them in an order who you want to deal with them:
>Investigate the smoke rising from the west.
>Deal with the bandits spotted by the Rovers.
>The small unnamed village should be investigated.
>Split one of the two groups into a number of patrols to cover even more land.

QM: Less computer game and more real life. As I wrote on the opening post of first thread "this quest isn’t as heroic or pauldron heavy, but draws a more realistic and medieval look on the Warcraft universe." And the points >>5310765 made are all quite valid. How will Alric prevent the bandits or worse from moving in while his forces are elsewhere? These are the problems you are most likely going to have to solve at some point.

>>5311701
Alric:
>Deal with the bandits spotted by the Rovers.
Garside:
>Investigate the smoke rising from the west.

>>5311701
Alric:
>Deal with the bandits spotted by the Rovers.
Garside:
>Investigate the smoke rising from the west.

I agree with this, time to kill some bandits

File: 982948624.jpg (79 KB, 880x480)

79 KB JPG

>>5311701
Kinda unmotivated to vote when I think we're acting on a terrible plan as the QM himself implicitly acknowledged. Guess I'll just wait and see if anything of significant importance happens and vote then.

Alric is going to deal with the bandits while Garside goes to investigate some smoke. Can you give me a roll for Alric.


>1d6
>Best three of four

File: 2c9.png (531 KB, 1000x1000)

531 KB PNG

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>5312748
BANDITS ARE CRUEL ALRIC!

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>5312748
no whinging allowed.

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>5312748

>>5312748
dice+1d6

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>5312948
dice goes in the options field, like this
>>5312748

No updates today or tomorrow because of Midsummer's Eve and Day. Result of attempting to deal with the bandits probably come on Saturday.

Meanwhile I would like to remind you that if you have any questions etc, feel free to ask. I will try to answer them as best as I can.

>>5314334
Oh yeah, glad midsommar :)

>>5314334
No problem
Did we hear/see any signs of enemies presence beside the one said in the posts ? Can we still look at the small village, when are done with this two actions ? Are the hills mostly cover in forest ? Did we heard any rumors in Tarren MIll about the hills ? Even folklore

>>5314334
Who exactly is training Eligius as our spymaster? Why couldn't we make the trainer the spymaster?

>>5315142
If i remember correctly we have send some time ago a letter to Katrana to request a spy that will teach one of our loyal men (Eligius is very loyal, and can fit this role since he already has a fake identity), this spy will work temporarily for us mostly as teacher of Eligius.
Because it's not ours, and finding one is difficult. We don't have people in our ranks with knowledge or contacts about matters of spycraft/subterfuge, and going in blind would be used against us by the factions/groups that spy already our prince.
Katrana is in a working relationship with us, so we can do this kind of deal. In the choices we could pick there was also an option for take a spymaster directly from her, but it would mean that we couldn't have just a working relationship with her (for obvious reasons, since it would be a spy of her so ultimately not under us unless it was more than a working relationship).

No update today either, but I will answer the questions as best as I can within what Alric knows or I can say without spoiling anything.

>>5315050
You haven't seen or heard anything else that could be a sign of a presence of potential enemies or other locals. You can look at the village after dealing with the bandits if you choose to do so. Strahnbrad Hills outside what is near Sofera’s Naze and Tarren Mill are mostly bare and only a few trees or a small copse of them exist here and there. Plenty of hills, valleys, swamps and big rocks. You haven't heard new rumours outside of what you had heard previously and your officers didn't take folklore in account. You just know that the hills have been a lawless place for a quite long time and if warlocks like Eligius have moved there, then some other shady people could have done the same.

>>5315142
This explained it well >>5315230
You asked help from Lady Katrana as you lacked a spymaster or someone capable of training one. I can reveal that Lady Katrana has received your letter and was very happy that you asked her help.

Any other questions?

>>5316775
thanks, not much else really. I suspect that some bandit bands could be infamously know around. Perhaps even enough to have bounty on them or on their leader heads.
Or no, they have a lot of competition here in the hills, they might not survive enough for even a bounty to be made. Then again we might not need to collect bounties, they no doubt make money if they are in the slave trade.

>>5316835

The bandits aren’t really that known elsewhere as Strahnbrad Hills has the reputation of a place where you go if you want to hide or not attract much attention. With the closest neighbour being Tarren Mill and only a short stretch of King's Road being available, the chance to make name as a bandit is not that great.

To your knowledge there are no known bounties worth for you to chase as Hillsbrad has been more or less cleared from bounty worthy threats. Now defeating the bandits or other threats could be beneficial in other ways and not just in potential loot.


Also no update today either. Midsummer is over and tomorrow we should be back on normal schedule.

>>5318464
Its already over were i am. Ended a few hours ago.

You gave the orders and Garside took the men delegated to him and headed west to see what was causing the smoke while you took your soldiers and went for the bandits. You would be dealing with them posthaste and make sure that they wouldn’t be joining any other group.

With so many soldiers under your control, it took time to reach the Rover’s and their archers. The uneven terrain wasn’t good for your mobility and the horses struggled to walk through the marsh and hills, still you reached your archers without too much of a trouble.

…

>11
>Success

“Where are the bandits?” You asked the Rovers.

“One hill that way.” Arthur said and pointed towards the direction of the bandits.

“Alright, me and Sir Gravis will take the left flank and attempt to stop them from fleeing. Lieutenant Cromwell will command the footmen and go directly at them, while Sir Radan takes the right flank. Arches provide supporting fire.” You said your orders and watched as your officers nodded. “Good, we have a battle to win so let us do our best.”

Your men marched forward and as they reached the top of the hill, your archers moved right behind them and let a volley of arrows at the bandits. That being the signal, your men surged forward towards the camp the bandits held and crossed the no man’s land quickly between them and you.

Epona and the horses of the knights struggled through the hills and swampy terrain as you attempted to reach the left flank of the bandits before anyone else. The arrows impacted their camp and you saw one of the men fall under the fire and some of them attempting to escape. They would be your target.

Drawing the Cinder Sword, you allowed the grey blade to enjoy fresh air after a while and in a few moments it started to turn orange as the air around it allowed it to start shedding embers.

Another volley of arrows struck their camp and another man fell. Moving past your footmen, you went for the few stragglers who attempted to escape and not fight. They were smart, fighting would end up with them being dead and running away would mean that maybe they could survive.

Sadly though for them, they were wrong.

Catching the stragglers before they could escape, you swung the Cinder Sword and let it bite on the shoulder of one of the bandits. With a cry the man fell and you pushed Epona to take a few steps to be in front of the few escaping bandits. One of them carrying a two handed axe stepped forward to challenge you, or more accurately attempted to stop you from stopping them. His attempt to swing at you with his axe was stopped and with a quick move you jumped down from your horse to deal with the axe carrying man.

He attempted to cut you down with a mighty downward swing, but he telegraphed it and you easily stepped aside to avoid it. The axe bit the turf and you brought the Cinder Sword down and decapitated the man with one swing.

“Take prisoners!” you shouted as Sir Gravis and his knights struck the few bandits attempting to escape.

1/3

>>5319783

Eight men sat kneeled down as your men went through their camp. Not everyone wanted to get killed so they opted to surrender instead.

“Alright, you know who I am.” You said to them.

“You are Prince Perenolde.” One of them said.

“That would be correct.” You said back. “Now who is your leader?”

One of the surrendered men pointed towards the man you had decapitated and you couldn’t feel anything else than disappointment.

“He fought and then he died, you at least opted to save your lives.” You said to them. “Now you know my reputation, if you speak you will save your lives.”

And the caught bandits spoke. They according to them were just a small time band, more poachers than bandits, but they had heard about the new group of bandits integrating other groups to them and they had chosen to attempt to move to elsewhere, but you had appeared before they could do it.

The bandits spoke how they had been just a small time group and were not part of a larger group and when you questioned them about other groups in the region, they couldn’t really answer. Apparently most had already left the place and headed elsewhere, be it away from the new bandits or to join them.

Knowing that you wouldn’t be getting much out of them anymore, you opted to tie them up and search their camp. While you couldn’t find much, you at least had a few prisoners and whatever you could find from their camp.

Gained:
>1 Supply
>8 Bandit Prisoners

2/3

>>5319788

You had returned back to your camp and saw that Captain Garside had also returned back.

“Did you find what the smoke was?” You asked him.

“Yes, remnants of a camp, several bandit corpses and everything else worth burning had been set alight. “ Normand Garside said. “And no traces to follow. So I returned here quickly and sent men to check the village.”

“What did you find?” You asked him.

“Not much, the village was half abandoned. Apparently a group of armed men had conscripted the able bodied men and taken them with them.” Garside said to you.

“Conscripted workers? That does sound like the Syndicate are preparing for an engagement and require every man available.” You said back.

“Could be, could be.” Garside said back. “ At least we have managed to map and clear this portion of the Strahnbrad Hills. Whatever we do next, we should be clear of any bandits behind our lines for a while.”

“Until they organise their ranks and send someone to strike behind our backs.”You said back.

The bandits you had captured hadn’t given you much new information, but at least you knew a bit more about them. The fact that some groups had gone to join the new bandits while some attempted to leave and escape did make it seem that they weren’t exactly motivated to be part of this new group. In addition, the village having their menfolk taken away by bandits, wasn’t the best of news.

Though there was some news. One of the sentries had spotted a cave nearby and they hadn’t dared to come check it any closer. This did give you some options, after the bandits had been cleared, not much was there to be checked or searched nearby. You could check the cave or leave it for Captain Garside. Alternatively you could push forward either towards Stonedon or towards the bandit camp.


>Continue clearing the border region to Tarren Mill from bandits and other threats. Go check the cavern spotted by the sentries to see if there is anything that could be a threat to you.
>Take your men and head towards Stonedon, you need to clear the way towards the village and secure it before anyone else can claim the village.
>The bandit camp is the main threat in Strahnbrad Hills, you should attempt to move closer and gather your men. Removing the camp is of utmost priority.
>Other, write in.

QM: >>5318616 Midsummer takes a few days here, more being about the recovery of those perilous days.

>>5319793
>>The bandit camp is the main threat in Strahnbrad Hills, you should attempt to move closer and gather your men. Removing the camp is of utmost priority.

>>5319793
>The bandit camp is the main threat in Strahnbrad Hills, you should attempt to move closer and gather your men. Removing the camp is of utmost priority.
It might be too soon especially with the border not fully clear, we could have our reinforcements protect our supplies it's 20 men.
Eitherway if we go for the camp, there will be a battle, in this case more a siege since is fortified. We will need, to take care of their war machine or make something for temporarily protect us from the projectiles and allow an assault.

“I think it is pretty clear that our rear is now secured, or at least will be for a moment.” You said to Garside.

“Alric, what are you planning?” He asked you.

“We will go and attack the bandit camp. Now we can at least be sure that our way of retreat is clear in case of anything bad happening.” You said to him.

“Alright, I will inform the officers.” Garside said.

This was a big move from you, but it was a move that needed to be done sooner or later.

…

You had withdrawn to your tent and studied a map that had been drawn by one of the Kul Tirans. The man had some experience from working as a navigator's assistant on a ship and he had drawn a map of the local region after talking with the rest of your men. The map's scale was still wrong, but it had all the hills and valleys drawn and named after landmarks or their shape. Having this map would help you a lot and you made sure to order the Kul Tiran to continue his work.

It helped you to have an idea of the size of Strahnbrad Hills and better to time your march. It could take a full day for you to reach the bandit camp and even then you would be arriving late in the evening. It would open a chance for a successful night action, but the men would be tired after a day of marching and wouldn't probably be fighting as well as possible. More reasonable approach was to make a camp near the bandits and attack the next day with soldiers that weren’t as tired. Or maybe you could take another approach and challenge the bandits into a field battle, where your own more experienced men could gain advantage?

Though from what you had seen earlier, the camp the bandits had wasn’t that big and would only have a few dozen soldiers in it. Of course if and when they have received reinforcements, the number would be bigger, but the low wooden palisade wouldn’t be much of an obstacle. Thankfully they didn’t have a bolt thrower like the bandits at Gallow’s Corner had acquired for themselves.

There was also the cave your sentries had spotted earlier. Leaving it behind you worried a bit as you didn’t know what was inside, or even if there was anything there. You could order Garside to take his men and take a quick detour, but he would be losing a few hours and would have to catch up with you. Would that be worth it to be sure that nothing could come out from the cave and attack you?

1/1

>>5320662


Bandit Camp Attack Plan:
>March through the day and attack the bandits during the night to achieve surprise. Your soldiers will be tired though during the attack thanks to little available rest.
>Make a camp nearby and attack the next morning after a quick rest. Your men need the rest, but this risks getting seen first by the bandits.
>Take your time and make sure that you are seen by the bandits. Challenge them to a field battle where you can get most out of your mens experience and numbers.

The Cave:
>Allow Captain Garside to take a quick detour to check it out. This means that his men would be late for the night attack and tired if you were to attack the next morning.
>Don’t allow any detours. You need all of your men to be with you and you can check out the cave later.

QM: Please vote on both

>>5320664
Out of the options given I'd go with
>Make a camp nearby and attack after quick rest
although I'd maybe suggest to advance at a speed that would limit strain on our troops and camp further out to not invite bandit raid while we're resting. They are unlikely to allow themselves be lured into the open unless they see target of opportunity they could ambush. Maybe we could try to bait them like that but it would be risky.
Cave
>Allow Captain Garide to check it out
mystery box, mystery box!

>>5320664
>March through the day and attack the bandits during the night to achieve surprise. Your soldiers will be tired though during the attack thanks to little available rest.
>Don’t allow any detours. You need all of your men to be with you and you can check out the cave later.

>>5320664
>Make a camp nearby and attack the next morning after a quick rest. Your men need the rest, but this risks getting seen first by the bandits.

>Allow Captain Garside to take a quick detour to check it out. This means that his men would be late for the night attack and tired if you were to attack the next morning.

>>5320664
>>March through the day and attack the bandits during the night to achieve surprise. Your soldiers will be tired though during the attack thanks to little available rest.
>>Don’t allow any detours. You need all of your men to be with you and you can check out the cave later.

I am seeing a 2-2 tie between Making a camp nearby and attacking after a rest/Garside checks the cave and Marching through the day and attack the bandits during the night/Garside doesn't check the cave.

Could I have a tiebreaker please? Alternatively I will roll a dice later when I start writing.

>>5320664
>>5321891
>Make a camp nearby and attack the next morning after a quick rest. Your men need the rest, but this risks getting seen first by the bandits.
>Allow Captain Garside to take a quick detour to check it out. This means that his men would be late for the night attack and tired if you were to attack the next morning.

Alright, that is also decided. Give me a roll please.


>1d6
>Best three

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>5322004
blessed roll

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>5322004

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>5322004

You informed Captain Garside that he would be taking a quick detour to check the cave before joining you. Meanwhile you would march directly towards the bandit camp and make a camp some distance away from it. When Garside rejoins you, you would then launch your attack.

He raised his concerns of his men becoming tired from the lack of sleep, but agreed that the cave probably should be cleared and not allowed to be unsearched. And when the next morning came, he took his men and left to see what was in there.

For you the match towards the bandit camp went without issues. The terrain started to turn rockier and swampier and at some point you realised that mounted warfare in Strahnbrad Hill was practically impossible. You had to jump off your horse time after time and in the end you choose to just walk as that was way more reliable way of making progress.

It was early evening when one of the archers that were with Rovers came back to you and told the news. The bandit camp was just a few valleys and hills away and Rovers would keep watch as they had seen a few sentries standing on a hill near the camp.

Approaching any closer could reveal your force so you camped in a small valley and allowed your men to rest a little. Several tents were quickly pitched and now you would just have to wait for Garside to return.

1/2

>>5322225

>13
>Success

It had rained during the night and when the morning came, it had turned just into a light drizzle. The tufts of grass and peat had turned wet and slippery and many of your men had gotten their gear wet and they were feeling cold as you had forbidden any fires, fearing that smoke could reveal you.

Very late in the night, just before the sun rose up, Garside had returned.

“There were four women in the cave. Locals who had taken shelter from bandits or worse.” Captain Garside said to you.

“Women, are they ok?” You asked him.

“Yes, they are ok. We didn’t find anything else in the cave, just herbs and such that they had collected for food.” He continued.

“Alright good, where are the women now?”

“I sent them to Tarren Mill, told them to follow our tracks. They should catch up with the workers who left back to safety.” Garside told you.

You had ordered the workers that had followed you to return back to Tarren Mill quickly and drag the tied up prisoners with them. It wouldn’t be smart to have them to follow you into a battle or huddle in a camp without proper guards

…

You had slowly crept closer and managed to find Rovers hiding behind a large rock. Behind the rock was a valley, then a hill on top of which was the few sentries and behind that hill was the camp.

You lowered yourself down on the wet grass and crawled forward till you could see the scene. There were four men maybe about two hundred yards away on top of a hill with a gentle slope, easily within a range of a bow. The hill you were on was nearly on the same level as the hill the bandit sentries were on, if needed you could fight the battle between these two hills with relative ease.

You crawled back and quickly called your officers to discuss how to approach this situation as your soldiers mustered behind you as carefully and silently as possible.

Several ideas were presented. You could use your archers to knock out the sentries and then just rush the camp as quickly as possible. Your men would be quite disorganised, but maybe then the bandits wouldn’t have a chance to group up and prepare for you. Another idea was for you to attack the camp directly with Captain Garside taking his men for a quick flanking move and attack from the side.

It was also suggested that maybe you could attract the bandits to attack you by pelting the sentries with a few arrows and getting them to chase you. Or you could openly invite them to a battle, by presenting your full force and attacking them directly and openly. This way you could have good control of your men instead of letting the chaos of melee take away it.

2/2

>>5322226


>Take out the sentries and then rush the camp. Disorganised, but could surprise the bandits and leave them unprepared.
>Attack the bandit camp directly and order Captain Garside to flank the bandits and attack them from the side or behind.
>Attempt to attract the bandits to attack you and deal with the bandits as they come at you.
>Present your full force and attack the bandits directly and openly. Your men are experienced and disciplined, they will keep their ranks.

QM: The roll was for Garside. It seems that everything went well.

>>5322233
>>Attack the bandit camp directly and order Captain Garside to flank the bandits and attack them from the side or behind.

>>5322233
>Attack the bandit camp directly and order Captain Garside to flank the bandits and attack them from the side or behind.

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7 KB JPG

>>5322233
If we're attacking at night then
>Take out the sentries and then rush the camp. Disorganised, but could surprise the bandits and leave them unprepared.
Is the best option because having the element of surprise and removing their fortification advantage is immensely beneficial and this "disorganised" disadvantage is really overstated. Once a way into the camp has been established, be it through having men serve their hands and shoulders as steps or through pre-built ladders, there is no reason to not remain at least somewhat organized. So long as the soldiers stick together in cohesive groups and maintain good situational awareness whilst seizing the most important parts of the camp (The gate and the elevated positions) or attacking the enemy, any disorganization will be insignificant in comparison to the benefits. If the gate is open and we are able to truly bring our numbers to bear, the fight will turn into a slaughter.

>>5322233
>Attack the bandit camp directly and order Captain Garside to flank the bandits and attack them from the side or behind.

What their plan is in case they spot an attacking group? Do they have ambush parties out waiting for attackers, or did they dig in? Will there be caltrops on the more obvious approach routes? Do they have plans to assure escape of their leadership along with any more valuable or interesting items of loot in case of a large attack?

I was thinking if it would be wise to split forces and try to trick the bandits into thinking they are being attacked by a smaller group to lure a pursuit out and weaken their garrison but that might be risky especially if they have parties out they could signal to ambush us in detail.

>>5322233
Support >>5322728
A surprise attack, especially at night, really does help minimize the defensive advantage of their encampment. I'd be tempted to add some fire into the mix but I fear that would only really be beneficial if we peppered them

>>5322233
>Take out the sentries and then rush the camp. Disorganised, but could surprise the bandits and leave them unprepared.

It is very early morning, sun is barely rising and it is getting more and more brighter. Not a proper night anymore, but still dark enough.

Also we have another tie. 3-3 between Take out the sentries and Attack the bandit camp directly. Could I have a tiebreaker, or I will throw a dice before starting to write.

>>5322233
>Attack the bandit camp directly and order Captain Garside to flank the bandits and attack them from the side or behind.
We are not bandits or thugs, a professional army can handle an encirclement/flank attack more than a reckless ambush.

Alright we have the winner. We attack directly while Captain Garside flanks. Could I have rolls! First is for you and second is for Garside.


>2d6
>Best three of four

Rolled 3, 3 = 6 (2d6)

>>5323296
Welp, here's hoping doing this the honorable way won't bite us in the butt

Rolled 2, 1 = 3 (2d6)

>>5323296

Rolled 6, 2 = 8 (2d6)

>>5323296

File: flummoxed.jpg (4 KB, 206x213)

4 KB JPG

Rolled 1, 2 = 3 (2d6)

>>5323269
>We are not bandits or thugs, a professional army can handle an encirclement/flank attack more than a reckless ambush.
Bro, what the fuck are you talking about? This surprise attack plan is not an ambush nor is it "reckless" nor is it unbefitting of a professional army, where the hell did you get this idea from? How is getting more of our men killed for no reason honorable in any way? The fact that your argument is so patently ridiculous and that you're also a 1 post ID voter is quite suspect, might I add.

>>5323296
Doing this flanking maneuver can only serve as a diversion because the palisade wall, the biggest and only enemy advantage in this fight and one which the other voters have seemingly forgotten, is not actually removed from the equation. Having a 1 post ID be the tiebreaker makes this even more tiresome but here, have your roll anyways.

“Captain Garside, you will take your men and flank left. Attempt to go around the hill and strike from that direction. I will take my men and attack them directly.” You said to him and saw the old knight nod at you. “I will give you a few moments to move and get into position, then I will make my own move.”

“Understood, good luck Alric.” Garside said and clapped you on the shoulder before crawling away to his men and leading them away from you as silently as they could.

You meanwhile called your officers closer to you so that you could give them the orders. You noticed that nearly all of your officers and members of retinue were here, even Eligius who had opted to follow you just in case.

“Alright, Raleigh, Malevus, Sir Gravis and the knights stay with me. Cromwell and Maxwell to my left and Benedict and Sir Radan to my right. Alfred and Arthur, you take the archers and follow behind me and hit them from the top of the hill. ”You told them and continued. “But before that we will wait a moment to allow Captain Garside to get into position and then you with your archers will take out the sentries.”

“And then we go in?” Maxwell asked you.

“Yes, any other questions?” You asked them.

As no one said anything, you took that as confirmation that they didn’t have any question.

“Good, then get the men into positions.” You said and watched as your officers crawled away and started whispering to their men. Slowly they too crawled up the hill and hid just out of sight.

“Where do I go?” Eligius asked you. He was wearing his usual white robe over his dark grey clothes. His place really wasn’t here, but now that he was here, he should be somewhere where he could stay safe.

“You stay with the archers, you are not a warrior. Understood?” You said to him.

“Yes Prince Alric.” Eligius said and clambered towards the archers.

Then you waited.

1/2

>>5323622

>11
>Success
>7
>Failure

Just as you were ready to spring your own attack, you heard the sound of screams and battle. Captain Garside had either bumped into another group of sentries or was already in the camp. Now was your time to move.

“The sentries now!” You shouted and pushed yourself up from the wet grass.

Rovers and their archers did the same and as soon as some of them were standing, they loosed arrows at the sentries. You were fast enough to see one of the sentries having turned into a pincushion and another wobbling with an arrow in his side.

Looking around you saw your men as ready as possible and you nodded to Lieutenant Cromwell who was on your left.

“Alterac Stands!” You shouted. Lowering the visor of your helmet and drawing the Cinder Sword before starting to jog towards the sentries.

Your men followed right behind you as the archers let loose more arrows, nailing the wounded man with several of them, but the two remaining sentries managed to run away back towards the camp.

It didn’t long for you to cross the small valley and get on top of the hill to see the camp. The low palisade walls were down the hill and that part of the camp hadn’t changed, but to its left a number of tents and small hovels had been set up, maybe doubling the amount of tents and huts you had seen previously. To the right of the camp were several larger tents or maybe they were just supplies covered with tarps.

You scanned the landscape for Captain Garside and saw him fighting beyond the camp with the bandits and you saw men getting up and taking up their arms and armour around the camp. You now had to make the choice. You could hit the tent camp outside and attempt to catch the bandits there before they could go and fight Captain Garside. You could also go over the palisade wall by having someone just boost you up over it as it wasn’t that high, maybe you could strike their leaders down immediately. Or you could go right, past the large tarp tents and to the front gate that seemed to be open.

2/2

>>5323624


Troops:
Total: 85 Footmen, 30 Archers, 5 Knights, 35 Bandit Rogues

Group Prince Alric:
Prince Alric Perenolde, on foot
Lieutenant Austyn Cromwell
Sergeant Jon Maxwell
Raleigh the True
Sir Gravis of Knott, on foot
Sir Alan Radan
Alfred and Arthur Rover
Malevus
Eligius
-5/5 Knights of Gravis, Regular Knights on foot
-10/10 Veteran Footmen
-10/10 Stormgarde Guards, Veteran Footmen
-15/15 Benedict's Blood Alley Boys, Veteran Footmen
-15/15 Sir Alan Radan's Men, Regular Bandit Rogues
-20/20 Regular Archers
-10/10 Veteran Archers

Group Captain Garside
Captain Normand Garside, on foot
Lieutenant Richard Beckston
-10/10 Veteran Footmen
-20/20 Kul Tiran Swashbucklers, Regular Pikemen
-20/20 Regular Pikemen
-10/10 Veteran Archers


>Go left, attack the bandits coming out from the tents and attempt to link up with Captain Garside.
>Over the palisade wall! Have your men boost and push you over the wall to the other side, attempt to deal with the bandit leaders first, forcing rest of them to act without proper orders.
>Right and towards the front gate. The front gate is open and going around would also make sure that there is no one to your right.

>>5323629
>>Go left, attack the bandits coming out from the tents and attempt to link up with Captain Garside.

>>5323629
>Right and towards the front gate. The front gate is open and going around would also make sure that there is no one to your right.
Well, that was a failure. We should at least try to capture the gate before it's closed on us, rendering the palisade all but useless.

If we can, I'd like to send Alan and his rogues to aid Garside by harassing the bandits his group is engaged with

>>5323629
>Right and towards the front gate. The front gate is open and going around would also make sure that there is no one to your right.
It's suspicious that the gate is open but it it is still a great boon, watch out for a trap or an ambush and we'll be fine. I also agree with >>5323669, send the rogues to assist Garside, hopefully with a surprise attack.

>>5323629
>>Right and towards the front gate. The front gate is open and going around would also make sure that there is no one to your right.

Sadly sending Sir Radan to help Captain Garside would mean that he either fights his way through the tent camp or makes a longer detour around the hill which would take too much time to do. So I will have to shoot that idea down.

But going to right and for the gate wins. Give me rolls, first is for you and second for Garside


>2d6
>Best three of four

Rolled 2, 2 = 4 (2d6)

>>5324414
FOR ALTERAC !

Rolled 2, 6 = 8 (2d6)

>>5324414
Darn shame, guess we'll just have to go dynasty warriors on some fools and plow through ourselves!

Rolled 5, 5 = 10 (2d6)

>>5324414
For Garside

Rolled 3, 3 = 6 (2d6)

>>5324414

Garside laying down the Law

>10
>Success
>14
>Success

The Kul Tiran Swashbucklers and rest of the pikemen managed to get their pikes down and stopped the attacking bandits. Seeing that Captain Garside and Lieutenant Beckston had things in order, you turned your eyes back to the camp. You had to get inside.

"To the right!" You shouted and started to jog down the hill towards the palisade.

Your soldiers followed right behind you and the archers started to loose arrows at the bandits down the hill in and around the camp.

Running the hill down wasn't easy and you nearly managed to trip once before you reached the palisade and started to run to the right, following the palisade. Sir Gravis was right behind you with his knights and you heard the rest of your footmen following thanks to the noise their plate mail made.

Passing a small tent near the tarped supplies, a pair of bandits attempted to exit it but didn't get anywhere before Sergeant Benedict and his men clubbed them senseless. Several more bandits appeared in front of you and attempted to form ranks or organised defence.

"Grogg! Wake up you fat fuck! We have been attacked, get up and earn your pay!" A bandit with an orange bandana shouted behind a screen of bandits as he kicked a tarped object a few times. The man from Syndicate saw that the tarp moved and quickly it was thrown away.

"Grogg sleepy." The one eyed Ogre said.

"I don't give a flying fuck, kill the attackers!" The Syndicate enforcer shouted again before joining the bandits.

There were maybe twenty bandits in front of you armed with various weapons and armoured in patchwork armour. Only the Syndicate enforcer had a respectable half-plate and a helmet. You could even mistake him for a footman.

Grogg, the ogre who was quite tall, pushed past the bandits and pointed at you with his spiked club. The bandits had an ogre mercenary? This would complicate things.

"Kill these?" He asked the enforcer.

"Yes, kill them all!" Syndicate enforcer shouted back.

"KILL!" Grogg enthusiastically answered

"We can take the ogre!" Sir Radan shouted to you as your men prepared for a fight by forming their own ranks.


>The ogre is a dangerous foe, deal with it with your knights. Leave the bandits to your men.
>Leave the ogre to Sir Radan and his men. You push past them and deal with the bandits.
>Seek the Syndicate enforcer and fight him. Remove one of the bandit leaders.

>>5324566
>>Leave the ogre to Sir Radan and his men. You push past them and deal with the bandits.

File: 1602399338100-1.png (275 KB, 604x428)

275 KB PNG

>>5324566
>The ogre is a dangerous foe, deal with it with your knights. Leave the bandits to your men
We have a magic sword, let's cut this fucking giant in half!

>>5324566
>Leave the ogre to Sir Radan and his men. You push past them and deal with the bandits.

Sir Radan still has not let us down once, and his rogues can pelt him with javelins before the ogre gets close, and our knights can kill the bandits easily.

>>5324566
>The ogre is a dangerous foe, deal with it with your knights. Leave the bandits to your men
We have the most experience in fighting against ogres and the Cinder Sword is especially effective big, fleshy targets such as them. If the rogues have some throwing weapons then of course they should briefly support Alric in his fight.

>>5324566
>The ogre is a dangerous foe, deal with it with your knights. Leave the bandits to your men.
Let our skirmishers pepper the poorly armored bandits while we slice up this ogre like hot hot butter. Honestly, how could they ally with one of occupiers of our homeland? Damn honorless bastards, ignore how we align with the ones who burned it down

>>5324566
>>The ogre is a dangerous foe, deal with it with your knights. Leave the bandits to your men.
Cut this creature up, though do remember that we might want to take some prisoners and interrogate them. We don't know much of the ogres in our homeland, perhaps this one could be interrogated and executed later. Of course if we manage to wound him enough, and if he surrenders.

>>5325312
Lel

Taking out the ogre wins. You have done this before, you have the Cinder Sword, the ogre lacks armour and while you are good at duels, let's see if the size and strength of the ogre triumphs over you? Give me the rolls! First is for you, second is for Garside and third for Cromwell.


>3d6
>Best three of four

Rolled 5, 1, 3 = 9 (3d6)

>>5325422
I do wonder what their deal with the ogres is...

File: ZomboMeme 29092021163442.jpg (100 KB, 896x960)

100 KB JPG

Rolled 3, 4, 3 = 10 (3d6)

>>5325422
SPLIT HIM IN HALF!

File: p u r g e.jpg (6 KB, 140x228)

6 KB JPG

Rolled 2, 4, 3 = 9 (3d6)

>>5325422

Rolled 3, 5, 3 = 11 (3d6)

>>5325422
Not too bad

>11
>Success
>13
>Success
>9
>Failure

"We take the ogre, you deal with the bandits!" You shouted and had to take a quick step back to avoid the club that hit the ground just in front of you.

The ogre smiled as it raised the club above his head and took several steps forward and brought it down again, forcing you to dodge again.

Your soldiers avoided the Ogre and ran past it to engage the bandits while you and your knights prepared yourself. With a manic glee, the Ogre charged you.

Wide swing that you dodged, second one that hit a barrel underneath a tarp. Salted fish flew all around you as the club easily broke the barrel into thousand pieces.

You and the knights retreated slowly and moved around the ogre. You had the numbers and it would have problems dealing with all of you at the same time, you just had to avoid getting hit as that club would easily shatter bones and the spikes punch right through your armour.

"Me kill!" The ogre shouted and went for another downward swing.

The club hit the ground in front of you with a thud and seeing an opening, a knight to your right slashed out with his sword and cut a shallow wound on the ogres chest.

"Aaeigh!" The ogre shouted and attempted to swipe the knight away like it had done to the barrel, but the club missed again.

Another opening arrived and Sir Gravis stabbed the ogre in its right thigh and twisted his sword before pulling it away. The Ogre again screamed in pain and it brought its club from left to right.

You had no choice, but to jump down to the wet muddy ground to avoid the club that passed right over you. Cinder Sword hissed as the now white and red blade met the wet mud, turning the water into steam.

Pushing yourself up, you avoided another swing and saw an opening to yourself. With a simple slash you severed several of the ogres fingers forcing it to drop its club.

The ogre shouted and held his now partially defingered right hand as you stepped forward and next removed his right hand completely with a simple swing.


Disarmed, the ogre posed no real threat to you and the knights stepped in. They pushed their swords into the torso of the ogre from different directions and while that would have been enough, you wanted to be sure that it would fall.

Holding the Cinder Sword with both hands you brought it up and then swung as hard as you could down. The sword entered the Ogre near its sternum, travelling down cutting through its ribcage and exiting below its stomach.

The ogre was dead in an instant as its torso opened letting its innards fall on the ground and spraying blood all around it. With its stomach literally emptied, the ogre fell on its back.

"Wasn't that bit excessive?" Sir Gravis asked as he and his knights checked their swords.

"Maybe, but better be sure." You said back and watched what was going around you.

1/2

>>5325576

The palisade blocked your view to Garside and you couldn’t see what he was doing, but your archers up the hill were still letting arrows fly into and around the camp. Behind the ogres body Lieutenant Cromwell and your men had engaged in melee. You saw several bodies on the ground already and realised that the bandits had managed to close ranks and your men had difficulties getting through. Meanwhile to the right, Sir Radan and Sergeant Benedict were involved in a messy melee with the bandits. There was no sight of clean ranks there.

"We are ready." Sir Gravis said and you nodded to your men. Malevus had smartly stayed back and avoided the ogre, but now she joined you and was ready to fight.


>Seek the Syndicate enforcers and leaders. Defeat them and the bandits would be without leaders.
>Go tip the balance into your favour. Help Cromwell to break the bandit ranks and punch through them.
>Enter the melee and make sure Sir Radan and Benedict have their men in order.

QM: Single unarmoured ogre is not a tough foe to you and the knights. Bit overkill really, but if you had failed, the results could have been bad.

>>5325582
>Seek the Syndicate enforcers and leaders. Defeat them and the bandits would be without leaders.

>>5325582
>>Go tip the balance into your favour. Help Cromwell to break the bandit ranks and punch through them.

>>5325582
>>Go tip the balance into your favour. Help Cromwell to break the bandit ranks and punch through them.

>>5325582
>Go tip the balance into your favour. Help Cromwell to break the bandit ranks and punch through them

Tipping the balance seems to be the winner. Give me rolls! First is for you, second from Cromwell and third for Sir Gravis.


>3d6
>Best three of four

Rolled 1, 5, 5 = 11 (3d6)

>>5326823

Rolled 4, 2, 6 = 12 (3d6)

>>5326823

Rolled 4, 1, 3 = 8 (3d6)

>>5326823
For Gravy

Rolled 6, 2, 2 = 10 (3d6)

>>5326823

>14
>Success
>9
>Failure
>14
>Success

"We need to break their ranks. Punch through them." You half-shouted to the knights. "Cromwell needs our help."

"Got you, follow us Prince Alric!" Sir Gravis shouted back and started to run towards Cromwell and his men.

You followed right behind him with Malevus following you. Neither Cromwell or the Stromgarde Guards managed to get past the shields and ranks the bandits held. The fight was properly stuck there. The problem now was how to approach the bandits? Would you squeeze past your men or what?

Thankfully that was decided for you as suddenly Empleton was on all fours and Joe, shortest of the knights, sprinted and used him as a stool and jumped over your men.

You had never seen anything like this as the knight flew through the air and delivered a dropkick directly into a shield one bandit carried.

The force was enough to launch the bandit several feet back and on his back as Joe hit the ground with a mighty thump. With everyone who saw it amazed and unable to react, Sir Gravis followed right behind Joe and jumped over him, wildly swinging his sword and bashing with his shield. Garth and Thomas quickly joined their boss and a gap had been formed into the bandit line.

You jumped over Joe and joined your knights in the wild melee as you pushed the bandits away and started to bring the Cinder Sword up and down.

Within seconds of the bandit line breaking, you found yourself fighting two of them at the same time. Switching targets between swings you kept them away before the second of them got too occupied by one of the knights attacking him.

You swung at them, stabbed left and right, bashed with your shield. Sometimes your attacks connected and at least one of the bandits fell to either your strike or someone else's strike and fell dead in front of you.

And then the bandit line broke completely and they lost their cohesion. You had the momentum, you could push forward and defeat them now. There were still more of them and now you saw that men wearing orange bandanas were ready to join the fight. Syndicate soldiers.


SHIFT OF PERSPECTIVE?
>Stay as Prince Alric and make sure that you are going to win this wild melee.
>Switch to Malevus and fight in your first real battle against men. You need to make sure Prince Alric stays alive, that is your duty.
>Switch to Eligius and follow the battle from the top of the hill behind the archers. Think how you could be helpful in this battle.

QM: I am giving you a choice to see the battle from someone else's perspective and play as them for a while. You have a chance to effect the battle in different ways now.

>>5326959
this is a really interesting choice

>>5326959
>>Switch to Eligius and follow the battle from the top of the hill behind the archers. Think how you could be helpful in this battle.
picking eligius, i want to see what we can do with him. Even if Malevus could be also nice

>>5326959
>Switch to Eligius and follow the battle from the top of the hill behind the archers. Think how you could be helpful in this battle.

>>5326959
>>Stay as Prince Alric and make sure that you are going to win this wild melee.

>>5326959
Ohh, always interesting to see where stuff like this goes. Not sure which one I want to see more. Hmm...
>Switch to Eligius and follow the battle from the top of the hill behind the archers. Think how you could be helpful in this battle.
Since he's the one who's going to be the least similar to Alric

>>5326959
Nice dynamic entry there!

Huh, what a choice... these all sound good. Although I don't have an idea what to do as Eligius since he's hiding his powerlevel so most he could do is noticing things and analyzing but that's not much we can do from player perspective other than rolling perception. Still, gonna be interesting either way.

You are Eligius, warlock in hiding, spymaster soon to be in training and a man whose life had been saved not once, but twice by Prince Alric. First by being saved from the bandits who killed your master and burned down your hut and second time by not being hanged by Prince Alric after learning who you really are. It wouldn’t be a lie if you said that you owed your life and more to that man.

And now you were watching a battle unfold in front of you. And you felt helpless.

The two Rover brothers were directing the archers to where to loose their arrows as they rained very pointy death down towards the bandits. You saw how the bandits down below in the camp had to run from cover to cover or attempt to shield themselves with their shields to not get hit as they tried to enter the melee. Captain Garsides' men had managed to keep the attacking bandits away with their own wall of pikes and were slowly pushing forward, while you had seen Prince Alric nearly bisecting an ogre before joining the melee on the other side of the camp.

You frankly had no idea who was winning as it felt like there just were too many bandits down there and too few of you against them. But you weren’t a soldier, frankly you weren’t much of a fighter either. You only had a small pesky dagger with you and you knew that if you were forced to use it, something had gone horribly wrong.

You just felt so bloody helpless at not being able to help Prince Alric or others as you watched the battle.

And then you felt a single tingle in the nape of your neck. A bit too familiar tingle and a horrifying realisation hit you.

Oh fuck, oh shit, oh the tits of a succubi. What are you going to do now? There was someone down there preparing to use magic. This was bad news, this was really bad news.

You covered your face with your hands and breathed deeply. Think Eligius, what can you do to help Prince Alric and others? You could warn Rovers as they were closest or you could run down the hill and seek out Prince Alric, or you could attempt to sense and locate where the mage was. This wouldn’t necessarily reveal that you are a warlock, but would they believe you?

More riskier would be to pre-emptively attempt to counter whatever the magic user down there was attempting to do, but people would notice that and they didn’t know that you were a magic user. What would they be thinking? At least you wouldn’t be revealed as a warlock you hope.

1/1

>>5328113


>Just watch and let it play out, the magic could be relatively harmless, it is not like they have an archmage down there.
>Try to tell Rovers that there is a mage amongst the bandits down there. Try to warn them that this could be really bad news.
>Run down the hill and seek out Prince Alric, he will believe your warning because he knows that you are a warlock.
>Attempt to sense where the magic user exactly is, but this risks you being spotted by that person sensing your magic.
>Pre-emptively start channeling countermagic, you are not going to allow that magic to happen, but then you being a magic user would be revealed to others.


QM: I actually kinda thought that you would be choosing to stay as Alric or take Malevus instead. It seems I was wrong.

>>5328118
>Run down the hill and seek out Prince Alric, he will believe your warning because he knows that you are a warlock.
It would be best if we do not let anyone else know that Eligius knows magic, otherwise it would cause longterm problems, even more problems if they know he is a warlock.

>>5328118
>>Attempt to sense where the magic user exactly is, but this risks you being spotted by that person sensing your magic.

>>5328118
>>Run down the hill and seek out Prince Alric, he will believe your warning because he knows that you are a warlock.

>>5328118
> I actually kinda thought that you would be choosing to stay as Alric or take Malevus instead. It seems I was wrong.
It's probably because we haven't seen much of Eligius in comparison to the other two and thus it was the most interesting option.

As for the vote, Im torn between trying to sense the enemy magic user and warning Alric... on the one hand, we can find out where they are and on the other hand, we can warn Alric faster.

>Run down the hill and seek out Prince Alric, he will believe your warning because he knows that you are a warlock.
Guess I'll play it safe.

>>5328118
>Attempt to sense where the magic user exactly is, but this risks you being spotted by that person sensing your magic.
Running into the thick of fighting will hardly be useful, and would only force Alric to save Eligius for a third time I'm almost certain of. Best we can do here is try to locate the mage and hope that we can point out to the Rovers that the person looks to be "doing something strange". This feels like the best way to lie in a convincing manner with minimum risk. Worst that could happen is that the would-be mage would be outside Eligius' field of view which would mean it'd be impossible to tell the Rovers without them getting suspicious.

>>5328377
That's an excellent point. I should've thought it through more thoroughly.

>>5328118
I'll change this >>5328374 vote to
>Attempt to sense where the magic user exactly is, but this risks you being spotted by that person sensing your magic.

>>5328118
Hmm if we could see the enemy caster we might be able to just point them out to archers…
If we can’t figure out where they are without magic I guess we will have to
>attempt to sense
If that someone is trying to summon a demon our dilemma whether to assist in banishing or enslaving it will only get worse.

Attempting to sense where the magic user is wins. Because Eligius is not Alric, I will be using a different dice system for him. This is a good opportunity to test how it works.

>3d10, best of three
>DC 19, Crit 22

Rolled 2, 5, 6 = 13 (3d10)

>>5328779
eligius bread?

Rolled 2, 5, 1 = 8 (3d10)

>>5328779
neato burrito, good as time as any to try new things

Rolled 1, 9, 2 = 12 (3d10)

>>5328779
WITNESS YOUR DOOOOOOOOOM!

>13
>Failure

Your master had taught you that errant magic is just as or even more dangerous than controlled magic and having an ability to sense it to avoid it mucking up your own magic was really important. For if you failed thanks to that, the backlash could easily cause destruction or harm to you. As your master did his own spells and prepared the studies and rituals, it was your job to sense out the magic and warn if you noticed something that wasn’t there or wasn’t normal.

And now you tried to do the same. You knew that after feeling the magic being prepared, you probably could sense it and find out where that mage was?

You closed your eyes and took a few deep breaths, before you just concentrated on the tingling and scanned your surroundings.

Near immediately you realised that you had messed up as you felt like someone was gazing at you. You cursed silently in your mind. The other mage had realised your attempt of scrying their position out and now knew that he wasn’t alone, that there was another mage here.

But whoever was down there had made a mistake, they had attempted to sense your presence back and now you had a better taste of their magic.


>Warn Rovers that there is a magic user in the camp.
>Attempt to sense where the magic user exactly is. They are now alarmed, but you now have a better taste of their magic, so success could come this time.
>Run down into the camp, closer you are to the magic user, easier it is to find them.
>Pre-emptively start channeling countermagic, you are not going to allow that magic to happen, but then you being a magic user would be revealed to others.

QM: I thought that DC of 19 was hard and thought originally going for only 17 or even lower. Even if I had went lower, you still wouldn't have rolled high enough. Jeez those where bad rolls.

>>5328856
>>Attempt to sense where the magic user exactly is. They are now alarmed, but you now have a better taste of their magic, so success could come this time.

>>5328856
>Attempt to sense where the magic user exactly is. They are now alarmed, but you now have a better taste of their magic, so success could come this time.
sheesh, yeah those were some really damn bad rolls. I mean unless my math is off then the median of best of three 3d10 should be 21.
Anyway, the logic remains much the same. Though now I somewhat fear that this mage might tell where we are located. Hopefully suppressive fire from the archers should mitigate that

>>5328856
>Attempt to sense where the magic user exactly is. They are now alarmed, but you now have a better taste of their magic, so success could come this time.
if we find him, we can have the archers take him out hopefully. uhmm while this is interesting is quite dangerous. The difference between Alric and Eligius&Malevus is probably large. I might swap with him later, if there is a vote.
no problem qm

I will actually call the vote now as I am planning to do another update today. I will also probably do bunch of updates tomorrow, that is at least the plan.


>3d10, best of three
>DC 17, Crit 22

Rolled 8, 3, 8 = 19 (3d10)

>>5328957

Rolled 4, 10, 6 = 20 (3d10)

>>5328957
rodger dodger, thankfully I see someone's already got us in the green. Let's see if we can't take that a step further

>>5328962
perhaps I should've said something other than *a* step

Rolled 4, 3, 6 = 13 (3d10)

>>5328957
horse killer

>20
>Success

You closed your eyes again and took several deep breaths. You are going to succeed this time you promised yourself.

The magic you seeked out wasn’t errant or wild magic, it wasn’t something out of control, but instead something controlled and twisted into a form by human hands. You searched into your mind to remember the feeling you had when you had watched your master do his spells and attempted to find something similar.

Concentrating on that feeling you projected your search into the camp below until you found what you were looking for.

Bingo! There he was, a man standing in the camp inside the palisade walls.

You opened your eyes and looked down to find him with your own eyes. If you could spot him, then dealing with him would be so much easier.

“Oh fuck, oh shit, oh the tits of a succubi.” You said this time aloud as you saw the mage amongst the crowd. No wonder you couldn’t spot him before you attempted to sense him as he was wearing the same dark clothing rest of the Syndicate men and bandits here had.

But the reason why you cursed aloud was another thing. You saw how the man weaved his hands through the air and how dark shadowy light, if it could be described as that, started to form around them. The man wasn’t just a mage, he was a warlock just like you and you knew what the spell he was weaving would be.

Fear.

You knew the theory of how to perform Fear and you knew how powerful it could be. If the warlock could cast it, it could mean doom to Prince Alric and his soldiers.

You knew you had to act fast before the spell was ready.


>Alert Rovers and the archers that there is clearly a wizard in the camp. Get them to make pincushion out of him, but you feared this could be too slow.
>Countermagic the Fear away. You know the theory so you should be able to dispel it even before the spell is ready. Though this would reveal to others that you know magic.
>Shadow Bolt. The warlock is interrupted by his spell, now is the perfect time to strike.

>>5329020
>>Alert Rovers and the archers that there is clearly a wizard in the camp. Get them to make pincushion out of him, but you feared this could be too slow.

>>5329020
>>Alert Rovers and the archers that there is clearly a wizard in the camp. Get them to make pincushion out of him, but you feared this could be too slow.

Plans change, a hilariously busy day today. I will try to get something out as an update later today.

But before that I need some rolls. Alerting Rovers and archers win.


>3d10, best of three
>DC 16, Crit 22

Rolled 4, 10, 5 = 19 (3d10)

>>5330109
We already cut a deal with the dragon... so let us at least geek the mage first!

Rolled 7, 6, 7 = 20 (3d10)

>>5330109

Rolled 4, 4, 5 = 13 (3d10)

>>5330109

>20
>Success

“There is a mage in the camp!” You shouted as loudly as you could and pushed yourself past pair of archers.

“Scribe, what are you saying?” Arthur Rover asked you and he was clearly annoyed that you had interrupted them.

“A mage! There is a mage in the camp. Just look!” You said back to him and pointed towards the warlock.

“Shit, you are right!” Alfred Rover shouted and in surprise as he spotted the warlock before his brother did. “Archers, kill that mage!”

Aflred himself took his bow and the archers turned to aim towards the warlock. One by one they spotted him and just before you felt like his spell was ready, Alfred let loose a single arrow that flew true and hit the warlock in his right arm.

The Fear spell fizzled out as the warlock's concentration was broken and the man stumbled a bit before the rest of the archers joined in an attempt to kill the man. Arrows flew past the warlock until he was hit a second time, this time to his side and the man fell.

You didn’t see if the warlock died or if the wound was to be lethal as a tent obscured your sight. You couldn’t be sure if the archers had caught the warlock, but the fact that the spell was interrupted was the most important thing.

“Scribe, how did you spot the mage? Did you sense his magic?” Arthur asked you and chuckled. “Just joking, you just have a robe like wizards have.”

For a moment you had stopped breathing, but thankfully it was just a joke.

“I saw his hands and the shadows. What else can I do, but observe?” You said back carefully.

“Well if you observe anything more, please tell us.” Alfred said to you and turned back towards the camp.

The archers continued to loose arrows as you took a few steps back to not disturb them further and you sighed deeply. You felt that you had done the right thing, helped Prince Alric and his men in your own way. And you had kept your own skills in magic hidden. No one new had realised that you just aren’t a scribe.

You just hoped that the warlock in the camp was dead or dying.

1/2

>>5331385


You are Prince Alric Perenolde and you struck a bandit on his shoulder with the Cinder Sword which easily cut through the gambeson, flesh and bone, before kicking the victim of your sword to free the blade.

The bandit fell on the ground clutching the wound that would prove to be fatal as you stepped over the man and moved your shield and sword into a ready stance. You had already struck down three other men and there hadn't been a break in the fighting since you first joined it. Now though there wasn't anyone immediately jumping at you or swinging their weapons wildly, this gave you a bit of time. Quickly looking around you saw that the fighting really had turned into a wild melee where man fought another with disregard to ranks or tactics. In the confusion of the battle, even your own footmen had broken ranks to be able to fight their enemies in small duels.

But this had been a successful approach as the open gate into the walled camp was just right there. If you were to take the closest men around you, you could charge in and deal with their leaders and hopefully finish the battle right there. Or you could attempt to reorganise your ranks and get your men back into formation, hopefully preventing a casualty or two.


>The fighting has been successful so far, throw yourself back into the melee and kill the bandits, after all you are one hell of a fighter. If they don’t have men, they cannot resist you.
>Take the closest soldiers around you and charge into the walled camp. Find their leaders and defeat them.
>Reorganise your ranks and get your men back into formation. This would give you a better control over them, but at the same time give the bandits time to do the same.
>Other, write in.

>>5331390
>Take the closest soldiers around you and charge into the walled camp. Find their leaders and defeat them.

>>5331390
>>Take the closest soldiers around you and charge into the walled camp. Find their leaders and defeat them.
Let s kill them, perhaps we can find even that warlock

>>5331390
They outnumber us from the sounds of things still. If we charge ahead, we'll put ourselves at risk of being surrounded. Or rather, we would be if not for the chaos of the melee.
>Take the closest soldiers around you and charge into the walled camp. Find their leaders and defeat them.

>>5331390
>>Take the closest soldiers around you and charge into the walled camp. Find their leaders and defeat them.

Taking the closest soldiers around you and charging into the walled camp wins. I also have decided that I will be using the 3d10 system for individual actions going forward. Having done bunch of tests with AnyDice, I can say that I like that dice system. So give me the rolls.


>3d10, best of three
>DC 18, Crit 24

Rolled 4, 10, 3 = 17 (3d10)

>>5331725

Rolled 5, 2, 6 = 13 (3d10)

>>5331725
No modifiers? Shouldn't our extra dice on the previous system give us something?

>>5331734
The extra dice just made it easier to reach the DCs I had in mind, instead I can just lower the DC and be more transparent about the results you need to roll.

Rolled 8, 9, 6 = 23 (3d10)

>>5331725

>>5331739
Still, I thinks it's better to use modifiers to display the actor's ability in relation to the task being performed. Plus, the transparency you want is achieved by telling us the DC anyway.

>>5331748
I think I prefer this actually. Using modifiers can easily lead to incredible amounts of bloat and "gamey" decision making on part of us players.
BTW Medivh, here you can see the probabilities of the new system in case you wanted it
https://anydice.com/program/29c42

>23
>Success

You knew what you had to do. You had to defeat the bandit leaders. There were still too many of their soldiers around and the longer this battle lasted, the harder it will be for your men as exhaustion starts to creep in and mistakes start to be made. Mistakes that could lead to death. With the gate into the walled camp open, you only wished to find the leader of the bandits and the Syndicate troops inside.

You looked around and saw the familiar red cloaks of the Stromgarde Guards near you and the knights of Sir Gravis had stayed close to you to protect you. You would take them with you.

“Maxwell! Gravis! Take your men and follow me!” You shouted to them and jogged forward, pushing past Cromwell and his footmen and not engaging several bandits that were attempting to fight back.

At the gate one of the bandits attempted to strike at you with his axe, but you blocked it effortlessly with your shield and just threw the man aside, letting Sergeant Maxwell deal with him.

Slowing your speed back into a walk and raising the Cinder Sword to your side, you entered the camp. You had seen the place from the top of the hill several weeks ago, but now you were inside the camp.

Wooden huts lined the palisade and several larger tents had been erected inside, but they didn’t interest you that much as you saw your price, your target in front of you. A man in an old full plate stood in the middle of the camp. His full plate was of the old Alteraci design, similar to what Captain Garside uses, an orange bandana was around his throat and carried an interesting combination of a sword and a flanged mace as his weapons. He clearly was the leader of the bandits here, the men around him didn’t look as imposing as he did, but all of them were clearly from the Syndicate as they had the bandanas and looked professional compared to the bandits you had faced a moment before.

And speaking of his men, you counted ten footmen to be around him. Armoured in full plate, you expected them to be on the same level with your footmen, but if you were a gambling man, you would bet that your men that were with you are better than them.

Looking to your left you saw Sir Gravis and his four knights and to your right were Sergeant Maxwell and six of his footmen, which raised the thought, had four of them already fallen? Finally behind you stood Malevus.

“So you finally showed your face Princeling. My boss will be really happy after I take your head and bring it to him.” The Syndicate leader shouted at you and took a few steps forward. “So Princeling, how will it be? Do you make it easy for me, or do you resist?”


>Challenge the Syndicate leader into a duel. You against him. No one interrupts the fight.
>Don’t heed his taunts, face him and his men in a direct battle. Don’t let him to be your only opponent.
>No leader can fight without his underlings. Concentrate on dealing with his footmen first.
>Other, write in.

Let us test this 3d10 system for the rest of this battle and the thread. I can then ask if you lot want to go back to the 1d6 system instead. And yes AnyDice is really useful site for dice related shenanigans.

>>5331835
Are we at all able to make out how old/experienced this man is? My gut instinct says duel but you know what they say, fear the old man in the field where men die young

>>5331841
From his voice only, as his helmet covers his head and face, you could estimate him being maybe late 30s or early 40s. It is really hard to say as he could just sound old.

>>5331835
>>Don’t heed his taunts, face him and his men in a direct battle. Don’t let him to be your only opponent.

You can't trust bandits to honestly accept an honourable duel.

>>5331835
>Alterac will not be reborn on foundation of crime and banditry. Lay down your arms and join me and you and your men can still be part of it. We do not assassinate our own in dead of night for our personal gain like your masters do, your lives and fates have more value to us than to them.

>>5331835
"Spare me your bravado, and surrender. Alterac is rebuilding and the kingdom image will not be stained further by your group, a life of crime and evil is not one our kin and families need. What is your answer ?"
>Don’t heed his taunts, face him and his men in a direct battle. Don’t let him to be your only opponent.
Deal with his weapons first

Attempting to get him to surrender and fighting him and his men normally wins. Give me a roll!


>3d10, best of three
>DC 19, Crit 25

Rolled 8, 10, 2 = 20 (3d10)

>>5332344
For Alterac!

Rolled 6, 4, 6 = 16 (3d10)

>>5332344

Rolled 10, 3, 4 = 17 (3d10)

>>5332344
COMMON MOTHERFUCKER DO YOU SPEAK IT?!

>20
>Success

"Sir Gravis, Sergeant Maxwell, you know what to do." You said to them and didn’t expect an answer. "Malevus."

"Yes Prince Alric?" Malevus said and straightened her posture.

"Please guard my back." You said to her.

"Will do Prince Alric!" Malevus said enthusiastically, but you heard the tiredness in her voice.

You hadn’t turned your eyes away from the Syndicate leader who also hadn’t moved a bit.

"Spare me your bravado. Alterac will not be reborn on a foundation of crime and banditry, but it will be reborn through hard work. I will not allow the name of Alterac be stained by people like you who threaten and assassinate our own in the dead of night for your own personal gain like your masters do. Our families will not be living a life of crime and evil. So surrender as your lives and fates have more value than dying in Strahnbrad Hills for your honourless masters." You said sternly, more towards the Syndicate men and less towards their leader. You felt that he wouldn’t be swayed by your words.

"Hahahahaha! Did you hear that boys, the Princeling can talk." The Syndicate leader said. "Now please offer your head and we can get this over with."

The Syndicate leader and his men started walking towards you and you braced yourself by keeping your shield high and Cinder Sword close to you. The sword slowly shed embers and it had gained its yellow-orange colour that resembled metal taken out from a forge. It didn’t feel hot, but you had seen how it had burned its victims, the blood and gore having burned away from it. Having such a potent weapon by your side made you feel confident and knowing your own skills, you were fairly sure that you could defeat these men. After all you had beaten Prince Arthas before and no way this man or his fighters were as good as Arthas was.

But now you had a new motivation to get through this alive, you had Calia to think about. Not in any circumstance you would want to disappoint her by getting wounded or killed. You couldn’t imagine letting her hear those news.

The Syndicate leader was on you and swung his sword and mace, forcing you to block them with your sword and shield. The leader kept his pressure on you until you pushed him away and slashed away with Cinder Sword, targeting a Syndicate footman left of you and chipping his shield badly.

As the footman recovered from your attack, the Syndicate leader went on to attack you again while the rest of the men around you had started their own small duels. There were eleven of them and thirteen of you. The fight was just starting.


>Concentrate on the Syndicate leader and trust that your men can handle his footmen.
>Keep the pressure on the Syndicate footmen next to you, while keeping the leader at bay.
>Actively avoid the Syndicate leader and fight the footmen first. Defeat them first to win this fight.
>Other, write in.

>>5332545
I’d say focus primarily on the leader as if he falls the others may be more tractable. But let’s not lose sight of the battle entirely so we don’t get blindsided, although with Malevus looking out for us we should be fine.

>>5332545
>>Concentrate on the Syndicate leader and trust that your men can handle his footmen.

>>5332545
>>Concentrate on the Syndicate leader and trust that your men can handle his footmen.

>>5332545
>Concentrate on the Syndicate leader and trust that your men can handle his footmen.
Cut off the head and the body will soon follow. Kinda wish I hadn't forgotten to vote on the last one, a duel would've been pretty good.

>>5332545
>Concentrate on the Syndicate leader and trust that your men can handle his footmen.

You blocked the mace with the flat of your sword and directed it away before stopping his attempt to slash at your armoured legs with your shield. The shaft of the mace hit the crossguard of your sword and for a moment you were locked in a test of strength as the Syndicate leader attempted to find a way around your shield.

You then did something he didn't expect and stopped pushing back while stepping aside, before giving a quick push. The leader had to take a few steps to regain his balance as you managed to put some distance between you and him again.

It seems that this had now turned into a fight between you and him. Now you just had to think how to approach your opponent.


>Alteraci Footman Drill, quick blocks and ripostes are the way to victory.
>Half-swording is required to find the gaps in his full plate. Go for a more technical and grappling based offensive.
>Large powerful strikes is the way to go. They are high risk, but high reward.
>Drop your shield and properly two-hand the Cinder Sword. As a longsword it requires both hands to properly control it and your shield gets in the way.

>>5332999
>Half-swording is required to find the gaps in his full plate. Go for a more technical and grappling based offensive.

>>5332999
>>Alteraci Footman Drill, quick blocks and ripostes are the way to victory.

>>5332999
doesn't half swording imply also dropping the shield?
anyway, let's go with that or the last option I suppose

>>5332999
>Half-swording is required to find the gaps in his full plate. Go for a more technical and grappling based offensive.

>>5333032
With the shield strapped to your left arm, you can use your gauntlet to guide the blade around. So no, you don't have to drop the shield.

Of course in historical context I haven’t seen shield being carried while half-swording, but that doesn’t mean it is impossible or never done.