>>5383948

“I would like to join you Alexi, seeing the estate interest me and I would like to see where the immense wealth of your family actually comes from.” You said to the eldest of the siblings.

Wendon didn’t seem disappointed that you didn’t choose him, but Jandice visibly deflated a bit before Alexi straightened his back and nodded.

“Then follow me Prince Alric.” Alexi Barov said to you and showed you the way. “There is a bit of walking to do and I hope your wounds haven’t slowed you down.”

“Don’t worry about me Alexi, I will be fine.” You said back to him and followed him off the room.

Alexi Barov guided you through the house and out from the back door. It felt when you exited the house like it was bigger from inside than it looked from outside. You weren’t exactly sure about that, but you would have to ask Malevus and your knights about it later on.

Walking past orchards with Malevus and a pair of knights following you, Alexi started to speak to you.

“I am sorry if our offer felt too heavy handed, too brazen, but we have our reasons to be interested in Strahnbrad Hills.” He said to you.

“What would that reason be?” You asked back as you passed a distillery where they were making cider from all the apples.

“We Barovs own plenty of land in Hillsbrad, in Tarren Mill, Andorhal, Hearthglen and Stratholme.” Alexi said to you as he stopped. “Prince Alric, do you notice what is missing?”

“I would presume that would be Strahnbrad.” You said.

“Correct, if we had land near Strahnbrad and through the King’s Road, we would have a continuous presence across Lordaeron.” Alexi explained to you.

That would have some economic benefits, but offering so much from a bunch of hills and swamp? What he said to you still didn’t explain everything to you.

“I can see that you have questions in your mind Prince Alric, I know that didn’t exactly explain everything to you.” Alexi continued.


>There must be more than just economic benefits in owning Strahnbrad Hills, ask about why exactly they want the land so badly.
>How do siblings have such control over the wealth of the family and be allowed to make such offers in the first place?
>Ask about the terms. They must know about the Edict of King Terenas and before it is lifted, you can’t do much to reclaim your homeland.
>See if Alexi would be willing to offer better terms now that you are away from the rest of his siblings. He after all is the eldest of the siblings.
>Other, write in.

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>>5383953


QM: Here at the start of thread 16, let's have a small Q&A session. If you have any questions regarding the quest for the past 15 threads, please go ahead and ask them. I will try to answer them as best as I can.

The questions can be about the quest, Alric, other characters, how the characters see you, past decisions or something else. I won’t spoil what is coming, but I might give some insight into how some of your past decisions have influenced the events that have happened or will happen.

So have at them!

>>5383953
>>How do siblings have such control over the wealth of the family and be allowed to make such offers in the first place?

>>5383953
>How do siblings have such control over the wealth of the family and be allowed to make such offers in the first place?
And maybe also how do they manage to control the business jointly (try to gauge how much they know about our siblings.)
Also ask about the edict they are no doubt aware of, after all there will be no business with Alterac if it’s occupied by ogres. (Try to gauge if they may have dealings with Syndicate)

>>5383953
>>How do siblings have such control over the wealth of the family and be allowed to make such offers in the first place?
Another thread yey

>>5383954
Is our current studying paying off ? Last i remember it was governance

>>5384496

Yes, Alric is quite close on finishing his studies on Governance, but he just hasn't had the time to properly sit down and finish the work. Recently he has had so much else to do and somewhere else to be to do that. He just needs a few weeks of not much going on while being in Dawnholme.

I will allow this vote to stay up and wait till tomorrow for the update. Gives more people a chance to notice the thread and jump in.

>>5383953
>How do siblings have such control over the wealth of the family and be allowed to make such offers in the first place?
How do you determine when an alric gets a special skill? Alrics dueling proficiency looks more of a earned trait rather than the other two that are learned skills. Also can these skills be improved?

"I must ask, how do you have such control over the wealth of your family to be allowed to make such offers?" You asked Alexi.

"That is a very good question Prince Alric." Alexi said and continued. "Our parents are very busy, spending most of the time with their own projects in Caer Darrow or in Capital City. They just don't have the time to handle everything."

"So they have given you free hands?"

"That would be correct." Alexi said and smiled. "They trust our instinct and knowledge to make the right choices and offers."

"And that is why your father allows you to approach me, even after making it very clear what he thinks of me." You said back to him.

"This is why our family has been so successful. We do the business our parents might miss, while they handle things we can't handle." Alexi said and sounded very proud of what he had said.

"To make a deal like this, wouldn't it then show your parents that you can handle difficult negotiations?" You decided to probe him a bit.

"You have a sharp mind Prince Alric."

"Then sadly I can't be of help. Seems like your negotiations ended up failing this time." You said back to him as a reminder. "I wonder if Lord Alexei or Lady Illucia could have made an offer that was in the realm of plausible."

"Perhaps, perhaps. Prince Alric, me and my siblings will contact you again regarding our terms…" Alexi said to you and seemed somewhat peeved that you had to remind him. It sounded like the siblings and their parents had a quite competitive relationship. Maybe you could use that to your advantage?

"But Prince Alric, let us continue our tour. There are plenty of things for you to see." Alexi said and again showed the way.

1/2

>>5385538

You had toured the estates with Alexi explaining how the holdings near Tarren Mill mainly concentrated on apples and everything else apple related. The ciders produced here are sold to all corners of human lands, even the elven of Quel'Thalas regularly buy their products.

When the two of you returned back to the estate, you found the dinner being nearly ready and you didn’t have to wait that long before you were invited into the dining room.

It shouldn't have surprised you, but it did. The amount of different dishes and foods presented to you was more than you could count or even imagine. The chefs Barovs were employing had really done all they could to impress you.

"Prince Alric, how did your talks with my brother go?" Jandice Barov asked you after a brief moment of silence that had started to turn a bit awkward.

"Thank you for asking Lady Jandice, they went well. Your brother explained to me how your family has become as wealthy as it is." You said to her.

"I hope Alexi didn't hog all the honour to himself." Weldon quipped.

"And you don't always have to poke your brother Weldon." Jandice said to her brother and was annoyed before turning her head to speak to you. "My apologies Prince Alric, my brother can be a nincompoop sometimes."

"Don’t worry Weldon, the success of our family is because of all of us." Alexi said and you weren't so sure he meant that fully.

"Now Prince Alric, we know you are a busy man and we won't be holding you for that much longer." Jandice said to you and continued. "So if you have any questions for us, or for me, now would be a good time to ask them."

"It is not that often that even us siblings are together like this." Alexi said.

"All of us after all have our own things to do." Weldon continued.


>Ask about the siblings themselves, you don't know much at all about them.
>There is something very strange about this estate, this building, but you can't really explain what. Ask about it.
>Invite the Barovs to visit Alterac and Dawnholme. It would be polite to reciprocate the dinner invite.
>Barovs must know something interesting that would benefit you. Or maybe they could offer something to you as a token of goodwill.
>Other, write in.

>>5385543
>>Invite the Barovs to visit Alterac and Dawnholme. It would be polite to reciprocate the dinner invite.

After we finish our current campaign of course.

>>5385543
>>There is something very strange about this estate, this building, but you can't really explain what. Ask about it.
I'll bite.
And also
>>Invite the Barovs to visit Alterac and Dawnholme. It would be polite to reciprocate the dinner invite.
However... our own house is still under construction, or am I misremembering? We need to have some semblance of hospitality available for them, even if it won't be near what they currently have. And make it after our campaign is concluded, so we have some business to discuss with them.

>>5385177
Special Skills themselves can't be improved, but the stats that relate to the skills can be. For example if Alric had Charisma of 7, he would be really good at talking and being in social situations. But if he lacked the Noble Etiquette, other nobles and members of royalty might think a bit less of him and that Charisma of 7 wouldn't benefit him that much when dealing with them.

Gaining a new Special Skill happens when you do something or train a specific stat a lot. For example if I give you an option to go fishing and it would be chosen multiple times, Alric could get a Fishmonger Special Skill. Dealing with fish and fish accessories is easy stuff for Alric. Another example, you gained Dueling Proficiency thanks to choosing Martial training in thread 1 meaning Alric trained with Garside for years how to fight in a single combat, ended up dueling multiple skilled enemies and most importantly winning said duels.

Alric could learn/earn a Special Skill if someone offered to teach him something out of ordinary and not covered under the umbrella that is Stats.

Hopefully this answered your questions and I am still willing to answer more questions of you lot have them.

>>5385543
>There is something very strange about this estate, this building, but you can't really explain what. Ask about it.
>Invite the Barovs to visit Alterac and Dawnholme. It would be polite to reciprocate the dinner invite.
>>5385575
A good answer. Be careful what you wish for.
Heres a question i dont know Warcraft lore that well other than having played the rts games. Is magic inherent or something that people can learn and if anyone can learn it could alric or would you shoot it down?
And as a side note for some reason i think alrics father would be weirdly proud of him how somewhat twofaced and underhanded he can be.

>>5385595
My understanding of the lore is that magic can be learned by everyone, but you really need innate ability or aptitude for it to work properly. Otherwise you have to really work for it and even then you are lagging behind those with the actual skills.

Like anyone could study to be a mathematician or a doctor, but not all are created equal and some just have the head for numbers or for doctor stuff.

I think I have answered this once before. Alric hasn't shown any signs of having that innate ability or aptitude regarding magic which your sister Beve Perenolde had. Those signs might appear when Alric grows older, but the chances for that are very slim. So technically Alric could study magic, but would it be worth the time spent? Much easier to have someone else to handle magic for you.

>>5385625
What is we studied magic for like containing it in our body like mana flow and stamina to make us stronger or doing better in combat? Instead of expelling the energy we keep it in an enclosed system giving us a boost.

>>5385888
If Alric ever studies magic or gets into something else that is similar, it should be a big event or a turning point as a person and as a character. Studying magic would be a quite big investment in time and would change how other characters might see Alric.

While buffs and magic that enhances the user exist in Warcraft, I feel that just studying them with the idea of buffing only yourself would push Alric and the quest too much into shounen territory. Which wasn't what I envisioned when I planned this quest. Alric using not!chakra is something I will have to say no to.

>>5386245
>punished Alric after the Alterac is razed for the second time during scourge or horde crisis, his sweetheart lichified, all that is left for him is the dark arts, his black drake mount and an unknown war criminal blood elf

>>5385543
>>There is something very strange about this estate, this building, but you can't really explain what. Ask about it.
>>Invite the Barovs to visit Alterac and Dawnholme. It would be polite to reciprocate the dinner invite.
Nice

Actually, give me a roll if Alric can spot something and make sense of it.


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

Rolled 6 (1d10)

>>5386836
I smell a smelly smell.

>>5386872
Wrong dice, 3d10 not 1d10

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

>>5386836
Wait hold on, typed 1 instead of 3.
This should do it.

Rolled 6, 7, 2 = 15 (3d10)

>>5386836
Alrics superior senses and intellect shall reveal this puzzle.

Rolled 6, 9, 10 = 25 (3d10)

>>5386836

Rolled 6, 3, 6 = 15 (3d10)

>>5386836

>>5386245
>Alric using not!chakra is something I will have to say no to.
Boo! All busty lusty ladies must lust after the the shota prince!

>25, Critical success!

"There is something strange in this building, but I just can’t figure out what." You mused aloud and presented it as a question for them. "It feels like it is much bigger from inside than it looks from outside."

Weldon looked at her sister who just shrugged as a reply to him.

"You would be correct Prince Alric, it is bigger from inside and for a reason." Jandice said to you and continued. "Watch me closely."

When Jandice said that, she stood up from her chair. No, she didn't stand up as now there were two Jandices in the room. One still sitting facing you and the second who started to walk around the table.

It had looked like from her body a second copy of hers had just emerged without any issues. Just slipped out without a sound.

"We Barovs have many skills and mine is magic." The two Jandices said to you same time as your head and eyes kept track of them.

"For I am an archmage of Dalaran, specialised in illusions and making things look something that they aren't." The voice of Jandice came from right behind you.

You turned your head to look where she was and what you saw was really an archmage of Dalaran. Purple robes and the typical mage armour many of them like to wear.

"So which one of us is the real one? Can you tell us apart?" All three Jandices said with the same voice and now all of them were wearing their mage robes.

"Are you serious?" You asked Jandice.

"Please humour her Prince Alric. Jandice likes to show off sometimes like this." Alexi said.

Well if they insist.

All three of them looked identical and they felt identical. You didn’t notice any differences in them. The real Jandice could still be sitting or she could have stood up and left an illusion behind to fool you.

No, that would be too easy and not good enough of a trick.

"The real one is you, the one standing behind me." You said to Jandice sitting at the dinner table. She smiled at you and then with a shimmer disappeared from your sight as did the second one.

"Oh my, Prince Alric how did you know?" The real Jandice who was standing behind you said to you.

"Call it an educated guess." You said as you turned again to see her. She did seem impressed with your deduction skills. "And I presume it was your work to make this building feel bigger from inside."

"You would be correct Prince Alric. It was a complex ritual, but with a few cleverly designed wards I have disguised our estates" Jandice explained to you as she started to walk back to her seat. "Took me a month to get everything ready, but now this manor looks smaller from outside than it really is."

1/2

>>5387765

"And that is why the bandits never struck here when they terrorised Tarren Mill." You guessed aloud.

"That and having visible guards. We were lucky that the bandits left our holdings alone." Alexi said to you.

"But now you know why it feels strange to enter and leave the manor." Weldon said. "Thankfully you will get used to it."

"Very impressive." You said back.

"What is impressive is how fast you realised which one of me was the real one. As this trick of mine has fooled quite many people before." Jandice said to you and smiled a little.

"As I said, educated guess." You said back to her.

…

The dinner continued without any more magic tricks and it did seem like you and the siblings would leave the dinner in better terms than when they told you about their offer. It had been a big mistake to make a such offer and you weren't so sure what they were exactly after or what their long term plans were, but after that they had presented themselves relatively well.

"I need to thank you for the dinner invite and I would love to reciprocate it." You said to them. "When you have time, feel free to travel to Dawnholme. Just wait till the winter is over, the weather can be dreadful."

"Thank you Prince Alric, but why wait so long, why not before the winter comes?" Alexi asked you.

"My home is being renovated, it isn't finished yet " You told him.

"I see and I understand. Then we will accept your invite and we will attempt to find time to come visit you." Alexi said back.

"We are just awfully busy so we don't know when we could visit." Weldon said.

"So we will arrive either together or just one of us comes." Jandice continued.

"Great, that is then settled. But if you can excuse me now, I will have to return to Tarren Mill. I still have plenty of work to do." You said to them.

"Then we can only wish you good luck and fortune in your endeavours." Alexi said to you as he and his siblings all stood up and gave you a slight bow.

"And may fortune shine upon you too."

…

Having excused yourself, you returned back to Tarren Mill. Malevus and your knights had already packed and prepared what you had with you so tomorrow when you left, you wouldn't have much to do other than get on your horse.

So you then visited Father Hampton and told him about how you felt now after a day full of walking and riding. He seemed happy that your recovery had gone well, but advised on not exhausting yourself too quickly. There could be muscle pain and soreness around the wound for some time.

Your broken left wrist seemed also to be healing properly and Hampton said that you would have to wear the splint for a month before you can take it off. Even after that you should still keep the splint on for a few weeks as you start to recuperate your hand.

Leaving the church after Father Hampton had blessed you, there was still one more thing to do.

2/3

>>5387810

"Prince Alric, are you leaving back to Strahnbrad Hills tomorrow?" Mayor Fowley asked you.

"Yes, I have rested long enough after my misfortunate meeting with the gnolls." You said and grumbled a bit. You after all preferred to be with your men instead of staying in bed for a week.

"Then I hope you won't be facing any more misfortune." Fowley said to you and continued. "Do you have anything else in your mind? I appreciate that you came to see me, but you probably had something else to say too."


>Ask Mayor Fowley if Tarren Mill could send workers to the camp in Strahnbrad Hills. The road to the camp could be improved and cleared.
>Tell Mayor Fowley about the Barovs and their intent of wanting to buy Strahnbrad Hills from you.
>Propose closer trade and economic cooperation between Tarren Mill and Alterac. You could have way more than just the lumber trade going between two of you.
>Suggest joint Alterac-Tarren Mill patrols into Strahnbrad Hills. After all, both of you are benefiting from increased security.
>Other, write in

QM: I am still willing to take more Q&A questions.

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>>5387812
>>Propose closer trade and economic cooperation between Tarren Mill and Alterac. You could have way more than just the lumber trade going between two of you.
I think that this is a good way to strengthen our ties with Tarren Mill.

Would we have died if we failed this roll in the previous thread? If so, would the quest have ended or would we have continued as a different character?

>>5387812
>Propose closer trade and economic cooperation between Tarren Mill and Alterac. You could have way more than just the lumber trade going between two of you.

>>5387812
>Propose closer trade and economic cooperation between Tarren Mill and Alterac. You could have way more than just the lumber trade going between two of you.

>>5387812
>Propose closer trade and economic cooperation between Tarren Mill and Alterac. You could have way more than just the lumber trade going between two of you.

that was pretty good, and this is not bad at all.

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>>5387819
Yes, you would have died. But due to I foresaw the chance for the dice being buggery, I gave Alric a single Fate point. So instead of dying, you could have spent the Fate point and survived a normally fatal strike.

Now the Fate point is not A Get Out of Jail Free card and failing the roll would still mean that something bad happens. Alric could have suffered a maiming or a crippling wound, or in this case as it was a roll for Malevus, she could have died. There would have been consequences.

If you didn't have the Fate point and Alric died, I would have continued the quest, but it would have been from the point of view of someone else and most likely had went into completely different direction.

Answering these questions is fun so keep them coming.

>>5388313
that's kind of brutal desu, if this is how it works then our chances of making it through the scourge crisis are those of a snowflake in hell. Not like there's shortage of interesting times before that, either.

>>5388313
Our personal armor that is being made can protect us from magic too ? What's the progress on building housing for the incoming refugees (if we received any report from Dawnholme about it that is) ? Did Captain Reginald asked something about what we are building ?
///
So when our lessons will end, we can see about picking something else (we just need the time to actually finish them). I am considering pushing with Athletics or Intelligence next. Mostly because they can be likely applied both in war and in peace, or if not those we can just go with either martial or warfare for have a bigger bonus there.

>>5388378
I like a challenge. If it was impossible for us to die then there would be no consequences for taking risky choices.

>>5388629
I don’t mind risk and high stakes, but dying or losing a named retainer (in a way we did, in one of the knights) in a fight against a pack of gnolls at whim of a dice roll (dcs we’re rather high for the dice pool mechanism) is a bit too much. Kind of motivates one to begin turtling and avoid risks entirely.

>>5388642
>dcs we’re rather high for the dice pool mechanism

It was an ambush in a forest, the gnolls clearly had an advantage over us.

>>5388459
In the words of how I described the armour, the best there is, the best there was, the best there ever will be. It will be a great armour and soon it will be finished. Then you will learn more about it.

You haven’t heard any updates on the prison camp, but it should be finished before winter comes. Simple wooden barrackses aren't that difficult to build. Captain Reginald probably already has written a letter to his superiors about the camp being built.

>>5388378
It is a bit brutal, but one thing I want to avoid is the lack of failure. I have seen a few quests where the MC is too successful and basically cannot fail and if a failure happens, it is just a one or two updates added before the enemy is vanquished. Killing or wounding a named character is a tool that should be used, but not too often. Otherwise it will lose its strength.


No update today due to real life stuff, but I will try to get it up tomorrow.

>>5388691
Failure determined by the dice (as opposed to making a bad call) is not a good thing and if we end up risking death on a coin flip in every encounter, we’ll be an unlucky streak away from the quest dying with a whimper.

>>5388747
Please stop whining. We did make a bad call by walking into the woods, the dice gave us a chance to avoid the consequences of it. It happened on the 15th thread and it was the first and so far only time we came close to death.

>>5388750
I’m not whining (yet). But whining does tend to happen when people feel they got screwed by the rng. I remember the princess guard shitstorms… anyway, I’ve said my piece.

>>5388747
In general the campaign in the hills was, and remains difficult. Not just because we know all Alterac Kings failed to conquer it properly, but because we have knowledge and rumors of other groups being there.
Scouting there after passing the river wasn't easy either, a thicker and more wild forest awaited us. This said the reason we did the scouting was logical, we wanted to know if there was anything on the other part of the river in the hands of the Syndicate. Anything near. After all the camp had plenty of supplies and men, having a place on the other side would have help them set up here.
Now if there was anything, it was likely attacked by a band of gnolls.
This is from the pastebin:

- Strahnbrad Hills have sightings of trolls with local farmers being taken by Orcs. The land is dangerous and difficult to subjugate.
//
And we previously fought gnolls, a year ago. There is likely a similar situation in our own homeland, if not worse.
Unlike our conquests of the lands around Dawnholme this is a complete different affair. Just for be able to do it we needed to prepare before, and then do a military campaign.

>>5388691
Can we add magic stuff to the armor?

>>5388691
Thanks for the answers. Those buildings will be fundamental for what we need.
We have a lot of prisoners, and then the incoming people.

Alright Im back.

>>5388378
>Scourge Crisis
Now that I think of it, if both Alric and Calia survive the crisis then we would be in a prime position to claim both the crowns of Alterac and Lordaeron which would create a continent spanning empire. A completely devastated empire which would need to be taken from the Lich King but, still.

>>5388760
From what I remember of when I was reading the archives, most of the whining came from waifu warring. The only time rng came into play was in the tournament, and the only time it caused rage was from that fight with the sword faggot which is one the anons were not meant to win because of the bullshit sword powers.

>>5388691
As for questions, one that's been on my mind for a few threads is: Is english not your first language? I've seen a lot of weird syntax mistakes while reading which made me think it plausible.

Like just from scrolling back up, I spotted this one:
>It had looked like from her body a second copy of hers had just emerged without any issues.

And my other, less serious, question is: We've gotten a better sword and we've gotten a better set of armour but will we have the opportunity to complete the set by getting a better horse and shield?

"Mayor Fowley, you probably know about the trade between Alterac and Tarren Mill better than I do." You said to him. "We have the deal to provide lumber for the Alliance Naval Base, but outside of that do we have organised trade between us?"

"We don't. There are some merchants who travel between the towns." Fowley said and seemed to be interested in what direction you were moving this discussion.

"Shouldn't we then try to see if we could arrange more trade between us." You said to him. "Now I am not an expert and it is Beric who has handled most of my trade, but we should be able to do more than just a few merchants with their carts and backpacks."

"You would be right Prince Alric, we could do more." Fowley said and thought about your words for a moment before he retrieved a folder from a cabinet.

"Tarren Mill mostly deals with foodstuffs and wood products." He said and gave you some papers from the folder to look at. "As you can see we don't have that diverse economy."

It was true. The papers showed the amounts of apples, apple cider, apple accessories, other farm products and how much wood Tarren Mill had imported. It seemed that the paper was some kind of a report to be shown to the merchants and council members at the end of the year.

"We don't have that much to offer either. Our silver is already sold, we both deal in lumber and what our farms produce." You said to him while reading the papers. "Our hunter's do bring meat and furs, which are then turned into leather products. Smells awful, but everyone needs boots and shoes."

You went through another paper with the names of different traders that had visited Tarren Mill and the number of how many times. It seemed like there were plenty of these smaller traders plying their trade here.

"We do produce lead as a byproduct of mining silver and we have the iron mine underneath Darrow Hill." You said to Fowley.

"Both have their own uses." Fowley mused aloud. "We do not have craftsmen capable of working with lead, but our blacksmith could use iron. There is always a need for more tools."

You thought about this. The trade between you and Tarren Mill was done in quite small scale and to grow it you would either have to encourage your people to trade with Tarren Mill or organise the trade through you and Fowley and make it an official business of Alterac.

Thought question would be how much control over the trade should you have and how will that control benefit you? Keeping your hands off would allow the market to decide how the goods would move, but having your hands on it would allow you to steer it into the direction you want it to move. Then there was the fact that you were in deficit regarding supplies. Sooner or later you would have to either buy them or do something else to get them before you run out of them.

1/2

>>5389442

"I do have a few ideas, but I will have to inform Beric to come to talk with you after we have decided how our business will go." You said. "Then he and you can finish the deal and I can then accept it."

"That sounds like a good plan Prince Alric." Fowley said back to you.


>Encourage trade between Alterac and Tarren Mill, but otherwise keep your hands off and let people do as they choose.
>Arrange cooperation between Alteraci and Tarren Mill traders. Have planned trade caravans between the towns.
>Organise trade through Beric and have near full control over what goods move between Alterac and Tarren Mill.
>Iron to Apples. Trade your excess iron for foodstuffs from Tarren Mill. You know you are going to need that food and the iron could be the answer.
>Other, write in.

QM: Choices go from least control to full control.

>>5388832
You will see soon enough.

>>5389147
Yes, English is my second language and I am not a native speaker. That is one reason why I write this quest, to not allow my English writing skills to get rusty and to hopefully improve them. I try to read as much as possible in English and avoid translated texts in hopes of learning new words and phrases that I could use.

And yes that is a quite clunky sentence. I don’t know what I was thinking while I wrote that.

Regarding horses you now know that Weldon Barov deals with them. Of course you could also put out inquiries and see if there were some other sources available for you as Hillsbrad doesn't seem to have a proper market for horses bred for war.

>>5389443
>Arrange cooperation between Alteraci and Tarren Mill traders. Have planned trade caravans between the towns.

>>5389443
>Organise trade through Beric and have near full control over what goods move between Alterac and Tarren Mill.

>>5389443
>>Arrange cooperation between Alteraci and Tarren Mill traders. Have planned trade caravans between the towns.
Some sort of regular market fair? Maybe later we could get Stonedon involved, too. And that other village...

>>5389443
>>Organise trade through Beric and have near full control over what goods move between Alterac and Tarren Mill.

QM: Both Character List and Social Points and Stats pastebins are now up to date.

I see the vote is 2-2 so I won't call it yet. After the next update we should be ready to return back to Strahnbrad Hills.

>>5389443
>Arrange cooperation between Alteraci and Tarren Mill traders. Have planned trade caravans between the towns.
Control will just force micro management. We have other things to worry about, I'm sure our traders can handle themselves

>>5389453
>Yes, English is my second language and I am not a native speaker.
For what its worth i barely noticed and chalked the rest up to simple human error.

>>5389443
>>Arrange cooperation between Alteraci and Tarren Mill traders. Have planned trade caravans between the towns.

I like the market fair idea- some type of event that helps solidify cooperation between the Alteraci and Tarren Mill residents would be helpful even beyond just trade.

"We should arrange some sort of a cooperation between Alteraci and Tarren Mill traders and merchants.” You said to Fowley.

“What do you have in mind?” He asked you.

“Get our traders to visit Tarren Mill and vice versa.” You told him and continued. “Like caravans?”

“That could work. We organise and provide a chance for the traders to sell their goods in our towns.” Fowley said and seemed thoughtful. “Start once in a quarter, then if there is enough interest…”

“And profits.” You interrupted.

“And profits, you are right Prince Alric, we could then move to a monthly or even weekly schedule.” Fowley said and was enthusiastic about the idea.

“Then what should we call them? I don’t remember or know how these things were arranged back in Alterac City.” You asked as you didn’t know.

“Market fairs. That is the name.” Fowley said and continued. “Make it a bit bigger event than the usual gatherings of merchants and traders.”

“You know more about this than I do so I will leave the details to Beric. I will write a letter to him later today and explain to him the situation.” You said.

“And I will be waiting for him.” Fowley seemed to be pleased with the chance to do some business, but less pleased with the fact that he would have to be working with Beric and not with you. Beric might have a past of shady deals and you know that he can be quite volatile, but he is very good at his trade. It wouldn't be as easy job for Fowley to get the potential deal to be in Tarren Mills advantage.

…

You had written the letter to Beric and had Malevus send it as you prepared to leave Tarren Mill. Your armour had been packed into the horse cart you would be taking with you and you had contemplated on wearing your cuirass just in case something happens, but decided against it. You were relatively sure that you and Captain Garside had done a good enough job at securing this corner of Strahnbrad Hills.

And thankfully you were right. After leaving Tarren Mill you had no issues with your travel, even the weather was on your side. It was sunny and quite dry, only the cold breeze reminded you of the winter that was coming.

On your last day of travel back into the camp, a small patrol of your soldiers spotted you and escorted you in. Reaching the camp, you noticed the work that had been put into it. The place had been cleaned from all the trash and signs of battle, several rows of orange tents could be found outside the palisade wall and small posts had been built around the hill surrounding the camp. There were even wooden spikes driven into the ground around these posts to keep the soldiers a little bit more safe.

Someone had been busy while you were away nursing your wounds.

1/2

>>5390493

Riding into the camp your soldiers seemed to be more than happy to see you and they swarmed you and the knights so that they could greet you. It took you some effort to greet all of them and get past them so that you could learn what had been going on in the past week and half.

“Alright men that’s enough, you can’t go tearing Prince Alric apart just minutes after he has returned here.” Lieutenant Cromwell shouted at the men and they gave you enough room with some returning back to their jobs before he bowed and greeted you. “It is good to see you Prince Alric.”

“And it is good to see you too Lieutenant Cromwell.” You greeted him back and allowed him to raise his head before continuing. “I see you have been busy here.”

“Yes Sire, Captain Garside took the initiative of refurbishing the camp. If we are staying here for a longer period of time, then the camp should be in good shape.” Cromwell explained to you.

“Now where would Captain Garside be? I haven’t seen him yet.” You said.

“Out on a patrol. He can give you a better report, but our attempts at securing the border of Sofera’s Naze are going relatively well along with the other things we have done.” Cromwell told you. “Captain Garside should return shortly from the patrol.”

Seems like they have been quite busy. Keeping up the patrols as planned and pushing towards Sofera's Naze, but also having started to refurbish the camp. There was plenty for you to catch up with.


>Wait till Captain Garside arrives and receive the report from him. Meanwhile socialize with your officers, make yourself at home and get all of your belongings into your hut.
>Cromwell can show you what they have been doing in the camp and you can meet and greet your soldiers. It would do wonders for morale.
>Ask what other things Cromwell and Garside have been doing. He seemed somewhat cagey when mentioning that.
>Other, write in.

>>5390497
>>Cromwell can show you what they have been doing in the camp and you can meet and greet your soldiers. It would do wonders for morale.

>>5390497
>Cromwell can show you what they have been doing in the camp and you can meet and greet your soldiers. It would do wonders for morale.

>>5390497
>Cromwell can show you what they have been doing in the camp and you can meet and greet your soldiers. It would do wonders for morale.

>>5390497
>>Cromwell can show you what they have been doing in the camp and you can meet and greet your soldiers. It would do wonders for morale.

"Well then show me what you have done in the camp." You said to Cromwell and stretched your back. "I could really use a short walk to be honest."

The riding after a week of inactivity had made you a bit too stiff and going around the camp felt like something that could help you.

"Will do Sire, please follow me." Cromwell said.

Cromwell and you then walked through the camp. Within the palisade walls all the huts had been cleaned and holes on roofs had been patched. The large tents the Syndicate had been using were also cleared away and replaced by the orange tents you used. With no need to keep kidnapped locals under guard, your men had managed to stash all of your supplies within the walls.

Meanwhile outside you inspected the rows of tents and were told that extra supports had been struck and erected for the palisade to keep it properly standing. It had been Sergeant Maxwell who had raised the concern of getting surprised just like you had surprised the bandits. So two days ago the guard posts, which were basically just a pair of chairs for the soldiers to sit on, had received the wooden spikes around them to prevent anyone from suddenly rushing the soldiers on guard duty. It wasn’t much, but better than nothing.

Walking through the camp you stopped by the men and talked with them, asking how they had been and if they had any worries. Most of them were in high spirits after seeing you return and due to the fact that they had won against the bandits, but there were few that were somewhat tired from the campaigning and some were concerned about the winter that was coming.

It probably wouldn't be a smart thing to get caught pants down by the winter and if you were going to keep deploying troops here, the camp then should be in tip top shape.

After having made the rounds through the camp, Cromwell brought you to some barrels covered by a tarp. When he then threw the tarp off, it was revealed that the barrels were filled with arms and armour.

"Sire, these are what we recovered after the battle, but couldn’t bring with us back to Tarren Mill." Cromwell said.


>1d10
>Best of three

QM: This is the roll for remaining loot from the battle. And I am still willing to answer questions, just like always.

Rolled 9 (1d10)

>>5390905

Rolled 6 (1d10)

>>5390905

Can t think of many questions. Beyond, probably some regalia, clothing and symbols a prince should have when not a war. All quite expensive, and that i am interested to buy only when we are far more safe than now. Still, craftmans for important nobles or royalty are only present in the great cities ?

Rolled 9 (1d10)

>>5390905

>9

"That is a lot."

"We had missed some when we searched for them in the first place and when we pulled down their tents, we found a stash underneath one." Cromwell said and continued. "No idea why they would stash away their own equipment like that, but I won't be complaining."

"Neither will I. Great work Lieutenant Cromwell, I presume you already have things planned on getting all of this to Tarren Mill?"

"Yes Sire, we have the plan and it was Captain Garside who has planned the move."

Good, this was a great find. The amount of equipment, foodstuffs, arms and armour that you found and looted from the battlefield and from the camp would be used to sustain your own soldiers. The most urgent need to attain a new source for supplies was now pushed back at least for a few seasons, maybe even for a year.

With the blacksmith in Dawnholme getting his tools and workplace upgraded, he could start turning the arms and armour into something your men could use. Sure the finished armour sets would be quite patchwork in style, but they will protect the soldiers just as well as a new plate mail would.

All in all you were quite happy about this.


Gained:
>9 Supplies

Total Resources:
8 Wealth, +15 per season
32 Supplies, -4 per season
70 Peasants

…

It was early in the evening when Captain Garside returned. He had lead a patrol of thirty men towards Sofera’s Naze and then had returned back to the camp.

"You don't look happy?" You asked Normand as he sat down in your hut and Malevus passed him a cup of tea.

"I am not happy." He said back. "It is good to see you back here, but we have a problem."

"What would it be? I don’t have an idea what you could have found." You said.

"Well we followed a trail of a group of hunters or bandits, doesn’t matter who they were in the end. They had either noticed us or planned on fleeing towards the north in the first place, but when we reached their camp we found them all dead." Normand told you.

"We found tracks, troll tracks." Arthur Rover said. The brothers had been acting as trackers for Normand.

"Prince Alric, they weren't orc feet or boots that made those footprints." Alfred Rover continued.

"We know that there are trolls in the mountains, but why would they come that far down? Did people enter their territory or are they just smelling blood in the water?" You mused aloud.

"We have been careful to not approach too close to the mountains and we have kept our eyes open for totems or such." Normand said. "Lieutenant Cromwell and I think that Sofera’s Naze is not threatened…"

"At least not yet." You said. "Yeah this is not good news at all and I don’t think we are ready for a direct confrontation."

"But our patrols near the border of Sofera’s Naze haven't found anything else. We fought two small battles against bandits without taking any casualties and we have talked with some local farmers." Normand said. "If we keep this up, I would count the border secured before the winter arrives."

1/2

>>5391865

That is as long as you keep up the patrols. If you succeeded in that, you could say that you have accomplished in your goals at securing Alterac and Tarren Mill, but you wouldn't have secured the whole region.

"The patrols should be kept up, we shouldn't call them off as we are very close at reaching our goals." You said.

"Understood, we will have another group of men ready to leave tomorrow." Garside said and nodded. "But what about you Alric, what will you do?"

Yes, what will you do? Your hand was still in a splint and you hadn't recuperated fully yet.


>There is work to be done here in the camp. You can supervise and organise the work here and free up your officers for patrols while recuperating from your injuries.
>Lead a patrol towards Sofera’s Naze by yourself. See if you could find the small bandit camp from which you found Eligius from.
>Now would be a good time to visit Stonedon. They should learn about your victory against the Syndicate and bandits from you.
>Other, write in.

QM: Total Resources updated.

>>5390947
You would be correct. Master craftsmen capable of producing regal items can be only found in the bigger cities. Now clothing would be easier and you have a contact with the clothier in Stormwind City if you required new fine clothes.

Alric does remember that his father had a crown, scepter and few other things that were part of crown jewels, but no one has seen them since the fall of Alterac. Maybe someone has them, but that someone hasn't yet revealed them to you.

>>5391871
>>There is work to be done here in the camp. You can supervise and organise the work here and free up your officers for patrols while recuperating from your injuries.

>>5391871
>>There is work to be done here in the camp. You can supervise and organise the work here and free up your officers for patrols while recuperating from your injuries.
While I would like to go to Stonedon, having our injuries be fully healed would help. Beside we are still doing something here in the camp.

>>5391871
Thanks for the answer

>>5389453
That's an admirable motivation, Im not a native english speaker either but I was lucky to have interacted a lot with the language when I was younger so I've never really struggled with it. And to clarify, it's not just that the sentence is clunky but that it's structured incorrectly. The correct order would've been:

> It had looked like a second copy of her had just emerged from her body without any issues.

On a related note, I've noticed that the stats and social points pastebin says that The Barovs overestimated Alric. Did you mean underestimate? Because Alric being overestimated means that the Barovs thought too highly of him before the encounter and that's not the impression I got.

>>5391871
> There is work to be done here in the camp. You can supervise and organise the work here and free up your officers for patrols while recuperating from your injuries.
I'd like to go to Stonedon but it's not high priority and this injury would make us too vulnerable if we got ambushed again.

>>5391871
>>There is work to be done here in the camp. You can supervise and organise the work here and free up your officers for patrols while recuperating from your injuries.

Sounds good.

Question is, what to do with the trolls? We do not have reports of them being hostile to us, though it is possible they won't draw distinction between us and Syndicate. They're also no friends to elves, though we probably have no idea about internal trollish politics.

Can we negotiate a border with them? Or would it be too dangerous to even risk something like this? We probably don't currently have force adequate to wiping them out, at least not without suffering losses we cannot afford. And of course there's politics.

>>5392275
I am not sure, but we are set on taking the hills at the moment we decided to prepare and launch the campaign. Conquering the hills isn't just about taking new land and growing stronger, it would also make Alric reputation and prestige grow.
A difficult and dangerous land that was never fully conquered and properly united, now conquered in only one campaign by a prince of a fallen kingdom ? With said fallen kingdom, previous kings having tried more than once to take this hills ?
Alric will see his status jump.

Still for how to do it. Just a few things we can consider to do or not :
- The hills were contested territories by multiple factions before Alric arrived. Safe to say they are fighting and fought here, as well in other regions. Orcs, Ogres, Gnolls, Bandits, Syndicate, Trolls. And now that I think about it, Stonedon would have likely fought too for keep anyone else away from their land.
- Alric has powerful contacts that might help him, as well two favours with two specific characters. More wealth sent to him, could give him what he needs for create an even stronger army. But wealth isn't the only way. Say having a mage friend on the battlefield fighting with us.
- The Barovs might offer another kind of deal, but is clear they highly want what's in the hills.
- Stonedon and Tarren Mill could be convinced to help even in a military way. Especially Tarren Mill. But hey the people of Stonedon live here, being safe from them would be important and they would consider the hills their native lands.
- Waiting. Might sound dumb, but having more resources at hand is always good. It can also allow to heal our men and restore losses of our army. Beside that winter will arrive, and doing war in winter is usually quite difficult for anyone (Alric was concerned about this is in one of the recent updates)

You decided against leaving the camp and opted to stay there to supervise and organise the work. You weren't yet physically ready to trek through the hills in your armour so staying here was the best choice for you.

With the decision having been done, the next several days passed quickly without any issues. You quickly took the proverbial ball and started to organise the work parties around the camp. Some were constructing new huts while others collected stones of right shapes from the river for the foundations. It wasn’t the lightest or easiest work, but the soldiers knew that with every hut built, a group of men could leave the tents behind.

Now getting the wood and planks was the problem. Thankfully the Syndicate had brought plenty with them, but you probably have to order more from Tarren Mill. Though the wood was something that could be sourced locally.

With the Strahnbrad Hills themselves being relatively free from forests, your soldiers had thought about an alternative source of wood. Every day they took the boats that had survived and crossed the Darrowmere River. There under constant guard, they cleared the smaller bushes and trees away to be used as firewood and felled one or two larger ones for timber. Then it was just a matter of getting the logs back over the river to the camp where they then could be used.

When they did this for the first time, you were furious that they would cross the river just like that. But after they explained to you how they were doing it and told you that they hadn't seen any tracks or signs of anyone else, you relented and allowed this to continue. No one wanted to run out of firewood and if clearing the bushes and shrubbery away would make it harder to ambush you, then it was probably a right choice to do.

1/2

File: Forest Bandits.png (2.83 MB, 1884x834)

2.83 MB PNG

>>5392762

The weather had stayed dry as your officers took the patrols back and forth through the territory you had claimed and secured. They would go out and when they returned they all told you the same story. They hadn't seen anything. No bandits, no poachers, no trolls or orcs and especially no members of the Syndicate.

So when on the fifth day you were interrupted by one of the returning patrols, you were surprised a bit.

"Alright Malevus, we can continue later." You said to your squire as you put away a wooden shortsword.

You and Malevus had been sparring a bit every day and this vaguely shortsword shaped lump of wood was what you were using. Fencing with only your right arm while keeping your left arm still by your side wasn’t exactly easy, but it allowed you to exercise and help Malevus in her training.

"What is it?" You turned towards the soldier who had interrupted your sparring.

"My Prince, we have a prisoner." The footman told you.

"A prisoner? Bring me to him." You said back.

The footman guided you and soon you saw a man tied up and surrounded by Lyion and the former forest bandits in your service.

"Greetings Prince Alric, look what we have found. A lonely bandit attempting to flee towards the north." Lyion told you and seemed more than happy with what they had caught. "Tell Prince Alric what you told us."

The bandit was a young man, maybe not that much older than you and you saw the shape he was in. He had been beaten quite badly with a broken nose and lip decorating his face along with plenty of bruising.

"I...I left my c...crew and w...went north. I...I'm from A...Andorhal…" The bandit managed to say.

"Yeah yeah, but the juicy bits." Lyion said and probed the man's ribs with his boots.

"Y...Yes, we were s...supposed to hit S...Stonedon. B...But you d...defeated our troops." The man stammered out.

So he was part of the bandits who had joined the Syndicate, but apparently were elsewhere and was saved when you attacked the camp.

"Anything else?" You asked him.

"P...Please don't k...kill me." The man whimpered out.

Yeah you wouldn’t be getting much out of him anymore. The bandit was a complete wreck and in shambles.

You took a few steps back and pulled Lyion to follow you from his shoulder. After the two of you had a tiny bit of privacy, you spoke.

"Next time please don't rough the prisoner up. It makes interrogating them harder and they might not tell you the truth." You said. You had read something like this from one of your books and it had gotten stuck in your mind.

"Sorry Prince Alric. Won't happen again." Lyion said and gave you a bow.

"Good, now take him away and lock him up. I will decide what I will do with him later." You ordered him.

2/3

>>5392764

So they had planned on attacking Stonedon. It was good that you dealt with them first and didn't allow that to happen. This was big enough news that going to Stonedon would be a smart thing to do, maybe vehemently neutral Chief Lodrig could be swayed to shed his neutrality?

It was hard to say how he would react to the news, but it would be worth a try.


>Travel to Stonedon with a small entourage, don't make it a show of force as you don't want to make a big number of your presence there.
>Take your soldiers with you. You aren't here to do some scouting, but instead you are here as a Prince. So look and act like one.
>Chief Lodrig would probably want to hear the news from the prisoner himself. Drag the man with you to Stonedon.
>Other, write in

>>5392074
Yes, underestimate. Not overestimate. Thank you for noticing it, it has been fixed now.

>>5392770
>Take your soldiers with you. You aren't here to do some scouting, but instead you are here as a Prince. So look and act like one.
>Chief Lodrig would probably want to hear the news from the prisoner himself. Drag the man with you to Stonedon.

Both of these.

>>5392770
>Take your soldiers with you. You aren't here to do some scouting, but instead you are here as a Prince. So look and act like one.
>Chief Lodrig would probably want to hear the news from the prisoner himself. Drag the man with you to Stonedon.

I also agree with both of these. Stonedon being under attack could be a problem with the central position of the settlement.
Maybe we could help them in fortifying it with the aid of our soldiers, and aid in training their warriors. A reinforced palisade with earth works under it should be manegeable, though it would take time to be done for a settlement and it would need men beyond the ones of the village.

File: kek2.jpg (24 KB, 600x600)

24 KB JPG

>>5392770
>Take your soldiers with you. You aren't here to do some scouting, but instead you are here as a Prince. So look and act like one.
>Chief Lodrig would probably want to hear the news from the prisoner himself. Drag the man with you to Stonedon.
Oh man, this is too good to pass up. I can only imagine the look on Lodrig's face when he finds out we saved his ass... again.

Seems like quite unanimous decision. Give me some rolls! I will update tomorrow.


>1d10
>Best of three, also taking the second roll

Rolled 7 (1d10)

>>5393620
rain hail and suffering.

Rolled 4 (1d10)

>>5393620
clear skies and rainbows!

Rolled 2 (1d10)

>>5393620
come on big money big money

>>5393625
>>5393626
Not bad

Visiting Stonedon right now was the right choice and this time you weren’t here to just scout and skulk around wrapped in a cloak. You were here as a Prince and you would attempt to look and act like one.

Giving orders to your men to prepare to leave tomorrow, you retreated back into your own hut and started planning for tomorrow. You knew where Stonedon was so reaching it wouldn’t probably take the full day, but just in case you made preparations.

One thing though you had to check properly and that was if you could wear your armour. With Malevus helping, you put it on piece by piece and realised that you couldn’t really wear armour on your left arm due to the splint. And on top of it your old bascinet was quite banged up and the hinge had broken in the fight with the gnolls. The blacksmiths in Tarren Mill didn’t have the skills to replace or fix it so they had removed it. Wearing your bascinet without the visor would be better than nothing so you opted to take it with you, but you would have your trusty chaperon covering your head otherwise.

If you were forced to fight, you were confident enough to be able to fence with your right arm only, you couldn’t really strap a shield to your left either.

…

It was late in the evening when you got the report that Lieutenant Cromwell had returned from a patrol. You had chosen him to be the one escorting you and when he was called into your hut, he didn’t let you wait for a long time.

“Sire, you called me?” Lieutenant Cromwell said and saluted you.

“I did, someone probably already told you about my plans.” You said and waved him to sit down.

“Yes Sire, tomorrow we will leave for Stonedon.” Cromwell said back.

Lieutenant Austyn Cromwell had served you since the start of your venture to reclaim your land and he had been an invaluable as an officer to you. He looked like a soldier, talked like a soldier and was a soldier through and through, and due to that he was invaluable in giving you advice regarding things you hadn’t done or experienced in the field of warfare or military.

“Good, then I don’t have to explain the orders to you.” You said to him and continued. “But I do have a question for you, have you ever fought against trolls?”

“I haven’t, but I have served with many who had fought them.” Cromwell said to you and scratched his chin. “Prince Alric, what do you want to know about them?”

“Can we beat them?”

“Right now? It wouldn’t be possible Sire. Our men aren’t ready for a battle with the trolls, they are faster than us, they are stronger than us, if we had the numbers maybe then we could defeat them.” Cromwell explained.

“I see, then what should we do?”

“Stay out of their territory Sire. They haven’t attacked us.” Cromwell said back.

“At least not yet.” You said and after a pause continued. “Thank you Lieutenant Cromwell. Make sure to include lessons regarding how to fight the trolls amongst the men. They should know about the potential chance of fighting them.”

1/3

>>5395327

“Will do Prince Alric, anything else?” Cromwell asked you.

“Nothing, see you tomorrow morning.”

Lieutenant Cromwell excused himself from your hut leaving you alone in there with Malevus who was cleaning your armour.

“The trolls of Zul’Aman are a constant threat against Quel’Thalas.” Malevus suddenly said to you. “Even the Farstriders and the Ranger-General Windrunner are threatened by them.”

You didn’t know what to say as Malevus said that so suddenly.

“But since the Second War, they haven’t threatened our borders. But even still the trolls were a nearly weekly talk, if any tracks had been seen or how they still threatened us.” Malevus continued.

“That serious of a threat?” You asked her.

“More than a threat Prince Alric. A boogeyman, I think that is the word humans use. When I was a little girl, I was told that the trolls would eat me if I didn’t eat my food.” Malevus said and chuckled before becoming serious again.

“Malevus, if you don’t mind, can I ask how old are you? You haven’t brought it up before and I know that elfs can live for quite a long time.” You asked her.

“I do not mind Prince Alric.” Malevus said to you and smiled. “67 years old, that is still quite a young age for an elf. Some consider me to still be a child.”

It really puts things into perspective. Malevus being 67 years old makes her older than Normand and Maura Garside and you didn’t recall knowing that many people who were older than her. The elfs truly do live for a quite long time.

“Well, thank you. It had bothered me a bit and I didn’t know when to ask.” You said to her.

“I know it can be a bit of a shock to hear how old we can live, but that is where we differ from you.” Malevus said. “To many Magisters you are just mayflies with your fleeting lifespans, living without honour, squabbling with each other and that we shouldn’t bother working with you because of that.”

Malevus nodded and finished cleaning the last piece of your armour.

“But Prince Alric, since I met you, I think I have seen enough to prove those Magisters wrong.” Malevus said while she stood up and walked to the door of your hut. “Tomorrow is a long day Prince Alric, it would be good if you get some rest first. Good night Prince Alric.”

“Good night Malevus, see you tomorrow.”

2/3

>>5395333

>7
>4

You had left the camp very early in the morning. With you were Malevus, Sir Gravis and his remaining knights and Lieutenant Cromwell commanding a contingent of twenty footmen and thirty archers. That should be a strong enough force to escort you and it should be a convincing enough force to make you look and seem to be a powerful person. Amongst your soldiers was the captured bandit, who had been tied up and prevented from escaping.

The dry weather of the past several days turned into damp overcast, but thankfully it didn’t rain. Instead the cold wind from the north swept into the hills, making you wrap your cloak around you and fixing the silk scarf to cover your throat better.

And as it didn’t rain and you knew the route to Stonedon, you reached the village before the sun had set.

There you found something that you hadn’t expected. The forest that had covered the entrance to the village had been nearly completely cut down and a palisade wall had been built to protect the village.

As you lead your men towards the new palisade and past the stumps, the small gate in the wall opens up and a familiar man walks out to greet you.

“Good evening Ragis.” You said to the tall bald man. “The forest is gone.”

“Yes it is Prince Alric. By the order of Chief Lodrig it was cut down and used to build the palisade protecting our village from outsiders.” Ragis told you. “And it looks like you have brought an army with you.”

“A fitting escort for a Prince.” You said and kept your poise. “May I talk with Chief Lodrig?”

“He does not take visitors. My orders are to send everyone away who approaches us.” Ragis told you and placed his hand on the hilt of his sword.

You could see from his eyes that he didn’t mean that as a threat, but instead was just repeating what Chief Lodrig had told him to say. They might have been his orders, but you were a Prince and if you wanted you could just waltz through that gate and force yourself into the village with or without using any force.


>Respect the wishes of Ragis and camp outside the palisade wall for the night. Try approaching Stonedon tomorrow morning and see if you could talk yourself in.
>Demand an audience with Chief Lodric. You are a Prince and the rightful ruler of these lands and he will see you.
>Force the issue and waltz in through the small gate into the village of Stonedon. You won’t respect Chief Lodrigs orders and instead you will make him listen to you.
>Other, write in.

QM: It took me a one extra day to get the update out. Sorry about that. The first roll was the weather as you rightly guessed, but the second was what had happened since your last visit in Stonedon.

>>5395334
Respect chief’s wishes and camp out for tonight. We did promise them we’d respect their autonomy.

Also no worries OP

>>5395334
>>Other, write in.

Tell him about our prisoner and what he told us and that we came here to warn them. Clearly they already got the news somehow but it would still be a show of goodwill.

>>5395334
>>Respect the wishes of Ragis and camp outside the palisade wall for the night. Try approaching Stonedon tomorrow morning and see if you could talk yourself in.

>>5395409
support

>>5395334
An acquainted foreign leader comes to visit his land and not only does he not let them in but he doesn't even come to refuse them personally? Any way you look at it, it's really fucking disrespectful.

>Demand an audience with Chief Lodric. Not only are you a Prince and the rightful ruler of these lands but you have important things to discuss with him. He will see you..

It's the bare minimum. How can we expect to become his sovereign if we can't even get this?

>>5395361
We promised to respect their autonomy, not their independence. And even if we did promise them independence, it in no way justifies this treatment.

>>5395409
Warn them of what? The trolls? The syndicate force meant to attack Stonedon got soundly defeated and routed so they won't be back in quite a while.

>>5395641
>The syndicate force meant to attack Stonedon got soundly defeated and routed so they won't be back in quite a while.
It's still worth noting that they INTENDED to attack Stonedon and were defeated by OUR forces.

>>5395666
I wanted to do that from the beginning, like I said >>5393066 here.

>>5395568
change this
to

>>5395334
>Demand an audience with Chief Lodric. Not only are you a Prince and the rightful ruler of these lands but you have important things to discuss with him. He will see you.

And tell we have a prisoner. He has no reason to tell us to stay out, we have hardly being a bad guest or unreasonable. We didn't try to lord over them or do anything tyrannical either.
And we want to give them information, and help if they need to. I mean their whole north is possible enemies. And we can connect them south for trade

>>5395641
You make good points but we don’t actually have any authority over these people unless we want to subjugate them by force. I suppose we can be indignant about it request the audience given importance of the topic to be discussed but demanding it unless we’re ready to enforce it won’t help us any.

>>5395706
I am absolutely ready to enforce it, even if not right now. The demand is about having him consider his position carefully because if he won't even grant us this then that only leaves us with, as you said, the ultimate authority of force. Like the Athenians to the Melians even if we would be way more merciful.

>>5395706
I want a minimum of respect, we are on campaign so we have plenty to do. The fact that we arrived here for talking means we decided to put some of our time, for go here and talk. And give help if needed.
Having friendlies in their native land when surrounded by all this foes, should be a very good sign. Not having to see a band of syndicate soldiers, bandits, gnolls, orcs, ogres or trolls is quite nice. I mean we are just Alteracis

I could better understand if something tragic happened in Stonedon, say someone died. Inform us of the mourning.
We did come clear with our intentions here in the hills. What's the reason they treat us like this

>>5395334
Supporting >>5395409

Updating tomorrow. It was a wild and tiring day at work so seeing all this good discussion makes me a happy QM.

“With me is a prisoner, a bandit that we captured a few days ago. What he has told us concerns the safety of Stonedon.” You said to Ragis while staying mounted on your horse Epona. This way you could look down on the housecarl and literally be a step above him. “The prisoner told us that the bandits and the Syndicate forces that we struck and destroyed a few weeks ago were planning on attacking Stonedon.”

Ragis didn’t look surprised when you said that. That was probably something that they had predicted when building the palisade wall.

“Due to that I travelled here to present these news to Chief Lodrig so that we could talk about the future and most importantly of what had happened and what it means to you.” You said to Ragis.

“Chief Lodrig is not taking visitors.” Ragis repeated and kept his hand on the hilt of his sword. “But what do you mean with that?”

“That palisade wall of yours would only slow the Syndicate down, but not stop them. If they wanted, they could have destroyed Stonedon.” You said to him. “The fact that we struck first and defeated them means that we saved Stonedon.”

You let that sink in as Ragis didn’t say anything back to you.

“I want Chief Lodrig to know that and due to that I want to meet with him.” You continued.

Ragis moved his hand away from the hilt of his sword before nodding once.

“Prince Alric, I will tell these news to Chief Lodrig. I will then come back and tell you if he is willing to speak with you and allow you to enter the village.” Ragis said to you. “Meanwhile I suggest setting up your tents while the sun is still up.”

That was probably the best you could get out of Ragis at the moment outside of forcing the issue and just marching in. You could see that Ragis was clearly conflicted while following his orders.

“I understand. Go speak with your Chief and tell him that I am waiting for his answer. After all I have already spent my valuable time coming here, waiting a moment or two more wouldn’t hurt.” You said and made sure that the tone of your voice was clear. It would be disrespectful to not invite you into the village.

Ragis bowed before turning away and walking back into the village. Now you would just have to wait.

1/2

>>5397818

And you did wait. Your soldiers had set up the tents and you had withdrawn into your tent and had eaten a light dinner of dried fish and a single apple. It had taken far longer than just a few moments and you weren’t sure if Ragis would even come back to see you.

Finally after you had nearly lost your patience and hope, one of your soldiers escorted Ragis into your tent.

The tall, bald and bearded man bowed deeply after he had gotten inside. You could see that something was wrong.

“I am sorry for being late Prince Alric.” Ragis said to you while still bowing. “I am sorry for not being able to turn the mind of Chief Lodrig.”

So he had declined.

“Please sit and tell me everything.” You said.

Ragis raised his head and sat down on the chair that was free.

“Chief Lodrig a week after your previous visit decided that isolationism is the way for Stonedon to survive. He wants no part with the outside world and thinks that this is the way for his… for our people to survive the changing world.” Ragis said and continued. “He thanks you for the information and he wants to thank you for defeating the bandits, but he wants you to leave.”

Ragis seemed to be disappointed and you could hear from his voice that he didn’t want to tell you this, but he was the housecarl of Chief Lodrig and his right hand man.

“Thank you Ragis.” You said. “So even after helping him not once, but twice. And most likely saving his village from destruction while paying for its safety with Alteraci blood, he chooses to ignore me.”

Ragis looked down and couldn’t look you into your eyes.

“Me and you, we both are Alteracis. Chief Lodrig is an Alteraci too and that makes him my subject. Choosing to not see me might not be the right choice, especially as I haven’t been a bad guest or unreasonable in our previous interactions.” You said to Ragis.

“And due to that Prince Alric, I want to ask you an unreasonable request. Something I wouldn’t want to request in any case, but the world around us has forced me to do so.” Ragis said to you and this time looked at you directly.

“What would it be?”

“A coup Prince Alric. Chief Lodrig needs to be removed from Stonedon.” Ragis said to you.

Now that was something you hadn’t expected to hear from Ragis. He seemed to be very loyal towards his Chief and that was probably the reason why he had difficulties in telling you this.

“I have served Chief Lodrig for nearly twenty years, I know he won’t change his mind easily and I fear that we are left behind as the world around us changes.” Ragis told you. “Time has passed Chief Lodrig and I fear that time passes for the rest of us too.”

“And you would be installed as the new Chief of Stonedon?” You asked Ragis.

“Yes, there is no one else suitable in the village.” Ragis said and shook his head.

2/2

>>5397819

>You won’t allow a coup in your lands. It would leave a bad precedent and the word would spread wide.
>Decline, but force your way into the village. You are going to talk with Chief Lodrig one way or another.
>Agree on the coup, you will install Ragis as the new Chief of Stonedon.
>You need more details before you can accept anything like this. Ask Ragis how this coup would even happen?
>Other, write in.

>>5397820
>You need more details before you can accept anything like this. Ask Ragis how this coup would even happen?
I'm not sure about setting a presedence for this, but few can say we didn't try to win over the chief and saved his people twice. Even so, I don't think it'd be wise to just waltz in and coup him by force. The locals might hate us and Ragis which might have him coup'd. I need to hear if he has something more tactful in mind.

>>5397820
>You need more details before you can accept anything like this. Ask Ragis how this coup would even happen?
Propably should hear him out first if he has a better plan. If we march our troops in and just take over it'll just be an occupation.
Im not against a coup per say but we shouldnt be the ones doing the legwork.
Ask how the chief is chosen and can a chief be removed peacefully and preferably internally.
Chief lodrig may ignore the outside world and put hes head down in the ground but the outside world wont ignore him and the recent situation has proved it.

>>5397820
>>You won’t allow a coup in your lands. It would leave a bad precedent and the word would spread wide.

>>5397820
>You need more details before you can accept anything like this. Ask Ragis how this coup would even happen?

I dont mind Ragis because he has been fairly good to interact with. And active and open to talking or working together, in comparison to the chieftain. Lodring is quite conservative in comparison, a shame but we can't do everything.
If there is no other solution i am good with having Ragis, he has seen the value of the work done by Alric and likely realizes that we would bring trade and prosperity, not walk over his people. Plus helping them in defense.
With Stonedon connected to roads, and protected we would gain a great advantage in our campaign.

>>5397820
I wonder how it would work if we let them stew for a week or two and then made a feast for our men within sight of the palisade. Do they even have enough food to survive winter in their self imposed confinement?

Problem with actively couping the chief is that it gives arguments to those who see us a threat that does what is expedient and also disappoint those who value us for our principles. It seems a myopic gain.

>>5397820
>You need more details before you can accept anything like this. Ask Ragis how this coup would even happen?
We can't just storm in and dethrone him. There could be loyalists amongst him, soldiers that will retaliate, citizens that will rebel. We have a spymaster to solve this, but let's get more details before making a decision.

Have to push the update to tomorrow. Too tired to finish it today.

"What you are suggesting is a lot and I cannot make a such decision without knowing more about it." You said to Ragis. "How would the coup happen, what would be the goal?"

"To either exile or… or to kill Chief Lodrig." Ragis said to you somewhat sheepishly.

"March into Stonedon tomorrow morning and drag Chief Lodrig out of his longhouse? Would men loyal to him resist?" You asked him.

"They might resist, but they aren't stupid enough to throw their lives away when they see your footmen" Ragis said.

That was the help he needed. Enough armed men to protect him while he deals with Chief Lodrig.

"And then why would they choose you to be their new Chief? How does one even become a Chief?" You asked.

"The only child and heir of Chief Lodrig died of a fever three years ago." Ragis said. "And I have been the housecarl of the village for years. They know me to do the right things.

Ragis sighed and continued.

"The position is hereditary and Chief Lodrig inherited the position from his father who inherited it from his father. But the great-grandfather of Chief Lodrig defeated and ousted the previous Chief." Ragis told you. "It would be a duel, Chief Lodrig knows he cannot refuse."

"That simple?" You asked and had your own reservations.

"I have made my opinions known, the people of Stonedon know where I stand. If I were to replace the heirless Chief Lodrig, they would most likely accept it." Ragis explained to you.

"Most likely doesn't sound that certain."

"Prince Alric you are right, it doesn't. But that is the risk which needs to be taken." Ragis said. "Will you support my request?"

You had your reservations. Marching into the village and supporting the coup could be seen as you controlling Ragis and de facto occupying the village. In addition how this could be seen elsewhere when the word and rumours spread. Setting a precedent like this could have a long lasting negative impact on how you are seen. Then there was the risk of Stonedon not accepting Ragis.

But on the other hand you could gain a friendly village in Strahnbrad Hills, a place with whom you can trade with and plan the defence of your realm. Connecting them into the wider world would be a great boon and with the world changing around them, this could be a way for them to survive.


Choose one:
>Agree and let Ragis kill Chief Lodrig
>Agree, but have Chief Lodrig to be exiled instead
>Decline, you won't allow a coup to happen
>Decline, but you are going to talk with Chief Lodrig tomorrow

>>5399929
>agree but let Ragis decide on the chiefs fate
As far as i understand all we are doing is protecting Ragis so he could have hes duel for leadership.

>>5399929
>>5399951
supporting this
Most likely he will choose to exile him, you would have to be very cold hearted to outright kill the chief that you have been serving for most your life.

Besides that, having the support of the village will help us, just like the deal with Blackmoore, there will be consequenses, but we will deal with them.

>>5399929
This >>5399951. These worries about precedent and what not are silly. We've said from the beginning that the hills are rightfully ours and we acted as reasonably as we possibly could but the chief spat on our face anyway. Anyone with any sense can see the how and the why this coup came to be and it doesn't contradict anything we've previously done or said.

>>5399951
Support i agree

>>5399929

I don't like the coup idea with our involvement at all. If Ragis's position is as strong as he claims he does not need to involve us at all.

What do we lose if we let them live in isolation for a season more, especially if we welcome their young? "face"?

Furthermore, this sounds like an issue we should discuss with Garside at least, as per our promise. Stonedon may be insignificant village, but news of how we dealt with it will come up in discussions without a doubt and Greymane or Trollbane will be delighted to throw it in our face.

>>5399929
>Decline, counterproposal - we talk to chief Lodrig tomorrow and try to change his mind. If it doesn't work, we will make a statement to the villagers with an offer to make it into popular movement rather than a coup. We don't endorse Ragis by name but he can take advantage of his position to take the place. Lodrig can be retired, no need to kill or exile him.

>>5400119
(If we can talk to Garside first to run any plan by him, that would be good. But this one should be 'clean' enough to not be cause for any controversy)

>>5399929
>>Decline, you won't allow a coup to happen

We should just get up and leave soon, we can't spend many days camped outside of Stonedon because winter is close and we have a campaign to continue.

>>5400111
>>5400119
I had a more elaborate response written out but my phone died so here's the curt rundown.

Ragis can be in a strong position but be stronger with us
Not doing anything here would be a waste of an opportunity and of time.
The promise to Garside was a mistake and there is nothing he could say that would change my mind anyway.
The retards at the alliance have already made up their minds and so any action that increases our power will cause a hissy fit, no matter how reasonable.
If Lodrig won't even grant us access to his village after all we've done then trying to persuade him is pointless. The time for talk is over.
It's Ragis' job to win over the support of the villagers.

>>5400145
This should only take a day, two at the most.

>>5400171
>The retards at the alliance have already made up their minds and so any action that increases our power will cause a hissy fit, no matter how reasonable.

That is not true, King Terenas approved this campaign when we were in Lordaeron.

>>5400403
When I said the retards at the alliance I meant Greymane and Trollbane not the entire alliance. I thought that was obvious but my phrasing did leave too much room for ambiguity.

I am counting 4 in favour and 3 against. Please try to remember to link your votes to my post, makes counting them amongst the discussion much easier. I will start writing after I get following roll.


>3d10, best of three
>DC 14 and 20

Rolled 6, 5, 8 = 19 (3d10)

>>5400692

Rolled 3, 1, 2 = 6 (3d10)

>>5400692

Rolled 9, 9, 10 = 28 (3d10)

>>5400692

File: 47d.jpg (233 KB, 4685x2457)

233 KB JPG

>>5400699
Aight, the update comes later today!

>>5400692
It's also only me and >>5400145 against unless I'm blind, you may have been confused by my multiple posts.

>>5400713
Ah jeez you are right. The QM is just blind.

"I will have to think about this for a moment." You said to Ragis and stood up. He understood to stand up too as you showed the way out of your tent.

"Soldier, please provide Ragis something to drink and call Lieutenant Cromwell to join me in my tent." You said to the soldier standing guard outside the tent.

The soldier saluted you and you returned back into your tent to wait for Cromwell to arrive. You had promised to Garside to consult your officers and him with things like this and now you only had Cromwell nearby. Sure Sir Gravis and Malevus were here, but they weren't exactly part of your officers.

It didn’t take long for Lieutenant Cromwell to enter your tent and you explained the situation to him. He seemed thoughtful for a moment before he answered.

"Sire, I don’t know what to do. I am a soldier, not a diplomatic person." He said and scratched his head. "But one thing I know to say."

"What is it Cromwell?" You asked him.

"Action, even if it is a bad action, is better than doing nothing." Cromwell said to you.

That old saying had a point. You had an opportunity and now you were going to take it.

"Thank you Lieutenant, thank you for those words. They were helpful." You said to him. "Please call Ragis back to my tent."

"Yes Sire."

Again you didn’t have to wait long for Ragis to come back and you waved him to sit down.

"Tomorrow morning you will have the support of Alterac. It will be your decision on how you want to deal with Chief Lodrig." You said to him.

Ragis seemed relieved, but quickly regained his serious composition and nodded once.

"Thank you Prince Alric. Tomorrow will be the first day of Stonedons new history." Ragis said and stood up before offering his hand.

You stood up as well and shook it. You wouldn’t back down from this.

…

>28, success

Last night you had given the orders after Ragis had left the camp that tomorrow morning the men should be ready for a battle. And when you inspected them, you found all of them in their armour and ready for action.

You had ordered the troops to line up between the tents as you finished putting on your chaperon and making sure that your sword belt was tightly secured when the gate to the village was suddenly opened.

That must be the signal for you to act.

1/3

>>5400895

Surrounded by your knights and Malevus, you walked towards the gate with the footmen and archers following you. There was no one on the battlements to face you and when your knights pushed through the open gate, the only one who greeted you was Ragis. He was in his chainmail and had a simple nasal helm covering his head.

He nodded once and started walking through the village. You and your men followed him and the large number of armed and armoured men got the locals to come see what was going on.

The people lined their small walled yards and watched as your footmen marched and stopped into two lines with you standing in front of them. Your archers meanwhile had positioned themselves on the battlements and behind the footmen to provide overwatch.

"What is the meaning of this!" Shouted Chief Lodrig as he stepped out of the longhouse in his full regalia and mail. Following him were maybe a dozen soldiers, rest of the armed men in the village had wisely opted to stand aside and not intervene.

"Chief Lodrig, I am here to replace you as the Chief of Stonedon." Ragis said and stepped forward. "I am acting for the good of the village and I have the power and influence of Alterac behind me."

There were quiet whispers around the villagers as they watched this.

"This is a coup! Ragis, how dare you stand against me." Chief Lodrig shouted back.

"Prince Alric defeated the bandits against whom you had the palisade wall built. They were destroyed." Ragis said back to him. "The threat is gone, but next time Prince Alric might not be here and then that wall won't do anything to stop them."

The soldiers who were with Chief Lodrig seemed to be wavering a bit.

"Stonedon must be opened to the world, isolationism will only end up as our ruin." Ragis continued.

"Then what do you expect me to do then, step aside and walk away?" Chief Lodrig said back.

"Yes, leave the village and never come back." Ragis said to his Chief.

Chief Lodrig looked around and counted the soldiers and the villagers who had come to see what's going on. Then without saying a word he stormed back into his longhouse and soon appeared with a backpack on his back.

As Lodrig had chosen exile, you waved your hand and made your soldiers give him space to go through. Soon he was out of the gate and out of the sight.

2/3

>>5400899

You turned your eyes back to Ragis who had walked up the steps to the longhouse and looked down on you and the villagers.

"Prince Alric, do you have the prisoner nearby?" He asked you.

You didn’t have to say anything and with another wave of your hand, Lieutenant Cromwell had the prisoner brought from your camp into the village and in front of you.

"Prisoner, tell us what you told Prince Alric." Ragis ordered the man.

And the prisoner did tell him what he had told you. The plans to attack Stonedon and how your attack had ruined their plans.

The villagers of Stonedon listened carefully as the prisoner answered the questions Ragis asked him until he couldn't say anything more.

Then Ragis ordered the man to approach him, but just as the prisoner was going to step up the small stone stairs, Ragis drew his sword and beheaded the prisoner. You watched as the body slumped on the stones and the head rolled down closer to you before stopping a few yards from you.

"Stonedon must be protected from the men like him and isolationism won't be the answer. With me as your Chief, Stonedon will be safe and prosperous." Ragis said and raised his voice.

At first no one said anything, but then one villager shouted.

"Chief Ragis!"

And then the rest of them joined in. Chief Ragis, it had a nice ring to it.

…

You had allowed Chief Ragis to greet his men and people in peace as you stood aside. The coup had gone swimmingly, way better than you had expected it to go. And now it was your time to go talk with the new Chief.

You walked up the stone steps with Sir Gravis and Malevus following behind you as you entered the longhouse. It took you a few seconds to get used to the lack of windows as just a few candles provided enough light for you to see in the room.

There on the other side of the room sat the new Chief. You gave him as a slight bow a Prince can give to a nobleman as you kept your eyes on him.

"Chief Ragis." You said.

"Prince Alric, it is good that we could meet like this." Ragis said to you and it seemed that he had quickly gotten used to how to be a Chief. Or he just had seen how Chief Lodrig had acted and chose to emulate the man. "What can Stonedon do for you and Alterac?"

There was it, your reward for helping Ragis. What would you ask of him?


>Trade, Alterac and Stonedon could have much closer economic ties.
>Security, ask his permission to use Stonedon as a stoppage point for your patrols.
>Bend the knee, Stonedon is part of Alterac and Ragis is now one of your lords.
>Ask what Stonedon needs instead, what more can Alterac do for them?
>Other, write in.

>>5400902
>Bend the knee, Stonedon is part of Alterac and Ragis is now one of your lords.
And the first two prompts come along within this one. After that:
>Ask what else Stonedon needs, what more can Alterac do for them?
It is the duty of a good liege after all.

>>5400902
>Bend the knee, Stonedon is part of Alterac and Ragis is now one of your lords.
>Ask what Stonedon needs instead, what more can Alterac do for them?
Both options go well together.

Also tell him that the fate of the prisoner was ours to decide, that execution was a bit too brutal even if it made the village loyal to him, but maybe that is just my bleeding heart talking, poor bastard.

>>5400902
>Bend the knee, Stonedon is part of Alterac and Ragis is now one of your lords.
>Ask what Stonedon needs instead, what more can Alterac do for them?
Gotta properly connect stonedon with the rest of Alterac with some god damn roads.

>>5400937
That's a very good point though I don't care much about the brutality.

>>5400902
I'll add
>Chastise him for killing a prisoner that was not his to freely execute.
Before the other prompts in my vote >>5400915

File: Warcraft II (you).png (7 KB, 477x82)

7 KB PNG

>>5400902
>>Bend the knee, Stonedon is part of Alterac and Ragis is now one of your lords.
Let him have a significant amount of autonomy as our vassal.
>>Ask what Stonedon needs instead, what more can Alterac do for them?

I think that you might like this /you/ I got on /tg/, Medivh.

>>5401502
If by significant you mean dealing with the day to day affairs and busywork of the village then yes. Community leadership is of no concern to us but matters of military, diplomacy and economy certainly are. Pretty much the same deal as all of our other settlements but with an executive position that has it's own initiative in our absence.

>>5400902
Welp, if anyone had idea of having Stonedon as a deniable haven of questionable characters seeking redemption or return to civilization, that idea is gone. Their frontier justice is harsher than ours.

Anyway I’m not convinced if requesting immediate fealty from him would be preferable to gradual integration, his followers may react poorly and the maneuver will be (correctly I suppose) seen very clearly as our intrigue to absorb the village.
I guess the dragon girl will like it though

>Offer him a choice - limited trade and security cooperation, or bending the knee for the full package + aid as per the option 4
>also chastise him for executing prisoner that wasn’t his to deal with.
His theatrics cost life a man whose cooperation helped him to reach his new station. It doesn’t speak well of what we can expect from him.

>>5400902
>Bend the knee, Stonedon is part of Alterac and Ragis is now one of your lords.
He will have some autonomy as our vassal, should satisfy his people and him. Of course rights and duties too.
>Ask what Stonedon needs instead, what more can Alterac do for them?
good, if not excellent, we now hold the center and half of the entire hills. And winter is still not here.
the north half of the hills is probably the one filled by all the other races that are no doubt in our homeland mountains too. Ogres, gnolls, orcs, trolls and syndicate.
In regard to Ragis, what he did was understandable because it does reinforce morale and loyalty in the village. At the same time he might have misinterpreted us giving the prisoner for interrogation, for free execution too. Remind him of that, and that we are usually a bit more lenient for crimes. They still pay their sentence, and this doesn't mean execution of criminals are abolished by us just that we have other options beside them.
Beside this all good, we will need to organize for trade and security since he is our vassal now..

"Stand up Chief Ragis and step forward." You ordered the man. He hesitated a bit as you were quite direct, but he did as you ordered him to do.

"Strahnbrad Hills is a part of the Kingdom of Alterac and Stonedon is one of the many fiefs of the Kingdom." You said to him and continued. "We might be different, but you and I are both Alteracis whose life duty is to serve our people, but your duty is also to serve me."

Ragis listened to you speaking and probably expected what was to come.

"Bend your knee and repeat what I say." You ordered the larger man who did as told.

"I, Chief Ragis of Stonedon, swear by the Holy Light, I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Prince Alric Perenolde, his heirs and successors, according to law. So may the Holy Light bless me."

As you said the pledge, Ragis repeated what you said to him. And when he had finished you offered him your hand and helped him up.

"And now the question isn't what you can do for me, but what Alterac can do for you?" You said to him, your new and actually first vassal you have.

"Many things Prince Alric. We have enough food to survive the winter, but living can get a bit lean before the spring comes. Though I am more concerned about our security." Ragis said to you. "You have seen the old mail and helmets we have. Compared to what your soldiers are wearing, we are woefully under-equipped."

"Arms and armour then, that is what you need?" You asked as a clarification.

"Yes, we need arms to fend off our foes and armour to protect us." Ragis said to you. "It would also help in making the warriors of our village happy."

Well it was good that you had defeated the bandits and the Syndicate troops. Plenty of loot from the battlefield had been collected and maybe you could use it to arm Chief Ragis and his men better? Then there was the question of sending food for them. That could help in swaying the population to your side, but how much did you have supplies of all kinds in storage? How much could you spare?


Total Resources:
8 Wealth, +15 per season
32 Supplies, -4 per season
70 Peasants

>You can give them some arms and armour, but not too much, -1 Supply
>Send Chief Ragis the arms and armour he requires, -2 Supply
>Chief Ragis deserves more than what is necessary, refurbish him and his men with full suits of armour, -4 Supply
>His soldiers don't require equipment from your stocks, they will do fine without them.

>Send Stonedon a delivery of food to get through the winter, -1 Supply
>Stonedon deserves more, send them other stuff alongside the food, -2 Supply
>Stonedon is not facing starvation, do not send anything to them.

QM: Please vote on both arms & armour and foodstuffs.

>>5401502

Warcraft 2 my beloved. I played the shit out of that game when I was a child. It wasn't that easy when you didn’t understand English, but you learned when you lost. Losing is fun after all!

Good old days when the Warcraft lore wasn't a complicated poorly written mess. Simpler, better times.

>>5402094
>>Send Chief Ragis the arms and armour he requires, -2 Supply
>Stonedon deserves more, send them other stuff alongside the food, -2 Supply
A - 4 is acceptable.
Now let's talk about those patrols, should be easier to do them together and then about trade. Two roads will be needed, one towards Dawnholme and one towards Tarren Mill.
Beside that we need to talk about who we have fought during the campaign so far, and other informations we have found. Is better that Ragis knows since he is now a lord under us.

Ah this is great, our first vassal and another settlement under us.

>>5402094
>Send Chief Ragis the arms and armour he requires, -2 Supply
>Stonedon deserves more, send them other stuff alongside the food, -2 Supply
Not like we cant afford it.
Propably should invest in supply production next time were in the build phase.

>>5402094
>Chief Ragis deserves more than what is necessary, refurbish him and his men with full suits of armour, -4 Supply
>Stonedon deserves more, send them other stuff alongside the food, -2 Supply
Let it be known that Alterac rewards those who serve well. This should be a taste of the prosperity they will be part of should they do their part... At least, since we have the supply stock to be generous for now. We're going to need to do something about that supply income though.

>>5402094
>Chief Ragis deserves more than what is necessary, refurbish him and his men with full suits of armour, -4 Supply
>Stonedon deserves more, send them other stuff alongside the food, -2 Supply

This will put us at 26 supplies, this might seem bad given that we lose -4 supplies every season but 24 supplies is still enough to last us for 6 seasons. This gives us more than enough time to build buildings that give supplies and we may be able to loot more supplies from battle. If the worst comes to worst we can just convert wealth to supplies.
>>5402100
Based.

>>5402094
>full outfit for the defenders of stonedon, -4 supplies
it is after all in our interest for them to be a secure point in this region and since we absorbed them it's our responsibility as well.
>send delivery of food -1 supply
Probably better not to set expectation for the future as too high by dumping a large shipment on them right now. So, -5 supplies total

>>5402094
>Chief Ragis deserves more than what is necessary, refurbish him and his men with full suits of armour, -4 Supply
>Stonedon deserves more, send them other stuff alongside the food, -2 Supply
We can afford it and Stonedon is the most important settlement in this region so it deserves the investment.

>>5402094
>Send Chief Ragis the arms and armour he requires, -2 Supply
>Stonedon deserves more, send them other stuff alongside the food, -2 Supply
They'll get what they need, let's try to not spend everything with that fat minus to our supplies.

>>5402094
>Chief Ragis deserves more than what is necessary, refurbish him and his men with full suits of armour, -4 Supply
>Stonedon deserves more, send them other stuff alongside the food, -2 Supply

>>5402094
>>Send Chief Ragis the arms and armour he requires, -2 Supply
>Stonedon deserves more, send them other stuff alongside the food, -2 Supply

I need a roll, again for the weather.


>1d10
>Best of three

>>5403348
Demons raining from the sky and this pathetic world burning.

Rolled 2 (1d10)

>>5403348
>>5403360
Well thats embarrasing.

Rolled 8 (1d10)

>>5403348
here

>>5403360
lol what's that for

>>5403348
medivh how much time is left until autumn starts ? just to know. A few weeks ?

>>5403383
errr meant winter there

Rolled 4 (1d10)

>>5403348

>>5403360
You alright mate?

>>5403395
>>5403367
Im always rolling for terrible weather.
Also its a reference to warcraft 3.

"We will provide you with armour refurbished from the stocks we have. Thankfully the Syndicate gave us plenty." You said with a smile. "And we will send you food supplies amongst other things. Faster we can get Stonedon and the region stable, sooner we can start taming this land."

"Thank you Prince Alric, but there must be something we can do for you too?" Chief Ragis bowed and said.

"There will be traders and our soldiers on patrols. Welcome them and give them shelter. I won’t be asking more, because I know not to ask too much." You said back to him and continued. "There is one more thing."

"What is it?" Ragis asked.

"That prisoner you beheaded was under my care and protection. That kind of a frontier law will not stand even though it might have strengthened your position as the Chief." You told him sternly. "He might have been a bandit and under Alteraci law that gives us the power to sentence him to death, but one must not use said power just because it exists."

"I understand. So what happens next?" Ragis asked you and seemed apologetic about what he had done.

"I will have someone to take your measurements and then see exactly how many suits of armour do you need." You said. "Then I shall return back to the camp by the river."

Chief Ragis nodded again and showed the way out of the longhouse that was now his.

..

Sir Gravis with the help of Malevus took the measurements, while Lieutenant Cromwell counted that the warriors of Stonedon needed twenty suits of armour. It wouldn’t be that difficult to refurbish them and the blacksmiths in Tarren Mill could easily do that.

You discussed the suits of armour and how much food you would be sending amongst the other things. With the campaigning expertise of Lieutenant Cromwell, he estimated that in the end this village probably needed just a few ox carts of food. Tarren Mill could provide apple products of different kinds, dried and salted fish from Southshore and bread from Hillsbrad. It should be enough.

Then back in your tent you quickly wrote a short statement regarding the status of Chief Ragis as your vassal and placed both your personal seal and the seal of Alterac on it. For situations like this Captain Garside had procured them. Now if someone questioned Chief Ragis, he had your backing on a parchment.

After having done everything, you ordered the tents to be taken down and prepared the men for a march back to the camp.

As you were leaving, Chief Ragis came to speak with you once more.

"You are leaving this soon?" He asked you.

"I have my own duties and the work never gets finished." You said to him. "Strahnbrad Hills won't secure themselves with us standing around here."

1/3

>>5403424

"Then Prince Alric, hear my advice." Ragis said and continued. "Stay away from the trolls and the mountains beyond. All sorts of beasts and creatures live there. We have survived by not disturbing them and by not crossing their totems that mark their borders."

"How do we then find a way to the town of Strahnbrad?" You asked Ragis.

"It won't be easy either, but you follow the river north and go around the mountains. Through the Chillwind Pass." Ragis told you.

"Has anyone travelled through the pass recently?"

"No Prince Alric, because it too is part of the troll territory. It just is the safest route north and the river keeps the trolls away." Ragis explained.

That didn't sound that good. Another obstacle between you and the town of Strahnbrad. Trolls and what else in the mountains, now more trolls in the Chillwind Pass, gnolls and the Syndicate in the east beyond the Darrowmere River. Not forgetting whatever bandits and ruffians could still be lurking here.

Nevertheless, you still had your campaign here and you weren't finished yet. With winter arriving, you probably have maybe a few weeks before the snow comes. There was still time to achieve much.

…

>8

The cold breeze hit your face as you stood outside the camp by the river and watched the clouds. Winter was coming slowly, but steadily and if the signs were right, you did have a few more weeks before it snows.

A stiff breeze made you shiver and you pulled your scarf up to protect your neck. It would do you no good standing out like this and Normand said that he would be waiting in your hut when you wanted to talk with him. So you walked back into the walled camp and entered your hut.

"What you did in Stonedon could cause rumours to spread." Normand Garside said to you as you threw off your jacket. "But it probably couldn't have gone any better."

"Thank you Normand, it did surprise me too a bit how easily Lodrig left the village." You said to him.

"Ehh, you had fifty men to his dozen. He did the math." Normand said. "And thank you for speaking with Cromwell first, seems like his advice was helpful."

"It was, but the rest of the news, they're not that good. Sure gaining Stonedon is a boon, but the news about the trolls?" You said with a tone of a worry creeping into your voice. "Do we have the men to deal with them?"

"We should recheck our goals, have we accomplished enough? We have Stonedon, we defeated the Syndicate here, we have secured our borders." Normand said to you. "Do we have to push any further even if we have time?"

Normand had a point and was right, while you didn’t control Strahnbrad Hills completely, you had succeeded in making your people safe. The attempt by the Syndicate to gain control of the region was thwarted and you now knew what to expect in the future. But you had time, you could try to accomplish something before it starts to snow.

2/2

>>5403431

>Keep up the patrols between Sofera’s Naze, Stonedon and the camp. Keep the land secure and safe.
>Push north and follow the Darrowmere River upstream. You have time for a major effort like this.
>Approach the trolls in the mountains and see how far exactly their territory extends.
>Leave a garrison in the camp and withdraw your men back to Tarren Mill. Consider this phase of the campaign done and finished.

QM: No sudden arrival of the winter. The weather stays nice cool and breezy.

>>5403433
>>Keep up the patrols between Sofera’s Naze, Stonedon and the camp. Keep the land secure and safe.

>>5403433
That was not the kind of chastisement I wanted given to Ragis, it was supposed to be an assertion of authority and not moralizing but oh well. How much time would need to be spent following the river? I would like to do so if time allows but either way
>Keep up the patrols between Sofera’s Naze, Stonedon and the camp. Keep the land secure and safe.

>>5403433
>Push north and follow the Darrowmere River upstream. You have time for a major effort like this.
One last push to secure the trade route. It'll bring in immense wealth if we can get that road, and was one of the major goals we had.

>>5403433
>Push north and follow the Darrowmere River upstream. You have time for a major effort like this.

better a bad action than no action at all.

>>5403433
>>Push north and follow the Darrowmere River upstream. You have time for a major effort like this.

>>5403480
>>5403505
>>5403514
I want to follow the river too but shoudn't we also make the order to keep up the patrols?

>>5403520
No because we need all of our soldiers for this.

>>5403531
All of them? Even the camp garrison? Putting aside how risky that is, what kind of opposition are you expecting that would warrant such a force?

>>5403549
>what kind of opposition are you expecting that would warrant such a force?

Trolls.

>>5403561
And you want to fight them? I don't think that's a good idea yet, we don't have enough time to start and end the conflict with them.

>>5403433
>Keep up the patrols between Sofera’s Naze, Stonedon and the camp. Keep the land secure and safe.

>Keep up the patrols between Sofera’s Naze, Stonedon and the camp. Keep the land secure and safe.
Trolls considering the Strahnbrad approach their territory is a small disaster. We can't really afford to provoke them currently.
Maybe it could be possible to make a deal with them (to our political detriment), like trading the approach for territory in other parts of the hills, if they are content in their corner and not hunting people for sport.
An alternative could be to try and organize an action like the one against trolls, with alliance participation, but getting Alliance involved in clearing our own territory would kind of make - from alliance perspective - more a liability out of our presence rather than asset.

>>5403446
moralizing is how we gained a dependable elf paladin retainer, rapport with Jaina and Calia and earned Uther's soft support. Even if doing the right thing was not a reward in itself, we are not in position to play nihilistic authoritarian and won't be unless some disaster happens that magically wipes out all powers in the area while leaving us untouched. Until then we're better off if more people consider us more beneficial and helpful active than gone.

>>5403948
>>5403433
neglected to connect the vote
>Keep up the patrols between Sofera’s Naze, Stonedon and the camp. Keep the land secure and safe.

>>5403433
>Keep up the patrols between Sofera’s Naze, Stonedon and the camp. Keep the land secure and safe.
Reestablishing trade now is tempting, but i want to grow our forces. We have taken some losses, unfortunately.
For now fortify our position, maybe we could create better boats when spring returns. The ones captured from the Syndicate are nice.

Keeping up the patrols is the winner. Now I need a second vote, will Alric join the patrols personally or stay in the camp organising all the effort?


>Join the patrols, your left arm didn't bother you that much when you visited Stonedon.
>Stay in the camp, you are still supposed to rest and take it easy. Your capable officers can lead the patrols instead.

>>5403982
>>Stay in the camp, you are still supposed to rest and take it easy. Your capable officers can lead the patrols instead.

>>5403982
kind of tempted to join the patrols to familiarize self with the land, but it's probably better not to risk we'd be drawn into a fight and impair the healing.
>Stay in the camp, you are still supposed to rest and take it easy. Your capable officers can lead the patrols instead.

>>5403982
>>Stay in the camp, you are still supposed to rest and take it easy. Your capable officers can lead the patrols instead.
this should be fine, is still work for us.

>>5403982
>>Join the patrols, your left arm didn't bother you that much when you visited Stonedon.

>>5403982
>Stay in the camp, you are still supposed to rest and take it easy. Your capable officers can lead the patrols instead.
Hell no, we need to heal. Alric already carried hard throughout the story, he deserves some rest - at least until the wrist is fine.

>>5403982
>Stay in the camp, you are still supposed to rest and take it easy. Your capable officers can lead the patrols instead.

>>5403982
>Stay in the camp, you are still supposed to rest and take it easy. Your capable officers can lead the patrols instead.

I am way too knackered to concentrate on writing today, so the update comes tomorrow.

Staying in the camp does seem to be the clear winner and it would seem that Alrics wrist is most likely going to like that decision.

You are Malevus, a squire to Prince Alric Perenolde and a servant to your master Voren'thal the Seer. For the past several months you have proudly served Prince Alric and followed him assisting in every way it was possible. During this time you had seen him act in ways that would bring him honour, and for you to be able to serve him, it would be an immense honour.

Now though helping him meant doing more mundane tasks as he had injured his wrist, but you were fine with that, after all the tasks didn’t differ that much from what you did back home in Quel’Thalas.

Every morning you wake up early in your tent that was given to you. Having your own tent gives you some privacy as you were the only woman in the camp, which you didn’t really mind, but it was thoughtful of them to think about it. Then you would put on your robe and armour before going out to the river to wash your face and hands, before filling a jug with fresh water. You would enter the hut Prince Alric was sleeping in to start a small fire in the stove to provide both warmth and to boil water for the breakfast. When Prince Alric wakes up, he would have warm tea and porridge waiting for him so that he could start the day early and get as much done as possible.

Since returning from Stonedon several days ago, you went through this morning routine and through the tasks of the day with your mind clouded with questions. Prince Alric had promised before starting his campaign here in Strahnbrad Hills to attempt to avoid bloodshed and he had done just that by showing mercy to the bandits and the members of the Syndicate. But what you had seen in Stonedon bothered you, how easily Prince Alric had agreed on helping with the coup and how he had stood next to the new Chief while seeming to be content with his actions.

Prince Alric had noticed that you had something in your mind, but hadn’t said anything as he was waiting for you to speak first. And now after several days of letting things mull in your mind, you decided to speak as you couldn’t be without answers.

But what has Prince Alric been doing since the return from Stonedon and opting to stay in the camp while his soldiers patrolled the lands he had secured and cleared.


>Prince Alric had put his time into organising the patrols and making sure that the men in the camp were ready to fight. There were no lull moments as the soldiers trained and sparred through the day.
>Prince Alric had concentrated on making the camp more habitable. If soldiers were to stay here through the winter, everything should be made ready for them.
>Prince Alric had sparred with you. Even with avoiding moving his injured arm, he continued to school you in swordsmanship and defeat you time after time.

QM: A point of view switch!

>>5405112
>>Prince Alric had put his time into organising the patrols and making sure that the men in the camp were ready to fight. There were no lull moments as the soldiers trained and sparred through the day.

We need to get as much done as possible before winter.

>>5405112
> But what you had seen in Stonedon bothered you, how easily Prince Alric had agreed on helping with the coup and how he had stood next to the new Chief while seeming to be content with his actions
I don't get it, what did she expect us to do? She knew were conquering the region and that includes Stonedon, did she want us to leave Lodrig in power and have to conquer the place the old fashioned way?

> Prince Alric had concentrated on making the camp more developed. If soldiers were to stay here through the winter, everything should be made ready for them.
Not only more habitable but also more defensible, be it a trench or higher walls or raised platforms. This place should be developed as much as possible before we leave, the soldiers can drill after we're gone as that is a much simpler endeavour.

>>5405112

>Prince Alric had concentrated on making the camp more habitable. If soldiers were to stay here through the winter, everything should be made ready for them.
We can spend time for better organize the patrols and training, when we can be sure of our position here. Cold can be quite deadly. If necessary we can clean more trees around the camp and paths for more building material or for our fires.

>>5405146
Well she is young for an elf, so she might not know how to view this. On one hand it was no bloodshed, on the other a coup is not ... something she would have expected ?
When we think of the word coup. many examples can come to mind and more often than not they can be bloody or consider dishonourable. She could be worried about Alric honor or about him in general.

At the end of the day for Alric and us it was a needed political move, beside Ragis killing that prisoner it was honestly perfect and Alric did it with good arguments and reasons backing him. The isolationism of Stonedon would have made them preys of far more cruel parties. coming under the protective wings of Alterac was a good choice and i think she will understand it.

>>5405112
>>Prince Alric had concentrated on making the camp more habitable. If soldiers were to stay here through the winter, everything should be made ready for them.
It's in a good spot next to the river, it could become a transit hub for Stonedon if the river is good for rafts and boats.

>>5405146
She's bright eyed, idealistic paladin. Her morals will be tested in the future for sure, as will Alric's. Hope we can get her to not get broken by the grimmer side of the world. Cynicism and nihilism is a poison that kills nations.

>>5405239
I mean, I suppose the "purest" way to go about Stonedon would have been leaving it to its fate and waiting for the villagers to depose the chieftain of their own initiative. Which could get ugly if the chief decided to have villagers killed for rebelling and was obeyed.
On the other hand, external coup means we're convinced we just know better what's good for these people, better than themselves, whether or not that is true.

>>5405112
>Prince Alric had concentrated on making the camp more habitable. If soldiers were to stay here through the winter, everything should be made ready for them.

During the past few days Prince Alric had organised the soldiers in the camp to finish the work on the camp itself. He had wanted the camp to be ready for the winter and you couldn’t blame him for that. The walls of the huts and the canvas of the tents didn’t really keep the cold away or the warmth in.

So he had organised the soldiers into work parties with their own tasks and with planks, nails and other materials having arrived from Tarren Mill, it was easy to get to work. There were many backgrounds amongst the soldiers, but most of them had been farmers or craftsmen. People like them had the skills and knowhow how to repair their own houses and help their neighbours in building a new barn, so they didn’t need more than the orders of what to do next.

You delivered messages from Prince Alric to the soldiers and watched as they went to work. Some repaired the roofs with new shingles, while others filled the walls with peat and moss to insulate the huts before finishing the walls. Pair of huts with wicker walls received a proper peat cover to shield what is inside of them and work on a few new houses had started.

Outside the low palisade wall, work was started to dig a ditch around it. The ditch wouldn’t really stop any determined assailant, but it would make climbing over the palisades a much harder task. Especially when the ditch started to fill up with the groundwater. Finally battlements were planned to be built inside the walls and the small outposts that had been built on top of the hills around the camp received wooden roofs to protect the men on guard duty from the weather.

All in all there was a lot of work and it looked to you like Prince Alric enjoyed organising it and seeing his vision to be made real. From early morning to late evening he was with his men, helping them when he could and asking questions from the craftsmen when he didn’t know what they were doing. You realised that just like you were learning more every day in his service, he too was learning new things.

But you were now in his hut, preparing a light dinner after a day full of work and he could see that something was bothering you.

1/3

>>5405763

“Prince Alric…” You opened up finally and said to him.

“You have something on your mind.” Prince Alric said back before you could continue. “Malevus I have noticed it, the way you look at me changes. It is in the eyes.”

“Prince Alric, it was what happened in Stonedon. How easily you agreed to help with the coup… I don’t know how to say this.” You managed somehow to say to him. “Prince Alric, you have kept your promise in avoiding bloodshed and I have seen you time after time acting honourably, but what I saw in Stonedon felt a bit off.”

Alric nodded several times after having heard what you had said to him.

“Politically it was the right move, Stonedon has sworn allegiance to me and I can protect them in ways their isolationism couldn’t have protected them. They didn’t have the men to defend themselves if someone was to attack them. The isolationism of Stonedon would have made them prey to far more cruel parties so coming under the protective wings of Alterac was the right choice.” Alric said to you and continued. “But that was the political reason, was it the right choice to help in the coup, even if it cost us the life of the prisoner?”

Alric stood up and went for his travel chest from which he took a bottle of Alteraci brandy and took out a pair of small cups before pouring a bit of the brandy into the cups. He passed you one of the cups.

“Everything I do will be looked at through the lenses that are my father. When the news and rumours of the coup spread, I know there will be people that will point fingers at me and make comparisons.” Alric said to you. “When I was in Stormwind, I told the Kings of the Alliance about my brother and the Syndicate. I did the right thing, I informed them of a threat that could harm the Alliance.”

“But they enacted the Edict, forbidding you from attempting to reclaim Alterac.” You interrupted Alric and finished what he was going to say.

“I did the right thing, but the rewards weren't what I expected and I have had thoughts of what would have happened if I hadn’t told them that?” Alric said and took a sip. “But the thing is I shouldn’t have those thoughts, because I know that I did the right thing and by being consistent in my actions I will be judged fairly in the future.”

“But Prince Alric, what if what you do isn’t the right thing to do?” You had to ask him as you had learned from Raleigh that many men have done horrible things, because they thought what they did was right.

2/3

>>5405766

“That is why I have you Malevus.” Prince Alric said and smiled, making you nearly fluster. “And I have Normand, Maura, Cromwell, Beckston, Rovers. I have Jaina, Uther and Calia.”

Alric took another sip of the brandy and continued.

“I have people that are my family, my advisors, my friends or my loved ones. They are going to tell me if something I am going to do is a mistake or not right and I hope by the Light that they will stop me before I do it.” He said to you. “That is why it is good that you brought it up, because I have an order for you.”

“What is it Prince Alric?” You straightened your back and prepared to listen.

“If I ever try to do something that doesn’t feel right to you or you have your doubts, interrupt me, stop me and talk with me.” Alric said to you and from the tone of his voice you understood that he really did mean it. “I expect the same from my officers and I will expect the same from you.”

“Yes Prince Alric, I will do that.” You said back to him.

One thing this conversation had made you realise was the amount of pressure Prince Alric has over his actions and not just because what he does affects his people, but by how other people see him. It wasn’t easy to be Prince Alric, but you were glad that you could attempt to help him to persevere.

“Ahh, you have already drunk your brandy.” Prince Alric said to you as you too realised that he was right. He took your cup to fill it again before giving it back to you. “Now tell me, what exactly were you doing back in Quel’Thalas? I know you serve Voren’thal the Seer, but how did you serve him? ”


>You came from a long line of farmers tending the lands of your master and were lucky to get a chance to be one of the many servants of his household. Otherwise you would still be back home on your family's farm.
>Your parents were soldiers, but they wanted you to avoid a martial lifestyle and had instead asked your master to take you as one of his servants.
>Your parents were Magisters and wanted you to become one too, so they had sent you to learn from your master. Sadly to your parents, you didn’t inherit their skills, but you did inherit their curiosity.
>Your parents, high nobles from Silvermoon City, had sent you to act as a court lady because it would bring honour to you to serve Voren’thal.

QM: Background for Malevus

>>5405767
another torturous choice to make...

I'm kinda partial to seeing Malevus as the sheltered naive child that got thrown into the world of adventure resolved to do her best. I feel the country girl fits with her more than the noble scion, though both could work fine as being noble born does not necessarily mean spoiled or arrogant which she is not. Although I imagine even Voren'thal could have gotten into a hot mess if he just sent off a noble daughter onto such a mission alone unless she was from a very dysfunctional family indeed.

>You came from a long line of farmers tending the lands of your master and were lucky to get a chance to be one of the many servants of his household. Otherwise you would still be back home on your family's farm.

>>5405767
>Your parents were Magisters and wanted you to become one too, so they had sent you to learn from your master. Sadly to your parents, you didn’t inherit their skills, but you did inherit their curiosity.
Since in the bad end she becomes a warlock.

>>5405767
>>You came from a long line of farmers tending the lands of your master and were lucky to get a chance to be one of the many servants of his household. Otherwise you would still be back home on your family's farm.

>>5405767
>>Your parents, high nobles from Silvermoon City, had sent you to act as a court lady because it would bring honour to you to serve Voren’thal.

>>5405767
>>Your parents were soldiers, but they wanted you to avoid a martial lifestyle and had instead asked your master to take you as one of his servants.
Uhmm

>>5405929
>I’m Voren’thal the Seer and this is Jackass

>>5405767
>>Your parents, high nobles from Silvermoon City, had sent you to act as a court lady because it would bring honour to you to serve Voren’thal.
I fancy the idea of Malevus having an actual noble background.

>>5405945
kek it's kind of funny that she ended up has our squire

We have a 2-2 tie between her family being farmers or her family being high nobles from Silvermoon City. Could I have a tiebreaker vote.

>>5405767
>Your parents, high nobles from Silvermoon City, had sent you to act as a court lady because it would bring honour to you to serve Voren’thal.
Fancy elf lady, makes sense why she is a goodie two shoes if she barely went outside and see the world.

Taking a sip of the brandy you thought about Alrics question. You hadn’t talked that much about your homeland or especially about your family. You didn’t really like to talk about them, but now that Alric had asked…

"My parents live in Silvermoon City." You said to Alric and had a small pause before you continued. "They are high nobles, part of the old families whose lineage goes back to the founding of Quel'Thalas."

"Wait, so you are a noble?" Alric asked and was surprised by this revelation. Realising that he had interrupted you, he let you continue your tale.

"But they sent me to serve my master as a court lady. They sent me away because I was supposed to marry another noble, but I declined." You told Alric while not being able to avoid disappointment seeping into your voice.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Alric said to you.

"Don’t be, I didn’t like my time in Silvermoon City and while my work as a court lady within my masters household wasn't thrilling or that fascinating, I was respected." You said and continued. "Serving Voren'thal was the best time of my life for he is a kind person, no one has anything bad to say about him."

"So how did he allow you to leave? I couldn't imagine your parents being happy about it?" Alric asked you.

"Because I bugged my master for years. First he allowed me to take some lessons in how to fight and then he had his vision." You told Alric. "He could have sent anyone else, but he chose me."

You hadn’t asked Voren'thal why he did send you to Alterac to protect Alric. He had only explained his vision to you and made sure you had your sword and armour. You were too excited otherwise to ask.

"My parents probably weren't happy when they heard about it." You said and shook your head before taking another sip. "But high nobles or not, Voren'thal has the ear of the High King. My master had his reasons to send me here to serve you Prince Alric, to protect you."

Alric nodded to what you had said and seemed thoughtful. It was his turn to have something in his mind.

"Well, the question is, do I have to start to call you a Lady?" Alric asked you with a jest. "Because Lady Malevus does have a nice ring to it."

"Noooo…" You groaned back. "Malevus is enough, I don't want to be reminded constantly where I am from."

"Understood, I won't call you a Lady then… Lady Malevus." Alric said and laughed.

"Prince Alric! It is not a laughing matter." You said back.

"What about a Princess? Princess Malevus." Alric mused aloud in an attempt to annoy you. He did succeed and got only a groan out of you.

"If Prince Alric is going to just joke around, I think I need more of this." You said and filled your cup again with the brandy.

The buzz had already hit you and Alric laughing started to have an effect. Sure, let's have a fun evening.

Surely everything will be fine.

1/2

>>5406957

Everything is not fine.

Nothing is fine.

Your head hurts. It hurts a lot.

The world spins around you.

Trying to open your eyes you found that you were in your tent on your cot. You still had the same clothes you were wearing last night, but you had no memories of what had happened after pouring the third cup.

Carefully you pushed yourself up and attempted to hold your head still with your hands. Your mind was racing as you tried to think or imagine what you had done last night. You could only hope that you hadn’t embarrassed yourself.

Even more worse ideas came to your mind, but you pushed them away momentarily as you went and drank plenty of water. Then you carefully pushed yourself out of the tent and into the near blinding light that was the sun.

You felt awful, absolutely dreadful, but you knew that you needed to know what had happened last night.


>First you need to go and wash your hands and face. You can't go and present yourself like this to anyone else.
>You need to find Prince Alric and ask him what happened last night? You can't wait any longer.
>Retreat back into your tent and try to sleep the worst of your hangover away. Maybe later you have enough strength to find Prince Alric.
>Other, write in

QM: Sorry about that, real life intervened between me asking for the tiebreaker and writing the update.

>>5406963
>First you need to go and wash your hands and face. You can't go and present yourself like this to anyone else
Poor Malevus is a lightweight

>>5406963
>>First you need to go and wash your hands and face. You can't go and present yourself like this to anyone else.

>>5406963
>First you need to go and wash your hands and face. You can't go and present yourself like this to anyone else.

>>5406963
>>First you need to go and wash your hands and face. You can't go and present yourself like this to anyone else.
Kek
Np medivh

You need to wash your face and hands, preferably you would love to take a quick dip in the river, but that wouldn't be appropriate. You hoped that maybe by fishing your face you could gain some strength back.

You shuffled through the camp and said a quick prayer to the Holy Light that it was still quite early and soldiers that were out of shift hadn't gotten up. Just the few who stood guard paid attention to you as you made your way past them and towards the river.

You must have looked quite ghastly.

Kneeling on the rocky sand that made the shore you pulled up your sleeves and first washed your hands and then washed your face. It didn’t help that much, but at least you felt a bit cleaner.

And then you emptied your stomach into the river.

You felt even more horrible as you watched how the current took away what you had eaten yesterday. The taste in your mouth was just awful and after having to recover a bit, you washed your face again.

"Lady Malevus, is everything alright?" You heard a voice saying behind you.

"Y-yes, just not feeling well." You said back to whoever it was.

"Here, drink some water. You need it after puking your guts out." The man said and when you turned to take the waterskin that was being offered, you recognized who it was.

"Thank you Sir Radan." You said back to the rat faced man who you saw for once not wearing his plate mail.

"You looked like you needed help Lady Malevus." Sir Radan said to you and you realised that he called you a Lady. Maybe he was just polite and hadn't heard or learned about your family.

"I needed help. Thank you." You thanked the former bandit again as he helped you up.

You still felt quite bad and your mind wanted to shut everything off, but it would be rude to just walk away and leave Sir Radan here.

"And I need your help. I saw you walking here and decided to come to ask you something." Sir Radan said and continued somewhat sheepishly. "Then I noticed you were unwell and…"

"Just ask what was in your mind." You interrupted him as your headache flared up.

"Oh well, I want to learn more about the Holy Light." Sir Radan said to you.

"Sir Radan, you know I am not a priest, maybe you should ask Raleigh the True or Father Hampton when he visits Dawnholme." You said back.

"Raleigh does not like us, former bandits after all, and Father Hampton comes so rarely and he is busy with the common folk." Sir Radan said and sighed. "That is why I asked you."

"Why now?" You had to ask.

"Before I didn’t really think much of it, but since I was captured by Prince Alric, I have had plenty of time to think about it." Sir Radan explained to you. "I want to learn, maybe to see if it is my thing. Can you help me?"

1/1

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>>5408204


>Decline as you aren’t that well versed with the teachings either. It would be for the best if Sir Radan finds someone who knows what they are talking about.
>Agreed to help Sir Radan in his mission to find the Holy Light. As a paladin you are expected to spread the word.
>Only agree if Sir Radan takes his men with him. They too should be given a chance to hear about the Holy Light.
>Other, write in.

>>5408207
>Agree to share what you can, but he really should approach someone with more experience and knowledge as possible; also resolve to speak to Raleigh on his behalf. It doesn’t seem right for follower of Light to turn away someone who would like to embrace it.

>>5408207
>>Decline as you aren’t that well versed with the teachings either. It would be for the best if Sir Radan finds someone who knows what they are talking about.

>>5408207
>Agreed to help Sir Radan in his mission to find the Holy Light. As a paladin you are expected to spread the word.

>>5408207
>Agreed to help Sir Radan in his mission to find the Holy Light. As a paladin you are expected to spread the word.

>>5408207
>>Agreed to help Sir Radan in his mission to find the Holy Light. As a paladin you are expected to spread the word.

Agreeing to help Sir Radan wins. Could I have an yet another roll for the weather, also I will take the second roll.


>1d10
>Best of three, also taking the second roll

Rolled 2 (1d10)

>>5408881
where's mr. Blue Sky?

Rolled 2 (1d10)

>>5408881

Rolled 7 (1d10)

>>5408881

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“I will help you, after all as a paladin, I cannot turn away someone interested in embracing the Holy Light.” You said to Sir Radan who seemed relieved to hear those words.

“Thank you Lady Malevus.” Sir Radan said and gave you a slight bow.

“But may I ask, why wouldn’t you approach Raleigh the True?” You asked the knight.

“I didn’t want to bother him, I know he doesn’t like us and I wouldn’t want to force him.” Sir Radan said back to you.

“I understand.” You said and sighed. It took you a lot of mental strength to keep up with this conversation. “Let’s go back to the camp, we can talk about this on a later date.”

“Let us do that Lady Malevus.” Sir Radan said.

…

You are Prince Alric Perenolde and in front of you sits your squire who is at the very moment quite hungover and tired. Meanwhile you felt relatively fine, you had smartly slowed down and didn’t drink yourself into stupor.

“Malevus, how are you feeling?” You asked the tired looking elf with her red hair that was all over the place.

“Prince Alric, I don’t feel that well.” Malevus said to you as you passed her a cup of tea and a plate with some apple slices and bread. Today clearly it was your turn to prepare breakfast.

“Let that be the lesson, if you drink, try to do it in moderation.” You said to your squire.

“A lesson, it was a lesson?” Malevus asked you and was baffled on what you just had said.

“Yes, I thought about stopping you last night, but in the end decided not to.” You said to her and smiled.

“You are a cruel man Prince Alric.” Malevus said and didn’t find any fun in this.

“Normand did the same to me when I turned fifteen years old. It was a valuable lesson and while I have been drinking, I haven’t drank myself into drunken stupor again.” You explained to her. “Everything in moderation.”

Malevus seemed to understand the lesson, even though it meant that her head probably felt like an ogre was trying to squeeze it into pieces.

“You are still a cruel man.” Malevus said and became more serious. “But did anything happen last night, I don’t remember anything after the third cup.”

“No, we just talked about normal things and you told me what you did as a court lady.” You said to her. “And when you were nearly falling unconscious, I helped you into your tent.”

Malevus was relieved to hear that. Clearly she didn’t like the fact that she had a hole in her memory. Thankfully though you didn’t tell her that you ended up princess carrying her into her tent after she had passed out on the table. She probably wouldn’t have survived the embarrassment in her current shape and condition.

1/3

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>>5408977

>7
>2

It had been two weeks since you and Malevus spent the evening drinking the Alteraci brandy. In a few days she could laugh about the night and continue her service to you without any issues. Malevus had also started to regularly talk with Sir Radan, apparently the former bandit had approached her regarding the Holy Light. This made you happy, seeing that your trust in the man wasn’t a mistake and that he wanted to redeem himself.

During these two weeks your soldiers continued patrolling the land. A patrol would leave the camp, go to Stonedon, then to Sofera’s Naze where they would hear the latest news from Dawnholme and elsewhere before returning back to the camp by skirting the border of Tarren Mill. While these patrols that were made from about twenty soldiers each did their rounds, smaller patrols trekked through the hills near the camp, making sure that no one was approaching the place.

The work in the camp was nearing its completion, it wouldn’t take more than a few more days and getting all the supplies in and under cover. The soldiers here in the camp had also started to call the place Shoredon. The camp was located next to the shore of Darrowmere River and Stonedon was the closest village. The name wasn’t exactly the great product of high intelligence and imagination, but the name had stuck and you couldn’t bother trying to think of a new name.

You stood outside the palisade wall and watched over the river into the woods beyond. Your soldiers had cleared a good portion of the underbrush and small trees from the spots they regularly landed at. Several larger trees had also been chopped down, made into logs and pulled behind the boats before being cut into firewood.

Standing there, you crossed your arms and flexed your left wrist a bit. Two days ago you had removed the splint and now you could actually move your hand. It didn’t hurt anymore, but you were still careful enough to not exercise it too much.

As you stretched your arms, a strong and cold gust of wind blew past you and you felt something hitting your nose. Then you realised that with the gust of wind came the first few snowflakes of the winter.

“Winter is early…” You mused aloud.

“Prince Alric, what did you say?” Malevus asked you as she was standing behind you.

“Normally winter starts to arrive in a week or two, now it is a bit early.” You turned around and told your squire.

It had gotten colder in the past few days, but you hadn’t expected the winter to arrive, at least not yet.

And then came the news from Dawnholme. Farmers had seen some strange men skulking near King’s Road coming from Alterac. When Captain Reginald had sent a squad of his men to investigate, the soldiers from the Alliance garrison had found footprints that led back towards Alterac and Gallows Corner. The conclusion was that they must have been bandit scouts or soldiers from the Syndicate.

You immediately called your officers into your small hut to have a meeting.

2/3

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>>5408983

“As you have heard, farmers had spotted strange men skulking around the King’s Road and Captain Reginald had confirmed that the tracks lead back into Alterac.” You told your officers.

“Then they must now know that majority of our soldiers are in here and not defending Dawnholme.” Captain Garside said back. “Concerning, especially with all the prisoners being moved into their new labour camp.”

In the past two weeks first groups of the prisoners had in fact been moved to Dawnholme from Tarren Mill.

“We shouldn’t leave Dawnholme without protection and the winter is nearly here.” You said.

“Sire, I concur.” Lieutenant Cromwell said to you. “We need to protect our holdings.”

“Then should we send some of our men back to Dawnholme? Should we take most if not all of our men back home?” You asked your officers. “What do you think?”

“We have accomplished what we can here in Strahnbrad Hills, let us return home for the winter.” Captain Garside said back.

“Sire, we should leave a force of forty men to continue the patrols through the winter.” Cromwell suggested.

“Isn’t that a tad too low number? Withdraw the troops that had taken casualties during the fighting, but leave the rest here.” Suggested Lieutenant Beckston.

“But that would leave Dawnholme too vulnerable.” Garside argued back.

“And forty men is not enough to defend Shoredon and maintain patrols if the Syndicate decides to attack.” Beckston said back to him.

They were all correct. Dawnholme and the rest of your holdings need to be protected and you have to withdraw some of your troops back to Alterac, but there were risks in leaving too few men in Shoredon. But the unknown factor in all this was the winter, if it was really arriving early, you could have a tough winter ahead of you and the snow and cold doesn’t care who it hinders. A military campaign during winter would be doomed the moment it was launched.

3/3

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>>5408991

Current number of soldiers: 28 Footmen, 21 Pikemen, 4 Knights, 27 Bandit Rogues, 28 Archers. In total: 118 soldiers.

Prince Alric Perenolde, A Prince of Alterac
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
Sir Alan Radan, a former bandit and a knight in your service
Raleigh the True, a paladin of Silver Hand
Sir Gravis of Knott, a knight in your service
Alfred and Arthur Rover, rangers of Alterac
Lyion, a forest bandit in service of Alterac
Malevus, an Elf squire
-4/5 Knights of Gravis, Regular Knights
-8/10 Veteran Footmen
-11/15 Benedict's Blood Alley Boys, Veteran Footmen
-20/20 Regular Archers
-20/20 Lyion’s Rogues, Regular Bandit Rogues
-4/10 Veteran Footmen
-9/20 Kul Tiran Swashbucklers, Regular Pikemen
-12/20 Regular Pikemen
-8/10 Veteran Archers
-5/10 Stormgarde Guards, Veteran Footmen
-7/15 Sir Alan Radan's Men, Regular Bandit Rogues


>Leave 20 soldiers in Shoredon, that is the absolute minimum to keep the camp protected and occupied.
>Leave 40 soldiers in Shoredon, it should be enough to occupy the camp and keep up the patrols through the winter.
>Leave 75 soldiers in Shoredon, the most capable stay here while the rest withdraw back to Dawnholme, that should be enough as a deterrent.
>Take all of your men back to Alterac, the camp will stay empty through the winter outside of visiting patrols.

QM: The troops that stay in the camp will be rotated from week to week. No need to choose who is going to stay, just how many of them stay in here. And that is a quite messy list of soldiers, it should get cleaned up when the proper winter season updates arrive.

>>5408996
>>Leave 75 soldiers in Shoredon, the most capable stay here while the rest withdraw back to Dawnholme, that should be enough as a deterrent.

We don't need to send many of our own troops to defend Dawnholme as we have the alliance garrison there.

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And that reminded me that I should have mentioned the garrison and their troops in the update.

Dawnholme City Guard:
-40 City Guard

Dawnholme Alliance Garrison:
-Captain Reginald
-20 Regular Footmen
-10 Regular Archers

Stonedon Garrison:
-Chief Ragis
-20 Green Footmen

>>5408996
>>Leave 75 soldiers in Shoredon, the most capable stay here while the rest withdraw back to Dawnholme, that should be enough as a deterrent.
we can train more troops in dawnhome while Stonedon is well protected.