"Not much that i must say sire; you accomplished much while losing little, a better battle one could not have asked for! Though there are a few things your lordship may wish to keep in mind for future battles."

"And what are they?"

"Thy constant chnages of target, sire. Although I may not be an Artillery Master, I have met enough of them to know that changing targets is an lengthy and bothersome action. Every continuous shot fired at the same target grants the gunners a clearer view of their gun's hits!"

"I see..." you say, attempting to remember his words.

"There is also the matter of aggression; althouh their retreat ultimately put such efforts in our favor, it goes without saying that an enemy without pikes is an easy target for cavalry, most of all knights such as yours. Some higher quantity of aggression when using them, my lord, may be beneficial."

"Very well, Hugues. I shall attempt to keep your advice in mind for future battles; will that be all for tonight?"

"There is the matter of the prisoners we captured, sire; all 170 of them.

Ah yes, the prisoners...

CHOOSE ONE OPTION
>Keep them with you for ransom
>Let them loose, they are only mercenaries
>Execute the lot, you'll not be weighed down by your enemies
>[Write-in]

Hey, anons, TercioQM here. Due to an unexpected surge in threads, the previous thread of Fog of War was archived before its conclusion. This, sadly, will not be a full second thread, but merely a conclusion to 'Overture'. I will explain more when the quest is ended. There are about..two updates left, if everything goes right.

Previous Thread - https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2025/6153604/

>>6189044
>Let them loose, they are only mercenaries

>>6189044
>Keep them with you for ransom

>>6189044

>Keep them with you for ransom

Releasing them now just means they join to fight once more - we just killed most of their friends and they’ll be upset about that, I expect

Treat them fairly, explain that collaboration will be rewarded, and tell them you are not a butcher. Start interviews of the captives and find out if any of them know anything useful.

>>6189062
>>6189044
+1 support.
Good to have you back

>>6189062
+1
Jesus, we slaughtered them. Glad we could wrap this up.

>>6189044
>keep them for ransom

This seems pretty reasonable. In the event nobody wants to pay for them back maybe we could get some of them to sign on? They are mercs after all, and there are worse ways to recoup those minor losses we took

>>6189044
>Keep them with you for ransom

They can be let loose once the city is ours or we get money for their freedom I reckon.

Good to see you return Tercio

>>6189062
Support

>>6189044
>Keep them with you for ransom
first time seeing this, I assume >>6189046 is the first thread then ?

>>6189044
>>Keep them with you for ransom

If we get a rep for executing those than surrender then we'll end up with people not surrendering but instead fighting to the death, which isn't helpful. They also might not ransom any of our men as retaliation.

>>6189303
It was yeah

>>6189044
>Recruit them
>Keep those who refuse for ransom

>>6189044
>Keep them with you for ransom

>>6189044
>Execute the lot, you'll not be weighed down by your enemies
Impale them

>>6189485

Kek, a little bloodthirsty for this quest, anon. We’re a bookworm, not Prince Vlad

>>6189508
>We’re a bookworm, not Prince Vlad
Yet. Besides, don't you want to be a hero to your people? And anyone who hates the other side.

>>6189568

I appreciate your enthusiasm but scorched earth tactics are probably counterproductive since we’re trying to foment regime change here. Won’t help our cause if we start staking people for funsies…

>>6189581
I pray we never meet any T*rks.

"Keep them with you for ransom" wins

Sadly, no more formatted text this thread, since i was dumb and accidentally made the thread on incognito mode.

[b]See?[/b]

File: Panergo - Old City Walls.png (1.87 MB, 1000x714)

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In the morning after, your army, having dealt with the dead, moves off from the battlefield, leaving the graves to be reclaimed by wilderness once more. Your prisoners in tow, you continue along the road northwards in your march towards the city of Panergo. With the sheer damage you had done to the mercenary army, it is very unlikely they would attempt yet another attack, or even a raid; you suspect they'll be marching east to rejoin with whatever larger forces are assembling to throw out this invasion force of yours. Just to be sure, however, you'll not bother with foraging; thankfully, you have enough supplies, acquired from Beria in the Kindom of Santula, to reach the city.

As you continue your journey, you begin to have a talk with Hugues - this time, about the prisoners you're holding. Although not many by themselves, and none of them noblemen or men of wealth you doubt they will be the only ones you will gather through the length of this war.

"And how will they be ransomed? If these men even held money on themselves, it was certainly taken when they were stripped of their belongings."

"I'd not worry about it, sire; these are mercenaries. Such men almost always have 'agreements' for the ransoming of themselves should they be captured ready, whether with the company itself or with another trustworthy man. We will most likely be approached by them, sooner or later."

Without much else to discuss, you continue on with your journey. In the following two days, hardly much happens - as you had suspected, no attack or raid befalls you. You wonder if the enemy could have, rather than fled entirely, retreated to the walls of Panergo. As the city's image in the distance becomes ever closer, however, you reckon you shall find out soon enough.

The final stretch to Panergo is a quiet one; the villages by the roadside are abandoned. No trade wagons travel by, no peasants tend to the fields. It seems they expected your arrival. A, your maid Joan claims the gates of the city are shut, and men stand upon their walls. Do they truly intend to force you down to a siege? To do so would be most bothersome to you. You must find out a way to avoid such a bothersome scenario.

CHOOSE YOUR OPTION
>Send out a messenger to their city walls to demand their surrender
>Go out to deliver the message yourself
>Breach an entry into their wall with your culverin as a warning before you bother with demands
>[Write-in]

>>6189730
>Send out a messenger to their city walls to demand their surrender

If they say no, I say we move to the culverin option

>>6189730
>Send out a messenger to their city walls to demand their surrender

>>6189730
>>Go out to deliver the message yourself
We have a retinue of loyal noble bodyguards, lets be polite and ballsy

>>6189730

>Go out to deliver the message yourself

Invite them politely to stand down on favorable terms? They’re extremely unlikely to acquiesce but we should keep burnishing our reputation as a reasonable man.

>>6189730
>Go out to deliver the message yourself

If they kill us they know they can’t expect mercy once the walls go down. Let’s be a man and see to this ourselves.

>>6189730
>>Go out to deliver the message yourself
On the assumption we can influence the negotiation ourselves (either through dice rolls or narrative choices)

>>6189873
>t. man who is about to be abducted

>>6189730
>Go out to deliver the message yourself
They should realise that if they do give us grief they'll be the ones suffering.

>>6189730
>Send out a messenger to their city walls to demand their surrender
In case there are ballsy snipers

>>6189730
>Breach an entry into their wall with your culverin as a warning before you bother with demands
Give them a good incentive/excuse to surrender beforehand

>>6189730
>>Send out a messenger to their city walls to demand their surrender

>>6189730
>Send out a messenger to their city walls to demand their surrender

>6189737
>6189782
>6189963
>6190101
>6190145
Messenger

>6189813
>6189873
>6189877
>6189900
Yourself

Sending out a messenger wins, writing..

File: Panergo.png (1.1 MB, 1557x1661)

1.1 MB PNG

You do not believe they would attack you, if you had gone; putting aside that it would take a great marksman indeed to hit and kill you with but a single shot, your army would remain regardless of your death; indeed, incensed by such acts, they would most likely sack and raze the city to the ground and slaughter all its inhabitants, as is nearly always the case with cities that attempt to deceive and trick their attackers. Nonetheless, it is no loss to be careful, and so you decide to send a messenger in your stead.

The man rides out from the army alone, watched intently by both sides alike; he carries with him your voice, demanding the surrender of Panergo, the opening of their gates and the laying down of their arms. You watch him approach the gate; for some moments, nothing happens, before suddenly, a figure emerges from their gate - the city's own messenger, then? Although she cannot hear them speak, Joan states they seem to be talking.

You drum your fingers against your forearms as you wait, but soon enough, the messenger returns, completely unharmed. He tells you of what has happened; Panergo is willing to accept surrender with the condition that you give them safe passage, backed by a written paper signed by yourself, no doubt to discourage you from attacking them; should such word of treachery spread, it would reflect badly upon your name, and certainly discourage other cities from surrendering similarly.

Nonetheless, wishing not to be embroiled within a costly siege, you acquiesce. Using your signet, you sign your seal into a piece of parchment, granting them safe passage, and send the messenger back. Yet again, you are forced to wait...

For the rest of the day, waiting is what you do. After the delivery of the message, not much happens; and then, in a slow trickle, groups begin to filter out from Panergo, divided in time such that you could not trap them all at once. You do not doubt they are also taking this opportunity to strip Panergo of all things valuable; you'll not find stocked riches here, sadly. It is already orange when the last group leaves; all in horseback, they leave the gates galloping, not bothering to close them at their exit like the others had. The way for you is open! Sending your infantry-men forward to open the way, you prepare for your entrance to the goal you had so dilligently pursued these past few weeks.

Your march through Panergo's roads is quieter than you imagined. The only left are the poor masses; those who could not afford to leave, or were too stubborn to do so. Though denied the allure of loot, your soldiery seems to be happy enough barging into the abandoned homes of those who left and claiming them for themselves. Thankfully, they do not seem to bother the populace much, for now. As for you, you move to the city keep, where the Podestá most likely made his home, finding it empty all the same.

Yes, you have managed to claim Panergo, and in good time too.

>>6190392
Very good, good game QM
Looking forward to the next installment

File: Fireworks.png (67 KB, 2250x1090)

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By nightfall time, you remain awake and alert. The nightly breeze of the sea falls upon you, the dark blue depths of the Meringian stretching across the horizon. You've but one thing left to do; from the belltower top, your men lay in wait, a long projectile held aloft. You give the signal. Within moments, the match is lit, and the fire rocket propells itself into the night sky, out of your reach, before loudly exploding into a bright star of white. It is your message to the sea! Silence returns, and you wait patiently. Half an hour passes, and you fire a rocket yet again, another show of white light in the darkened heavens.

Several minutes pass in silence, yet again. You begin to wonder if a third will be required - but your questions are answered! Though too far to hear, you can see it clearly nonetheless, that which you had awaited for.

A reddened light illuminates the nocturne sky.

>END OF OVERTURE
>FOG OF WAR WILL RETURN IN ACT I: THE CHORUS OF NERA

Well, it's finally finished; it took me a while and a thread more than I expected, but I managed to finish the first thread of my quest! I hope you anons enjoyed the story so far; this thread will definitely be around for a while longer, so feel free to stick by and ask questions you'd like me to answer. I'll start with some stuff first.

>When will this quest return?
I do not know; Hopefully it'll still be in this year, but I'm not too sure how my workload will be this year as of right now. I wouldn't expect anything soon, however.

>How long do you intend for this to last?
As long as you make it. Although I have several 'routes' this could lead to (as a singular man in the tide of history in an age of empires, some things are simply inevitable), the story could be cut very short depending on your decisions.

>How do I know you won't just flake?
If i were to flake this quest, I would most certainly feel bothered and annoyed for a very long time, so if for some reason i disappear permanently, you can assume i've either had a meeting with truck-kun or been kidnapped by the government as a political dissident.

And now, some questions for you anons too, if you'd like to answer
>What was your opinion of the quest?
>What were the strong points, and the weak ones?
>What did you think of the characters such as Alessandro, Joan, Hugues or The Segoma Lords?
>What would you like to see in future threads?

As always, any comments are greatly appreciated since they help me improve.

>>6190396
Too late to delete the post?

Thanks for running, QM. Every update’s been a treat.

>>6190398

>What was your opinion of the quest?

For me, this is a 10/10 - "can't miss" quest. I applaud your vision, Tercio - the combination of setting, prose, mechanics and coherent package make this an excellent read.

>What were the strong points, and the weak ones?

As a fellow QM - the only weak points were some of the tactical bits during the battle. You might consider providing more of Don Alessandro's in-character assessments for these votes, to dissuade players from making extremely bad tactical plays.

>What did you think of the characters such as Alessandro, Joan, Hugues or The Segoma Lords?

Really enjoyed your characterizations - you've been able to be efficient in your limited "screen-time" with them, if that makes any sense.

>What would you like to see in future threads?

I actually feel that you are strongest when describing Don's interactions with his fellow cast - give us more screen-time with side characters! That being said, I am a battle-autist and will enjoy future conflicts as well.

>>6190398
I want to fuck the bird.

Thank you for coming to my TEDtalk.

>>6190463
Although I will not stop you, I will mention there *are* other 'Possible love interests' that may appear at a later date depending on what you do who are 'of more equal standing' to Alessandro. Act as you will.

>>6190463

>first girl syndrome

You are my mortal enemy

>>6190469
Noble bitches are just that. If I'm going to get shackled with a harpy I'd rather it be the less figurative of the two. I will now ignore any and all evidence to the contrary. Lalalalala

>>6190470
Mortal? My friend, firstgirlitis will never end. Your battle is eternal.

>>6190398
>What was your opinion of the quest?
Really, really good. Excellent quest all around, I'll be keeping an eye out for Act I.

>What were the strong points, and the weak ones?
Strong points were characters and general narrative, the battles were good, but as seen in this overture there's some trouble when we get given the option to do something extremely stupid and we go for it not knowing any better. Still, you certainly did well to nudge us in the right direction from time to time, and there's not much you can do to teach us the basics of battle tactics without having us roll for everything. Maybe hinting which options would be riskier and safer, I don't really know.

>What did you think of the characters such as Alessandro, Joan, Hugues or The Segoma Lords?
As I said before, excellent, characters are a real strongpoint.

>What would you like to see in future threads?
More of everything please!

>>6190398
Thanks for running, I had a lot of fun! Looking forward to the next chapter

>>6190398
I had a great time. I do fear you falling off the face of the earth and never coming back, though, if you have an indefinite ETA for return (especially if it might not be within the year... it's February :( ). Do you have some means of contacting you outside of 4chan? Like a Twitter or something?

>>6190704

Maybe Tercio could join the /qtg/ d*scord as a back-up option?

>>6190398
>>When will this quest return?
>I do not know; Hopefully it'll still be in this year, but I'm not too sure how my workload will be this year as of right now. I wouldn't expect anything soon, however.
See you next year

>>6190398
Really enjoyed it OP, fun quest and I've yet to see anything else that tries to have us conduct a battle with limited communications before.

>What were the strong points, and the weak ones?
Strong points are the combat system, the tactics, and the fact that our knowledge is limited. Also, you are great writer; all of the interactions felt well crafted and provided good characterization of those around us

Weak points were just in the initial planning stage. I felt like the impact of our decisions was limited -- maybe that was just because we had so much money, idk. Either way, it seems like the really meat of the quest is combat/strategy and I have no notes there

>What would you like to see in future threads?
It would be nice to have a PasteBin or picture or something with basic info, like army numbers, basic info about the units, etc. Posting it at the top of the thread would really help out.

>What did you think of the characters such as Alessandro, Joan, Hugues or The Segoma Lords?
As the other anon said, very good job at characterization despite limited screentime for each character.

In conclusion, I believe we seize the opportunity and confess our feelings to Joan; it is a very cute romance

I'll say i'm surprised you people liked the characters that much - all the time I was writing them i felt like they were too similar and i had to find ways to make them more 'distinct'