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[Darkening Kaos]

    That's a lovely map.

[Cathar]

    That's a lovely map.

Thanks ! When we're done with Osme, we'll definitely go and explore the world.

[Cathar]

Spring 160

Although the first months of the decade were very calm by pearlite standards, a number of developments did shape the direction of the ongoing war.  A lot of unforeseen events can still happen, of course, but a plausible end of war scenario may now be taking shape in front of us.

Military developments

The situation hasn’t changed since the last six months; the army of pearls is still lacking manpower to make advances in the Stustonako Fortress, and is therefore reduced to skirmishes and cloak-and-dagger operations – conducted respectively by the assault army (tactics squad and heavy mobile infantry squad) and by the commando squad. Little, small-scales victory could be achieved, but without a massive breakthrough, the war feels like it is meandering forever.

The 11th of Marsh, the assault team breached into the fortress of Stozuumu, acting like the northern gate to Osme. After breaching the walls, they engaged the garrison of the fortress and inflicted heavy casualties to them before retreating. The fortress of Stozuumu is probably still capable of putting some resistance as it was not completely wiped out, but one more assault should be enough to have them surrender.

Now, the Army of Pearls doen’t especially want to breach through Stozuumu, but that attack helps it to evaluate its chances against its actual goal, the fortress of Stustonako.

Stozuumu was manned by about 500 souls, mostly trolls, one tenth of Stozuumu. Of those, 140 took part in the skirmish.



The assault team was composed of 17 masters-at-arms, supported by a beast squad of 5 bears and one jaguar, and could achieve a victory without casualties. Could Mong Kima line up 170 masters-at-arms to throw at Stustonako, it could effectively end the war right now… such numbers are out of its reach, but not by much. We’ll ponder the numbers a bit later on.

The 15th of Marsh and the 4th of April, exploiting the chaos generated from that brutal attack, the Commando squad conducted two successive raids on its suburbs – Xestbax – which sported one full sized beakdog stable. Their orders were to steal their cattle and come back without being spotted.


Those raids were successful.

In total, four more beakdogs, one male and three females, were added to our own stable. We asked our carpenter to craft nestboxes and gave them a little square of open space in the western side of the town.

We were not disappointed by what happened next – and in retrospective, understood why Osmite like those creatures so much.



As soon as the herd was situated, it immediately started to reproduce. Each female claimed her nestboxes, and laid a large number of eggs. The first “batch” was unfertilized – as the males had been lost wandering somewhere in town at the time.

They were given to the cooks, and the town was soon to know the taste of a beakdog omelet.

But then, once the males were added to the herd, they laid a second batch of eggs, this time fertilized.


9 eggs per female on average

This is insane. Compare with jaguars and their at-most two cubs per year, who take one year to reach maturity. With this rate of reproduction, beakdogs will become a strong addition to our beast units in very short order.

Finally, a last raid was launched on Stustonako’s suburbs Smunstutosnung, and its garrison was slain. In total, the army of Pearls inflicted 162 casualties to the enemy this season.

A word on force generation

At the end of the season, we have one half-squad ready to take up its occupation duty, which means that we can capture one, maybe two positions in summer.

In the same time, the skill from our Strategist and the skills of our Commandos are making interesting headways.

With the Commandos reaching the rank of High Master, they should be ready to try and raid the Osmite Capital City and try to free the prisoners. This should be the most dangerous mission the elite special forces will ever undertake, but releasing Osmite’s slaves and prisoners could effectively solve the town’s manpower issues. Besides, if there are ethical reasons to confront Osme, the liberation of the slaves is definitely among them.

Histamine is also now a Grand Master Tactician, which means she is soon ready to command the assault on Stustonako. When she is, the only thing she’ll need would be an army, and so she could breach Stustonako, defeat Osme’s main forces and effectively end the war.

The army of Pearls may simply be one hundred masters-at-arms away from ending the war.

Recruitment will be intensified next season; the final battle approaches.

Rescued Iferites

On the civilian side, three Iferites vagrants were incorporated into the town temporarily. They were allowed to use the town’s facilities and to purchase its production, but were not given Pearlite citizenship. That measure was taken both to combat vagrancy and as a humanitarian gesture, which would allow the stranded elves to rebuild their forces before heading back to their forests.



Saviera Alisaero, Covema Newoçome and Piropu Neronemo – those were their names, soon bought new clothes. They mostly picked elven clothes we found on long-abandonned iferite caravans (those were more theirs than ours, after all), but also complemented their garments with osmite clothes, taken from defeated invaders and about to be destroyed. Piropu especially was fond of those goblin furs and silks; he even bought one of the silk gloves our craftmen sew the town’s heraldry on, as a training project.

One man’s junk is one elf’s treasure, so it seems.

During spring, they could be seen at the library, reading books and trying to access science; visibly totally neophytes but very curious. They would also assist to demonstrations in the guildhalls or representations in the tavern.

However, they did not leave with the spring elven merchants, and the villagers report that they have taken residence in the town. It is very possible that they do not elect to leave by themselves and the town may have to show them the door.

It’s spring, all rights

The 25th of Marsh, we had a good news. In the dolomite mine, near the masonry workshop, a woman gave birth to her first child. She was a rather unremarkable peasant girl by the name of Eslo ; she had arrived in town last year with her husband, and since she did not have any talent in particular, helped the stonemasons and the farmers with an additional pair of arms.



Even though Elso and her husband were an unremarkable couple, the town was always very happy to see more births within its walls.

On an unrelated note, shepherds reported an unusual growth in the livestock, to the point the town had to accelerate the slaughter of older cattlehead to keep the herds reasonably sized. That increase in activity would feed imediately into a collection of secondary industries, leather, bonecrafts and cuisine. Kimaeslo Ori could eat meat every day of Spring.

Scholar Duslud comes to town

In winter 137, as he was just a child, playing outside of the fort of Thomocemir, Duslud, son of Zothoabo, became the target of an Osmite raiding party.



Because his small legs couldn’t carry him away fast enough, he was stabbed on the ground by an Osmite raider of Ansgeki origin, and brutally beaten with the sharp of his weapon.

The timely intervention of the Riverguard drove away the raid and miraculously, Duslud was saved – at a cost. His left hand was completely lopped off and he lost the use of both his legs.
The child then was removed from the typical Thomocemir military education system and was send to study medical science under the Bomreki goblin Onget Cattenatag.

Duslud was a loved kid in the Thomocemir community, as a nice kid and as the first son of the chief surgeon Zothoabo, and could live a rather pleasant life, despite his multiple infirmities. He married Nemen, a girl from Zefer’s skirmishers, and spent the next twelve years studying in the border fort’s library.

The 5th of April 160, Duslud and his wife were among the people migrating in. He was observed taking some time in the inn held by his younger brother, Kiseabo.

Duslud was given a position of a scholar in the library, and given access to as many quire as he would need.



Hopefully the development of science in the bridgetown can add to its lustre.




*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

The geography map is completely done. That took me some time.



I need to make a political/territorial map next, but of course, cities are about to change hands soon.

[Maloy]

We so close to the big battle!

It'll be really tense even with a legendary tactician!

[TheFlame52]

That map is very impressive. All your art is impressive, actually.

[Cathar]

We so close to the big battle!

It'll be really tense even with a legendary tactician!

So I took a gander in the DF reddit, and people seem to think the demon lord is what makes the fortresses so hard to conquer.
If this is the case, then we're in absolute luck : Stustonako, where the blunt of their forces are stationned, has a goblin warlord at their head. They are very, very numerous but we wont face them AND the demon lord at the same time.

That map is very impressive. All your art is impressive, actually.

Thank you so much !
We came a long, long way.

I still have one month to play before writing the next account. Some good, some bad news to come.

[Megaman_zx]

I feel like every time i check back in on this story a member of the Zothoabo clan is getting maimed by goblins.

[Cathar]

I feel like every time i check back in on this story a member of the Zothoabo clan is getting maimed by goblins.

Yeah, they are...patterns. Like Asin's clan seem tofall into destructive depression very often. Some families might just be cursed.
But for Zothoabo and his clan, no new mutilation. It's all old stories luckily

[Cathar]

Summer 160

As the battle for Stustonako Fortress approaches, the bridge-town focused its activity on its military. This focus was not of everyone’s taste, but it was necessary: we might very well be in the last push to end the war with Osme.

Until now, the army of Pearls did manage to score some great victories; they pushed the frontline far from the pearlites settlements and severely damaging Osme’s capacity to wage offensive warfare. It secured the lives not only of pearlites themselves, but also of all human and dwarven kingdoms of the region.

The next seasons will be rough, but hard men will bring good years.

Frontline straightens
The first move the Army of Pearls made, in the very beginning of the season, was to send a half squad in the suburb of Slaxungostong.

Slaxungostong has been cut off from Osmite supply lines for a very long time, but could not be occupied due to recurring manpower issues. The 15th of June, a half-squad reached a professional level and could be deployed.

When they arrived in the suburb, it was completely desert. The villagers who couldn’t leaved had died a long time ago.

It is, of course, a bit sad; pearlites do prefer to capture the population with the territories they conquer.
But in year 160, twenty-seventh year of that bloody war, they would not fret over every broken egg anymore.

The half squad would take position in the trenches, in the western suburb of Slaxungostong, shortening the front line dramatically.



Beakpuppies break their eggshells
Next this season was somewhat expected, but very nice nonetheless: starting the 9th of July, the beakdog eggs started to hatch. A total of twenty five “beak-pups” were then released into the city – where they shown themselves to be harmless, but undeniable agents of chaos.



Twenty-five new beasts, in one season, from only three breeding females. It is really when the pearlites saw this mass of pups jumping out of their nest boxes that they understood why Osme domesticated them.

Not only are they powerful and especially adapted to marshland combat, they also reproduce freakishly fast. No matter how much we slay, they can always breed their numbers back as the situation requires.



They should have reach adulthood next year, fast enough to be trained for war, and to join the final assault on Stustonako Fortress.

Bad news from Bosangasma
The 15th of July, the men from the commandos came back from an important mission – their faces were closed and gloomy.



They were just back from Bosangasma, the capital city of Osme Stobűb. They managed to infiltrate the city, avoid patrols and map out the underground corridors. It was the first time in the war that pearlite spy managed to infiltrate Bosangasma and return totally undetected…
But they did not found the prisoners they came for.

This was bad news. This whole operation, from the formation of the commandos to the infiltration of the capital city, was meant to open Osmite prisons and to recruit from liberated people to replenish manpower.

Now that it was clear there would be no prisoners to free, that whole idea has to be abandoned. There is likely nothing of value to steal from osmite armories either, so returning there with intelligence troops would be pointless.

So what? The three commandos have been trained for years, just to go back at being regular infantrymen? New plans will definitely have to be drafted…

That said, during their travels, the group spotted the Keep of Nushratbisan, said to hold holy riches, older than humanity itself – none has ever came back alive from it, but the Commandos might just be the kind of adventurers capable of pulling such a feat.

Else; they could always infiltrate Stustonako’s dungeon to empty their stables and armory to prepare the final assault.

There is no doubt they would find an outlet for their unique skillset soon.

Lastly, skirmishes were conducted the 15th of August, in the suburb of Lozstobub, to the west of Stustonako dungeon, and light goblin casualties were reported.

“One hundred warriors”

The most important event of the season, however, was the mass mobilization that was enacted in the bridge town. Because the army estimates it would need one hundred masters-at-arms to successfully breach the dungeon of Stustonako, significant parts of the workforce were put under arms and started their training. Four more squads could then be filled with recruits, which grows the army to over one hundred soldiers.

However, two squads are affected to the defense of Kimaeslo Ori at all times and cannot be used offensively – the command squad under General Totten, and the swornmen under the command of hearthcaptain Godan.



Therefore, the army still needs to find twenty more warriors. It may be a challenging task: as we saw came the summer harvest, the mobilization had a noticeable effect on civilian activities, and daily life was definitely impacted by the transfer of manpower.

The city definitely made the fielding of the army its top priority, but now bumps into another hard limit: its ability to replenish its food stock.

Without enough arms to work the fields, the harvest took longer and was less fruitful than usual. To prevent a total collapse of its agricultural sector, segments of the army that would not require anymore training was requisitioned to replace conscripted farmers.

Still, the granaries are full enough to sustain the productivity dip, and the situation, not yet critical, can still be stabilized with migration.

The army of Pearls is so close to end the war – it warrants that kind of sacrifice.

Playing the aspka

Not to make this season exclusively about military developments, as a miscellanea that cheered us up a bit, we discovered Histamine was an amateur aspka player.



We never delved too deep into the kingdom’s musical culture, so this discovery gave us the opportunity to.
In and of itself, the aspka is a straight stone horn of pearlite design, typically carved in a stalactite, with an articulation on the mouth of its bell allowing to control the air flow. In practice, it is meant to be played jointly with a “Pan”, large stationary hourglass drums, into military marches named “The Lace of Glimmers”.

Because it is very appropriate and may raise the morale as the final engagement approaches, a Pan may be installed in the social room of the inn, so to encourage the development of musical skills in town.

[Splint]

Hopefully this land will see the end of hostilities, from Osme at the least, in the near-future. A long road coated in blood, but bringing peace to the region's interior is definitely going to be seen as a worthy goal.

[TheFlame52]

Beakpups!

I love how small scale DF can be at times. One hundred warriors is quite a force! I'm excited to see how the raid goes.

[Darkening Kaos]

      I imagine the smiths were run ragged preparing armour, weapons, and ammunition for 100 warriors.