You try to teach your followers a form of organised anarchy; none of them of higher status than the other, save respect gained by their actions. The cultists take it in; they still worship you, but at least they are on the track to doing it because you are righteous and not because you are simply a higher being. The nonexistent level of organisation in the cult will make it easy to spread and tenacious (as any one follower can continue it on) but also hard to control anything more than the followers physically present.
Nevertheless those followers present will fight and even die for you if need be, and you can send them away to perform missions, spread the cult and gather intelligence. You will always be able to speak with and hear a cultist telepathically if need be (though you cannot see through their eyes). The same applies to a luxpanap.
You set off east, heading for the town of Oyral some three weeks' travel distant. You travel light, in the guise of a human traveller and accompanied only by your faithful cultists and an invisible escort of shades. The ravaged and attacked farmsteads (now furiously being rebuilt with aid from Ferrun) give way to open countryside, thence to farmsteads in better condition. Better being entirely relative, as the farms in question are clearly becoming neglected and in some cases have even suffered fire damage.
Oyral, when you finally reach it, is a town of similar sprawl and structure to Ferrun if rather larger. There is a motte and bailey castle (of banked earth, wood and low stone walls rather than the outright fortification of Ferrun) surrounded by various houses clustered around and spreading out from a central marketplace. A thin outer palisade protects much of the town as well, which has three very much more defined entrances than Ferrun did. You are stopped by a small contingent of four well-armed and armoured guards on arrival, but pass yourselves off as religious pilgrims visiting the temple. The guards seem rather nervous, but you are let through without even having to press a mental suggestion.
You and your followers rent a few rooms at the local inn; larger than the one in Ferrun but only with a handful of occupants. The innkeeper is very happy to have custom, and money at least is not an object (Sir Braithe's treasury was not significant, but enough to cater for any small expenses). You ask the innkeeper about business whilst you send your cultists out to gather information themselves.
As it turns out, there is a serious bandit problem in the region. You briefly contemplate this being somewhat cliche, but the innkeeper admits they usually have some would-be vagabonds trying to attack the wagons - hence the need for caravan guards. Normally protected caravans are fine and the local scouts find and root them out but ever since the disruption to the west they have had larger, better organised attacks. Word on the street fears it might be one of the many mercenary companies in the region come to roost. The attacks have been particularly damaging to the town, as in the midst of all the recent troubles Oyral has still been able to keep the trade routes to the coast and east to the Lake Nations free and open to trade.
You ask about the alliance between towns. The innkeeper grimaces. He says that whilst the five local towns have always had a loose agreement to band up in the event of outright military attack nobody but Sir Don (Oyral's governor) is making a serious effort to hunt the bandits down.
Later on you listen to the reports from your cultists and the overall political situation becomes a little clearer. There are five towns in this region, only three of which were actually loyal to Lord White in Ferrybridge. Pendan and Surrect were free towns before the most recent war broke out, and since it has Fector has declared its independence due to recent heavy taxation from Oyral to support Lord White's war effort. Two towns remain loyal to Lord White; Oyral and nearby Lassef.
There is one other major problem at the moment besides the bandits that are choking off trade to the region; migrants. Refugees from the surrounding lands (both those struck by Lord Thrane and others) have been flocking to the region because of its perceived safety, but none of the towns will accept them and none of the lesser villages can. They have set up a camp somewhere in the woods and they are starting to overhunt and overforage the region.
Things here are not as stable as you were led to believe, but Oyral is a much larger town than Ferrun is even in its reduced state; you can feel some six thousand souls here. Word suggests the other towns are not much smaller. If you can convince these towns to assist you, they could provide a great boon to your war effort. At the moment it seems they have rather pressing matters of their own, which may reduce their willingness to help.
What will you do? Remember that you can send cultists and shades out to gather information (though only the cultists can ask questions or perform physical actions) and communicate with them telepathically, so you need not necessarily be in a town to keep abreast of its situation.
- Make this an official visit and see Sir Don.
- Keep quiet for now and gather information (select topics to look out for).
- Visit one of the other towns, leaving a cultist or two here.
- Something else.
Name: Lvantha Talaoia
Strength: 14 manpower (+1 Worship)
Mind: 15 menminds (+1 Worship)
Personal Retinue
Followers: 12 cultists
Slaves: -
Servants: 10 shades, 10 greater shades
Ferrun
Followers: 1 priest, 120 spearmen (in training), 31 macemen, 35 archers, 1 armed luxpanap (John)
Slaves: 1 brainwashed spy
Prisoners: -
Servants: -
Holdings: 16r
~20 villages (4 Resources)
1 market town (5 Resources)
1 tin mine (6 Resources)
Slave Gathering (1 Resource) [25 slaves]
Upkeep: 12r
~200 soldiers (4 resources)
Training (5 resources) [120 macemen]
Training (3 resources) [30 swordsmen]
Items:
Mistwalker: +2 vs undead & demons if you wield it. More effective when a mortal holds it.
Lvantha Medallion: +3 vs undead, +1 vs demons on both mental and physical atacks.
Author
Topic: Divinity. - Dreams Invaded: 2 (Read 58312 times)