Despite Stormstead's position as hub of trade and commerce in Windheath, the merchant class was discouraged during the Iron Queen's reign from gaining power or influence; ships at the quay tend to be smaller and unsuitable for war. That said, there are two ships that could carry a regiment of troops each if they needed to; the Marie-Rose and the Peregrine.
The Marie-Rose is owned by [2] a company of small traders and merchants who own it collectively; they have a small office at the docks. The Peregrine is owned by [1] a rich old Haegar sea-dog with a suspected past (and present) in piracy. You could try approaching the owners individually if you wished.
[3, 2] The merchants are not terribly opinionated on the matter; the general consensus is that the Treasurer probably did try and assassinate the king, but that the Prince isn't much better. Dockyard gossip is notoriously unreliable, but you get the feeling that they are slightly more in favour of the Prince but don't care enough to do much.
Time to get to work thought Anakyrto.
Approach the Haegar, but bring the strongest fighter from my ship's crew with me. I will have only a small knife.
[4+1] You easily talk your way into a meeting, years of training in negotiation actually paying off for once. The captain even agrees to meet in a semi-neutral location; the Drifting Chemise, a brothel near the docks. It is a fairly shabby place, but you easily secure a private room for your meeting. You both bring one man beside yourselves and the captain breaks open a bottle of whiskey between you as you talk.
[1+1] Captain Jorik is not especially interested in ferrying troops or taking part in this war at all - he informs you about a major embargo that went down the night before that has made him edgy. Regent Edgard apparently raided dozens of warehouses for goods going out, and you get the feeling Jorik has things in his hold he would rather stayed hidden. [1+1] In fact, his main concern now is getting out of town while the going is good - he'll need serious persuasion to stick around.
[2+1] He is, however, interested in taking a more
active role - if he can be assured it will benefit him. The Royal Navy has not even been assigned the money for reconstruction yet, and Windheath's shores lie undefended. If he had a little assistance from another captain and perhaps some land forces, he could be persuaded to run raids on the coast. With money, he could call in favours for some friends to assist. Serious money, he adds - a ducat or more.
Emanhilde opens the letter and reads...Jitpau's letter is long and rambling. Two whole pages are filled with an anecdote about butterflies in the southern Altanic sea.
The relevant portions amount to the following:
Summer, 937 AAL. By hand of Jitpau Itavany, né Grand Reader Servus Kninh.
To my esteemed colleague, Grand Reader Varahan. Blessings of the Gods upon you. May you find wisdom in all corners.
(etc, etc)
I write to you with a request, as one scholar to another. My findings have caused contention between myself and the local inquisition; the inquisitor quite rightly demands that I verify my research. I have been requested to provide samples of research pertaining to translations of 'blessed' as 'saved', or vice-versa, a phenomenon which he and I both recall being one to which you have devoted much time.
If you could provide chapters three through five of your studies "Pozna Eldanic Hramatyka", specifically any sections referring to the aforementioned translations, I should have sufficient material to convince my fellow scholar of the veracity of my claims. Otherwise, your testimony as to the contended nature of these translations amongst many scholars, and any conclusions you have drawn on this issue, will have to suffice.
Tiakath arrives at Stormstead and returns to her inn to find it crammed full of soldiers.
FirestormThere is a flurry of activity in place around Stormstead, as hundreds of soldiers and messengers are sent scrambling south to assist the peasants working in the fields. In a flurry of activity the harvest is reaped, threshed and stored in two weeks across much of the South - the Pact, the Plains, Stormstead's own fields and even from Arborvent. Detachments of men from provinces allied to Richard attempt to intervene but the Regent displays an unexpected degree of organisation, even against the Prince's superior experience with logistics. Fully two thirds of the harvest are drawn in to Stormstead to resist a winter siege, with the remainder left to the peasants for winter.
Stormstead can resist a siege until the end of Spring on its current stores, at the cost of 1 ducat in land tax income from the Pact, the Plains, Stormstead and Arborvent. This tax will not be collected come Spring.During the pressured harvest, bureaucrats and officials sweep into Stormstead's docks and begin a slew of confiscations and arrests aimed at traders working out of provinces allied with Richard;
War's End, Northwatch, Altaregia, Dechire. An embargo is immediately instituted, blocking off all unapproved trade.
Unless the embargo is lifted, trade routes to hostile provinces will receive no income at the end of Winter. The seizure and confiscation bears some monetary rewards for the Regent, but angers the merchants in the city.
Scouts observe the four crown levies at the two bridges north of Stormstead both pull back to the city itself. That night
fire strikes the southern bridge at Stormstead, [5 vs 1] and the officers of the Regency army are all busy dealing with the overflowing granaries to respond in time.
The bridge collapses, sealing off access to Stormstead from the south. The fire is obviously sabotage, [1+1] but no spies are able to find traces of the perpetrators. A stricter guard is placed at the north bridge into town to prevent further sabotage.
Repairing the bridge will take a full season and one ducat. It cannot be done while the city is being actively sieged.
A week later, more fires burn through the rich fields of Dechire and the poorer grain lands of Northwatch. Mounted raiders attack the crops and are beaten back by peasants, but there are conflicting reports as to the identity of the attackers. Some say they were Haegar pirates, bandits from the southern forests near Arborvent, mercenaries, noble knights and some even claim it was Richard's own men acting to deny the fields to the Regency. Northwatch mounts a successful defence with its standing army of rangers, who keep the raiders away from the more valuable regions and the villages - the rangers report that the raiders looked Adranic rather than Haegar, but their exchanges were brief. Dechire receives support from Richard in Altaregia, who co-ordinates a campaign to root out the riders - once again his logistical brilliant is outdone by sheer luck and the speed of horses. The cavaliers are able to evade detection, this time.
Two ducats of land tax income are razed in the raid from both Dechire and Northwatch - they will not be collected come Spring.A week after that, another fire starts in the highest tower at de Arborvent castle. It is put out by the local steward's men and although the tower is obviously blackened the damage is almost entirely cosmetic. Raven corpses litter the ashes, and feathers are found around the grounds for days afterward, leaving a deep sense of unease within the city.
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Topic: You are King III: Spring 938 AAL (Read 133448 times)