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Author Topic: (TSG) Warlord  (Read 8261 times)

Gotdamnmiracle

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Re: (TSG) Warlord - Now with map
« Reply #45 on: June 04, 2013, 10:34:25 am »

Posting to participate.

Could this be the next Lordship!?
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RAM

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Re: (TSG) Warlord - Now with map
« Reply #46 on: June 04, 2013, 11:30:18 am »

I am a little wary of giving the cooper an elevated position just for being a cooper. We could consider disguising it as a more conventional station, some sort of title or something. Or pay them the amount they pay in taxes. meh, I am inclined to just pay them or leave them. Try haggling, try making barrels yourself, try combining the two. My tendencies to just pay everyone haven't exactly filled our coffers, so I'll probably just leave this issue alone...

This policy of cash up front could really hurt the elves in the long-run, we should capitalise on it and set up a stall for purchasing saleable commodities from the elves. If they end up doing all their trading through orcish traders then, well, they will probably end up so poor that we need to tax the traders instead...

We really do need some more military training. Try to get a couple of hours a day worth of sparring.

Try to find a site for a quarry and get some stones to sure up our land-works against rain.

On the issue of teaching orcish to the refugees, well, I doubt that orcish can ever really be relied upon to keep a secret, and it would help the refugees work with the orcs, but I am not inclined to force the issue. And they will likely pick up a few phrases regardless...

On the issue of taxation. I would like to get a really sturdy storehouse on the edge of the village. Keep much of the taxes in it and try to spin it as more a case of controlled rationing of supplies rather than just paying us for protection...

I'd also like to look into building a bit of housing near the new farmland. Possibly founding a new village there...

P.s.
 Sorry about the rambling...
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Mithras

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Re: (TSG) Warlord - Now with map
« Reply #47 on: June 04, 2013, 11:55:53 am »

All sensible, but I'd rather the storehouse be within the fortifications we've been building.
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escaped lurker

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Re: (TSG) Warlord - Wordy update is wordy
« Reply #48 on: June 04, 2013, 03:45:20 pm »

Spoiler: OOC-Talk and Decision (click to show/hide)

First Year - June - 7th Year of Uzgath's Reign.

Rainfall, sunshine, clouds - the weather is quite fickle and changes often this month, even sending you a small hailstorm at one point - the fields luckily take not much damage from it.

Quite more worrysome is the friction between the new farmers and the villagers, with the former demanding that some laws or custom should be set in motion to prevent this. Luckily there were not any kinds of outbursts yet, but you would be a fool to count on it in the future. You also have to agree that the elves are getting ahead of themselves every now and then, but finding the line between a show of strength and domination while not having the elves at your throat seems difficult.

When you push the matter of the cooper, you soon find out that the elves themselves are quite well stocked out with his goods already. He is open to the idea of paying his tribute in goods, but has not much to sell or show at the moment, mostly working only on orders - even coin can't help that. As he is amiable to pay some of his tribute in advance for extra meat come winter and extemption of his family from being drafted for work, it seems that you got yourself a deal. Barrels and similiar will be lacking for some time, but you ought to get a viable amount of them soon.

After discussing it within your circle of trusted orcs, you confront the elves about their tributes. They take the thought of a food tributing system very well, you taking care of the outlying smaller communities during winter might have played a part with that. You are able to leverage a hefty tribute, with the promise of distributing it later on as needed. They obviously are less pleased with the positioning of the storage inside the pallisade, but you decide that this point is not up for discussion and they relucantly agree. You make some witty banter with Murak later on, as it seems quite alien to you that they would agree to these terms, all the while still hating your guts - a point that is still unchanged. His remark that they very well might need to be sustained after their inital seeds where drowned does make sense thou.

The question of a quarry for building purposes is quickly awnsered by the Elder - you refusing to learn his name has become some kind of hostile running jest by now. It is quite a far way towards it, and in the elven province of Gala'vo to boot. While the thought of aquiring rock from them, to possibly build fortifications against them would certainly spark the kind of humour the Supreme Chieftain is said to enjoy, you very much doubt to go along with the idea. Further inquiries only turn up a quarry that has been abandoned for decades, since the promised layer of non-brittle rock did simply refuse to show up. The rock won't hold up for any kind of fortefied wall, but it seems like it will do for your immediate needs - some of the men and refugees will cart them to the village with an oxen.

Your training goes quite well, and you can feel yourself improve visibly over the course of the month. The men are quite shaken by your lack of skill at the beginning - Ninkasi always was the stronger of you two anyways - but you trying so hard redeems your standing by a fair amount towards the end of the month. In your personal defense - wich you only would voice to Gózul - it is no wonder that the men find you lacking. Previously getting meat onto your plate was a rather rare occurence, and you never really had the time for serious training either.

While you seem like a passable fighter overall, Surkoz remarks that you fail miserably at dodging or blocking strikes from your opponents. Even after being accosted for hours on end, you only seem to get better at dashing out, or finding a weakness in the other's defenses. Growing weary with your inabilities and lacking growth thereof, the raider tries some other means of fighting for you. After some hours of doing so, you come to the conclusion that dodging or blocking actually makes you less effective and standing your ground while soley reacting with counters seems like the way to go. He even let's you try two axes for a time, but you soon take to a two-handed axe, it's greater reach complimenting your strengths much better. You are somewhat unsure if you really want to go about combat this way, but think about the matter extensively.

One of your scouting partys comes upon a message, left behind in one of the villages near the border. It seems to be from Rakver, who is pleased to have recieved his payment. He also makes a passive notice that his invitation to you still stands, but you really dont know if you have the time for that right now. You are also slightly bewildered that Gózul has taken this matter into his own hands completely, but decide that it is in your best interest to settle this matter as soon as possible.

At the end of the month you realize that you never really got around to care for the housing of the farmers, or aquiring more trading goods from the elves - all that training was quite draining after all. The palisade is nearing its completion, and with the stakes submerged into the dirt by a fair amount they will be quite hard to topple or break through. The woodworkers also raked in the stuff, giving you a nice surplus of wood. You are somewhat torn between letting the farmers do it on their own, or just drafting the elven carpenters to do so, but you guess that this will be a decision for the next month. Surkoz reminds you that there will be only two months until The Council will gather in September, and you should think about the possibility of attending and your tribute towards the Supreme Chieftain as well.

What are your plans for next month?

Spoiler: Trivia (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Ninkasi (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Land and Places (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Military View (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: June 06, 2013, 11:43:44 pm by escaped lurker »
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Parsely

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Re: (TSG) Warlord - Now with map
« Reply #49 on: June 04, 2013, 04:03:36 pm »

Something needs to be done about the general dissent among our populace. What can we do about living conditions?
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Mithras

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Re: (TSG) Warlord - Now with map
« Reply #50 on: June 04, 2013, 05:40:38 pm »

Keep training ourselves and the militia, fight with and among them if they don't respect our strentgh they can at least appreciate our willingness to fight beside them.

A proper survey of the elves' living conditions is probably in order, perhaps we can use an elfish idea an distinguish between serfs and slaves with serves enjoying our protection and more freedom of movement as well as being cared for better in any way we can, making it clear that any of the villagers may ask to become a serf at any time. I don't think that we should hesitate to give out punishment, the respect of the orcs is more important than the respect of the villagers, but we should curtail any drastic action till after we have travelled.

Gozul acting on his own is probably a good thing, he is the only person we can really trust after all, as long as he reports his activities to us regularly.

We're not going to impress anyone in the fights so if we want to convince the general orc populace that our province is a good place to be at the yearly gathering we need a good gift. This might be a good time to 'inspect' the Elven Shrine, with a view to ascessing if there is anything valuable there and perhaps stealing something if it'd make an appropriate gift. (Maybe that's going too far?)

Make arrangements to travel to the yearly gathering with Rakver so that we can get to know him.
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escaped lurker

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Re: (TSG) Warlord - Now with map
« Reply #51 on: June 04, 2013, 06:47:50 pm »

Something needs to be done about the general dissent among our populace the filthy elven slaves. What can we do about living conditions to get iron collars for the lot? (Fix'd :P)

On a more serious note, it mostly is the lack of food and variation - malnutrition and lack of vitamins. There is also a distinct lack of clothes, and the qualities thereof - I mentioned at some point that most of them wear cheap ropereed linen that they traded in for furs, their crafts or foodstuff. Some of the hovels also have rotting wood, wich poses it's own problems for health. Guess with spring and soon enough summer, their current living conditions arent as bad as they were in winter - for the moment that is. Also, as I just found out, they have pretty much no "healthcare" - maybe some old people who know stuff about herbs, but nothing resembling a qualified medici - or shaman, for that matter. All in all, "common" peasant problems of sorts.

We actually spent a good deal of our furs and hides to make winter-hardy clothes for our own men - let me tell you in advance that it would take over a year of hides to clothe all the elven people by that method. As it is our main source of reliable income at the moment, pretty unfeasible. But yeah, for us to know that IC we would need to survey their living conditions, and while we would get onto their good side, it is unkown how much. Especially if we just might rob a holy place of theirs ;3.

That being said, we actually could become an iron-fisted ruler. We do have 30 trained warriors, their 30 mounts that would have no problem of ripping an elf or two into pieces, and a good gathering of orcs, who recieve at least milita level training in their youth. It would certainly spice up the plot, but if it would be wise to do so is another matter. But as anyone can guess, there is a good chance that many elves would try to flee towards their old country, or even peasant uprisings. Just putting the possibility out there is all.
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Parsely

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Re: (TSG) Warlord - Now with map
« Reply #52 on: June 04, 2013, 07:01:20 pm »

Yeah slaughtering our peasants is the last thing we should be doing right now. We should go personally to survey the Elven living conditions. See if we can't hire a priest with medical knowledge or similar to help out the elves and a surgeon for our troops. That'll probably have to wait though, seeing as how we don't have any cash.
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Mithras

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Re: (TSG) Warlord - Now with map
« Reply #53 on: June 04, 2013, 08:17:47 pm »

The reasoning for a more iron fisted approach is in the belief that no matter how much their life improves under our view we will still be an orc, and therefore resented.

I feel this leaves us with two options:
Help them understand that while we are an orc we still have a sense of justice. That is letting them know they are safe up to and until the point where their actions go agaisnt our interests.
Make them hate each other more than they hate us. We are moving a step in this direction with the refugees but at the moment the populations are too imbalanced, if more elves were in a privilaged position thanks to us and feared retaliation from those in the majority we would have a solid layer of support and an extra group of people to keep the majority down.

In that vein I believe that making a code of law apparent (do orcs have a code of law?) which boils down to you damage any of our property we make sure you can't do it again. As  well as more formally seperating the elves into two classes, serfs and slave. Serfs are given help with anything they wish to do to be productive, whether that be farming, a craft or even fighting. They are clothed and housed as well as we can afford to and they recieve preferential treatment when the food rations are handed out.

As we cannot afford to make the condition of all the elves better we should probably institute a monthly date where we take on a certain number of elves as serfs (the number we can afford to clothe and house) It's probably important that we extend the offer to meek or useful elf villagers before opening up 'recruitment' to the rest of the villagers.

Of course this idea requires a few stereotypes about orcs, elves and the way people interact with each other to be true. They very well might not be.
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Parsely

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Re: (TSG) Warlord - Now with map
« Reply #54 on: June 04, 2013, 08:36:44 pm »

Help them understand that while we are an orc we still have a sense of justice. That is letting them know they are safe up to and until the point where their actions go agaisnt our interests.
I'm all for this, but being a tyrant won't get us very far. We're not powerful enough to go for something like that just yet. If we piss people off by oppressing them right away, they'll just leave. Once they come to rely on us, then we can be a bit more strict. Its better to be inviting at this point though.

I am not for allowing Gozul to go around doing what he wants. That could become dangerous later on, no matter how much we trust him now. Better to keep him close so that he doesn't go getting any ideas of his own, and so he keeps the same mindset as us. The last thing we need is our most (only?) valuable lieutenant getting a fanbase once we start going dictator, and it'll be a lot harder to put a leash on him later on once he gets used to being independent.
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Re: (TSG) Warlord - Now with map
« Reply #55 on: June 04, 2013, 09:14:19 pm »


Sarkoz comment about the gathering stirrs you greatly, as you somehow completely forgot about it. With nothing more than a few good cuts or hides to offer towards the warchief, you feel that your tribute certainly is lacking. Still, you order the hunters to hold back and smoke some of the finest parts of their game - while hopefully not the main gift, it should at least do for a nice show of appreciation on the side.

Thinking about his rumored twisted humour you are grasping at straws - and happen to remember something vague about a "holy place" that you joked about plundering some months ago. Immediatly you call upon Murak, and soon enough you are in the Elders hovel, above said parchment. As soon as the elf sees you gesturing towards the symbol, his facial expression changes towards one of fear and apprehension. Almost imediatly he goes on about you brutes being cursed by the gods, should you even think of desecrating the place. Not seeing any sense in aggrevating the man further, you hold back that you dont fear his gods - not very much, that is. You would prefer a shaman to be by your side, should you really go about desecrating it. Gods are Gods afterall, even minor ones like these elves unquestionable worship. You let Murak assure him that you would never dare to anger the gods, even if they might be not your own. The most you will do is take a look and, who knows - you might be even impressed by what you see. By now the Elder seems more fearful than enraged, but he has no real choice but to accept the matter.

Not one to drag things on needlessly, you immediatly set out with your trusted translator and a handfull of wolf-riders. Should you decide something in the presumed shrine to be a worthy gift, you would need to find a shaman willing to help you. As you would need to make the decision after taking a good look at it in person anyway, you feel that the sooner you do so the better.

After two days of riding, you come into the area presumed to house that "holy place". The wolves seem to smell something, and trusting their keen senses you soon enough see what seems to be a six-storied tower, made out of solid stone. Albeit it does not look like it was built for military use, such high a building is quite the marvel to behold. Seems like the elves have been deliberately hiding this from you.

Seeing smoke rise in the vicinity, you ponder on how to procceed.


(@ GUNINANRUNIN - The vicinity, you can't really make out more at the moment. The smoke rises somewhat nebst to the tower - if it comes from within the tower, it most likely stems from a window at ground level.)
« Last Edit: June 04, 2013, 09:49:57 pm by escaped lurker »
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Parsely

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Re: (TSG) Warlord - Invoking story mode
« Reply #56 on: June 04, 2013, 09:30:17 pm »

Take one rider with you and investigate. (where's the smoke coming from? the tower?)
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escaped lurker

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Re: (TSG) Warlord - Invoking story mode
« Reply #57 on: June 04, 2013, 10:57:23 pm »

You decide on taking one rider and investigating by yourself. Some of the men raise an eyebrow, seemingly surprised by your recently bold actions - thou it does not seem to be the disaproving kind. They recieve instructions to stay in place, unless they hear something suspicious.

Letting the wolves prowl slowly closer towards the building, you notice that it is seemingly surrounded by some small gardens with various plants - not that you care for the gardening of this place, but with the absence of any walls it really seems like it has no military uses. Wich is also not very surprising, it being quite in the middle of nowhere. Meanwhile you notice that some of outer stones of the tower seem to be adorned with some elvish runes, leaving little doubt towards its religious use. Unless writing random stuff on houses is an elven thing, but in that case you have yet to hear of it.

After surrounding half of the tower, the perpetratour of said smoke comes into view - a big brazier, placed on a cobbled plaza, some distance from the heavy double doors that seem to form the only entrance towards the interior. Both brazier and doors, but especially the later are adorned with fine reliefs - as elves seem to prefer, provided that they are able to afford it. The tower itself seems to be the only structure, with no outhouse or similiar visible. You ponder to enter nonchalantly through the doors for a moment, but realize that Murak would be most useful, provided that you wish to converse with the presumed inhabitants.

You confer with him for a moment, and you both agree that such a place ought to be under the care of at least one shaman - or priest, as the elves seem to call them. Taking a channeler of godly powers lightly would be foolish indeed - diplomatic action seems most viable to you both. As it has worked thrice already, you do "the normal". The wolf-riders placed in plain sight of view - a subtle threat, but not to agressive - and you at the front. While about to knock on the door, you entertain the thought of what to say to the presumed "priest" - for you guess that the truth would not be very welcomed by him. Depending on his disposition towards your kin, it might even be better to draw back for now.

How do you wish to proceed from here?
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Parsely

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Re: (TSG) Warlord - Invoking story mode
« Reply #58 on: June 04, 2013, 11:03:47 pm »

Dunno what we should do, aside from the obvious decision of sending the rider back to fetch the others. I was expecting something different.
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RAM

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Re: (TSG) Warlord - Invoking story mode
« Reply #59 on: June 04, 2013, 11:06:27 pm »

I expect a certain amount of tyranny, the elves certainly didn't want orcish government, but I want to present ourselves as a government that is invested in making the province prosperous.
 I would like to set up a new village for the refugees. The new, cooperative village will, hopefully, prosper, and apply passive pressure on the old elves to be more accepting, and to loathe the new arrivals in addition to us... Well, I guess most of my thoughts are attuned to ancient Romans. Build roads, enforce laws, keep the wars somewhere else. People will always hate you, but they might be willing to admit that some things are better with you in charge...

 The brittle stone should be just fine for fortifying trenches and channels against water-damage. And we should make an effort to guard against the fields getting flooded, at least have some drainage channels started.

I am opposed to raiding the elven holy site. We can inspect it I suppose, but we definitely shouldn't get any gifts from it. We really don't want to people coming here with the intention of raiding elven ruins. It isn't a sustainable business and would drive the natives insane. We should look into getting some elven-crafted bows, there should be plenty of supplies around and the elves probably use them for hunting, and orcs probably appreciate hunting so it should be a fitting gift. Perhaps we could make up a couple of nice cold-weather outfits and trade them for the best bow that the Elves can make. I maintain that it should be an elven bow so that it represents our province...

P.S.
 Continue, knock on the door, introduce yourself and inform them of the new government. Possibly even inquire as to the religious needs of the elves.
 I suppose that we need to decide when to start lopping heads... Well, if they cry vengeance, raise an ornamental item, and start chanting curses, then that would probably be an appropriate moment. Otherwise try to match their aggression.

P.P.S.
 We really need to get ourselves a shaman...
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