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[3man75]

To add whoever our generals (or actually sokolovs generals/admirals) they should probably learn a bit of adalbertian. Adalbertian mercs seem like they are going to be the ONLY actual ground force his faction can field. If they don't know how to communicate than it's going to be a disaster and waste of time.

Again, if he's trying to steam roll us and make us submit then fuck him. Honestly, who does he think he is making demands of the prince of an entire nation. In the end we can tell him "NO" and if his friends are mad than let them be mad. What are they going to do? They may dislike it but an outright war over one maybe criminal? They'll NEVER support him that far nor will they kill Penrod (or attempt to since he looks to be well guarded) for one maybe criminal. He just has nothing but the unknown and even as a influential knight he can't do much to us.

That said it may be a good idea that the merchant reps we bring with us not use our name around us. If he trash talks us and the kelshan guilds than merc groups may be harder to recruit. Than again, i doubt money hungry mercs even care about criminals unless they're paid to.

[Andres]

Wait, why Adalbertian mercs? Surely we could find some closer to home besides that baron we met at Koringberg. It would be easier to manage and a singular baron cannot possibly provide the amount of troops necessary for the invasion to succeed. I agree with everything else. Just who the hell does he think he is!!?

[3man75]

Well the reason being that we have 5 reps from the kelshans coming with us to korinberg. Adalbert is well...Germany when it was a bunch of fracured states and has a VERY miltaritic lifestle for nobles and peasants alike. Lots of Adalbertians who can't get a job farming the little agro farms they have in their fractured country join merc groups who are always in need by nobles who want to boost there armies in times of war. Last time we were there many such nobles were in attendance and we heard talks of war that korinberg may or may not be apart of. Even penrod explained when we first visited that he wanted Ritalia to understand that he will hurt/maim/kill people in possibly brutal matters. It's just how that country is. It's bad but it breeds some pretty hardy folk and LOTS of them so our reps will be able to hire mercs for the invasion. Hopefully we'll recruit in Annalysee also but the more men the better and it'd be best if our efforts were sullied because one knight is is crying about his dead brother and father for mistakes that THEY MADE.

Also damn do i want to see the update where we valliantly fight back against the bastard. Win or Lose we're keeping Barrick!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 What i think Barrick looks like: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Mercenary-59223542 

[Mlamlah]

When did we get Amateur in Sleight of Hand? Even when I was reading the updates it felt like it just kinda popped out of nowhere. I'm guessing I just missed the part where we got it.

I may not have added it as a skill as soon as it happened, but when Raynor was first beginning to dabble in magic he practised surreptitious hand gestures to better be able to perform minor spells without being noticed.

Off the top of my head i cannot remember anyone named Sokolov. Do you guys mean Sekhon Chakraborty? The leader of the Keshlan Merchants Guild? As for the lack of an army, i believe at some point i mentioned that the guild has been conscripting and training refugees, though as much to man ships as provide any sort of fighting force.

Update should be incoming, once i read the comments more closely.

[3man75]

When did we get Amateur in Sleight of Hand? Even when I was reading the updates it felt like it just kinda popped out of nowhere. I'm guessing I just missed the part where we got it.

I may not have added it as a skill as soon as it happened, but when Raynor was first beginning to dabble in magic he practised surreptitious hand gestures to better be able to perform minor spells without being noticed.

Off the top of my head i cannot remember anyone named Sokolov. Do you guys mean Sekhon Chakraborty? The leader of the Keshlan Merchants Guild? As for the lack of an army, i believe at some point i mentioned that the guild has been conscripting and training refugees, though as much to man ships as provide any sort of fighting force.

Update should be incoming, once i read the comments more closely.

Sekhon is the correct name, yes i don't know WHY i called him sokolov. My apologies.

 Also why is it that i get the feeling that the concubine is trying to set us up? Not backing out i just feel like this all too coincidental.

[Andres]

We may want to give each of the Keshlan reps a bodyguard after we leave. It just seems like a sensible precaution we should take. We can talk well enough in Adalbertian. We should try to speak more Keshlan so if we had to do some on-the-spot translation between the reps and the mercs we can.

I'm also thinking that we actually should hire Analysse mercs. We can get some Adalbertians for a land invasion but Analyssians would probably be better marines seeing as their homeland isn't landlocked like Adalbert. (It's landlocked, right?) It doesn't have to be Analyssian mercs but we definitely need dedicated marines, and NOT just the conscripts the Keshlans scrounged up.

[Mlamlah]

-ignore, misclick-

[3man75]

We may want to give each of the Keshlan reps a bodyguard after we leave. It just seems like a sensible precaution we should take. We can talk well enough in Adalbertian. We should try to speak more Keshlan so if we had to do some on-the-spot translation between the reps and the mercs we can.

I'm also thinking that we actually should hire Analysse mercs. We can get some Adalbertians for a land invasion but Analyssians would probably be better marines seeing as their homeland isn't landlocked like Adalbert. (It's landlocked, right?) It doesn't have to be Analyssian mercs but we definitely need dedicated marines, and NOT just the conscripts the Keshlans scrounged up.

The kelshans should just arm themselves to be frank. Besides brigades I doubt there is anything to befall us. Plus we have ALOT of penrods guys around who will protect us and the merchants as well as anyone else well enough.

As for land invasion stuff. We'll try and work with the knight's of the sail to get some mock trials set up. They'll build some wooden palisade that will be the coastal fort guarded by knight's of the sail and our silver moons company. The kelshan and merc allies will attack the fort and try to take it. Better they get normal training though since we don't want injuries or death. Maybe we can ask some wardens to put magic around the field like they did at the tourney. Remember how no one died and only hurt? Same thing.

Again, they need basic training and that one baron we met last time could DEFINITELY give our refugee kelshan conscripts some good fight. I mean after all he is also supplying penrod with troops according to a very early update on the first page or so. Mercs don't need training though. Also what if the red harrierrs? They were looking for employment and are good sabotagers/ship raiders. Maybe we should get them on board asap.

[Andres]

We may want to give each of the Keshlan reps a bodyguard after we leave. It just seems like a sensible precaution we should take. We can talk well enough in Adalbertian. We should try to speak more Keshlan so if we had to do some on-the-spot translation between the reps and the mercs we can.

I'm also thinking that we actually should hire Analysse mercs. We can get some Adalbertians for a land invasion but Analyssians would probably be better marines seeing as their homeland isn't landlocked like Adalbert. (It's landlocked, right?) It doesn't have to be Analyssian mercs but we definitely need dedicated marines, and NOT just the conscripts the Keshlans scrounged up.

The kelshans should just arm themselves to be frank. Besides brigades I doubt there is anything to befall us. Plus we have ALOT of penrods guys around who will protect us and the merchants as well as anyone else well enough.

Fair enough. We may at least want to tell them to buy a dagger or something. I don't know. I just feel something bad might happen if we don't at least do basic preparation. And when I said "get bodyguards" I meant we could just assign some of our men semi-permanently to them.

As for land invasion stuff. We'll try and work with the knight's of the sail to get some mock trials set up. They'll build some wooden palisade that will be the coastal fort guarded by knight's of the sail and our silver moons company. The kelshan and merc allies will attack the fort and try to take it. Better they get normal training though since we don't want injuries or death. Maybe we can ask some wardens to put magic around the field like they did at the tourney. Remember how no one died and only hurt? Same thing.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Are you expecting our naval forces to defeat the enemy navy and then switch to ground-based fighting? If so then that would be a terrible idea. Naval fighting is very different from land fighting and specialisation is key in winning both. Even if our navy were to completely defeat the enemy at sea we cannot expect them to take and hold enemy lands after disembarking. We'll have lost too many soldiers to make a decent push and making our soldiers the naval battles and expecting them to take the continent itself would probably damage troop morale too greatly, even if we're mostly using mercs. We can't treat this like a level 1/level 2 deal; we should use our armies and navies separately and in tandem so as to provide maximum tactical and strategic efficiency and flexibility. Combined arms is what I'm on about I think.

If our land army is better (better balance of quality/quantity) than theirs then we might have a plan: Concentrate our entire navy near one of the enemy's more weakly held holdings that's next to the sea, but far enough they can't attack the ship with fixed artillery. We can use the Eyes of Ebonmar to choose a target. Their navy will be spread out for patrols and stuff so our navy should at least be able to beat whatever local force we find. After doing so we allow the troops to disembark from our transports and quickly capture the holding. This will allow us to supply our land army (the holding used to feed the previous army so it shouldn't be too bad) it's a useful foothold for further conquests, and since the Keshlans can't beat us in a land battle, we won't get forced out. We can also use some fixed artillery and our navy to prevent the Keshlans from retaking it in a sea-based assault. I just thought of this plan and thought it was worth sharing. There are probably better plans and strategies but it's something at least. If it's not obvious this plan also requires conventional "battle" ships and dedicated transport ships to be protected by the former.

Again, they need basic training and that one baron we met last time could DEFINITELY give our refugee kelshan conscripts some good fight. I mean after all he is also supplying penrod with troops according to a very early update on the first page or so. Mercs don't need training though. Also what if the red harrierrs? They were looking for employment and are good sabotagers/ship raiders. Maybe we should get them on board asap.

We should've asked the baron which of the two (renting mercs and training soldiers) was cheaper....... In any case, we're going to need more than just a few hundred men. A thousand at least and maybe more depending on the average army size of this world (Mlamlah?) which the baron alone can't supply. I think this was implied by your posts though. We should get the Keshlans to hire them. It would be better if they fought specifically for us but we probably couldn't afford two mercenary companies and it'll be worse if they don't have their own ship (they better though. )

Also a little confused about something. Do we..... own, the Silver Moon Company? Or did we just pay them so that they can offer better services, but they're still an independent company? If we don't, we should get the money to do so and buy them out. Then we can send them out to do mercenary stuff when we don't need them (after they finish training the new recruits of course).

Before leaving, ask Father for the Countryhouse as our own property. Even if he doesn't give us the town around it as well we could probably rent it out to German backpackers Adalbertian pilgrims or something. It's not like he's using it anyway.....

Mlamlah, is the transferring of individual vassals legal? Can Sir Raymond the Country Knight's liege give us his vassal? What's usually given in exchange in these instances? Can Sir Raymond just say "Screw you Count Noname! I'm going with Prince Raynor! He's cool! He can do a handstand for NINETEEN SECONDS!"

[Mlamlah]

Raynor Casar, Royal Prince of Analysse, popular claimant on the future crown.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

13 Years old

Personality:
Strong leadership traits.
A passion for knowledge and education.
A deep love of family, particularly towards sisters.
Is bold when faced with an opportunity to prove himself, but tends towards caution much more of the time.
Has shown a desire to rule.
Quiet and assured confidence.

Health and Physical Abilities
Superficially Injured and Sore
Foul Mood
Mediocre fitness.
Youthful agility.

Social Skills
A strong understanding of etiquette and social grace.
Tends to inspire loyalty in others.
A bright and well honed mind.
Solid political skill.
Solid business Savvy.
Mediocre grasp of Adalbert language.
Poor Grasp of Keshlan language.

Practical Skills
Mediocre Magicianry
Mediocre swordsmanship.
Amateur Shield-work.
Sword and shield technique: Amateur.
Amateur riding.
Novice armoured combat.
Amateur Strategist.
Amateur Sleight of Hand.

Vassals and Servants
Sir Bepher, Knight of the Sail: Respectful
Barick the Bodygaurd: Protective.
Local Business partners: Respectful
Elwer, your squire: Eager to serve.
Captain Verack: Polite, but otherwise indifferent.
Ishvakala the Hedge Mage:Amused and Grateful.
Serles, "Royal Protector", personal toady: Deeply Grateful, Loyal
Sir Walter, Knight of the Crown: Dutiful
Adrickar, Palace Warden, former warmage: Dutiful

Allies
Various palace servants and Attendants: Deep Love and Loyalty
Palace Pages and Squires: Healthy and lasting respect, newly restored loyalty.
Isvan the Apprentice Warmage: Eagerness to please, loyalty.
Ritalia: Loving and Protective, deeply loyal.
Business Contacts: Polite.
Courtiers and Politicians of the King's Court: Slightly awed.
William, your elder brother: Erratic, but loyal
Sir Evanson: Patronizing, but loyal.
Sir Raymond the country Knight: Grateful
Analysse City Street Toughs: Begrudgingly Helpful

Magic
Apprentice-level Scrymaster, experienced at surpassing magical resistance. May only scry with one sense at a time. May set up poor quality scrying wards to hinder intrusion or alert you upon it. Capable of impressive power in forcing your way past screening wards, and of great subtlety in avoiding detection wards.
Novice Level War-Warder. You have some shaky skill in warding objects and people from specific kinds of harm which must be stated in the spell. None of your spells have yet lasted much more than an hour, and are easy to dispel.
Novice Level Force magic. You may use crude energy with basic competence. Currently this allows you to bludgeon and move things forcefully and indelicately, with strength just barely above your own physical strength.

-Spell Tricks known:
Artificial Wind. Can create breezes over an extended period, or a single momentary gust capable of sending light objects flying and unbalancing individual people.
Symbol reproduction. Can instantly reproduce the contents of one page on something else, the symbol(s) must be made with ink or a similiar substance to work, and must be performed on a flat surface.
Palm Light: You are capable of creating a shining light in your palm that is about as bright as a torch, you may also attach light to your fingertips as bright as a candle, the light has heat, but not much.
Missile Launching: This cantrip allows one to launch an arrow, bolt or similiarily sized missile at an opponent with the strength of a crossbow bolt. Could theoretically be used to launch less conventional missiles in a pinch.
Repel object: May be used to turn away missiles, blades and blunt objects, though not reliably.

Assets
Various travelling clothes of high quality, including cloaks and riding boots.
Riding horse fitted with barding, (quilted over top studded leather).
A modest collection of historical books.
A small collection of varied books on magic, including basic theory, scrying, warding of various sorts and warmagic.
High quality gold emerald-embedded brooch. A gift from your mother.
Cart with draft horses
Boots of sticking. Boots capable of fusing on any surface on the command word. Generally used for pranks.

Wealth:
Opulent palace quarters.
Personal servants.
Varied high quality clothing and jewelry.
Trade goods.
Various stall based portside businesses.
Modest Middle Man business.
Some partnerships with estalished small businesses.
A handful of small smithys, and attached metalworking businesses.
Generous Royal Allowance.
A tidy sum of money, a little more than enough to buy and man a decent sized ship.
A small hoard of useless trinkets and jewlery.
Ornate Plate Armor
Masterfully crafted Ornamental Longsword

War Assets:
Masterfully crafted Dagger.
High quality short sword.
High quality leather breastplate.
High Quality Scale Mail armor.
A crate of flashstones, capable of producing a blinding light when struck against a hard surface.
A ring shield, capable of producing a small shield of force energy on the command word. Limited life.
A stave of magical protection. Absorbs overtly hostile magic directed at the holder before shattering.

Bodyguard Equipment: Leather Jerkin over sturdy woodmans clothing, a high quality longsword, a warhammer, a hidden dagger, a short sword, a hatchet, a leather shield. A riding horse with custom saddle. Ornate plate armor. High quality Banded armor.

Squire Equipment: High quality shortsword, quilted armor and travelling clothes. Riding Horse. Fine clothing.

The Silver Moon Mercenary Company
Based in a converted Warehouse in the docks district.
Headed by Verack, a northman warrior who has skill with a claymore.
Senior Members:
8 Axemen (throwing and Melee), 2 archers, 3 Halberdiers, 1 Fire Mage. All dressed in Ringmail/plate composite, with weapons of decent quality.
Regulars:
1 elite archer, 1 archer, 1 halberdier 1 axeman. (dressed in Ringmail, weapons of mediocre quality.)
Recruits:
13 Able Bodied Trainees, 2 fire mage apprentices. Substandard training equipment. (Dulled metal weapons and used hunting bows, armor of wood and cloth padding)

"Is your Knight known for being brash? Or is this uncharacteristic?" You ask, gauging how likely Gerand is to pay heed to the reason of those who might try to dissuade him.

Penrod shrugs helplessly. "Well, no, he is not usually an unreasonable man. But this... it has likely festered for decades. He was young, and it's a terrible thing to lose ones Father and Brother when so young." The foreign Prince's expression grows pained at that. "Of this i know well."Sobering from his brief reverie, he continues, "I will try to dissuade him from this, though there is no guarantee he will back off. You can be assured that if his challenge does not result in his death that he will be reprimanded, though i can only promise light punishment. If you truly wish for him to pay for his insult you will have to accept his challenge, though i do not recommend you fight him yourself. He's been groomed for Knighthood since he was six, and he is seasoned in warfare."

You venture a cautious question in response, keenly aware of the sensitive political nature of the situation. "If i accepted his challenge and he died, would it do you damage? Is he an important member of your court?

Penrod's eye closes painfully, and he elicits a deep sigh. "His holdings are modest if that's what you mean, but he's well liked by many of my other Knights, and he and i lived in the same household for a time as boys. I would..." He grimaces before finishing. "... Appreciate if you did not have your champion kill him, but i will understand if he dies. If he lives, i'll try to render you some small compensation, in thanks." Gathering himself, and his composure, he turns to his wife and begs her leave, asking her to forgive him for leaving to have a private discussion with his vassal. With that, the Prince departs, and he directs his personal guards to remain with Ritalia. Before leaving to attend to your own affairs, you quietly ask Ritalia to do what she can to help smooth the situation over, perhaps even arrange for Sir Gerand to withdraw his challenge.

...

Since Barick is in the palace, you find him first, seeking his knowledge on the opponent you will be facing, though you have a servant run a message to Verack. When you arrive in the small servant's room Barick lives in he seems much less weary, and much more alert. Before you get to the business at hand he explains that he might have found a way to find talented young fighters for recruitment, he's worked out a deal with some of the local city officials that would allow him to funnel a few more talented recruits from the city gaurd into your mercenary company, or for some other purpose. If you agreed, Barick would be encouraging a greater number of local peasant fighters to join the city guard in districts of the city where it is poorly manned. It's a little shady, but not strictly illegal, and he seems glad to have potentially found a way to improve the martial strength you've been seeking.
You've sought him out for other reasons though. Carefully, you lay the situation out for him, explaining that based on the two decade long grudge Sir Gerand has challenged you to an honour duel.

Barick's face has grown hard by the time you've laid it out. "You want me to kill him?"
To this you express the negative. "Actually i had thought Verack could fight him, or that i could duel him to first blood myself. I've no wish to see you killed over a petty grudge."
Your bodygaurd looks incredulously at you, "You want to do What?" He almost shouts the last word out. "Any one Adalbertian Knight would pick you out of his teeth. Do you mean to risk yourself in a fight you can't win? Do you even know what these men *do* for a living?"
Barick's impertinence is annoying, but you've almost grown used to his rough words, and you manage to only gently rebuke his disrespect. Barick remains incredulous at the idea of you fighting Gerand however, but if Penrod and Ritalia manage to convince him to back off it won't matter.

...

"You want me to... kill a man in a duel?" Verack seems mildly surprised by your proposition. The Northman's Analyssian is still thickly accented, and a little clumsy, and in that moment it strikes you how many foreigners you tend to work with.
"Well, maybe, i havn't decided yet, but i need to prepare for any possibility."
The mercenary strokes his beard, thoughtfully. "I had never thought to fight in a noble man's duel. I am willing to do this for you, so long as there is reward in it. Perhaps this could be start of stronger relationship? If i do this, my men should have better facilities, and maybe we could be permanant ehhhh..." he stumbles a little before continuing, "Retainer? Oh, and if i die, my men will vote on new captain?"

You promise the warrior you will chew it over, and tell him to be ready for if you call on him to fight in your name.

...

You call it an early night, and tell your servants to wake you well before dawn, though you do not look forward to awaking so early. You've put the word in key places to ensure that an audience can be assembled for the duel on short notice, however as of yet you've still only told discrete individuals who will know not to spread the word should the whole affair be called off. You hope that tonight you sleep well, and that your plans fall into place. 

[Mlamlah]

Mlamlah, is the transferring of individual vassals legal? Can Sir Raymond the Country Knight's liege give us his vassal? What's usually given in exchange in these instances? Can Sir Raymond just say "Screw you Count Noname! I'm going with Prince Raynor! He's cool! He can do a handstand for NINETEEN SECONDS!"

Vassals can be transferred with the consent of both vassal and lord, yes, but it's unconventional unless it's part of some sort of exchange for lords to clean up messy borders. Vassals must rebel in order to pledge allegiance to another lord without their current liege's permission, something not looked upon favorably by... well, anyone.

[Weirdsound]

Not much to do except wait until the next update, and debate stuff then.

[Mlamlah]

Not much to do except wait until the next update, and debate stuff then.

I was actually hoping you guys would finalize decision-making on what happens next if Sir Gerand remains undissuaded, it seemed a little unclear as to wether you wanted to duel him personally, or if you wanted Verack to fight him, but if it's preferred i could tiptoe a little further into the final confrontation.

[Weirdsound]

Oh. Here is an important question that should be asked...

If we take either of the dueling options, are we expected to turn over our bodyguard should we lose? Or is this merely an opportunity for the parties involved to save face? 

[Mlamlah]

Oh. Here is an important question that should be asked...

If we take either of the dueling options, are we expected to turn over our bodyguard should we lose? Or is this merely an opportunity for the parties involved to save face?

It's purely for the satisfaction of the involved parties.