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[heydude6]

It's a dark and stormy night at the productive fortress of battemurdered when suddenly a knock is heard. "Has the it been a year already?" the broker says as he goes to open the door. but it's not the outpost Liaison as he was expecting no, it's someone else. A mysterious hooded figure demands to see the mayor immediately. After a long argument  he is finally granted permission.

"Good evening sir we have very important things to discuss" says the mysterious figure
"What is it?" the annoyed mayor says
"I have came all the way from the hamlet of ominousdoom to warn you about an approaching goblin army, I think they have come to siege your fort"
"Oh Armok that's horrible we don't even have a military yet" cries the mayor
"Really, after 3 years you still don't have a military. You're doomed" groaned the stranger
"Do you have any idea how much time we have left?!"
"Well I encountered them in "The plains of Bad Omens" and then I ran immediatly to as many settlements that I could find. Of course I wasn't that much faster than them and with all the detours I took you should have approximately_"
"A vile force of darkness has arrived"
"Whoops guess I was too late"

So basically now that armies have to march to your fort, I was thinking that people of various backgrouns who encounter them could possibly go to a fortress and warn them of the incoming invasion. They will have varying levels of earliness, I'm thinking 5 months max and things can also happen to them along the way such as the armies catching them and preventing them from delivering their message. Or maybe an unfortunate encounter with wolves stops them.

It shouldn't be that hard to implement since it's basically an outpost liaison that arrives at a random time to warn you about sieges.

Try thinking of it as a random chance to have Laura Secord in your game.

It should also add another interesting thing to legends.

[Dirst]

I like this idea, though it should be vaguely in the messenger's interest to come to warn you (a member of your civ, or at least an enemy of your enemy).

Try thinking of it as a random chance to have Laura Secord in your game.

It should also add another interesting thing to legends.

On this side of the Pond the exemplar messenger is usually Paul Revere

[heydude6]

May I ask what the metaphor "this side of the pond" means. Also who is Paul Revere?

[Dirst]

May I ask what the metaphor "this side of the pond" means. Also who is Paul Revere?

The Pond is idiomatic UK English for the Atlantic Ocean.  Laura Secord is a heroine to the UK most famous for raising an alarm in a fight against the US, Paul Revere is a hero to the US most famous for raising an alarm in a fight against the UK.

[Splint]

May I ask what the metaphor "this side of the pond" means. Also who is Paul Revere?

On the west side of the Atlantic AKA The United States usually. And Paul Revere was a messenger who gained quite a bit of historical notoriety for basically being an obscenely loud jerk who went riding through various towns warning them of a British infantry unit heading for Concord to confiscate a store of weapons and arrest rebel leaders along the way if the opportunity presented itself, with express orders to not cause any more of a fuss than absolutely necessary (something akin to "Don't steal shit while you guys are out, we're having a hard enough time keeping up a good face here without a bunch of louts making us look bad.") He got various night patrols in gear who spread the alarm further, and by some time in the morning the the next day the British soldiers were met by an assembly of Massachusetts Militia at Lexington. It's from the ensuing battles here and at Concord that the American Revolution began.

On a less history lesson note, the concept of messengers going to and from places and warning friendly settlements of hostile armies or other possible exceptional nastiness sounds great.

EDIT: Ninja'd.

[Dirst]

@Splint: Just a note, he didn't actually yell "The British are coming!" as depicted in some children's stories for a couple reasons.  First, the colonists living there still considered themselves British even if they had disagreements with the British Crown.  Second, he wasn't that far ahead of the army and yelling at the top of his lungs would get him captured.  Eventually, he was captured anyway, but by then there were about 40 riders fanning out across the countryside.

The whole Battle of Lexington was based on intelligence failures.  The British were sent to seize rebel military supplies "known" to be in Concord when they had in fact been relocated months earlier... and the Americans were responding as if the army had been sent to kill or capture the rebel leadership, which they hadn't.

Auspicious start for a country, eh?

[Splint]

Spoiler: Due to irrelevance to suggestion (click to show/hide)

@Splint: Just a note, he didn't actually yell "The British are coming!" as depicted in some children's stories for a couple reasons.  First, the colonists living there still considered themselves British even if they had disagreements with the British Crown.  Second, he wasn't that far ahead of the army and yelling at the top of his lungs would get him captured.  Eventually, he was captured anyway, but by then there were about 40 riders fanning out across the countryside.

The whole Battle of Lexington was based on intelligence failures.  The British were sent to seize rebel military supplies "known" to be in Concord when they had in fact been relocated months earlier... and the Americans were responding as if the army had been sent to kill or capture the rebel leadership, which they hadn't.

Auspicious start for a country, eh?

I know that. It was more that he got the ball rolling (along with I wanna say... two other guys, wasn't it? And the alarm response grew from there as they informed  patrols and others with less inclination to like the Army Regulars.)

In the end there was a massive clusterfuck either way, and it ended with a bunch of guys dead at Lexington (mostly militia,) a failed objective for the regulars, and getting shot at for a good chunk of the way back to Boston for the poor bastards. Hell, I bet the "shot heard 'round the world" was the result of some guy sneezing with his finger on the trigger. Certainly takes some wind out of the patriotic sails when you imagine your country getting started by some random guy with a cold...

Overall though... Sounds like the results of a particularly large and messy goblin siege now that I think about it though.

"The goblins are here! They've already made it past the patrols on the way here!"

"Damn, raise the reservists then! We'll meet them in the depot!"

*One horrible battle later and the goblins getting shot to pieces on the way out*

"That coulda gone better. Good thing them dorfs ain't smart enough t'follow us eh?"

*And so the goblin fort avoids being sieged.*

[heydude6]

I don't know where to ask this so I'll ask this here, Is it possible to change the name of a thread? I realize now that my title may have been a bit too vague.

[pisskop]

Actually, I like the idea of rumors and incorrect information potentially being spread to your fort.  So long as it pertains to your fort.

[heydude6]

One thing I like about my idea a lot is that you can also do this in adventure mode. So say you encounter an army. The army then begins to hunt you down as you try to make it to a fort in order to warn them in time.

[Argonnek]

I don't know where to ask this so I'll ask this here, Is it possible to change the name of a thread? I realize now that my title may have been a bit too vague.

There is. Just edit your original post and change its name. Anyone can change the name of their post (see the name on this one), but only the OP can change the name of the thread.

Anyway, if you do spot an army as an adventurer, how will you know who to warn?

[heydude6]

Perhaps the adventurer can use the ambushing skill to sneak up on the army and eavesdrop on a conversation saying where they will attack. Another alternative if the adventurer doesn't have enough sneaking skill is pay attention to what direction they are walking and just try to guess where they are heading. Towns will begin to hate you and stop taking you seriously if you keep guessing incorrectly although you will become famous if you manage to deliver important warnings.