3821, the fourth month of the year, and the second month of spring.
Adeeb Wasirri, Lord Governor of Dhum-Blud
20 years old
Health and Physical Abilities
Fit
Healthy
Social Skills
Practiced in Court Manners
Rogueish Charm
Practical Skills
Competent Swordsman
Competent Tumbler
Mediocre Rider
Novice Sneak
Personal Possessions.
A well bred riding horse. (Mare.)
An aging riding horse. (Stallion.)
A Fine Duelling Saber.
Several Sets of gentleman's clothes.
Walders old clothing and perfumes. (The former is gaudy and a little big, and the latter is a little too strong.)
Councilors, Vassals, Allies and Agents.
Formal Councillors
Aldagor. Barrister, Elderly noble courtier.
Balpher. Garrison Commander, noble courtier.
Desan. Steward, young noble courtier.
Elerik. Junior Garrison Commander,Low-born Wasirri Guardsman.
Agents
Vest. Friend, Lowborn duellist and former smuggler.
Eduard. Lowborn Courtier.
Vassals
Mayor Veera
Sir Madagor
Holdings.
Bonewatch
-Tiny Stone Keep on a hilltop.
--Sparse Furnishings
--Well Stocked Larder (Decent quality, including wine, salt pork, local spices and the other imported goods)
--Small dungeon under the castle. 12 cells.
-Stables (11/25)
-Barracks (Sufficient space and bedding to hold a little over a hundred men.)
-Armoury (Stocked with Spears, swords and bows of mediocre quality. Stocked with Quilted armour and padding of poor quality. Stocked with plenty of poor quality arrows.)
-Rickety wooden outer palisade.
-patchy overgrown "dirt" roads.
-Mostly Unmanned rickety wooden watchtowers.
-a handful of wooden homes within the walls.
-A well with plenty of fresh water.
-A few nearby farming families.
Bleak-Haven
-Village
--The Wretched Mut A seedy Tavern
--A well maintained Windmill
--A small shrine to the local patron spirit
--A few scattered homes.
--A few poor craftsmen.
-Your Manor
--A few Fine furnishings.
-Overgrown Patchy "Dirt" Roads
-An interconnected farming community in the local area.
Military
-Bonewatch Garrison. (53 soldiers of passable discipline and limited combat training, but decent morale. Armed with bows, spears and short-swords of varying quality. Girded in quilted linen armor, steel caps, and the occasional breastplate. Wearing the King's colours.)
-Unnamed Fortified Watchtower Garrison (20 soldiers of good discipline, wearing the King's colours.)
-Household Gaurd. (19 Skilled Fighters trained in urban and close-quarters combat. Armed with arming-swords, bucklers and longknives. Girded in Quilted Doublets, steel breastplate,open-faced helms, greaves and bracers, all of good quality. Loyal to your family and wearing your family colors.)
-Bleakhaven Community Watch. (A group of locals that fluctuates in number, protecting, keeping watch on and patrolling the town and outer farms.)
-Bleakhaven Garrison. (6 soldiers, functionally identical to Bonewatch Garrison)
Assets
-A heavy bag of gold "Crowns" (7/8)
-A chest half full of Silver "Crowns" (Many clipped and restamped.)
-Nine Light Riding Horses (local breed, frisky and quick, but also small and unsuited to long hard travel)
-4 Rickety Wooden Carts
-6 Months worth of poor quality local grain. (at current consumption)
-4 Months worth of Imported Food-Stuffs (at current consumption, includes beans, pickled vegetables, salt, butter and wheat flour all of decent quality)
You spend the remainder of the month mostly doing as you have, taking a personal interest in making your troops disciplined and readying Eduard for court. Those tasks continue well enough, though little significant progress is made over such a short period of time. In the meantime you take all of the applicants under your service.
Nomegar takes his rats into one of the empty buildings outside the keep, to begin his work there. He explains briefly to you that those rats he currently has are larger and more obedient than normal rats, useful for his own protection but little else. He could set up more than one stock of rats, breeding and altering some as fighters, and others as scouts if you like, or spend his efforts on exclusively encouraging certain traits, if you are of a mind for more immediate, specialized results. If you're not sure yet, in the meantime he plans to breed more intelligent, stronger specimens. He is not currently demanding payment, beyond the place to work undisturbed and sufficient food for both him and his specimens.
After hiring the adventurers you request that they remain ready to head out into the wilderness to explore territory in search of bandits. In preparation for this eventuality you have your new scribe ensure that they have the materials and basic competence for mapmaking in the field, instructing them while they remain at Bonewatch. The trio is not demanding payment quite yet, but Blaire makes it quite clear that they will be wanting coin eventually. They expect to be supplied by you as they engage in the search through the wilderness, though if need be Hairick can hunt for food at the cost of some of their efficiency. If they have coin for expenses they will be able to be out in the field for longer stretches, resupplying at whatever is closest rather than constantly returning to Bonewatch when they need food. You toy with the idea of using Blaire to assist you in forming a proper force of light cavalry, but you arn't sure about that yet.
You send Desan out with a few members of the garrison to speak with members of the local populace in determining if there are any serious threats currently on your lands that might demand adventurers at some point. He seems surprised that you're asking him to attend to this task, but he leaves without complaint. After a few days he returns, mostly empty handed, save for a few rumours. He explains that there is currently a great deal of dread surrounding the populace's perception of the deeper forests, but that that is more or less always true. There have been a few sightings of straggling Gremlins, but none in groups, indicating that there probably arn't any nearby lairs. Now that spring is here the populace considers it unlikely that bandits will be raiding in much force, though one should expect heavy raiding come harvest time. Mostly the efforts of your direct subjects are focused on planting and attending to the heavy work of spring-time farming. Desan does bring word from your watchtower garrison that they've seen signs of a large group camping and moving around nearby, possibly bandits, or displaced refugees from some hamlet. The difference between those things may just be time, however. They might number anywhere from twenty people to twice that, and they are moving around a lot.
...
Vest has very little to do currently beyond keep your company, and so you find you take counsel with him often, speaking with him as friends do. He does a lot to ease your worries, and you find yourself glad to have him around, even with his sometimes intense cynicism. When you ask him what he has come to think of your councillors you find his opinion of them has not changed for the better, though there is more nuance to his thoughts on the matter than there was previously. On speaking about Balpher his face settles into a deep scowl. "
The man isn't quite as incompetent as i had once thought, but i advise you to be careful of him. When he's feeling the pressure he might manage to serve your interests well enough, but if you allow him to settle in too much he is liable to grow lazy, and take to bullying those underneath him. He's not likely to be dismissed quietly either if you've a mind for that. Be careful he doesn't seek a dagger to slip in between your ribs." He grows a little more contemplative when you ask about the other two. "
Well, Aldagor is a giant kiss-ass, and greedy, but i havn't been able to peg much else on him. Desan seems... a little too competent, i wonder what he did to wind up here. He could be a right bastard for all we know, or maybe someone just wanted to get rid of him."
At the end of the month you recieve a message from your other vassal, Sir Madagor. He tells you he will be riding for Bonewatch to present himself at the end of the month. He can manage sooner if it is urgent, but if not he would prefer to see to a few important matters with his own township first.
Sorry to ninja you weirdsound, i don't think this update made your post obsolete though.