Winter 158Forest dwellers are welcomed inAs it was scheduled in Fall, the plan to eliminate homelessness in Kimaeslo Ori was eneacted the first day of Winter. Civil servants scoured the vicinity of the town in search of all vagrants that would qualify. For now, only the most vulnerable would: they would have to live on the surface and be ethnically Pearlite. This is because vagrants living in small community in the mines are typically more organized and are sheltered from both monsters and elements.
Only Pearlite vagrants would qualify because at this point in time, we haven’t decided what to do of the elves. The whole Kingdom of Pearls did not count any elves among its subjects, and that was not a taboo we were ready to break without serious considerations.
Some of them were found in the woods. Osp and Gite were found hidden next to the distilleries, Lesno “Scorching Fields” Akkarpika was still sleeping with the cattle.
Here is the registry of people who were thus found and brought to civilization:
• Osp Desocuro
• Gite Candosagmo
• Mel Oquohmokun
• Lesno Akkarpika Belrokjeha (“Scorching fields”)
• Ivak Kethasmur
• Umci Ehilàlat
That little team of vagrants was given season-appropriate clothes, welcomed into the inn “The Candies of Jade” where Kiseabo gave them foods, drink and shelter.
They would remain here for a couple weeks, until they decide, one after another, to apply for citizenship. They are excluded from military service until the first day of Spring 161.
As he was treating them and conversing with them, Kiseabo made two observations about them : firstly, all of them had grew accustomed to nudity, and would not mind being naked in public at all anymore – those almost ten years of surviving alone in the wild did that to them. Another observation: they almost all decided to buy bows and arrows, often trading their personal weapons for it. No doubt they elected to leverage their experience living in the wild to earn their stay as huntsmen.
A lingering problem, plaguing the town since it was re-founded in 149 – almost ten years ago – was about to get definitively solved.
Special forces and other logistical developmentsThose last years, the army of Pearls made significant progress in the war against Osme. A strategy of assault with extremely heavy and experienced troops followed by an occupation of the conquered territory by lighters formations allowed Mong Kima to seize all Osmite settlement in the civilized territories – alongside most of their population.
For the usual bread-and-butter tasks of such a strategy, everything was already in place for a long time ; supplying, fielding, using and replenishing conventional battle troops was a skill long mastered.
But since Kashi Zegaetus, clerk of Asuciro, infiltrated the capitale city of Osme, we know that this place houses a lot of prisoners and slave workers, longing for their liberation. Should the capitale city be besieged with conventional troops, there is no telling to what would happen to those captives.
The adventures of Kashi also taught us that those captives could be liberated.
In 149, Kashi Zegaestus infiltrated the capitale of Osme and escaped with two prisonners who were reunited with their families afterwardReplicating (and scaling up) this success was therefore an objective that the Kingdom of Pearls set for itself: Osme’s prisons should be empty before the final battle begin.
To this effect, a new elite squad was assembled. It would recruit only from the elite of the elite – Queen’s guards, swornmen, ex-Thomocemir knights and the like – and would be provided with additional training in stealth tactics.
Their goal would be to be able to infiltrate the prisons of Osme’s most secure city and to be able to exfiltrate prisoners. They should be able to do it while remaining undetected, but should also be able to fight their way out in case something goes wrong.
The command of such a unit was given to Idri Sebadumith, and does include notable names such as Birod Nedulithrek Kolobquosa Nepe (“Infinite wish of light”), son of Uquur and ex-Thomocemir knight.
Additional note: We need a name for that elite unit, meant to act behind enemy lines without support. “Rangers” don’t fit because it’s a melee unit, “Scouts” doesn’t reflect their elite status. I’m thinking “Foresters” but they don’t operate through the woods exclusively. If you have an idea, please propose
The death of Evangelyne, earlier in the year, indicated a lack of training and preparation for warfare of the Tactics squad. It is a bit ironical that the squad in charge of setting the conditions of battle was itself in poor condition.
Therefore this winter, a special care was taken to improve the preparedness of that support crossbow squad : additional munitions were ordered to the smith guild and a dedicated training room was installed in the barracks.
Hopefully this will increase our overall fighting potential further in the long run.
Defeating another winged godThe 14th of January, another great Roc appeared in the west bank, pushed by hunger and by the presence of unprotected vagrants in the forest that it identified as easy preys.
Nezaustxu Snukoobruk the Roc has been terrorising the civilized lands for as long as we can remember. Although not as destructive as other great beasts, he had an almost 300 years old history of feeding over civilized settlements, mostly by capturing pets and unattended cattle but not denigrating the occasional herdsman as a meal.
That day, his prey would be an elven vagrant by the name of Yalumi. The natural affinity that elves have with the wildlife did not protect the poor elf – the giant bird snooped on him and tore him limb from limb before we could do anything.
As great as it would be to capture such a beast, we remembered the chaos that was caused by Nefolà Enorerofa Rèfa Yëmi, another roc bird that attacked us earlier. And as painful as it is to kill such rare and powerful creatures, we deployed the army.
Now our forces are typically poorly equiped to fight flying opponents – but as luck would decide, Nezaustxu was still hungry after his elven meal and took our advancing squads for a second dish. This turned out to be a very grave mistake : the hit of a large two handed sword severed one of his talons and send him crashing the ground in a tremor.
The army charged the now grounded bird and tore him to shreds in an instant.
Successful engagement on the outskirts of StustonakoAs we mentionned in our previous reports, the fortress of Stustonako is a gigantic complex comprized of nine suburbs, surrounding a massive, towering, overprotected stonghold. Before we can possibly besiege the fortress, the suburbs must first be subdued.
Therefore, in the end of winter, reconnaissance in force operations were conducted in the suburb of Snodubabusp.
Snodubabusp was the birthplace of Takru, that goblin Islas managed to exfiltrate and who later on partake in Kashi’s adventures. It was the place where an insurrection took place, but – we assume – was finally put down by Lord Ici, the local warlord. The 7th of February, Snodubabusp suburb came into attack from the usual assault team composed of Islas’s heavy mobile infantry and Histamine’s tactic squad.
The fight was unusually long. Ici’s forces were surrounded early on and attacked from all sides – its professional infantry was decimated by a single crossbow volley at the beginning of the engagement, but a large number of officers kept launching desperate charges against Islas’s swordsmen.
For as long as it was, the fight was definitely one-sided. Lord Ici was slain alongside thirty other defenders. No casualty from the attacking side to be reported – the assault team retreated in good order after the fight, lacking the additional forces to occupy the area.
Nevertheless, as the chaos of Snodubabusp was unfolding, the special force squad was deployed in the neighbouring suburb of Slaxungostong. It was a much smaller suburb, way less guarded, that would allow the newly formed squad to acquire much needed experience in stealth tactics.
They conducted two raids, in February 7 and February 21, both successful – in both occasion, the squad infiltrated and exfiltrated successfully, stealing some metal goods in the process.
Those copper items will later on be smelted for additional wargear, but what we are really after, again, is the acquisition of specialized skills.
A note about our economyThis season, the economy of the town boomed. We are very close to eliminate our trade deficit. Making the world a better place being one of our core goals, giving the world more than we take from it is actually one of the victory conditions we set for ourselves. This condition should be attained sometimes next year.
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Topic: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls (DF 0.47.05) (Read 253845 times)