Turn VII
First Week still, "Camp Fox Den", During the Feast
Intent on checking up on the nightmares feeding situation, you find Ashting enjoying some downtime with her troops at the feasting-plaza. Your cousin is currently in the process of trashing one of her officers, a match that seemingly has no bets on it either. A short while later, the spectacle ends with the man in a stranglehold, and good-natured cheering resounding from the crowd.
A few minutes later, the slightly drunk Ash gives you a tour of the current stables, and you pick up that she certainly is not displeased at your interest in the matter. It seems the hallowed knights have already found local substitutes for one half of the feed, some of the thorny brushes apparently palatable to their mounts. They gather most of it during their
joy training rides, letting the carnivorous equines stay cooped up in their pens for too long, something even you know to be a bad idea.
“We currently have our cuties on the normal half-meat diet.” You suppress a snort, but let a meaningful gaze wander towards the fanged “cuties” in question. A gaze which is subsequently ignored by your lieutenant, who prattles on in a lively manner.
“We can cut the meat content to a quarter if needed, but that weakens them in the long run, and don't get me started on how much more difficult that would make them to control in battle. As for giving them only meat...” “Not doing that anytime soon.”, you interrupt her monologue, a curt nod her answer.
Having the mares in heat, would only serve to have infighting among the stallions, making a third of the mounts unusable for combat. Feeding pregnant nightmares, is also something you currently would find yourselves ill-prepared for, their food requirements shooting to thrice the meat you feed them now.
New Entry – Inventory, Military Equipment58 Nightmares: “Not much training is needed for these pack-hunters, their ferocious nature lending itself well to war.”39 Mares, 19 Stallions, 2 three-year fillies – Worth:
”Eh? Our cuties are not for sale!” (about ~
++ each, give or take
+. Low demand.)
Back in your tent, far off from the hustle and bustle of the ongoing festivities, you find some time and motivation to tend to your books – leaving all of the management to Copsehelm unbecoming, and not desirable either. You also manage to slip in some musings of your own.
Gaining CitizensThe two nearest union cities, would be Redvalley in the east, and Floodside in the south. Both cities are surely under the caste-system of the Den'gal Union, which means any orc or goblin in them, is privileged according to their racial strengths and abilities. Said caste-system is a bit of a mine-field for most that have not grown up with it, and while you got the basics of it down pat, you still like to let Vulk take charge in such matters. You don't doubt that some enterprising orcoids would take their chances and live under your protection, but they would be rather few in numbers.
From what you know, lion-kin make up many of the local beast-kin tribes, and most of their few numbers prefer their nomadic life on the arid plains to the south. Their serval-kin cousins, seem to share in that lot, living together with them in some sort of weird parallel society.
The bronze-skinned northmen, would be the closest to a true minority around these parts, mostly citizens of second class, but generally treated well by their orcoid “betters”. Having fallen under the sway of the union over a century ago, they were able to establish themselves, and did not participate with the rebellion at large.
Your best bet in regards to getting non-vulpine citizens, would be wartime refugees from the south-eastern regions. The area saw a moderate amount of fighting, and is close enough that those which fled the theatre there, have ended up somewhere in these lands. With both orcoids and northmen playing favours towards their displaced kin, most of these refugees would be beast-kin of different sorts.
Blight-Elven HomesteadsGrounded in the hostile reaction with which most regard your people, they tend to inhabit far-off, or even secret places, not unoften down bellow. Fearing too much open activity of your race might call forth another purge directed at it, you doubt all that many would be willing to join up with you, preferring to stay out of sight of the world at large. While other clans might be closer, reaching your own would take about two months on horseback, much of which would be spent trudging through inaccessible, wild countryside.
~
Later that day, during the evening, you hold a small council with the heads of the band, talking about new information and future planning.
Some rather good news come from Copsehelm, who has found someone willing to inspect the water-system of the city.
“I coaxed one of our hallowed with a venomous demon into taking a closer look at the reservoirs. Lass got herself some of the good wine in exchange, here's what she found out.”The upper reservoir is clearly meant for drinking water, and a bit smaller. It also has a connection to the lower, agricultural reservoir, so we could drain the filth into there, and simply burn out the other one. Almost better even, her demon says it could use the filthy water, and drain the toxins from it – creating lesser demon bile out of it. We would still need to summon a water demon to make it safe to drink, or let our water crew clean it slowly, but surely.
After we do some maintenance to the aqueduct system, we could also let the filthy water drain into the gardens, but they would in turn become an unpleasant if not dangerous place to be in, and would stay that way for a couple of weeks.
Creating bile, would cost 3 souls for the civil reservoir, 5 for the agricultural one. We would also get 3 or 5 jars filled with the stuff, each of with should sell between
++ to
+. Cleansing the water afterwards, would cost 2 or 3 souls, respectively.
Draining the reservoirs and burning them clean afterwards, would only cost 1 soul each, or take the warlocks two weeks of cleaning. The later, wouldn't be an appreciated job, but if we give them some booze
++, they would have not much of a problem with it, either.
Having the water-crew slowly clean the detoxified water would double our water-income through them, and thus solve our water-problems for the time being.
New Entries – Camp Fox Den, FacilitiesCivil Reservoir: “Partly filled with undrinkable, filthy water”++ ++ Agricultural Reservoir: “Partly filled with undrinkable, filthy water”+++ +Kirmik comes through to you with the new questions you had about the badger-folk, though it is not a particularly helpful answer. It seems the badger-men do indeed have a form of slavery, but it is reserved for especially heinous criminals, those for which they don't feel excommunication from the tribe is good enough. The Moon-Claws, to their great shame, you are told, have three such individuals. Selling them, or any prisoners of war which they might have, would be no problem for their side – your “black copper”, something the champion confesses great interest in.
Afterwards, the discussion turns towards possible ties with the badger-folk.“They only use copper. Correction, a third of their troops uses copper, the rest of them uses worse. We can waltz towards their camp in full strength, and if we don't like their offers, we take from them what we want.”"Leymor has a point, I also doubt that they have the numbers to stand against us. Dominating them with pure military strength, shouldn't be that hard to do."“They are known to raid the union. If we do any less than enslave them, the local chieftains are bound to not like it all that much. Not enough to feud over, but there are better first impressions we could make on them.”“Why not agree to the prisoner exchange? Let their champion be the messenger, put a tracking enchantment on his weapon, and snatch rewards and new prisoners all in one once he comes back. This time, we hunt all of them down, and make for their home afterwards. After loosing one and a half raiding parties, they shouldn't be our match, and we can chain or sacrifice the lot as we like.”“We have over ten prisoners of theirs. If we let the champion leave or not, we can surely torture anything worthwhile out of them. Finding out about their camp and knowing their numbers, should be easy enough.”“Whatever we decide, I am against splitting our troops. If we want to deal with them, we would best do so before fixing up the oasis.”
Cedarcoil & People of Note:"After the feast~" (To be Done)Camp Fox Den (temporary)
~300 Mercenaries:
~150 Blight-Elf Soldiers
~100 Mutt-Blood Soldiers
~25 Mixed Logistics Team
~10 “Moochers”
14 Badger-Folk Prisoners
Mood: General Exhaustion, Slight Irritation at the current situation.
Facilities:
Civil Reservoir: “Partly filled with undrinkable, filthy water”
++ ++
Agricultural Reservoir: “Partly filled with undrinkable, filthy water”
+++ +
Outer Gardens: "Once a lush paradise, these gardens are currently in decline"
Dates: ++Inventory
Changes
Dates + "A few industrious individuals, have started to harvest the sugary treats on their own. Going by the positive reception, you have little doubt that this trend will continue on its own for the foreseeable future."
Provisions
Your supplies in rough numbers.
If coloured, signifies a full months' worth.
Trend is a monthly prediction. Shortages will be brought to attention.
Foodstuff: “Mostly dried goods. Not very palatable, but the usual.”
++ ++, Trend: ---
Water: “A precious resource in this climate.”
+, Trend: -
Nightmare Feed: “Only fit for a starving stomach. And the nightmares, that is”
++, Trend: --
Good Booze: “You splurged a bit, but are sure to get your moneys worth out of it.”
+++, Trend: ?
Other Goods
Valuables: “Much is golden coin from the union, but there also is plenty of plunder from the battlefields.”
+++++++++++++, Trend: -
Raw Black Billon: “The favoured, enchanted blight-elf metal - more spoils from the battlefields.”
~300 Bars, Worth: ~ ++++++, give or take +++, strongly dependent on the buyer
Copper Scrap: “Taken straight from the badger-men.”
~20 Bars, Worth: ++ to +, depending on the market
Military Equipment
“You are currently not in the mood to list the exact equipment of all your troops. Maybe later.”
58 Nightmares: “Not much training is needed for these pack-hunters, their ferocious nature lending itself well to war.”
39 Mares, 19 Stallions, 2 three-year fillies – Worth: ”Eh? Our cuties are not for sale!” (about ~++ each, give or take +. Low demand.)
A tenative map, drawn over an incomplete map acquired from a trader. Your northern borders aren't clearly defined and rather open to discussion, or so you would have heard.Purple Star = Camp Fox Den,
Cyan Circle = Fort Spearpoint
Because it was mentioned before how dismissive this seems towards the badger-men; Most elves are considered upper-middle in regards to combat strength, at least in these parts. Good physical abilities, talent in magic, long lives. It isn't difficult for them to reach above common strength. Warring against beast-folk that only uses copper, while you hold enchanted steel, makes things easier, too.
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Topic: [SG] The Sell-Swords Hoard (Read 6740 times)