Action: Retrieve the satchel of medical supplies and attempt to fix the jaw when Corv is ready.
[6+1] You break Corv Manskinner's jaw. It is extremely painful. It is also a necessary part of fixing it. You hurriedly explain this when his clansmen start shouting and threatening you, and fortunately Corv seems to understand it and waves them off. Unfortunately, whilst you do a fantastic job of fixing the jaw you had to wire most of it together with copper. Corv's jaw will heal perfectly, but he won't be able to speak for nearly three months.
[2] There isn't a lot you can do for most of the wounded right now, but it's been a couple of days since the last fight. Maybe if you stick around until right after a battle you might have a chance of saving some men.
[I'm noting you down as an independent with a personal guard regiment for future, since you offered to add your forces to Corv's. You only have about six men, but they have vastly superior armour, training and weaponry and so count as a full infantry unit a la any personal guard. Naturally their upkeep costs match that of a full infantry unit too - this kind of guard is expensive.]Give a (rousing?) speech. Send our forces off to battle as per the plan.
[4+1] The wince of pain is more visible than Erik might like, but word of the battle with the summoner spread quickly and the gathered crowd view the king's effort to maintain face as a sign of strength that bolsters his otherwise not-extraordinary speech. They are fired with dedication to following the king's example, and almost none grumble that their monarch will not be accompanying them to the fight. As a consequence of this, there will be no ordinary risk of morale issues on the way to battle.
Marching the army to Preston should take approximately a month, with Terenos and the remaining advance force arriving in Miring some two weeks beforehand. The precise status of the forces of both sides remains unknown to the king's men unless runners/riders arrive from the advance force or any spies to inform them.
((Gee. It sure would be handy to have another damn regiment at my back.))
Terenos spat on the ground. He called back to give the order to arm up and prepare for battle, should it come to them.
Survey the city, try to determine the strength of enemy forces.
[2] You send scouts into the city, but as is typical for most towns Miring is a maze of twisty passages, all alike. They fail to report back details of the enemy forces. [1] Quite a number do not come back at all, getting caught up in the melee in the city. You will not be able to use scouts again until this immediate situation is resolved. You are at the point of giving up hope [5] when a tiny but impressively well-equipped band of what appear to be mercenaries emerge from the city. Their leader, a man in a silk shirt and brigantine sporting one polished oak peg leg, raises his fine, bloodied sabre in salute.
"About time you got here, sir. Thought we were going to have all the fun to ourselves."
Manning's Crew are added to Terenos' forces. They are few in number, but vastly better equipped and so count as a single ambush-capable infantry regiment.It appears that Manning was on the brink of death when the fight in the king's council chambers was over. He tells you that the physicians would probably have let him die if the king hadn't been so insistent they keep him alive - apparently something or other had put the fear of God into him over Manning dying. Since then he's been acting as an elite trainer for the guard and picked this crew from the soldiers willing to risk a venture into the city to break the siege.
Manning reports on the state of the city. [3] From what he and his men have observed since the siege started, this advance force is mostly comprised of peasants and the remnants of various rebel noble guards, loosely aligned under the common cause of looting and pillaging. Preston's spies in the region appear to have sent them on ahead to cause some havoc and prevent armies successfully reaching the castle and reinforcing the soldiers there. Manning suspects that there are three regiments total, but that they are operating independently. If you can prevent them from trying to fight your force all at once, you may have a better chance of victory.
Deliver the package to Waery.
Ask for permission to be used as a saboteur, sneaking over to the enemy camp and poisoning their food and water supplies.
Earlier: [4] You make sure to explain the dosage carefully to Waery, emphasising how dangerous it would be to overdose his master with the painkillers. He winks at you, and you think you might have accidentally come across as giving innuendo you did not intend, but he laughs it off. In any case, you are reasonably sure that if he does die as a result of the mixture it will be from malice rather than accident.
Siege: [3] The King is busy, as is your husband, but that means that nobody can really stop you either. Taking the equipment you appropriated from your husband's stores and the light leather-and-chain armour, you bribe the guard to let you out of the castle gate (he makes no promises about you getting back in again). He does mention that you weren't the first group to head out, mentioning one of the king's guard trainers going out himself, but can't tell you where they were headed.
[5+1] You are an accomplished alchemist, and your skill does you credit, but luck was on your side today. The castle overlooks the port and you were able to smuggle, steal or buy some fairly exotic ingredients that had been seized from merchant stalls when the king's forces pulled in for the siege. The poison you have concocted is nasty, painful and fast-acting.
(+2 poison bonus to personal combat rolls whilst the poison is still applied. Stacks with weapon bonus.) [5] Better yet, you were able to mix it with a mordant to keep it fast on the weapon; you reckon you should be able to get several strokes off with the weapon before it dilutes to ineffectiveness.
(The poison wears off on the fourth individual round of personal combat you are involved in. This can be split between multiple engagements, if you are lucky. Remember that mooks only have 1hp.) Sadly, you used up all your supply applying it to the sword, but you can probably poison liquid food or water by stirring the sword in it.
[2] Unfortunately, as fantastic an alchemist and cartographer as you might be, you don't have a map of this city and swiftly get quite lost. [5] You decide on a whim to see if you can find your way around by just walking whilst keeping one hand on a building at all times. This has little effect, but you do catch sight of a small band of very well equipped men making their way out of the city. At the same time, you notice what seems to be a couple of wagons of miscellaneous loot being pushed down a street by an apparent mixture of peasants with pitchforks and rather ragged swordsmen. Naturally, the peasants are doing most of the pushing, but the wagon might be leading to wherever these raiders are camped in the city.
Will you follow the small crew of soldiers leaving the city (at a distance), or try and sneak after the raiders with the loot wagon?
Critical Successes in battles (i.e. the loser's forces are reduced by 2 regiments but the winner's forces are unharmed) now happen when the victor has >3 advantage (i.e. 5 vs 1, 6 vs 1, 6 vs 2). In other words, it is now three times as likely for an asymmetric force to prevail if the odds are stacked highly enough in its favour.
Taking advantage of Thatkid and sticking to war posts for the moment. Also, as I may have missed it - was Terenos able to afford that fine set of armour he ordered?
Edit: Slowly rebuilding the map using Hexographer, now that Micelus has introduced me to it. The lower portions won't be a perfect copy of Locanil's map, or even for that matter explored for a good while, but I'll be keeping that map in mind when drawing it. The map will still be valid, but details might change (the number of cities, for one).
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Topic: You are King! (Spring 315a) (Read 188700 times)