Navy continues on with previous tasks, I want to switch to the infantry fight
The infantry remain in waiting as per your instructions, though with the added funds (you have spent
5 Ducats out of Miring's 6 Ducat treasury, thanks to Elbreth's support) you have been able to trap the woods north of Miring with a cavalclade of nighmarish mantraps. Assuming you can lure or force the enemy through the position, they will be in dire straits.
Not that the enemy has arrived yet. If you were aware of the strange nature of the local timestream, you would guess that no attacks will be forthcoming until the conflict at Preston's border has been resolved. The gods await General Draven's decision on if/how to attack before that happens.
Arrest the three men who guarded me while I was in Sheepstead and torture them for information about the head spy.
Send out a scouting party.
[1] Your scouting party takes to the hills in search of anything suspicious, but having only newly been recruited they prove rather inept. Not only do they fail to locate anything of note, they will take a -1 on their next scouting roll as they continue to learn their new trade.
[5] It takes a while, and you lose one of the men in the process, but you finally get names. The guards were approached in the Palace at Sheepstead shortly after the King and all his forces returned from Eelspine. They were approached by members of a new noble's guard, freshly returned from Miring, and offered some very reasonable sums of money to keep their new employer informed about anything that went on; troop movements, recruiting, battle plans. One of the guardsmen remained behind in the Palace, having replaced a member of the Palace Guard there, a man by the name of Banquo, and has been serving as their contact since.
Only two new nobles returned from Miring at the start of the year, and one of them lost almost every man under his employ. You can only draw one conclusion from this;
Lady Drua is the spymaster.Action- Help rescue horses from fire. Look for anyone stuck under debris or surrounded by fire. Help if possible.
[3] The horses skitter and panic upon sight of you, but you are able to provide enough assistance to get about two thirds of the horses out before the stables collapse. It is too risky to rescue the rest. [2] Most of those potentially stuck under debris look to be too trapped for you to get them out, or else already gone. Better to search for bodies later. Sadly this includes the stablemaster, probably the only person who could have told anyone how the fire started.
[1] The bucket chain looks to be going absolutely terribly, with water running out and the fire spreading outward from the affected wing toward the centre of the palace. Drastic measures will probably have to be taken to resolve this before it reaches the court.
Mahtan continues his research, using his two assistance for busy and prep work so he can concentrate.
[4] Gunther keeps trying to take advantage of Leila, but you are able to hassle them into keeping their minds on the job enough to progress with your work at an appreciable rate. You have them perform a series of exercises, observing and recording the activity of the various muscles of the body and comparing them to the effects of the fowl carcasses you purchased.
20 points research added. 50/100 research complete.You are reaching the limit of what you can do without access to a complete, preferably fresh human corpse. You could work with an incomplete or damaged body, but without a dead human subject at all your work will progress at a much slower rate.
Training Challenge: Obtain a human corpse. +10 research points on your next roll if the body is fresh and relatively undamaged. -10 research points on your next roll if you cannot obtain any kind of human corpse at all.Whilst you are working, there is a knock on your door. A guard enters, then leaves immediately when he sees Gunther in a state of undress. You tell him to come in anyway and ask why he is bothering you. The guard, a palace sergeant you recognise as being called Banquo, explains that a fire has broken out in the stables and is threatening the east wing. He recommends you evacuate for the moment and requests that he take your supply of demonstration gunpowder into the palace guard's safekeeping until the fire has been quenched.
The battle plan:
two goat herders come from the north east saying that someplace is under attack and that they need help
after the militia have left we attack pretending to be a large group of bandits (loot, steal then burn it down when we leave), we free the prisoners and remove all evidence of the Ztah leave "evidence" of banditsfrom the west
when we leave we will remove our tracks even though it looks like snow
we will leave going west at first then we will head south
we have an hour after the militia leave to be out of sight of the town for safety, two hours max
four guards will prevent the townspeople from escaping to alert the militia
[/b]
Lands:
Elspine +2 defence [Elspine regions have +1 defence against troops coming from Suul due to rockslide traps][copper]
Elspine x1 [cave +1 defence][not improved][+3 defence total]
Elspine x1 [Goatherd]
Suul x1 [hunting lodge]
Troops:
Steppe raiders x1 [personal][infantry][Raider]
Tools avaliable:
(Mining tools unusable, 1 ducat worth)
Treasury:
0 ducat
[5] The goat herders pull off a very convincing act, drawing the main body of the militia out of town on the pretense that one of the new mines is under attack by a heavy force of raiders. This will give your men a temporary advantage to their raid (+1 to the Raid roll), though it does not guarantee the militia will not get back in time.
[Raid: 6+1, 4] The raid on Stonewood goes smoothly, your raiders forcing their way into the town and sacking it for all it is worth. Sadly, the town is still quite small and so all it is worth amounts to some
2 Ducats, roughly equivalent to the entire tax income for the next year. Raiding the town further will garner no loot, as you have taken everything of value already.
[6] You go a little overboard with your 'evidence', but at least it should draw eyes away from you.
There is now convincing evidence that this raid was conducted by Suulian mercenaries.[5] You luck out on the weather conditions, and manage a track through mostly dry rock westward, before turning south to return to camp. It even rains heavily after you are nearly back, washing away most of your tracks. They are unlikely to track you without setting a scouting unit on your trail.
The Zimtar clan raids 2 Ducats. Sir Taric takes on 2 Ducats of debt from the raid.You can now upgrade your raider unit with the 'Tactician' upgrade, at a cost of 0.5 Ducats (also increasing their upkeep to 1.5D/year). Alternately, you could afford to raise a second raider group at the cost of 2 Ducats (1D/year upkeep).
Train as a tactician.
Assuming the Hond has no objections, one of the local clan kinsmen agrees to teach you a thing or two about battle tactics. You have nothing to pay him with, so he instead says that he will demand three tasks of you over the course of your training to settle your debt. If this is acceptable to you, you may begin.
Author
Topic: You are King! (Spring 315a) (Read 185815 times)