Barring objections or improvements from the other Lords, move the Royal Army to catch up with the disorganized remnants of Prince Karl's forces and attempt to cut off their escape to the Fort and Capture the Prince.
[1] As Prince Karl approaches the keep, the drawbridge lowers! There's no way he can get into the keep before your own army catches up with him though. Instead, fearing the loss of his son, it looks like King Philip has elected to ride out with his full force to secure his son's retreat into the fort!
Tactics: With a numerical advantage now, King Philip martials his forces to try and
flank the attacking Elbrethan soldiers. It soon becomes apparent that from the sharp manoeuvering of Philip's personal guard that he is himself a trained Tactician. [Rl 1 Rq 2] Alas, the cramped confines of the street prevent a successful flank, leaving Philip's forces in disarray.
The defenders in a close urban fight receive a +1 terrain bonus from the winding streets. This bonus is not received when defending a fort.Elbreth: 9 Infantry
Preston: 1 Cavalry, 8 Infantry, 2 Catapults (1 Terrain bonus, -1 Tactics penalty)
Skirmish: 3+9 vs 2+2+8+2+1-1 -
Close Defeat [Elbreth loses 2 Infantry, Preston loses 1 Infantry]
The Prestoners, seizing the advantage in the close and confused street fight, pull back to the Fort rather than pressing an attack. Had they done so, Elbreth would gain the terrain advantage from fighting in the streets in addition to the tactical advantage from Preston's disarray.
Elbreth has lost 2 Infantry, Preston 1 Infantry. Preston has pulled back to the Fort.
Start training swordsmanship.
[6] During the short weeks before Preston's army arrives, you start working on sword training with the other members of your crew. Things seem to be going fantastically, until you realise that you've learned so many bad habits with the showboating you've been doing to impress your fellow soldiers that they will actually
undermine your performance in a real fight. Now you're going to have to unlearn those habits.
-10 Training points in Swordplay.Short of paying money for professional training, the best time to learn new tactics in real swordsmanship is during a real fight. Every time you engage in a battle or individual mortal combat, you will have a chance of improving your Swordplay skill.
Eventually, Preston's army is sighted. You lay in position, waiting in the heavily trapped forests with your companions, until rather surprisingly Terenos rides out to meet you with a strange proposition.
To the north! To link up with Manning's crew, the engineers and the others. We shall leave our position, and endeavor to meet with the Preston forces commander under a flag of peace.
[6] The Prestoners seem all too willing to let you approach under a flag of peace. Regrettably you discover why when they surround your hapless forces, giving them an advantage in the fight ahead - unless you can talk your way out of it at a disadvantage, that is.
Elbreth: 1 Ambush Inf, 5 Infantry (2 non-combatant engineers)
Preston: 3 Infantry, 1 Catapult, +1 Encirclement advantage
Action- Teach Class
[6] The peasants you are able to bring back into your class take to their writing studies with a certain intriguing amount of interest. You are happy to teach them, even when they start asking about handwriting styles and what sort of styles different people tend to use. You are all too happy to give them additional coaching, glad that for once they are paying attention to your lessons and improving themselves.
Forged letters of credit and other such bills begin appearing in Sheepstead.collect more rocks
send 1 regiment to the hunting lodge in suul
put sentries in groups of 5 dotted around the place
[1] Your continued efforts to collect rocks results in a rockslide - ironically consisting entirely of rocks too large to collect. [2] This coincides perfectly with the transit of the regiment travelling to the hunting lodge and several members are killed or injured.
This regiment will be unavailable for use until Winter.[6] You are at least able to put up plenty of sentries, but because your forces are stretched so thin these are mostly just goatherds with barely a clue of what sort of dangers they should be keeping an eye out for.
Go to the bar an inquire about the cave-people, unexplored sections of the mountains, and perhaps a map of them too.
[4] There isn't a map available exactly, but you get some information from a few goatherds about trails they've used in the past. One older herdsman, a rare native rather than an immigrant from Elbreth, mentions that although he doesn't know for sure about any cave people he did once stumble across an old stone tomb in a storm. It was to the south, not far from a certain rough plateau near some hunting trails. The man describes the crag he saw it under, though this might not do you much good until you find the plateau itself, but does suggest that there were some old Suulian fur-traders that lived in a set of lodges near the eastern edge of the Eelspine.
Try to form a hunting party of citizens and warriors and set out to find the shadow creatures.
Unless Ehndras has anything further to add, get a small group of trained hunters and warriors and go back to the area of the attack. Look for any signs of the creatures and possibly where they came from.
Ehndras in particular should focus on searching for disturbances in the underbrush, branches, and soil, as a large, quick creature would undoubtedly leave noticeable tracks if one knows where to look. Most likely these noctural hunters live within a hidden cave system, and so Ehndras will search for rumors and signs of mountains or ground caves in the region surrounding the attack site.
You are able to get [3] three warriors willing to brave the dangerous valley with you, by default sticking two to Jormund and one to Ehndras. The Weylanders are unwilling to follow Jormund in number yet, since there is some rumour that ill favour follows him now (i.e. you cannot raise a new personal guard until new year), though some have expressed a willingness to follow Ehndras should he ever need a larger body of men.
Ehndras: You are taken back to the original campsite where the beasts attacked, a sight which turns even your stomach. The corpses of those slaughtered have had their skin flayed away in strips and draped through the branches of trees, their organs strewn across the ground in strange patterns and shapes. Most are missing their eyes, but those that still have them have shrunk to tiny lumps. The Weylanders insist they bury what they can, though they are not keen to stay long in this place.
[6+1] To your intense frustration, you find no tracks save those made by the slaughtered workers. Even where you can clearly see the marks of where a man was dragged along the ground, there are no footprints of what dragged him. Nevertheless, your gut tells you to search for caves and so you and your men scour the nearby valley. A fairly steep cave is found, leading into a dark, twisting passage where a stream must once have run. The roof of the cave is low, but you light some torches and move in. As you move deeper into the cave, you feel a growing knotting sensation in your stomach. Hairs raise on the back of your neck. You press on through the winding cavern passagess until the only light is the one from your torches.
You realise, too late, that you can see indistinct figures at the edge of the torchlight. You can't make them out, but malice radiates from them in waves. You're surrounded, and the light from your torches is starting to dim...
Examine each of the hunters, and ask them of where they might find safety or civilization.
One of the hunters has been torn apart, literally. The shadelings appear to have torn open his chest and flayed muscles at random from his limbs then thrown them into the campfire. The gentle drip-drip of his blood is starting to play on your mind.
The second hunter seems fine, except that his eyelids hang loose in their frames. He sort of blinks, the flesh briefly peeling back, and you see that his eyeballs have shrunk into a pair of shriveled grey lumps in the dark, bloody sockets. He keeps begging you to start the fire, not yet aware of his predicament. When you inform him, he tries to cry but the tears just fall into the open chasms and he screams with pain.
The third has his knees pulled up to his chest. He doesn't seem to have been injured, but he is shivering as if subject to some terrible cold. He is the only one to answer your query.
"W-we came north f-from Weyland. Escaping that m-madman, Manskinner. We just w-wanted to live a peaceful life, but- gods above, those monsters! That's the cl-closest thing you'll find to civilisation here. Oh gods, it's cold.
Why is it so cold..."
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Topic: You are King! (Spring 315a) (Read 188994 times)