Fantasy RP

[Bannanachair]

@ Tikobe: (Alright. So, are you going to reply as Othan?)

[Tikobe]

(I didn't even see the part for Othan. Heheheh)

Othan

"Well, I'll address the matter with Kallian when it comes up," I smile, indicating that there was more to the story than what I was letting on. The reality is that I didn't really know as it's been some time since I've toured the palace and looked at all of it's facilities, and it's not really a chore I particularly care to do again. After all, all I need is the dining room, my bedroom, the stables, the war room and my study. Anything else is irrelevant. That being said, it's not really something I'd care to share while in front of a stranger.

I move another piece to defend the one in danger and nod silently to Raethus that it was his turn.

[Bannanachair]

@ Othan: As you continue playing the game over the course of the next hour the inn slowly starts to fill up. A group of young merchants were seated at the Dragon Table. An elderly couple with well-behaved young children in tow, likely their grandkids, all sat down at the Flower Table. A wealthy-looking man and two women sat down at the Lion Table and immediately started drinking, and the old man who had come in earlier and was seated at the bar got up to leave. By the time you won the first game, the tavern was about a quarter full, and by the time Raethus won the second the tavern was half full. As the two of you were playing your third game, your dining companions arrived.

Hartwig Almerry and Hedrek Talverton arrived together but otherwise unaccompanied, wearing expensive cloaks that they took off to reveal clothing matching their station underneath. The two men both looked old, Hartwig with his greyish white hair and Hedrek with a beard the colour of snow. Hartwig was the taller of the two by several inches, and he was surprisingly spry for his age. Hedrek, on the other hand, needed to walk with a cane in order to not fall over. Both men were older than your father, though Hartwig looked slightly younger. Hedrek, being twenty years older than your sixty-one year-old father, was likely the oldest man in the entire city, and it's honestly surprising that he made the journey up from his grandnephew's castle.

"Sir Hedrek, Sir Hartwig, I'm glad that the two of you were able to join us this evening," Raethus said, standing up to help pull out Hedrek's chair.

"I wouldn't very well miss the tournament, Sir Raethus, nor refuse an invitation to dinner with either of you, my Lords," Hartwig said in response, pulling out his own chair and sitting down. The man was a squire during the War of Gagh Buldir, and yet he still carried a sword on his hip, and he would likely still be able to use it somewhat effectively against the average fighter. Hedrek, who was already a renowned knight by that time and a veteran of the Siege of Eriport, was entirely unarmed.

[Tikobe]

Othan

I smile at their presences. I attempt to address them in a manner befitting our ranks: Formal enough to show respect but never addressing them as if they were equals. After all, being the heir to the Earl and the man currently commanding Mallowater's forces I actually am above them in rank and I'd look weak-willed if I failed to show that.

"Well? What are the both of you waiting for? Come sit. We've four of us and a table for six, so we four best start feasting and talking enough that people would think there were six of us instead."

[Duck14]

Alfred

I inspected Garry’s wound, it was bad, and not something I could mend in my current situation. “Do you think you can get yourself below deck?” I bellowed next to his right ear. Hopefully he would hear some of that. Once down there he could relay information to the rest of the crew and hopefully find someone to give him proper attention.

[Bannanachair]

@ Othan: "As you command, my lord," Hartwig said, waving by a waitress, likely to get some food to feast on or wine to drink.

Sir Hedrek was the next one to speak. "I hope that you'll be happy to know that the majority of your barons are enforcing your suggestion to have the peasants training in spear fighting formations while not working the fields. Baron Osric Celnaer is claiming that famine has taken lots of his crop and is working his peasants hard on the fields, and Barons Lakewell and Elverston had already been training their peasants as archers for about four years by now, but those are the only ones who refuse to train their peasants as spearmen in as large numbers as you wanted. Oh yes, and Baron Marthus Mirador has shown initiative in training his peasants to move effectively and efficiently, vacating and rotating entire villages within the span of hours."

"I'll have a bottle of red wine from the Shan vineyards, please," Hartwig said to the waitress when she arrived, "And my elderly friend will be drinking beer."

"You start buttering us up with good news and now you're attempting to flatter me by drinking wine made by my peasants," Raethus said. "What's the bad news? How bad is it?"

"The other Earls won't be as prepared for a war as we would be. No matter how fast we move our armies, if we're the first ones there and have to meet the entire Eredal forces by ourselves, we'll be outmatched. Earl Ballus Clearden is trying his best, but his barons can be unruly. As with the barons of Nargon, Runhild's grandson Afoth - your brother in law, my lord. The Earl of Galbror, despite paying his taxes and helping quell minor rebellions, is likely to side with Eredal, alongside most of his vassals. That idiot glutton who inherited Eriport wastes his time drinking and whoring and will be woefully unprepared for the Third Galbror War. The Barons nearest the Hyst Forest are too concerned with Lemmurath to risk moving their armies to the Crebehl Forest for the war. It would take a miracle to win this war."

@ Alfred: "I'll try!" Garry shouted back, much louder given that you're closer now. The storm is getting worse and worse, and the boat is starting to tip on it's sides. Garry went down on his knees and the elbow of his good arm and began crawling towards the hatch to below deck.

"You should get below as well, Cap'n! Artie can handle the steering for the time being, and you don't want to end up injured like me!" Despite the fact that he was merely five feet further away from you when he shouted that, he was much quieter and barely audible. Bright blue lightning kept striking in the air around you and striking the sea nearby you, narrowly missing the ship.

[Tikobe]

Othan

"I see. No surprise, honestly. If Crebehl Forest were such an easy battle to fight we wouldn't have need to plan a third war, let alone having to fight two. With how things are the outcome of the war will likely hinge on the beginning: If we can buy time for the other Earls to properly prepare, we may have a chance of turning the tide in our favor. Clearden and Nargon will be our most reliable allies for support. If Earl Ballus and Afoth were to be given the time they need to round up their barons and subsequent forces Kallian and I could try to unite the three territories to form a coalition army out of the forces of Clearden, Nargon and Mallowater. With a proper working relationship between us three I believe the strength of Orevod's forces can be put to their best use. In the end, the only matter to worry about is Eriport's actions, but that is a topic we can save for later," I announce as my eyes drift to Raethus.

"The challenge therefore is how we can afford the time Clearden and Nargon needs. Sir Raethus, have you brought a map of Crebehl Forest for us? And at the same time can one of us here tell me how Eredal fares? I can hardly believe that we'll be the only side in this war saddled with these kinds of issues."

[Bannanachair]

@ Othan: "That's what I was thinking as well, my lord, though we would also be aided by the Barons sworn directly to Ostcliff," Hedrek said.

"Of course I've brought a map," Raethus said, laying out on the table first his map of Orevod and then his map specifically of the Crebehl Forest.

"Eredal is much less centralized than Orevod is, though it is much more powerful," Hartwig said. "Any of their Dukes would have an army larger than that of two Orevodian Earls, and there are nine Dukes to our five Earls. We thankfully won't have to deal with the entire army of Eredal, however: The Owl King's personal levies raised from around Belgate, the Earl of Galbror, who to them is the Duke of the Crebehl Forest, the Duke of Strongvale and the Duke of Estermere will hopefully be all that we have to face.

"The Duke of the Truqolp Mountains won't move his army for fear of Goldport being attacked by Cyclopes, and the Duke of Spiderwood has similar concerns of his own. Of the others, I'd wager that the Duke of Clovewood and the Duke of Cannersley might be tempted to join the war for their king with proper incentives, which will doubtless be provided if it seems that we're winning the war. The Duke of Cainfield has his head too far up his arse to be bothered with joining in the fight. None of my agents in Faerseton have gotten back to me, so I think that they may have been compromised in some way."

(https://imgur.com/47zypRL is one of the maps, I haven't made the other yet)

[Tikobe]

Othan

(I'm so pissed because I accidentally deleted all of this and had to retype it)

Damn. If one Duke is greater than two Earls than facing three Dukes is like fighting over six Earls and we don't even have six, let alone a guarantee that we can have all of Orevod's military might. To make matters worse, if things go too well we'd have another two Dukes to face. That's not even noticing the obvious flaw in my strategy: If my plan is to buy time for Clearden and Nargon, who so happen to the two closest territories to the Crebehl Forest, then the fact that Ostcliff and Mallowater are the two territories farthest away from there is an obvious bother.

"There are two routes to take if we are to move to the Crebehl Forest: The first is through Eriport and down to Nargon, while second is to move around the Qrihst mountains to Gagh Buldir and then to the same destination of Nargon. However, the choice should be obvious since I would rather not deal with Eriport and the city is too far from Ostcliff. So, at the very least we know that when the war starts we should take the route to Gagh Buldir. However, how do we set things up so that we can follow the strategy and counter the problem the distance provides us? Furthermore, if we were to launch and attack from Nargon wouldn't it be too obvious?" I say, as I move into the next part of my speech.

"How about we employ this strategy: Mallowater will station some of it's forces in Clearden itself, and I'm talking as soon as we can. That way, once war is declared, the small force we have in there can band together with whatever Clearden can muster up. They'll march straight to Galbror, though it is likely that they'll meet resistance at the border here, away from Nargon. This would be nothing more than a distraction with the goal of supporting the Mallowater-Ostcliff forces that will march through Nargon straight at the border here, some distance away from the Mallowater-Clearden forces that launched the initial attack. Hopefully, by doing so we'll have convinced Eredal into thinning their defenses at the location where the Mallowater-Ostcliff units attack, giving us a foothold in the area. My hope is that by having the Mallowater-Ostcliff forces catch them unawares we'll open a window of opportunity just wide enough that Nargon and Clearden can prepare their forces and join with us at the invasion point near Nargon. At least, that's the hope. We'll need to get the cooperation of Clearden, Nargon and Ostcliff on the matter, and that may be more difficult than we want. Then again, this only an idea. I hope to see what we finally settling on being something different than what we've planned."

One thing I purposefully neglected in that proposal was a matter of manpower. Does Mallowater even have the forces to divide it's forces like that? Probably not, or at least not effectively. That being said, depending on how things go, this can be easily answered by implementing a draft. Of course, if I were to say such things Hedrek and Hartwig would be at my throat, so I'll instead just toy and flesh out the idea in my head for when we need to use such a thing.

[Duck14]

Alfred

I looked up at Artie again. I was serving no use up here either and there was no way I was getting up to the helm given the state of the stairs. But could I leave the navigator, of all people, out here on his own? Well, if he got swept away we would know soon enough by either hitting a rock or having the ship tile over. I waved to get Artie’s attention and indicated by pointing that I would make my way down below with Garry.

[Bannanachair]

(Sorry I've been slow to reply, I've not been feeling too well lately.)

@ Othan: "So where would our navy be?" Hedrek asked. "If we're sending troops to Clearden, it would seem that we'd also be sending ships there, but if we send our ships to Clearden it would be fairly difficult to perform a naval blockade of the enemy forces. If we send our army to Clearden by land that would simply waste too much time and too many resources. As a counter-proposal, I suggest instead making landings somewhere in the Crebehl Forest, maybe here or here," Hedrek pointed at two places that looked promising for such a strike, "and we'll close in from the north-east while forces from Clearden come in from the south-west and from Nargon come in from the north-west."

"That's a bad plan, Hedrek," Raethus said in response to Hedrek's counterproposal. "You'd leave our troops in the middle of enemy territory with no supply lines, surrounded not just by Galbror but by any armies from the rest of Eredal that come along to aid our primary foe. If Galbror were our only enemy that would be a perfectly fine plan, but if Galbror were our only enemy we would have won the war twenty years ago anyway."

"Either way," Hedrek replied, "stationing our troops in Clearden and Nargon would be a drain on their resources and that wouldn't help us in our fight at all. Sure, they'd have food and supplies, but enough for their armies only."

"We're also not factoring in the distinct advantage that we have over them," Hartwig added. "Our army is going to be led by a dragon that breathes lightning and controls storms, theirs isn't. The Great Dragon Nizeston, in addition to being our leader, is also our greatest tactical advantage, and would certainly greatly alter any strategies that we employ."

@ Alfred: Artie, drenched in rainwater, didn't see or acknowledge what you indicated, being too busy staring at the lightning in the sky striking the river all around you and steering clear of currents that would be dangerous to the ship.

[Duck14]

Alfred

It was no use staying outside, not when Artie couldn’t even see us. I united myself from the rope and scrambled toward Garry as carefully as I could. He was weaker than I so I supported his weight with my own and pushed us towards the hatch. Getting below was by far the safest route.

[Bannanachair]

@ Alfred: Garry winces in pain at every movement that his shoulder is forced to make, and the boat continues rocking and tipping, the wind continues howling and the thunder and lightning continue to burst out loudly. As you're nearly at the hatch, a powerful wave breaks out, sending water tumbling all over the deck, throwing you and Garry another thirty feet away from the hatch. Garry screams in pain as the water enters his wound, and on your lips you taste salt.

[Duck14]

Alfred

I swear profusely under my breath as the storm pushes us further away from the hatch. It was no use, everything was fighting us and we weren’t winning. I glanced at Garry’s bloody shoulder, he wouldn’t last much longer out here in this state. He had to get inside. “Garry, I’m going you to bite your hand and calm down,” I said before grabbing him by his back and legs. I wouldn’t be able to carry him far but I had to get to that hatch.

[Bannanachair]

@ Alfred: This time, you managed to carry him to the hatch and open it, and two other crew members - Arvid and Gerhard - are there to help you pull Garry down. "This is a bloody bad injury," Gerhard says in reference to the wound on Garry's shoulder. All the flesh has been ripped away from it and the bone is jutting out at an awkward angle.

[Duck14]

Alfred

I gaze at the wound for a moment before replying. “You’re telling me. See to it that he gets tended to best you can. I left Artie at the helm, the storm is bad but he’s tied himself to the railing.” I took a seat puffed from my own venture outside. It was dry down here which made my wet clothes feel wetter than they had above.

[Tikobe]

Othan

"Hmm, perhaps Hedrek's idea isn't as bad of a plan as we think, assuming we do it in a much smaller scale than what Hedrek proposed. Right here in the north-west is a piece of territory that juts out just past Galbror. If we can convince Ostcliff's forces to move into Clearden, we can make three fronts: At the south-western part of the Crebehl Forest is a united Clearden-Ostcliff front led by Nizeston himself. This will be our largest front and it's goal is to take advantage of the astonishingly short distance between Galbror and the Crebehl Forest's border at that area. By having a large army led by a dragon, we can send Eredal into a panic and trick them into focusing most of their manpower to intercept the Clearden-Ostcliff front. The next front will be the Nargon front, which will attack that piece of land I've mentioned from the land. This will be supported by the third and final front, the Mallowater front, which will attack that same piece of land but instead of attacking it from the land we'll use our navy to position troop on it's coast," I say, as I circle the piece of land that points into Orevod. "With Eredal focused on the Clearden-Ostcliff front it'll be easy for us to capture this land, and once we have it, the distance between Galbror and the border closest to where our now united Nargon-Mallowater front will be is about the same distance as it is between Galbror and the south-western border Nizeston is attacking. At this interval we will march straight to Galbror itself. With a second army attacking them, my hope is to break them with the sheer amount of pressure of fending off two armies and crack their defenses just enough that we can capture Galbror and with it have a base with which we can capture the rest of Crebehl Forest."

I take a breath and relax a bit in my chair. I haven't mentioned why the second army would be so intimidating, with plans like killing all of the prisoners and throwing their bodies at the enemies in an attempt to rout them, but I had no intention of speaking this in front of Hedrek and Hartwig. Of course, there were other flaws, and those I will speak of.

"I don't, of course, expect it to be this easy. To begin with, our Nargon-Mallowater front will be a bit lacking in numbers. We can mend this if we can convince Eriport to join our endeavors. Of course, considering Eriport, this is easier said than done. I will have to ask Kallian to start fostering relations between Mallowater and Eriport. Furthermore, while it may not be as challenging to move the Ostcliff army to Clearden and to set up supply lines to support that army, how will we move Nizeston to Clearden without provoking Lemmurath? And on the subject of that particular dragon, what shall we do about him? The central south may be too busy with Lemmurath to provide any support to us, which cuts our number considerably. Furthermore, it was because of Lemmurath that we failed to completely capture Galbror in the first place. It may be more prudent to, before we start any war, attempt to dispose of Lemmurath first."

(Not gonna spellcheck this one because the mousepad on my laptop keeps acting up and fucking me over so sorry for any mistakes.)

[Bannanachair]

(Gagh Buldir are actually just ruins of the ancient Cyclops empire, not an inhabited area. Sorry for that confusion.)

(I'll reply later today, I'm very jetlagged and I'm too tired to make a military strategy right now, much less think of three different people's military strategies which are all different and account for the moral codes of two of them which, despite being stricter than yours, are actually slightly different to eachother.)

[Tikobe]

Jun 24, 2018 5:15:30 GMT -4 Bannanachair said:

(Gagh Buldir are actually just ruins of the ancient Cyclops empire, not an inhabited area. Sorry for that confusion.)

(I'll reply later today, I'm very jetlagged and I'm too tired to make a military strategy right now, much less think of three different people's military strategies which are all different and account for the moral codes of two of them which, despite being stricter than yours, are actually slightly different to eachother.)

(You good, take your time.)

(Fixed the Gagh Buldir mistake. Now it says "central south," meaning the area around the Hyst Forest.)

(That being said, what are Raethus's morals? I know that he's my friends and probably supports my actions, but do I know of any differences?)

[Bannanachair]

@ Alfred: Below the deck, the ship continues to rock and turn, and you can still hear the thunder crackling outside. Your passengers, merchants and their families for the most part, are all visibly terrified just at the sound of the thunder outside, and the appearance of Garry as damaged as he is was not helping things in the slightest.

One of the merchants, a rather tall Vrelonian, noticed you come down and decided to speak to you. "Captain," he said, "What the hell is up with this weather? Some of these men brought their gods-damned families, and your first mate's going to need to get his arm amputated from the looks of things!" It didn't look to you like he'd need to get his arm amputated if he gets medical care as soon as possible, but this man may have a different opinion of that.

@ Othan: "And how do we go about slaying Lemurrath? He's older and larger than Nizestan, and nearly slew him during the War of Gagh Buldir. Runhild may have slain Esulnoc, but Esulnoc was younger than Lemurrath and Lemurrath now would be larger than he was back then. Besides, Runhild's dead, and his grandkids and their kids aren't the fighters that he is," Hedrek said. Hedrek first gained prominence during the War of Gagh Buldir when he was young, fighting on the front near the Hyst Forest.

[Tikobe]

Othan

"Relax, Hedrek. I wasn't saying that Lemmurath was an immediate concern of ours, nor was I saying that it was something we even had to do or that I even intend on doing in the first place. I merely decided to bring up the topic for the good of the conversation. It is true that he's a severe annoyance to anything that Orevod does, but right now I think we'd need to fight separate battles and not take on Lemmurath and Eredal at the same time. Now, let us move past Lemmurath for there is much that needs to be said and none of it will happen if we focus on a dragon who may not even get involved."

[Duck14]

Alfred

I held out a hand as I prepped my pipe. Stalling was the best way for me to come up with something to say. The people were scarred, te merchants, the sailors, and their families. If I feigned an air of confidence it would ease the mood a little, or so I hoped. I lit the pipe and took a swift puff before replying.

“The storm? It’s fierce and out of season. But you lot signed up for that. We knew there was a storm on the horizon, just not one this large. I can’t control the weather.” I paused and took another puff. “I’ve been sailing this river for more years than I can bother counting at the moment. Probably more than 30, I think. But the point is that I’ve been sailing for a bloody long time. Not once have I lost a ship to a storm and you can bet your arses that we won’t lose to this one. Don’t worry, I’ll get you and your families to the other side, even if means having you all tied to my back.”

“As for him,” I jabbed the pipe in Garry’s direction and now spoke to everyone. “I’ve seen worse scratches. But if someone wants to make themselves useful and tend to that wound it would be lovely. I’d rather have my first mate in one piece.”

[Bannanachair]

@ Tikobe: (I forgot to address your question about Raethus's morals in my last post. I'm planning on writing him as being loyal to his friends and family but with no moral qualms being the guy who carries out your most gruesome orders. He'll be perceived as more honourable and less controversial than you simply because he's slightly better at politicking and does most of his shadier tactics like crop poisoning and village burning in ways that don't draw blame to him, though. As for your other two conversational partners, Hartwig is your standard honourable knight like Barristan Selmy, not averse to working with monsters but preferring not to, and unwilling to get his hands dirty at all. Hedrek, just due to his age, is a follower of Nizeston for the practical reason that he can clearly see that centralized government leads to the most good for the most people, and firmly believes that the enemy isn't the enemy army but the enemy leaders, and that the peasants are simply doing what all good peasants do and following the orders of their liege-lords.

(Also, wow, I did not intend to make Hedrek nor Hartwig major characters in any way when I first introduced them, but I am starting to really like them and I'm hoping to have them come back in use some time later.)

@ Othan: "I didn't mean to discredit bringing up Lemurrath, my lord," Hedrek said, "and I do firmly believe that he will be a problem. Not immediately, but it is better to be preemptive in these things. The fact of the matter, though, is that I just don't have a solution in mind."

"Some foreign kingdoms with dragons less noble than the Great Dragon Nizeston employ dragonslayers on occasion. When I was his squire, Runhild mentioned that he himself had squired for one such knight in Elusia. I forget his name, but I know the dragons that he's slain - Mosocron the Nocturnal, Geldresdyt and Ekontyss. Sir Denkahm Graverson, that was his name! A Tedalian, not an Elusian."

"Sir Hartwig, I mean you no disrespect at all, but that must have been over a hundred years ago," Raethus said. "Tedal stopped being a kingdom at almost the same time as Mallowater, some of its land becoming Vrelonian and one or two duchies joined Legia. I don't recognize the names Geldresdyt nor Ekontyss either, and I've read every catalogue of dragons written this century. Mosocron the Nocturnal sounds familiar, but I'll have to do some research in the library to jog my memory of who he is."

"No need," the grizzled warrior replied, "Mosocron the Nocturnal was a fearsome black dragon that lived in a swamp far to the north-east of here in what was then the Duchy of Sivil in the Kingdom of Tedal, but would nowadays be on the northern border of Vrelon and Slairis. He was cunning and cruel and wicked, and would redirect unsuspecting travelers away from the road and into his swamp, where he acquired a love of the chase. He would keep his prey up all night, haunting them and chasing them, and then finally eating them alive with the sunrise. Before that he had done the same thing in various parts of Legia (including , and before that he lived in Vrelon for some years, and I think he may have been born in Eredal, though I don't actually know for sure. He may have also been in Traketus very briefly, but most accounts of most dragons simply specify the colours of the scales and the size of the dragon rather than trying to find out the name of the dragon, so these chronologies get hard to keep track of.

"Anyway, instead of simply chasing out the dragon, the duke of Sivil at the time, Duke Hunum III, petitioned the king of Tedal for a force to kill Mosocron. So King Tahrir sent a force of twenty of his best-trained knights to augment Hunum's forces. He was Tahrir IV or V, I think. The boy one who died at twenty. Hunum accepted the twenty men and sent them alongside his twenty best men into the swamp to find Mosocron. For the first week that they were in the swamp, they couldn't find the Nocturnal Beast, but he could find them. Then, every night for the next thirty-five nights, a man from the expedition would go missing. Eventually there were only five knights left, and the five knights knew that they would only have five nights left to live, so they left.

"One of those knights was Hunum's only son, a man named Viluhm. To avenge his fallen friends, Viluhm asked his father and the king for eighty men, and they each gave him forty men. Keep in mind that none of these men were untrained peasants, but each and every one of them a proven fighter. With his new troupe of eighty men, Viluhm set out into the swamp again to look for Mosocron, and again the knights vanished night by night. Viluhm wasn't stupid, however, and as such ordered his men to pair off so that one would always watch another. This time, when a man would go missing, his partner would be found blinded, his eyes taken out by acid and his face scarred, but the man otherwise intact. Then the injured man would be taken the next night. After seventy-five days in the swamp, looking for Mosocron, Viluhm left again, and his father gave up and ordered that none were to go into the swamp.

"Viluhm was unsatisfied with his father's response, as he knew that Mosocron the Nocturnal would not be deterred of humans that easily. In a last-ditch effort he wrote to the most renowned dragonslayer in Tedal, Sir Denkahm Graverson, who had already slain Geldresdyt and Ekontyss by this stage, and implored him for help. Sir Denkahm wasn't at all what Viluhm had expected, however: Where Viluhm had expected a big and powerful warrior, Denkahm was a man of average build, if a bit on the scrawnier end. Where Viluhm had expected a man who fought with a lance or longsword, Denkahm had a shortsword, two knives a bow and some arrows. However, Denkahm was Viluhm's only option, and so the two of them set out into the swamp together.

"Denkahm and Viluhm both knew that Mosocron was watching them, however, and neither particularly wanted to be eaten. So on that very first night, when Viluhm had his back turned on Denkahm, Denkahm drew his sword and used it to subdue Viluhm."

As tends to happen when old men talk of faraway kingdoms and even older knights, a number of children had gathered to hear Hartwig tell this tale. "That can't be what happened!" interrupted one such child, "Viluhm is the hero of the story!"

"Let me finish the story!" Hartwig said in response. "Anyway, Denkahm subdued Viluhm, and then called out to Mosocron, offering a deal. In exchange for some of the riches, Denkahm would help lure as many rich merchants as possible into the swamp despite Hunum's decree. 'And it would be easy for me to get some glory-hungry knights as well,' Denkahm said, 'because I could just say that they have the opportunity to succeed where I failed.'

"Mosocron considered for a moment, but that moment of consideration was all that Denkahm needed. For in that moment of hesitation, Denkahm drew his bow and blinded Mosocron with two arrows, one in each eye, and then he used his knives to cut Viluhm free as the two knights slew Mosocron together. At least, that's how Runhild told me the story, and I can only assume it to be a slightly exaggerated version of how Denkahm would have made himself sound better than reality."

(I'm sorry for getting carried away. I didn't even realize that I wanted to write this story until I had Raethus say that he hadn't heard it, and then I just wanted to give a brief summary. By the time I finished it, I realized that I actually wrote a story about a knight fighting against and slaying a dragon, and that that's a story that I've wanted to write for a very long time. On the other hand, if you enjoyed it, I guess you're welcome for the free poorly-written and entirely unedited thousand-word fantasy short story.)

@ Alfred: The Vrelonian seemed like he was going to challenge you further, but then backed down, acknowledging that you likely knew more about what was going on than he did. That being said, he was likely still one that you ought to keep an eye on, as if things keep getting worse, he might become troublesome.

One of the other merchants stood up after your speech, however. "I have some basic medical knowledge," he said in an Ayomorian accent, "but I don't have much. I'll see what I can do for him, though." Ayomor is a semi-autonomous vassal of Kraken Island, and so it is likely that this merchant may have some magical training, though he is obviously not a wizard by the way that he dresses.

"I have some salves and potions in one of those chests over there," He said, pointing at where the cargo is. "If you lads could bring me the one with the spiderwood boarding and the silver lock, I'll see if I can help save your first mate."

[Tikobe]

(No, thought it was pretty cool. And I'm glad to hear about Hedrek and Hartwig. I was getting attached to the pair.)

(By the way, fun fact: I just learn that you "nock the arrow." I used to think it was "cock the arrow." It's a good thing that I wondered about how weird that sounded or else Denkahm would've "cocked" the arrow.)

Othan

I blink unamused before giving a cold-hearted and practical criticism of the story unaware of the fact that the nearby children would be disagreeable to it.

"Obviously. If that story really did go as he claims he'd have to have the physique of a god. A moment of hesitation is no more than a blink or two at best. And yet, you tell me that he drew his bow and nocked an arrow within that short moment and could still aim accurately enough to hit the dragon's eye? Furthermore, he was able to prepare a second arrow and shoot the other eye of a dragon who would be rampaging in pain just after the first shot? Honestly speaking, that's preposterous. That being said, that is an idea we can save: Hiring dragonslayers to orchestrate the death of Lemurrath. While that seems rather perverse as a nation ruled by a dragon, if things are handled carefully enough we could achieve desirable results, and free up the forces stuck at the Hyst Forest's border. However, let us save that discussion to later, there's another matter that concerns me here."

I lean forward, a small sigh escaping me as I look to the three.

"We have to convince Eriport to prepare themselves, and to work with us when the Third War begins. As things stand I keep on viewing the Earl of Eriport as an obstacle, and he's supposed to actually be on our side."

[Duck14]

(I need to get onto writing my nobleman’s CS at some point so we can get Tim carried away about more stuff.)

Alfred

I nodded at the Ayomorian and moved towards the crates. “Thank you for you cooperation. We need to work together if we’re going to survive this adventures.” It was likely that more queries similar to that of the Vrelonian would rise if conditions didn’t better themselves soon. But for now we needed to ride the storm until it dissipated in some manner.

I sifted though the Ayomorian’s crates in search of the spiderwood chest. I had seen spiderwood in the past but not on the regular so wouldn’t recognise the wood right away. But the silver lock I would recognise.