Since I've already commented on the votes and made my opinions known, I'm focusing on the bulk of the text.
Good to see this. Given how the stats work, I'm pretty sure we just lifted three of Sertorius's
. Not bad. That's a lot of +1s and +2s on the die rolls that Sertorius will be facing at Nola, which he would not otherwise face. At least assuming we don't accidentally drop our half of the army into a meat-grinder.
Uhoh... uh-ohhh...
Huh. Would we have been able to pull this off without Marius Himatus? Interesting to wonder. If so, we owe him, because he gave us the chance to do something impressive.
"All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?"
pointed out, I hope he watched and learned.
The Assembly of the Pentri: 1d20 +1 (Proficient Diplomacy) +2 (Accomplished Oratory) + 1 (Marius Himatus) -1 (Enemy of the Samnites) +1 (Gift of Minerva) = 22
Needed: 18
Legendary Success
Convincing the Elders: N/A (Simply put, I had another vote set up for when you lost the last one (as you were probably going to), wherin you would convince the Pentri one-by-one to support you, winning over the various factions through individual rolls of Charisma/Diplo. But, uh, someone hacked my dice, so...)
Woo! We did it! We beat what was, in effect... a DC 14 skill check when modifiers are factored in. Yaay!
Hopefully that gives us more leverage in the upcoming campaign; I don't think we could even
consider taking all four infantry cohorts with us if we hadn't swept the field so effectively here.
With the Pentri falling in line behind you, unifying the area starts becoming surprisingly easy. Even if the Samnites as a people do not wholly trust you, their elders do, and that is enough for them. Bandit raids decrease in frequency, supplies stop going 'missing', and the citizens of Bovianum begin greeting you with more than a steely glare. All that is left now, you reckon, is to defeat Gemino.
"In war, everything is very simple, but the simplest thing is very difficult."
As you march from town to town with the Gauls, you receive a favorable reception -- after all, there is little they can do against you, little they would try to do against the terrifying Gauls, and little their elders would order them to do after your oration in Aquilonia. But wherever you go, you can find no sign or word of Gemino and his bandits. The rebel seems to have vanished into thin air. Even the most talkative of your informants among the Pentri swear up and down they have heard no word of him for months. Your own forces go unharassed, and Pompolussa reports nothing but fair weather and rocky hills. It seems for a moment that the famous rebel might have actually laid down his arms, realizing he was bested when his own people turned on him en masse.
Sadly, no, he just did the usual guerilla thing: when on hemmed-in ground,
MOVE, so as to avoid "when on death ground, fight."
In retrospect this would have been a great turn to relax our securing of the supply lines and, say, build some roads or something. But hindsight is always 20/20 and all, and if Gemino had done as we predicted we'd have really needed those tightened-up defenses.
It all this and more that you begin to set down in your new journal, a diligent record of all you have done and continue to do in Samnium. Tercerus informs you that the greatest generals of yore kept journals of their conquests, and so conquered the future by writing their stories before other men, less sympathetic to them, might.
"History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it."
...Seconding the hope that Quintus Atellus thinks to include a few of his past moments. Especially the one about presenting the mural to Sertorius; that one is just too perfect to be lost to history.
In the days that go by without attack or harassment, you spend your time fraternizing and bonding with the Gauls. You would not expect yourself to get along so well with brutes and barbarians, but get along you do. With Veniximaeus toasting your name over ever fire and cheering you as the best damn Roman he ever met, it does not take long for you to build a familiar rapport with the Gallic cavalry. Soon, they are riding and working under your command as easily as if you had been born from a Gallic mother on Gallic soil. Some back in Rome might frown at such familiar association with the Gauls, of all people, but you readily accept them as your comrades.
Any Roman who'd frown at it on campaign is the kind of Roman who
deserves to get trounced. Because if they can't keep up good relations with mounted auxiliaries, they'll simply never be able to Carrhae their own weight in the field, you know?
Gallic Cavalry advances from Average to Skilled. They only act as skilled under your command, and will be treated as average warriors under anyone else.
So, we get a further +1 (bonus) with the cavalry, IF we use them as a 'personal guard' unit, say as the reserve in battle. Or if we lead reconaissances ourselves. The cavalry aren't really numerous enough to do much else. We should
definitely think in terms of mounting up and fighting with the cavalry in the coming battle.
It is in this quiet time that black news reaches you from the west. While your forces were distracted guarding supply lines and towns that, you now realize, were under no true threat, Gemino -- who, you now see, only attacked them to draw your defenses to them -- had snuck around the Roman-held territories and led his forces to the towns harassed by Tercerian, the tyrannical leader of the rebels of the Vulturnus. Painting himself as a hero of Samnium and a noble opponent of the tyrant, he traveled from town to town and rallied support there even as you were wooing the rest of the Pentri. These leaders, unable to even be present at the tribal assembly due to the dire straits of their people, believed his tales about the inaction and inefficiency of Rome, falling behind him almost to a man. His forces are replenished, nearly a thousand strong, and he now has a new powerbase, one with a bone to pick against Rome.
Huh. One of the trickiest processes for a guerilla force to navigate is the process of going from being guerillas to being a regular army. It looks like Gemino is trying this here, and it seems to be
mostly working. On the other hand, he's still vulnerable in this phase. He'll have some of the weaknesses of an army (relatively easy to find), but not the strengths of a
large army (that is to say,
strength.).
Having major numerical advantages is one of the few ways we have a goodish chance of nullifying Gemino's bonuses;
Telamon's examples cited possible -4 to -6 level penalties for being seriously outnumbered. That brings Gemino down to our level, though the famed Samnite Balls of Steel still present a problem.
If Gemino, among the finest commanders the Samnites have, assumes leadership of the rebels in the Valley, they will no longer be an ineffectual mob, but an army 4000 rebels strong -- enough to challenge your cohorts, and defeat them besides. You must either defeat Gemino or the rebels at Aesernia, before all your work in the west is undone.
As I discussed earlier... you know, I'll save that image for the omake. If I can manage it.
Suffice to say, I'd rather tangle with more talent than with more men, if I have my choice. Also, I suspect that our "Enemy in the Valley" option looks a lot like Gemino's "let my enemies fight it out, then laugh my ass off while scooping up the rewards" option.
It is in the midst of all this that word arrives from Sertorius. He has made a deal with the Hirpini, promising them land and wealth in exchange for their loyalty to Rome, and his forces advance on Nola with an army of Hirpinic auxiliaries even as he writes. Having heard of your success with the Pentri, he calls on you to rally the cohorts and meet him at Nola for the siege that will end the war -- after all, Appius has a mere 6000, and the two of you have the legion and the armies of the Hirpini, a combined 8000 battle-ready men. You just need to mop up the rebels and meet him at Nola to end the war. He trusts you will have no problem seeing such a simple matter to its' end, with your excellent successes thus far.
You could almost laugh at the irony.
Write to Sertorius [] You write to Sertorius asking for another cohort to reinforce your army. While you are well aware he cannot spare too many, a single cohort might well change the course of battle for you.
I am tempted to omake about this letter, but what's killing me is my inability to Do The Research on things ancient-Roman (and Gallic) to a standard of quality I can live with.
I might manage it anyway. Hope so.
