Taking Tea
Fourteenth Day of the Second Month 294 AC
Although two armies march as allies down the road to Gornath, they do not truly march together. One is of the living, the other of the dead, and once the danger is past they keep a bowshot's distance between them like the
shadow. Oh, there are practical reasons invoked on the side of the legion, mostly to do with the skittishness of horses, draft beasts in particular that make up the logistics of the column, but it does not take much to realize that the soldiers are every bit as uneasy as horses might be at the presence of the risen dead.
For most it is the first time encountering such beings and for the handful who have some prior knowledge of wights and specters, the experience is surely not good. Even among the officers, the prevailing opinion for those of Sathar seems to be 'glad they are on our side but not too close
at our side.' An understandable position perhaps, but not a productive one.
As evening falls at the end of a day of marching that would have left an army broken with exhaustion if not for the aid of sorcery, you invite Ser Gerold and his War Council to join you and Ser Richard to speak at length with Queen Namaaru of Sathar about common tactics, not just of tactics and how best you might meet the challenges of battles to come, but of strategy, of the reasons to fight and how they might come to an end.
Ser Richard unbends enough to give the older knight an encouraging look. "It's not the custom for the Sarnori to take weapons when speaking to royalty at least, so you won't have to worry about where you left them." He wisely forebears to mention that the weapons would not do much good against the queen regardless.
***
Unlike the ordered square of the legion camp, guarded by walls newly raised with Titan Tools, the dead have no need for shelter to keep the wind and rain off, nor fire to warm the night and so they wait, row upon motionless row, for the dawn to arrive and their allies to march again. Yet the queen cannot stand in the field like a gold-shrouded statue of elder days. There is a tent, likely traded for months or years before you cane to Sathar, Yi Tish silk dyed Tolosi yellow. Here still you find the giants with elephantine heads standing vigil as they did outside the queen's palace.
Inside, servants lay out tea in porcelain cups that seem too delicate to be any older than the tent, but by the mark of flowing maroon mongooses upon them you suspect they are older than even the yellow dynasty or the fall of Sarnor. You wonder what Ser Gerold would say if you explained he is likely drinking from the queen's own grave goods.
Queen Namaaru herself rises to greet you courteously, doing so with Gerold and his officers also, each by proper rank. "It is pleasing to see that you were able to draw the poison of the rat from the veins of your soldiers in good time. Do you need further aid from us?"
"No, your majesty, we have seen to the matter sufficiently by ward and caution, though there is much yet to discuss in the wider context of the battles to come."
What kind of cooperation do you propose?
[] Mixed mage circles, allowing the Sathari priests to focus on countering enemy mages while your sorcerers attack directly
[] Mixed scouting with Wyverns spotting for chariot probes
[] Write in
OOC: Not much of a vote unfortunately, but it's too late for me to roll the next engagement, so I decided to focus on more world building including a bit from Yi Ti in the form of ancient porcelain. Not yet edited.
