By Rumble of Hooves
Thirty-Sixth Day of Ikomi-eza (Ikomi Ascendant) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)
You had never before pondered the prospect of a realm and a people skilled in martial matters ashore who do not know the horse, not really. It was to your mind easy enough to dismiss the Anwa who dwelt upon an island in the midst of the churning sea and must sail to war and not ride, but the folk of Orinilu while keeping their eyes upon the sea are not without lands held in vassalage, along the coast where the forests are their fortress just as the walls of stone and the palisades of wood.
Hengo Perys is not a man seeking horses as a curiosity, as a sign of prestige or of virility. He does so for the blood that is shared each autumn by the Yayar, riders of the horned beasts, distant kin perhaps of the Wyrdoki, though far fiercer and more numerous. Indeed, by the accounts you are given of their savagery and their rapaciousness you would think them demons in the skin of men given to fire and butchery for the sheer joy of them. "Olweje they call Great King over all the kings of their wide land and to no law but his do they bend. Wild like the north wind and just as cruel, they come with greed and with evil in their eyes, though the wise Iki-uma know to give bread with a cunning portion as well as a fair one."
"They pay tribute then," you interject, the way he had called the lords of the hinterlands wise gives you pause and makes you wonder if for the first time in your stay in the city you stand before one who is more a worshiper of Elnu than Ikomi or even Ashinu. Not that you have any reason to personally dislike the old aristocracy of the land, you remind yourself. Digging to the root of things you probably have more in common with them than you do with the merchant lords like Odorin Koire, or at least the man you were a year ago would have more in common with them, the mercenary and perhaps merchant you are now... you are not so sure.
"They pay tribute," Hengo agrees grimly. "Some have even tried to persuade some of the raiders to let go of their wandering ways and guard the land as man of old made dogs of wolves, but to this day no such attempt has gone well. Their beasts sicken and die or their fellows fall on them in raids or they seek to bite the very hand that fed them. Feh I say to them and their beasts..." he spits for emphasis upon the fine marble floor. "We shall ride against them upon the backs of horses, that are larger than their foul tempered beasts, and we shall match their horns with armor of metal."
"That would be the work of
decades of breeding our stock with the wild beasts," Antonio tempers the man's words.
"Assuming they
can breed and their offspring after them," you add, thinking of mules. Judging by the look on your friend's face that might be a bit more tempering than he had wished for, but that does not make it any less true.
"I am sure we can find something to offer our stud services to, though of course you know these forests and the trappers whom might best work on them," he adds. "The great war steeds of distant Verley shall bequeath their blood upon the beasts of this land and by their progeny shall the wreckers of fields and the destroyers of hearths be driven from the lands of Orinilu..."
And with that the fire is again in the man's eyes, almost zeal in dealing with these invaders. It is not hard to guess at Antonio's purpose, a deal that costs you nothing but bringing the horses you have to breed costs little but time and in the case of the mares the chance to use them on the field that year, but you cannot help but worry that these tribes may take ill to you handing out cavalry to the city and its dependencies.
Do you agree to the deal to loan out stallions and mares of your herds for a fee once Hengo acquires wild stock?
[] Yes (Gain 8,000 gp next year in the spring for stud services with potentially even more in the years to come if the breeding is successful)
[] No, you do not want to risk making more enemies, both within Orinilu and beyond its walls so soon
OOC: Just to be clear the 8,000 gp above do not require an action, just a commitment. The cost for the passive income is the association itself.
