[X] Go on the offensive.
-[X] Approach Daurstein
--[X] Write the assembly that the moment for offensive action against Norn is here, and fleeting fast. Inform them of the state of the western army. Ask for reinforcements to secure the Nornish border and, should they deem it necessary, start proper offensive operations. Explain that the 5th is at the border of Norn around Martelnac, taking Daurstein as a defensive buffer with the goal of stopping any enemy from even stepping on Arnése soil. Stress your determination to abide by any decision and order the rightful government of the people will give you. You are merely obeying the spirit instead of the letter of your orders for a good defense by taking the rapidly changing local situation into account, not deciding how the war should be waged.
--[X] Tell Guillory to join you at Daurstein. Stress that any future offensive must pass through Daurstein, with Arnesé having the opportunity to secure a buffer. Say that you won't let the opportunity to pass and make the need to be together for Trotha's potentially superior numbers to be overcome very clear. Explain your reasoning, thus letting him on on the logic and hopefully softening any hint of presumption therein.
--[X] Send couriers/demands ahead: Offer very generous terms to the enemy officers, very, very generous terms to the enemy soldiers, and generous and reasonable terms to Daurstein ahead of your arrival, even if it might mean a slight delay. Make it clear that it is not your intent to war on the People of Norn, and that insisting on fighting will only cause unnecessary loss of life.
---[X] Potential for promise of parole from the officers involving a promise not to fight against Arne for the rest of the war, and surrender of the two field artillery, but not the artillerymen, who are free to go with the rest. These are negotiable points, but something must be done with the artillery pieces, or at least that seems to be the case.
--[X] Make sure this information is widely known, using more than one messenger, so that it cannot be hidden from either the populace or the common soldier.
--[X] Hold off on the decision on whether to assault or set up a siege until actually at Daurstein, and judge based on reactions to the surrender requests, weather factors, etc, etc.
The Fifth Army advances. While the bulk of your force moves north, messengers ride back along the northern road with hastily-written letters from you. One is to Guillory, calling on him to join you at Daurstein posthaste. The other is to the Convention, explaining the situation and your actions.
You don't think you are the most diplomatic or charming writer of letters, but damnit, it should get the job done without extraneous pleasantries. Time is of the essence. There are enough military delegates in the Convention that they should understand the realities of war.
You cross the Vaud into Norn without resistance, a feat few wartime generals can boast of. The bridge has been painted a dismal brown from the mud-thick water lapping at its stones, but it stands securely to grant you passage. The Vaud looks eager to spill entirely from its moorings. The rain seems to be growing sparser, but that is still a concern if the water keeps coming in.
You draft up a set of generous terms of surrender while on the road. Why commit to battle or siege if you do not need to? Let them think and argue while you march. You frame them in a popular sort of way, hoping to appeal to the common people of the city.
A siege is a curious game. For the defender, a swift surrender promises survival without significant hardship. Though there is generally a price to pay - supplies, munitions and funds to offer as tribute - a city that surrenders without fighting is safe from devastation. A city that falls to assault, though, can only expect a sack - a bestial episode of murder, looting and ruin, which a general in such conditions can only restrict, not prevent altogether.
Yet if one resists, an assault could be repulsed, a siege withstood. A friendly army might come to the rescue and compel your besieger to withdraw. Von Trotha is almost certainly on his way and Daurstein knows it.
For the city's authorities, the matter is simple enough. Their duty is to their people (and their property). If there is little hope of rescue, surrender is the only rational course of action. But there are other actors, other duties. The dregs of the Army owe their loyalty to the King. To surrender without a fight would be shameful. It might kill an officer's career. For the Nornish military leadership, defiance must seem attractive - especially with von Trotha likely on the way.
There is also the matter of national pride, some feeling of needing to fight and die for their King. But most people are not fanatics and Daurstein is far from the heartland.
On any other day, you'd expect them to at least try to hold out for a short while. But today is not any other day. It is the day after the Army of the West has suffered the most devastating loss in its history and been robbed of near its entire command staff. You are moving swiftly and capitalizing on their shock and fear.
You pray that it counts for enough. Your envoys ride out with the flag of truce once you've crossed the Vaud in full. Karo Bonnaire wins the honor of carrying your message in with a small retinue after his exploits at Brutet. He takes the time to put on a clean uniform and scrub his buttons until they shine for it. What that is intended to accomplish when he must still cross miles of muddy plain in the rain is beyond you.
You near the city hours later to find, to your relief, that they've honored the flag of truce. It should not be a concern, but you are not, strictly speaking, to your credit, an elven aristocrat. Bonnaire has delivered your demands, and then there is nothing to do but wait. You set up your tent on a hill overlooking the city and occupy yourself with studying the lay of the land.
Daurstein is a sizeable town, squeezed in between the river and forest-brown hills which run like waves towards the east until they cross an invisible line and transition with abrupt sharpness into the black mountains of the great Markwald. The horizon in that direction is choked with rumbling storms, but they are headed away, unless the wind turns on you.
Thanks to your maps and some of your soldiers' local knowledge, you can read the history of the town in its architecture. It's centered on a low hill and descends down its slopes like a flowing skirt. The tightly-packed nested alleys at its highest point are what remains of Daurstein's old town, which supposedly had its houses get burnt down by a dragon in the 1100s. You suspect more mundane causes are to blame, but who knows? That's ancient history.
That particular event is commemorated in the sturdy stone gate on the southern side, facing you directly, which once allowed passage through the medieval walls. There used to be a big old statue of a dragon atop it, but it was blown to smithereens in some war or another, so now only the name remains. Perhaps for the best. If it comes to a battle, you'd hate to blow it to smithereens yourself.
The town's long since spilled past the
Drachentor, in any case. Now its environs are guarded not by walls, but a series of low bastions that could catch anyone trying to march straight through in deadly enfilade. They're far from impenetrable, but without siege guns or sappers, your only option would be to scale the walls and clear them at close quarters. A nasty business, that, even in ideal conditions.
From this distance, there are few signs of life in the town itself, little motion to see. Daurstein looks like a model of a city dropped into the mud. But you know there are some 40,000 people inside its borders. A considerable prize, especially if it falls without a fight.
***
In the end, they deliberate on it for four hours. The Fifth spends this time grumbling and shivering in the rain. The guns are arranged for a massed barrage against the city's defending bastions in case they refuse the terms. It would be bloody, but you have no doubt that you would overcome the enemy if it came to that.
But these preparations end up being unnecessary. Colonel Bonnaire returns with the city's representatives to meet you in the no-man's-land.
Their envoys are a weary-eyed elven officer in an uniform still faintly stained with mud and blood alongside a gloomy dwarven burgher with silver chains hung over his broad stony chest, some kind of mark of status.
"General Durand," the elf says, not waiting for Bonnaire to make introductions. His Arnesé is smooth and aristocratic. "I am Colonel Franz Friedrich von Oesch, 90th Elven, Army of the West. We have received and considered your terms of surrender. As the most senior officer of the Royal Nornish Army, together with the chosen representative of the Daurstein
Meisterrat,
Herr Kastler, I am to relay the following..."
He pauses, seeming to grimace.
"For the most part, we find your terms acceptable. However, we cannot in good conscience allow the King's cannons or the city's defenses to be taken intact by the enemy. As such, I must demand that we be allowed to withdraw the guns," the elf says. "In other regards, we find the terms satisfactory. We would ask one day's time to prepare for a withdrawal from the city. If these points are agreeable to you, we have an accord."
Well, well. You got what you wanted - more or less. You wonder at the conflicts within the city that must have raged on during those four hours. The elven colonel does not look like he wanted this particular duty. The dwarven burgher, on the other hand, looks rather relieved.
Current terms:
-Enemy troops are allowed withdraw with their arms, supplies and cannons without harassment until they reach the Raoille river
-The Fifth Army does not come into the city and any looting and raiding in the local area is curtailed
-The city is not forced to provide supplies, munitions, coin or recruits to the Fifth Army
-The city garrison disarms and is given their liberty
-The city takes no action to bar the Fifth Army's passage or hinder its operations in the area
[] Accept these terms. This is more or less what you wanted. You accept the terms.
[] Insist on the guns. They are in no position to negotiate. The guns are yours or they will pay for them in blood.
[] Demand the guns are destroyed instead. A compromise solution may satisfy their notions of honor - they'll wreck the guns before they go, preventing either side from making use of them.
***
