A/N: See previous update for plan details. Author's Note at bottom of update is also particularly important, might want to check that out.
Intrigue Actions
-[X][Intrigue][LOCKED] The Pangu Opening (DC 40/60)(Costs No Action)
--[X] Assign Fuvor (Hero, +7)
Roll Bonus: 13 (Ekundayo's Intrigue) + 7 (Fuvor's Intrigue) = +20
DC 40/60
Result: 27 + 20 = 47, 1st Threshold Success!
Outside of the tent which currently housed a former member of the guard, Fuvor awkwardly stood, looking like he very much did not belong here. As used to infiltration as he was, the young man was less experienced in other elements of spywork. Interrogations, in this case. While he was waiting out here, Minister Ekundayo was doing her best to pry as much information out of Ifiok's head as she could without resorting to torture. After all, even he knew that torture didn't exactly produce the best results. Still, it was a slow process, and from what he could hear, nothing much was happening.
Though the tent was made to have as few openings as possible, with over two dozen stakes securing the structure to the ground, there was still a tiny gap in between the door flaps, enough for air to get through. And where air could get through, so could wind and
sound. So it was that Fuvor
directed the flow of air precisely enough to bring the sounds from inside to his ears.
"You know, there's not much stopping the King from ordering your head cut off. If you don't tell us why we should keep you alive, then you're just taking up valuable tent space. There are people out there sleeping under the stars or underneath the broken boats because they don't have the luxuries that you do right now. Surely you wouldn't want your fellow man to die of hypothermia just because you were so selfish, isn't that right?"
As he heard the Minister's words, he grimaced. From what little he knew of her, she would normally be a lot more subtle about this. If she was falling back onto threats, then this interrogation was
definitely not producing the results she wanted. He waited to hear anything more from inside the structure, but after a few seconds of silence, only a scoff breaking the peace. Ekundayo stomped out of the tent, looking uncharacteristically irritated at the fact that her tricks didn't seem to be working.
"That obstinate IDIOT! How is it that prying secrets from him is harder than-" she caught herself off when she saw Fuvor just standing there like he didn't belong. When she opened her mouth again, likely to ask what he was doing there, he just put a finger to his lips and
redirected the flow again to her ears as well.
For another few seconds, there was nothing but silence once more. But then, in the tiny hushed whispers of the insane, came the nugget of information they were looking for. A nugget that had Ekundayo's irritated grimace mold itself into a bloodthirsty smile.
"Just a few more days. Just a few more days, and then he will save you. Long live the Queen's true heir. Long live King Nuwa."
If it weren't for how confused you were at hearing this report on what the prisoner said, you would have been enraged yourself. "Could you repeat that, sister? What Ifiok precisely said?"
"He said, 'Long live the Queen's true heir. Long live King Nuwa,'" repeated Ekundayo, in an unusually stern tone. Had you the brain capacity, you might have pondered whether this odd attitude of hers was something new, or something she developed when working undercover for your mother. Instead, all of your thoughts endlessly repeated the word,
What?
"Nuwa," you repeated, still barely comprehending what was being said. "Member of the royal family, Nuwa. First Heir of Queen Ulu, Nuwa. The Dead
Princess, Nuwa." How? How in Creation did one of your guardsman believe a random man telling him that he was the deceased princess,
when everyone had seen her corpse? Yes, no one knew about how she precisely died, but they were able to confirm that she very much WAS deceased when her head, limbs and entrails were splattered in front of the gates of the city in the morning! You as well as every sorcerer and coroner in the nation had studied her body, and confirmed through every test possible that it was indeed your grandniece!
HOW COULD SOMEONE BE SO STUPID TO BELIEVE A LIE LIKE THAT?!
"We, ah," the Air Aspect, who was also standing in the room fidgeted, putting his weight on each leg at different intervals. "We suspect that whoever this person was, he might have told Ifiok that the corpse found was a fake, and that he… was… well, we call them 'Devotees of Danaa'd' sometimes…"
When you looked further puzzled, Gwai who was standing there with you leaned in and explained the hidden meaning.
Ah. Yes, you supposed that with all of the magic available out there in Creation, changing something like…
that was also in the cards. But it was still a story that required a lot of mental stretching to believe! And besides, you had
confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt that the dead body was hers!
"Before you get into hysterics," said Ekundayo, breaking you out of your thought spiral, "It's entirely possible that the one who was controlling Ifiok was extremely persuasive in other ways, or was able to edit his memories while possessing him. I won't deny that the man could just be a plain old idiot, but there are other answers out there."
"Right," you agreed with her there. In your decade or so of practice as a sorcerer, you had seen a great deal of strange phenomena in the world. Something like she described was easily possible for a spellcaster of your caliber. You would need to keep an eye out for anyone else among your citizenry who had a recent conversation with a woman whose been dead for 5 years.
You have found out one of the aliases used by your enemy! With them claiming direct ties to the royal family, as well as citing an older and more substantiated (presumably) claim to the throne, it's quite possible that your crown might be their next goal…
-[X][Intrigue] Scouting Ahead (Variable)
--[X] In General (DC 20)
Roll Bonus: 13 (Ekundayo's Intrigue) = +13
DC 20
Result: 74 + 13 = 87, that's a success with 3 additional intervals!
While you were normally appreciative when your scouts had plenty of information to give you, on this day what they told you only served to strike fear in your heart. Because what they informed you of was perhaps the worst news you had heard so far since taking the throne. That
included the news that you would need to abandon a substantial number of your people to the Raksha on your boats.
"A
behemoth?" came the question, whispered between your lips. The paling scouts nodded in confirmation before their leader elaborated.
"An enormous serpent, as tall as the trees it was surrounded by, was being corralled by some tamer towards our location. Worse, this serpent had not just one head, but nine, each seeking to eat whatever poor souls were close enough to consume. It is an abomination which the fae would have loved to use against us, in Uluiru."
Taking in a deep breath, you tried to steady yourself. A behemoth as large as the trees. A distant corner of your mind tried to find a silver lining by saying that at least you found some source of wood, but… you couldn't appreciate that right now. Not when a monstrosity was potentially headed in your general direction. You had to ask, "Is there any
good news that you can tell me?"
The sergeant sighed. "Well, the good news is that the behemoth wasn't taking to being corralled very well. It kept trying to eat the enemy despite the fact that it had visible collars and everything. So, there's a decent chance that if we can remove whoever is in charge of that beast, that it could easily turn on its 'allies.' Besides that, from what little we saw, their marching progress is slow. It's going to easily be a few months before they reach us, if they want to keep the giant monster with them."
That… alright, you could do some work with a few months time. You weren't sure if it would be enough, but you at least mitigate the damage. Still, "marching progress? You mean there's an army accompanying this beast?"
The scout leader nodded again. "Yes, your majesty. They had very few cavalry from what we could see, which is how we were able to get close enough to check, but their infantry is… very well equipped. Every man without a horse bears armor and weapons more exquisite than I can describe, even if they number only a bit more than the Royal Guard in size. There is some more good news, though: Not a bow in sight, which we found very odd. Maybe there is a cultural stigma against ranged combat?"
"Judging by all of the crossbows we took possession of, I doubt that is the case," said Gwai in a dry tone. He and Ekundayo were both here to listen in on the report and give their own suggestions for future plans.
"Then I don't know why there aren't any, sir. Maybe their ranged infantry are very sneaky, maybe this commander just doesn't like them. But it's still weird, is all I can say."
"And the commander," said Ekundayo, who was resting her chin on her hand, still kneeling. "Did you see them?"
Your scouts just shook their heads no. Well, you couldn't ask for everything, you supposed. Still, you greatly appreciated the risk they took to bring this information to you, even if you hated the contents of it.
Normally, I wouldn't have given information regarding hostiles like this without the correct option, BUT! Due to a particularly high (97) warband roll (that is to say, the rolls I do generating them, rather than the public rolls that are done for defeating them), a large enemy force is heading your way for Turn 3. This warband will require most of your armed forces to fight off, and thus we will be using mini-turn rules to resolve it. Here's what your scouts were able to find:
- There is a very large War Hydra (Roll: 89) heading your way to mess stuff up, putting it mildly. It's big enough to tackle all of your general troops put together (Size 4). It is VERY unruly (Quality 0) and likely to turn on its compatriots if its handler is killed. Who's the handler? You don't know yet.
- Your enemies have multiple battalions of elite melee infantry, some carrying spears (Black Guard of Naggarond; Roll: 64), some swords (Har Ganneth Executioners; Roll: 84), of low but unknown numbers. They are well-equipped, particularly the sword-wielders who outnumber the spearwielders.
- For whatever reason, they have little cavalry, and no ranged units. Blame the dice on that one (25 and 8, respectively). It does mean that they won't be able to pelt your units from far away, and no counter for your own archers.
- If this force is successfully dealt with, all subsequent warbands will suffer a -20 penalty for the next 5 turns due to unit depletion, and also to compensate for the bad luck.
Oh, and they also found a forest very deep inland. It will be quite a distance to travel to, and with it currently being occupied by the above army it's inaccessible, but hey, it's a source of wood!
Unlocked… a lot of Martial Actions to get ready.
-[X][Intrigue] Scouting Ahead
--[X] At the Settlement (DC 30)
Roll Bonus: 13 (Ekundayo's Intrigue) = +13
DC 30
Result: 30 + 13 = 43, Success!
Unlike their compatriots, the "surveyors" you sent back to the settlement they found earlier in the year weren't able to bring back much information. Evidently a heavy guard patrol had been established for an otherwise small village for unknown reasons, denying them any access without a highly risky infiltration. Still, they were able to figure out a hidden path to the settlement that would make approaching it easier.
DC for this specific action has been reduced by 10 (DC 30 -> 20). Your scouts were also able to confirm that this random settlement has a larger-than-necessary military force present. They are pretty sure (Read: I am telling you) that they will not join up with the Turn 3 massive warband.
Piety Actions
-[X][Piety] On the Fount (No Roll)
To be continued in "Turn 2.5: On the Fount"
-[X][Piety] Ask the Earth Elementals for help (DC 10+)
--[X] +20 to Ground Survey
Roll Bonus: 10 (Chinasa's Piety) = +10
DC 10
Result: 57 + 10 = 67, Notable Success!
It seems your decision to appoint Chinasa to this position paid off greatly. Under her direction, the various priests present were able to speak with the Gem-Lords who lived within your walls. Promising them a home in whatever mines are located within the local area (not including the distant mountains), they sent their servants to give their all in locating such a space. In addition, they felt generous enough to convert cold dirt into substantial amounts of stone, enough to be used for future projects.
The Earth Elementals will add +20 to the Ground Survey action. You gained +1 Stone!
Author's Note: For those wondering about the interrogation, what Ifiok was essentially implying was that he was approached by the Heart-Eater, who through some (likely mind-controlly) means managed to convince him that
- He was in fact Princess Nuwa, Queen Ulu's actual designated heir,
- That the body that was discovered was a fake,
- And that he was in fact a transitioned transman.
The first two details are not true, Ifiok is just a weak-willed idiot. You kind of have to be lacking in the willpower department to be a Pawn in the first place, assuming no charms are taken to remedy that. The transgender part actually is true, but it's a detail being intentionally misused here by the Heart-Eater in order to gain credibility in Ifiok's eyes. I am admittedly a bit worried about the response some might have to a character claiming a trans identity in order to gain temporal power, but I hoping to be able to navigate the subject decently enough. And in the future, I don't plan on having other trans characters assume villainous roles because I don't want to create or rely on any stereotypes. I just thought it might be interesting in this case.
As for the incoming army, it will arrive at the end of Turn 3's results, after all other actions are taken. You will have the time needed to prepare for this threat. Once all of the other results are done, we will move onto the mini-turns to simulate the fight. There are other rolls for the Warband that I did that you will not find out about until it actually arrives. If you had rolled even better than you already did, than you might have found those out, but it was a long shot anyways.
When I generate the warbands every turn, I use 2d100, except for Turn 1's fights which I created beforehand. Starting with Turn 2, if a die rolled a 95 or higher, it would create a large army which would require a mini-turn to resolve. For Turn 3, I expanded that to 90 or higher, and rolled that 97. In the future, the amount it decreases by will slim down, like to 87 for Turn 4, then 85 for Turn 5, and then go down by 1 per turn until reaching the minimum value 80 by Turn 10. In addition, whenever you do have a mini-turn encounter like this, the future Warband rolls for the next few turns will suffer a large penalty, both because I don't want to overwhelm you all with constant mini-turns, and because in-universe there are only so many Dark Elves (and other things) you can toss at a problem before you start running low on soldiers. If a penalty were to take a warband roll below 0, then there won't be a warband taking up that Martial action, and you can use it for other things.
Hope that all helps. If you have any questions or criticism, let me know.
