After seeing so many Norsemen in Wessex, i wonder if there are also some Thanes in the Danelaw.
Maybe deserters or rebels who joined the Danelaw because they disliked Alfred strong rule and liked more the hands-off style of government of the Norse.
After seeing so many Norsemen in Wessex, i wonder if there are also some Thanes in the Danelaw.
Maybe deserters or rebels who joined the Danelaw because they disliked Alfred strong rule and liked more the hands-off style of government of the Norse.
Probably a few. They'd need to swear allegiance and get given land, though, for their Cultivation to work. So they'd need to be badass enough for the Kings over there to do that for them...that'd be pretty rare.
Capturing and nonlethal combat is a lot harder than just killing them, so even if Alfred wants it we should not. We don't exactly have an overwhelming advantage.
Capturing and nonlethal combat is a lot harder than just killing them, so even if Alfred wants it we should not. We don't exactly have an overwhelming advantage.
Eh. The Noble is 'only' 4th Decade (and probably a lot less scary in a straight fight than a 4th decade Chivalric) and the person gunning for him is Heima Smiles, who is a scary dude. Saying to capture him if it's convenient shouldn't hurt anything if Alfred is on board. Saying to not kill him no matter what would be an issue, but not noting it as an option.
We could take him as a thrall? If the alternative is killing him. And he's a feudal lord, so giving him a taste of the other side of serfdom appeals to me.
We could take him as a thrall? If the alternative is killing him. And he's a feudal lord, so giving him a taste of the other side of serfdom appeals to me.
Scheduled vote count started by Imperial Fister on Aug 19, 2023 at 6:40 PM, finished with 73 posts and 7 votes.
[X] Plan The Element of Surprise Mk. 2.5: Different People For Different Jobs
-[X] Sail the Wavedancer up the river straight to the castle's walls, grabbing everyone's attention, and begin a direct assault.
-[X] ...After having stealthily deposited a strike team consisting of Heima Smiles and his eight picked wolves, who will climb up the cliff using the distraction of our frontal attack.
--[X] Heima's Instructions: Take pockets of the garrison by surprise, and ideally eliminate Tobias as he cowers behind his high walls, before attacking the walls from behind to support our attack. If he can stop any beacons being lit too, then that would be good. Avoid killing non-combatants or bringing the Priest into the fight if at all possible. We leave this up to Heima's judgement and experience.
-[X] Stigulf, Farbjorn, and their and our other elites (Lower Top or better) will be on hand to counter the enemy knights, and will actively move to engage such targets if possible.
-[X] Meanwhile, we and Abjorn will lead our troops and take the fight to the enemy Thanes and Norsemen and prepare for our kinsmen to come find us...we'll take the opportunity to go for him directly if it comes up. We will obviously adapt to situations as they arise, but this is the plan.
-[X] Ideally, the strike team attacking the walls from behind cause a collapse in the defender's morale, and and lead many to believe the castle has fallen, allowing the knights and the Norse to accept terms of honourable surrender.
-[X] Move Travel Pack to a Pocket, put Thievesbane on our belt (adding +2 Combat Pool), personally unassign all Tricks from our Fylgja and store 9 additional Basic Shields in it. Also assign Stabilizing Palm and Forceful Lever into our remaining Capacity.
I'd rather not rules-lawyer that part. Alfred the Great isn't a good enemy to have, especially when if we just do what he asks there's some hope of good relations with him at some later time, at least in principle.
Bell stealing is not something a Viking usually does but for Halla specifically who is a smith, it's the easiest way to get a large influx of raw iron as a resource without paying for it. It's even a joke that pops up every now and then in quest. XD
It's a reference to our previous bell-stealing escapade, I believe. In reality, a bell would likely be Bog Iron and we wouldn't have much use for it (we really want to use Forged Iron at a minimum on stuff if possible)...we'd just sell it.
[X] **Plan The Element of Surprise Mk. 2.5: Different People For Different Jobs**
-[X] Sail the Wavedancer up the river straight to the castle's walls, grabbing everyone's attention, and begin a direct assault.
-[X] ...After having stealthily deposited a strike team consisting of Heima Smiles and his eight picked wolves, who will climb up the cliff using the distraction of our frontal attack.
--[X] Heima's Instructions: Take pockets of the garrison by surprise, and ideally eliminate Tobias as he cowers behind his high walls, before attacking the walls from behind to support our attack. If he can stop any beacons being lit too, then that would be good. Avoid killing non-combatants or bringing the Priest into the fight if at all possible. We leave this up to Heima's judgement and experience.
-[X] Stigulf, Farbjorn, and their and our other elites (Lower Top or better) will be on hand to counter the enemy knights, and will actively move to engage such targets if possible.
-[X] Meanwhile, we and Abjorn will lead our troops and take the fight to the enemy Thanes and Norsemen and prepare for our kinsmen to come find us...we'll take the opportunity to go for him directly if it comes up. We will obviously adapt to situations as they arise, but this is the plan.
-[X] Ideally, the strike team attacking the walls from behind cause a collapse in the defender's morale, and and lead many to believe the castle has fallen, allowing the knights and the Norse to accept terms of honourable surrender.
-[X] Move Travel Pack to a Pocket, put Thievesbane on our belt (adding +2 Combat Pool), personally unassign all Tricks from our Fylgja and store 9 additional Basic Shields in it. Also assign Stabilizing Palm and Forceful Lever into our remaining Capacity.
0~0~0
After dropping Heima and his eight picked men—which consists of Abjorn, Nokkvi, Eric, Kare Ulfsson, Randolf Well-Named, Gordon Wiggles, Bo Burisson, and Halle the Hairless—off in the faering Eric gave you as a belated wedding present, you start the next step in your plan.
With the Wavedancer leading the Crush-Dragon and Golden Glimmer, you start rowing up the river Washford. There's no hiding your presence from the town of Watchet—built on the edge of the river as it is—so it's no surprise when a horse-mounted messenger races off towards Daw's Castle.
Stigr fingers his bowstring as the mounted boy gallops away as fast as he can. He lines up the shot, but tilts his head your way before letting the arrow fly, "It's an easy shot, want me to take it?"
You shake your head no, "If they're preparing for us, they won't be for Heima."
Stigr huffs and lets the arrow go slack on the string—the boy disappearing into the woods, "Fine, fine... That's gonna bite us in the ass, I bet."
"Maybe, but we're not supposed to attack mortals," you remind both him and your crew at large. Stigr grunts a wordless response as he returns to the oars.
After about fifteen minutes of rowing, you drop anchor at the river's shore. Shoe-clad feet follow as the rope-wrapped stones hit the mud. A trail of footprints follows you and your men as you make towards Daw's Castle at a light jog.
You offer a cheery wave to a shepherd tending his flock as you exit the woods into the pastures of common ground surrounding the sea-fort. He absent-mindedly returns it before his eyes fall on the shining mail on your body, the naked weapons in your grasp, and the direction you move in. His knuckles whiten around his crook as his face pales. The men share a chuckle as the panicked shepherd shuffles his sheep away from the looming battle.
As the sheep clear away and the sea-fort rises in the distance, you swallow the dryness in your throat. The gate was already closed by the time you arrived, so you'll have to scale the walls. Fortunately, you came prepared.
You stop at the bottom of the hill and roughly sixty Norsemen stop with you. Mail shines as Thanes take to the battlements with javelins in hand. A lone, well-dressed man with slicked-back blonde hair appears at the top of the wall.
"I am Lord Tobias Belanger," the Nobleman announces himself as he pears out towards you. "What brings Danes to my doorstep?"
You exchange glances with Farbjorn and Stigulf before nodding, turning back towards Tobias, you cup your hands around your mouth and call out, "We are vikings and we have come for your lives and loot!"
Tobias scowls and says something to his men. A horn is blown. The battle is on.
Heima's team had to carefully and slowly climb the cliffside in order to avoid detection, which means that it'll be some time before they can proceed with their part of the plan. Fortunately, with all eyes on you, they can make the rest of the climb in a minute or two.
Tobias Belanger is currently standing at the top of the tower-centerpiece of the fort, which gives him a good view of the battle.
There are two sets of walls, though only the inner ring is actually manned—by Thanes and Norsemen alike. All of the Thanes have javelins—and many of them, at that!—while only about three of the Norsemen carry bows. You can expect to see Norsemen pick up and throw javelins as well.
You'll have to scale the outer wall first before you can assault the inner—walls are just big fences, after all, and the power of the fence stops people from just hopping over. However, once you crest the outer wall, you'll be vulnerable to the ranged attacks of the inner wall's defenders. Before that, however, the outer wall will serve to give you cover from javelins and arrows.
Once you crest the inner wall, you'll be free to fly around as you please. You and your men brought grappling hooks along, which will be used to scale for those who can't leap that high.
On the left side of the inner wall is Louis Dubois, while Thomas Laurent and your Kinsman are on the right. You're not sure where Serge Gagnon is, but it's pretty safe to assume that he's in the courtyard—where he and his horse can have room to work. The Knightly Birds of Serge and Thomas circle in the sky—but inside the walls—waiting for the opportunity to strike.
This is your last chance to do any sort of organized planning before chaos takes control. You'll need to give orders to Stigulf and Farbjorn—or you can just leave them to their own devices.
Endurance: (13/13) | Frenzy: (5/5) (+5 to all Combat Rolls) | Armor Health: (17/17) (+4 to Defense)
Orthstirr: (520/660) | Odr: (36)
( ) Frami: 220 | ( ) Virthing: 220 | ( ) Saemd: 220
Sagaseeker has 49 orthstirr in his reservoir.
Your Armor has 13 orthstirr in its reservoir.
Shapeshifting is granting you (+1 Damage and +1 Attack-Speed)
Your combat pool is 111d6 and you have 15d6 Stoked Dice
What do you and your men do?
[ ] (Plan Name)
-[ ] (Dice) Attack
-[ ] (Dice) Defense
-[ ] (Dice) Intercept
-[ ] (Dice) (Trick) (Orthstirr)
-[ ] Tactics Write in
-[ ] (Optional) What directions do you give to Stigulf and/or Farbjorn?
It's a reference to our previous bell-stealing escapade, I believe. In reality, a bell would likely be Bog Iron and we wouldn't have much use for it (we really want to use Forged Iron at a minimum on stuff if possible)...we'd just sell it.
well, we can trade it for forged iron, and with that much Bog iron we will probably get enough forged iron even at a bad trade to make a couple of chainmails.
I wonder if we can take Tobias quickly before engaging our kinsman? if we can take him fast enough we will remove the buffs and leave the enemy with no central leader. granted, the knights will likely take command, but even the momentary confusion as command is passed might be valuable. and removing the noble speccing in buffs and battle control sounds like a good move. he is unarmored, and he isn't focused on direct combat. so we should be able to take him no easily, but not with serious difficulties either.
with our EWC, we are likely the most mobile here once we scale the walls. do we still get the longstrider kenning bonus to Overland? if we can quickly jump the walls then take to the sky we will be able to hit hard at the targets we wish to. knights don't have a lot of ranged options right? so its mostly the Thanes and birds that can hit us in the air. which isn't to be discounted of course.
now, the obvious problem- once we scale the outer walls we are trapped. if we can't scale the inner walls real fast it will become a killing field. can we maybe break the gate down somehow?
Hoo boy, Heima brought a real A-Lister crew to his shitkicker band.
We still need to be the Distraction though, and they are holing up. I'm thinking right around now is the time to basically bully them for a while with their ranged options. We especially want to get their birbs out of consideration so they're not going to catch Heima's crew.
Hrm, just out of curiosity @Imperial Fister , how wide a Standstill Net does Halla think she can cast, if she decides to focus on stopping the Javelin Volleys?
I'm definitely thinking that the birbs should be engaged as well. We can probably one-shot one of them for all intents and purposes with a Sealwood Glue Pot at least, if we can hit one--the best move I think would be to invite an attack and then Contested Movement smack it with the Glue Pot.
Hrm, just out of curiosity @Imperial Fister , how wide a Standstill Net does Halla think she can cast, if she decides to focus on stopping the Javelin Volleys?
Not wide enough to cover ~60 people, some of which may be splitting off to go hit other sections of the wall. You can probably cover about 8 or so people
