Negative Stability + Max Military Malus Activated!
No one was exactly sure who was in charge, and in fact given the circumstances the possibility of no one currently being in charge seemed distinctly possible, but in any case a band of warriors had occupied the village in the lowlands just beyond the cataract that separated the People from the Highlanders. The stories coming back were not exactly coherent, with some claiming that the reason they had been gathered was for a long range trading expedition into the lowlands requiring additional escorts giving the conflict, while others said that they had in fact been actively recruited for the purpose of seizing control. In any case, it sounded like the group had approached the village as traders or in the guise of traders, someone had started a fight, and then things kept going until the People had realized that they were in control of the village because there was no one to oppose them, and the men decided that since they had fought and spilled blood over the issue they didn't feel like giving it back.
While it was just one relatively minor village, the Highlanders were obviously going to be livid. A retaliation force would obviously already be on their way, and they probably wouldn't take "Uhh... sorry, this was an accident" as an answer. While several advisors suggested just letting the fools get killed as appeasement, many others expressed considerable discomfort with the idea of just abandoning members of the People, especially when it sounded like at least some of the warriors down there had thought they were only defending themselves.
Actually, as they talked, a suspicion began to grow that there was a snake among the People who had probably engineered the incident while still keeping it not the sort of blatant attack that would have the People absolutely wash their hands of the entire incident. There were some who were counseling against just cutting the perpetrators loose as it might end with the People losing any chance of figuring out what exactly had happened. Also, given reports of how efficiently the warriors had taken out the defenders of the village with their iron weapons there was a definite degree of unease over what might happen if the Highlanders didn't wipe them out.
Given this mess of hot gygo, the king had to make a decision immediately. What to do?
What to do?
[] Let the Highlanders extract their vengeance and attempt to make amends after (-1 Legitimacy, -3 Diplomacy, possibility of war with Highlanders, chance of spawning new faction in the lowlands)
[] Attempt to capture the errant warriors and then make amends with the Highlanders (-5 Diplomacy, probable war with Highlanders)
[] Reinforce position (Conquer new province, war with Highlanders)
[] Massively reinforce position (-5 Military, founds new March, war with Highlanders)
