[X] Do something else.
-[X] When the Chosen returns, make him an offer. Since you were both played against the other by the sowing men, you will show them the consequences of trying to trick their betters
-[X] Together follow the river down to strike at the Great Hearth, punish the plainsmen and claim tribute for Makar and their ancestors alike
-[X] If the Chosen doesn't accept decide on the battle plan once you see his army
If it's only getting an ugly fad, come on guys, why not switch? What's the point in fighting the Makarites now? Even if we win, we haven't gained anything; if we lose, we lose everything. Better to just cut out losses by trading.
Right now the question is what do we do if they refuse our offer to team up and screw over Brushcrest together. Some people want to fight, others think that the chance of losing everything is too high and would rather trade.
Converting the sheet now, then we will see if he bites.
Adhoc vote count started by Azel on Apr 30, 2019 at 2:36 PM, finished with 6029 posts and 41 votes.
[X] Do something else.
-[X] When the Chosen returns, make him an offer. Since you were both played against the other by the sowing men, you will show them the consequences of trying to trick their betters
-[X] Together follow the river down to strike at the Great Hearth, punish the plainsmen and claim tribute for Makar and their ancestors alike
-[X] If the Chosen doesn't accept decide on the battle plan once you see his army
[X] Do something else.
-[X] When the Chosen returns, make him a counter offer. Since you were both played against the other by the sowing men, you will show them the consequences of trying to trick their betters
-[X] Together follow the river down to strike at the Great Hearth, punish the plainsmen and claim tribute for Makar and their ancestors alike
-[X] If the Chosen doesn't accept then:
-[X] Accept the deal.
--[X] Give up one unit of warriors, picked by the Chosen.
---[X] All Greenvalley warriors will swear blood-oaths to never teach anyone their skills.
[X] Try to flee. You still have a day before his warriors are in Riverbend. -[X] Flee immediately to keep as large a distance to the pursuers as you can.
[X] Do something else.
-[X] First of all, fucking merk that chosen.
-[X] As in the previous plan, juke east towards the river. Do not cross the river, though. Head immediately south and then west, towards Makar. Their host shouldn't be too far behind their scouts; by the time they see the feint, they should be north-east of our force. Don't try to conceal our tracks heading south though; if they don't realize we're going for the god-king, they might head for Greenvalley.
-[X] Head straight for Makar, cross the river and attack the site to incite a slave rebellion. Once we've taken it, all we need to do is defeat the force pursuing and run like hell for Greenvalley.
We gathered our warriors to wipe out Bushcrest, then send them to attack the Makarites and with a bit of luck we and the Makarites will now go out to raid a village our council hasn't even heard of so far, just because it belongs to plainsmen and is a good location for both of us to raid and go hme without having to cross too much hostile territory.
We gathered our warriors to wipe out Bushcrest, then send them to attack the Makarites and with a bit of luck we and the Makarites will now go out to raid a village our council hasn't even heard of so far, just because it belongs to plainsmen and is a good location for both of us to raid and go hme without having to cross too much hostile territory.
IIRC the Mandate does not actually give us a penalty to diplo rolls unlike our earlier traits. It demanding we treat others as inferiors can manifest sometimes manifest itself as a malus. However since we know the Mandate approves of these talks I doubt it will penalize us in this scenario
Greenvalley-sheet migrated. This took longer then expected.
Take not that you will likely run a food deficit due to the rule change, since I took the opportunity to re-balance food output. For the next two turns, any food deficit will miraculously disappear in a pink cloud of system change.
We should eventually set up an outpost where the Lakefort resided, just so that noone can just walk up to Greenvalley with ease or completely undetected.
Assuming success or survival anyways.
Greenvalley-sheet migrated. This took longer then expected.
Take not that you will likely run a food deficit due to the rule change, since I took the opportunity to re-balance food output. For the next two turns, any food deficit will miraculously disappear in a pink cloud of system change.
[X] Do something else.
-[X] When the Chosen returns, make him an offer. Since you were both played against the other by the sowing men, you will show them the consequences of trying to trick their betters
-[X] Together follow the river down to strike at the Great Hearth, punish the plainsmen and claim tribute for Makar and their ancestors alike
-[X] If the Chosen doesn't accept decide on the battle plan once you see his army
On the next day, Sparrow gathered all his men again, both those fit to fight and the remaining wounded. A good few had died, their bodies burned on the spot and their heads taken to be brought to the White Halls. Why he brought them here, to the wide meadow surrounding Riverbend, he did not yet now. Maybe it was to march on a different foe, one far more deserving of a sharp blade in the chest than the River People, or they had come here to bleed and die again, fighting for their right to live and return to the valley.
Until the last, Sparrow was thinking about simply leading his warriors back up the river and home, trying to outrun their foe instead of hoping that the Chosen would like his offer, but that had changed as the scouts slowly pulled back from the advancing host. Just from the direction he would have picked to flee came the routed defenders of Riverbend. Sure, the hunters had lost a good deal of their numbers, yet it was more than enough to remain a threat if they had struck at night or when the Valley People crossed the river. And from the other side came swift boats up the river, carrying just as many hunters again, lead by the Chosen in his richly-decorated boat. That the villagers were eyeing the events curiously didn't fill Sparrow with much hope if things turned sour.
As the sun slowly crept up from the mountains, the field before him filled with the warriors of the Chosen, him among the first to arrive, flanked by his guard again, but walking on his own. He bore a great shield, lavishly painted with a scene of war. Many boats were seen coming down a river, warriors running from them to the shore, burning and plundering a village. His other hand carried a spear unlike anything that Sparrow had ever seen, apparently made from a single bone of an impossibly huge beast, scenes of hunting and of war carved into its length and ending in a serrated stone tip.
After a long while, the Chosen stepped forward from his still gathering host, marching straight towards Sparrow. The warleader followed suit, having them meet on the open ground between their warriors, only their guards accompanying them. "We have come as promised. An offer was made to you, Sparrow of Greenvalley. Will you accept it or do you wish to see this matter resolved in blood?"
Sparrow threw back another look at his warriors, silently praying to the ancestors to find the right words for this. All their lives rested on his shoulders and he barely slept under the weight last night. When his gaze returned to the Chosen, though, he was confident. Nothing else would do in this moment. "No, I will not accept, and I do wish to see this settled with blood, but neither yours or ours."
The Chosen weighed his words, a pleased look in his eyes as the implication sunk in. "Do tell us then whose blood you wish to offer Makar."
"That of the Sowing People. They have betrayed us. They plan to betray you. Whose blood would be more fitting to gift Makar and the ancestors than theirs?" The grip on his spear tightened, then he rammed it into the ground. "Let us not fight against each other as they wish of us. Let us march on Great Hearth as one and show them the strength of our people. And that they erred to try and fool us."
A few cheers went up behind Sparrow then, some forgetting the tension of the moment for just an instant and being carried away by the heartfelt words, yet the Chosen remained unmoved, looking on with a detached serenity as if expecting something more. "Have they, though?" The warleader of Greenvalley reeled back as if struck. This was neither the reaction he had hoped for, nor the one he feared. "So far the Sowing People have not broken their word to us. So would we fight a shared enemy, or would we aid you to take revenge on those who betrayed you?"
The weight came crashing down on Sparrow again, his confidence gone. He knew how to lead warriors, but not how to mince words like a councilor. "You have warred with them in the past." It was a feeble attempt, but all that came to mind. Yet he knew the response before the Chosen had even opened his mouth.
"So did you, yet here you are, on behest of your enemy. Or maybe they are not your enemy and this is but a trap for our warriors." The Chosen lifted his spear a bit, twirling it between his fingers as if in thought, yet his face showed that he did not need to ponder his words. "Is this the way of your people, then? To trust words so easily that you would die for them and expect us to do the same?"
A fresh jolt of anger shot through Sparrow's body at the casual insult, his words carrying far more heat than he would have liked. "No. But we value oaths. Broken-Shell swore in blood and on the honor of his ancestors." He paused for a moment to spit on the ground, vaguely in the direction of Brushcrest. "May it turn black and putrid for him breaking it, and may his ancestors wail in shame for having birthed him."
The Chosen's spear stopped twirling at that and a new smile blossomed on his face when he too slammed his spear into the ground. "Then hear us, Sparrow of Greenvalley. Three things we want in return for our agreement to your offer. The first, that you swear in blood and on the honor of your ancestors that this bargain will be upheld in good faith. We shall swear the same on our blood, may Makar take all of it if we brake this oath."
It took no more then a heartbeat for Sparrow to dip his head in agreement. He would have done so anyway. "You shall have this oath. What are the other two conditions?"
"The next is that we will have first right of plunder, be it people or things. You may only take what we would leave behind." Again, Sparrow dipped his head. He had considered offering this very thing to sway the Chosen if necessary. The Council might bemoan the lack of plunder when he would return to Greenvalley, but better to return empty-handed than not at all. It was the next term, though, that shocked him. "Lastly, it will be you who commands our joined warriors, but if so much as one of ours dies under your command, you will join us and serve Makar from this day until your last breath."
Sparrow's guards and a few of those warriors closer to the group began to murmur among each other. On the face of it, this term seemed insane, for even the victors of a fight would always have to mourn a few of their number. It was just the way of war that both sides bled. However, if he could command them, he could also tell them to stay back. It would mean fighting with only the warriors of Greenvalley, though, the River People just standing by and claiming the spoils. "An odd bet you would have me make. You dare me to fight without your aid or become your servant."
At this, the Chosen just chuckled. "Is not every fight a bet? Pitting our mettle against that of others, our lives the stake? We have given you terms far lighter than any other would have gotten, for we are impressed by the mettle that you've shown. No tribe has dared to attack us since ages past, let alone stood victorious before our might. Yet there is one question left to answer."
Leaving his spear stuck in the ground, the Chosen made another two steps forward, Sparrow mirroring him on instinct. For the first time, the two men stood close enough to touch the other. Close enough to strike the other. "Tell us, Sparrow of Greenvalley, was it your strength that saw you victorious over Riverbend? Or has peace bred complacency and weakness in its ranks that we need to purge? Are you people great warriors, or is only luck and hubris that makes you stand before us?"
Sparrow took a deep breath, anger again welling up within him, but the Chosen cut him off. "No. Enough words. Speak with blood or speak not at all."
What did Sparrow respond?
[] You will show him. You will take Great Hearth not only without the aid of his warriors, but not even with the help of the White Clans mercenaries. They will speak the name Greenvalley with the awe that is its due.
[] You will take his bet. Your warriors have taken twice their number against the River People, so what are the lowlanders before their might?
[] Take the deal, but don't try to win this bet. Your life is a small price for the safe return of all your warriors.
[] If it is blood he wants, you can give it to him right here and now. You won't need your spear to kill the likes of him.
[] This is a waste of time. Attack his forces. Surrounded or not, you will teach them to underestimate the Valley People.
AN: I've meant to roll over this choice by letting Sparrow pick on his own, but this does make a decent cut-off point and I don't want to let all of you wait even longer on the chapter.
this is why I dislike the plains people...at least mountain people make sense! must be all the fresh free air, even if its thin it makes people think harder and focus more.
the whole pressure of air on the plains must be the reason why they are all talky and constantly bickering...
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