>>6184605

Five days.

It had taken five days to reach Strahnbrad.

After the kobolds had found you, you had been zig-zagging through the woods and avoiding making any noise or tracks at all. Which was really easy for Bill Rover and Pai, but for the rest of you three not so much.

Once ogres walked just a couple yards past you and the second time kobolds nearly had you, but you managed to escape. When you finally spotted the first farmstead that was occupied, you could sigh in relief, you were alive. Dirty and muddy, but alive. Though after Pai had suggested that you shouldn't just find a nearby road and walk to Strahnbrad, you had trekked one more day through the woods, avoiding the few inhabited houses and farms you saw. It was supposedly better this way, Syndicate patrols could get jumpy if they spotted you.

Now just a short distance away from Strahnbrad as night arrived, inside one of the abandoned farms, you Eligius, scribe to the Prince, spymaster and a warlock in his service, found your compatriots oddly silent. Which wasn't that unusual after what had happened the first time the kobolds had found you. After revealing to them that you in fact were a warlock, you had nailed one with a Shadow Bolt and second you froze in place with Fear. After that, no one really spoke to each other unless it was strictly needed. Everyone just kept staring at each other and observing.

A small fire had been made in the hearth to provide light and for you to have your first warm meal since leaving Dawnholme. As much as no one said it, everyone felt like they deserved the meal. Mixing the porridge in an old metal pot you had found, you added remaining bits of the dried meat and dry bread your group had in the mix. A horrible mix really, but no one would complain as everyone were quite hungry.

"How do we get inside?" You carefully asked, breaking the silence.

"Through the front gate." Pai replied back. She had been staring at you constantly, but hadn't said a word.

"Really? I would think it is being guarded." You said.

"Wanz, tell him." Pai ordered the second warlock of the group.

"Strahnbrad has four ways in. The sewers, climbing the wall, front and back gates." Otto Wanz, the former Syndicate warlock replied and scratched his poorly shaved head. "First two are instantly out, Strahnbrad is not that big of a place and outsiders are quickly spotted. So we go through the front gate."

"You have been there before?" You asked.

"Couple times, but I don't think anyone recognises me. The masks and hoods you know." Wanz replied to you and took the porridge mixing duty from you.

1/2

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>>6184606

"What about you?" You asked Pai.

"What about me?" She asked and sounded rather bored.

"Have you been there before?" You said. "And you know… outside of our knight, you are probably the most recognisable of all of us."

"I concur with Mr. Scribe." Sir Cyrus said, his Stormwind accent quite apparent as he spoke.

Pai the Assassin was beautiful, really beautiful by any standards. While she wasn't that tall, all that missing height had gone into other rather important strategic places. Not forgetting her sultry voice, you were rather sure that if she had wanted something, she could get it through her alluring ways. That was how she had controlled her previous group of assassins and underlings.

"Oh you, the two of you behave~" Pai replied and smiled faintly as she crossed her arms underneath her breasts, propping them up a bit. "I won't be a problem, I have never visited the town. Just passed it a couple of times."

"Thank the Holy Light for that…" You muttered back. "So the front gate? What's our cover story then?"

Couple ideas were put out, none perfect, but maybe they could work. Sir Cyrus was rather self-aware and suggested that you were on a mission in Stormwind and just returned. You had the idea of using the block of Dream Dust drug to get in, as a story you had recovered it from one of the unraided stashes after the manufacturing operation was interrupted. Pai just suggested going in, if they ask just tell them that you work for Lord Creedy and normal secrecy over missions apply. Wanz somewhat concurred, but said to keep the Dream Dust close if the guards need to be bribed, they are criminals after all. Bill Rover had no ideas, none he was willing to share at least.

So, how would you get in? Should you really overthink this at all and just trust Pai? Just walk in or what?


>Returning from Stormwind, that would explain Sir Cyrus and you not being up to date with recent events.
>Securing a block of Dream Dust from a stash. It made quite news when the authorities raided the drug ring.
>Just walk in, if someone asks, you are working for Lord Creedy and you don't need to answer what you are doing here.
>Other, write in

QM: Let us start with an Eligius segment. We are actually nearly a week in the future compared to Alric.

>>6184607
>Just walk in, if someone asks, you are returning from Stormwind. If they keep asking, you are working for Lord Creedy and you don't need to answer what you are doing here.
My only gripe with this is that, should we get to the last step, Creedy could be informed and we would immediatly be busted but hopefully it doesn't get to that.

>>6184607
I brought this up before but Eligius does have the Robe of Obfuscation. Could put that on Cyrus and they wouldn't notice him as long as he doesn't start cutting people down.

>>6184687
That's a good idea, we should do that. I still stand by what I voted for but now, by putting the cloak on Cyrus, our odds of just passing by are increased.

>>6184607
Hold on onto dream dust and act like the group are people that got roped into the Syndicate recently, either use it as proof that the authorities got them busted and that "fucking prince" had everyone killed and then use Pai's charms to share it with the people inside later and make it easier for the infiltration to occur. Morale has got to be low and I'm pretty sure quite a few lower ranking syndicate members would enjoy something to lighten the mood. Will also make the infiltration easier when half the guards are drugged out of their minds.

>>6184742
Lemme get my thoughts in order, how I see things going.

Presuming we get past the guard hopefully without spending our bribe dust or making a big scene, without getting sent to a high security time mid manager type to see what we were up to for a general report, we get to go in. We see if we can secure lodgings or if Wanz knows a warlock safehouse as our little base of operations. We try the watering holes for info spotting people that could lead us to Creedy, follow and squeeze them for info, repeat. Cyrus promises he can get rid of the bodies (read feeds them to the Strahnbrad Crocolisk Dragonspawn). We find which old Keep that Creedy is in. Then we sneak out the sewer entrance so people don't see us leave raising questions, and fight the real Strahnbrad sewer Crocolisk lol. Keep scouting and infiltration.


Just to consider the flipside they should be gathering warriors to try retaking Gallow's Corner from the Ogres, and camp follower manpower to repair the defenses. Mercs or 'militia' if they were desperate (or planning to kill any that don't die or get recruited), they might try to send Cyrus and our little group to the staging grounds.

Its an opportunity as there should be orders and reports going back and forth to officers and Creedy which lets us follow the messengers. Wouldn't want to kill anyone and start a panic or search, but papers would probably be in some tents and chests for info. A nice map with Creedy's keep on it.

Desertion to leave those grounds once we get the info would be a bit rough, It could be hidden in the town or outside it, though I could see them having a desertion problem given their nature. Bribing an officer to let us slide should do it I'd wager, might take Pai a bit of stealing or gambling to get enough bribe for all of us.


I wonder if we could trick the commander of their military readying to retake Gallows Corner into receiving an order to begin. Would we benefit from their attack on the Ogres? It weakens the ogres, possibly the Corner changes hands again, and it weakens the Syndicate paying in blood to attack.

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The questions from the previous thread.

>>6184572

The gnoll mage would have been very surprised at first, but then tried to counter Alric's magic either by extinguishing the flames with its frost or just outright counterspelling Alric's efforts. Just nuking the gnoll would have worked, hard to counterspell if you are fully on fire, but that would have been a bit flashy and a lot of people would have noticed it.

Now how it just looked like was that Alric managed to counter the frost thanks to his shield and armour, with the Cinder Sword playing a major role in it. A lot of "Thank the Light I am not that gnoll" going on.

There's no one like the Royal Foot Guard around, maybe closest are the knights, they are pretty strong.

There will be whole boatload of experience going around after the campaign is done and finished. The progress for the mages will be slower as magic is kinda hard.

Posting in new Alterac Swiss thread

>>6184607
>>6184687
>>6184979
Support these.

>>6184687
>>6184607
Support
Only Sir Cyrus would really make people question they're presence.

"Sir Cyrus, does my robe fit on you?" You asked the knight and took off the Robe of Obfuscation.

"I thought that thing looked familiar…" Pai mused aloud.

Sir Cyrus took the robe and threw it on his shoulders, but then the trouble started. The addition of the normal round pauldrons and the dome of his cuirass that made the already large man even larger, meant that it couldn't be properly wrapped around him.

"Mr. Scribe, if I flex I fear I might rip this thing apart." He lamented. "What does this robe do?"

"Would have kept you hidden, but looks like we just have to deal with this. Tomorrow, just don't speak unless ordered." You said to him and took the robe back.

Well shit, that would have made getting into Strahnbrad an easy task, but looks like the odds are stacked against your favour. Of course things can't be easy.

"Porridge is ready." Wanz said.

"Let's just eat and sleep through the night." You replied.

You were all rather tired, warm food and a night's rest is exactly what you need. Even if the food is simple porridge with bits and you are going to sleep on the floor.

While it was clear that the farm has been used recently by someone else to take a break, whoever had searched the house before had taken half of the furniture with them. So sleeping on the floor it was.

…

It was the next morning.

Having washed your face in the water taken from the well, Wanz had gone through everything you should worry about. Wear your leather armour, keep the orange bandana up and hood on your head. Don't stare at people and don't attract unwanted attention. The Syndicate is made from criminals and other lowlifes, so try to think like them and everything should be fine.

Last night you hadn't immediately fallen asleep and as you had shifted to find a more comfortable position to sleep in, you had noticed Pai staring at you again. And now as you walked towards Strahnbrad, she seemed to deliberately take a spot behind you. What was she thinking?

Wanz told you as you kept walking that Strahnbrad was the largest town in Eastern Alterac, it had low walls and plenty of housing within said walls. But while it had survived the Second War, half of the town was abandoned and only the most stubborn or Syndicate affiliated were living here. And while officially the town was under the control of Lordaeron, taxes still were kept paid to Capital City, in reality the town was under Lord Creedy's demesne.

Couple odd farms dotted the landscape and you saw some farmers toiling out in the fields. Outwardly they seemed just like any other farmer you had seen, these ones were just located here, stubbornly tending their crops.

"There's the gate, bandanas up." Wanz said and allowed you to take a lead.

1/4

>>6185067

He had been right, the walls are low and won't stop a determined attacker or a raider. A lone tower next to the gate had seen better days and you spotted several soldiers mulling around the gate big enough to let a horse cart in. None of them had their bandanas up, but around their throats or wrapped around an arm or kept as a handkerchief on their belts. The guards looked just like any other lowly city guard, bits and pieces of armours and polearms to lean to. They became more attentive when the five of you approached them.

"Halt, don't remember seeing you lot leave through this gate." One of the guards said to you as the rest of them stretched their legs.

"That would be correct." You said back and shrugged, the bandana muffled your voice a bit as you spoke.

"In that case, get the boss here!" He shouted to someone in the back. "Wait here."

Four of the guards kept watching you, one of them spat on the ground while the rest seemed to now stretch their arms. The men looked rough, a bit lean for being professional soldiers. Probably rabble told to stand guard and bully those who come to the town. It didn't take long for four more guards to come out from what you expected to be the guardhouse and join the rest. One of them actually wore a full set of plate mail and could be mistaken for a footman.

"So what do we have here?" He asked with a gravelly voice. "Let's get this over with, who are you and where do you come from?"

You had gone through a plausible sounding story during the morning and now you just had to stick with it and keep things short and believable.

"We came from the south, followed Kings's Road, sneaked past the ogres and got here. We have been on the move for the past two weeks and really could use a place to rest." You told them.

"How did you get past the Princeling?" The boss of the guards asked you and seemed rather curious.

"You don't know?" You asked and continued immediately after feigning a surprise. "The Princeling is on a warpath, took his army to Durnholde. The whole Hillsbrad is talking about some campaign there against gnolls. Good riddance I say, but the pass is practically unguarded."

Which was the truth, Dawnholme was basically unguarded.

"Then it took us five days to get here through the woods." You finished.

The guard looked at you suspiciously.

"What were you doing in Hillsbrad?" He asked.

"You know how we work." You said back. "We have our own jobs."

"And it's my job to ask the questions, now speak." He said and lifted his sword up on his shoulder.

You felt someone take hold of your hand from behind and immediately realised who it was. Pai wrapped her fingers with you and hugged your arm from behind, pressing it between her breasts.

"Don't mind my husband, he is just very careful about his work… and very secretive, ain't that right, Hon?" Pai said and slightly leaned on your side. "We have been walking for days and my feet are tired, can't you just let us in?"

2/4

>>6185069

You hadn't planned this, this wasn't part of anything you had talked about. No cover story was about you and Pai being a couple or anything. Why! This just made you properly annoyed.

The guard boss looked at you, seeing the annoyance in your eyes and Pai clinging to your side.

"Alright, you can go in." The guard boss said and sighed. "If you need a room, The Sloppy Hole should have them available."

You gave him a polite nod and started walking, but just as you were going to pass him, he placed his sword in front of you.

"My superiors will want to talk with you and your crew, don't leave the town before that happens." He instructed you. "Understand?"

"We understand." You replied and smiled underneath the bandana.

The guard sheathed his sword and stepped back to allow you to enter Strahnbrad.

Well, that could have gone quite badly, but looks like you were in. Just Pai hadn't stopped holding your hand which did make you quite uncomfortable.

To Sloppy Hole whatever it is then.

…

Wanz knew the place and guided you there. It was a tavern, an actual tavern with three floors. The only tavern reserved for visitors and other low-ranked members of the Syndicate. Apparently The Prancing Peacock existed, but that was for the high-ranking members and their entourages. You wouldn't apparently even get in.

"Rooms for me and my group." You asked the bartender who was cleaning a glass.

The quite fat bartender looked at the five of you for a couple seconds before putting the glass away.

"Bad luck, men have been streaming here in the past weeks. Our rooms are full, two remain and there’s five of you." The bartender said back.

"Do we at least fit in?" You asked.

"Some of you have to sleep on the floor then." He replied.

"We will take them." You said back.

"Then follow me." Bartender replied.

He was right. The tavern was full of men lounging on the benches or eating and drinking. It was still morning and most of them were already a couple beers deep. While most of them didn't look like soldiers, they weren't no farmers either. Not all of them even had bandanas or other insignia.

The bartender led the five of you one floor up the stairs and to the end of the hallway. The last two opposing rooms were apparently free.

"There." He said and opened both doors, giving two keys to you. "Sort yourself out."

You looked in as the fat man left and found the rooms small, but serviceable. Small cabinet, table with a chair, window to outside for some fresh air and a single bed. Both rooms were quite similar.

3/4

>>6185070

Pai who hadn't stopped holding your hand while inside the tavern looked at you curiously. Oh no, was she expecting to share a room with you? Her new husband? Oh no, that won't work, definitely not. No no.

"Me and Edward will take this room." She said and smiled behind her bandana. You had agreed on fake names and Edward was close enough to Eligius for it to be easy for everyone to remember.

You looked at her and then at Wanz, Cyrus and Bill. Wanz just shrugged.

"Right, Hon?" Pai asked you and gripped your hand a bit more strongly.


>Share the room with your "wife". Guess that is now part of your cover story.
>Decline politely, Pai can share the room with someone else instead.
>Nope, you are going to have them stay here while you find a way to get a room in The Prancing Peacock.
>Other, write in

QM: Room arrangements. Sir Cyrus didn't seem to attract that much attention this time.

>>6184999
Many thanks my Medivh.

Will we get a chance to see Madam Martin's magic from the view of Malevus? I was rather curious to see her Naturalist magic in healing and in combat.

Ya know if a warlock, who can use his surroundings as one big battery, learned Mana Shield that would be pretty spooky. If they could keep that and Demon Skin up even better.

>>6185071
>Share the room with your "wife". Guess that is now part of your cover story.

Perfect Pai went with the married couple routine, I thought she might. People are a lot less suspicious of a husband and wife. Smooth.

>Cloak too small for Cyrus
lol okay. Maybe if he takes off the pauldrons and the cuirass but that defeats the point of having a knight.

>>6185071
>Share the room with your "wife". Guess that is now part of your cover story.
She won't do shit, she's probably terrified of how close they came to exposing them. It also sells a very believable impression of a small gang with a dumb guy that's being strung along by a clever woman. What we need now is a believable cover story and for stories of everyone to add up. And there's no use trying to pretend that the obvious guy from Stormwind is an Alteraci,just say that Cyrus is a deserting soldier. Maybe even feed them some intel because he deserted since his commander had been disgraced by "the princeling" and he would not obey some whelp's commands. Mixing a kernel of the truth into this will make it a much easier sell, especially when they will talk to actual people in the know.

>>6185071
>Share the room with your "wife". Guess that is now part of your cover story.
Im confident she's gonna start playing games again so let us not have a repeat of last time, where anons voted to let Pai put Eligius in a hold for no good reason.

>>6185076
She will do shit, just not shit that compromises the mission. I also don't she was terrified as I believe it would take more than that to put her in such a state.

Also are you talking about Garithos or the Alliance garrison commander? Because Eligius wasn't there for the former. The deserter cover story is good though.

>>6185080
I'm unsure if I recalled the timeline correctly, it will probably be for Medivh to determine if Eligius knows that Alric had literally and figuratively kicked Garithos' ass. But the deserter cover is still the best one for him.
>tfw just yesterday I completed his quest and got my bootleg truestrike shoulders

>>6185076
I don't think Pai is the type to act out of panic, she knows its a good cover and that by not telling Eligius he would have real annoyance in his eyes for his 'wife' interjecting herself into the situation. Shes been staring at Eligius for a while now, I think she knows whats coming. Make their cover more believable, that and several bones to pick with Eligius. Her whole MO with her subordinates and targets.

As for Cyrus, I don't know if I would draw any kind of connection to that area. A stormwind knight and deserting soldier of the RD under Garithos is someone they would have met like a few weeks ago at most, and they bring that guy into a Syndicate town barely knowing him?

Also yeah I don't know if the timeline when it happens and time it would take to reach Eligius before they start leaving would line up.

I think a quiet mercenary would be fine. The Syndicate are pretty paranoid about trusting their own, so he'd rather trust what he can buy.

>>6185082
A mercenary is a good idea, but there's a small hurdle there, mercs usually follow the money and run from lost causes, there's little reason for a merc to sneak through snow, ogres, forests to do who knows what. Any sane mercenary after having seen the losses they took would have turned tail and run. Unless of course they are paying him with a drug he's addicted to.

>>6185086
The dream dust addicted mercenary knight, yeah I like that. I'm sure our dragonspawn actor will appreciate developing some small ticks to convey his addiction, his great loss that turned him towards the devil's ash. Only in the dream can he see his long lost wife. lol.

I'd imagine they have the cash to keep what they really want, but its hard to say how badly they are hurting for cash. I'm sure they've got quite a few operations going, but the guards at the front gate were rather skinny and unprofessional looking. Might just be the aftermath of losing Gallow's Corner and Alric. But they do have enough cash to outfit their assassins with magic crafts.

>>6185071
>Share the room with your "wife". Guess that is now part of your cover story.
time to kill

>>6184999
That reminds me of another idea.

The Bloodstone requires blood for its power, BUT does that have to be our blood or could it be from something we stab and kill? Put that Bloodstone in the hilt or crossguard of the Cindersword and let it drink deep from our enemies. Use that power to make the Cindersword even stronger, and for our own spells when applicable.

Real Stormbringer hours.

"Fine…" You muttered. This was going to be awful. "It's about two hours till midday, let's rest a moment and meet up outside. We need to buy supplies and hear the news of the land."

How you said it made it clear what you meant. To go gather intel and to see if you could find anything useful.

"Mr. Scribe, I will stay in the room, better that way." Sir Cyrus said. "Besides, my armour requires thorough cleaning."

"Good idea, now take a short rest everyone." You told them and stepped into the room you and Pai were supposed to be sharing.

She let go of your hand as she made her way to the single bed and casually jumped it.

"Finally a real bed…" She mumbled and stretched her back and arms on it like a cat as you closed and locked the door.

Immediately you went to work without saying a word. Lady Nalice had instructed to always search the rooms you were staying in for anything out of place. Loose boards, peeping holes in the walls or ceilings. Pai watched as you checked the cabinet, looked behind it and peered underneath the bed even.

"Find anything?" She mockingly asked you.

"No, and that is good." As you took out a black noise device and placed it on the table. It had cost you quite a lot, a nice portion of the black budget given to you by the Prince, but it was worth it if you wanted some actual privacy.

As you turned to look at Pai, she had already taken off her boots and socks. Wriggling her toes and shedding the cloak and thick jacket the Prince had given to her to protect her from the cold and frost up in the mountains, Pai seemed very relieved to just wear her shirt that did very little to muffle her body shapes.

"Not going to wear this till next winter." She said, when she realised you looking at her, she gave back a sly smile. "So, Honey… will we be sharing the bed later this evening?"

You just looked at her non-plussed and sighed. She had tried this before and you had brushed her off back then as well, outside of that one time she had gotten quite close, too close to you. The mere memory made you feel discomfort.

"Don't even try." You replied and took the chair to sit down.

"Bahh…" Pai's mood plummeted as you didn't want to play along. "And the boring milquetoast scribe is back. I was hoping that it would have been the warlock I was sharing the room with, way more interesting that way."

1/2

>>6185227

Yeah she won't get what she wishes for. Pai sighed and fell on her back in the bed with her hands behind her head. She stared at the ceiling and spoke.

"So are we going to repeat the dungeon cell again? You taking a seat, while I stare at the ceiling?" She asked without looking at you.

"It is your choice." You replied to her. "Do you want to repeat it?"

"Fine…" She said. "Ask me your questions, but keep them to a few. I can't promise how long I want to humour you."

You hadn't gotten a chance to really talk with her in private since her return to that hunting cabin. Now you have a chance to ask her something that could be interesting or useful. But maybe you shouldn't, you aren't in the dungeon anymore. This is a special mission given to you by the Prince and you weren't here to interview and question Pai as a scribe. You were here to save the Princess, not to dig into Pai's past, maybe it is not the time to be the milquetoast scribe who just asks questions?

You had thought about it. Was trust between you and her even needed as long as the mission existed? You are a spymaster and she is now your tool as much as she might not realise it. How would you really treat her?


Choose none or as many you think Pai might humour you:
>Surprise her by not asking any questions. This is not the time nor place for it.
>Instead ask about why the "married couple" play? You would have gotten into the town without it.
>Ask about the Frostwolves? How are they? How many of them did she see? Whom did she meet?
>Have her tell you about her background, she is an Alteraci right?
>What does she know about Lord Creedy, how does she think we will find him?
>You are a warlock, are you interesting to her now? Remind her to not try anything.
>Probe her about the mission in Durnholde, was the Prince really her target? Why would Lord Creedy want him dead?
>Other, write in.

How to treat Pai?
>Write in

QM: Time to ask questions, or is it?

>>6185233
>Instead ask about why the "married couple" play? You would have gotten into the town without it.
>Surprise her by not asking any more questions. This is not the time nor place for it.
This isn't an interrogation anymore.

How to treat Pai?
>Aloof
The focus is on the mission now.

>>6185233
>Surprise her by not asking any questions. This is not the time nor place for it.

>Other, write in.
She wants the warlock she'll get it. We're here for a life or death mission I'm not going to ask you any shallow questions Pai, but make a standing offer. A pact. You become mine. My champion in the dark. My (little) shadow. You'll always have what you need. if that's dark work, a way to disappear, or us in a bed if that's what you really need to seal it. No shallow games and tests.

How to treat Pai?
>Write in
Firm but gentle. Serious. As though she needs an interesting life or she would die of boredom.

>>6185233
>Surprise her by not asking any more questions. This is not the time nor place for it.

>Write in
Nonchalantly

>>6185261
I hope you don't mean to use that paragraph as dialogue. It comes across as extremely cringe.

>>6185233
>What does she know about Lord Creedy, how does she think we will find him?
Mission-appropriate.

>>6185233
>Ask about the Frostwolves? How are they? How many of them did she see? Whom did she meet?
>What does she know about Lord Creedy, how does she think we will find him?

>>6185233
>Have her tell you about her background, she is an Alteraci right?
>What does she know about Lord Creedy, how does she think we will find him?

>>6185233
Forgot to respond to this:
>How to treat Pai?
She's as untrustworthy as a cracked sword, so Eligius can only hope to point her in the right direction and hope she does more harm to others than to him before she self-destructs.
In this case, keeping her on-mission as much as possible, with as few distractions and deviations as possible. So in this case, he'll sleep on any chair in the room. If she's getting changed then he'll exit the room and respect privacy - back to milquetoast.

This is not the place or the time for a thorough interrogation or questioning. You are on a mission and things unrelated are secondary to you right now. Sure learning more about her or the orcs would be really useful in the long run, but it is better to keep her an arm's length away.

Besides, you have a feeling that she will want to poke and prod you, just be nonchalant and distance yourself from her as much as you can.

"I don't have much to ask you." You said and shrugged. That got Pai to give you a curious look.

"Not much? You spent the whole spring trying to get me to talk?" She asked. "You just said that it is my choice if I want to talk to you and now you don't wanna?"

"I would like to, but they are not relevant to our mission." You said back to her and looked at her. "Just how do you think we will find Lord Creedy?"

"Just thinking about the mission?" Pai mused. "Fine… have it your way."

She pushed herself back up and sat on the bed. Fixing her hair slightly, she looked at you and started to speak.

"We know he is hiding in one of the keeps yadda yadda, but that also means he needs a steady flow of supplies and goods. Following one delivery will bring us to him." Pai told you.

"What if all the keeps are occupied?" You asked.

"We need a clue, something only he and his closest men receive. Mail, special drinks, food or people. There should be a middleman in all of this, or a woman." Pai said and crossed her arms underneath her breasts again. You didn't let that distract you.

"Then we need to do some investigation." You said to her and continued. "First lay of the land and then…"

"We talk with the superior of that guard." Pai interrupted you and said. You had exactly the same idea.

"But we have to keep things low, as normal as possible." You continued.

"Great, let's do it then." Pai replied and started to put her socks back on.

She seemed practically cooperative. Maybe getting her to do things is good for her… and keeps her from prodding you, at least not too much.

"Where are you thinking of going? We are supposed to rest here till midday and wait for the others to do the same." You said to her and switched your tone. "After all we are supposed to be weary travellers."

"Right…" She said and slumped back in the bed.

You had a feeling that you would be staying in Strahnbrad for a while. Lord Creedy was smart, he wouldn't leave too obvious tracks, right?

…

A bit after midday the four of you stood outside The Sloppy Hole and annoyingly Pai had continued playing the part of your wife by taking your hand. It was somewhat discomforting by how she clinged by your side.

1/2

>>6185570

It was also the first time Wanz had seen her without her jacket and he couldn't avoid giving her a couple glances. Pai must have noticed too as she had hugged your arm particularly hard right afterwards, giving you a particularly good idea of her…

"Alright, we need supplies. Two of us should go see if any could be procured from the merchant stalls and the other two should go around the town and look into the stores." You said to them to distract yourself and continued. "Walter and Bill, do you prefer either of them?"

"No." Was the short and gruff answer from Bill. Wanz had chosen Walter as his name and Bill was just Bill.

"Hon, you should decide." Pai said to you and gripped your hand.


>Buy the supplies and see what the merchants at the stalls have to say. Local market usually gives a good idea of what sort of people live around here.
>Visit the stores and see the town. How is Strahnbrad doing under the Syndicate control? What are the normal folk doing about?

>1d10
>Best of three, taking the second roll

QM: Simple decision and a roll to go with it. Let's do both at the same time to speed things up a bit.

Rolled 1 (1d10)

>>6185571
>Buy the supplies and see what the merchants at the stalls have to say. Local market usually gives a good idea of what sort of people live around here.

Might as well start with the supplies. Fancy food that smells of spices, imported drinks. If he has to get Alteraci Brandi. A middleman in better clothes. A woman in good perfume. Mail from Capital City or thereabouts as being from Alric's brother.

I do wonder if theres a considerable blackmarket for warlock goods and reagents. Things coming out of Dalaran's Underbelly. But that might not lead to Creedy unless he thought having a pet warlock in his keep is a good idea.

I wonder if Cyrus is actually just taking care of his armor, or does he shift into dragonspawn form occasionally to stretch. Among things to do while alone would be reporting to Nalice if he had the means. Does he know magic that allows him to shapeshift, but looking at his stats that can't be. So does Nalice use the magic and then he is literally stuck in human form until she undoes it lol.

>>6185571
>Visit the stores and see the town. How is Strahnbrad doing under the Syndicate control? What are the normal folk doing about?
take a look around

Rolled 3 (1d10)

>>6185571

>Buy the supplies and see what the merchants at the stalls have to say. Local market usually gives a good idea of what sort of people live around here.

Available Mercenaries:
-Farsteel Steppe Clan, 20 Regular Steppe Cavalry, 6 Wealth, Upkeep 2 Supply Per Season
-Stonemason Mercenaries, 30 Regular Bandit Rogues, Drudgemoor, Morgan, Surena Caledon. 3 Wealth, Upkeep 2 Wealth Per Season

Next build phase we should really buy both these guys. Thats 20 light cavalry for the same upkeep as 5. 30 Rogue Bandits for the upkeep of 20, plus 3 Officers one of which is a mage/warlock. That'll be 9 wealth, can spend 5 on another Windmill to cover the Steppe Cavalry supply upkeep. Leaves 1 Wealth left over before we can pick up the Harvest Season farm Wealth. I forget if we can pick that up at the start of Fall or we have to wait?

20 Light Cav and 30 Rogue Bandits should be great for scouting all the new land we have. If we get the Harvest wealth in good amount I'd probably want the last Windmill we can make in our current territory, and a Scout Tower for Strahnbrad Hills.

Unless Wiklish finishes his miniaturized speed regulator, then I think some kind of defensive invention that will help with all our new land. We have so much forested and rough hilly terrain and a variety of enemies. Gnolls, kobolds, ogres, orcs, oh my. Plus Syndicate.

Hopefully he wouldn't make goblin land mines especially after Alric stepped on a figurative one. With oil and enough material maybe he could make a Zeppelin for scouting our lands from above, I'm sure that will really piss off some of our enemies lol. Some kind of Telescope for the Scout Towers. Signal flare rockets. Clockworks?

Or would it be more like defensive siege constructions and equipment, stuff we could use in town. A very early fire extinguisher for when the town or supplies get set on fire. Better ways to mass produce armor and shields? Making our Scout Towers better in some way.

Rolled 10 (1d10)

>>6185571
Visit the stores and see the town. How is Strahnbrad doing under the Syndicate control? What are the normal folk doing about?

>>6185595
>I do wonder if theres a considerable blackmarket for warlock goods and reagents
The syndicate does recruit them still, so there must be something. Or a way for them to get their ingredients and materials.
Probably his armor, or he is taking a nap. Both work out just fine for keep the group cover.

also just read on stats
>Alicia Perenolde likes to play with her small wooden toy horse
thankfully Bill is here, this crack team wouldn't have anyone experienced with kids otherwise.

>>6185646
50 more soldiers is definitely something to think about. I wouldn't mind keep growing the war machine, and we don't have light cav. At the same time i would like to make more supply and wealth, and that ....... kinda makes me look at Strabhand really hard. Its not a village like Stonedon, or a few huts like Shoredon. And it sounds like it finds itself in a unsure political position.

I was thinking about making Rocket Troops for Wiklish, having them trained and then see about testing them on a battle next campaign.

>>6185661
As long as the steppe cavalry don't disappear I'd be fine with pure supply investment. I suppose they might stick around since the Dark Irons are here to stay. The Stonemasons too. Its a very good deal and if they join the town like Beckston's mercs eventually that would be nice. I do badly want those Rocket Troops, they sound so handy.


Hmm Strahnbrad proper is rather odd as a town. Lordaeron refrained from claiming Alterac but they have taken Strahnbrad which was definitely an Alterac town, and that sliver of land along the Silverpine Lake? Its so heavily in the pocket of Creedy, but still pays taxes to Capital City. Then apparently theres several actual Keeps that Creedy and the Syndicate use nearby.

Its vital for their operations in actually reclaiming Alterac territory like Gallow's Corner, and for operations on our neighbors. With spying on Alric. Presumably a key town for whatever is going on in the Hinterlands to get materials for a trading outpost to the gnolls, orcs, etc. we know its Creedy territory. Maybe plantations for growing and refining dream dust then bringing it back to Strahnbrad.

Politically, economically, and militarily it seems to be vital to Syndicate efforts. Anyone that actually tries to take it or usurp Creedy will probably have quite a time of it. In taking it and in holding it.

Then we hopefully rescue Alicia which starts a power struggle for Creedy's position? Syndicate Civil War? If Creedy dies a power vacuum accomplishing much the same. Strahnbrad could be in a Reign of Chaos.

If it fails to defend itself it could get targeted by ogres and kobolds, Blackrock orcs. Stop paying taxes to Capital City and they send investigators or an army.

We wouldn't be in that great of a position to push and take it either even if it did fall to pieces. Retaking Gallows Corner is a no-go until the Edict is out of the way or working in our favor with an Alliance Army. Going through without taking Gallows Corner sounds quite sticky. Going around by the Darrowmere is blocked by the river trolls and their dam.

If it becomes such a big mess they can't ignore it I suppose we could probably get involved one way or another. An RD lead force would go take it back, or if we join maybe settle things down and let us have it?

We have 2-2 tie, I will write in a couple hours, could I have a tiebreaker before that? Also good pondering, Strahnbrad and its status will become more apparent as the adventure continues.

>>6185661

Bill Rover, the gruffy old man, so good with kids that his wife left him and took his sons with him.

One thing this team is definitely not good with are kids!

>>6185672
>Visit the stores and see the town. How is Strahnbrad doing under the Syndicate control? What are the normal folk doing about?
It's harder to get information out of people when you're not giving them money so the more social pair should do this harder job.

>Bill Rover, the gruffy old man, so good with kids that his wife left him and took his sons with him.
His sons respect him so clearly he did something right.

>>6185672
Damn
I forgot about that. Lmao Eligius did not think of this detail

>>6185672
Maybe she has a nanny governess we can bring that tragically dies in front of her.

>>6185667
True, i wouldn't want to lose the opportunity of recruiting them either. I think I am going for also get both and have 50 more soldiers in the end. Which is a nice boost. Even if making more money and supply would be nice. Maybe we will find some nice loot from the gnolls camps, or at least we can sell their steel and iron.

It might be because its not in the mountains proper, or maybe Lordaeron wanted a piece.

Yeah is an hard maybe getting it. Very difficult with the edict and without having
Gallow's Corner first. If we rejoin it depends, we have a lot of enemies would they let us in? Maybe we could use that favor with Garithos for start something like a political group for have Alterac renter the Alliance or have the Edict retired.

Then again a lot of our people dont like the Alliance

Or we could have Garithos give us some good old cash with that favor. There is still the risk of him getting hit sooner or later by Thrall

>>6185738
>Maybe we could use that favor with Garithos for start something like a political group

I would say the Darrowmere League is about as close to that as we can ever manage.

Joint trade and security with any neighbors who join, and protecting that is inherently political. Acting together to send the letters to Capital City about how no one wanted Garithos as Military Governor of Southshore, then it actually worked and that council of merchants took control instead. For that kind of political action, acting against retarded but powerful nobles making moves in OUR region, to be hand in hand with the Darrowmere League is the image we need. Get as many people in as we possibly can.

Our people don't seem to mind trading with our neighbors, who are all alliance, or being allied with Tarren Mill which is owned by Big Alliance nobles the Barovs. Can't get much more Alliance than the most powerful noble family that isn't just Royalty. Or being more deeply allied to Blackmoore, an Alliance military Lord, which I think is fairly well known or assumed to our common citizen at this point with how much we've gone to his aid. Militarily and politically when Alric went to Capital City after Thrall escaped.

Even with these connections I haven't seen any complaints. I'm sure after talking with any of Dawnholme's citizens they realize Alric wants to rebuild Alterac, and that is only possible by playing politics with the Alliance. We can only have a solid place in by banding together with our neighbors, convincing them to join the Darrowmere League which can push for its own interests better than Alric can alone. Like retaking Alterac and having a plan that makes lots of money and security for its members by doing so.

At least thats how I see it. Probably want to ask Blackmoore to join the League even if we know hes going to get hit later. We make use of adding that power to our League so we can convince Hillsbrad to join, and work on Southshore and Strahnbrad if it somehow survives with any kind of political entity leading it. Plus whatever we can ask from Kael, Jandice, and Jaina. Calia too for that matter.

"Let's go see the stores." You said. "You go stock up our own supplies and get whatever else we might need. If we have to bail, I want us to be ready. And keep your ears open."

Bill just nodded and mumbled something behind his beard and the bandana.

"Then Hon, we will go see if we can find anything fancy." Pai said back to you.

She seemed practically enthusiastic about this. You just hoped she wouldn't try anything.

…

>10
>3


And hope is the first step on a road to disappointment.

You and Pai had been walking through the town of Strahnbrad for a while looking and studying everything that was around you. And you had gotten a pretty solid idea of the town.

The houses all looked old, minimal or no repairs. Some were abandoned, some clearly had squatters in them while some were half-collapsed or already being dismantled for parts by labourers. Something definitely was going on in the town based on the amount of workers here. But all in all Strahnbrad was half abandoned, maybe even less than that were living here. In the center of the town there were stores, some locals trying to make a living serving whatever needs the Syndicate had. The more well off clearly were the ones providing military equipment or clothing for the fighters, meanwhile the civilian ones less so.

And through this walk Pai continued to act like your wife. Pulling you to different directions to come check out things, or stopping you to tell something meaningless, yet fitting for her role. You felt like you started to repeat yourself in your mind, but her having this much fun started to annoy you. Especially as she had to keep holding your hand and you really didn't like it at all, it was discomfortable. But there was a silver lining to this husband and wife play, Pai got an opportunity to look around and be on watch. And so did you.

"Edward, you should get a sword. Your dagger is so lacking~" Pai said to you while the two of you stood in front of a weapons store. She leaned closer and pressed herself against you before whispering. "We are being followed."

"I noticed him too, three sets of houses away." You whispered back and gently pushed her off you and replied boringly. "But we don't have coin for that, good swords are expensive."

A man in Syndicate clothing, but no bandana had been following and trailing you for a while. Strahnbrad clearly was under Syndicate control, but not that many did wear any recognisable insignia or the orange bandanas. That way the man actually blended in better than you did with your bandanas covering your faces.

1/2

>>6185793

"I have a plan for what we should do next." Pai said to you and you understood what she meant. "That store, I would like to go to that store."

She pointed at a small clothing store that seemingly sold normal clothes for both men and women. Going in and continuing this act could be a good idea, maybe you could even talk with the store owner? At minimum whoever trailing you shouldn't be able to follow you in, the store wasn't that big.

Or you could actually deal with whoever is following you.


>Go with Pai's plan. Get into the store and use that to avoid your follower. Talk with the owner.
>Continue the walk and see what else you could learn from Strahnbrad. Completely no sell your new follower, he is probably a normal precaution.
>Actually deal with the man following you. You do wear the Robe of Obfuscation on your shoulders, ambushing him would be very easy.
>Other, write in.

QM: Random event was being followed and if you were to spot him.

>>6185794
>>Go with Pai's plan. Get into the store and use that to avoid your follower. Talk with the owner.

>>6185794
>>Go with Pai's plan. Get into the store and use that to avoid your follower. Talk with the owner.

>>6185794
>Go with Pai's plan. Get into the store and use that to avoid your follower. Talk with the owner.
Play it cool

>Especially as she had to keep holding your hand and you really didn't like it at all, it was discomfortable.
Why? Play into it Eligius. Your discomfort is a weakness.

>>6185794
>Go with Pai's plan. Get into the store and use that to avoid your follower. Talk with the owner.

tempted to deal with him, but after the fact what we do with it. could extract some fresh info if nothing else.

>>6185794
>>Go with Pai's plan. Get into the store and use that to avoid your follower. Talk with the owner.

Pai's plan sounds good. Ambushing this guy in the middle of the day would be quite an escalation, and immediately after starting to follow them lol. Just asking for more attention.

How much would a guy tasked with this stuff be likely to know. His orders and immediate superior. Some of his fellows. Some locals who are contacts for stuff. Some other people he was tasked to follow and where they went. General Syndicate info. Perhaps not worth it.

Even if we did ambush him and squeeze him what then. If hes particularly alarmed by our questions or that this happened in the first place he would probably have to die. Or would he rather keep his mouth shut instead of letting his superior know he fucked up. Rather risky.

If we did ambush such a man, I suppose let him think hes lost us. He checks some hidey holes he knows like nearby abandoned homes, which would be about as good as we can get to ambush him. A regular ambush to let Pai overpower him, or Fear to make him pliable. Then either dump the body there stripped of everything, maybe deface it to be less recognizable, or be creative.

As a Warlock he has his powers. Could any of them be used for body disposal? Could Void magic consume an entire body? Corruption as some kind of super fast decay though I imagine that would stink, but perhaps the right amount would make it seem like the body had been there for a long time without being discovered.

What if he drew Fel from the body until all the flesh and blood was gone leaving a desiccated body of skin and bones or would even that turn to dust. He'd have to vent the Fel unless he wants to risk holding onto it for some time.

Leave it there, hope it doesnt get discovered, come back at night to dump it in the sewer hoping it gets partially eaten or bloated beyond recognition.

Slipping into the store, could Eligius and Pai get one more roll. Just a normal 1d10 to see if this actually works as intended.


>1d10, Best of three

Rolled 5 (1d10)

>>6186240

Rolled 7 (1d10)

>>6186240

Rolled 1 (1d10)

>>6186240

And the night shift has proven to be more busy than I expected. No update today, I will have it out tomorrow!

>>6185861
If not for the witches I'd wonder about this Eligius guy. Hes not attracted to Nalice either but at least that is from healthy fear and respect for her power.

Thinking what to do If we can't get a lead from the stores or the suppliers.

The Prancing Peacock is the high level Syndicate crew inn with people who probably know where to find Creedy. We don't need to get a place inside the Peacock to follow someone who leaves, but I'd wager they probably don't leave alone or theres people set to watching for just that sort of behavior. Plus it would be harder to follow them and a tougher fight. Inside has its benefits if we can't find a lead elsewhere. Or a more elaborate plan.

I wonder if being a warlock would be enough to get into the Prancing Peacock, and or showing off some dream dust. Dream dust from the south whats the chance they confuse him with the crew that was trying to sell dust in Southshore, the ones Nalice painted the walls with. That one of them was also a warlock could be handy as well.

A nice piece of a cover if someone could dig up something to at least confirm there was an operation there before it around when Alric started the corruption crackdown. It would have taken time to pull everything out of Southshore and affiliated places safely. Though if any of that crew actually survived by not being at the deal gone wrong or was well known to people here it could backfire, but any chances of getting back to Strahnbrad probably wouldnt be great for them.

What to tell the guard's superior we were up to?
The weapon smuggling out of Hillsbrad. The kidnapping attempts to bring people east. The Stonedon or Shoredon business. Those were all directly busted, but the dream dust guys in Southshore was more incidental and more covered up. The non-syndicate smuggling ring that they wanted to interact with is the one that got hit, and which would have spooked anyone into backing off for a while. So dream dust guys that pulled out of Southshore seems like the best thing to tell that guard's superior.

“To that store? But we got proper clothes?” You had to ask her as you had quite literally taken your disguises from captured Syndicate members and gotten her a proper winter coat.

Pai looked irritated for a second before she pulled herself against you for a second time.

“Look you idiot, haven’t you noticed how I am the only woman around here wearing pants?” She whispered quickly to you while pretending to be all lovey dovey with her husband. “Everyone else are wearing kirtles like peasants they are, even with the bandanas.”

She was right, she actually was right. For the most part the people here in Strahnbrad had been either older men and women without any Syndicate clothing, or actual Syndicate members or workers. And the women, they all wore your typical peasant clothing, even the ones who clearly were Syndicate members and carried visible blades or wore the orange bandanas.

“So Hon, shall we go?” Pai said to you again and you had to agree with her, she was right.

Nodding to her, she pulled you behind her and entered the small store. An elderly gentleman stood behind the counter and bowed to the both of you after pausing for a second. He probably wasn’t used to Syndicate members coming to his store.

“How can I help the two of you?” He asked politely.

“My wife needs some new clothes.” You said carefully, you still weren’t that used to this play, but Lady Nalice had taught you to be confident when lying.

“In that case.” The store owner said and looked away from you before raising his voice. “We have a customer for you.”

You and Pai stood there hand in hand while waiting for something to happen. It didn’t take long for an old woman to come from the backroom with a big smile on her face. They seemed to be a married couple too.

The store owner explained to her wife that Pai needed some new clothing and seemingly the lady knew exactly what to do as she guided her away from you into the backroom.

“Our store is not that big to have both men’s and women’s clothing in the same room. Besides this gives some privacy for the womenfolk.” The store owner explained.

He was right, the store wasn’t that big. There were some tunics and hosen ready for prospective buyers, but mostly just rolls of cloth and such. It probably wasn’t worth it to have a bunch of clothes made ready as you could just have everything done just like your customer wants.

“Does the gentleman need anything?” The store owner asked you.

“No, thanks for asking.” You replied and continued. “Not that many customers these days?”

He looked you back and didn’t immediately answer so you took the initiative.

“We aren’t from here as we come from the south, first time in Strahnbrad and we aren’t exactly sure how long we will stay here, hence the need for some clothes for my wife.” You told him with a friendly tone in your voice. And because you don’t have an Alteraci accent like him, that helped to sell your appearance to him.

1/4

>>6186877

“Not since the Second War.” He replied and sighed. “The town is dying, just your people are keeping it alive.”

“Not that many young people here I presume?” You asked and continued. “At least what we saw didn’t look like it.”

“Just the stubborn, old and those carrying a grudge…” The store owner said and stopped. “I am sorry, I have already said too much.”

Lady Nalice had told you about recognising the moment when to press a conversation and this seemed to be one.

“Look, as much as I am one of them.” You said and pulled down your bandana to show your face to him. “We aren’t all alike and like I said, I am not from here, I come from the south.”

Seeing your face seemed to win him over and he carefully nodded. You might have won his trust, or at least gotten him to humour you.

…

>7


The store owner and you ended up speaking for nearly two hours as Pai and his wife worked on her new clothing. He even got you a cup of tea while the two of you waited for the womenfolk to finish their work.

And speak you did. He told you how after the Second War Strahnbrad was mostly alright, but when the Capital City fell, the refugees just passed through and didn’t stay here. And when most of the countryside ended up being abandoned, prospects for the young folk to find work or have a proper future were slim so they left as well. When the Syndicate showed itself, it seemed to keep the stagnation away, but just barely. They do bring money and work into Strahnbrad, but for honest merchants like him, it is just barely enough to get through. He and his wife had been leatherworkers back in the day, but switched to normal clothing. The Syndicate had their own leatherworkers so working with cloth was the way to make a living. And on top of that their daughter, whom they had taught everything to, decided to join the Syndicate and now she is gone somewhere else.

The store owner spoke after a couple leading questions about how the town technically is part of Lordaeron. Their tax money ends up going through several coffers throughout the King’s Road to Andorhal where things get sorted and Lordaeron keeps their eyes away from the town. It is both a blessing and a curse. They don’t really care what is going on as long as the taxes keep coming, but they also don’t really care what is going on as long as the taxes keep coming.

Finally he spoke about what the locals think about the Syndicate. Most do think that the Syndicate is an organisation that will help them to reclaim Alterac like they are saying, even if it is a criminal organisation. You asked him carefully through several other questions what do the locals think about the Prince and his answer was somewhat what you expected.

1/2

>>6186878

An upstart, no chance in succeeding, probably not even The Prince, but an imposter. But you asked, what if he succeeds? The answer to that was what you wanted to hear. The locals would band behind him as the end goal is what they want and is important, not the means of how to get there.

“Hon, we are ready.” You heard the voice of Pai as she stepped out of the backroom.

You stood up from the chair you had been sitting on and looked at her. Based on the layers of her clothing, she was wearing a white chemise with long sleeves. On top of that she had a blue kirtle with a buttoned opening that revealed the chemise underneath it and plenty of her chest. Black hosen or something similar covered her legs and her sword belt lazily hung around her waist keeping the loose cloth in place.

“How do I look?” She asked.

“Splendid, only the best for you.” You answered. You wanted to say like a peasant, quite rustic, but you don’t speak like that to your wife do you?

“Oh thank you Hon, I knew you would like it.” Pai replied back and posed a bit. Now she looked quite like the rest of the women in Strahnbrad and if she was right, that would make her blend in better. With a better look, the new clothes did seem to fit her pretty well, making sure that everyone saw the right shapes of her body. Oh Pai, of course you would want that.

The store owner's wife brought her shirt and pants wrapped into a neat package with some string. Included was a white apron to keep her new blue kirtle clean when she did any housework, which you thought was unnecessary. She wouldn’t do any of that.

When it was time to pay for the clothing, the store owner gave you the price and you started to count the coins to give him. You reached the price he asked and continued giving him several more.

“This is for our talk and this is for keeping your silence.” You said to him.

“The gentleman doesn’t need…” He started to say.

“Like I said, we are not from here, we are from the south and everything that implies.” You told him and smiled before pulling the bandana over your face.

He seemed to suddenly realise what you meant, your questioning having been the connection.

“Are we ready to go?” Pai asked you.

“Yes… in fact can we use your backdoor if you have one?” You asked the store owner. “There’s a gentleman who has been following us and we would want him gone.”

“Of course.” He replied. “I will show you the way.”

You followed the store owner through the store and the backrooms until he opened a door to an alley.

“Thank you.” You said to him.

“If you are what you imply, go speak with the General. He can help you.” The store owner said back to you.

You nodded to him and found Pai taking hold of your hand and arm again.

3/4

File: Pai's clothes just no hood.jpg (6 KB, 92x200)

6 KB JPG

>>6186880

Walking away you heard the door close shut behind you and you found yourself quickly in the main marketplace of the town. Most of the merchants were already closing their stalls for the day and you thought about going back to the tavern, calling it a day and eating something. You were starving.

“Do you think I look pretty?” Pai asked you and made you stop. She let go of you for a second and allowed you to get a good look.

Pai had brushed her hair and the long brown hair flowed over her shoulders. The white chemise underneath had a cut that did already show plenty of her chest and the blue kirtle did its utmost best at not hiding much at all with all the buttons open. The black hosen covered her feet and legs, you couldn’t say if they were full length due to the chemise and kirtle covering her thighs. If you were to say, she did look fine, but you weren’t an expert on women’s clothing for obvious reasons. You had never paid mind for any of that, it hasn’t been your interest.


>She looks fine, she will now blend in with the rest of the women here. Rather neutral answer
>Her attire is a bit too fancy, she looks like some petty noble and not some peasant woman.
>Very sexy, everyone will fall for her. This is a jest you hope she gets.
>Did she have to get an attire that reveals that much? Way more than any peasant or local around. It makes her look like a cheap whore.
>You liked the pants more, this is very unlike of her. Assassin with a dress?
>Other, write in

>The store owner mentioned the General, who was he talking about?
>Did the wife of the store owner talk with you, what did she say?
>Allow Pai to lead you to somewhere if she has any ideas where to go here?
>Other, write in

QM: FASHION RESURGENT QUEST! I am also bad at counting update lengths and apologies for the tiny picture, but I couldn't find any better.

>>6186496

There was that special drink the witches had made though...

>>6186883

Reminder for the rest. Thread 29

"It had involved a long preparation of the ritual ground. Torches were lit, herbs were burned in the fire as a sacrifice to the spirits. The witches chanted for hours until they brought out some drink that they drank and while Eligius had tried to decline, he had relented in the end. The drink was bitter as hell and then…

Well then…

Eligius doesn't remember much, just that it had involved body paints, dancing around the fire stark naked, more of that bitter drink. Suddenly there were farm animals, but they had lost their tails and Eligius had to go find them and put them back on. And then…

"Oh, it was that sort of a 'fertility' ritual." You said and tried to not smile or laugh, but it was hard.

"Prince Alric, it was incredibly unsophisticated. Their ways just aren't compatible with our understanding of magic. And I will try to change that." Eligius adamantly replied and continued. "And nothing happened between us, at least nothing I could remember."

"Fine fine, but make sure that you don't become a stay at home father in nine months." You tried to keep your stiff upper lip, but failed as you had to laugh.

"Prince Alric…" Eligius just mumbled and ran his hands through his black hair while you laughed.

"Alright, enough of you and the witches. I asked you to come here because you need to know about something." You said to him after getting hold of yourself.

"Which is?" Eligius asked you and waited for you to continue. "Probably doesn't beat my story.""

>>6186883
Solid update, I enjoy a good read with plenty to think on. The townsfolk are ready to flip as soon as Alric can get Alterac.

Lol even the one that almost says she's too good to be a peasant is a bit back handed, though Eligius likes to see them curves in the pants huh. Maybe he should just ask how far the hosen go up.

Drink recipe, one part medieval Viagra, ten parts moonshine, one part lemon juice. Maybe Pai will borrow their recipe if she doesn't have her own.

>>6186888

It is less about the curves and more practicality. Everyone knows pants are more practical, right? And she is an assassin, so she should be as practical as possible, right?

Eligius is a very mission focused person if you haven't noticed.

>>6186883
>>Very sexy, everyone will fall for her. This is a jest you hope she gets.
hahaha ok Pai and Eligius are quite funny

>Did the wife of the store owner talk with you, what did she say?
I think we can talk of this "General" later. With all the squad, for now lets see what she has learn.

Very interesting info from that man, maybe a possible contact in the future if we want to do anything in Strahnbrad. In the future.

>>6186883
>Very sexy, everyone will fall for her. This is a jest you hope she gets.

>The store owner mentioned the General, who was he talking about?
>Did the wife of the store owner talk with you, what did she say?
>Allow Pai to lead you to somewhere if she has any ideas where to go here?

>>6186890
Eligius has autism confirmed.

>>6186890
My new light novel 'I Can't Believe My Spymaster Has Autism?'

Lets think about the most practical outfit. Pants, form fitting top. It should be black leather for night time action, well maintained and oiled up to keep blood from staining it. Several straps under the bust for a number of daggers. Some little pouches on the belt for various drugs, powders, and poisons. Basically he wants her to dress up like Batman, or Batgirl in this case.

>>6186883
>Her attire is a bit too fancy, she looks like some petty noble and not some peasant woman.
Poor Pai. Her romantic prospects are difficult men. Perhaps forceful reasoning is necessary. Husband and wife cover must share a bed, must know intimate details. Must be heard performing their duties. Or just force.

>The store owner mentioned the General, who was he talking about?
>Did the wife of the store owner talk with you, what did she say?

I must wonder what she got from the wife. I certainly want to hear what she knows of this General fellow. He must be the non-syndicate Strahnbrad leader.

A good portion of their young people joining the Syndicate makes it pretty unlikely they would want to fight them when it means fighting their own children, but any other support might be doable if hes suggested speaking with the General. Info, place to stay, help getting in or out. Some funds maybe. Once Creedy is gone he could have a chance to take power here and get their young people back?

I wonder what this General and his people would think of Creedy holding a Perenolde hostage against the other Perenolde siblings? Would that be enough to get them to take risks? Might be a good motivator and turn opinions on the Syndicate?

The heart of Creedy's territory its not surprising even the non-syndicate citizens think Alric is probably an imposter. Falling in with Alric if he gets Alterac is nice though. If even the younger folk of Strahnbrad who joined the Syndicate had the same view that would be good. They lose anything but the hardcore members.

Also they don't seem to have the means to contact their daughter so thats probably a common circumstance.

Thought of this General and Gallows Corner got me wondering. If whichever neutral party took Gallow's Corner was able to hold it, what if they declared themselves as swearing fealty to Alric's Alterac? Does that violate the Edict? Is he forced to refuse? Can he send troops if its not invading? Or give them support so they can hold it in his name? Is that a loophole that Alric could use?

>>6186883
>Very sexy, everyone will fall for her. This is a jest you hope she gets.
>The store owner mentioned the General, who was he talking about?

>>6186883
>>Her attire is a bit too fancy, she looks like some petty noble and not some peasant woman.
>Did the wife of the store owner talk with you, what did she say?

A jest and then some constructive criticism on the attire. Writing Pai and Eligius is pretty fun change from Alric and Malevus. Been enjoying this a lot, getting more into what sort of a person Eligius is and what are his quirks.

Now I could have a roll for Wanz and Bill, if they learned anything new?


>1d10
>Best of three

Rolled 1 (1d10)

>>6187297

Rolled 1 (1d10)

>>6187297

Rolled 10 (1d10)

>>6187297

Rolled 7 (1d10)

>>6187297

>>6187318
Whew

>>6187298
>>6187313
i got u

>>6187318

That is a pretty solid save, good job there. Now that you actually hit the 10, it triggered my secret trap card! I am not going to explain further than this is a good thing.


Choose one:
>Left
>Right

>>6187350
>right

>>6187322
I was thinking itd be funny if someone hit a 10 after those rolls.

>>6187350
>Right

>>6187350
An event, a person, or some kind of discovery? Ogres and kobolds attack. Orcs. The Sewer Crocolisk. The Syndicate army leaves to retake Gallow's Corner. A rally of some kind. A caravan arrives. A warlock does something crazy that pings the entire map so Eligius and Wanz can pinpoint a place of interest. Someone slipped a message into our pocket.

The General. Creedy's middleman or lady. A high ranking Syndicate we can follow. A friendly agent of Beve. A connection to someone in the party. Our Sixth Power Ranger. A Wildcard.

>>6187350
>Right
is right I guess.

>>6187350
>>Right

>>6187350
>right

“You look very sexy, everyone will fall for you.” You told her without much thinking.

Pai looked at you and didn’t reply.

“I really do mean it.” You continued.

“No you don’t, you are just fucking with me.” She replied back. “Tell me what you are really thinking.”

“That the clothes do emphasise your bust, which makes you very sexy.” You said back to her. You were fucking with her.

“No… no you are… stop it.” She said and continued. “After everything else, you can’t just change your mind like that.”

She was right, but by the standards of women you had met and seen, she was gorgeous so calling her sexy wasn’t out of place even with your poor knowledge over women’s fashion.

“I do mean it.” You told her.

Pai punched your shoulder surprisingly hard.

“Stop lying. El… Edward, don’t play with me and just tell me the truth.” Pai argued back. Couple people had now given the two of you a curious looks.

“You look fine, that dress is maybe a bit too fine for a peasant.” You said to her. “You look like some petty noble and not a peasant girl.”

“Really?” She asked.

“I think so?” You replied, questioning your own words.

“I knew you would like them.” Pai replied with her mind changing like the direction of the wind and took hold of your hand again before hugging it and pressing herself against your side. “Only the best for my husband~”

You took a deep breath and closed your eyes for a second. Now she was fucking with you and you didn’t enjoy this one bit. Just had to endure it.

“Shall we go back to the tavern~?” She asked playfully and made sure that you got a good idea of her cleavage.

“Yes… let’s do that…” You replied back and sighed.

…

“Did the wife of the store owner say anything useful to you?” You asked Pai.

“Not much, just told her life story, gushed about her daughter a lot.” Pai replied. “Apparently she is in the Syndicate, but has been away without any sign of her for a while. Went east apparently.”

“The store owner told me the same thing.” You said back to her. “But who was the General he mentioned, how could he help us?”

Pai thought about it a couple seconds before answering.

“He meant General Hath, the Traitor General.” Pai answered.

“Traitor General?” You had to ask.

“He commanded the troops in the eastern mountains and let King Thoras and his Stromgarde troops in. He betrayed Alterac with that move.” Pai told you. “Of course you don’t know about him, you aren’t one of us… but if he can help us, then that means he is here.”

1/3

>>6187635

“We should go talk with him, just not immediately.” You said and nodded to Pai. “We are still being followed.”

As you made your way back to the tavern, you spotted the man who had been following you. He kept his distance from you, but disappeared after a while. A message of some sort had been sent back, he probably knew that you had spotted him and now he kept his distance before leaving you alone.

Pai kept clinging on your arm the whole time to your annoyance and so when you finally returned to the Sloppy Hole, she let go of you which was a huge relief. As Pai made her way up the stairs, you stopped to talk with the bartender for a couple moments and he informed you that one of the guards had come asking for you. Apparently the superior of those guards wants to meet with you and your wife tomorrow at noon.

That was helpful information, something to do tomorrow.

…

>10
>Right


The dinner for today was onion soup. It was cheap to make, but still good. All five of your group had moved into your room to discuss today's events. While you sat on the chair, Pai took the bed with Bill sitting next to her. Both Wanz, who had given Pai a couple more glances, and Cyrus who had actually cleaned and polished his armour took the floor.

Wanz and Bill had managed to buy the necessary supplies you were lacking and so if you needed to suddenly bail right now, you had about weeks forth of food stashed and ready. And what they had learned was quite close to what you had learned. Same observations about Strahnbrad and its status, but they had learned what all the workers were doing here. Apparently the goal of pulling the abandoned and dilapidated houses apart was to get construction materials. The Syndicate had decided that Strahnbrad wasn’t defensible enough and they were going to build towers and ramparts around the walls. Was it a sign of them thinking that the ogres could attack them or were they preparing for the Prince coming and conquering the place. You weren’t sure, but this was very useful information for you.

But Wanz had also managed to learn about something else, the warlock coven here in Strahnbrad was still alive and well and their reagent store was still open for those practicing the arts. Now Wanz couldn’t approach them as he would be recognised, but if you needed some help with your magic or needed the warlocks some other way, that was an opportunity for you. Of course Bill wasn’t happy about this, but he didn’t say it to you, you could just sense it.

2/3

>>6187636

You had finished writing down the discoveries of the day in your notebook. Using both arcane writing and a cipher, outsiders would have great difficulties at reading the notebook if it was taken from you.

“Eligius, it is quite late.” Pai said to you as you were putting your things down. “Come to bed.”

You turned around on the chair and looked at Pai who was sitting cross-legged on the bed with just her white chemise on. She had already taken off her new blue kirtle and the hosen which apparently only went above her knees and were held there with garters around her thighs.

“No.” You immediately replied. “I will sleep on this chair.”

“Eligius, I am not going to try anything.” Pai argued back. “If you decide to sleep on that chair, you are going to have a stiff back come tomorrow.”

You just stared at her and knew that it wouldn’t be the right choice. You didn’t want her to try anything, not to touch you at all.

“I promise I won’t try anything, consider it as a thank you for these clothes, you paid for these after all and I do like them.” Pai said to you and moved to give you space on the bed. It would fit the two of you without too many issues.

She didn’t seem to be lying and she was right about the bed being way more comfortable than sleeping on the chair or on the floor, but could you trust her?


>Share the bed with her, take as little space as possible and catch a good night's sleep
>Sleep on the chair, or on the floor, and risk being as stiff as a log come tomorrow.

QM: It was the Right choice, but the Left one would have given you something maybe a bit more spicier. Now where will you sleep, to what direction do you want this to go? What will you learn about Eligius?

>>6187638
>Share the bed with her, take as little space as possible and catch a good night's sleep
I'm sure we can trust her. It's not like she'd try anything that could make the mission harder would she?

>>6187638
>Share the bed with her, take as little space as possible and catch a good night's sleep
Be both close and at arms length, that's the best way to deal Pai. Treat her similarly to the way she treats most people, like amusement.

>>6187638
>>Share the bed with her, take as little space as possible and catch a good night's sleep

>>6187638
>Share the bed with her, take as little space as possible and catch a good night's sleep
She won't TRY anything, but she could DO while hes asleep...Get close enough to try and overcome this discomfort Eligius has. A man getting uncomfortable when his big titty wife hugs his arm and holds his hand? Its a bit suspicious isnt it Eligius, what would he think if he saw the same thing in someone else while on the look out for spies.

How far is he willing to go for their cover. Is he a deep sleeper. Does Eligius dream. Get cold and reach out for warmth. Does he talk and cry out in his sleep, prompting reaction from Pai. Does he salute the morning. Does he sleep in late if hes comfy and theres no Dawnholme rooster to wake him.

I suppose the Left might have been the town Brothel. Syndicate Courtesan keep. Or a different kind of spicy like dwarves or something. Too bad, but some warlock stuff would be nice from gear to reagents for I guess power or some kind of ritual or niche spell.

I wonder how mercenary these warlocks are, or are they hardcore members. I suppose it depends on the person. How close knit are they. Did his master know any others.

How could Eligius influence these Warlocks that might help the mission, or help Alric in the long term?

You looked at her and sighed. She was right and she didn’t seem to be lying to you. It was of course Pai, who knows what she will try to do, but maybe once you could trust her.

“Fine, if you say so.” You said back to her.

Pai gave you a wide smile as you took off your shoes and placed them neatly on the floor. Your leather armour was already taken off and the Robe of Obfuscation had followed it. Deciding to leave the rest of your clothes on, you walked to the bed and sat down on it as Pai gave you some space. You blew the lone candle that gave you some light, you didn’t know how the Prince could just snap them on and off, and laid down on your back before turning on your side to take as little space as possible. Closing your eyes, you could hear Pai shuffle a bit in the bed before even she turned quiet.

This seemed to be fine, she hadn’t tried anything, at least not yet. Slowly the sleep started to get you, a proper bed for the first time in a week was something you really needed.

Suddenly you felt her press her body against you, her breasts against your back and her arm going around you to pull you a bit closer to her.

Near immediately you sat back up and pushed her off from you. It was one thing to hold her hand or have her cling on your side, you are a warlock and you have to know how to control your mind and yourself to stay safe. But this was way beyond that, just too much.

“Eligius… you can’t…” Pai started to say as you swatted her hand off your shoulder.

Too much, a cold sweat had appeared on your brow and it felt like the walls around you were collapsing on you. If holding her hand was discomforting, this was way too much.

“No… no you can’t…” Pai mused aloud. “Are you… the Prince… no way… being so loyal makes so much sense now.”

You went through a practiced breathing rhythm to get your mind and heart back under your control as Pai moved closer to you.

“Are you into men?” Pai asked. “Is that why you…”

“No!” You answered with a loud voice. Thank the Light you had the black noise device already active on the table. “It is just…”

You weren’t sure if you wanted to tell her this… but maybe it would make her stop touching you all the time if you told her?

“I am loyal to him because he saved my life.” You said to Pai while not looking at her. “I am a bloody warlock and he saved my life and took me under his care, so of course I am fucking loyal to him! Don’t you understand a simple thing like loyalty that can never be repaid!”

1/2

>>6187707

Pai seemed to be a bit taken back as you raised your voice as you thought this through. Outside of those bloody witches and their drink and a couple other occasions, you have avoided people touching you all your life because it just makes you feel wrong. That drink had taken all the control away from you and… you hated it so much and what you had seemingly done under its influence.

“I… I don’t like being touched.” You said to her, still not looking at her.

“Touched?” Pai had to ask you. “Did something…”

“No… just never been used to it, it makes me feel… you can see it clearly…” You told her and continued after taking a deep breath. “I have the fear of being touched…”

You felt the cold sweat spread across you as you told her that. You hadn’t told that to anyone in a long time and now you were saying it to an assassin with no morals at all.

“Eligius… I didn’t…” Pai started to say.

“No one does, I don’t talk about this.” You said back to her immediately.

“I am sorry… I didn’t mean to.” Pai continued. By her voice, she seemed sincere, but you still didn’t look at her as you sat on the bed with your eyes closed. “I just…”

“Wanted to fuck with me, just like you do with everyone else. Trying to seduce your way through social interactions, thinking that is the easy way out of whatever issue you have.” You just said to her what you thought about what she was doing.

“Fuck me… I didn’t expect you to be like that…” Pai muttered after a couple moments of silence.

“Being a homosexual would have been an easy explanation right? Just not liking women.” You replied. “That is what you thought, but instead I am just this weirdo. Someone with a misshapen mind that causes things like this.”

…

…

…

You are Pai, a former Syndicate assassin and now technically under the service of the Prince.

And you hadn’t expected Eligius to tell you all that. You had just planned on annoying him with your antics, maybe to get him to actually appreciate your attention and touches, maybe to actually get him to touch you back. But no, apparently he was incapable of that.

“Oh wow…” You said aloud.

“Pai, what do you truly want?” Eligius asked you, his voice dripping with annoyance. “Or just leave me alone if you just want your games.”


>Apologise to Eligius, clearly your bullying had gone too far
>Fear of being touched, is it just some touches or all?
>Don’t say anything, you don’t really know what you want with him after he revealed being a warlock.
>Hug him from behind to calm him down, that should work.
>He just gave you ammunition to use against him, if not now then later you can use this to your advantage.
>Other, write in

What does Pai want:
>Write in

QM: A bit of a reveal. Think about the write in and keep it short, does Eligius want an essay right now?

>>6187708
>Apologise to Eligius, clearly your bullying had gone too far
Just a "Sorry." is fine. Eligius is being too emotional in tone right now though, would've been better say all this more stoically but thankfully we'll get some control over Pai so we can avoid the response I would expect which is that last prompt.

>What does Pai want:
If this is a response to Eligius as your QM note implies then: "You had just planned on annoying him with your antics, maybe to get him to actually appreciate your attention and touches, maybe to actually get him to touch you back."

>>6187708
We will apologize to the competent henchman. Although her mind jumping to GAY SEX as the first thing is absolutely hilarious and very fitting for her as a character.

>What does Pai want:
To keep going and see what happens in most things in life.

>>6187708
>Apologise to Eligius, clearly your bullying had gone too far

>What does Pai want
Immedietly? fun. In general purpose and meaning.

>>6187708
>Fear of being touched, is it just some touches or all?
Establish some boundaries I suppose. El was it like this with your mother and father

With such pride in her body and sex appeal does she take it as a very unique challenge. Or perhaps the old 'I can fix him'. Hes more powerful and fragile than originally expected, though he is in a bit of a fluster.

Rather like oil and water at this point. The sexy way of life Assassin and Warlock who needs control and doesnt want to be touched. Treat him like a particularly touch averse cat, maybe get him an actual cat. Considering they might need to console a very frightened little girl soon perhaps getting a kitten wouldnt be a bad idea.

Rather than witch drink to take away all control maybe the hookah to just loosen up a bit would be better. Or a very diluted dream dust to take the edge off. He is wound up tighter than some of those shibari ladies. That might be an idea one way or the other...

As a Warlock he literally lets other-worldly alien forces INSIDE him, that he feels, that can influence him. Powers that can and do mutate people even when trained under supervision, or kill them. Is that less scary than this? Than a handful of Pai's Oppai? What a bizarre and frustrating development.

>What does Pai want:
To find their rhythm. Find something he can give her. To plan out their next day so he knows exactly what they will do

You just wanted to annoy him, to poke and prod like you do with everyone else, to have a bit of fun and see where this goes. To maybe get him to appreciate your antics and attention you were giving to him with your touches, maybe even to get him to touch back… that would have been lovely. But you hadn’t expected any of this.

Eligius had just always been this milquetoast scribe who had tried to get you to speak, but without any success. You found him boring and not interesting at all, beneath your attention. But seemingly he was more than that, way more than that. Confidant to the Prince, a warlock! Now you won’t admit that makes him interesting, that would be a sign of you admitting defeat after all, it did make him worthy of your attention. But he had kept rebuking you just like the Prince did. With him you had thought that he was your equal in the games like this, just look at him for a second and realise that he is quite a handsome young man with women following him everywhere, like that elf of his.

So when Eligius had rebuked you and was clearly reluctant at even holding hands with you, in your mind there was only one proper explanation. He must fancy the Prince and be a homosexual. Just look at the Prince, if women fall for him, it wouldn't be strange for men to do the same and Eligius was so loyal to him. But apparently it was not that and your want to annoy him with your antics had gotten a reaction out of him that you couldn’t have predicted or really understand.

Fear of being touched.

You couldn’t imagine how that even works. You have been like this since your early teens, proud of it even how you can get the men do what you want with a faint touch and a smile. But being incapable of touching others, you couldn’t fathom it. Which made you think that you had gone too far.

“I’m sorry.” You said quietly.

Eligius didn’t react to it as he just kept sitting there. You thought about giving him a reassuring pat on his shoulder, but thankfully realised the futility of it. It was better to just leave him alone right now, maybe you could talk with him about this in the future? You weren’t sure if this should be even brought up again.

You shifted in the bed and rolled to your side, facing the wall and giving him as much space as you could. Closing your eyes, you listened to his deep breathing for a while until maybe half an hour later you felt him laying down on the bed again and keeping his distance from you.

What a strange and weird man he is.

…

Eligius was up first and he didn’t say anything to you outside of the bare minimum when he fetched a bowl of porridge as a breakfast for you while you got dressed up. He did have the manners, or it was just the lack of interest in you, to give you the privacy to put on your new clothes.

But as the noon was closing, you had to speak with him about what backstory would you be using in the meeting with the local Syndicate leader.

1/2

>>6188116

“Eligius, what will we tell them?” You asked him as he was scribbling on his notebook. You had given it a quick look while he was returning the porridge bowls and you had only found diary-like entries and nothing else of importance.

“We are a married couple and we came from the south.” He replied without even looking at you as he found his own writing more interesting than you. “We could use the Dream Dust as a bribe or… part of our story.”

“It is quite expensive, isn’t it?” You asked him. You were an assassin, not a peddler of drugs after all.

“Very, one block could outfit a squad of footmen.” Eligius said to you and finally put his pencil down.

“And we have only one… how many did you recover even in the first place?” You had to ask him. He had told you that the smuggling and drug ring had been demolished as part of his daily efforts of getting you to speak.

“Couple dozen.” Eligius replied and turned to look at you.

“Fuck me… that’s a small fortune…” You said back and were quite amazed. “Does the Prince…”

“Not really, he knows that they are valuable, but that they are also highly illegal drugs.” Eligius answered back and continued. “Better to keep them stashed away and not spread them, we wouldn’t be any better than Syndicate then.”

Eligius sighed and continued after a pause.

“So any ideas?”

If the starting point is that two of you are a married couple that came from the south and your group are your followers and helpers, where to go from there next that sounds plausible?


>The Syndicate is a decentralised organisation for a reason, you don’t have to tell him anything about “your mission”. Suspicious, yes. Doable, very much so.
>You worked with the Dream Dust drug ring, distribution was your task to handle. You barely avoided getting caught.
>Assassinations. That is the truth on your part, but could it cause people to connect you with Pai the Assassin?
>Stormwind, you were on a diplomatic mission to connect with the Stonemason’s. That explains your tall knight.
>You came from Dawnholme, you used the lack of the army present as a way to make your leave without being noticed. You were there disguised as workers while collecting information, mixed with the Stonemason’s and Underbelly migrants and now you have returned.
>Other, write in

Present the Dream Dust:
>Yes, give it to the superior
>Yes, keep it yourself
>No, better to not talk about having it as it is valuable.

QM: Find a working combination. Not going to lie, I have been sitting on this reveal since introducing Eligius, just haven't found a good way or spot to tell it until now. This also managed to get Pai to actually think of her actions. Can the duo ever fix their relationship or is it better to just stay away from each other?

>>6188118
>You worked with the Dream Dust drug ring, distribution was your task to handle. You barely avoided getting caught.
Worked with the ring, went into hiding when it blew up and tried for a while to bring it back with almost nothing to show for it. If they insist on asking more questions:
>The Syndicate is a decentralised organisation for a reason, you don’t have to tell him everything about “your mission”.

>Present the Dream Dust?
Im not sure on this one. I could be convince for any one of the options.

>>6188118
>>You came from Dawnholme, you used the lack of the army present as a way to make your leave without being noticed. You were there disguised as workers while collecting information, mixed with the Stonemason’s and Underbelly migrants and now you have returned.
>Yes, give it to the superior

>>6188118
Is revealing himself as a 'Syndicate Warlock' not an option

>>6188239

It is in the Other, write in. So it is a valid option, but I didn't think of presenting it when I wrote the update as Eligius has been keeping being a warlock a secret for so long. Why would he suddenly decide to tell about it to others even as a disguise based in reality? Pai might need to argue her point if it is suggested.

>>6188242
An outsider crew of lower status that could sneak through ogre held Gallows Corner is probably one they would want to order to be part of their effort to retake it if any, unless they can't actually force us to do so. Being a warlock we'd at least get some extra status and wiggle room i figure, enough to tell them to mind their own business. I suppose we could save it as a reveal if we need it. Get some more info on the situation and schedule. Might be able to save our bribe dust for another occasion, and not have to feed or fake any information from some of the other cover options which either make us out as having been in the drug ring, inside Dawnholme for an extended period of time, in Stormwind, or part of their Assassination teams which I would assume are usually more elite groups with some backing. Having to talk about some of those could be unpleasant.

Im pretty sure we visit the warlock store for one reason or another, would we pretend we were doing it on behalf of another warlock but not one on our crew. Would we have a better time as Warlock Edward. If we wanted to sway opinions of warlocks there it would probably go a long way. I'm thinking about it.

I am planning on writing in couple of hours and we have three conflicting suggestions. Could I have a winning option, a tiebreaker or a flurry of other votes?

>>6188118
>>The Syndicate is a decentralised organisation for a reason, you don’t have to tell him anything about “your mission”. Suspicious, yes. Doable, very much so.
>>You worked with the Dream Dust drug ring, distribution was your task to handle. You barely avoided getting caught.
>No, better to not talk about having it as it is valuable.

>>6188726
>>6188118
support

And we have now a rather clear winner. Could Pai have a roll please, she is always a bit combative whatever the subject so a typical combat roll it is.


>3d10, Best of three
>DC 14, Crit 25

Rolled 9, 2, 7 = 18 (3d10)

>>6188759
>Crit 25
I always feel like that Willem Dafoe clip, looking up in fear when I see numbers like this.

Rolled 2, 3, 8 = 13 (3d10)

>>6188759

Rolled 4, 10, 9 = 23 (3d10)

>>6188759

>>6188759

Close to that crit but no cigar. I wonder if perhaps some kind of synergy system for better crit ranges would be conceivable. Between the characters and their compatible skills, the party, powerful warlock magic. If Eligius could work out how to make fel tainted weapons like that lesser death knight we could outfit Pai with a bunch of throwing knives that only need to scratch someone.

Tired from Sunday and some kind of bug. I think they'll fix their relationship. Theres moments to calm down and reflect even on mission, and once they get into some real combat where theres a chance to save one another theres few closer bonds.

I do like The Drug Ring cover. The Tall Knight can be our Dust addicted mercenary knight. I wonder if we can trade it for some really nice warlock store stuff. Probably could have gotten more information or less bother like shaking off the spy watching them, but there are ways to deal with him.

tfw sitting on a couple dozen wealth of drugs back in Dawnholme. I want a Castle funded by drugs. I wonder if the Dark Irons have a different view on it, or if the Hookah is just an exception for being a rather comfy luxury. Garrick Blacksteel's clan does need money, and ways to make money. Could sell them the drugs and they could find a market for it among the other Dark Irons. Considering how sturdy their race is I wonder if it would even bother them much. Could be good money.

>23, Success!


You and Eligius had gotten on the same page rather quickly and after he had thrown his robe on his shoulders and both of you had pulled the bandanas to cover your faces, it was time to go.

This time though you didn’t take his hand. Last evening had made you think about it so the two of you just walked through the town next to each other. Eligius was wearing his usual black shirt with a vest, looking all librarian-like, especially as he had shaved his week old stubble. Leaving just his short moustache and the beard on his chin. You wore your new clothes and had put some extra effort with your hair, maybe the superior would enjoy giving you a glance or two.

Having asked one of the few guards inside the town for directions, you were guided towards the town hall where you found yourself walking up the stairs and past the room you had predicted to be the mayor’s office. Finally at the end of the hallway there was an office where you were told to go. Allowing Eligius to knock, you followed right behind him as you stepped into this small office. A man in his forties with short black hair sat behind the desk, there was only one window, bookshelf and no visible weapons on the walls. You were pretty confident that if push came to shove, you could deal with that man. He didn’t seem to be wearing armour, but probably was armed. While you had the shortsword on your waist and the dagger tied to your right tight next to the garter.

“You must be the new lot here.” The man spoke. “I am Malgren, the commander of the Syndicate forces here in Strahnbrad… please take a seat.”

He seemed polite as you watched his eyes go through Eligius and you… especially you. After all, you had left the buttons open on your new kirtle.

“I am Edward.” Eligius greeted him and took a seat. “And this is my wife…”

“Margaret.” You said. You had used your mother’s name as a disguise this time. “Nice to meet you Mr. Malgren.”

“Equally happy to see the both of you… now, I spoke with my men and they told me that you were somewhat suspicious.” He said to you and Eligius.

“That you had one of your own following us?” You asked back and leaned on the chair to one side, while lifting one leg on the other. “You didn’t think we wouldn’t notice?”

“I was expecting that to happen, you aren’t some rookies wet behind their ears, after all you supposedly came from the south.” Malgren said to you. “So what were you doing there, what was your mission?”

“As you know, the Syndicate is a quite decentralised organisation. What we can tell you is a rather limited amount of information without us revealing the details surrounding our organisation.” Eligius said and explained to him rather matter of factly.

“Oh I know how this deal works, been here for a hot minute or two.” Malgren replied, now clearly slightly annoyed, which Eligius thankfully seemed to notice.

1/4

>>6188918

“We worked with the Dream Dust ring before everything fell apart.” Eligius told him with a rather steady voice. Was he still upset from yesterday? He seemed so emotionless all morning “We barely escaped when the Regional Defenders came knocking.”

“Dream Dust?” Malgren asked and leaned forward. “I thought that whole thing was exposed.”

“Me and my husband.” You started to say and found the hand of Eligius to grip. He gave you a look, but probably understood that this was required to sell your story. “We and our small group were away when they came knocking so to speak… some private time between us you know…”

“Go on…” Malgren said back.

“We handled the distribution for our part.” Eligius replied and let go of your hand.

“And?” Malgren asked again.

“Not much we could tell you Mr. Malgren, when the raids happened we went into hiding.” You told the story to him. “Stayed there until we could safely leave, when we heard that the Princeling had marched east to Durnholde, we took our chance to come here.”

Malgren leaned back and scratched his shaved shin.

“Did you recover any of the Dream Dust?” He asked.

“No.” Eligius replied.

“No?” Malgren asked.

“Don’t mind my husband, he keeps to himself rather often, like he does with his work.” You said and found the hand of Eligius again. “We went into hiding as fast as we could, we didn’t have time to recover anything or go looking for any of the few stashes around.”

“I see… well now you are here in my town and as long as you are here, you are under my supervision.” Malgren said after a pause. “You can stay in the Sloppy Hole as long as you have the coin, but otherwise everyone here needs to work for their upkeep. The Syndicate doesn’t ask for any slackers to come here.”

“Oh we understand that.” You said to him and smiled.

“Then good… you may leave then.” Malgren said and gave you a nod.

Both you and Eligius stood up and gave Malgren a set of polite bows. As you were walking back to the door, he spoke to you.

“Margaret, that was your name right?” He said and continued. “Please stay, I want to talk with you.”

You looked at Eligius for a second and then at Malgren as you took your “husband's” hand for a second till you nodded to him.

“I will be waiting outside.” Eligius said and sighed after giving a look to Malgren and then back to you. “Please don’t keep me waiting.”

“I won’t Hon…” You said back and smiled.

Eligius had played his role well and as he left the room and closed the door behind him, it left you and Malgren alone there. You gave the man a polite smile and as you walked back to the chair, had some extra sway on your hips.

2/4

>>6188919

“I have two questions for you as you are clearly the one who leads that group of yours and not your husband, is that correct?” Malgren asked you as he leaned back on his chair as you fixed your hair by brushing it away from your face and chest.

“That is incorrect, my husband is in charge, but my apologies if he seemed a bit distant… we had an argument last night…” You replied rather faintly.

“Ahh… marital issues, they are always the same.” Malgren replied and chuckled a bit as his eyes stayed on your body a bit too long to be not noticed. “So my questions, have we met before?”

Your heart skipped a beat, but your smile didn’t drop at all as you leaned slightly forward before answering.

“If we had, you would remember me~” You answered before leaning back and denying Malgren further look into your cleavage. “First time in Strahnbrad Mr. Malgren, if we have been elsewhere at the same time, maybe then you would remember me.”

Malgren smiled slightly.

“Perhaps, perhaps, but I will take your word Madam Margaret.” He replied.

“Just call me Margaret, aren’t we compatriots?” You asked and smiled before crossing your legs again. “You had a second question?”

“Oh yes.. apologies for not asking it immediately.” Malgren said and stood up. You were right, he did carry a sword on his belt, but otherwise was unarmoured. You could see that he was a trained soldier, clearly he had a rather toned body underneath his shirt and jacket. “I did mention that we don’t want any slackers around here, everyone will do their own part for Strahnbrad and for the Syndicate.”

Malgren stepped aside the table and took a seat on its corner before crossing his arms. You having leaned back had made him want to keep his superior position to look down at you, or just to stare at your breasts. Either way this was what you wanted, a good first impression, the men were so easy to manipulate after all… except Eligius and The Prince.

“I presume your husband is a rather bookish person, doesn’t carry a blade after all while you have one on your side.” Malgren said and glanced at your shortsword.

“He was the distribution, he handled numbers and figures rather well.” You told him, that wasn’t a lie as Eligius seemed to be pretty smart when it comes to stuff like that. You meanwhile? Better forget it.

3/4

>>6188920

“So I am offering you… well your husband a job. I need someone smart to handle the construction materials and nails and planks and so on.” Malgren spoke dismissively as he stood up and walked across the room behind your back. “You would imagine our organisation would attract at least some learned people, but apparently no.”

“You need a scribe?” You asked him as you looked up and behind your shoulder.

“I need a legion of scribes, but one will have to do at first and that person could be your husband.” He said and crossed over to the other corner of the table where he sat down looking down at you. “So how is it, do you think he could do the job? It would take most of his time though.”

“He is a workaholic… that was what we argued about…” You saw an opening and sighed rather dramatically before standing up from the chair and slightly dramatically brushing your hair again.. “But he can do the job if you need him.”

“That would be great, so how is it? Can you get him to agree to work for us? We will pay a solid salary, enough for you, your husband and for your crew.” Malgren asked and looked into your eyes while smiling slightly.

“I don’t know… it depends on him a lot.” You said and faintly bit your lip, this all came so unconsciously for you. “But maybe you could sweeten the deal for me?”

“Oh what do you mean?” Malgren asked, now clearly interested in your suggestion.


>You can get Eligius to agree to the job, that won’t be hard, but your crew could use a bit more funding. You know, for supplies, gear and so on.
>Malgren is clearly in need of a skilled scribe and Eligius is exactly that person. He is more valuable than Malgren thinks, so he should be paid like a proper master scribe and given equal access the books and such
>Our payments as is would be fine, but there are things you might need, that only he can provide to you. Keep that vague for a reason for when that reason appears.
>Other, write in.

>Be loyal to your “husband" and don’t push this any further.
>Flirt with Malgren, the men are always so weak with beautiful ladies like you
>Push for a closer feeling with Malgren, see where this goes. Let him take command.
>Plan on seducing the man, he clearly is already interested in you and Eligius probably doesn’t mind you “cheating” on him.
>Other, write in.


QM: The roll was for how sexy Pai manages to be, nearly a crit so she made an impact! Just does Malgren need some extra persuasion for giving you a better salary, or would further close encounters with him prove useful? This is the last vote for Eligius and Pai before we return to Alric. So what is decided here will happen within a certain time period, so think maybe a week or two forward, or maybe a bit more?

And jeez, another long one. 10k character one.

>>6188923
>>Malgren is clearly in need of a skilled scribe and Eligius is exactly that person. He is more valuable than Malgren thinks, so he should be paid like a proper master scribe and given equal access the books and such
>Be loyal to your “husband" and don’t push this any further.

>>6188923
>Malgren is clearly in need of a skilled scribe and Eligius is exactly that person. He is more valuable than Malgren thinks, so he should be paid like a proper master scribe and given equal access the books and such.
The gold is helpful for a lot of situations and intel is what we're looking for.

>Be loyal to your “husband" and don’t push this any further.
>Flirt with Malgren, the men are always so weak with beautiful ladies like you
I don't know if you would consider this flirting so I picked both but: Try to get this guy to simp for Pai basically, act real helpless and in need of rescuing. Don't lay it on too thick but act the princess who needs a white knight to save her.

>>6188923
I think it was a great update. I prefer longer, and it flows nicely.

I think that trying to fly by with the "None of your business" didn't help much, but maybe that was part of what helped imply that it was Pai who is really in charge for this cover.

Pai coming in clutch with that near crit. I am reminded of a scene, but I can't recall the movie, where young women in a war torn city prick their fingers for blood to give their cheeks a healthy blush to attract soldiers. Though Pai is also just that pretty she probably doesn't need such little tricks often.

Master Scribe is probably the hardest outside of some big Other ask, but how can I resist such access to their books and such. I do like how well Pai did so feel like she could manage with Flirt or loyal to her 'husband'. Although there is also the chance that Malgren is the kind of guy who prefers to work on a loyal wife over time. If anyone can tell, its Pai. I am curious if this could actually impact their relationship development at all. How will Eligius react when he sees shes got him the master scribe position.

This would have been easier if we gave up the Dust block, or maybe offered more free time or favors for it. I guess Eligius won't have much free time to check out the Warlock Market much, though he is quite good at scribing so who knows. Maybe one or two good visits is all we need. Plus the crew can probably help out. I'd guess Wanz and Cyrus are fairly literate. Or find hired help.

>Malgren is clearly in need of a skilled scribe and Eligius is exactly that person. He is more valuable than Malgren thinks, so he should be paid like a proper master scribe and given equal access the books and such

>Flirt with Malgren, the men are always so weak with beautiful ladies like you

Makes me laugh to think if the Warlock option had been picked. Malgren would have to be one ballsy motherfucker to try and seduce a warlock's wife. Would that chance for Pai not even appear, she would have to really push it, or get that Sexy Crit to be irresistible. What kind of opportunities could a warlock have had?

>>6188957
>where young women in a war torn city prick their fingers for blood to give their cheeks a healthy blush to attract soldiers

Schindler's List, they do that to look healthy before the inspections in the camp to avoid getting send to elsewhere.

>>6188963
Oh yeah thats it. Had been thinking of City of Life and Death and wondered if it had been in there somewhere. That would have bothered me for a bit, many thanks.

>>6188923

Eligius is a pretty skilled scribe. I wonder if he could skim a bit off the top if we want extra funds, bribery and corruption so we can get other favors and access, or to sabotage Syndicate efforts. Nail some other workers for corruption and slow down construction, though considering the Syndicate he could genuinely do that. Find the entries connected with Creedy's supplies for his keep.

Investigate construction to find some weak points in the walls and ramparts with Cyrus and Bill?

If Eligius was master scribe would we have access to mess with the town's taxes which go to Lordaeron, and could we benefit from messing with that causing Lordaeron to come investigate. Either in the books or by an ambush.

Holding on to the last hope for a Cyrus 'Crocolisk' arc of grabbing syndicate, squeezing them for info and their wallets, then body disposal.

“Edward is not just a scribe you know.” You said to him and smiled. “He handled our books and handled the distribution, he is not just some dime a dozen scribe you can find in the gutters.”

“Oh?” Malgren replied and found you dragging your finger on his chest.

“You want your project finished on time? Then he is your man.” You told him and continued after a pause and deep sigh. “Besides, we need the coin. We spent all of our money during the hiding and getting here~”

“So how do you say, do we have a deal?” You continued with your finger still on his chest.

“Well, how could I say no?” He asked you and nodded as he smiled.

“Great! I will have Edward know about this, he can start tomorrow.” You said and dropped your flirtatious self for a second. “He will be here early in the morning.”

“Wait… I mean…” Malgren started to say as you started to walk towards the door.

“You mean what Mr. Malgren? You aren’t happy with these terms?” You asked and gave him a very gentle smile.

“Of course I am…”

“Great! Then we are on the same page.” You said and pushed the door open and closed it behind you.

Eligius looked at you as he stopped leaning on the opposing wall.

“I was expecting to have to bust you out of there.” He replied rather matter of factly.

“Nothing like that, by the way you start working here tomorrow morning. You are now Mr. Malgren’s master scribe.” You said to him and gave him a wicked smile.

Eligius didn’t answer, but gave you a face that suspected your words.

“Full access to the books and numbers, you will love it.” You told her all proud about your accomplishments.

“And what did you do?” He asked.

“I was just being polite myself, that is all~” Was your reply.

“Wonderful… well tomorrow we will see it then.” Was his reply as he sighed.

“So Hon.” You replied. “I heard that there was this bath house in this town, what about if we went to visit it?”

Eligius just stared at you as you reached for his hand.

“Can’t start a new job all dirty, can you?”

Eligius just rolled his eyes as he let you hold your hand as long as it took till for you to leave the town hall.

“How did you do it?” He asked when you were outside.

“Just used my womanly charms, you know me my dear lovely husband~” You replied and nearly decided to hug him, but remembered to not do so.

Fuck me you were so proud what you had accomplished. You bet the Prince couldn’t have accomplished half of this, or whatever he was doing with his campaign. You were the Light be damned Pai of Alterac and this was your shit!

…

…

…

You are Prince Alric Perenolde, the Lord Command of the Expeditionary Force, a known duelist and boy do you miss being able to press your head on the nape of Malevus’ neck and breathing in the raspberries of her hair. And leading this force was your shit.

1/2

>>6189037

Riding on Epona, the army surrounded you on three sides. Three columns, Durnholders to your left, Alteracis in the middle and all the Regional Defenders taking the right flank. Cavalry lazily followed behind you as you made your way through the old forest, dodging the tree trunks that were as wide as three men standing aside.

“Prince Alric, we haven’t yet made contact with your archers.” Sir Foecourt said to you. He was leading the cavalry under your orders.

“We will soon.” You said to him and gave him a glance.

Riding on Epona kept you from not tiring and keeping your helmet on your head hid your eyes enough to not have to bother with the glasses. The slow trot across the forest landscape forced you to keep your senses alert, the gnolls could be anywhere, but most likely you just wanted to avoid getting hit by errant branches and such.

“Prince Alric! One of the archers is here!” A footman came running to you. With him was a thoroughly exhausted archer of yours, who saluted you before drinking half a waterskin passed to him.

“What is the news?” You asked him as you waited for him to finish drinking.

“Prince Alric, we found their camp, not that long distance from here.” The archers said back to you.

“Did you spot the gnolls?” You asked.

“Yes, there are maybe a hundred of them, but they are disorganised, some of them are wounded.” The archer told you.

“Can you lead us to them?” You asked this time.

“I can, the brothers are already waiting for you.”

“Splendid, then lead the way.” You said while you looked around for any of your officers, before spotting one. “Captain Cromwell, let the word spread, we found the gnolls and so from this onward, keep your utmost silence, no talking, no noises, no nothing.”

“Understood Prince Alric.” Cromwell replied and saluted before letting the word pass.

You got them, you bloody got them. Now they would die.

…

Having dismounted, you had made your way to the brothers while keeping your head down. Aurvan’kal being an elven armour made your steps to be rather light and noiseless, so reaching them wasn’t a problem, yet you found yourself crawling on ýour stomach to reach the position they were in.

“Prince Alric.” Arthur Rover greeted you quietly as he took cover behind a bush. “We found their place.”

“Not much of a place, but enough to be their camp.” Alfred continued. “What are your orders?”

“I have my army behind me, what are your suggestions?” You asked them and caught them off-guard.

“They aren’t organised, we could just charge them, get this done with and then go to sleep.” Arthur told you.

“What he is saying is that they shouldn’t be that much of a threat.” Alfred continued rather matter of factly.

You looked at the camp and agreed. Their huts littered the forest floor and you could see them milling around all unorganised. At the first glance you didn’t see any leaders of theirs, but maybe one could be hiding somewhere there? You weren’t sure, but now it was the time to act.

2/2

>>6189040


>Order general assault, cavalry first with your infantry right behind them. Catch them by surprise even if your men aren’t as organised as you would like them to be.
>Get your men into a battleline and approach the camp. Your organised attack will wipe the gnolls off this earth even if this gives them some time to get ready.
>Have your army make ready and have the gnolls to realise it. Invite them into a battle where you can defeat them once and for all.
>Other, write in.

Alric’s place is:
>With the Cavalry
>In the first line charging the gnolls
>Headhunting the gnoll leaders?
>Staying back as the overall Lord Commander of this force
>Other, write in

QM: Pai is proud as hell about what she had accomplished. Can Alric match her on the battlefield? And we had passed the Eligius/Pai segment I had planned to do, did you like it? Did you like the characters?

>>6189043
This is a lot more pitiful than I expected... not even a wall? Change of plans then:
>Get your men into a line around the camp, they can either get peppered with missile fire or try to break out through your sturdy infantry line.
I like this better than any of the options. Sure it's not the most flashy but I want an execution and not a battle.

>With the Cavalry
To quickly reinforce the line in case they somehow put up more of a fight than expected.

>And we had passed the Eligius/Pai segment I had planned to do, did you like it? Did you like the characters?
Sure, I liked them a lot. Just wish you didn't have them interrupt the battle segment. Bit of tonal whiplash.

>>6189059

That is why I kinda wanted them "out of the way" at the start of the thread for them to have their own part of the story done. Now we can concentrate on Alric and the friends without having to worry about Eligius and the gang, especially as the actions they have done are actually in the future. They are in the terms of the timeline about five days ahead of Alric right now and now the stuff they are doing are going to occupy them for couple of weeks. So basically we have nearly a month of Alric before he catches up with Eligius and Pai.

>>6189043
I liked the segment a lot, got to see quite a few developments and character interactions. I'm curious to see how things will go on their end with The General, the warlock shop, the master scribe and info gathering. That's all still build up to the Keep, if there's a big fight, or a clean getaway. Had some good thoughts of what I'd want Eligius to try with his Warlock powers. Fun to see Pai and Eligius work. Cyrus is fun to imagine with his boisterous energy and big mustache. Wanz believing it's a suicide mission and going with it anyways is also pretty funny.

It's also a situation Alric would be a bit too flashy to accomplish sneaking into.

Oh I do wonder. Has the Gnoll leader left as soon as he realized this was happening, making towards the rest of the gnoll tribes to rally them and letting the shaman handle it.

Or if hes is just inside the camp somewhere that would certainly be good to kill him and match Pai's achievement. might need to either surround or put Alric in a place with the mobility and vision to hunt him down.

>>6189043
Oh right I wonder if we should avoid burning their camps too much so we can find more proof of Syndicate trading, but no walls, no obvious syndicate outpost, oh well. Maybe a wagon trail leading from here to such an outpost if there was time to investigate but we will want to get back to the other gnolls. Could send an order to Shoredon to send some scouts to check further north.

>>6189066
It's not about interrupting Alric, it's about interrupting the battle. Had Alric just been having some downtime it would've been fine since the problem was the blueballs you gave me. Shit was getting interesting and then we get a scene change to a ragtag bunch of misfits awkwardly trying to get on with it.

>>6189103

Yeah, that is quite fair criticism. I just wanted to have a nice story switch point between the campaign and the merry goose chase with the new thread starting.

>>6189043
>Get your men into a battleline and approach the camp. Your organised attack will wipe the gnolls off this earth even if this gives them some time to get ready.
>Other, write in.
Have the archers and crossbowmen start to unleash their volleys on the camp. Meanwhile the cavalry, will split in two and charge the enemy flanks when our infantry battleline starts fighting. We slaughter the gnolls in one definitive move, whatever opposition they can organize will be weakened by our ranged units, break under the infantry and shatter with the cavalry charge. Also, our mages are free to engage.

>In the first line charging the gnolls
With our men, lets see who can kill the most gnolls today. Maybe Cronwell, Foecourt, Gravis or Bahkmet want to try it ?

>You are Prince Alric Perenolde, the Lord Command of the Expeditionary Force, a known duelist and boy do you miss being able to press your head on the nape of Malevus’ neck and breathing in the raspberries of her hair. And leading this force was your shit.
hahaha


>Can Alric match her on the battlefield?
hell yeah, this forest is going to be called gnoll graveyard when we are done here. Cinder Sword hungers for gnoll blood
>And we had passed the Eligius/Pai segment I had planned to do, did you like it? Did you like the characters?
Yes. It was nice. Maybe you will need to find some moments of pause between them, for move from the mission to the campaign, and from the campaign to the mission. When something critical is not ahead of one of the two. No complaints from me otherwise.

>>6189043
>Get your men into a battleline and approach the camp. Your organised attack will wipe the gnolls off this earth even if this gives them some time to get ready.
>Other
I imagine the crossbow and guns should be well even if they do take cover behind the huts. Or we have magic. Try not to burn it all down since there should be some more clues here.

>Staying back as the overall Lord Commander of this force
May as well act our part as Lord Commander since we have multiple armies here. Get some progress on Warfare 6 to match Martial 6.

The more I think about it the more sure I feel he is already gone south to rally the other tribes. Probably a little after handing things off to the Shaman for that Night Attack.

Wounded and confused warriors will always gather around their leader in such times, barring orders otherwise. I think that crosses the boundaries of intelligent species. But that isn't the case here. They aren't gathering around one hut in particular or anything. He's not here.

If the men aren't organized we lose track of them, their positions and their actions. Dealing with wounded and what they report about the enemy will also be confused.

If we get into battleline we avoid those mostly. We give them time to organize, to use their huts as cover and obstacles. If their leader is here a little time to organize should let him show up and be obvious enough.

I will have this vote go till tomorrow as I don't have the time to write the update today. Apologies for that.

>>6189040
>just make sure to cut off their retreat. No escapees this time.

Idc which we do just don't let them escape. Aka encircle them. Or only give them an out where our calv can run them all down.

>>6189059
>>6189043
Support
Maximise gnoll death with as little casualties as possible.

The segment was fine btw was nice to switch perspectives. i did find the timing of it right we had finished off the immediete gnoll attack and was resting before moving on.

>>6189043
>Get your men into a line around the camp, they can either get peppered with missile fire or try to break out through your sturdy infantry line.
>Headhunting the gnoll leaders
Business as usual for Alric. If there are more mages, Alric will deal with them. The man is a monster and leads from the front so far.

I liked the segue, I felt it didn't take away much from the MC's operations.
Eligius as a scribe has an excuse to be anywhere in town to audit and inventory. This includes the warlock reagent store and more.

Moving to surround the gnolls and being with the cavalry, staying ready to plug any holes or to run down the stragglers seems to be the winner here.

Could Alric have a roll how the approach towards the gnolls go? Putting that Warfare skill into good use.


>3d10, Best of three
>DC 15, Crit 20

Rolled 2, 2, 8 = 12 (3d10)

>>6190007

Rolled 1, 8, 3 = 12 (3d10)

>>6190007
Did making the 4 Columns plan help grind Warfare

Rolled 1, 4, 3 = 8 (3d10)

>>6190007
Oh god not again

>>6190007
Ahhhhh Cromwell save this with your Specialty noooooooo

Rolled 3, 6, 5 = 14 (3d10)

Well they apparently spotted your approach. I will roll myself one time and whatever the result is will be the DC for you to beat.

So give us a second set of rolls, let's see if the gnolls actually succeed in struggling against you.


>3d10, Best of three
>DC result of my roll, Crit if the DC is above 22

Rolled 4, 6, 3 = 13 (3d10)

>>6190024

Rolled 8, 6, 9 = 23 (3d10)

>>6190024
Gnoll genocide gods please help me.

Rolled 4, 10, 6 = 20 (3d10)

>>6190024
rolling bones

>No one says Alterac Stands or kill gnolls when rolling
Grim times ahead......


>>6190027
dawnholmer core patriot fact checked

>>6190007
About a 1/3rd chance to not get atleast 15 on a 3d10. With those 3 rolls thats about 1/27 chance to not get a single roll 15 or above. A 3.7% chance to fail the Warfare roll for approaching unnoticed. Very sad, very unlucky.

>>6190027
Nice, very solid.

>>6190024
Atleast we are still smacking these gnolls with 3 columns. 455 men and 4 Ballista against a 100 or so gnolls fresh off their big loss. It'll be nice to see if the ballista can do some work here, I had been expecting the worst with a palisade or something but its just their shitty huts.

>>6190045
They will probably not be fast enough to do something about the first volley ueashed by archers, crossbowmen and ballistas. And of course the rifles and mages

They are in a dire situation even if they had the luck to notice it. We are about to make it worse

“We will encircle them and deal with them that way, none will escape today.” You said back to the brothers. “So stay put and keep your heads down.”

Both brothers nodded to you.

“I’ll be back in a moment.” You told them and started crawling back where your horse was waiting.

Now to finish this job.

…

>12, Failure!
>23, Success!


You had given the orders to your officers and they had ridden away to inform their columns. The order to march was given to be done in near silence to avoid detection. You wanted to minimize the chance for the gnolls to be able to spot you as even if they were disorganised, their senses were better than what you have.

But as silently the men could march, when you reached the positions where the archers were, the gnolls had already detected you.

“Blasted! Give the signal for marching speed!” You shouted the orders and the trumpeter amongst the cavalry did as ordered. Now your flanks should know to drop the stealth and pick up the pace.

As your footmen jogged into positions, you observed the gnolls. They were hastily building barricades and obstacles within their camp between their huts and felled trees. Seeing as your flanks started to move to their left and right, you decided to give the next order. If possible, you would like to avoid getting into a prolonged melee and dealing with the gnolls this way was preferrable.

“Open fire when ready!” You shouted and the trumpeter gave another command.

You watched as your archers, crossbowmen and handgunners took their positions behind and between the footmen as they marched forward. The signal was repeated on both flanks and you could see their archers race up into positions.

Suddenly a mighty twang sound was heard and just as quickly you saw a ballista bolt flew into the gnoll camp, impacting the ground just in front of their shoddy barricade before splintering into dozens of pieces. The next bolt wouldn’t miss that for sure.

Your archers and crossbowmen joined the ballistas next, the first volley being aimed accurately thanks to the light that reached through the forest canopy. The arrows and bolts flew high and dropped amongst the gnolls taking cover. Then came the snaps of the matchlocks as a volley was sent towards this stationary target and they were followed by three more ballista bolts. One flew too high, but two impacted right into the gnolls taking cover. Timber and body parts were scattered left and right as another volley of arrows were launched. The dust the ballistae had kicked up made it hard to see what exactly was going on as both the Durnholders and Regional Defenders joined the efforts in full.

And as Jon Boyd started to chant and launched a fireball into the midst of them, you knew this battle was already over. No one would survive this onslaught.

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>>6190171

One final ballista bolt flew past your men, hitting one of the gnoll huts, flying through it and impacting somewhere in the middle of the gnoll camp.

You had ordered a cease fire and watched if there was any movement amongst the gnolls. Dust and the fire that had spread across the hastily built barricades obstructed your view, so if there were survivors, they could still be hidden there.

“I don’t think they have survived.” Sir Foecourt said to you. He had been watching the carnage unfolded next to you in total silence. “Shall we go in to check them out?”

His cavalry had missed the battle, just like the infantry which was probably for the best. Unnecessary casualties would have happened if you had engaged the gnolls in the open. Now who gets the honour of going to poke some corpses to see if they are still alive or not?


>Give the cavalry the “honour” to move in first. This way you get an opportunity of seeing the gnolls and surveying the battlefield before anyone else.
>Send in the infantry, they will do a thorough work going through the gnolls and seeing if any are still alive.
>You can wait for the dust to settle before moving it. You want no surprises, no unnecessary casualties.
>Other, write in.

QM: Them spotting you had a benefit, they bunched up nicely to be killed on the spot.

>>6190173
Foecourt has pretty new armor doesnt he? How many countryside knights would usually have the newest armors, and how many would be rocking their grandfather's armor or something like Alric's mish mash set.

>Give the cavalry the “honour” to move in first. This way you get an opportunity of seeing the gnolls and surveying the battlefield before anyone else.

Alright lets just get it out of the way. If Foecourt is a syndicate asset he wants to get to the chief's hut before anyone else unless hes got some men in the Durn cav ranks he trusts. Hes outnumbered by the RD cav and hes got us with him so who knows.

I imagine the Rover's didn't see any leader pop up while they were watching and waiting for the armies to get here. There was plenty of opportunity for one to leave from being spotted to the dust rising, but I am pretty sure mister Gnoll in shining armor was already gone long before this. I wonder how many days it takes him to get from here to them while avoiding anything too bothersome like a big animal territory or more mage traps. Plus wearing his armor.

Was Maxwell on his way to the South yet or still escorting wounded and restocking supplies

>>6190240

Maxwell and his column when you last saw him was getting the wounded and such ready to be moved. Basically it has just a few hours since the dawn and the end of the last thread.

And Foecourt's armour is pretty new, but really nothing super special. Most knights who surround him have similar type of plate. Like I have said previously, I dislike overtly large pauldrons, so I like to sprinkle a bit of realism here and there from time to time. Which also explains why the gnolls took such a trouncing at your hands in melee, your men have armour and they do not.

>>6190243
Yeah move them would take a bit.

I wasn't thinking anything super special, that would draw too much attention. Just considering how likely a country knight has the funds to stay in knightly fashion. I suppose its probably of Southshore make? Though Hillsbrad had some blacksmiths making weapons while that whole syndicate operation was ongoing I don't recall if they were making armor as well.

Speaking of fantasy knight I am reminded of The Black Cauldron, always enjoyed the movie. The magic sword in there was nice.

With a couple priests, a Paladin and apprentice, plus Madam Martin's magic and potions what are the odds we get some troops back in shape within a week or two.

>>6190173
>Give the cavalry the “honour” to move in first. This way you get an opportunity of seeing the gnolls and surveying the battlefield before anyone else.
For morale more than anything, seeing the commander be the first to go in should be a little moralizing. Anyway, like anon said, I think whatever special thing would've been here had left before we attacked. I would bring the wizards in the off chance the gnolls somehow made a magic booby trap.

>>6190243
Thought of another question, would Boyd and Williams vs the Shaman have gone?

>>6190297
For the eventual fight against the leader gnoll, I'm wondering if hes gonna be in full plate or more like a mish mash which would probably still be pretty bad. I'm thinking we finally have a very good reason to pull out the Fel powered Cinder Sword and see how strong that is.

>>6190305

It would have been a game of Boyd being on offensive and Williams defending him vs the gnoll mage. They could have probably defeated the gnoll before Boyd gets tired.

Stats and Socials pastebin got small updates on the merry goose chase gang.

>>6190315
That reminds me I wanna hear what they found off the gnoll shaman before too long. I wonder how Madam Martin would have done against the Gnoll Shaman, is she actually quite powerful with her Naturalist magic in combat?

I'll give the pastebin a lookeyloo.

>>6190173
>>Give the cavalry the “honour” to move in first. This way you get an opportunity of seeing the gnolls and surveying the battlefield before anyone else.
lot of interest for just watching some corpses.... well i guess Foecourt and knights in general are after gaining honor and battle. They can cut down any fake corpse.

>Write in
>"We will. Sir Foecourt make sure the men don't pass a corpse without piercing it twice at least. Gnolls don't give up easily, and neither care of honor. Gravis with me."
>>6190240
its quite nice, but i think it still classify has a knightly plate.
Durnholde nobles don't seem super rich but neither poor, so any of their knights should be up to standard or have their grandfathers armors well maintained. I imagine Regional Defenders knights are a mix too. Alric old set... is if you have it really bad lol, i don't want to diss Alric old armor (it did its duty) but i don't think any knight would look at it and think "i'll wear it".

>If Foecourt is a syndicate asset he wants to get to the chief's hut before anyone else unless hes got some men in the Durn cav ranks he trusts. Hes outnumbered by the RD cav and hes got us with him so who knows.
That would be a really tight situation for him to act here. The dust can only help so much, and there are probably a few gnolls survivors to deal with among corpses. Not exactly easy to just rush the chief hut with this conditions.

I am not sure he is a spy, but he is very much investing in developing a relation with us any time he can (which granted would be good for a spy, but also for someone that wants to create a strong positive relation so that he can be noticed and join Dawnholme with a position). I think he might be seeing where the proverbial wind is blowing, what with Blackmoore not being exactly.... a great lord. i could be wrong, but he must have heard how Gravis and bros have gained honor by following us around and fighting around.

Who knows. Maybe he left his armor here, or maybe he left a liutenant of his to deal with this camp. Eitherway i agree he is running east.


>>6190314
They managed to give the gnoll warriors some basic pieces of armor (helmets, some mail etc..) and steel weapons, if they could do that an armor of that kind might be possible. Full would be a bit difficult mostly for the gnoll propotions, its one thing to equip them with an helmet another with everything. Could be an inbetween. It depends on how much equipment they throwed at them really. Throwing at the gnoll leader something like that would really sweeten the deal of working for them though, and make him actually do what they said.

Maybe, Cinder Sword ignited is already very dangerous on his own. I don't remember armors being safe from it, and with the firestorm he feels inside him thats just written in stone. If the sword is Fel powered we might carbonize the gnoll lol

>>6190361
Surely we can find some other landless knights who sport the old Alric armor style. Bush Knight Chic. Those are the knights we gotta recruit.

It might be Foecourt's hidden accent that pops up is just a sign he had some Alteraci background of some kind that would effect his career. It also amuses me to think how I would use knights and their squires as great spots for spies. Though if we can get him some honor and glory in the rest of the battles now that he heads the cavalry column I do hope we can invite them to other campaigns.

Aint no way he left his armor. It'd be like Alric leaving the Aurvan'kal. Though if we've hyped him up and then he doesn't meet expectations I will still push for Fel Sword to erase the gnoll once and for all. If I think about what would also be scary other than a gnoll in plate, with gnoll strength he could wield a very big weapon. It whips out a Guts sized sword, too big too long and too rough.

Sir Foecourt and the cavalry gets the honour of moving in and clearing whatever survivors there are. Could cavalry as a whole get a combat roll?


>3d10, Best of three
>DC 14, Crit 20

Rolled 9, 9, 1 = 19 (3d10)

>>6190772
Combat huh?

Rolled 3, 8, 9 = 20 (3d10)

>>6190772
ALTERAC STANDSS

Rolled 9, 8, 4 = 21 (3d10)

>>6190772
Gnoll mopup.

>21, Crit Success!


“Sir Foecourt, the battlefield is yours.” You told him and continued. “Push in and clear the stragglers. I’ll be right behind you.”

“Aye Prince Alric!” He replied enthusiastically. “Cavalry! Move past the Alteracis and form ranks!”

A chorus of rather eager agreements was heard around you and near immediately the cavalry started to move. It looked like they were easy to please, like a group of eager naughty children told that there’s free delicacies in the kitchen.

Riding past the Alteracis, you followed the knights as they formed two ranks ahead of your men. Taking your position behind Sir Foecourt, this was his battlefield now and it was a lot safer for you not to be on the first rank as you weren’t a cavalryman or a knight. Looking around, the knights around you all carried lances and their horses had barding or at minimum caparisons, your Epona seemed rather under armoured compared to them, but you meanwhile carried the best armour of them all on you, but yet again you weren’t a knight so a simple spear was good enough to act as your lance.

“Knights advance!” Foecourt shouted and the horses around you lurched forward. Quickly the pace picked up and you were going full trot towards the gnoll camp.

And getting closer to the camp, everyone was looking for any movement. Until you were nearly on top of them, no one saw anything, but then…

“Knights charge! Kill the stragglers!” Foecourt shouted as he must have seen something.

The knights immediately charged ahead and you saw why. There were maybe a dozen, maybe a bit more gnolls still standing after all that fire they had received. The horses galloped forward and jumped over the near demolished barricades, the knights who had the opportunity to plant their lances on the still standing gnolls did so with expert precision, those knights who missed that opportunity found themselves looking for any signs of movement on the ground where dead and dismembered gnolls littered the battlefield.

You felt slightly out of place there as the knights charged and galloped all around you, trying to find a kill or two, or a gnoll to finish on the ground who was still alive. Really this charge had been unnecessary, but no kill like overkill!

…

“Sir Foecourt!” You called him out as the knights started to run out of wounded gnolls to finish. “Take some of your riders and see if any have tried to escape!”

You saw him nod his head and quickly half of the knights took off with him. Meanwhile you circled around within the camp and realised that it was better to leave the searching for your infantry. So you raised your spear up and waved it for Captain Cromwell to see and you saw him reply with a wave of an Alteraci flag.

As the infantry started to march forward, you knew that the battle was over and the searching of the battlefield would start.

1/2

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>>6190891

The men prodded and turned the corpses around. They kicked in the doors of the huts that were still standing and pulled apart those that were half-collapsed.

“Prince Alric.” Langston greeted you. “A great victory today.”

As much as that was kissing ass, he was right. First the night action that practically made the gnoll warband combat inefficient and then this. More than two hundred gnolls were dead, real number closer to two-fifty after all the bodies are counted. The leader of this warband, the gnoll mage, seemed to be dead and now you had their camp to plunder.

“It was a good victory, but don’t rest yet. We still have a campaign to win.” You said back to him.

“What shall we do next?” He asked. “What are your orders?”

“Count the dead, collect their weapons and whatever loot there is, find anything interesting amongst them and bring it to me.” You replied to him.

“Understood Prince Alric.” Langston said back and gave you a deep nod. He seemed to be rather fine at being ordered around. “Anything else, shall we return back to the basecamp after everything is searched here?”

That was a good question, how much time would you be spending here. It was nearly noon right now and searching everything would take a couple of hours. At this point Captain Maxwell probably already had escorted all the wounded to the basecamp and arranged the patrols around there. They would be safe for now so you weren’t exactly in a hurry, but sooner you engage the remaining gnolls the better. Just you didn’t want to miss anything around here.


>Search the surroundings and the camp thoroughly. You don’t want to miss anything in here even if it takes a bit more time.
>The camp itself is the priority, make sure every stone is turned around here and anything useful has been recovered.
>You are in a somewhat of a hurry. Clear the camp and burn the corpses, you would have found anything useful by now.
>Turn the men around and march back to the basecamp. You have a feeling that you are going to be fighting more gnolls rather shortly.
>Other, write in.

QM: You are where the Syndicate? text is or thereabouts.

>>6190895
>Search the surroundings and the camp thoroughly. You don’t want to miss anything in here even if it takes a bit more time.
>Send the cavalry back to basecamp posthaste with orders for them and Maxwell's troops to defend the farms until our return
The camp is a lot farther from the farms than I thought they were, this ought to remedy the defense question.

>>6190895
>>Search the surroundings and the camp thoroughly. You don’t want to miss anything in here even if it takes a bit more time.

>>6190895
>>Search the surroundings and the camp thoroughly. You don’t want to miss anything in here even if it takes a bit more time.

search and then back to the camp, time to deal with the gnolls in the east. The search shouldn't take too long, most of the weapons and pieces of armor should be easy to grab and we have a lot of men that can look around. I do wonder if there is anything else with these options, who knows.
damn we have gone far, almost near the hills really. We have dealt with the north part if nothing else. Shoredon and Stonedon are a bit safer now.


>>6190933
I think it was placed there for ease of travel for the expedition army. If the expedition camp was near one of the farms there would be additional days to add for get to it. Placed there is ready for gather and heal wounded or welcome a column in it. Or at least i think thats the idea since its in the ancient forest. Defending the farms only happens if we lose the attack initiative, Alric campaign is designed for being on the offensive and be mobile (hence the columns) for attack gnolls camps and groups. And the farms are also not all in one place but across the Durnholde countryside, which makes their defense require some effort.

>>6191142
No, gnolls could opportunistically attack civilians out of spite. The main point of the columns wasn't to be mobile, it was to entice the gnolls to attack. We don't need to defend every farm on the Durnholde countryside, just those closest to the forest who are most at risk.

>>6191145
If the gnolls can prepare now to get to the farms, at the moment a few days have passed and they are not likely to know the full extent of what their northern groups suffered, if they noticed the lack of messages yet that is.

And right now they still would need to deal with the expedition that is pretty much going to force them to deal with them, very soon. I dont think they will be able to ignore that and go raiding while humans are in their home.

Thats a part of the columns plan. But its also to be mobile. They are faster and can cover more ground thanks to being smaller formations, we finished quite quickly here. If we where one army it would have gone way slower.

Those farms are still a few days away from the army camp, and then you have a situation with Maxwell which needs to protect the army camp until we reconnect, and then the now splitted* cavalry column all the way south. To me it sounds like we are losing a strength for the battles to come, battles we have intention to do in the east. Alric very much wants to engage the eastern gnolls has soon as possible too.


*Knowing how many farms are near the forest is more of a Langston question. Eitherway the cavalry is still getting far and cant remain together if they need to defend more than one farm. If there are multiple farms i might consider it, but the cavalry would end up alone and we will not be able to use it for most of the battles in the east.

>>6191163
I reckon the fires, the silence plus likely survivors has alerted them already. An attack on the farms wouldn't be from a big host but from a "squad" of gnolls. Unless the gnolls have a very disciplined and united force which doesn't act without orders which I don't think they have.

Their speed is just a great side effect. Had we been one massive force, they wouldn't have attacked at all and we wouldn't be finished here. They would have avoided fighting and let us march around endlessly.

Which is why I want the army camp to move closer to the farms and also reconnect with our forces before advancing east. I also believe the gnolls only have one more fight left in them, they are ratty creatures not prideful ones. I reckon they'll retreat from the region should we give them another trouncing.

You seem to be under the impression I want the cavalry there for the rest of the campaign which I don't. The points I will acknowlede are that: it's a lot of ground to cover and it doesn't keep up the pressure.

In the end, perhaps you are right but letting civilians go unprotected leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Wonder if they could be evacuated into our camp?

This post is jumbled rambly mess and I need sleep.

“We shall search everything thoroughly before we shall return, I want to know what they have here if they have anything here.” You said to him. “Then we shall return back to the basecamp.”

Langston saluted to you.

“Turn everything around, send patrols to follow the cavalry. I want to know know everything, I want to find everything. Nothing shall be missed.” You continued to him.

“Understood Prince Alric.” Langston replied. “Your will be done.”

Good, now just to wait and see if anything is actually found.

…

One hundred and twenty one gnolls was the count. That many bodies had been recovered, including the couple that had tried to get away, but were caught by your cavalry. In total that meant somewhere around three hundred and twenty dead gnolls in just one day. And for their part, they were being piled up into pyres, mixed with wood from their huts and their weapons and shields before being lit on fire.

Blades, swords, bits of armour and iron tools were being collected, from their huts pots and pans amongst other might be useful bits. A small amount of coins were also found, a prize money to be shared later after the campaign is over. But outside of that nothing that interested you within the camp.

But outside of it some distance away was something you definitely wanted to visit.

“Here…” Foecourt said to you and helped you to dismount Epona. “This is what I wanted you to see.”

You passed your spear to a knight who was already dismounted and took your cane from the saddlebag. Playing appearances had become common to you, but this time you really felt you needed it.

Following Foecourt, he guided you some distance away from the horses and pointed down into a pit dug into the forest floor. It forced you to take off your helmet and left gauntlet so that you could cover your mouth with your hand.

The pit was full of decomposed and poorly covered corpses. Their maggoty skeletons and bodies filling the pit. Some of their arms stuck off the ground in odd angles while those whose faces weren’t covered in dirt told a tale of agony and death. Their armour made from leather was those of Syndicate designs.

“Syndicate.” You replied, fighting against the smell.

“You recognise them?” Foecourt asked.

“I have fought against them, we saw one corpse when we last time entered these forests.” You told him and took a step back. “I have seen everything I need.”

The two of you walked some distance back to your horses.

“Why are they dead, you told your theory of them giving arms and armour to the gnolls?” Foecourt asked you as he followed you.

“I do not know, but they are dead now. The gnolls must have crossed them or something.” You said and sighed. “Sir Foecourt, speak with Mr. Langston and have him sent a work party to properly cover the corpses.”

“My Prince?” Foecourt asked.

1/3

>>6191175

“They are our enemies Sir Foecourt, but they are also men. They deserve at least to be covered with a couple feet of dirt.” You told him. “May the Holy Light forgive them, they should be buried somewhere else and not in these woods in a mass grave.”

You weren’t a religious man, but at least some bits of what Malevus had told you had stuck on you. Maybe after all of this is over you could send people to dig them up and transport them to a proper graveyard.

“I understand… I will let Mr. Langston know.” Foecourt said back to you as you put on your helmet and gauntlet.

Your work here was done. Now just to count what could be found around here.

…

The sun had started to set as the smell of burning flesh and fur spread across the forest.

Your men had set a camp some distance away from the gnoll camp to avoid the worst of it, but most at this point didn’t care. They had been up since early hours of the night and most had found places to pitch up their tarps and start eating or just outright resting. Arthur and Alfred Rover had given their report to you about how things had gone and how they had recovered some of their arrows, but after that they had just gone to sleep with their men. They were dead tired, just like you were. At least nearly, there was a fire inside you that kept you going.

With the risk of the gnolls attacking you gone, you had taken off your armour and sat under your tarp cover writing the daily report for the historians to ponder. As you were nearly finished, you were interrupted by one of your men.

“My Prince.” Captain Cromwell said and stepped under the tarp, taking a seat on the ground without asking permission.

“Captain.” You said back and allowed him this leniency.

“We found nothing that interests you within the camp or in the mass grave.” He said to you. “Just weapons and such, no more castle-made arms.”

“The ones with the mage seemed to be the elites of this warband.” You said to him.

“Looks like it. The men are now burning the corpses and what remains of the camp.” Cromwell said. “Most of the work is done already, just pushing the corpses around.”

“Good, anything else?” You asked him.

“The men are tired, some exhausted and they are going to rest for the evening, but most are still up, the thrill of the fight keeping them awake.” He said to you.

You had felt that same thrill of the fight many times now, sometimes it had gotten you to laugh even.

“Where are you getting?” You asked him.

“Well Prince Alric… I think the men would like to see you play for them.” Cromwell replied. “They don’t dare to ask themselves, but they have spoken about the time a few days ago when you and your… Lady Malevus played and sang to them. They enjoyed it thoroughly and I know my Prince has his flute with him.”

2/3

>>6191176

Cromwell was right, you had your flute with you in your backpack.

“The men would love it my Prince.” Cromwell repeated. “The other columns might as well.”

All the men were camped together for today, a larger than usual audience if you were to play for them.

“You are asking a lot Captain.” You said back, keeping your tone neutral.

He shrugged.

“The men also saw you to charge the gnolls in the middle of the night to win them some time to get up and get ready. Is playing your flute too much to ask?” Cromwell asked.


>Play your flute to them if they really want it. After a long day that could be a way to relax and find some solace.
>Tell Cromwell that you and Malevus will play for them after the campaign is over. Let that be a motivation to them.
>Just tell them to go to sleep, you aren’t going to play fpr them today right now. Just rest, tomorrow is going to be a long day for all of us.
>Other, write in.

What does he mean with you and your…:
>Ask him about it
>Everyone now has the idea that you and Malevus are a thing
>Don’t ask him about it, not the time for rumour
>Other, write in

>>6191177
>Play your flute to them if they really want it. After a long day that could be a way to relax and find some solace.
Play something relaxing and that the lads can sing. Maybe one or some of the men have instruments?

>Don’t ask him about it, not the time for rumour
Though call him out on the slip up.

>>6191177
>Play your flute to them if they really want it. After a long day that could be a way to relax and find some solace.
Sure, it'll make the men happy. With the other columns here it would be a nice way to connect with our neighbor's soldiers as well. Probably won't have another big battle for a few more days.

Funny that the Syndicate got double crossed by Gnolls. They walked in expecting to trade goods for a bunch of captives and just got killed. Interesting they managed to set up a trade to begin with, but I guess they didn't bring enough men and were seen as an opportunistic kill. Atleast that probably means the Gnoll Leader doesn't have a mastercraft armor specially fitted for him, I'd figure that would have required an actual deal and time to make it. No Syndicate support either obviously. Everyone was trying to take captives east across the river so I still think theres a Syndicate Outpost further out, or someone the Syndicate was trading with who want captives. Good news overall, though the potential for some kind of Gnoll x Syndicate Alliance would have been really funny to inform the Alliance about. Possibly good for getting them to move their asses.

>Ask him about it
If hes got his view or the view of the men I'd just as soon hear it. Didn't take very long for such ideas to get around. Cromwell with his defense oriented nature probably has a more conservative view of things, but might be nice to hear from him.


The main War Goal of this campaign was to protect the farms from the Gnolls. Its Gnoll standard to send raiders when they are being invaded. We got the warning that its been 5 days since the Cavalry made a ruckus that spooked the southern gnolls and their hesitation won't last forever, hopefully they were busy messaging each other to see if anyone got dunked on by cavalry. If thats over they could already be scouting, planning to scout, or planning to raid. Will any orders from the Gnoll Leader reach them in time to change their plans.

I think everyone presumes the Gnoll Leader was not the shaman but the Champion Alric almost died to, and that he left to go rally the southern tribes. He either left before we broke their night attack or after, does he act on his tribe losing or holding us up there for a while. Does he act on revenge if he assumes his tribe lost, If he realizes that the Night Attack trying to break a single column failed does he change tactics back to raiding. Its a bit of a toss up.

If we're lucky the southern tribes aren't already in motions that could see them raid the farms before we reach the southern tribes, and the gnoll leader orders them all to just gather up before they can start raiding, with the singular intention of facing our Columns. Not too crazy but it is a number of 'ifs' that would have to line up. Maybe give it some more thought later.

>>6191177
>>Play your flute to them if they really want it. After a long day that could be a way to relax and find some solace.
>Don’t ask him about it, not the time for rumour

>>6191177
>Play your flute to them if they really want it. After a long day that could be a way to relax and find some solace.

>Don’t ask him about it, not the time for rumour

>>6191177
>Play your flute to them if they really want it. After a long day that could be a way to relax and find some solace.
Sure i suppose, after this battles and marching it would be nice to hear some sounds not of war.

>Ask him about it
What he could say about the rumors eh....probably that we are together ? Thats what soldiers would believe really, a simple and logical connection to make. I imagine that's what many other of our officers might think too. And Cromwell is a soldier to his core. Now what he thinks of it ? Its a different question. He was with Alric from day 1 and had seen Malevus with us from since she arrived. But he is also a married man with kids. I believe he took a measure of Malevus (the squire, the paladin in-training and the lady), by quite a while and i think his judgment would be positive.... of course one uncertainty remains for the future.

Cromwell might also be relieved of this news, since it means those pesky rumors about the Prince can be put to an end. Thinking about the rumors themselves, i do wonder if they are actually impacting in some way our very unclear relations with the faith. Might be one of the reasons why Hampton is now the priest both in Tarren Mill and Dawnholme, and no one else was sent.

>>6191373
>Funny that the Syndicate got double crossed by Gnolls.
Dangers of the job. Managing to even start the deal they had going with the gnolls must have been hard, keep it going with such creatures is like a glass of water not spilling during an earthquake. They must have thought of this in advance and still they lost men over it. Calculated risk ? who knows. This corpses ain't talking.

Playing the flute and not asking about what he said accidentally. A small break in action there to boost the morale.

Now no update today, I will be IRL busy today so apologies for that. But I do have a question that will come up in the next update or one after it. What to do with female gnolls and their pups? Alric haven't asked about it, but your men hadn't found any female gnolls or fought against them. The warband you faced was just a warband and not the main gnoll force. So are they killed as well or what? Does it matter that they are female or just pups because they are gnolls?

>>6191482
Total gnoll death means total gnoll death, Medivh.

>>6191399
Theres dangers of the job and then theres desperation plays. They really want some bodies for whatever operation they have out east. Plantation or sacrifices, or both.

I wonder if they had considered buying slaves from the Dark Irons since they certainly use them, and turn their own clans into slaves if it suits them. Whether or not they would sell those slaves to the Syndicate is a bit of a question, I suppose if they make it worth their while. I really hope we can get that Dark Iron magic user we missed on the oil deal migration, that would have been cool for this campaign.

Back to the Syndicate. Now if they get desperate enough would they resort to some fun warlock experiments. Something that goes with the flavor of the Syndicate Warlocks. Theres options besides undead and demons. Tapping into forces like Ragnaros. Those are all rather ambitious.

Trying to mess with the souls of beasts and making beast-spawn sounds fun. Very messy, a bit lower on the totempole of warlock shenanigans. Though once you see a freakishly tall, strong, ugly beast-thing I'd imagine a morale check would be in order.

They've used giant birds to form a version of Alterac's Falcon, their own gryphon style mounts. Fused their own warriors to make a bunch of raven winged raiders who only attack at night and carry people off into the darkness.

>>6191482
Idk man. It is a little awkward knowing a smart gnoll can speak common, do magic, can understand the idea of trade even if doing so with the Syndicate was an opportunistic smash and grab. What are the alternatives? Sending them to the orc camps as potential gladiators and curiosities for study? Feral hostility can certainly be bred out of some creatures over generations. Letting them go in hopes they communicate with the northern gnolls how bad of an idea it was to go south, though it was perhaps a forced migration by ??? Some will probably escape and carry such experiences.

Blackmoore might like the idea just for more gladiator potential. Use them to justify getting more budget and men lol. Using them for training as the orcs can be used for training is pretty reasonable. Theres always going to be more gnolls somewhere, migrating some which way, and killing these doesn't change that.

>>6191500
>It is a little awkward knowing a smart gnoll can speak common, do magic, can understand the idea of trade even if doing so with the Syndicate was an opportunistic smash and grab.
Them having sapience doesn't inherently give them the same moral weight as humans anon. This line of logic leads one to bugposting.

>>6191700
Let's ask Malevus to see what she thinks on life and it's many forms. Alric will imagine asking her what to do about the baby gnoll pups and their mothers. He'll know what her response would be. Is he swayed? I am tempted to think he is.

>>6191785
Im not, I have nothing but contempt for the interpretation of Alrics's merciful nature as a bleeding heart attitude.

Nor would I believe he would give weight to Malevus' words if she gave a sappy opinion to such a question. Not that think she would anyway.

Gnolls deserve as much consideration as murlocs. Their sapience means nothing.

>>6191793
I find myself agreeing. If they had enough wits to doublecross the Syndicate, they also should have had enough smarts to realize that continuing to fight against humanity and its expansion was a lost cause. Instead of cultivating friendly relations and attempting to find peace, no matter how strenuous and perhaps, with years later down the line, even acceptance, they continued to live off raiding, pillage and murder. As such, there's little practical or moral value in attempting to do anything but exterminate them.

>>6191793
>>6191807

I'll grant their sapience is marred (can't even be pinned on Fel influences like the Orcs) by the worst aspects of predatory nature and tribalism. Inevitably they end up lead by the most brutal, with treacherous low cunning, always on the look out for prey. However they do possess survival instincts and reason, it takes the right mindset to make use of them.

They are not beyond handling if your guard is up, if displays are made which they understand. Presumably rather than face Warsong Clan these Gnolls migrated south. It might be dictated by displays of strength but that is still reasoning. Unfortunately they reasoned that humanity is a lesser threat and so they become our problem.

I'll go ahead and assume it was the Warsong, if not a force of similar strength. Naturally the next question is how did the Orcs do it? Obviously they didn't kill all the gnolls as they migrated south. Did they move their entire Clan into Gnoll territory? A few choice skirmishes to display their supremacy without being drawn into a full war? An ultimatum? In the end it was possible to move the gnolls without exterminating them. The practical value in it was that the Orcs didn't have to spend their strength in exterminating them. They made us do it instead (whether intentional or not I couldn't really say, certainly possible). If the Orcs can do it then we should be able to as well by achieving a great understanding, regardless of a stance of the value of their sapience.

Kill gnolls?

>>6191895
As a treat.

>>6191899
Prince Alric... the Gnollslayer? Gnollbane? Gnollbreaker? Gnoll Hunter?

>>6191902
The Butt Burner. The Butt Breaker.

>>6191902
Prince Alric, the lion of Alterac. The mountain lion to the Stormwind's flatlands lion.

>>6191912
Alric needs a new lion pelt for that moniker. With his fancy new robes he could rock The Dragon of Alterac

Now even the normally unflappable and all professional Cromwell had gotten into rumour business. Tilting your head and sighing, you thought about whether you should mention the rumours, but chose against it. Better just to play the flute for your men and leave the rumours for later.

“I will finish the report and sort the rest of the papers first.” You said to him. “Have the men wait for a moment or two.”

“It will be good for morale.” Cromwell replied.

“If only the wounded were here to listen, but better under the care of Madam Martin and Malevus than here really.” You said and sighed. “Anything else?”

“No, the troops are at the moment ready to move at a moment's notice, the men are just very tired.” Cromwell said.

“Then let them rest, you may leave.” You said back and watched as he stood up and went to exit your simple tarp cover. “One more thing, were there any female gnolls amongst the corpses?”

“Not by my count, Prince Alric what are you thinking?” Cromwell asked.

“Nothing important, at least not yet.” You replied. “Now go and make sure to rest as well.”

So only male gnolls then, it really was a warband you faced and not the main gnoll force or their territory that you defeated and captured. If you launch your attack from the base camp, you could arrive into their rear and maybe find their main camp unprotected…

No matter, they are gnolls and they deserve to die.

…

The men gathered around the campfires as you finally stepped out from underneath your tarp cover. The Alteracis had a hunch what to expect, but the couple bystanders from other columns not so much. They had once again put a barrel there for you to sit on and when they saw you walking to them, they gave you a polite applause.

And after a couple test tunes, you fixed the glasses covering your eyes and started to play.

This time you didn’t have Malevus there to sing, nor did you have any interest to sing either. You were just going to play your flute and entertain the soldiers that way. Choosing a couple songs that were a bit more upbeat than the usual laments that you knew, you kept playing as more men gathered to watch and listen.

Durnholders came to listen as did Regional Defenders, you could see Langston standing there with Reginald next to him as you continued to play. And as you played you were still going through the words of each song in your head and one felt rather close to you.

1/2

>>6192101

“When I thought
I fought this war alone
You were there
By my side on the frontline
When I thought
I fought without a cause
You gave me a reason to try”

An old song about a warrior and his shieldmaiden or the warrior’s wife depending on how you see it, was a popular one in Alterac and definitely amongst your men. And for a moment, this night, the world, was yours as everyone’s attention was on you.

…

The columns were slowly making their way back to the basecamp. The sun had been up for an hour or so as the camp had been taken down and the men found their squads and formations to be in. You had given the Regional Defenders the spot in the front due to their ballistae, they would dictate the speed today.

Last night you had played for some time and in the end without going into the laments, you had graciously bowed to your now rather large crowd and went back under the tarp cover, just not before telling everyone to go to sleep because today would be a long day.

As you rode next to your men, the weather continued to be a clear one, but the sudden gusts of wind were strong. Knowing that you had a couple more hours till you reached the camp, you probably should spend the time well and do something productive.

Like talking with someone.


Choose one, might lead to multiple updates:
>Jon Boyd and Luke Williams, they have the loot taken from the gnoll mage with them. See if there’s anything interesting there.
>Aystun Cromwell, talk with him about the casualties your men and the columns had taken.
>Sir Foecourt, he had performed well, but had he managed to gain the glory he wanted in the battle yet? Try to learn more about him, like his accent.
>See who comes to talk with you, probably someone wants to approach you, you are their leader after all.
>Other, write in

QM: I continue being unoriginal with the songs.

>>6192105

Oh also before anyone had a chance to vote which is good, actually an important question and not a joke or to consume time. I will tally the answer by a theme they have and go with it.


Did Alric see any dreams last night?
>Write in

QM: Captcha is DARPA, what does that mean?

>>6192105
>>Jon Boyd and Luke Williams, they have the loot taken from the gnoll mage with them. See if there’s anything interesting there.
If theres something useful we could certainly use any advantage, unless its some kind of plot clue. I'd guess

I am sorely tempted to talk with Foecourt again. His accent. Future cooperation with Durnholde where he and his knights could join in the campaign to reclaim Alterac, or against the trolls to open up the river for trade. A Darrowmere League or Alterac Order of Knights. I imagine he got plenty of glory from his part in the big Night Battle. The charge in the gnoll camp was a little bonus.

Shame that Maxwell isn't here since I had wanted to talk with him again about the National Security info he held back before regarding the bridge and the dark irons. I suppose there will be a chance later, and Malevus could talk with him too. I wonder if shes getting much progress in her physical training now that he has quite a few wounded to tend to?

>>6192130
>Write in
FelMalevus shows up and offers terms again after getting her battlefield boost. War means more natural fel she can soak up, and Alric has a LOT of warring to do.

I'll just spitball. A Continuation of the Illusion Trap Dream with some kind of revelation. Alric learning how to breathe fire, turning the ancient forest and gnolls to ash. Maybe some kind of dragon transformation magic Sailor Moon style. Dreams about Eligius and the Strahnbrad Crew. FelSword carving up enemies.

>>6192130
I wonder if we might make much better time if we sent the ballistas back to basecamp, but if its worth the tactical edge even in the forest then ok. It was certainly nice to have for the shootout at the gnoll camp.

I wonder if using Fel for an ice spell would end up with green ice, or how many spells there are where you can't visually tell the difference from mana or Fel being used? Though I suppose a mage will just sense it even if it wasn't visually green.

>>6192105
>>Aystun Cromwell, talk with him about the casualties your men and the columns had taken.
Lets see those numbers. Man Alteracis love their names with A.

>>6192130
>Write-in
With how focused, in control, and a clear mind he seems to have lately..... i don't think he had. Or at least no nerve wrecking and sweat making nightmares, that make you lose sleep at night.

I would have him dream about the firestorm inside him. Observing it from a certain distance, watching its flames, watching how it moves, the sounds it does, the cinders, the light, the smell, the warmth. I imagine the firestorm in the dream scape, is a different kind of thing than FelMalevus. Might not even talk or think at all. Its just there acting on the primordial instict of fire.

Or maybe about the Alterac Palace again, a palace that i think would fit if it had dragonic words written around (because what Alric has on his skin) inside, outside, in the air. The palace might even have trophies of the enemies Alric defeated : Gnolls, Bandits, Ogres, Syndicate, Orcs and more. Maybe FelMalevus will be there, maybe no prefering to wait and see what Alric does. From active and trying to see if Alric can be convinced in some way, to see if he tries to find her around. Call it a change of strategy. Will Alric search ? Perhaps. Or perhaps he will go explore other things in his dreams. Maybe past memories. Present events. Or ideas of the future

>>6192105
>See who comes to talk with you, probably someone wants to approach you, you are their leader after all.
The mystery box is too tempting...

>>6192130
I'll concur with anons on it being something to do with Alric's dragonfire yet it wouldn't be a burning and frenetic dream but a calming and warm one.

>>6192195
Hmm one of our other officers? Our dark iron champion buddy has finished the gun schematics we asked him to write down for us?

Marshal Redpath about where his mercenary career will take him? Raleigh got some kind of holy vision about the gnolls making preparations to attack the farms?

Langston is back to gush about the flute playing and some other matter. Syndicate asset in the ranks of the RD or Durnholders. Freelancer Knight comes to offer fealty. I could go on.

>>6192130
>DARPA
DARPA, or the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is a US government agency that develops new technologies for the military

So its the Dark Iron Champ bringing us the gun schematics. It must be.

>>6192105
>See who comes to talk with you, probably someone wants to approach you, you are their leader after all.
Mystery box...

>>6192105
>See who comes to talk with you, probably someone wants to approach you, you are their leader after all.

>>6192130
Dragon dreams and dragon fire.

>>6192105
>>See who comes to talk with you, probably someone wants to approach you, you are their leader after all.

Mystery box option seemed to win, I should have known it. Also fiery dreams.

Could I have a simple 1d10 roll for the box quality? I am not sure if I have the time to finish the update today so potentially it will have to wait till tomorrow.


>1d10
>Best of three

Rolled 1 (1d10)

>>6192891

Rolled 1 (1d10)

>>6192891
>so potentially it will have to wait till tomorrow.
nooooo I want me update

>>6192893
>>6192894
shitbox

Someone roll that third 1, so we get a surprise visit from Sargeras.

Rolled 3 (1d10)

>>6192891

Some thoughts for the day
I wonder if dragonspawn revert to their original form in death? It would be unimaginably awkward if Cyrus died and reverted into this fucked up crocolisk centaur demon thing right before their eyes. Really funny thinking of all the dragonspawn spies there must be if they ever died. Did Blackmoore's new mistress have the rust colored eyes, or was she human I forget?

If Nalice has enough that we could 'hire' mercenary units of them to slowly pump our army numbers with a unit of 10 a year. Does Cyrus retain any of his dragon resistances in his human form? Though Cyrus is someone trained to keep his cover, and other dragonspawn are perhaps not as suitable. You get a few of these new mercs eating entire chickens and goats basically raw and some of the other soldiers start asking questions. Plus their loyalty actually being with Nalice, and above her Katrana, is not ideal. Still, they could make some nice shocktroops.

I've convinced myself that Williams is the Dalaran informant, not a fullblown spy, for various reasons. As for actually confirming that its a bit of a question. Snooping about arcanist's mage's home is obviously rather dangerous. Learning about his part connections through our paid dalaran guard or the other mages is probably about as good as we can do on that front.

>>6192893
>>6192894
So close to the triple nat 1 mystery box.

The other thing I'd do to try and expose an informant would be to leak something slightly different to each mage and see if it ever comes up again in a letter from Dalaran or meeting with Kael, Antonidas, etc. Or bring it up with them face to face to see a reaction and an acknowledgement.

If they sent a letter and we intercept it then it would have the details we told them. Though one imagines it might be in a code, or magic writing, or magic writing and a code. If they don't have some magical means of long distance communication. All rather involved affairs.

>3


It didn’t take long for someone to approach you and it was someone whom you had waited to give you an update on the project he was working on.

“Master Bakhtet.” You greeted him and for the sake of not talking down to a dwarf too much, you dismounted Epona and pulled out your cane.

“Prince Perenolde.” He greeted back. The Dark Iron stood out quite a lot from the rest of your men, mostly due to his height, as he did share the Dark Iron armour design your Royal Foot Guards wore.

“Has your axe found gnoll flesh yet?” You asked him.

“They look strong, but the flesh is weak.” Bakhtet replied. “Two have fallen on my axe already and I hope more follow.”

You hadn’t really seen him fight as you had been quite busy fighting yourself.

“How have the riflemen performed?” You asked next.

“As well as with so little training, if we had the time…” Bakhtet lamented.

“And I hope we will in the future.” You said and leaned a bit closer and continued with a quiet voice. “What about the task I gave you?”

“Not finished and we have a problem.” Bakhtet said to you.

“No need to hurry, but what is the issue?”

“They are counterfeits, good ones though.” Bakhtet replied and continued. “No wonder they looked shoddy.”

Counterfeits? Has someone sold Langston some second-hand corner store rifles?

“I have seen them work on the battlefield well enough?” You replied to him.

“They are not proper rifles, not well enough made. There’s issues with the lock, some fittings. A dwarf wouldn’t make these, definitely not one of us.” Bakhtet said.

“Alright, will that make your work harder?” You asked.

“Yes or no, Prince Perenolde it is your decision.” Bakhtet replied.

He then explained the situation a bit better as you walked some distance away from the marching column. The rifles were good enough, but they weren’t dwarven made, instead most likely human manufactured. This caused a couple issues, the quality of the metallurgy was questionable which could lead into failures similarly like with the fitting of the rifles. In human hands the rifles were fine and Bakhtet explained that a workshop could produce them if skilled smiths were hired. But he could also modify the schematics somewhat and make them dwarfproof. They would be more reliable, but the cost of production would go up as would the need for specialised labour and tools. Bakhtet wanted your opinion because what you choose will mean that this could take a much longer time to finish, maybe longer than this campaign and those rifles were loaned to you.

1/1