It is a glorious day for the Nalkas people, for I am back and out of the fucking snow. I fought monsters man, do you know what that’s like? I ran out of mana three quarters of the way through the raid and then they still kept trying to eat me. Have you ever smelled their entrails? Have you ever been covered in them? Fuck you.

Anyways Uudistar is on its way to getting running with old man Ylermi headed up to oversee the governing of it right proper. Its population is still going to take some work since most of the captured slaves have been taken back to Jämsä for reasons of security and that is where the greatest harvesting is to be done for them. Impacts on the economy are already visible and likely to continue to climb as things settle down and people get more comfortable.

As for the new commander I have acquired you someone interesting. She costs more then you would expect, and has first dibs on plunder. But she is the only other mage in the nalkas besides myself who can perform artillery scale magic so that you never have to send me somewhere again. She’s a bit more powerful then you might expect. She has spent most of her life in her tower, yes she lives in a stereotypical wizard tower, studying magic. She’s a lich, and a master at both evocation and necromancy, probably the best military field unit you could ask for. Wiiith one catch, she’s spent most of her life in her tower and is terrible with both people and military strategy. Not like…downright detrimental as a commander but she’s definitely not that liable to win chess games. I would advise utilizing her and any forces you give her as more of a brute force type of army. She is good at judging assets though and knows when she can or can’t win a fight, its just her only major tactic is to overwhelm with raw might.

Also I promised her she will qualify as nobility for taking the job, and if you ever have a son she has the right to petition for marriage to them. She is undead so if she doesn’t die in the field she will live long enough to see your son come of age…then outlive them, keep that in mind.

In other news since the instatement of your bill to help veterans attend the university has seen to an upsurge in interest to join the military. Though we can only afford so many of them at a time.

Atop of that, the new slaves while being put to work effectively are obviously somewhat disgruntled over being sent to the mines after we destroyed their home. Might want to keep an eye on that before some sort of rebellion takes place since they can get into the city walls as it were.

Also yep, new road under construction.

He just definitely overstepped in his hiring Essi given all that he gave her to avoid being sent out into the field again. Don’t tell him I reminded you of this but he’s able to cast up to tier 7 magic of every single arcane school. So even if we have a new artillery commander…he’s still the best illusionist, enchanter, abjurer and so on that we have.

Greetings Keeper! It is a glorious day for the Oda people.

Kaze has reported back now that he reached the island city. They were not welcoming hosts, in fact upon Kaze’s landing they tried to kill him and his soldiers. However, their island has existed in isolation for a long time and their tribal wars were long ago settled. They were no match for Kaze’s years of active military experience and constant survival within the forests, because we have monsters and they don’t.

They have a fair population size of about fifteen thousand, their city might not be the largest but it is a fair bit larger then our most recent acquisition. What is particularly strange is they aren’t sea faring people, the biggest boat they ever managed to build was just strapping some canoes together and sailing around their own coast line. Ocean monsters sink any attempt they make to venture further and as such they’ve never really voyaged the seas.

He describes them as tribal natives of the island, and despite some language barriers we’ve managed to establish them as violent but superstitious people. Apparently there used to be other tribes on this island before they consolidated into the main city we found, but this tribe is the last one standing. The remains of these times can be seen in their traditions, including an arena where it is obvious they are still a violent warrior people. In fact they have killed the last people to visit them but Kaze accidentally defeated their king in a duel without knowing who it was when they attacked him on the beach. They currently are very afraid of Kaze.

Despite their tribal and violent nature, I see potential here. Kaze has worked out what it would take to convince them to consolidate with us, they would make for decent soldiers provided a little bit of training and are a hardy people. Their lack of ability to move around the seas makes the island their entire world, which also keeps them technologically unable to progress. If we were to give them the opportunity to see the mainland, perhaps also the technology for sea faring boats and steel, they would be indebted to us. Given they are quite comfortable around Kaze and respect him as a warrior, he could play the part of ambassador awhile longer to introduce them to our own culture as smoothly as possible. let me know if you wish to pursue this project, while it is a steeper undertaking then the wall we built for the fishing village, this city is ten times the size and the island has many valuable natural resources. Particularly a type of wood that does not grow on the mainland…a type of wood that is very receptive to enchantment. They don’t know how to enchant it but Kaze’s wizard seemed quite excited and mentioned the possibility of enchanting a boat made of this stuff.

On a cost estimate this could require about 350 gold I imagine and a bit of time. Since we would need to produce a couple of ships for them and perhaps provide gifts of steel weapons, as well as ferry them back here to see who we are. Since they are most comfortable with Kaze he would be busy for awhile to come embarking on this project.

In other news, Kyoko has headed to the isolationist village north of the fishing one…which we should give a proper name. Though she spent most of this time walking there, so that report will be coming soon I imagine.

As for turning the warships into more land based alternatives, the problem is that the forest is thick, too thick for us to even move the warship’s weaponry over it on wheels. Also the forest has much smaller monsters that would overwhelm such weapon teams or be dramatic overkill to use them on. However, someone has come up with an idea to produce a weapon similar to the ones used on the warship. I have them looking deeper into these possibilities. Give them a bit to figure it out.

Meanwhile, Iwanagi continues to question the Archdruid. Apparently becoming a druid is something of a religious rite, committing oneself to “the wilds” as if it were a god. One cannot simply learn druidic magic as it comes from a divine source and is more about an ongoing relationship with that source rather then a spell list. They have no use for mana and can cast again and again theoretically infinitely as long as they are in the good graces of the wilds that empowers the magic. This comes with a military footnote. That means the Archdruid is likely able to perform massive magical feats as many times as she wants without any real limitation other then the fickle motives of the wilderness itself.

This has revealed something of interest to our allies who took Tethalyn. The druidic temple there does not operate fully on behalf of the elven kingdom. It is more of an embassy and is prone to its own motives. While the elven druids are still somewhat fond of their fellow elves and work to a mutual benefit, we already know the Archdruid sees the elves as her vassals, not her allies. This might be useful information to Katara.

Monsters do indeed have Ki, just rarely can they access it in the same way we who have trained to can. Though there is a report the Nalkas once found of a monster who actually could. It was a small one that they killed and dissected later, finding that it was able to do so based entirely on a strange innate skill rather then being based on any strange anatomy.

Speaking of a military of savages, the island Kaze contacted probably qualifies for that concept. Just saying.

Tess:

Information from the fantastic frozen front of the fray. The battle began with Heseli utilizing his siege magic, Jonne raising the dead, and Firebeard taking his men into the town to raid and annihilate all resistance. Casualties were favorable to us in terms of kills to death, but their entire village took up arms to defend themselves meaning it was a very long battle. Jonne died in the midst of the conflict when they mobilized and found him to be the cause of the undead that was keeping their numbers from being a major factor. By then most of the village lay in ruins. Heseli’s magic drew in monsters, forcing him away from the encounter along with Sakki who was acting to defend him.

Then the problem hit. Heseli is capable of such powerful magic that he summoned a gargantuan beast from the ocean. On the upside it attacked the village first since that was closer, on the downside this has dramatically reduced the number of captives we stand to take, and the village is now completely gone. Well I mean technically you could mine it out of the ice but the ice isn’t going to melt any time soon and it would be less work to just build a new village slightly to the left of it. The captives we have are stuck with us almost by default since they have no home, its cold, and a giant sea monster wanted to eat them. Effectively both sides retreated once the sea monster appeared.

So end tally, we’re down to 10 soldiers, Jonne and Firebeard are dead. We walked away from all this with a thousand captives though, normally we wouldn’t be able to even hold that many buuuut they’re homeless so sucks for them.

In other news, the village on the south side of the lake has finished construction. You should come up with a name for it.

With Tethalyn’s treasury currently secured we’ve gained a significant boost to our economic resources. After being informed of the curse there is significant…resistance to our occupation of the city. Actually about ninety nine percent of all occupants simply left down the river southbound in a mass exodus. Apparently they intend to retreat to another of the elven cities. While that is a significant risk due to the monsters about, mob mentality. Amare however has stayed behind for some reason. She’s been tending to the druidic temple and is often seen talking to Areti. It is making people nervous.

The new commander has been selected from among the coven. Rhea is a particular study of the monsters in the wild. Despite her appearance she is surprisingly hard to kill, of the three candidates I could find she fared the best with hypothetical command situations. I should caution that she is prone to risk taking, with mixed results. Two thirds a genius strategist and one third a complete idiot depending on the aftermath at least.

She is freakishly adept at manipulation though, having moved both monsters and women to fit her own plans. She’d also make for a good politician if we had any of that.

For the most part the rest of the details I have to bring are covered in our financial reports.

Greetings keeper! It is a glorious day for the Oda people. Unfortunately, due to the Witch Queen’s offer to let them take to the wilds instead of stay home, the druids are not likely to be joining us this day. However, I may have some good news on that front. Iwanagi has gone forth to see what that huge city near the coast is.

He has met someone called the Queen of Wolves, also known to us as the Archdruid. She got her title because she rules over strange people called ‘werewolves’. Half men, half wolf. There are some other hybrid variants but she is apparently known for her command over the wolves. She rules over this forested city, what was once a small “pack” grew as she offered sanctuary to more and more individuals.

Iwanagi says she could be described as “intense”. She isn’t exactly hostile but she isn’t friendly either, she humored his visit and showed him around, being an amicable host. But Iwanagi says if the concept of a predator was rendered incarnate, she would be it. She also apparently knows about every member of our alliance in more detail then you would be comfortable with, except for the Nalkas. Evidently the forest is the extent of her influence.

According to Iwanagi, the city was also filled with the very monsters that plague us all. They act under her bidding, she mentioned the only reason he wasn’t being eaten alive already was that her city was a safe sanctuary to facilitate societal interaction. Soon as he left he was advised to run very quickly.

This city of hers is so abundant with natural resources that its population is quite large, and despite her predatory nature the sanctuary is fairly peaceful. Politically this gets strange. She claims a vast empire, but Iwanagi noted she claimed our own city. She sees the sanctuary as the capital of an empire that stretches across the western forest, and us as her vassals, Nalkas and Fukuchi excluded. So the sanctuary is her only city that directly responds to her, and everything else she considers hers but has never bothered to give a standing order and doesn’t need to collect taxes since she controls the forest itself.

Related to all this, Iwanagi reports that Shime is not here at the sanctuary. He refrained from further political engagement until we could come up with a response to this information and remained polite as not to piss off someone who was surrounded by werewolves.

Personally, it comes down to where Shime is actually going. If she isn’t headed to the archdruid’s sanctuary, she might be headed to the elven city south down the river. If she is going there then it will be difficult to beat her there, but also to gain access to her. After all this business in Tethalyn it is likely that any further elven establishments will be a bit more guarded then the last time.

In other news, the wall has been completed for our neighboring village and we have seen to the escort of those more interested in living within our much larger walls. Some of our own moved out to the village as well, particularly one enterprising fellow with an interest in their lake. We will see the results of this migration and our expanding kingdom.

In light of this we were all the faster to consult with the Nalkas about druidic magic. They don’t have much to go on with all this either. It seems that by contacting the archdruid, even if unintentionally, we are now the foremost experts on the subject unless the Witch Queen can get anything out of the elves.

Ryo reached the Nalkas and has brokered some deals for us to purchase their armor so that we can foray into the wastes depending how much you want to have prepared. Their cost comes out to about 4g3m, though that is just the armor. Still need to put it on our own men once its brought over. It will also bring up the maintenance cost of anyone to be equipped like this up to 3g1m. Though it may take a little while to ship it all the way back to the caravans.

In regards to the horses, figuring out how long they live will be a bit. According to the village that Take is at – about fifteen to twenty years. As for the diagram of the badlands vehicle, google has failed the cosmic force of all things. Though one is still out there somewhere and being sent off to the Nalkas.

Takota made it back to the caravan at least with some greater details into his adventures. The badlands are a dry, though not quite desert, place with many hills and rock formations along with some bushes. Little to nothing of trees though, however the deeper we go in the more we can expect some scarcity of resources.

In his time with them as a captive, he described them as eccentric and vulgar fellows though there was no shortage of tieflings among them. In hindsight first contact may have gone better if we sent someone with horns, then again perhaps they’re just all assholes. Curiously, this group lacked for armor except the higher ranks. It is clear they invest more into their offensive capabilities then defensive, judging by Takota’s experience they prefer to hit hard as they can as fast as they can from an ambush position among the hills.

The caravan should be fine from small groups like these though, along with the army itself. Though they did mention taking Takota “back to base” implying that this group has perhaps even more members, or at the very least some stuff worth stealing if we’ve a need to kill them.

Stories of Lore 4

Mother-fu…Fine I’ll go. Be back later, while I’m gone you can deal with my teacher Ansa Jarvenä. Have fun with that one.

Greetings your *gags* majesty, I see you’ve taken well to your position. My compliments to your throne maker, your throne’s cushions seem to have already become perfectly molded to your liking, I dare say it must have been quite the custom work. In his abrupt absence Heseli has asked me to take over as headmaster of the academy, a duty so prestigious that apparently I now have the…pleasure of keeping you up to date with your magnificent kingdom.

I’ll be here awhile, the new soldiers must travel north to join up with Väyrnyen forces and escort Heseli in the process. I applaud your commitment to efficiency in logistics,  only a truly wise leader would know that twenty men is the exact optimum number to protect one of our kingdom’s greatest on his voyage to the north despite his spells being capable of drawing monsters from far reaches of the sea you’re sending him right towards the shores of.

The student known as Jonne has been seeing to the resurrection of their dead from a ceremonial burial ground he discovered. Rather then assault with them he had them roam near the lake as suspiciously as possible to draw out their investigators. His minions stood little chance against their raiders fury intent on putting the dead back to rest, though in observing from afar he has learned much of their battle tactics and sent the information to Väyrnyen and his forces to make use of. There’s a problem with the plan we hadn’t accounted for, their actual army isn’t very large but their citizen populace is quite aggressive. They remind me of the Katara, it is likely that when under assault they won’t be fleeing but every single one of them will take up arms. You may wish to budget upcoming losses accordingly.

Projects have been undertaking to prepare the creation of slave labor, something we have never done before in our history. Though desperate times call for desperate measures, regardless of the larger ramifications.

Now if you’ll excuse me I have quite the day ahead of me, the academy calls and interrupts me from my already busy schedule. If you need anything else, do not hesitate to call for me. I will come with all haste as not to burden you with the woes of walking.

Holy shit that was his teacher? No wonder Heseli is such an asshole.

Greetings Keeper! It is a glorious day for the Oda people. Kyoko is in transit to the village to build the construction of the wall. Our commitment to the plan has already garnered their full co-operation. As for Kyoko’s abilities, she can turn invisible, create hallucinations, and disguise herself as anything else. Though she definitely struggles to deal with monsters that hunt without reliance on sight and most specifically she lacks auditory illusions so her voice never changes, she says she is working on that part. Fortunately her illusions are quite distracting so the soldiers with her had an easier run about of stabbing said monsters while they were on their journey.

Kaze has embarked on his journey to the island city, though he is still making the trip. His results will likely be more apparent soon.

Shime went south as directed, though this may have had an adverse effect on her. After witnessing war and the savagery of our allies, she has stopped sending in reports and has gone missing. There is a chance she may have been adversely effected by witnessing these events done to the first people like herself she had seen in who knows how long. I suspect she found the stragglers you were seeking her to find, but instead of bringing them back she went somewhere with them.

In other news the continuing voyage of Iwanagi has spotted a city along the coast. It is large…very large. The largest we have ever seen though it appears to be constructed of strange materials and overgrown with foliage. It is as if a part of the forest itself built into a city. Up to you if he goes to take a closer look or if he should continue sailing and mapping the coast.

Also the sheets have been better updated.

The invasion has begun. Areti managed to kill all the guards before they knew what was happening, she is…talented. Upon opening the gate the invasion began. We figured out their quirk though, they have druids. Talia was quick to invade into the stone city but as Kairi came to assist her army suffered quite a few battles with the forest itself. We discovered Layla is in fact alive and was being taken care of in this city. She had lost a leg and was recovering here, apparently she had not told them of our location so they never sent word about her.

We have retaken Layla and seen to the devastation of their population though losses are high. The elven military is weak but their magic has proven a problem. Layla still is in no shape to fight so we lack the witches to deal with their casters, her contribution was to stab her caretaker in the back as the invasion was underway. As the battle continued within the streets many of their civilians fled to the forest. They were not ruled by the strong, and as such did not have obligatory military training.

A elven woman named Amarethyl killed at least twenty of ours, as well as Commander Talia. Areti was the one who put an end to her rampage. Afterwards Areti and Commander Kairi invaded the druidic temple, butchering them before they might do anything to further impede our progress.

The city is now under our control, and the nobles within our possession. We have taken large losses. Only twenty five soldiers remain. While we have recovered Layla she is considering a more stay-at-home role now. Apparently the wilds have had an effect on her.

Layla has requested Amarethyl be spared. She is under heavy guard and shackled properly due to the danger she presents, pending your judgement of what to do with her. She is the leader of their druidic circle, my equal in their society. Though she is not a true arch-druid. Layla confirms that the real archdruid of these woods instead lives further south at some sort of lake. I caution ever engaging an archdruid in a forest, just Amarethyl alone was a problem for our forces to deal with. Had we not been inside of their city so quickly the results could have been far different, and had Areti not been completely broken stats wise.

In other news, as commanded, they didn’t loot anything yet.

The remaining soldiers have however grown stronger, as is our way. Now that we have tasted true war for the first time in decades, the troops have rekindled their fighting spirit. I advise bringing them back to the city to train the next wave. ((Soldiers in the buy sheet now start at army power 2 as rule of the strong perk))

Ryo is on the way to the Nalkas for trade and information gathering, and the caravans have moved away from the badlands for the time being. Meanwhile the horses are on the way to Katara and Iwa is seeing about negotiating with the village for experimentation with horses.