Did you know the manhunter has absolutely horrible social skills? His attempt to retrieve Iraeka in the aftermath of the orc battle has been…clumsy. It also turns out catching an unwilling drow hunter is quite difficult. So he’s still working on that.

New commander, Aato. He’s one of them fancy boys born to an upper class and went to a bunch of private tutors as well as attended the academy. Has a good grasp of military strategy and tactics, though has a notable lack of experience since well, he never signed up to be a raw recruit. So different path to being an officer then the likes of Eamon and Firebeard who punched their way to the top. Generally a serious fellow with a lot to prove apparently.

He is one of the results of our monk hybrid research program. Not quite a Sakki but definitely talented in hand to hand combat along with arcane augments. Don’t mention the Sakki thing though, he had a bit of a rivalry going on there to try and catch up to him. With Sakki’s death he’s been a bit irritable. He is however the strongest hybrid caster…well now he is at least. He’s already working and drilling with the troops and the five man band.

Also as your advisor I feel it best to remind you that you still have Essi, one of only maybe five people in the alliance who can cast artillery scale magic, sitting around at Uudistar just chilling out with a free paycheck. I am reminded of this because her research has led to an improvement in the golems, so our gold income is up a bit.

The rogue katara are not particularly useful customers because they are mid march and already several days journey away from us. By the time we even got a deal worked out with them, let alone shipping and handling, it is unlikely they’ll still need it. Or even be able to afford it for that matter actually.

The Eilsath mercenaries are on the way south, we’ll see how long it takes them to get there.

As for surveying the nearby area, depends what you define as worthwhile. They are decent at the least, with the mountainous area still holding a lot of mines. Though the southern side of Jamsa is a bit more barren. No ancient relic discoveries that will lead to an unexpected burst of income though.

Relic is shipping down to Sarkisa where the Oda navy is currently passing through. On a similar note we have acquired the artifact from the badlands market, it is currently shipping to the academy where we hope to study it and find something useful about it.

Greetings keeper! It is a glorious day for the Oda people. Yuzuki and Yamaoka are on their way back home at this point, they should be back soon.

Also Amare says that spot should be fine. Though Kaze and Hamano are a bit far away to find any further delegates to assist them in their journey. As for spookyville, it appears the islanders don’t know much about that place other then that Cayetano has advised caution in dealing with them. It appears they’ve never actually traveled to uh…’spookyville’ as you called it.

The third scout is still circling the islands it found, still no real sign of anyone living there in particular. Meanwhile the second scout has found another island of some sort further south of that. They’re still poking around to see how big these locales are.

Occunohaka has made his way to the lakeside village. It appears to be one of those mana lake things the north has a few of. The village primarily harvests it and trades it with the larger market of the badlands. One of the disadvantages to their location is the lack of access to wood and metals. Basically building materials as their particular lake seems to not be as strong as other ones as to sprout a forest next to itself. This would explain why it is such a small village harvesting the mana here instead of a large city like Lieksa or Jamsa.

Iwanagi made port at the coastal town. It appears to be another of those that suffer from isolation. Having never made contact with Cayetano or any nearby neighbors. Similar to the fishing village in the forest near us, these villages are usually unable to venture further then their own boundaries for fear of the monsters. As such it is a fairly self sufficient town, if a bit small. Currently they are in a mild frenzy of excitement to see Iwanagi, a living person from another society powerful enough to venture out.

Nina managed to catch up with the rogues, just barely. They are currently moving south to follow the commanders. However, the orcs appear to be retreating, or perhaps advancing, towars Leylat where the elves are preparing to make another stand. Given their past behavior, I assume they are looking to reinforce their numbers by linking up with the warchief. They will probably assault the city as well. Though this works to our favor since that city has a river running through it, the Oda will be there soon along with our own forces.

The elves report having now documented a strange occurrence though. The orcish warchief must be doing something strange, because each time he garrisons and prepares to march again he seems to replenish the numbers in his army. This is perhaps related to the commanders always reinforcing with the warchief. We’re not entirely sure that thousands of orcs are just coming from the east again and again, the scouts or druids should have noticed that. There is something awry with all this.

So we’ve never been to the badlands so finding a pair of agents who specialize in it was proving difficult. Though ever since the nomads collapsed out there, a few of them were…well nomadically wandering around. We found a tiefling named Ryo. Once one of our allies main commanders. He would be one of the few we could rely upon to visit the badlands, though it might be a bit of a waste of his talents given he is a skilled military commander. He’s a bit of a calm almost apathetic individual, he only agreed to work for us temporarily though who knows if he’ll decide to stay or not. I also offered him a position as a prince and he said he’d like to live to fourty so that’s out. He’s just in it for the paycheck I suppose.

This is one of the only people in our entire population who have at least visited the badlands even once. So that qualifies her as an expert as far as we’ve got. Nyssa is one of our scouts with a particular penchant for capturing our princes from the wilds. Actually of our current fifteen she brought in six of them. Technically twenty six if you count the dead ones. She’s a very energetic and carefree girl, she seems like so much fun to be around but she tends to punch a lot when she’s drunk. My arm is kind of sore from meeting her in the bar to be honest. At the very least she is a capable agent, especially given where we’re sending her. She and Ryo are moving along the road through the fishing village to depart into the badlands from there. Because roads.

The village plan will take a little while as we have to move both people and supplies. I’ve begun the process of looking for a governor but I’m screening more carefully then usual since either way it’ll take awhile for them to actually have the job. Also the dice of fate seems to leave us with a…well lets say desire to keep interviewing.

The new army has been taken under the command of Vanessa Priscalli, the newest blackguard to finish training at the sanctum. She is bound to the same demonic entity that Nina is, though she raises a lot of questions about Nina and the late Pelagia. I say this because she seems actually not crazy at all. If anything she acts more like a regal knight and if she doesn’t flash the demon magic people just assume she is of the nobility. She is younger then most of the other commanders we’ve had, but as a blackguard she has been specifically trained to undertake the task.

She is currently guarding the caravan that sets out to start the new village.

To take over the dreadnought we have enlisted Thyra Galanatou. Unlike Vanessa she is real nobility, for whatever that is worth. Really she was chosen because she already has some semblance of experience in that she used to fish on a boat and that was how low the bar is on this one. She was a member of the town guard up till now. She’ll definitely need some time to get a handle on how to utilize the boat though so I have opted to have her take the ten warships to the port they are to be sold at to get her used to being on the water. She’ll pick up the dreadnought and the slaves while she is there and bring them back, hopefully this will get her some sea legs as they call it.

 Also KouKou has made it home and seems a bit shaken by her experience. She hasn’t retired formally like Layla once did after such events but she does seem to be spending a lot of time in the coven’s temple staring at the wall and contemplating her life choices. I’ll go talk to her.