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Campaign Journal XXIV April MMIV
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Top level
Gæa
Campaign Notes
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Author: Tony Den
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Publishing date: 11.05.2004 11:41
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GÆA
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Notes from Tony's campaign.
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From the journal of Malin Para - City Guard of Draskor.
Jarro looked at the coppers in his hand and started bitching about his wages again. I ignored him, it's not like any of us are better off - even the captain had to move his family into the guardhouse to try to make ends meet. Times are tough, they have been for years. Hell, look at me, an educated man sunk to patrolling the walls of Draskor for a few coppers a month, and thankful at that for having a job. There are plenty who would gladly change places with me.
Things are looking up lately. The city gates were closed this time last year, as much to keep the starving farmers out as the bands of mercenaries and foreign knights who rode the roads of Dalatia. How things have changed, the fields are green with what promises to be a copious harvest - a sharp contrast to last years crop failures and the meagre crops of the previous few years.
Another event which has taken peoples mind off the misery of the past years has been Taramis' great victory over the goblin horde. The Goblyn's had been pillaging the north. Dun Athol had been hard pressed and had asked King Elkor for assistance, but none had been sent. Rumour has it that rather than sit idly by and wait for the horde to reach and besiege Dun Athol, Taramis, Elkor's bastard daughter had raised an army of horsemen and struck out at the horde. After a few minor clashes, she me the in the field and destroyed them.
Now the fact that Taramis is the king's daughter is well known. It's equally well known that there is no love lost between them, from her side because he refuses to acknowledge her and from his because she had the audacity to come to Draskor when she became of age and demand recognition. The captain was pretty tense when she arrived at the gates of Draskor riding at the head of her army. We all thought there would be a clash right there, but the king allowed her entrance, proclaiming her the saviour or Dalatia.
The old, bedridden king finally decided to make peace with his estranged daughter. He is heirless, his only son having perished some years defending Dalatia from the Red Bitch's army. A holiday was declared for Taramis and what remained of her army to parade through the streets of Draskor. It was a great day and even us guards were given the day off to make merry. Jarro and I swilled ale as we stood on the roadside, watching Taramis lead a long line of chained goblyn slaves through the streets of the capital.
At the end of the parade, the kind made one of his few appearances and feebly declared that a victory monument should be built. Taramis quickly intervened and requested that a pleasure garden be constructed instead. Thus it was that, within weeks, an area in the lower city, known for its poverty and dilapidated housing, began to be cleared. At first the residents were happy enough, believing Taramis' promises of better housing, but when the summer rains drenched them, they began to have second thoughts. The riots that followed gave us guards a bit of action to relieve the boredom, plus the promise of a few extra coppers, something we are all grateful for, though one wouldn't believe it if one listened to Jarro.
The public works and festivities have brought many new faces to town. A number of nobles have arrived, but mostly it is the people looking for work. Masons and horticulturalists are in demand and are commanding top wage, the bastards. Sergeant Viana, Jarro and myself have however made a few extra coppers in our off time, moving rubble and tearing down hovels.
Still as our purses have filled, they have emptied. Wine and ale prices have tripled from demand so though our purses have been fuller, we are really in the same financial position as we were before Taramis arrived. The three of us were discussion this situation while we watched travellers enter the gates when Viana marked two women approaching the gate. He has always had a way with remembering names and faces, especially those of comely women.
"Mark you those two wenches," says he nodding in their direction. We nod and he continues: "Seen them both around these parts last summer - when the gates was closed. They were riding in the company of Tiberius and his band of orcs."
I was a bit sceptical, but knew better than to disagree, I had been proven wrong a few times before.
"Could be trouble then," commented Jarro.
"Reckon so. We knock off in a bit, you boys up for some overtime?"
We nodded, Viana continued: "Malin, you follow them, discreetly mind. Jarro, stay here and hand over to corporal Leith if I am not back by the time he arrives. I am off to clear this with the captain."
I moseyed after the twosome, keeping far back enough in the busy street not to be noticed. Indeed they didn't seem to be taking any particular heed of followers, rather enjoying the sights of the city as the lead their horses along main road. We reached a market square and they stopped to ask a stall owner something, before continuing along the direction he had pointed out. A few blocks down, they stopped outside a house of lavation, handed their mounts to a stable boy and entered.
I returned to the market and waited for Sergeant Viana and Jarro to arrive. They took their time but eventually came up main road. We returned to the house of lavation to mark the pair exiting the building, but now with a third person in tow. This new addition was a man, wiry of build and dressed in very plain linen clothing. He had a rough, outlander look about him. Not that of the northern barbarians, more likely one of those hill men from the south. They had more words with the stable boy and coins hanged hands before the three departed towards the middle city.
We followed them as they wandered through the city before choosing an alehouse. Following someone is thirsty work mind and so we also entered the house and ordered a round. Some time and no few flagons of ale later, Jarro marked that they had started talking to another patron. He too was familiar to Viana, who said he was a noble from a far city. The group, including the noble got up to leave. We thought it best to stay and have another ale before following.
The following day, sergeant Viana reported to the captain that the foursome had given us the slip - confirming his suspicions that they were up to no good, or else why would they have made such an effort to evade us.
King Elkor later that day. What followed was an immediate scramble for power. With no successor declared, his two closest cousins, Barons Julian and Cedric, both already in town for the festivities made their eligibility for the throne known. Lesser relatives of Elkor soon began to appear. Not just relatives were involved. Rumours of the Knights of Osria suggesting that they become custodians of the throne were too numerous to be ignored.
Fearing a return to the chaotic times from which Dalatia was finally emerging, many merchants and guilds met and decided to back Taramis for the throne. It was rumoured that when they approached her, she refused, but eventually conceded to their request for the sake of the country. When Taramis announced that she had chosen to become queen, many of the would be pretenders to the throne stepped down, conceding defeat. Only Julian, Cedric and the knights protested.
Within days rumours of contracts for assassination of Taramis were doing the rounds. Jarro was quick to open a book on when she would die. Clever bugger, he had inside information – Taramis had other ideas on when she would die. Within days of her announcing her intention to be queen (the first reigning queen in Dalatia's history according o the captain), delegations from other countries started to arrive. The usual representation from the city-states of Sylmar as well as Aquitiana and Slavinia were expected. Less so was the legion of hardened veterans from the Gissian Empire, or the cohort who guarded the Cromian delegation.
I had read of these nations from across the sea, but to actually see them was something else. Viana, who had served in the war fifteen years back had come across the empires legions before. He was none too impressed with their presence, muttering that the lizard lovers were ferocious bastards. Pressing him for more information only saw him clamp his mouth shut move away. I told Jarro what I knew of the empire and Cromia, which was not much:
“Cromia is a land in the ancient isles. Some say that they were a great sea power, whose galleys rules the ocean, until the gods became jealous of their power and sank half of their land beneath the waves in a night of fire and fury. They say that Tiberius is a Cromian.”
“The empire lies far to the south across the ocean. A race of intelligent lizards, who walk upright lie humans hail from there. Together with the humans from that land, they have built a vast empire, spanning their entire continent and another more distant land. Many say they would gladly sail their galleys to Dalatia and take our land for their own.”
Still, Jarro and I agreed they made an impressive sight and stood cheering their delegations when they marched up to the citadel to treat with Taramis. A cunning plan on her side, she had brought them to discuss treaties of trade but in doing so had effectively taken the knights of Osria out of the equation. Within hours of the delegations entering the city, most of the knights departed for their stronghold at Wo.
Nick had returned from a clandestine meeting with promises of vast sums of gold for taking down the barons Cedric and Julian. Ethnea and Amis who had been enjoying his hospitality at the Black Boar quickly agreed to join in this enterprise. Skwib also agreed to go along for reasons undisclosed.
The foursome soon found themselves scouting outside the inn where Cedric had taken rooms. Cedric had guards well posted and it was agreed that a frontal assault would not work. After giving the subject some thought, someone hit on the idea of approaching through the sewers. While disgusting, it was novel and so an entrance to the dank, effluent filled tunnels was found and the party descended.
The tunnels were narrow affording little option but to wade, sometimes knee deep, through accumulated muck. It soon became clear that the sewers had not been built to a street grid but rather followed a line of their own, with odd branches to residences in the middle city. When Nic and Ethnea began to despair (Amis was less worried, having used her dark arts to levitate above the filth), Skwib came to the rescue. He had a special gift for direction below ground and soon they were looking up the shaft to the inn's indoor toilet.
The party climbed up and after a brief scuffle with a guard who entered the toilet at the wrong time, quickly made their way along the upper floor passage to the rooms. The first room they tried revealed a woman in a bath, being attended to by two servants. She immediately let out a shriek. Amis sped over and clamped her mouth shut but it was too late, the sound of running feet fast approaching could be heard.
They barricaded themselves in the room, but to little avail, the women were panicked and attempts to quite them were only marginally successful. Fortune was on the party's side however; the woman in question was Cedric's lover. Some terse negotiations with Cedric followed in which he agreed to back down from his claim to the throne. He placed his seal on a previously prepared writ and gave orders to his guards to start packing, they would depart that night.
All were happy with their success, but knew that they would have to reach Julian fast, before word of events a Cedric's reached him. A hasty rush around the hill to Julian's townhouse was in vain. Once again the party entered the sewers and crept into Julian's residence, but when they emerged, battle was already joined. A group of lizard men and humans wearing the uniform of the empire had taken the residence and forced Julian to rescind any instructions to murder Taramis and renounce any claim he had to the throne.
Nick was despondent, but Amis soon pointed out that they had accomplished half the task, thus they were still entitled to half the reward. In better spirits they all slunk off to the bathhouse and a decent meal, planning to present the writ and pick up the reward on the morrow.
The dead king's two cousins were still a problem problem for our soon to be queen. A promise of vast sums of gold quickly solved that. Jarro Viana and I were on duty when we heard, but by the time we booked off and found Taramis’ factor her claim to the throne was sealed. Others had to Cedric with threats and coercion. His retune left Draskor that night. Julian was made of sterner stuff, but his bid fro the throne still came to naught. Having been beaten to the mark by some others, the three of us decided to settle down for some decent ale when we heard of a commotion over at Julian's town house. Apparently a maniple of the empires best had entered the city and taken his residence by storm. They had spared his life on condition he swear fealty to Taramis.
The next week was good to us. All guards were give time off on full pay. We bade old Elkor farewell, daft old bugger he was and welcomed our new queen. There was a great celebration and even Viana who had been sulking since the Gissian legion arrived cracked a smile and shared drunken desires to bed Taramis.
The following day brought chaos. The three of us were staggering back to barracks squinting against the morning sun when the earth began to shake. At first I thought it t be the ale but soon realised different as buildings started to topple. It lasted only a short time but left Draskor in ruins. Fires leapt up all over the lower city.
We were immediately back on duty, all leave cancelled. We managed to weasel light work guarding the walls as many of our brothers in arms were told off for fire and rescue duty. Taramis ordered the city gates closed.
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