>>124421
>"Of course. War should have some rules, after all."

>>124421
>>"It was my pleasure."
>>"Of course. War should have some rules, after all."

>>124421
>"Of course. War should have some rules, after all."
>"It was my pleasure."

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>>124421
"Of course," you say. "War should have some rules, after all."

The guard snorts. "That's for the nobles to decide," he says. You can't say he's wrong. "The rest of us just kill when told to." You can't say he's wrong about that either. "Anyway, you can dismount and leave your weapons here so you can meet the Archduchess. We'll look after them. It's the least we can do."

You step off your horses and leave your weapons with the guards, although you do get to keep hold of the rope you tied to Meuric. Pulling him after you is quite satisfying.

The guards bring you to an open tent where the officers are waiting. Maps and books are strewn around a crude table that's fit together without nails. It's a flimsy design, but you're quite familiar with it, as it's quite easy to disassemble and carry around. A necessity, when leading an army.

Archduchess Aleksandra Volkova leans over the table, a frown on her face. Her eyes dart up as you step inside the dance.

"So you're our mysterious benefactor," she says. "Well, you've made yourself useful, so I won't ask too many questions for the moment. I would, however, like to know your name."

"You can call me Gwain, your highness," you say.

"I suppose that's not so bad, as far as pseudonyms go," Aleksandra says. "At least it sounds heroic. And I prefer 'Archduchess' when I'm commanding an army."

"As you wish, Archduchess."

"Now that the introductions are over," Aleksandra says, "what does your prisoner have to say?"

Olwen removes Meuric's gag and he immediately tries to spit on you. You stomp on his head and press his face into the ground as you pull the rope and choke him.

"Not much, it seems." Aleksandra smirks. "I suppose we'll have to execute him as an example to others."

You certainly won't lose any sleep over Meuric's corpse, but he would be more useful to the Archduchess alive than dead. Of course, you can't tell her that without raising some questions you don't want to answer at the moment. You'd have to trick Meuric into revealing his name himself.

Or you could just let him die.

>[Intrigue/1d10] Try to trick Meuric into revealing his name.
>Let the Archduchess execute him.

>>124600
>[Intrigue/1d10] Try to trick Meuric into revealing his name.

>>124600
>>[Intrigue/1d10] Try to trick Meuric into revealing his name.

>>124600
>[Intrigue/1d10] Try to trick Meuric into revealing his name.

>Military: Level 3 (5/300 XP)
Feels good. That means we auto-win against military level 0

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>>124600
"He's yours to do with as you please, Archduchess," you say, "but would you mind if I took his belongings first? I only took his weapon, just in case."

The Archduchess shrugs. "You need the money more than I do," she says.

You loosen your hold on the rope pat Meuric's body and look for something that would force him to reveal who he is. Your eye is drawn to one of his rings. It's not enchanted or special in any way, but it is an heirloom of House Soryn. He might react poorly if you take it away.

You pull the ring off Meuric's finger and toss it to Myrddin. "There, that's better than nothing," you say. "You can use it to pay off your next whore."

"Oh, good," Myrddin says, not missing a beat. "I can finally afford to get creative."

>Roll 1d10, best of three.

Rolled 2 (1d10)

>>124682
EZ

Rolled 8 (1d10)

>>124682

Rolled 7 (1d10)

>>124682

Rolled 4 (1d10)

>>124682

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>>124682
Meuric screams and range and desperately grabs at the ring.

"Take your hands off that ring, you barbarian!" He yells. "It's a sacred heirloom of House Soryn!"

It's not, because it's barely two hundred years old and nothing sacred really happened in the last two centuries, but he's about to be held for ransom, so whatever makes him happy.

"Stop!" The Archduchess' lips curl into a feral grin. "House Soryn… That's a Gwyrden noble house, isn't it?"

Meuric's face turns white as he realizes what he's just said and how badly this could go for him and his entire family.

"How very interesting," Aleksandra says. "I think I'll keep you around for a while after all. You can be my special guest until your family pays the cost of sending you back home."

You have no doubt that said cost will be heavily inflated, but that's your uncle's problem now, and that makes you very, very happy. You hand the rope off to one of the Archduchess' soldiers and Meuric is pulled away, kicking and screaming.

"Now then, we can finally get on to business," Aleksandra says. "I heard your company was wounded. How long until you're ready for combat again?"

"It depends on the combat in question, Archduchess," you say. "I can at least take care of simple assignments until we're back on our feet."

"In that case, I have work for you right now, if you want it," the Archduchess says. "Archduke Viktor is fortifying his position close to a nearby river. The river makes it difficult for us to attack each other, so we're headed towards a stalemate which would favour him. For some reason, he has more resources than I do, so he can outlast me if it comes down to it."

"And what would you like me to do?" You ask.

"Right now, I just need a simple scouting mission," Aleksandra says. "I need someone to find Viktor's supply lines, or else to find a spot I can use to attack his main base. You can't get caught, and you can't get into a fight. No one can know you were ever there."

Both are simple enough assignments for you.

>"We'll find Archduke Viktor's supply lines."
>"We'll find a spot where you can establish a base."

>>124753
>>"We'll find Archduke Viktor's supply lines."

>>124753
>"We'll find Archduke Viktor's supply lines."

>>124753

>"We'll find Archduke Viktor's supply lines."

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>>124753
"We'll find Archduke Viktor's supply lines," you say. "Are you sure they won't change?"

"They can't," Archduchess Aleksandra says. She clears much of the table and shows you one of the maps. "His army is here, so he can only receive regular supplies through these three villages." She points to several other spots on the map. "There's absolutely no other way, not unless he wants to clear a path through the forest from nothing. I just haven't had time to send someone out to find out which roads he uses and what the schedule is."

"We can take care of that, Archduchess," you say. "We'll just need a few days."

"I'll hold you to that," the Archduchess says. "In the meantime, I'll have some supplies sent to your wounded."

"No need," you say. "I've arranged for us to receive our own supplies while we're here. We just need a place to stay."

"I'm impressed," the Archduchess says. "Mercenary companies aren't usually his well-organizes. However, I won't turn down competent help. Just let me know if you ever do need anything."

"Yes, Archduchess."

You bow and return to your own encampment. You'll need to leave someone behind to stay with the wounded, but you don't need many people for a quiet scouting mission anyway.

"I'll get the scouts ready," Olwen says.

"And I'll look over the information we have," Myrddin says.

That leaves you with very little to do while you wait.

>Accompany Myrddin.
>Accompany Olwen.
>Visit Delyth. She's still wounded.
>Just wait for the preparations to be finished.

>>124875
>>Visit Delyth. She's still wounded.

>>124875
>>Visit Delyth. She's still wounded
We should check up on her.

>>124875
>Visit Delyth. She's still wounded.

>>124875
>>Visit Delyth. She's still wounded.
Surely the other two won't believe we visited her for wrong reasons such as being a womanizer

>>124875
>Visit Delyth. She's still wounded.

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>>124875
You decide to pay Delyth a visit. She's still wounded from the last battle, and her morale is low for obvious reasons. If she hadn't missed her company's placement, the battle would have been much easier. As it is, you could have lost half your army if things had gone the slightest bit wrong.

But that's just how war is sometimes, so there's no point in getting hung up on it.

You enter Delyth's private tent and sit next to her. Her body is covered in bandages. She cracks on eye open and looks at you.

"Hello, your highness," she says. "Is everything going well?"

"As well as can be expected," you say. "Our new employer gave us our first job, so I'll be away for some time."

"I'm sorry I can't accompany you," Delyth says. "I'll do better next time."

"Don't worry about it," you say. "War is unpredictable. Sometimes, things just go wrong."

"Still, your orders were correct," she says. "It's my fault we almost failed…"

>"We didn't fail. That's the important part."
>"Mistakes are an opportunity to learn. Always remember that."
>"You win some, you lose some. That's just how it is."

>>124952
>>"Mistakes are an opportunity to learn. Always remember that."

>>124952
>>"Mistakes are an opportunity to learn. Always remember that."

>>124952
>"Mistakes are an opportunity to learn. Always remember that."

>>124952
>"Mistakes are an opportunity to learn. Always remember that."

>>124952
>"Mistakes are an opportunity to learn. Always remember that."

The hivemind is strong tonight.

>>125005
I picked it because it sounded the most in character

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>>124952
"Mistakes are an opportunity to learn," you say. "Always remember that."

"And if my mistake gets people killed?"

"That happens too," you say, "but people will still get killed even if you don't make mistakes. We got lucky once, but it might not happen again. Besides, if it's not your soldiers dying, it'll be your enemy's."

"I suppose that's true," Delyth says. "Damn it, this is so embarrassing. This isn't even my first battle, but I'm still acting like this."

You smile and pat her head. "Don't worry about it," you say. "You were just a chaplain before, right? Command is very different."

"Thank you, your highness."

You let Delyth rest and joined the scouting party Olwen and Myrddin prepared.

"Are we ready?" You ask.

"Almost," Olwen says. "We still need to decide which path we'll take."

"There are three possible supply lines," Myrddin says. "One to the East, one to the West, and one in the middle. We'll have to circumvent Archduke Viktor's own forces, so we'll have to scout out the East or West roads first."

"Are there any reasons to pick one over the other?" You ask.

"As far as we know, they're all the same," Myrddin says.

>"We'll go to the East road first."
>"We'll go to the West road first."

>>125087
>"We'll go to the East road first."

>>125087
>>"We'll go to the East road first."

>>125087
>"We'll go to the East road first."

>>125087
>>"We'll go to the West road first."

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>>125087
"Since it's all the same, we'll start with the East road," you say. "Let's get going."

You only have two dozen scouts for this job, so even if you were inclined to do so, you wouldn't be able to split your forces. You'll just have to get there as soon as possible and hope you can spy on the supply convoys.

Lots of things can go wrong, of course. You can't know for sure which roads the convoys are using, or what their schedule is, so it's possible that you'll just barely miss them. All you can do is hope you'll find something worth reporting back. After all, you might not need your pay, but you do need to stay in the Archduchess' good graces.

The journey takes several days since you need to travel through woods and over rivers, but you eventually arrive at your destination.

"This is close enough to the road," Olwen says. "How do you want to do this?"

You can send a large number of people at various points in the road in order to gather the most information possible. Alternatively, you can send a smaller number of people at a single point just to confirm if a convoy is passing through. Naturally, the risk you'll get caught will increase with the number of people you send out.

>[Military/1d10] "Put the entire road under surveillance."
>[Military/1d12] "We'll focus on a single point. We just need to confirm the convoy."

>>125170
>[Military/1d10] "Put the entire road under surveillance."

Ayy, I made it.
Read this quest last week and loved it.

>>125170
>[Military/1d10] "Put the entire road under surveillance."

>>125170
>>[Military/1d10] "Put the entire road under surveillance."

>>125170
>>[Military/1d10] "Put the entire road under surveillance."

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>>125170
"Put the entire road under surveillance," you say. "Send the scouts out in pairs just in case. We shouldn't get caught, but I'm not asking anyone to throw their lives away."

"We should have enough scouts to cover every few miles," Myrddin says. "We'll work out a subtle signal to keep in contact."

"Remember to keep an eye out and write down everything you notice," you remind the scouts. "We don't know what will be important and I don't want to ignore crucial details."

"Yes, sir!"

You organize your men and send them out along the road, marking their location down on your map. Hopefully, this won't take you too long.

>Roll 1d10, best of three.

Rolled 2 (1d10)

>>125246

Rolled 2 (1d10)

>>125246

Rolled 3 (1d10)

>>125246
oh lord

We did good.

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>>125248
>>125249
>>125252

>>125259
It's bound to happen at some point.

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>>125246
You recall your men back after several days, having found nothing of note. You'd like to stay longer, but the Archduchess made it clear that she doesn't have the resources required for a drawn-out war. You pack up your things and move on to the middle road.

"What do we know about this path?" You ask Myrddin.

"It's the shortest of the three, and there aren't many hiding spots," Myrddin says. "We can hide by the watering hole and wait for someone to show up, or we can disguise ourselves as merchants."

"Would merchants use this road during a war?" Olwen asks.

"They'd still have to," Myrddin says. "And it might give us a chance to talk to whoever's running the supply caravans."

>[Military/1d12] "We'll hide by the watering hole."
>[Intrigue/1d8] "We'll disguise ourselves as merchants and cross the supply caravan."

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>>125248
>>125249
>>125252
FRIDAY
THE
FUCKING
13TH

>>125283
>[Military/1d12] "We'll hide by the watering hole."

>>125283

>>125283
>[Intrigue/1d8] "We'll disguise ourselves as merchants and cross the supply caravan."

Masters of disguise

>>125300
Oh woops forgot to leave a choice
>[Intrigue/1d8] "We'll disguise ourselves as merchants and cross the supply caravan."

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>>125283
"We'll disguise ourselves as merchants and hopefully cross the supply caravan," you say. "Even if they're not talkative, we'll at least be able to get a closer look at what they're carrying."

"We have enough spare clothes to make it work," Myrddin says. "We'll use the furs we collected while we were out hunting as goods. Those wouldn't sell well in an army camp, so we'll have an excuse to be moving away from the Archduke's army."

"It goes without saying, but I really hope this works," Olwen says. "If we get caught…"

"If we get caught, then we're just a group of poachers," you say. "We run, and that's it. They won't suspect anything."

You change into your disguises and get on the road.

>Roll 1d8, best of three.

Rolled 5 (1d8)

>>125355

Rolled 6 (1d8)

>>125355

Rolled 6 (1d8)

>>125355

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>>125355
After several hours, you encounter a group of people on foot. They're only carrying some packs and satchels, but they're escorted by a large number of guards, who glare at you and nudge their weapons your way when they see you. You avert your gaze and step away from the road to let them pass.

"Damn, this is tiring work," one of the merchants says. "We come back from one trip and we have to go right back on another."

"Don't complain," another merchant says. "This is good money."

You keep walking your way and let the merchants pass until they're out of earshot.

"Looking at their bags, they can't be carrying anything heavy," Myrddin says.

"It has to be alchemical supplies," you say. "Can you guess their schedule based on how long the road is?"

"Sure," Myrddin says.

At least you have something to show for your efforts now. You just need to scout out the last road and you'll be able to get back to the Archduchess to make your report.

The West road is much like the East road. It's long, winding, and the surrounding trees provide some decent cover.

"Looks like we're back to basics," Myrddin says. "How do you want to handle this one?"

Once again, you can spread out, or you can stay focused.

>[Military/1d10] "Spread scouts throughout the road."
>[Military/1d12] "We'll gather a few people in one spot."

>>125409
>[Military/1d12] "We'll gather a few people in one spot."

>>125409
>[Military/1d10] "Spread scouts throughout the road."

>>125409
>[Military/1d10] "Spread scouts throughout the road."

>>125409
>[Military/1d12] "We'll gather a few people in one spot."

>>125429
>>125434
>>125442
>>125445
Can I get a tiebreaker vote? I'd much rather not have to roll for something like this.

>>125460
>[Military/1d12] "We'll gather a few people in one spot."

>>125462
I'll take it.

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>>125409
"We'll keep it simple," you say. "We'll hide in a spot in the middle of the road and wait."

"It would be a shame to blow it and get caught when we're almost done here," Olwen says. "Besides, we'll be able to work in shifts. That'll keep the mood up."

You divide your scouts up into different groups and find a spot in the forest where you can hide and observe the road. Hopefully, this will pay off.

>Roll 1d12, best of three.

Rolled 4 (1d12)

>>125474

Rolled 2 (1d12)

>>125474

Rolled 11 (1d12)

>>125474
oh god no...

Man these are some pretty low rolls today.

>>125482
Oh nevermind. Nice!

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>>125474
You watch over the road for the next several days. There are no armed caravans, but there is a constant flow of merchants going back and forth. They bring with them good clothes, good food, good alcohol, and, in some cases, good women. It seems the Archduke is using the West road to move luxury goods for his troops.

The West road has luxury goods, the short middle road has alchemical supplies needed for medicine, and the East road is still nothing more than a question mark, but your mission is complete for now. The Archduchess will be able to put this information to good use. In any case, it's time for you to head back.

"I'm glad this is over with," Olwen says. "Long-range scouting missions always take too long."

"We're dealing with thousands of troops," you remind her. "This isn't just a little skirmish we can kill off between lunch and supper."

"Oh, I'm sure you could manage if you tried hard enough," Olwen says.

"There is something I've been curious about," Myrddin says. "What do you hope to accomplish here?"

"What do you mean?" Olwen asks.

"This doesn't just concern Prince Aled's plans," Myrddin says. "This is about the future of Rosea. The way we deal with this could have ramifications later on."

>"I just want to stop my uncle's plans."
>"The Archduchess could make a powerful ally for us."
>"We're here to stabilize the situation before it involves Gwyrddarfordir."

>>125506
>"I just want to stop my uncle's plans."
>"We're here to stabilize the situation before it involves Gwyrddarfordir."

>>125506
>>"I just want to stop my uncle's plans."
>>"The Archduchess could make a powerful ally for us."

>>125506
>"I just want to stop my uncle's plans."
>"The Archduchess could make a powerful ally for us."
>"We're here to stabilize the situation before it involves Gwyrddarfordir."
All of it.

>>125506
>"We're here to stabilize the situation before it involves Gwyrddarfordir."

>>125506
>Stopping Uncle's plans first.
>Ensuring stability second.
>Getting another ally third.
>After all Olwen, I never make simple plans.

>>125506
>>"The Archduchess could make a powerful ally for us."

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>>125506
"I like to think of myself as an opportunist," you say. "My priority is to stop whatever my uncle's doing before it spreads to Gwyrddarfordir, but if we can benefit from a positive relationship with the Archduchess, I won't turn my back on her."

"Speaking of the Archduchess," Myrddin says, "I couldn't help but notice that her chest - Ow!"

You punch Myrddin in the ribs, while Olwen grabs his ear and twists it. True, it's unnecessarily cruel, but he really should have seen this coming.

"Fine, fine, I won't bring it up again!" Myrddin shakes you both off and straightens himself out. "Setting that matter aside, we're still no closer to finding out what your uncle is doing here."

"There's always Meuric," Olwen says.

"Meuric's a tool," you say, "he won't know anything important. Our best hope is to find my cousin Siarl if he really is here."

"Prince Aled wouldn't trust an operation like this to anyone," Myrddin says. "Prince Siarl is one of the very few people who might qualify."

As much as you hate to admit it, your cousin is about as good a commander as you are. Even if you find him, it's going to be a stiff battle. Fortunately, your army should be back in shape by the time you get back to make your report.

Of course, that still leaves the question of what you're going to do with Siarl if you do find him.

>>125575
And that is all for today's thread. Aside from dice gods being dice gods, you still managed to complete your objective. Mostly.

The next thread will be Sunday May 15th at 7PM EDT. As always, I'll see you all then and in the meantime, thanks for playing and good night.

>>125580
Have a nice night.

>>125575
Man Myrddin really wants to get that (theoretical) harem of ours going deosn't he?

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>>125580
Sweet dreams, QM.