Savior!!Z0Mwx3ZJZj 2011/10/18(Tue)17:12 No. 359245 ID: 383006
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The first batch of Mercenaries arrive. You have enough resources to hire and maintain One troupe of them. Your own recruits should start filling in too soon.

Alrekr The Fang is a warrior with a band of rough barbarians. He always commands only his own units - 1 Shaman, who provides minor healing and very minor magic resistance, 5 Spear Throwers - unarmored units that are more damaging but shorter range than archers, and also count as weaker light infantry, 10 Barbarians - solid medium infantry that are very unlikely to break, and 10 workers.

If this mercenary group goes too long without seeing combat, it is likely to begin causing trouble

Amir al-Azhar, a mage, and part of some sort of cult. He has 2 mages, 2 Assassins - units that are very weak, but powerful at close range and extremely stealthy, 8 Archers, and 20 servant-workers - extremely weak melee units on top of being workers, and Al-Azhar likes to use them as human shields.

Drauukir Ironfang is a young dragon. He is extremely difficult to injure and deals massive damage in melee and at short range, but moves slowly and cannot be concealed through any means (opponents always know where he is). He can deal damage to structures like a siege engine.

There is a chance that this unit can cause unrest if he is hired.

Ea Lightbringeris a mercenary-priestess. She has strong healing abilities and raises morale for any units she's attached to. She has 2 mounted priestesses - mobile healers that can also cast augmenting magics to strengthen other units, 5 combat medics - units that can bandage other units, sometimes reducing after-battle casualties and providing nonmagical healing, and 50 workers. None of her units have offensive capabilities of any kind.

>>359245
I'm voting healers.

I think Amir's a great choice here. What better way to fight magic bastards than with more magic bastards? Assassins are also a good idea and who can say no to expendable sla- servant-workers?

Lightbringer. There is certainly no shortage of need for healers.

>>359245
Well we need to cover up our loss of counter magics and magic power. So I say we should go with Amir. He should be useful to have around.

Setting up watchtowers and possibly some border forts against the forest could also be a good move if we have the resources and manpower over.

>>359245
I think the critical question here is, do we have anything in our army that could successfully take out that ogre? If not, we may have to hire the dragon just to specifically take it on.

We don't want a cult to gain strength in our area.

Let's go with Lightbringer.

When has subtlety ever worked out for us? We need a big thing we can throw at problems to make them go away.

Drauukir Ironfang. Like a Boss.

>>359275
Agreed, crush it with dragons is clearly the best idea.

I think the best Idea is to hire the priestess to reduce attrition

>>359253
A critical question is whether magic-heals will hurt undead (which I asked in the disc thread).
(Though I think Paladin + healer + buffs can probably take the ogre.)

Savior!!Z0Mwx3ZJZj 2011/10/18(Tue)19:35 No. 359306 ID: 383006
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Answered some stuff in the /dis thread.

http://tgchan.org/kusaba/questdis/res/345255.html

I'm going with the Lord of Mar... I mean Amir.

Before we decide on a dragon, we need to think about that "unrest" thing. That may be a big problem. Do dragons have a tendency to do evil things or not respond to orders? How risky is this beast?

That said, he'd probably make a great engine of destruction once we find a place to actually assault.

I don't like the sound of Marv- cultist-mage, but out main advantage over the bugs seems to be in ranged combat. And at this point, stealing all the magic would work in our favor.

Ea Lightbringer

Savior!!Z0Mwx3ZJZj 2011/10/19(Wed)07:21 No. 359393 ID: 383006
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"unrest" just means your citizens will lose morale. The dragon is big and scary.

You decide to hire Ea The Lightbringer. The other mercenaries sail away.

"It pleases me to serve you, king. Together we will defeat this menace that haunts your kingdom," she says, bowing low.

The priestesses (including Ea) have a chance not to be attacked by undead, lower the more powerful the undead is, and take less damage from undead spells. There is a chance that necromancers will fail to raise troops near the priestesses. Their healing is close-ranged, so it's best if they're attached to a unit that will receive healing whenever it's injured. They are mounted units and capable of quickly relocating, however.

The combat medics have swords and armor, but it's more used to make sure they don't get killed than to kill enemies. They should likewise be assigned to groups of soldiers in combat, although they can't quickly relocate.

Ea can be used as a general or a normal troop under one of your remaining generals, and must be fielded when any of her units are fielded. It is best to field her entire mercenary group.

The devastating loss of Rayawyn has left your country in mourning, but you cannot be taken in by the enemy's ploys again.

You have begun filling the dry castle moat with spikes and other hazards, and having workers erect and man watchtowers near your towns, and near the border to the forest. You haven't heard back from the Green Snake or Gaylin yet, but a few new recruits are combat-ready.

Do you have any other plans before you hear back from your generals?

>>359393
Aside from strenghtening defenses and making sure town and village militias train and strengthen their defenses as well, not really. We should probably check in on Gaylin and see how his mission is going.

Maybe we should have some of our light cavalry patrol near the forest border? What do you guys think?

Savior!!Z0Mwx3ZJZj 2011/10/21(Fri)09:38 No. 359807 ID: 383006
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I say, we've made our way past the forts and are well into the other king's land. We were traveling just down the road here - a road in somewhat of a state of disrepair, I must report - when some fellows appeared.

Rag-tag for the most part, two light horse with javelins, a captain with armor, mounted, six crossbowmen, and four infantry. There are hills on each side of the road, so their foot soldiers are below us.

The chap in charge is demanding that we turn over our goods else we'll be fired upon.

>>359807
Fired upon? Uphill? Who does this man think we are? Inform him he must be truly desperate to threaten a force on even footing with his own. Ask him what has driven him to such lengths. If he is needing employment, perhaps he could consider joining our forces, hmm?

>>359807
Inform him that you're here for proper diplomatic negotiations and that shit like this is not tolerable. Also inquire wheter or not he's for hire, seeing how these chaps all have their own stuff already they should be ready to go if we can recruit them.

Savior!!Z0Mwx3ZJZj 2011/10/23(Sun)09:49 No. 360232 ID: 383006
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I inform the man of my position and that I can provide him with regular food and real pay. I'd have to take it out of the treasure I've brought, but it shouldn't be a significant diminution.

"Don't know why you want to try and diplomat with that horse anus. That's why we're in the position we're in - banditing for a living. Released lots of us soldiers with no where to go and no other line of work. Got these strange visitors come give him advice. Envoy came to the capital about six months ago, nobody knows from where. didn't come from no boat for sure. He listens to these fellas. Say we don't need a big standin' army no more. Cuts us free. What are we supposed to do? We aint bad people despite our current preoccupation.

Well, I can hire these fellows and either send them back or keep them with me. We have enough workers to support them and reclothe them in our colors.

Crossbowmen are inferior to archers in every way, except that if they are killed, workers can be trained to take their place relatively quickly. These soldiers are all starving and have low morale.

>>360232
Sending them back to our country would likely be more diplomatic than bringing them with; showing up at the king's with a bunch of his ex-employees in tow could be kind of awkward. Make sure that they have sufficient supplies (mostly food) that they won't need to do anything untoward on the trip back, and that they are firmly instructed that no banditry will be tolerated within our realm but that there will be lasting jobs for them in our military upon arrival at the capital.

From the sound of it, there are other groups in a similar position to this one- and we are quite in need of additional forces. This could be an excellent opportunity to bolster our military. If they can gather more similarly out-of-work soldiers on the way to our capital, we can offer a small bonus, I think.

the odds are three to one that the monsters and the strange visitors giving the king advice are related. they are probly trying to soften up nearby kingdoms and deprive us of potential allies at the same time. we can probably turn there plan against them if we can leverage the large number of desperate and unemployed soldiers to bolster our ranks

Continuing to the other kingdom at all is looking like a dubious plan.
It sounds to me like the bugs have charmed their king (magically or otherwise), and have a sizable force there.
Even if we can break the bugs' hold on their king, with their army disbanded the bugs could just hold a coup.
While the other kingdom could be where the bugs are getting their human resources from, a diplomatic solution seems unlikely.

Wow, that's really mega-suspicious. It sounds like this kingdom allied with our enemies or got mind-controlled or something.

If we keep them with us we risk running into someone that recognizes them from their banditry. If we send them back then it's possible they'll have trouble getting past the forts. We could avoid issues with the former by having them wait outside town or something... the latter might even not be an issue, depending on how tight the borders are.

I kinda want to keep going, and make a deal with a town somewhere to direct ex-soldiers to our kingdom. Their problem becomes our manpower.

>>360239
Supporting sending them back and making it known that we'll offer a small bonus for recruiting additional displaced military men. Do make it known that we wish for them to cease banditry.

Let's look for any further recruitment opportunities as well.

Now this is an interesting situation. Well, send them back and tell them to bring any of their buddies, but if one or two of the people let go by their king were leaders or generals, talk to the our king. We could use information and maybe a strategic advantage just in case.

Either way, are there other places we can go than that kingdom? Might be just that one.

>>360232
Send them back to our own country. Also inform them that any other of his fellows who want to join a righteous cause that pays regularly are welcome there as well, since we need the manpower.

Hmm, those envoys seem like a rather suspicious bunch, we should probably be wary of bug cultists and shit at the court. Things might get more troublesome than normal negotiations.

Savior!!Z0Mwx3ZJZj 2011/10/23(Sun)15:22 No. 360372 ID: 383006
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I was the right man for the job, I say. I manage to round up quite a few of them and send them back. Some quantity of the supplies are spent.

These troops are all not quite as good as yours. Not as well equipped or trained. They seem to be decent enough chaps though.

Savior!!Z0Mwx3ZJZj 2011/10/23(Sun)15:25 No. 360373 ID: 383006
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When we approach the capital I see some huge, robed figures outside the gate. Keeping the main force a ways back, I send a light horse to scout ahead.

"Wat bring you to the citeye, foreign-man? Wat brings or purpokts here?"

Their voice is strange, tinny. How should we approach?

>>360373
You know what, I really don't like this. I say we screw this diplomatic mission, we try to find as many down on their luck ex soldiers as we can and get them to follow us back, we can send in the Green Snake to try to figure out what's going on here later. Seriously this seems like a bad situation to walk into with what we currently have at hand.

Savior!!Z0Mwx3ZJZj 2011/10/23(Sun)18:30 No. 360425 ID: 383006
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I get the scout to withdraw and we begin our journey back. I may be able to recruit additional troops with the envoy money.

It is much safer than going inside. No telling what is happening there.

Savior!!Z0Mwx3ZJZj 2011/10/23(Sun)18:31 No. 360427 ID: 383006
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Okay, I made it to the witch's hut. Looks like they've come and gone. Whole place is burned to the ground. Lot of footprints around here, but they're just sort of in the area - no tracks leaving or coming from anywhere else.

>>360427
Well that's a bummer. No trace you can sniff out or so? Because it would kind of suck if we get nothing out of you coming here.

What the heck is that green stuff at the top of the tree?

>>360494
Oh dear. Watch out for a possible trap.

Suggestion 2011/10/24(Mon)15:12 No. 360706 ID: 383006
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Oh, that's just something living I sensed in the tree. I suppose I should go check it out.

It's an owl! I ask it if it saw anything useful.

The owl informs me that he has a hole in the tree where he lives, and that he's been here for a while. He said that people showed up one day while he was asleep, and lived in the hut for a while (animals are really stupid about time). Anyway, they came out with a big scary ghost lady and then walked around and stuff and then when he was asleep again they disappeared.

It seems like the ressurected the witch as a spirit instead of a corporeal undead. That means only magic can hurt her, and it'll be a real problem. They must have been doing this while they were also working on the ogre's body. I just want to know how they're moving around. I know magical teleportation is a thing, but you'd have to be a super powerful wizard and even then it's really unreliable and can't transport large groups. It's got to be something else, but there are no tracks leaving here. It's frustrating is all. Oh well, I don't think there's anything else to learn from this guy.

Suggestion 2011/10/24(Mon)15:16 No. 360707 ID: 383006
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This is your current troop disposition. The light bandit horse uses javelins, so they only get one ranged attack.

The crossbowmen have shorter range and are less accurate than your own archers, and fire more slowly. Their infantry are worse than yours, but it's mostly a matter of morale, not skill.

Their heavy horse are not as tough as yours.

Do you have any plans? Currently, most of your watchtowers are complete and manned, or nearly so, and your moat is now full of spikes. Most of your cities and villages are properly garrisoned and walled.

Do you have any other plans? Any troops to send out? It's OK if you don't - your enemy probably won't wait forever to make his next move.

Uh. These guys are flying around or tunneling. Probably flying, since tunneling would leave obvious disturbed earth.

So we might have to worry about flying bugs. Good thing we have some extra crossbowmen.

>>360707
The newer members of our military could probably really use some drilling and practice alongside our other troops; hopefully with enough time training together they'll feel more a part of our military and their morale will go up somewhat.

Both the giant ogre and the spectral witch will likely require magic to defeat, and we've only got four wizards. Can we train or recruit more? Failing that, can we build catapults or bolt throwers to go with our defenses- things which might be able to make a serious dent in that ogre or anything else really big and tough they have to throw at us?

>>360707
We should give our new troops time to train with our old one so they get to know them and stuff and see if we can get them to improve. We should also talk to them about what has been going on in our neighbours kingdom, because there seems to be something seriously weird going on there and we might have to intervene there somehow, damn shame we don't have any assassins.

>>360719
I'm all for building siege weapons if we can manage it. That'd give something to deal with the ogre and let our wizards focus on the witch. Though mobility will as always be a problem.

Identifying the origins of those enemies is pretty crucial, but it looks like getting leads will be difficult with whatever methods they're using that don't leave tracks.

Indeed, if we can get some ballistae or other big damage single-target weapons, we could take out the ogre a lot easier.

Assuming we can't just trap it in a pit or something.

Does our Chamberlain know anything about the territories surrounding our kingdom? Since we apparently don't (aside from our immediate borders), we probably want to ask him about that.
After all, if the medium-bugs are made from living humans, the bugs have to be getting those humans from somewhere, and it would be useful to see if the neighboring kingdom is the only option for that. (They could be shipping them in from overseas, but that would be difficult to manage sneakily.)

Oh shit, what if they flew out from the witch's place? Put an alert out to track the skies as well as the ground. We cannot afford to be caught with our pants down if the enemy has access to air forces.

Can our serpentine friend find any other animal pals in the surrounding area to question?

Bump

>>391436
Man, this quest is great, but we sort of have to wait for the author to return. Bumping it won't do us any good.

Accidently hit A one too many times and have the owl re-tell you the entire thing.