Turn #10, Winter of Year 1
Fast food, medieval style.
Braving the snows, travellers from afar bring word that a Sidhe Lord of Man has been appointed as the false prophet of Yadnif Goo.
While the siege of Pythium enters the third month, my avatar goes for a pleasant stroll upriver in the farmlands of Eribon. The heathens of this land, independent yet mildly sympathetic to Pythium, oppose me with a force of one priest and his fanatical bodyguard, a pair of mounted commanders, eleven heavy cavalry, and a trio of heavy footmen. Jorgun begins the battle at the rear of the field, which allows enough time to prepare spells of
Personal Luck and
Body Ethereal before the enemy cavalry charge arrives. My avatar receives the charge, completely unscathed, and proceeds to eat the nearest horse and rider. The cavalry switch to sabers, but are still unable to hurt Jorgun, who strikes out and envenoms a second horse and rider, which die writhing only moments later. Appalled by this, and the ineffectualness of their attack, the morale of the cavalry breaks and they immediately attempt to flee, but not before Jorgun poisons another rider and his mount, who suffer the same agonizing death as their predecessors. The footmen move forward to engage my avatar, and two of them are snatched up and swallowed whole in the blink of an eye. This causes a general panic to set in and all the heathens rout. But the Last footmen is not quick enough and becomes another tasty morsel.
Jorgun adds another 4 kills and 9 trophies to his tally, solo battle gaining him valuable experience that further improves his fighting prowess.
He now has 2 stars and has moved to the top of the HoF. The proceeds from the Eribonese farms (52g) increase my income by 15%.
The Seithkona Urd, and her bodyguard of 5 Jotun spearmen, arrive at Pythium and join in the siege.
The number of dissenters declines by one in the Black Alps, and by two in Gwyrth. The faithful also gain a foothold in the province of Helmshire (#59, just south of Eribon, and up the other river from Saeborea). Slowly increasing dissent in the beseiged province of Pythium lowers revenues there by 3 gold. That it is I that receives this income, and not the Pythium pretender, is all that matters. The unrest will be dealt with after my inevitable victory.
The Seithkona Sigyn joins the coven at Jotunheim, which achieve mastery of the second rank of 'Enchantment' magics and are expected to complete the third next month. I give instructions that study begin on the magics of arcane item Construction once the goal in Enchantment magics is reached. The newfound Enchantment lore enables my avatar to add the spell of
Astral Weapons to its pre-battle preparations. This will enable it to ignore the non-natural armors of opponents when striking with its venomous fangs.
My realm has:
- __5 Provinces (+Pythium under seige)
- 272 Treasury.
- 395 Income. (+49)
- 127 Upkeep. (+16)
- 131 Resources in the capital. (unchanged)
Gem income is:
- +3 Astral (30)
- +1 Death (10)
- +2 Nature (15)
With the added income from my latest conquest, I feel that I can afford to invite a third Norna sister to join my coven, so I command that the appropriate gifts and celebration be prepared, and I also command that another Jotun Spearman be readied in case the siege of Pythium should continue longer than I anticipate. These preparations drain the treasury of 250 coins, and I continue to defer bolstering provincial defenses.
I give command of the Jotuns at Pythium over to Bove, and I charge my prophet Grymis with proselytizing to the inhabitants in the farmlands surrounding the citadel. Pythium's dominion here is -2, and if I can knock it back to zero I will kill this pretender without ever having to fight him. It's worth the attempt, though it's unlikely as my base dominion is only 5 and may not be enough for this. Still, weakening the enemy dominion will make my pretender stronger should I be forced to use him in a castle assault, plus it helps shift the local scales to my benefit. My avatar, still alone, heads north to the plains of Bel (#92), where an estimated score of independent heavy foot and heavy cavalry await. The newly-recruited human commander in the Black Alps is sent to Jotunheim to gather the Jotuns in the garrison there. Actually, I never leave troops in garrison. I always assign them as bodyguards until some commander carries them away to battle. Finally, I call on Seithkona Sigyn to Revive a Mound King, which expends 3 of the death gems in my vaults, and set Seithkona Edda to the task of the Reanimation of long dead Jotuns, for which another 5 death gems are disbursed.
PS - All provinces with positive dominion, except my capital, have dropped to Cold-1. I do not know why this has happened in the midst of winter, with no related events reported, and Pythium's dominion not increasing.
I repeat a small, but careless mistake this turn:
- I leave the scout Bdvar in place for a seventh consecutive month in Saeborea.
to be continued ...
[ February 11, 2004, 14:22: Message edited by: Arryn ]