Re: Turn 21
Month 11 – The Year Of THE HAG
Inside the laboratory, things were moving very quickly for an empire that once shunned every aspect of magic completely. There was a group of young men who were astonished at the things they learned or simply witnessed from this old man who seemed to possess an endless passion for his magical work. They learned to cast some spells in the ways of earthen magic, and they learned of possibilities they could explore by enchanting items with the power of arcane earth gems. Deep below the city was an ancient cavern where was housed the Great Forge of Ulm. These young men made constant expeditions down to this place to collect the deep magical earth gems that grew down there. Only in the darkest hours of the night did their old mentor, Ruprecht venture down there. Those were the hours when he would work on his most secret projects, for it was during the daytime that he had to divide his time between teaching and running the matters of the province. For an old man, his spirit was very bright. From time to time, he would also work closely with the great woman Yohlla, and together they forged items that the pupils used to expand their minds and increase their research potential.
Outside, things were not going so well. Even though the people were initially grateful for Ruprecht’s guidance, they were now completely sick of him. They were sick of being overworked for war, so they took their anger out on him, their figurehead. They even began to believe in fear that his new ways would corrupt them, and these lies especially made the poison of rebellion more potent. The fact that Yohlla had returned might have made things better, but she had chosen to make her presence a secret. To her, there were urgent matters more important than the temporary state of the peoples’ desires. Still, things were out of control. The Prophet looked out his window to witness another scuffle between one of his soldiers and some civilians. The morale of his troops was being affected by their police duty in their home city, and it didn’t even seem to be making a difference – not fast enough, anyway. If things didn’t change before the end of the month, he would have a difficult decision to make. However, he had looked into some mercenary options again. This time, he was able to catch the attention of one Arnaud who commanded a company of longbowmen. He had heard tales of the longbow, but had never seen one used in war before. Hopefully, these light troop wouldn’t mind a little bit of “tax” duty. The people of Ulm would soon see that their own leaders were more merciful about the collection of taxes than a local bully would be.
Later that day, Erkeborn found out that the scuffle he witnessed was actually an old witch who was casting curses on his men. He was fortunate to not have been out on the street himself at that hour. This had to end, now.
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Hybrid Mode
