3821, the third month of the year, and the first month of spring.
Adeeb Wasirri, Lord Governor of Dhum-Blud
20 years old
Health and Physical Abilities
Fit
Healthy
Social Skills
Practiced in Court Manners
Rogueish Charm
Practical Skills
Competent Swordsman
Competent Tumbler
Mediocre Rider
Novice Sneak
Personal Possessions.
A well bred riding horse. (Mare.)
An aging riding horse. (Stallion.)
A Fine Duelling Saber.
Several Sets of gentleman's clothes.
Walders old clothing and perfumes. (The former is gaudy and a little big, and the latter is a little too strong.)
Councilors, Vassals, Allies and Agents.
Formal Councillors
Aldagor. Barrister, Elderly noble courtier.
Balpher. Garrison Commander, noble courtier.
Desan. Steward, young noble courtier.
Elerik. Junior Garrison Commander,Low-born Wasirri Guardsman.
Agents
Vest. Friend, Lowborn duellist and former smuggler.
Eduard. Lowborn Courtier.
Vassals
Mayor Veera
Sir Madagor
Holdings.
Bonewatch
-Tiny Stone Keep on a hilltop.
--Sparse Furnishings
--Well Stocked Larder (Decent quality, including wine, salt pork, local spices and the other imported goods)
--Small dungeon under the castle. 12 cells.
-Stables (11/25)
-Barracks (Sufficient space and bedding to hold a little over a hundred men.)
-Armoury (Stocked with Spears, swords and bows of mediocre quality. Stocked with Quilted armour and padding of poor quality. Stocked with plenty of poor quality arrows.)
-Rickety wooden outer palisade.
-patchy overgrown "dirt" roads.
-Mostly Unmanned rickety wooden watchtowers.
-a handful of wooden homes within the walls.
-A well with plenty of fresh water.
-A few nearby farming families.
Bleak-Haven
-Village
--The Wretched Mut A seedy Tavern
--A well maintained Windmill
--A small shrine to the local patron spirit
--A few scattered homes.
--A few poor craftsmen.
-Your Manor
--A few Fine furnishings.
-Overgrown Patchy "Dirt" Roads
-An interconnected farming community in the local area.
Military
-Bonewatch Garrison. (53 soldiers of weak discipline and limited combat training. Armed with bows, spears and short-swords of varying quality. Girded in quilted linen armor, steel caps, and the occasional breastplate. Wearing the King's colours.)
-Unnamed Fortified Watchtower Garrison (20 soldiers of good discipline, wearing the King's colours.)
-Household Gaurd. (19 Skilled Fighters trained in urban and close-quarters combat. Armed with arming-swords, bucklers and longknives. Girded in Quilted Doublets, steel breastplate,open-faced helms, greaves and bracers, all of good quality. Loyal to your family and wearing your family colors.)
-Bleakhaven Community Watch. (A group of locals that fluctuates in number, protecting, keeping watch on and patrolling the town and outer farms.)
-Bleakhaven Garrison. (6 soldiers, functionally identical to Bonewatch Garrison)
Assets
-A heavy bag of gold "Crowns" (7/8)
-A chest half full of Silver "Crowns" (Many clipped and restamped.)
-Nine Light Riding Horses (local breed, frisky and quick, but also small and unsuited to long hard travel)
-4 Rickety Wooden Carts
-7 Months worth of poor quality local grain. (at current consumption)
-5 Months worth of Imported Food-Stuffs (at current consumption, includes beans, pickled vegetables, salt, butter and wheat flour all of decent quality)
Ten days pass, and during that time you are not idle. After returning to your castle you charge Vest with organizing patrols on the periphery of Bleakhaven, partially to gain information about potential enemy movements through your territory, and partially as a show of force. You permit him to take troops both from the castle garrison and your household gaurd, and to take nearly all of the horses in your stables. He is to seek help from members of the community watch in organizing that effort, and in getting the lay of the land. He departs the following day with two-dozen of your troops, five of which being your own personal gaurd. Balpher protests briefly that this will leave the castle too lightly defended.
Of those troops that remain, you set to drilling further discipline into them, taking a personal interest in the task. Though you assist, the commanders do the majority of work in running the soldiers through group exercises and sparring. Even so, your presence and attention seems to deeply bolster the morale of the troops, who begin to work much harder to try to impress you. The change in demeanour is swift and distinctive, and though the actual skills of the troops improve only slowly and steadily, the shift in morale will certainly help the soldiers run as a much more efficient machine, even unrefined as they are as fighting men.
When not assisting with the training of the soldiers, you spend further time instructing Eduard in the matters of court. Though he had been quick to learn at first, his progress has slowed considerably as you delve into the subtleties of court grace and high manners.
Desan and Aldagor begin working through the logistics of beginning lumber operations, working through the minutia of supplying a logging encampment, the costs of processing lumber, and shipping, but also working out potential profit margins, and how logging might benefit the local economy.
...
When Vest returns it's more or less in success, though with a few lightly wounded men. He explains that mostly the patrols met with very little of note, but after a few days he received word from members of the community watch that they had found signs of someone camping in a hidden place nearby some of the outermost farms. When he moved to investigate he found the camp abandoned, but began to track it's former occupants. The trail led to a farmstead that they soon discovered had been raided, the party having not moved quickly enough to catch up to the robbers. Some of the farm-hands were wounded, and the family had their chickens stolen.
Vest took the best of the men to chase after the band of robbers on horseback and eventually caught up with them. There were four of the thieves, with two on horseback. The fighting was brief, and your men emerged the victors, killing three of the thieves, chasing the fourth off, and reclaiming the chickens, though one of the three birds had been killed during the fight, and was swiftly eaten. Vest allowed the men to split between them what few valuables the bandits had on their person. However, for you he brought a horse captured in the fight, and some rough maps of the local area he had managed to explore.
...
With your troops returned, you take some of your personal guards and ride for your watchtower so that you might inspect it for yourself. After about six hours of riding you arrive at the tower, a weathered but sturdy structure atop a rocky outcropping, observing a stretch of the ill-repaired road. Sitting just outside the tower is a small wooden building, which when you approach closer realize serves as the tower's makeshift stables. It's not the sort of stronghold that might house a large number of troops, or withstand a siege, but properly defended it would at least take more than a raiding party to dislodge. You are met by a gruff, bearded man named Blake and a few other guards that clearly defer to him. When you explain you're here to inspect the tower and it's garrison he ushers you inside to inspect the armoury and the men.
Not all of the garrison is currently here, nearly half of it currently out either patrolling or hunting for food. Apparently the garrison here is mostly self-sufficient, foraging and hunting for food, but also being provided food by the charity of some of the nearby farmers, who are apparently grateful for their protection. The equipment and horses here were mostly provided by the Bonewatch armouries and stables at one point or another, though from what you've seen it's mostly kept in better condition than what's available to your own castle garrison. When you ask Blake wether there are nearby natural resources that might be worthwhile to exploit he answers in the negative, explaining the watchtower is mostly in a position to protect the road and some of the outlying farms. It's the first line of defence in the territory around Bonewatch, but if you wanted to expand your resources you would have to do it further away from your current holdings.
...
Once you return to your castle, the individuals that your Vassal promised to send to you have arrived, all awaiting audiences with you. Firstly there is the trio of adventurers: the former mercenary Blaire , the tracker Hairick and the Rune-Warrior Tarly. After them is the Scribe the mayor had mentioned Alricks, and finally the individual you're the least sure about, the hedge mage Nomegar, who you are told has brought at least ten rats with him, all of various sizes colours and temperaments.
