Chapter 6: Negotiations

Written by @Blazinghand and edited by @swwu

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Ormgeir IV

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Spoiler: rolls Felipe’s negotiations with Duchess Elnazoveth:

Felipe Solanzin’s Diplomacy (Hard): 15 - 4 = 11

3d6 = 12, Failure by 1



Siwen rallies the Royal Army:

Siwen Solanzin’s Leadership (Hard): 16 - 4 = 12

3d6 = 16, Failure by 4



Calderus II

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Spoiler: rolls Calderus keeps the Royal Army supplied, with help from the Spirit:

Calderus Dehnakitos’ Stewardhip (Moderate): 16

3d6 = 10, Success by 6.



Calderus tries to calm sectarian tensions:

Calderus Dehnakitos’ Diplomacy (Very Hard): 16 - 8 = 8

3d6 = 6, Success by 2.



Siwen IV

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“This bodes ill,” muttered Lord Mayor Kavos Ustad, and the man was right. Even from their vantage on the hill overlooking the Royal Army’s camp, things looked bad in the evening light.As his employer grimaced, Ormgeir turned over the situation in his head. Why had he been summoned for a private meeting so close to the end of contract, when the army was having so many problems?Ormgeir Harawa had been in the business a long time so he knew a bad deal when he heard one. This here? This was a bad deal. The muster following the Battle of the Tower had taken nearly two weeks. Men streamed back in in groups, pairs, and singletons. They were hungry and tired, feeling the battle lost rather than won. All told, about 1,600 men died in that day, the vast majority of them on the right flank. An inauspicious victory, the men said. Walking amongst the Queen’s army, he heard their prayers to their Aveirian gods, begging for fortune. This was an army with morale problems.There were blessings to be counted, though. None of the Silver Company’s horsemen were on that doomed flank, for example. Held in reserve or sent as an enveloping force, the entire force of experienced and well-equipped heavy cavalry remained intact. And despite its losses, the army was still a substantial force. Not counting the Silver Company, the Queen still had nearly 4,000 soldiers accounted for: 1800 light foot, mostly untrained peasant levies; 1400 heavy foot, a mix of pikes and heavy infantry proper; 500 well-trained archers; and the 225 heavy infantry and skirmishers of the Starry Legion. A fine core for an army, if lacking in horse, Ormgeir thought.It seemed his employer was thinking along the same lines. “With The Silver Company, it is an army one might imagine defeating Empress Leila’s army in the open field,” said Kavos Ustad. “They say she was able to raise sixteen thousand soldiers, and we’ve defeated nearly half that, these past few months. We should be a match for what remains.”Ormgeir grimaced. He knew what was coming.“So,” Kavos Ustad continued, “I’d like to extend our contract. I know we originally hired you on for the six months it would take to deal with the Sandy March and Upper Baradon, but plans have changed. I won’t be able to pay you out with the coin on hand. I’m having my taxes sent here so I can get you some of the coin right away.”“And the rest?” asked Ormgeir.“When we take the capital, Holy City Zastan,” replied Kavos, “the royal treasury will be opened up to pay out the Queen’s debts, and those debts of her vassals accrued in getting her back on the throne. She will pay you for this second campaign.”“You’d pay me in promises, then,” said Ormgeir.Promises were always bad news; men didn’t live on promises. Men can’t buy passage on ships, feed horses, and supply an army with promises. Mercenaries can’t buy whores and wine with promises. It would be a dangerous proposition to accept. It wasn’t that the elderly Lord Mayor in front of him was likely to go back on his word; Kavos Ustad’s word was worth its weight in gold. The problem was managing the men. A month without coin, or a few months, could be borne. A campaign without coin promised mutiny, and all of Lower Baradon stood between them and Zastan.“Not just any promise,” said Kavos. The elderly Lord Mayor unbent, and Ormgeir could almost hear the man’s spine cracking as he bent and reached for an inner pocket. He produced from his voluminous coat a scroll bearing the mark of the Queen. He carefully presented it to Ormgeir with a sickly-sweet smile. “A royal promise.”Ormgeir ran his thumb over the stamp at the top of the note, and read it, slowly and carefully in the dying light. He was an educated man, but his Aveirian letters weren’t as good as they could be. The writing was swirled but subdued, as though tracking along lines unseen with an unerringly sharp quill pen. The language was plain enough, and there was no room for interpretation. Ormgeir felt his eyebrows rise as he finished reading the promissory note.“This is more than twice what we negotiated,” he said, before adding hastily, “not that I disapprove, mind you. Still, a man can’t help but wonder what would move the Queen to such generosity, after all—”“Enough equivocation,” interrupted Kavos with a sneer. Despite the brisk hilltop breeze, his voice carried easily. “You want to know what’s going on. You want to know why we’re desperate. I’ll tell you, if you really want to know, but you must not share this with your men—or any of the men, for that matter.”“You have my word of honor.” Ormgeir’s voice was as cold as the evening air. “If I work with you, I deserve to know,” he added.“Honor, as a soldier of fortune? Well, you’ll likely find this out whether I share it or not, and you do deserve an explanation, so I may as well tell you. Duchess Sharast Elnazoveth, Lady of Alonia and ruler of Upper Baradon, has refused our call to arms. She claims that the matter of the succession is undecided, and refuses to take sides, and she said the same to Leila Roshandade a year ago.”“So, we won’t get reinforcements from Upper Baradon.”“No, we won’t. I’m sure you’ve noticed that we’re barely holding on to our army as things are now. Losing nearly half of our army at this time would cripple our morale and our ability to win battles. With the Silver Company, we can defeat Leila in open battle. She will be forced to hole up in Zastan. Though we won’t be able to besiege her easily, we will have options.”“You still think you can win this, don’t you?” asked Ormgeir. “You’re not a pious man, you’re not even a particular loyal man. You don’t think this ‘Advocate’ god is watching over the Queen, and you planned to attack her until you saw the magic at the Flaming Fields. Still, despite this setback, you stand fast. What makes you so confident she still has a chance?”The withered Lord Mayor didn’t reply immediately. Instead, he shot the mercenary captain a grin, before turning to survey the army camp again. Ormgeir knew his wily employer was hiding something. Kavos was a man who traded in secrets, who would give the Queen—or anyone, for that matter—aid as soon as death if the situation warranted. He was an enigma: a man whose mind was known to none save himself. As Kavos began his walk down the hill, his voice carried back his answer.“That? That, you don’t deserve to know, Captain. I’m certain you’ll accept our offer regardless.”The bastard was right.Everything had its own proper place in society. This much Calderus Dehnakitos knew. His father Athaca was the Lord Bishop before him, and he expected his son Pynikos Fari would succeed him. Each Lord Bishop had many Bishops working under him; each Bishop tended to his priests, and each priest to his penitents. The Gods had plans for all, and Calderus was simply the man chosen for leading Dehnak, the city by the cliffs. He ruled with justice and fairness, and under his careful caress the city had flourished.The Avarian League to the west was silent, unable to launch incursions against his diligently managed castles. The Kamiyyad Kingdom to the south dared send no incursions into Dehnak Bay; despite the difficulty accessing the bay from the high cliffs the city sat on, Calderus projected naval superiority from the merchant port of Kitsbridge. His peasants even ate well, with the bounties from the banks of the Lima river taxed only enough to support the necessary parts of the noble class.So, when the streets filled with angry Advocators demanding representation of their god in court and in the temples, Calderus was understandably angry. In the nine months since the Battle of the Flaming Fields, they had grown only bolder.“I should have them all hanged! I should have them all stabbed!” he said, gesturing emphatically at the wall. Normally he wouldn’t say such things, but he was alone in the council chambers, save for Princess Jamie and his cousin, Bishop Covras. Sometimes, a ruler needs time to release his frustrations. It was bad form for the Princess’ training in rulership, but these were extenuating circumstances if ever such things existed.“You won’t, though, will you?” asked Covras, his lilting voice teasing once more. “Most of our soldiers are with the Queen, probably in Lower Baradon by now. Most of those who remained are manning our castles on the western border, and these are the malingerers, the ill and untrained.”“I know that,” muttered Calderus. “I’m keenly aware of my inability to enforce law and order in my own city. Despite my, and I am not exaggerating here, excellent success in keeping an army half a kingdom away fully supplied, excess supplies do not a town guard make.”“What will you do, then?” asked Princess Jamie. This one, she wasn’t teasing, she was almost eager. She turned to look out over the city, her dark curls up in a bun. “It has been nearly a day and they have not yet dispersed. What will we do?”“The same thing we always do,” replied Covras. “We wait and let them stew. They’ll disperse. Maybe not in a day, but eventually. They can’t block the road surround the keep forever. Once they wander off, we’ll roll out a new program to keep them from spreading their ideas.”A moment of silence hung between the three. An idea had been growing in Calderus’ mind, one too horrible to contemplate, and yet so seductive, so simple. The gods might not forgive him, not for this. Oh, he knew their wisdom was divine and their forgiveness infinite, but allowing heresy was a sin so dark that it scarce need be called cardinal. The Deceiver and The Interloper wished to have his people’s souls. If he granted them anything now, he could not be certain of reclaiming it. But if the Queen’s army fell, who would stand against the heretics in the years to come?“So, we’ll stay behind our walls another day?” asked Princess Jamie.“No,” said Calderus.His cousin and his sister-in-law looked at him in surprise.“No?” Covras asked.“No,” said Calderus once more. “I will meet with the Advocate’s advocate. We won’t have the government of this city dragged to a halt any longer. It is my responsibility to the Queen to keep the baggage train running, and I can’t well do that from in here, can I?”“Well, I guess you can’t,” agreed Covras. “But isn’t it dangerous to even grant them an audience? Any concession we give will only make them grow bolder! They want their false god mentioned during services and in the prayers at the start of court, but surely you know things won’t stop there, cousin.”“It’s a tradeoff that needs to be made,” Calderus said, pushing a hand against the wall. “Peace in the city, in return for problems down the road. Yes, it makes the problem worse, but once the war is over, we’ll have our soldiers back and a stronger hand at the negotiating table.”Princess Jamie laughed, and the two men of the gods turned to her.“You disagree with my plan, Princess?” asked Calderus. “If their demands are the same, it will be simple to grant them, and cost us little in the short term.”The Princess gathered herself together, smirking. “My apologies, Lord Bishop, It’s just—a thought occurred to me. I think this is the right decision, but with a bargain like that… one might call it a deal with the Deceiver.”Covras laughed, but Calderus could find no humor in such a grim joke., he prayed, as he prepared to treat with heretics and grant their requests.Siwen kept her eyes closed as the rush of images and sounds swept through her mind. She’d gotten better, she thought, over the course of the past nine months. When The Spirit has first manifested during the Battle of the Flaming Fields, it had barely been able to communicate with her. Now, it could directly share sense-information with her. Though it seemed The Spirit had the ability to see anywhere in the realm, it could only truly focus on one area at a time. So, Siwen wasn’t assaulted with multiple contradictory images; just a single viewpoint.Was she getting better at discerning the images, or was The Spirit growing smarter? A worrying thought.[Thank you,] she told The Spirit. [That was all I needed to know. Please stand ready.][As you command, Queen Siwen,] replied The Spirit.Its presence in her mind diminished and she opened her eyes. Her command staff was relatively bare, as most of them were out organizing the army into lines of battle. The trek through Lower Baradon has been easier than expected. Many lords had sworn themselves to her cause. They had been loyal, but lacked the resources to defy Leila from so close to her seat of power. The Royal Army had swollen to nearly 5,500 soldiers. Many of the new arrivals were the levies of lesser lords, poorly organized and forming many small groups. Hoshfarn, Kurush, and Esfand had their hands full in the field.“It’s really her,” said Siwen. “Nothing can fool the spell’s senses.”“It’s probably a trap,” commented Felipe, gazing out at the fields between the Royal Army and Holy City Zastan.“Oh, it’s definitely a trap,” agreed Kavos. “It’s just a question of what kind of trap it is. She would not want to be known as one who broke Parley, after all.”“I’m not so sure,” countered Danush. “I know my grand-niece well. Leila is ambitious, yes. Cunning? In a certain sense, yes. She’s even known for her occasional bits of trickery.”“Like trying to usurp my throne,” said Siwen bitterly.“Yes, like that,” conceded Danush. “But she is not dishonorable. More importantly, Leila wouldn’t want to be known as dishonorable. After all, she didn’t simply claim your throne, Siwen. She’s written in changes to the law that, were they legitimate, would make the throne hers by right.”“Siwen is right: more trickery, then,” said Ioseph sourly.“Yes, but it’s trickery with the pretense of honor,” said Danush. “I think we can expect the same here. Leila wouldn’t ride out from behind her walls with only an honor-guard of three horsemen flying a flag of parley if she intended to kill you under that flag.”“So, what’s her game, then?” asked Siwen. “She would last a long time behind those walls. We don’t have enough men for a siege, and we certainly don’t have enough to storm the city. She must know that. She lacks our intelligence gathering abilities, but even if I had Sharast Elnazoveth’s army at my back, it would be a chancy thing. Those walls haven’t fallen in nearly a thousand years. Holy City Zastan has never been conquered, never been sacked, never been taken—and not for lack of trying, either.”“We don’t really have any choice but to go and treat with her,” said Felipe. “I am willing to go in your stead, Siwen.”“Don’t be ridiculous, husband,” Siwen said. “She’s there. I’ll have to go. It’s just a question of who I take with me. I’ll need a good and loyal swordsman, and a good advisor. I’m considering Ardavan and Kavos. Not sure who the third escort should be.”“Personally, I think it would be best to be accompanied by Ormgeir as well,” added Felipe. “He is a good warrior, better than I am. His quick thinking has helped us before. With the two of them and me together, we would be able to protect you.”“Blood may matter more than strong sword arms,” countered Ioseph. “Siwen might be best accompanied by you, Danush, and me. All of us are kin to Leila. She wouldn’t dare strike us down, becoming a trucebreaker and a kinslayer both.”Siwen looked thoughtful.“Could that be the trap?” questioned Kavos. “She knows you’ll go to meet her out there. Maybe she has some way of preventing you from retreating after parley. The field is flat, so it’s unlikely an ambush is set. I’m still not sure how we’d avoid it, though.”“We’ll need a plan for the negotiations, set up beforehand,” added Siwen. “If she’s meeting me, she likely plans to offer some sort of compromise. Either she still wants her own seat, and wishes to be Queen on the Starry Throne while I sit on the Blood Throne, or she’s more ambitious and will try to keep her title as Empress, offering me vassalage as Queen. I’ll need a response to either of those offers.”“Would you?” asked Felipe, nervously.“Would I what?” replied Siwen.“Be her vassal, ever.”“Of course not. Could you imagine that, after all this? Over two years now I’ve fought her, and only in the past nine months have I made gains. I will not be anyone’s vassal. Now stop fretting and help me figure this out. We could bring Danush, of course, in case something magical…”As you listen in on this discussion of parley, you realize that you have the Queen’s ear directly. You feel unknowable processes within you driving you, urging you to give advice and guide her in a way to bring victory and glory to The Aveirian Empire.The months have taken a toll on everyone, but at last you are at the end of Queen’s Corridor, at Holy City Zastan. With more loyal lords are your command, the army has grown. Even without Duchess Elnazoveth’s backing, it seems clear it’s only a matter of time before you have all Argonath united under your banner. Still, a major obstacle remains; the architectural masterpiece that is Holy City Zastan, with her high walls and natural defenses.With thousands of men arrayed outside Holy City Zastan, you feel that this campaign is coming close to an end. The Empress Monarch, Empress Leila I Roshandade, has exited the city’s gates with only 3 horsemen as her escorts. Under a flag of parley, she wishes to negotiate terms with her cousin, Queen Siwen II Solanzin. Though Siwen’s advisors suspect trickery, Siwen cannot be seen rejecting her cousin’s request for parley. She plans to meet and negotiate terms. Perhaps Leila wants to keep her own throne?Siwen is formulating terms, including a counter-offer, and selecting three soldiers to come with her. It sounds like she’s likely to bring Arch-magister Danush Solanzin, Lord Commander Ardavan Ashakaya of the Starry Legion, and Lord Mayor Kavos Ustad of the Delta, if not given input.9 monthsWho should Queen Siwen bring with her?[ ] Siwen’s plan: Ardavan, Kavos, and Danush[ ] Felipe’s plan: Ardavan, Ormgeir, and Felipe[ ] Ioseph’s plan: Felipe, Danush, and Ioseph[ ] Other (Write in)What will the spirit do before and during parley?[ ] Intelligence gathering: search for traps or trickery, and be vigilant during the parley[ ] Tactics and management: the army and the Queen will need help coordinating in the run-up to this battle.[ ] Magical item creation: create an item or weapon for Siwen to carry to the parley-[ ] Write in item[ ] Create a saint or prophet-[ ] Write in character[ ] Use magic (cost variable)-[ ] Write in miracle[ ] Other (write in)Feel free to also write-in an overall plan for what the spirit will do here. Siwen already has some idea of what she wants to do; you can interfere or not interfere, or use your powers as you’d like. @swwu and I will be available for questions as always.Also, thanks to everyone who has written posts letting us know you enjoy the story. @swwu and I really appreciate them, and it’s really encouraging to see people like it. It is very rewarding as an author to read those.