Log Title |
Summary: | Lord Altair d'Armaz arrives with reinforcements for Viscount Ludovic |
Date: | 02/07/18 |
Related: | Any Hellsmouth / Qatunax things |
NPCs: | None |
Players: |
Aequor - Hellsmouth County |
Hellsmouth county, seat of the d'Korbina, consists of mile upon mile of fine grazing land that stretches down towards the river to the northwest. Through this cattle-herders paradise run the marvelous, compass straight, roads left behind by the great vir sidus empire before its retreat. These roads link the county to the trade centers to the north, around the lakes, and the south as well as providing easy travel between land routes and the major river networks that run throughout Aequor. To the east the land quickly turns mountainous, but much of those lands have now been overtaken by the Qatunax scourge and can no longer be considered part of d'Korbina lands. The main town, Hellsmouth, sits at a major crossroad of these roads and carries the start of the main road that leads towards Mount Hadres and the famed Mountain Castle, Daemon Hall. |
02 Juillet 1874 IE |
200 horses are not a quiet thing. Whether walking or galloping, they make a LOT of noise. So this group, with their armor and weaponry, are quite noisy indeed. They march forth at a mounted walking pace, heading towards camp where others working against the Qatunax are being staged. 200 mounted glaive-wielding warriors, carrying forth not the banner of any house, but instead a sky blue banner with a silver dragon emblazoned upon it. Okay, there's 201 horses, as leading the group is one Lord Altair d'Armaz, he himself bearing an arm band with the d'Armaz colors on his battle armor, riding his familiar steed, Windsong. He slows the group as they get closer to camp, not wanting to alarm anyone, looking for the welcoming committee.
And a few more besides them. Sir Bertram of Harcourt, the d'Armaz knight-engineer, has tagged along with the Daniffen Mercenary Dragoons, along with his squire and nephew, Toby, and the two crossbow wielding engineers that make up his lance. He may ride, but the brigandine wearing knight does not ride particularly well. At least he's got no expectation of fighting. "Not a bad barge trip up river, eh?" He idly chit chats to Altair.
A small group of mounted men approach from the northwest flying both the colours of House d'Korbina and that of the Horned Knights. The men and women are dressed in half plate over what equates to the local uniform; a knee length veld-yellow coat bound with a black sash. The horses are considerably less uniform with some wearing nothing but harness whilst the horse under Viscount d'Korbina is clothed in a rather glorious comparison embroidered with his personal lightning bolt framed bullshead on both shoulder and wither. It even has horns on its chamfron. The group seems to be heading directly for the dragoons rather than the camp proper and it isnt long before they draw within distance and Ludovic holds up his hand to let the others with him know he wishes to progress along. He steers his horse directly towards Altair, sweeps his open faced horned helm off his head, and offers the d'Armaz lord an easy going grin. "Gotta say you're a sight for sore eyes this day Lord Altair!"
Altair looks to Bertram as they make their approach, shaking his head slowly. "I don't care if it's a barge or a boat, on a river or on the open ocean. I would much prefer to have my feet on dry land, thank you very much. That said, I will agree with you within that context," he says to the engineer. He next looks to the approaching Ludovic, taking in all of the man's ostentatiousness with a brief eye roll but also a easy smile. He shakes his head a bit before he offers in reply, "I'm just doing what I promised to do, bringing in some reinforcements." As their horses move alongside each other, the warrior offers Ludovic his hand in friendship. "It's good to see you're still in one piece. How goes the battle here and where do you want these lancers?"
"Aye, m'lord. But it's a mite quicker, and easier on the horses, too." Bertram doesn't like boats very much. But he doesn't much like horses, either. He keeps that to himself, dipping his head in a sort of casual salute to Ludovic.
Ludovic grasps Altair's hand as its offered. "You're early enough that its your pick pretty much." Ludovic waves his hand towards the pastureland that is being taken over by the martial gatherings. "And besides" He grins at them both. "I ain't a quartermaster. I don't much care where you go. Long as it ain't across that stream there." he points at said stream. "Because I never met a soldier yet who could resist a loose cow." He smirks across at Bertram. "You ever met one Sir Bertram?" Another smirk back to Altair. "Not sure who's in charge yet Altair. You know how these big political decisions go." He gives the pair of them another of his easy going grins. "I keep waking up with nightmares that they might pick me."
"Nothin much has changed here." Ludovic tells Altair. "Been waiting on this." he waves at the camp. "To do something. Never had enough men to do nothing. Just be careful of their fire troops when you're doing your things Altair. Wouldnt want you to get turned into a roast."
"It wasn't loose long if me and my lads were near it." Sir Bertram answers with a bit of a grin that shows no embarassment whatsoever. "Least if they put you in charge, m'lord, you can get them here to shove some steel up into the feather-heads' guts. What's that about fire troops, then?"
Altair smirks a little as he looks towards the fire troops, shaking his head. "I wish I could use them instead of having to avoid them. Make some sort of a Dragonfire Dive on the enemy troops and really rattle their cages. Alas…" he says before looking back to Ludovic. "Generally, they put one of two people in charge. Someone who is a master tactician, or someone who knows the lay of the land. Even then, someone with such knowledge is usually not far from the leader. I think you're fated to be here a while. As for me, put me where you need me and my troops to be. We'll what we can, where we are with what we've got." He then looks to Bertram, tilting his head a bit. "Sir Bertram, what did you say your specialty was in again?"
"Maybe you can." Ludovic shrugs at Altair. "Just dont want to see you do that dive of yours right into the middle of an unquenchable fire." He looks at Altair, looking amused. "Right. So now you see why i've nightmares of me being in charge. Show me a man, or woman, around here who fits more of those needs?" He shakes his head at Altair. "Not planning to use you all at all yet. Reckon there will be a big attack and this will be the army. Otherwise we'll just be spreading it all along the defensive line and gain nothing from it." He looks as if he wants to spit in disgust but his etiquette training wins the day and he just grimaces instead. "Ram a spear right into the heart of the territory and take it back. Its the only thing we can do."
Bertram gets an easy smile. "Been wondering just how many of my cattle are gonna end up on a spit with the excuse that they didnt look like they belonged to nobody. You'll spread the word that I aint gonna accept that argument for me right?"
"These fire troops?" This to both of them. "They were hiding amongst the slaves when I saw them. Got some kind of lance that spits a plume of fire. Really, really, unpleasant."
"Or some drooling noble ponce whose family paid the right people with a gift of son or daughter." Sir Bertram notes cynically to Altair's optimistic view of who commands. "No offense, m'lords." He grins again. "I blow things up. I tunnel. I undermine, and I build other things. Maybe nothing fancy like yonder Count's high castle, but I'm not too bad." He chuckles at Ludovic. "Not on my spear, m'lord, I promise that, but I'm not like to stay here for long. I goes where Duchess Myrana tells me to. But maybe you just need more explosives, yeah? I made this thing a few years back…" He trails off.
Altair arches a brow as he looks back at Bertram, a slow grin beginning to form. "You have to like a man who loves his work," he says before he looks back to Ludovic. "My troops won't be slaying anyone's cattle. The understand not taking what's not theirs. If nothing else, I make sure they stand up to my ideals." He then looks over the countryside for a moment or two, shaking his head slowly. "I've heard lots and lots of rumors about these Qatunax, but I've never fought them in battle, myself. Can you tell me more about them?" He asks as he looks to Ludovic. Sparing a glance for Bertram, he grins again. "Maybe we can engineer a method of thwarting their favorite attack postures."
Ludovic chuckles at Bertram's honesty. "Can't deny that the part about military brilliance aint always the most important thing when picking a commander." He chuckles again, somewhat deeper. "But you might not wanna say that to a man with a musket." He looks back to Altair, grins and nods, and then says "Hard to explain Altair. They are real good quality and dont really seem to care about their own losses. So they do some real unexpected things." He looks to Bertram, all curiosity. "You make things huh?"
"Whose musket?" Asks Sir Bertram, not getting the reference. "Aye. I make things. S'along the line of what I've always done." He mimes an explosion, with a sound effect.
Altair can't help but laugh a bit as he sees the mime, shaking his head. "He apparently also knows how to break things," he says, before he blinks. "You make things that explode, if I get the conversation right, correct?" he asks, looking back to Bertram. "Suddenly I have a thought about how we could use that along with my ability to jump…" he says before looking back to Ludovic. "So they're not afraid to die. That probably confuses a lot of our troops. At the same time, if we give them something they're not used to, maybe people just as willing to die for their country, they'll in turn be confused. Find themselves fighting a force that doesn't retreat in order to preserve their own life and safety."
Ludovic pats something on the far side of his saddle and says "Mine?" with an amused grin in response to answer Bertram's question. The explosion makes him chuckle. "Reckon you can make an arrogant politician have an accident? Man refused a duel so that makes anything fair game." His expression, body language and voice marks it as a joke. "Right?"
Ludovic gives Altair a funny look. "You think we've not already confronted them with people as willing to die for their country Altair? What would you call me and mine then?" He grimaces. "But what you're suggesting is likely suicide. Why would we throw away a bunch of troops when we can use them again? The qatunax, they -always- have more men. I've no damn idea where they come from. Us? We've got a couple of thousands. We aint even matching the force that Darius brought just to say hello." He sneers. "And demand my surrender."
Bertram simply nods at Altair in response to his question. All he says is, "Explosions make all kinds of troubles go away, m'lord."
Altair smiles to Ludovic and shakes his head slowly. "I have no doubt of your bravery or willingness to put your life on the line. But, yeah… When you're facing such a larger force, you have to preserve your troops so that you retain a force to fight with, which prevents you from fighting with the kind of careless ferocity they can." He then looks to Bertram. "Something we might think about is whether or not we can either decimate their incoming forces more smartly and efficiently or cut it off at a pass or something."
Ludovic decides not to answer, instead giving a surly shrug as he puts his helmet back on his head. Ahh blessed shade. "Theres maps and stuff up in the Keep. You'll have access after you've finished settling. I was on the way to the line when I heard you'd arrived but figured I'd come say hello and thank you." He lifts his hand up to indicate his intention to return to the group as he talks. "Not planning to go out far today. Come share the evening meal with us Lord Altair. You too Sir Bertram."
It's not that Bertram is not interested in this but he clearly does not appear to think that any of the planning considerations are his problem. He'd told Altair that the Duchess wanted him to tag along, but he also didn't say for how long he was staying. The engineer shrugs. "Eh. Yeah." He nods at Ludovic, clearly very happy to share the table with a noble. He likes good food.
Altair hmmms to Ludovic before he nods. "I don't know who they have the idea of giving command to, but we might come up with a few ideas studying what we have at hand. Thank you, Lord Ludovic. After a long ride, a meal is most appreciated. Give me a moment to settle my troops in." He then dismounts Windsong before looking to Bertram. "Without worrying about *how* you'd get it up there, can you think of a way one might drop an explosive and have it detonate as it hits ground and troops? Something a single person could carry. Without risking the person carrying the bloody thing…" he asks idly, planing a seed in Bertram's head before he peels off to handle troop business.