(1874-07-15) Everyone Wants Paras
Everyone Wants Paras
Summary: Ludovic and Cervantes meet to discuss the latest attack, Ludovic's deal with Darius, the need to have an overall commander in place for planning reasons and the need to move onto the offensive before the aequorians can decide they will be better served on the western fronts. Cervantes makes the mistake of mentioning paras.
Date: 15th July 2018
Related: Qatunax Stories things. Particularly http://eternalcrusade.wikidot.com/log:1874-07-11-firestorm-pt-ii:blind-sided & http://eternalcrusade.wikidot.com/log:1874-07-12-overdue-friendship
NPCs: None
Players:
Cervantes  Ludovic  

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.
1874-07-15

There is little chance that Cervantes could have missed out on the news that Daemon's Hall had been attacked, nor the word that Imogen and Ludovic were injured, nor the word that Ludovic rode out into enemy territory a couple of days ago. The castle didnt fall of course, so it isnt a massive disaster to the allied efforts at least, beyond the fact that quite a few of Ludovic's knights are temporarily out of commission. Since Ludovic's return he has sent word to Cervantes that they need to talk and the venue for said talk is the command tent amongst the forces that have been gathered, primarily from aequor, to start the campaign.

The command tent is much like you'd expect it to be. A massive pavilion with a big table in the middle and guards outside. This particular pavilion is made from panels of black and yellow wool-felt. Ludovic is inside, in the halfplate both he and his horned knights favor, although he is neither wearing hat nor helmet today. He looks well from behind. Better than he looked before the attack, truth be told. Then he turns around to offer Cervantes his hand and its obvious that the rumours about him being injured are entirely correct - Strangely there is no visible injury, nor any scarring, but there is no missing the fact that hes lost his right eye. "Cervantes. Good you're here. I'm not getting anymore support and theres trouble out west. So its time we started moving."

Oh, Cervantes knew alright. He arrived with a personal guard to check up on Ludovic once he heard that Daemon's Hall was unsuccessfully attack. "Ludovic. Good to see you safe and sound." he shakes his hand. "Hopefully looking for the better, yea?" He wore full plate, with his greatsword on his back and his entire form covered by a tattered cloak of a noble whose life has been 100 percent war.

He does cross his arms though, looking at him. "About time indeed. Though…you seem to be missing an eye. But I figure it could be worse. Did ya at least make the bastards pay?"

"No." Ludovic says. "They got away. But then it was not your normal type of attack. Was a vampire that did this. Seems he has a grudge against me for what happened at Mathis. Don't fuss about the eye. I've had that alchemical vitae stuff and i'm still strong as an ox." He waves Cervantes attention back to the table. "Two.. no three things I want to get sorted right now." When he looks back to Cervantes he turns most of his body until Cervantes is standing directly in front of his left eye. "Reckon we should start with the one most likely to upset you. As of this moment Darius and I are in alliance as far as this" he points a hand at the map. "Is concerned. You still in?"

Cervantes looks directly at Ludovic. "A fuckin' Vampire? You're certain?" a pause. "Of course you're certain. Not even you would piss about with something like this. Alright." he crosses his arms as he walks up to the table, looking at the map. Ohhhh yeah, the darius thing pisses him right the fuck off, but his eyes look to Ludovic. "…Fine. Yes, I'm still in. As long as we can wipe out the Qatunax and now, the vampire who clearly wants your head, off the board."

"He doesn't want my head, least, not yet." Ludovic tells Cervantes. "Can be absolutely sure of that since he didnt take it with him. I sure wasnt in no state to argue by the time he was done with us." He gives Cervantes a broad smile at the agreement that he's in. "Good. Good. Knew you'd not like it but the man has, well, I thought he had maybe six thousand? Good news is he's got nearer ten. So we just tripled our force, just with that. Course Darius is kinda arrogant." he shrugs. "But he's got information we needed and experience fighting em we havent. So when I got up after the attack and I was sure I could, you know, stand up straight and stuff." he smirks at that. "I went out to see him. Shoulda done it months ago." He turns back to the table. "Stay on my left if you would Cervantes." He gestures at the map. "So that leaves us with two things to fix really." Again he turns to face Cervantes. "When it comes down to it. Which one of us has the final word here?"

Cervantes approaches and stays on Ludovic's left so he can see him much easier. a gesture of respect as well as just being a damn gentleman. His eyes widen just a bit with a bit of a whistle as Ludovic states the numbers. "Vir Sidus given us all they got all of a sudden? Not bad." both leaders know that numbers don't win battles. Strategy and tactics do. But….numbers sure do help. "fair enough…" though as the question is asked about which one of them has the final word, he takes a breath. "Well…perhaps that's something to discuss between all three of us. Personally, I'd love to have Paras wavin' an Arkanin flag. But…perhaps a duel or a contest can settle that. Words can only do so much." he takes a breath. "I'm just worried what the Vir Sidus is going to do once we take out the Qatunax. Assuming we spend as much resources as we think we will….we'd be at a disadvantage."

"Not given." Ludovic says "Same as we've not given them our troops and how your troops are yours and mine mine. But we'll be cooperating from now on." He chuckles at Cervantes suggestion that its between the three of them. "I'm talking mostly about the near five thousand we've got here. Most of them are aequorian though. So likely it should be me." A twitch of a smile. "Oh Paras is gonna be mine again when all this is done but lets just focus on the tomorrows fight instead of the one next year. As for what they do when its done? I dont see how this changes anything. They already massively outnumber us and thats with our alliance and the help i've been granted." Again he turns, this time to face Cervantes. "And you sure as hell is hot aren't getting Paras. Or are you holding hopes that when all this is done and finish we fight over the whole area now held by the qatunax? Theres that city of yours I wouldnt mind if thats the plan."

Now Cervantes can't help but laugh "Luddy, much as I love you mate, if you plan to pick a fight with Arkanin, don't make me take your one good eye." he stares at him seriously for about a tense, ultra-tense even, moment, before he just laughs and pats Ludovic on the shoulder. "Calm down, Paras is all yours. What I want is Nojpeten. That way, I can rebuild Rogers and maintain a frontline." though he maintains eye contact with Ludovic, since these two apparenty decided to face each other. "But, if you're that excited, we can kill each other when this fight is over." he winks at him. "They do…they do. You know we'll have to fight the Imperial bastards when this is done, right? Or was one of your deals with them being 'back off our land'?" he asks curiously, looking at the map still.

"You keep your hands off d'Mollari and d'Meloni's old haunts and I'll keep my hands off Rogers. Just never figured it needed saying before you mentioned flying Arkanin colours on an Aequorian city. Not like our families havent done that dance before. Heck, thats why you want that city isnt it?" He gives Cervantes a quick grin. "So you can keep us Aequorians in check." He just seems to shrug off, or even ignore, the attempt to stare him down. "Promised I'd drop Paras until we were in a position to actually do it. Honestly Cervantes, I dunno if they will get to keep it or not, reckon thats down to the Royals, not me."

"Calm yourself, I don't have interest in that. As long as Rogers is restored to life, I don't care who gets what. That's up to the Duchess Arkanin to decide." Cervantes states rather easily with a smile on his face. "I just mainly said it to see how you'd react. Heh, well…that's kind of how our families worked from the get go. Keep an eye on each other even if we gain more." a small chuckle escapes him before he listens to what the deal was. "Heh…fair enough. Well, that's enough of the future. Let's talk battle plans."

Ludovic says. "Well I've more troops than you now, so I reckon its easiest if I just end up heading most of these things." He turns back to the map. "First thing I want to do is close the corridor between us and paras. So heres what i've got in mind…" (assume he outlines something detailed)

Cervantes is royally pissed off when Ludovic says it's easiest if he just does all the heavy lifting when it comes to leading the charge. Well…if he had been fighting..grrr, nevermind. Anyway, Cervantes remains silent as he just crosses his arms and keeps up with the ridiculously detailed idea that Ludovic had in mind.

Ludovic turns back to study Cervantes. "What bees gotten into your bonnet now?"

Cervantes looks to Ludovic "Hm? Nothing." maybe he's just really focused?

Ludovic stares at Cervantes for a few long moments before he says. "Need to run it past the individual commanders on both sides but figured we'd best get our general plan out the way first. Since you like it, I'll call for the meeting and send a runner to let Darius know what we'll be up to. Hopefully he'll hit them from the other side when we move. Be a good test." Moving away he goes to pick up his helmet. Theres a distinct uncertainty behind that movement but he manages it without anything embarassing. Turning he gives Cervantes a quick grin. "Time to go to war." before pushing the helm down over his unruly dark hair and striding out. You can hear him calling for the commander even as he leaves.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License