| Repayment of A Wrong |
| Summary: | When Elixane brings news, Jarret and Dertan discuss the recent actions of Ironhold. |
| Date: | 2019-09-08 |
| Related: | One Save The Cheese other Ironhold raid related bounties. |
| NPCs: | None |
| Players: |
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| Galenthia - Dalcen - Dalcen Fortress |
| The glory of Dalcen Fortress is plain to see, it is one of Galenthia's greatest fortresses and the stonework stands resolute and insurmountable it would seem. The stone walls are lined with a good many rich tapestries all depicting local scenes or historical references, while the furniture is often carved and engraved with many a curled and fierce looking dragon as per the Sokar heraldry. The Great Hall itself allows for a good many to stand within, while upon a raised dais two large and exquisitely carved chairs rest, each gazing over the Great Hall and when necessary, those within it. Warmed in the colder months by great fires either side, light is provided by many sconced torches hung upon the walls and the pillars that support the high vaulted ceiling. Within it is a veritable maze of corridors and passageways leading to many levels and greater depths. Storerooms and barracks, armories, forges and personal quarters. Servants and soldiers move freely about the fortress as they go about their duties, the steady clank of armour often heard upon the cold stone floors. |
| 1875-09-08 |
Elixane took the stairs as quickly as she could, the woman causing few ripples as she moved between the residents and servants that were constantly bustling through the fortress. She had been a regular enough visitor to the fortress that she was no longer questioned as she moved through the hall. Tonight, though, she seemed to move with a purpose, something that seemed more serious than the dress she had chosen for the evening. A dress that spoke of dancing, or perhaps a night enjoying the pleasures of the garden or the small concert stage that had been brought out in the great hall. She looked every inch the courtesan, contracted for entertainment, and yet, her face was grim. She stopped only a spare number of times, each time engaging the servants in being asked for directions. The fortress, without them, was an endless maze of rooms and halls.
Finally, she paused, outside one of the studies, Dalcen had so many, near to the last and highest floor of the fortress, her hand rising to knock at the door, announcing her presence and requesting permission to enter both. She rapped out a light tattoo of sound, a familiar code, she hoped, to the man she was told was inside. A small thing, a way of communicating that had been developed on a whim over months. A way of announcing who was at the door without needing to ask for names or to speak the question.
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"Come in Elixane." Dertan says from inside with only a glance to Jarret for confirmation before the words are said. He's stood off to one side, seemingly comfortable, with a glass of fortified wine in one hand and the other empty. As she enters he quickly takes in her appearance, summising that she hurried here, and asks "Whats wrong Elixane?"
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From the seat he's seated in, Jarret nods as Dertan speaks. He keeps silent for now, watching carefully as Elixane enters, offering her a quiet nod. No words spoken, since Dertan asked the important question.
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"I don't know, Dertan." Elixane's voice was only slightly breathless, a testament to her self control, despite the physical exertion of trying to cross the entirety of the fortress in a single go. There was something telling, perhaps, in that she addressed the Baron first, and not the Duke, but that was something to be considered another time, perhaps, as she turned a moment after, offering a polite curtsy to Jarret, "My apologies for interrupting you both." Elixane, following on the invitation to enter, stepped towards Dertan, handing over a rolled message tube, "A messenger came only a few minutes ago, his horse nearly spent." Any question of why a man and not a moongazer was obvious. Whatever was in the message was too long or too complicated to be encoded to be sent on the wing. "He wore the crest of the crownlands, and he commanded that the message be brought to you immediately. I was on my way up and I offered to carry it." That the Baron trusted his courtesan was well known, even in Dalcen. And the tube was still sealed, unopened.
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Dertan takes the missive with a grave expression and cracks the seal open. He skims the contents and then offers the entire thing, tube and all, across to Jarret. "They are getting too bold." He looks to Elixane as Jarret looks over the message. "Did you speak to the messenger?"
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Jarret frowns as he hears what's said about the message, then turns to look at it when it's handed to him. The tube itself falls to the ground as his eyes narrow. "This is…" He trails off, shaking his head again. Muttering something under his breath, he frowns, letting out a few deep breaths. "This is bad…" Such an understatement.
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Elixane shook her head at the question posed to her, "I did not. Not in depth. He was nearly as spent as his horse, and it was not my place to do so. His horse is being stabled, and he was taken by the stewards to recover himself. He did say he would wait, to see if he was needed to carry a message back." As Elixane was waiting, still only a few steps from the door, as though she were waiting to take a message back, or to be dismissed." As the tube was dropped, Elixane dipped to retrieve it, carrying it over to the sideboard, and making herself busy in pouring whatever spirit was the strongest of the selection, one each for the two lords in the room.
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Dertan nods at Elixane's answer. "The trip across from the crownlands can be quite a journey these days" He shifts his hand to indicate that he doesn't want his drink topping up but otherwise doesn't change his body language at all. "Why don't you pour yourself something Elixane?" He could just as easily be talking about a pleasant day at the races as raids that have cost dozen of innocent people their livelihoods (and probably lives)
To Jarret he says "We should retaliate." With deadly seriousness but not a trace of anger or excitement. "This is the third raid I have heard of. Before they were mostly limited to Kaedon, as you know, so I have been purposefully staying out of it, but Ironhold's lords are getting greedy."
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Jarret listens in quiet for a while longer now, before he nods slowly at Dertan's words. "We should…" Expression a bit thoughtful, his eyes narrow a bit. "Think you could manage to put together something in retaliation? Something that can be understood as retaliation without… I don't know… without openly looking like it‘I mean, you’re far better than me at being the more sneaky and tricky person in situations such as this one."
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"Thank you," Elixane offered, keeping the drink she had poured for Dertan for herself, though she did carry the other and set it down not far from Jarret's hand. She moved with quiet efficiency, glancing around the room in that way that allowed her to do her task without appearing to look at anything she shouldn't. Once she had served, she settled into a free seat, one not far from where Dertan had been standing, so as not to have to drink while she was still standing up. Her attention, once she was seated, moved between the Duke and the Baron. Attentive, but not interrupting.
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I think an act of retaliation done in secret contradicts the message." Dertan says in return. "Why are you afraid of making our involvement known? We have just cause." There is nothing in the room to suggest Jarret and Dertan were doing anything more complicated than sharing a drink. His pale eyes settle on Elixane. "I'm sure you have another perspective to offer on this Elixane."
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Jarret frowns as he listens, shrugging a bit as he hears Dertan's words. "Ah, you know how Her Majesty can be, not always looking at things like 'just cause', right?" He shrugs a little bit. "But I wasn't thinking about it being done in secret, just the kind of…" Looking for the right words, he takes a sip from the drink, offering a smile and a nod in thanks to Elixane. "You know, one of those situations where everyone knows it's us, without officially knowing it, so to speak. Worst kept secrets or so, right??"
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Elixane looked up from where she had been studying the game of chess set out on one of the tables. It was unused, having only had the pieces set on the board, so likely she had been playing out moves in her head. "I do not know what is in that message there, but I have heard about the raids in Kaedon." She paused, "It is interesting, don't you think, that they took the supplies and the livestock, rather than simply burning and razing the lands and killing anything that was useful? If all they had wanted was to take strength from us, that would have been the easiest route. Instead, they also had to manage the logistics of taking what they had stolen back to their lands. They needed what was stolen. So perhaps the answer is to play to that. If it is goods they require, then deny then the goods they need. Cut off their trade, stop supplies from reaching them."
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"I could make it look as if Lady Shephard did it." Dertan half asks, half suggests to Jarret. Then Elixane is making her statement and he nods to her. "It is not likely to be about injuring us. It is just something that border lords do when their men start to get fat and lazy and they think they can get away with it." He considers her point about cutting off their trade for a long moment and then says "I don't know of a way to achieve that off-hand, not without putting an actual army on their soil, but you are thinking along the right lines."
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Jarret is unable to hold back a bit of a chuckle as he hears Elixane's perspective, before he offers her a grin. "That is an excellent point of view. I think we should find a way of cutting off their trade. We still need to figure out exactly how to do so, but that should be the path we should take."
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Elixane studied Dertan, as he spoke, as he looked back to her, and then dipped her head, as Jarret acknowledged her words. She took a moment, before she continued. "They trade along the rivers, don't they? Just like Coning does, like most of these lands do. And Sokar has ships. Which would not need to run Sokar colours. And the ability to hire mercenary vessels. It might also be possible to buy supplies from the merchants that trade with them and undercut the resources they need. And those supplies could be used to replenish what has been lost to their raids, thus assisting those who have gone hungry as a result."
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"So what you are saying." Dertan clarifies. "Is that we should engage in privateering against the relevant Lord." He looks contemplative for a while. "I am concerned that it will escalate in a way that a simple retaliatory raid wouldn't and that the message is not particularly clear. You are absolutely correct about it being a good way to get the lost revenues back though."
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"If we do this while reinforcing our forces by the border," Jarret says, after another sip of the drink. "Getting the lost revenue back would be a very nice effect, while the heightened presence along the border should help showing our dear neighbors what's their side of the border. Of course, should we catch any of their parties straying into our lands, we would need to swiftly and surely make an example of them, so they will see we mean business."
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"I am no master of politics." Which was, in its way, both true and untrue. As a courtesan, she was well versed in the theory of it, but being no noble, rarely had to practice it. "My concern, is that if we choose the wrong target, if we choose a border lord who was not responsible for the raids, and we kill their people, even if other of their countrymen have already killed Galenthian souls, that they might be able to spin it as a action of war. Especially, if, as I have heard said, that your Queen does not wish for aggression to be offered to them." She paused, clearly thinking before she spoke again, allowing Jarret to offer his advise. "If we could be certain of precisely where the attacks came from, a direct raid on those lands.." She stilled again, in deference to the fact that she was no one with a voice for real action.
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Dertan nods to Elixane. "That was the original intent - A raid at the obvious suspect. If it is not actually the perpetrator he is likely to be angrier at the Lord who set him up than us." He gives Jarret a similar nod. "Moving more men up there will certainly send a message. We just need to remember that it is practically impossible to fully secure a border from raiding parties." He contemplates for a long moment. "What do you want me to do Jarret? I am in a position to attempt to take the culprits cargoes and I'm in a position to lead a raid under the sokar banner. You will have to supply the mercenaries if you want a raid that has no calling cards though."
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Jarret looks thoughtful as he hears what's said. "Can we ever make anything in this world fully secure, Dertan?" It's asked a bit thoughtfully, before he adds, "The message of keeping more people near the border, combined with some… unknown party, at least in the eyes of the public, heading in to make trouble for vessels from Ironhold… It will be loud and clear, I think. And if I get any diplomatic messages from them, I can, quite truthfully point out that with raids going into our land, our forces are too busy ti be able to keep their merchants safe, which ideally would help getting them to keep their people in line." A brief pause, before he adds, "Let's try this approach first. Let me know what kind of resources we need for this."