*A note very visible*
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*Marty speaks up. It's hard to tell how long she's been there. *
What if I could replace the "gardener" somehow? Switch the pieces.
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Ardent is going to patiently await Shallyah's plan.
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::Shallyah arrives at the meeting next day carrying new maps and notes, as she rolls them out over the planning table and explains::
It appears we have made contact with escaped Norwickian. He was checked by María for ill or scrying magics before we questioned him, as well as he was given Lesser Mind Blank spell while he spoke, to keep his mind from any spells or influence.
Name of subject is Tom Corann. He claims to have built personal makeshift raff during night, as he was being kept in lumbermill with many others, and used opportunity at night to escape via river, not without taking arrow. While we can not confirm his story, after interrogation he was sent with rest of refugees to college, and I personally asked to some individuals if they knew this man. Some of them did, and even mentioned his name and his profession in Norwick. All that remains now to be sure that information gained is honest is to discard possibility of being an illusion, or disguise, which probably María can handle with True Seeing spell.
For now, I will share information obtained. He spoke of few hundred civilians still remaining in town, estimated rough fifty percent of original population, which is very close to our previous estimations plus some margin of error that can be due to additional civilians dying within Norwick in this time to accidents, diseases or hard work. As expected, living conditions of civilians are very poor, and some of them are being subject to, as per Tom's words, "slow death" as consequence to those causes I just named.
He also mentioned that as far as he could estimate there are one hundred hostiles, counting bugbears, hobgoblins and duergar. They are spred all over Norwick, but separated in several sectors. It appears that at morning civilians are lined up to witness how bugbears sing what he called "Bugbear National Anthem" before being sent to their forced works from dawn till dusk. This lineup happens in all areas, and bugbears, hobgoblins and civilians share all locations during it. ::she uses some short cords to make several lines on the map, to signal an estimate of where these line-ups happen::
At night, civilians are concentrated and kept in several buildings, these being mainly temples, barracks, mill and some of bigger own houses. ::she places red pins to points where civilians are kept at night, each of them having a number from one to five that indicates the level of security. Most of them have values from two to four, except the fields, which seem to have a five, and the mill which seems to have a one:: Number indicates rough level of security.
There are four main leaders within Norwick. ::she speaks as she reaches for some black chess pieces:: General Vert, Aug'grim Lizard King, The Gardener and Ostromog. Of these, Ostromog can be commonly encountered within Norwick's Hall ::placing the black king piece on the map spot that belongs to the Hall::, and The Gardener in the fields ::and there goes a black horse piece::. The Gardener appears to be Senator Leaffall's mimic that remains from certain temporal-planar disturbance in past.
::The ashen-haired warrioress raises her gaze to have a look at the audience, incase any of them wishes to add any comment or idea before she exposes her own::
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_"Your ideas are indeed sound, Shallyah. I especially like the distractions while we snatch civilians. However, what we are facing is that everytime we use some type of method, we can be assured it wont work a second time. We cannot possibly get 100% of the people out at the same time and the other method you proposed will take a large stretch of time with many fortunate circumstances on our side.
I think we should first contact a civilian inside the town and see what their situation is. If we can find out about their daily routine, what type of guard they are under, and how often then can gather, we can move with our plans from there. Would everyone be okay with this course of action being first then?"_
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::Shallyah breaks her silence as she sees the place of meeting seems now safe from spying or scrying as she explains several strategical movements that could be made::
I suggest to mark stages in this campaign, setting focus and following it at each time, and sticking to pattern and discipline to achieve goal. Priority at moment should be getting survivors out of Norwick. After assessing number of refugees, dead and other scattered civilians fleeing from Norwick, I've estimated around sixty percent of Norwick's civilian population yet remains within walls.
Being that many, not all of them will be closely watched at all times, but it will be slow and complicated task to free them all. I had also thought of using teleporting strategy, but invisibility would likely not work, as bugbears and hobgoblins have number of strong casters. It would be task most fit for those who can be invisible beyond invisibility, what is commonly known as "Greater Sanctuary". Civilians can be "snatched" in small groups and teleported to safety, but I do not know many who can use required spells, so it would possibly take several months. It is still idea worth exploring.
We may be able to assist this mission by creating distractions, such as planting kegs or faking arrow shots from contrary side to which our Ethereal units will snatch civilians. We disturb them from north when we want them to lower guard on south, and so on.
Regarding Dwarven Hold, I had mentioned to María in private about plan to assemble compact and strong unit to approach their underground entrance via underdark, which I had not voiced out loud as we were not yet protected against ill spies or scrying attempts. Ideally this unit would move as undetected as possible through underdark, yet armed with enough tools for combat where situation demands, and counting with casters capable to summon Earth Elementals or transform into umberhulks to drill path into Dwarven Halls, to search for survivors and offer assistance and transfer to Peltarch for safety as needed.
Once everyone who can still possibly be alive is safe, both within town and in dwarven Hold, we can plan strategy to retake Norwick without fearing for collateral damage. I have several ideas that would give us important edge, but first must know which forces will be backing this war effort, and which individuals will be working with cause. While it is good idea to start working towards military efforts in mid-term, of this we can speak of once first focus, rescuing survivors, has been completed.
::As usual, there is stunning neutrality in her tone as she speaks, despite her interests and intentions seeming more than clear. As she spoke, she had rolled out a Norwick map and an Underdark map, filled with dots, arrows and lines signalling paths, buildings and points with strategic value of interest for the two missions she suggested::
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"Thanks Rom, we need you to show us this path at some point once Maria can scrye in there and tell us if we have survivors we can go in and save. I was going to head in there without but if it is just duergar, we will tip our hand too soon and be unable to use it for an attack."
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Lence frowns, knowing that the more time spent talking the more likelihood that Norwick will join the ruins of Old Norwick, but he listens attentively to Rom.
"A way to the hold? That is worth something!"
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Romulus raises his hand and speaks when recognized.
I recently was shown a path through the Underdark to the Dwarven Hold. It is not too difficult or too long, and I would gladly take any who want to go on a reconnaissance mission there. Perhaps we will find some dwarves that escaped the hold hiding in the tunnels. If Vander or another dwarf that has a key to the door on the hold could accompany us, we could have a look inside the Hold as well. We would not be going there to fight, but to see if this is a path that could be used by our combatants when the time for fighting comes.
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Looks at Ardent with a somewhat stern glare, then to Lence
We'wre not hewre to awrgue amongst each othewr. Lence, Awrdent is wright, cease the attacks on Nowrick, inmediatly. They have pwrisionewrs and they will not hesitate in killing them.
Now let's focus on the mattewr at hand. Let's heawr people's opinion on the wrescue plans we just heawrd.
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"Maybe you should stop going there and encouraging them to shore up their defenses. I dont see why we need to waste healer capabilities on people are are clearly making suicidal forays that are making no real difference on enemy number or strength. Think of the people still inside the town. Until we can find some way to get them out, lets not make their lives harder. She says angrily, crossing her arms over her chest.
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Lence shows up…. bandaged and not bleeding as profusely. He frowns and mutters, "You know, I've almost bled to death on my way back here from Norwick... t'would be nice if we could send some healers to the crossroads, to help refugees who are escaping Norwick, and also to help those of us who go into the town to thin out the invaders' ranks. And suffer the consequences of our forays into the occupied lands."
He winces as he sits down.
"That's all I'm saying."
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Beourn, truly relieved to see Vanderkaus, nods approvingly of the meeting and slips out.
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_"Maria, why don't I tell the plan you and I talked about? See if the others like the idea.
First of all, we cannot do anything without Peltarch's aid and Peltarch is currently under attack by the orcs. The lizardman have also recently staged an attack, one of them holding Oscuran coin. We have not yet been able to figure out if this is a real Oscuran funded attack or someones feint, but let it be known that the attack was rebuffed in short order with even small defenses.
So the plan to relieve Peltarch from the orcs is to collapse the stone canyon near their home, trapping them and forcing them to dig out before they can once again launch an attack on us.
Once we have relieved Peltarch, the next issue is our civilians trapped within Norwick. I have good reason to believe Havon is correct, those that Ostromog does not sell to Oscura he will keep and work to death eventually. If we can work with the dwarves in Oscura to buy the ones that come to market, we can save the unruly. As for the rest, Sirion mentioned he can magically contact them through sending. We need to establish a contact in the population and coordinate a way to free them.
Maria's idea concerning this was to send people in with teleport scrolls, she estimated we could free about thirty in that way. Another way i was thinking of was to get the townspeople together in an activity that would not draw too much suspicion, such as a religious gathering at the shrine of Lathander. From there we could try to teleport them en masse from there. I admit, magic is not my area so those of you in the arcane and divine shall have to figure this out.Once this is done, however we manage to do it, the issue of taking back the town becomes much simpler. I say we send a large force to the main gate. Soon after this, Ostromog will reinforce from the south. Maria has planned to place a very large explosion where her tower is near the lake. I've scouted down there and I believe their reinforcement path is through the goblin borderlands, through the lake, and up through the ruins. I can keep watch down there and establish a sure path but I found no unusual enemy presence in the graveyard or on the graveyard path. This lets us cut off reinforcements.
Once this is done, one group will burrow up from the hold using magic to use the soil and flank the north gate defensive forces. At the same time, a group will use the Phoenix Guild portal and secure the east side of Norwick to land ships with the reinforcements we hope to gain from Peltarch. This is going to split any reinforcements from the south gate from heading north. In this way we hope to retake the town.
The downsides of this plan. We have not dealt with this demon egg at all. To be honest, I know nothing about it and Fadia promised to research in the Phoenix Library to give me some information on this. Other downside, it is pretty risky. If one group fails, the others will be left hanging. Third downside, this relies on us working pretty quickly. We have to take the town before the reinforcements to the south manage to get around the damage we caused at the lake so we can hunker down and repel them.
Beside this, I think it is a fairly solid plan. Maria agreed, fixing a lot of the weaknesses in my earlier plan. "_
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_A silver stallion approaches from the north with swift strides, a small female figure in blue and gold upon its back. Tugging her helm off as she enters the Legion grounds, Ashena's eyes scan the crowd, her face flooding with relief as she picks out a tall figure amongst them.
Her steed needs little prompting to make his way over to Cecil and Ardent, giving the latter a gentle nuzzle while Ashena reaches for Cecil's hand, squeezing it tightly. A quick smile breaks the solemn look on her face, and then is just as swiftly gone as she introduces herself to the rest:_
"Lady Ashena Teroldys, representing the Order of the Divine Shield. I offer apologies for my tardiness, I had hoped to bring some news of what is discussed within the Senate chambers from sir Mariston Thel 'ere I departed."
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Elyl manages to show up looking rather tired and worn
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General Grag is present on the legion grounds
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_Looks around once more and nods when everyone present is somewhat quiet
((i know some people is missing, but even if they post later, lets assume we waited until they were here to make things move))
then she casts a True seeing spell on herslef and then motions all of the friendly sneaks to move closer too for a moment, gather's everyone around her and chants, casting a Minblank spell that shields all and everyone's mind, making it impossible to be scryed aswell, then casts extended True seeing spells to two of the scouts that are supposed to make sure no undesirable ones approach._
I think we can begin.
Fiwrst, I think we will all agwree that we need to save the pwrisionewrs… fowr sevewral wreasons.
I have at least two ideas on how to pwroceed to this, but I'd like fiwrst to heawr othewrs ideas. So wraise youwr hands and speak, please in owrdewr, owr this will be a mess!she smiles
((just…talk, assume when you raise your hand you are allowed to talk
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Lence limps into town, drops of blood making a path behind him. His neck is wrapped in a bloody bandage, and as he pops off his helmet, his face is covered in sweat and grime, and a livid bruise marks his fore head where and arrow bashed against his helm.
There are a couple of Hobgoblin arrow shafts sticking out the back of his plate. His brow is furrowed, and he favors one leg. On closer examination a broken arrow shaft can be seen sticking out of his thigh, a companion to another that sticks out of the his side, rubbing between pieces of his plate armor. Grimacing, he makes his way towards the inn, to patch himself up and rest. As he passes, he can be heard muttering to himself, "There were FOUR Hob archers Ky… not two. Four. Well... now there's only three."
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Vander arrives late at the meeting. His cloack pinned with an anvil-looking brooch. He taps Beourn with his hand and offer him a reassuring smile.
He slowly looks around at those gathered, the phoenix symbol at his neclace gleaming red under the sun.He begins to talk:
- Yas sures kin gader people rounds ye, maria. Gud thing. Now, less try find sum strenght ter foit backs, eh? Ah'm guessing tis time we untacks dem gates fer un change
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_Havon speaks as if to amend Ardent's statements.
"No. I do not think Ostromog intends to sell his prize for a short-term reward. Perhaps some citizens of Norwick might be sold away if they prove to be too much trouble for their new masters to handle, but Ostromog would benefit more from keeping the people of Norwick as serfs - to produce, and trade with Oscura - and whomever else - what Ostromog's Norwick can produce.
The general sentiment of what people think Ostromog plans to do with Norwick, I think, sells him short. He is no raiding warlord. He wants to be a conquerer. An emperor. Emperors do not cast away their live assets. They exploit them forever. And that is what he intends to do with the people of Norwick. Bleed them slowly and steadily, like a leech, not to death but to emaciation so that he can grow fat."_
