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| Action Id: 4572 | Crisis: | Participants: Gwenna, Darren, Deva, Donella, Drea, Morrighan, Lydia, Khanne, Aksel, Ann, Aella, Rosalind, Cadern, Artur, Agatha, Elgana, Lorenzo, Helena, Mirk, Arthen, Volcica, Cillian(RIP), Acantha, Icelyn, Baelos, Magaen, Kenjay and Nazmir | |
| Status: Resolved | Submitted: Oct. 1, 2022, 11:49 a.m. | Public: True | GM: Herja |
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Action by Gwenna
"For every name, a village." These are words Gwenna has not forgotten, and she is certainly not alone in hoping to keep the people across the Northlands safe. House Redrain has spent the years since the Pirate War preparing their coffers for future threats, which this certainly seems to be. The goal is to defend the lands and keep as many people safe as possible. Gwenna's role is funding and making sure everyone is as prepared as possible for their endeavors.
House Redrain has offered to pay the up-front cost for up to two siege weapons in each fealty (Stahlben, Acheron, Charon, and Clearlake took the offer!), and plans to build watch towers and way-stations near their own outlying villages. These stations will be stocked with anti-itch salves and bandages, as recommended by Lady Eirene (who has offered to provide humanitarian relief to evacuated villagers), as well as snowshoes to help the Templars, Knights of Solace, and guards stationed in the North to traverse the landscape. These will give the additional patrols in the area places to rest and restock. If they can get their hands on some of the vine-weakening solution, that will be added. These stations are meant to watch for trouble and alert villagers so they might have a chance to get to safer holdings.
With the news of the disappearance of the entire village of Littlebreak, patrols will be sent to the farther-out villages. They are to request the residents consider temporarily evacuating to places closer to their main holdings so as to avoid the same fate.
The Physicians Guild has been given permission to make a base of operations in Redrain lands should they feel such a location would be beneficial.
The tl;dr: building watch towers/way-stations to watch for trouble & stocking those with supplies for patrols/Templars/Knights of Solace, funding defenses for Farhaven and the fealty houses, and evacuations of the most out-lying villages.
Action by Drea
Action by Donella
Donella is not the nice girl she once was. Donella actually cannot remember being a NICE girl, and having all her teeth. It's been a dark time, and she's pissed. These attacks happening now, on innocent villagers, with everything else happening out east does not work for her right now. NOT TODAY. And though she can boss people around like no one's business, she is still not a warrior. So to help Gwenna, Nell is going *early* to those little intransigent outlying villages on horseback and with wagons that she can get to, and say basically: "Get in, losers, we're going to save the North."
The Princess Consort knows they are invested in their homes and possessions, but home is where your people are. And people are being liquidated to strengthen the enemy, and the hope that their small settlements are too remote for trouble to find them is a forlorn one. "To the last" doesn't mean fighting to the death where you stand every time. It means as long as you have anything to fight with, people in this case, you fight -- and the North needs its people to persist for what's coming. So yes, it's an order: to get to their nearest feudal strongholds, to ride double, to pack grandma and the kids into the wains, to help their neighbors turn the goats and chickens out to pasture and do it NOW.
If reluctance is a matter of property (which is not actually under threat), she'll spend up to a million silver buying them out at generous rates. Hell, she'll carry someone on her own horse ("Horse"). However, those too stubborn to obey while she's putting her bacon on the line for them -- perhaps the North doesn't need that sort of stupidity, and she'll say so. Those she'll tell to keep a dagger to use on themselves in extremis, so they at least don't strengthen the enemy against those who actually want to live to fight like Queen Valeria.
Action by Artur
Action by Agatha
Princess Agatha IS a warrior, and isn't shy about letting people know. Yes, the princess will contribute resources to boosting the outer defenses. Some things also need to be handled personally, and the ginger princess will certainly do that. Donning her armor (is she ever without it...?), Agatha will personally lead her share of the patrols. And when she isn't on duty she will be assisting with training and keeping up morale for the other soldiers.
Action by Elgana
Action by Helena
Helena Redrain isn't about to let What's-Her-Name (the audacity of having the same name! Really!) Thornweave kill any more of the northern folks if she can help it. And while she isn't a fighter in the traditional sense, the princess has long said she will use her voice to fight against oppression, slavery, and the Traitor and his minions. And so she lifts it now -- to try to convince the villagers to move to where it is safer. To assure those who have fears and to encourage those who have hope. She speaks of their courage and their community, of the need to be united. To ask for volunteers to help those less able as they move from their villages to the strongholds. To organize those volunteers into committees -- patrols, scouts, medical, cooks, etc.
Helena would be sure to make a personal trip to Gulljar to ensure the safe retrieval of the enshrined Discordant Harp. She will speak with the villagers and explain the significance of the harp, as she believes it may be useful in the fight against both Thornweave and the Traitor. If possible, Helena will try to convince them to allow her to take possession of it, but if this is not possible, she will strive to ensure that it is in safe keeping among the most trustworthy of the Gulljar villagers.
Action by Lorenzo
Action by Baelos
Action by Kenjay
Kenjay is a diplomat's aide and a man with an unusual viewpoint. As both a prince born to House Redrain and a former slave in a foreign land, he's in a unique position when it comes to persuading people of the Northlands that being a slave is not for them. He's going to be focusing his efforts on the Eurusi expatriates who've settled in more far-flung Northern lands - after all, inviting them in and then leaving them exposed to that sort of danger is just wrong however you view it - but he'll also be trying to persuade more traditional Redrain villagers to come in from the cold. There are some things that even the greatest warriors can't fight, and none knows that better than Kenjay.
Action by Nazmir
Action by Khanne
Action by Mirk
Action by Volcica
Action by Magaen
The plateau supporting Glacial Grove has an unparalleled view over the Gray Forest, one that, on a clear day, extends as far as Bastion. Charon scouts are particularly trained to interpret the east from this high vantage. Their eastward focus will not change but, given the reports of disappearing villages, is more attuned to look for oddness that may have been dismissed as fatigue-induced in the past.
The watch towers and waystations are positioned along the north, east, and south of the holding in keeping with recommendations from Redrain and the Physician's Guild. The siege engine, gratefully accepted, is positioned to do what the crumbling curtain wall cannot - protect the castle from an enemy that may have the ability to use the grove to advantage.
Action by Lydia
Action by Acantha
Action by Rosalind
Action by Aella
Action by Arthen
Arthen Dayne's been away from the world for a spell, it's true, but House Redrain can always count on him to blow back in on the colds winds like a bit of good news in their darker days. He's here to help (well, he was here to fence off some things, but it seems help is needed) and as an 'explorer' he's been all over the north so he feels pretty at home helping to evacuate the outlying and in-danger villagers that need to be sorted and leading them to wherever it is they're going, likely tucked away behind the safer walls of their main holding. If there are Redrain nobles out there hard at work and risking themselves, like as not he'll help them to help other folks, he makes a dang nice right-hand-man when he's not off gallavanting around and leading his own crew on adventures into the unknown.
Action by Morrighan
Once again, another threat looms on the horizon, and the drums of war have started their beating rhythm. Once again, the call has been made - and Morrighan has answered. For a considerable amount of time, the Sword of Farhaven has been silent and unseen, but has maintained a presence. Now, with the North and its people in need, threatened, she's stepped forward to fulfill her duty.
Protect and guard. That's been her motto since the beginning, ever since she swore fealty to Redrain so many years ago, and it's with that motto in mind that she returns to Farhaven. Donning her rubicund-fireweave armor mixture, Morrighan rides North to her adopted home with Demonslayer close at her hip - among the other multitude of weaponry she keeps on her person. Once there, she patrols the castle grounds, and keeps a close eye on the Redrain Nobles, prepared to act if any trouble arises.
Action by Deva
One of the few things Deva is confident in her ability is to scout and fight. Years spent away from court and well-removed from society proper has sharpened her attention to such matters-- so these days find her, as Redrain's minister of war, personally involved up north to oversee patrols in the northlands and race to conflict. It's been too long since she has spent more than a brief moment in her homelands, and while this isn't the way she'd prefer it, there's a deep sense of pride in being back and working shoulder to shoulder with Redrain's vibrant people. So she prepares and coordinates with the keen minds of the fealty, escorting villagers to safer havens and ready to shoot evil in the eye when trouble inevitably comes knocking.
Action by Darren
Action by Icelyn
As minister of War and former Knight of Solace, working on defenses might just be considered Icelyn's "jam". She's also got the headstart of Aviaron's Peak and the lands under Acheron control being old, strategically located and rife with tunnels with which to build on and prepare.
So mostly she has to assess the current situation and just... tighten it up. An additional siege weapon to watch the pass? She'll take that. Address deficiencies in the existing defenses of different settlements? She'll do that too. Where possible it's not just about rehabbing the defenses and making it easier for patrols to move aboveground though.
Overland routes are subject to weather. Terrain (and much of that around Aviaron not exactly easy to traverse to start out with) can slow movement, and when a settlement is under threat... speed of reinforcements count. So where possible without compromising secure locations tunnels are going to be checked, rehabbed and brought into use. Stability and practicality, yes, but preparations will also be made for the unfortunate potential of an egress being overrun;- to seal off areas if needed to protect the greater whole. Aviaron's Peak has always had hardy and self-sufficient people, Icelyn's job is simply to streamline things and make them work with their liege and vassals to insure that if the enemy comes for their names, it'll cost more than they gain.
Action by Cadern
Relay stations need people, and people talk. Cadern whole heartedly endorses setting up relay stations, and sets to setting up a number of relays to extend around Blackwood as well and encourages people to supply and exchange with these watchtowers to ensure the messages are continual and ongoing to reduce chances of a series of them going 'dark'. One can never have too much time, too much money, or too many ways of getting information about attacks on towns. Cadern will do what he can to spread plenty of fun stories picking up older tales of heroic messengers, and those who watch the dark.
Action by Aksel
As Sword of Stonedeep Aksel has distingished himself in the past as one of the best warriors of the North. When the call comes out to assist, he's first in line. He will use his experience as a soldier and fighter, to help ensure that those that are doing tasks are well protected. Either through actively patrolling himself with other groups to provide guidance on how to best navigate the norths various terrains or ensuring that adequate resources are assigned to other groups to assist in being successful. He knows the threats of the North and will use whatever available resources he can to make sure as many people stay alive as possible.
Action by Ann
Ann in being born a Redrain will use this to her advantage as well as being Duchess for a time to lend her voice to the patrols that are going out to the far out villages. She will persuade the villargers to come in closer to safety so they do not end up like Littlebreak. Safety in numbers after all. If supplies or money runs low in this crisis Ann will use her skills in economics to make sure the Redrain money and resources stretch and go far to where it is needed until the crisis is over.
Action by Cillian(RIP)
Cillian, The Sword of Storm March hears the drums of War and answers their calls with the scouts and Caribou he's trained. Scouting along the pathways his team knows between villages and towers alike which border the Northern wastes. Organizing supply lines and planning for reinforcements when needed. He will do what us necessary to keep his home and lands safe.
Result
While Darren Redrain is the High Lord of the North and has earned the respect of his people and his peers over the course of his rule, it is no secret that Gwenna Redrain is the one who usually makes Darren's plans into reality. Quietly, Gwenna has amassed a fortune for House Redrain through her careful stewardship and diligent work for her people. She is not just respected in the North. She is beloved. Many Northerners admire her for her ability to distinguish herself without ever needing to lift a sword or wade into battle. After all, why does she need a steel blade when she has a will of steel?
The project she undertakes for the protection of the North is daunting. The building of watchtowers and way-stations isn't complicated, just expensive, but Gwenna Redrain's stock of coin and favors more than amply cover such an expenditure, especially with Princess Ann to help squeeze every last silver out of their investments to complete the project.
The really difficult part is convincing those in the most vulnerable holdings to leave their homes for a safer location. It requires all the charm and powers of persuasion of her family and allies. Princess Donella, through sheer common sense, manages to convince a fair share that leaving behind their homes is only temporary and if they don't survive, they won't get to keep their homes anyway. Few can argue with her logic even if they really want to. Of course, with a presence like Aksel at her side, some who might have wanted to be stubborn find that they might just want to follow Princess Donella's instructions instead.
Helena Redrain has a somewhat easier time in convincing. She just doesn't take no for an answer and seems very willing to pack people up into wagons herself despite their protests. Of course, she would be doing these things -sweetly-. With Morrighan at her side to assist in the 'convincing', there is even less room to argue.
Prince Kenjay focuses on the settlements of Eurusi to be found in the North. There aren't many, thankfully, but they are far flung and take him into parts of the land that he might not have seen since he was a small child. It could have been dangerous, but, thankfully, he has Princess Agatha to accompany him and watch his back, particularly out in the wilder parts of the mountains.
Princess Deva Redrain, with her skills acquired when leading people during her time away from the Compact, has those skills put to the test as she ventures into some of the more isolated villages to help guide them to safer pastures. Almost quite literally as a significant part of the train of people that she leads through the mountains consists of sheep that no one is willing to leave behind as they are 'like family'. Arthen Dayne also lends his aid to the efforts, particularly in finding trails through the treacherous mountains that will be safe for humans, wagons, and sheep as well.
Lady Icelyn Acheron, Marquis Cadern Blackwood, and Countess Magaen Charon work with Gwenna's offer of resources and assistance to fortify their holdings against whatever might come, be it Helena Thornweave or some other threat. Their people praise their wisdom and feel much more secure should danger come to them, even as they pray that the efforts of their lieges will be unneeded.
The result almost seems miraculous. A system of watchtowers and way-stations is threaded throughout the North in record time. It's expensive, but most of the nobility and commoners can see the value in the increased communication and fortifications even if they weren't potentially going to war. Even more miraculously, the efforts of the Redrains and their allies to evacuate villagers to safer domains is stunningly successful. There are hold-outs, of course, but after all is said and done, the Redrain evacuation is one of the most successful of such efforts in the Compact, earning the entire family acclaim for their forethought. Even the Lycene have to begrudgingly admit that maybe this new generation of Redrain are far more persuasive than ever. Despite the winds of war blowing over the Compact, some whisper that this is a renaissance for House Redrain after so much suffering and loss in the past decade or so. Most point to Gwenna Redrain as the quiet catalyst for the growth in Redrain power and she gains a reputation in the North as someone who gets. shit. done.