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| Action Id: 3824 | Crisis: | Participants: Cristoph, Jael, Norwood, Shae, Mabelle(RIP) and Kedehern | |
| Status: Resolved | Submitted: Feb. 17, 2020, 6:56 p.m. | Public: True | GM: Kalakh |
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Economic Resources: 250 Military Resources: 550 Social Resources: 2250 |
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Action by Cristoph
Lord Kedehern and his people went to scout the Shadowood in action #3672 (and using information from clue #3635) and discovered a tribe of Abandoned known as Clan Red Snake. They told the group a story about a person named 'Rand' who came on behalf of House Durand. A person that I will gleefully refer to here on out as: Rand Durand. I can't be convinced that's not the full name, I'm not sorry.
In Kedehern's explanation of events to Cristoph, he mentioned that there was also another tribe. Both were willing to bend the knee to House Laurent but were also in the midst of a fight between one another. Cristoph and company will be going to the Shadowood to speak with both tribes.
He'll be aiming to bring them under the Laurent banner before House Durand can corner and corrupt them. He would like to avoid as many Abandoned tribes falling to the Knights of the Swarm as they can manage. Because really, who needs their enemies to make more enemies to fight you with??? Ideally, they'll convince both groups to join them, but he'll settle for as many as he can get.
They also bring a reasonable show of force with them, because that area is pretty dangerous.
Action by Kedehern
Kedehern shall accompany Cristoph and the others on their foray to speak to Clan Thistlerick and Clan Red Snake, doing his best to keep the party from harm should anything happen during the trip.
Action by Jael
Jael can be surprisingly charming when she feels like it, and she turns that on in efforts to mediate and settle the existing matter between the two Abandoned tribes so that they will both swear fealty to Laurent. Can't they just all get along?
Action by Norwood
Norwood's bringing Queensguard, and staying close to Cristoph's heel. Why can't this damn House Durand just GO AWAY ALREADY.
Damn elves.
Action by Shae
Shae is returning to the Shadowood to speak with Clan Thistlecrick and Red Snake in hopes to help find some way for them to end their feud with each other, so that they will both join the Compact under House Laurent. Shae is hoping that between explaining to them about the dangers that House Durand is and their connections to darker things. Along with proposing that once they join, they can settle this issue via a duel.
Which is a time honored tradition in the Compact, especially in the Oathlands. In which she would explain its purpose, that it is not to the death. That perhaps there is a way to find a compromise, like a marriage between the two tribes. Such as the offending party marrying into Clan Red Snake to help fill the the loss of the young man. And so on.
Mostly, Shae is just hoping to find a positive way to help both clans to find a way to work through the current issue to some sort of compromise that doesn't involve the death of a person.
Action by Mabelle(RIP)
Mabelle will use her skills as a diplomat, her personal charm and ability to sway minds in order to convince the clan to join the compact so they could be saved from the claws of house Durand and the crazy Rands. Maybe even convince the other tribe that is mad at them. Maybe if she runs into one of those single minded Rands she can talk him into telling her things, nothing quite like getting into your enemy's head. Since there is only one apparently.
Result
When they return to the Shadowood, Clan Red Snake's chieftain is adamant; she has no interest whatsoever in allowing her clan to bend the knee to anyone, let alone a member of the Compact, until and unless the culprit from Tribe Thistlerick is turned over for execution. Thistlerick is also adamant; or, at least, as adamant as a small tribe-turned-refugees with dwindling supplies can be; they will not bend the knee to House Laurent if House Laurent does not swear a solemn oath to protect them from all dangers, very specifically including the danger of 'having our leader's son turned over to be killed by the tribe that drove us from our lands in the first place'.
At first.
This is before two more Red Snake patrols and an expeditionary force heading deeper into the Shadowood vanish. This is before a small Red Snake hunting party is found four days after they were expected to return staked out on the border of Red Snake land, their bodies so bloated as to be nearly unrecognizable and swarming with so many insects that Clan Red Snake resorts to lighting them on fire with arrows from a distance, rather than the usual ceremonial burial.
This is before Thistlerick's primary negotiator, an extremely friendly, almost fawningly polite young woman, suddenly attempts to stab Cristoph with a skinning knife during a negotation meeting, ranting about the crimes of House Laurent, before being quickly cut down by Norwood's blade.
They're a little more open to negotiation after that.
A little is not a lot, however. It takes the combined efforts of Shae, Mabelle, and Jael, and every scrap of charm and persuasion they can manage, to finally start wearing down Red Snake's resistance. It takes long nights of arguments and declarations and exhortations. And it takes a sudden attack by a number of the missing Red Snake Clan members, howling and raving, that is cleanly repelled by the significant forces Cristoph brought with them for protection, for Red Snake's Chieftain to finally agree to let the matter with Thistlerick go. She agrees to bend the knee in exchange for the same promise that Thistlerick wants: an oath of protection from Laurent on top of the usual oaths, to protect them against any Compact aggression as well as that from the Shadowood itself.
Not all of Red Snake agrees, however. The prominent warrior whose son was killed storms out of the negotiations, and the next morning it's discovered he's left, along with a small but potent group of Clan Red Snake's best fighters. Scouts track their path as going further into the Shadowood, but Red Snake is loathe to send anyone after them given what's happened. Regardless, the day after that, both Clan Red Snake and Tribe Thistlerick bend the knee to House Laurent.