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Post by Cynesige ap Hyfaidd on Mar 19, 2016 21:30:54 GMT
Upon having marshaled the men of Brynmaesuchel and equipping them with the smithy's aged store of weapons and shields, Cynesige saw to the provisions the men would require. Prior to making his way to the alderman's longhouse and stores to negotiate the price for the host's vittles and supplies, he draws out his coin purse and hands each man a crown; two weeks wages in advance. If they were to fight well, their morale and support for Cynesige's leadership would make some of the difference.
He leaves the alderman's stores with Geraint and Meurig, each young man carrying several sacks of vegetables and cereals. These they dump on the ground before returning to the stores to collect more. In all: 3 sacks of durum wheat; 2 of spelt; 2 of barley; several dozen leeks; many bunches of sorrel and cabbages; a large wheel of hard sheep's cheese and several barrels of brown ale are procured. The villagers that had succeeded in finding for the party some beasts of burden, 3 oxen, and a rather dilapidated wain that the alderman had loaned the party, mount the provisions on to the animal's backs. Cynesige had refused to purchase the cured beef the alderman had offered owing to the extortionate price he had asked. Any meat the party would enjoy would have to be hunted or caught in the wilds. That fact aside, the alderman had agreed to reasonable rates for the comestibles purchased, knowing that it would not do to ask too high a price, for he had no desire to see Cynesige and his party starve in the wilderness.
After pulling up his belt and donning his somewhat battered helm and lowering the nasal in as authoritative an affect as one would expect of a man of his birth, he gestures the party onward through the gate. They leave Brynmaesuchel in the direction of the last Friendlander raid, east south-east along the north bank of the Wye.
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Post by Cynesige ap Hyfaidd on Mar 19, 2016 22:04:42 GMT
The first day's march had progressed without great ordeal or misfortune. The hazy low clouds that had bedeviled their morning progress had cleared by early afternoon and all told the day's weather had been largely fine and pleasant. Visibility had grown better throughout the day, for which Cynesige thanked Theos. It had concerned him that this part of the country and its geography was not as well-known to him as he would have liked in light of the circumstances of his travelling here.
At around dusk, the party made camp on a low hillock in a bend in the Wye. The land was dotted with the beeches and black poplars that lined either bank of the winding river; their branches newly blooming with spring's verdant greenery blew gently in the evening breeze. The unseasonably mild first hours after dark Cynesige had spent sat pensive by a fire, while members of his band prepared the evening meal, a watery broth of barley and cabbage but with the added bounty of the rabbit meat that Geraint and Meurig had caught the evening prior in the woods outside Brynmaesuchel. Later in the evening Cynesige learnt that a hunter walked among the host he had assembled, Aeron, and that he knew the lay of the land better than any man. Hours were spent in conversation, whereby Cynesige learnt a great deal and intended to put this new found knowledge to good use.
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Post by Cynesige ap Hyfaidd on Mar 20, 2016 15:43:21 GMT
The night had passed without incident and by the cold gloom of first light Cynesige and his men were well rested and breakfasted in preparation for another day's travelling. He had ordered that preparations for their departure from their modest camp be made prior to dawn, intending to strike out at a much earlier start than yesterday. In the dull and chilly morning light Cynesige stood leaning against a spear shaft. Writhing mist hovered about the river banks while in the brightly sunlit distance he spied the low moorland that demarked the boundary between the lands of Ychryd and those in the hinterland of the port settlement of Portsmouth. Those moors seemed grim and foreboding to Cynesige despite the sun's illumination of them. They were several dozen leagues away and between them and the hillock that he was stood atop were the settlements he had offered to protect.
Several miles east his eyes discerned thin plumes of purplish-grey smoke rising lazily over the hills and woods. This he guessed was sign of one of those settlements. He called Aeron over to inquire. He was informed that the settlement he scrutinized was in fact the settlement they were headed for, it being the site of the last Friedlander raid, and that the smoke that had caught his attention was in all probability sign of the smoking embers which that settlement had been reduced to. Nodding steely he stood observantly surveying the land while waiting for the men to finish their final preparations to leave the hillock.
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Post by Admin on Mar 22, 2016 22:40:44 GMT
Can you please add/include whatever your "standing orders" and "rules of engagement" etc. are, for the purposes of the campaign.
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Post by Cynesige ap Hyfaidd on Mar 24, 2016 16:53:37 GMT
Led by Aeron, the woodsmen of the host are several hundred metres ahead of the main force in order to scout the van to locate the raiders. They are carrying hunting horns and have been instructed to sound these once the enemy has been spotted. They are instructed not to engage and to withdraw once the enemy is located.
The rest of the force advance with Cynesige in a column, expectant of meeting the enemy. They hope to fight defensively against the foe, using the high ground on the north bank of the river to fight back the raiders. Cynesige also intends to hug the river, ensuring they are not flanked from the south.
If the woodsmen report an enemy force much stronger than Cynesige's band it is his intention to refuse battle and to make his way into the nearby woods whereby an opposing numerical advantage would count for less.
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Post by Admin on Mar 26, 2016 2:29:44 GMT
Cynesige's party enter into the ruined village. Aeron and his scouts have already begun the work of searching through the ruins for signs of what went on there.
"The houses've been looted, the folk are down the well... at least, those that weren't chained up and taken", he informs his commander, spitting and grimacing at the thought, "A lot of tracks leading off back down the road to the river. At least thirty, but I couldn't say how many were locals being taken as slaves. Looks like they have a couple o' boats from the marks in the mud down by the bank"
He shows Cynesige around the village, the smoke seen by the party came from the dying embers of a small barn. The decomposition of the bodies in the well suggested that the village must have been attacked at least four days previous.
"Sir, we need to get them bodies out of the well. They need a burial, and it'll poison the water"...
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Post by Cynesige ap Hyfaidd on Mar 26, 2016 21:31:29 GMT
Cynesige stood brooding for several seconds with his eyes fixed at the inky darkness of the well's depths. The expression on his face was dark and sober, yet his eyes had an introspective glaze across them. He seemed oblivious to the men around him. An absent-minded understanding came to him concerning the near-certainty that Aeron must already know full-well that the water was doubtlessly long fouled by the carrion that had been deposited. Cynesige had learnt prior that the hunstman was of a pious mind and must obviously have wished for the raider's victims to receive the due reverence of a Theist burial. Disallowing him this charge would not profit Cynesige's aims and thus circumspectly he yielded to the request.
"See to it then, Aeron." His voice had an air of remote resignation about it and his brow furrowed as he reluctantly turned away. He meandered toward the gutted remains of what had been a small cottage and sat himself on a charred piece of timber. The stink of the well assaulted his nostrils at even this distance and he cursed under his breath as the men around him prepared ropes to assail the well's descent.
Some time passed before he arose with a new found resolve. By this time Aeron and the men had completed their solemn task and had buried the villagers' remains in a small lot on the outskirts of the hamlet. The anguish and sorrow that had gripped them upon first having entered the village had now turned to outright malice toward the Friedlanders. Their appetite for revenge was evident as Cynesige turned to face them. They petitioned angrily that their war-party ought to follow the river with all due haste in the hopes of catching the raiders. Their baying was assertively silenced with the raising of Cynesige's hand. His quiet authority had the effect of hushing the group and putting them into a state of attentive receptivity to the strategy he was to expound.
Instead of pursuing the raiders on an idle goose-chase, the warband would make for the nearest Friedlander village. Cynesige informs his men that there an appropriate reprisal would be executed and grim justice meted out; their retaliation being swift and terrible, Cynesige promises.
(OoC: Admin, would you please describe the willingness of Cynesige's party to partake in his plan.)
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Post by Admin on Mar 26, 2016 23:13:35 GMT
The men listen to Cynesige with a grim determination... when he is finished, they crash their spears to their shields in approval.
Aeron takes him aside however, with a few words, a thoughtful man, he did not join in with the baying roars of approval.
"You may struggle to find a village this side of the falls, the Friedlanders fear to come here except under arms, what with the witch..." he looks sideways at Cynesige, before continuing on, "They say a witch has made her home in the woods this part of the Wye valley, that she raises the forest against intruders, casts invaders down with her terrible curses. She arrived, so they say, two years ago, about the same time as the Friedland army withdrew for Ychrhyd, last time they entered the valley in force. They left the valley in ruin, but some people tried to return, but without support from Ychrhyd they were easy prey for the bandits, slavers, and other scum coming up from the Friedlander lands. The people round here retired into the forests, hiding in camps here and there, allegedly led by this witch."
"If you want to find a village, we will need to continue down the valley. We will come into the foothills of the south-most arm of the Grey Mountains, and after the Wye falls down a series of cataracts, we will find Friedlanders... Most likely we'll find our bandits on the road, if not others."
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Post by Cynesige ap Hyfaidd on Mar 29, 2016 18:56:04 GMT
At the mention of the witch Cynesige squinted at the hunter suspiciously. Upon hearing Aeron's piece he stood silently for several seconds. The pregnant silence was finally broken when he reproachfully turned to him to ask; "... this story of the Witch of the Wye Valley, it is true? You believe it to be so?" He had heard tales similar to Aeron's when he was a guest at the court of Ychryd. They were believed there to be idle nonsense however, concocted by superstitious and parochial provincials who had too much time on long winter nights to indulge in their rural fancies. It had never occurred to Cynesige that the stories may hold a kernel of truth. The conviction in the hunter's eyes affected him however, inclining him to think there was truth in the woodsman's report. "If there is such a witch and she is, as you say, hostile to the Friedlanders, it may be in our interests to find her. She may be of use to us in our coming strife against them. Do you think you could lead us to her, Aeron?"
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Post by Admin on Mar 31, 2016 19:58:08 GMT
"I really wouldn't know where to start... marching off into the foothills without path nor trail, that's a mischief waiting to happen, sir, make no mistake", he looks out at the ruined village for a few seconds. "If we could get a trail though, that would be another matter. We could hunt the hunters, as it were. If we follow the Friedlanders then we may catch a sniff of her. I can't make no promises, though if anyone'll find her, it'll be me. I've known this country man and boy".
He outlines a plan to Cynesige. They continue following the river until the "hills rise high up over, and the river passes through a series of rapids. There is an old portage track that anyone in boats has to take to get around. If I was doing any ambushing, it would be there. Then again, if I was a Friedlander, I'd be keeping a watch there too. Could be dangerous".
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Post by Cynesige ap Hyfaidd on Apr 1, 2016 18:53:07 GMT
"Very well, we will proceed in the path the raiders took. If we don't find the witch, we'll eventually find the Friedlanders."
With that, Cynesige orders the men to rest for an hour before proceeding on their pursuit.
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