(Oops, serious boo boo guys: I kinda skipped the twelfth month, meaning we had New Years a month early, which also means that what happened on New Years wouldn't actually have happened yet. Er, I think I'll just increase the figures by one month. Sorry! Honest mistake! Does that mean Garan's extra archers will be ready sooner?)
Sigh. I have accumulated detailed information on Sind, and it looks very bad.
There are far more soldiers than I first reckoned. There are approximately 2600 Sindhi troops in each Mumlyket. Overall, there are perhaps 26000 Hule troops, and 22000 Sindhi troops.
Enough that it makes it seem almost hopeless.
Where do they get their food? Well, the Hule troops take it from the Sindhi troops, who in turn are forced to take more from the peasants. Hule makes it look like it is the warrior castes fault that they are hard done by.
Oh well.
We spoke to our prisoner. It appears that they know very little about the fuel tank technology.
We will hold the prisoner in Serraine's holding facilities. They are eminently adequate to the task.
I conferred with Legionate Kalemi, updating his figures regarding the number of troops present in Sind. He didn't seem particularly happy at the news. They had heard similar reports, but simply hadn't believed them, thinking they were exaggerations.
We attended a meeting of the council in Serraine today. Thora demonstrated the event by scrying on it back in time, a particularly unusual spell. Of great interest is that we saw what happened after we left: a 30' long ``air-longboat'' arrived. It flies when the oars row. It was covered, such that we couldn't see the inside.
A force of their men, including mages and troops, then arrived and entered the building. We then saw them leave, and they appeared absolutely pissed. One fellow, equipped with a red-steel blade, looked especially pissed.
There was much chuckling.
We received a report from the Serraine council on the prisoner. Hule hasn't a clue how the flying ships work. They could understand individual pieces, but could not figure out how they were meant to interact with each other. Moreover, some pieces just didn't seem to fit any useful purpose whatsoever! A typical Gnomish contraption.
When the fuel tank exploded, four of the original ten mages died. Originally, they were housed in a secret location underground, where no spells could pass in or out. That is bad when a fuel tank explodes. Nothing was left.
Anyway, we have a number of activities to perform over the next six months or so, before we consider attacking Sind proper.
Much has been achieved over the last several months.
I personally practised my oratory skills under the tutelage Alexine, a most excellent instructor.
Later, I placed myself under the tutelage of on old, but apparently decent, general, now retired in Baratkand. He's not such a good instructor, but he seems to know his stuff. For me, it will be highly useful to have a grasp of military tactics.
In addition I've secured the assistance of a number of adventurers. Fourteen to be precise. They include Kanla, a Sindhi warrior, Ravi, a Sindhi fighter mage priest, Chatrapati, a Sindhi warrior (and his five Darokinian friends), and Abhra, another Sindhi warrior (with his four Karameikan and one Denagothian friend).
We also had gates constructed in various locations, and water clocks purchased for each. The latter is so we can coordinate our activities. Darokin has a master and a slave gate, the Falcon has a master gate, the Gnolls a slave gate, and Garan's flying ship a slave gate.
I also communicated with the resistance on the status of the occupiers and local troops. The Hule troops are happily getting fat, whilst the Sindhi troops are quite unhappy, as no one seems to like them at the moment.
Oh, Thora commented to me, privately, that she is capable of reversing magical ageing affects, such as that which may be caused by haste, resurrection, and so on. She'd prefer it if I kept quiet over this, since if it were public knowledge, she may become overwhelmed with requests.
Unfortunately, Thora was unable to grow the seeds I provided her with, the ones from the potion fruit trees. Apparently it would require powerful magic. Thora also indicated that they are somewhat resistant to divination attempts. Intersting.
In the meantime, others got up to their own mischief.
The Graakhalians performed a successful attack on a caravan, securing 60000 gold worth of funds. This will be used to purchase supplementary food supplies. Supplies they desperately need.
Melany travelled (through a portal in the Cage) to a place called Mechanics. Apparently it's the sort of place Zim would like.
Garan finished construction of an iron golem. That should prove very handy.
Gurzurk made a rock garden. Er, I suppose it's nice. Guess it's the kind of thing he'd like. Just looks like a pile of rocks to me.
Turia managed to get a price of 220000 gold for the scimitar in the cage! An excellent price!
Zim discovered that the Whiteheart gnomish caverns have become reinhabited by kobolds. The boss kobold apparently wears a shining set of fieldplate. Remus challenged him, but was easily bested.
In regional news, Norwald has been invaded by Heldannic Knights. At present it appears to be a bit of a stalemate. At present Norwald dragons are fighting Heldannic warbirds. Apparently the Heldannic disintegration beams are not particularly pleasant.
At any rate, we now appear to be ready to act.
Garan will cost 33000 gold per month. He has streamlined his activities particularly well.
Our first objective is to deal with a caravan, in Graakhalia. We require 42 days to set up a dual ambush.
I'm not too happy with the delay, but I suppose little can be done.
We ambushed one caravan today. We basically decimated them.
It's interesting to note that all of Garan's bowmen are specialised.
A few of the guards survived, basically the tougher ones, the sheltered ones, and the hill giants. Then the melee began. It didn't last long.
There were few left. We had two casualties, but Thora raised them anyway.
Unfortunately, one of their mages got away. Unfortunately, this means that the next caravan will probably forewarned.
Unfortunately, there was only about 35000 gold.
My contact in Gunja keep has indicated that there was a big kafuffle last night. Zim, in the falcon, observed a strengthened patrol of about 50 troops (including adventurers?) headed towards the Plain of Fire. It looks like the other caravan we had hoped for won't be coming.
Instead, we'll fly down the overland route, looking for Hule caravans.
We've discovered a single Hule caravan, at Oasis. Unfortunately, it's pretty small, consisting of about 25 men. Not worth checking, really.
We ambushed a small caravan today, consisting of 45 people. There was no fighting.
Hmm, I've noticed that Garan is very polite.
Interestingly, it looks like we've just stopped an alliance between a nomad tribe and one of Hule's nobles. Instead, Garan has smoothly convinced the daughter of a nomad (who was being traded to seal the alliance) to marry one of his officers.
We sealed it by paying a dowry of 5000 gold, paid for in Hule gold bars, of course (much to the amusements of the nomads, and concern of the Hule presence). Apparently Garan's officer is now officially married.
How very unusual!
It appears that there is a caravan in the tunnels, although it has clearly been reinforced.
We have decided we may as well attack Raneshwar, in Gunjab.
Gurzurk finished scouting Raneshwar today. It appears that Raneshwar is on a very low alert-readiness status. This is good.
We've decided to use the resistance to assist in drugging the wine. The plan is to drug troops, to reduce the number we have to combat.
It'll take some time to organise.
(morning)
Damn!
Garan's seer has determined that the resistance movement in Raneshwar is compromised. Moreover, upon contacting my contact, it appears that Hule has rounded up a sizeable proportion of Raneshwar's resistance.
It would appear Hule was content to allow the resistance its activities, so long as they never attempted anything serious, as they did just now by attempting to poison drinks.
Hule shouldn't know why the poison attempt occurred, or on what scale, but they will be on their guard.
Unfortunately, this has placed me in a quandary. The resistance members are imprisoned in the keep, a target I'm not keen to assault. However, if they're not rescued, they're certain to face torture, and possibly death. Furthermore, more resistance members will be uncovered. If we choose not to rescue the prisoners, we should at the very least retrieve my contact and his inner circle, lest they be uncovered. Unfortunately, the disappearance of a respected priest, and several other members of a small community, would not go unnoticed. Hule would eventually become suspicious of an outside influence. They would undoubtedly become aware of us if they captured and interrogated my contact.
But worse, I would lose standing with resistance cells in other communities for this eminent failure. I'd be less able to call upon them to perform unusual activities; no doubt they would question the wisdom of doing my bidding. Unfortunately, and perhaps the worst, is that they would be right to doubt me.
Yet to assault the keep has its own risks. It means we aren't choosing to cut our losses, but are instead raising the stakes.
Sigh. I see little choice in the end. I feel morally obligated to at least try to rescue the prisoners. It wouldn't feel right otherwise, especially since they acted upon my request.
(evening)
I have returned from Gola keep. My priestly contact there performed a divination on my behalf: the Pantheon indicates that the Hulean forces shall be somewhat prepared.
There is little to do now but to try to make the best of a bad situation.
We act tomorrow night.
I can but pray to the Pantheon that all goes well.
(post assault on the keep)
We have recently returned from a disastrous assault on the keep. Matters have simply gotten worse.
Safranna is hostage.
It appears that the keep had a number of powerful adventurers resident, including one who must have cast some sort of spell that prevents, at the very least, any elemental attacks from passing through it, no matter the power of the spell.
Things simply did not go well. Thora summoned a storm, the hope being to add to confusion, which it certainly achieved, but unfortunately it must have forewarned the keeps occupants that something was amiss, allowing them time to prepare.
The Darokinian adventurers we took along foolishly separated from us, more than halving our fighting power against the enemy adventurers, who quite possibly already out-spelled us regardless.
In the end, many of us returned severely wounded, including Roland, Jokana (who was unconscious), and myself. Safranna has been taken prisoner. The Darokinian mage Vernados was slain after being pelted with several boulders thrown from giants, as were two of Garan's warlocks. Safranna managed to raise them using her blessed rune, at great risk to herself.
We managed to kill one of them, and severely wound another.
Clearly Auraksha played his hand in the battle, ever an unwanted influence.
We have retreated to where we encamped Garan's forces further up the road. Hopefully our backup plan will proceed better. One of Garan's lieutenants has done his best to make it look as though we are but bandits causing trouble, albeit in a highly defensible position. With luck Hule will send un-expecting forces to remove our ``meddlesome'' presence.
(midnight)
Remarkably, it appears that the Pantheon has at last smiled upon our efforts.
A large contingent of Hule forces made their way up to demand our surrender. Much to their surprise, it turned out the ``small group of bandits'' outnumbered them. They were routed within minutes. Moreover, they never received backup from the Sindhi troops in town, since the Sindhi troops had decided to revolt, along with much of the peasantry.
The remaining Hule forces have retreated to a position on a rise overlooking the town. We are presently coordinating efforts with the Sindhi troops for a combined assault.
(early morning)
Unbelievably, all appears to be going well.
We have negotiated with the keep for the release of the hostages. Moreover, we have exchanged Raland for Safranna (including all of her equipment), and have received one of their officers as surety.
They will release the hostages upon our leaving the area. We have been unable to negotiate for the release of the local lord. Apparently he was a bit of an ass anyway, or so the Raneshwar general mumbled under his breath.
We have decided to relocate Raneshwar (using the mirror) to a temporary location in Karameikos for the duration of the war. This way we'll be able to use all of Raneshwars troops for future operations, and Hule will be unable to enact reprisals upon the townsfolk. They've suffered enough as it is.
Interestingly, the Raneshwar Sindhi took no prisoners. Not a single one.
We should be finished in three days.
I feel greatly relieved by the turn of events.
(afternoon)
Raneshwar has almost been totally relocated, and the prisoners (hundreds of them) have been handed over to Darokin temporarily.
In this time some loose ends have been wrapped up.
Firstly, Zim came up with the great suggestion of having the Iron Golem hold the mirror. This way, no one will be able to steal the mirror without first destroying the iron golem. After all, teleport fails on iron golems.
I have arranged for T'zaz to make some scrolls of dispelling, and have shopped for spells for Ravi, Vernados, and Ileana.
Moreover, I did a sending to both Safranna and Roland, just to double-check that they aren't doppelgangers, which they aren't.
I contacted Rosaline and Aiden, but they are unavailable for a month and a half.
It will take Xenith three to four weeks to fly from his lair to Sind.
I teleported Safranna and Roland to the Jarldoms, where they'll begin recruiting Northern Reaches mercenaries.
The Raneshwar general had an interesting idea. It involves attempting to take control of the gold mines in Azdagal, but do it in a way that'll make it look like the gold is simply starting to run out. An interesting, if risky, proposition. We'll have to investigate it more, especially since we expect funding to become problematic.
It also appears that the orcs in the Plain of Fire aren't Hule forces. This is purely speculation based on the fact that they don't wear uniforms. However, its possible Hule could use them as a source of new recruits.
Our next target is Gawan, in northwest Sind. It is part of the Mumlyket of Kadesh.
We arrived at Gawan earlier today. After a brief discussion, Gurzurk consented to scout the town out. His findings indicate the presence of 500 Hule troops, and an additional 400 Sindhi troops. The patrols leaving the vicinity of Gawan head out with full camping gear.
Gurzurk also indicated the presence of various natural caves in the region, some of which are inhabited by Sindhi bandits. They'll be useful in any clean up operations, as they know the area particularly well.
Apparently there are various monsters throughout the mountains, such as trolls and the like.
As usual, Gurzurk has been meticulous in his information gathering.
Quite surprisingly, it turns out Safranna is already ready with a force of 400 infantry. It appears they just happened to be in town. Apparently this isn't unusual for the Jarldoms.
Also ``recruited'' is a centaur bard (or Skuld, as the Northern Reaches people call them), who is very interested in the party's travels and adventures. Looks like he'll become the party historian, whether the party wants this or not. His name is Valgard Ironwood, and he seems partial to the two-handed sword. He's very backward and primitive in his views and attitudes, but then, he is from the Northern Reaches, so that explains everything. He'll learn, the more he hangs around us. There's no way he'll remain unchanged if he hangs around us too long!
We attack Gawan tomorrow.
The attack, if it can be called that, proceeded extremely smoothly. It was over before it had even begun. We outnumbered them two to one, and we took them completely by surprise. Fifteen of their men died, and we suffered but one death.
The Northern Reaches men seem particularly happy. A number of them are running around with newly acquired chain mail armour. It won't be long before they're considered heavy foot, rather than medium foot.
As the Hule troops here are solely human, we only had to execute 5% of their number (the evil ones), the remainder of which have been taken prisoner.
In addition, Melany played mind games with a Hule soldier. He's presently galloping to Gunja keep, thinking Gawan urgently requires reinforcements to hold off an enemy invasion.
The Gawan folk are quite happy to see us, much like they were in Raneshwar.
Hmm. It's not clear what we'll do with the prisoners. Eventually we'll have so many, it'll become tricky finding housing and guards for them. Perhaps arrangements could be made at Linear?
We will be here for a little while, during which we'll use the bandits to help locate patrols.
Also, Gurzurk has decided to whip up a prison to hold the 500 recently acquired prisoners.
The cleanup in Gawan is almost over.
My contact in nearby Gunja Keep has reported that 400 light cavalry, and seven adventurers, have been sent in the direction of Gawan.
Excellent. We shall ambush them on the road.
Apparently Gawan is considered a nice post, since it's quiet. However, if a man of Hule goes too far north, they're likely to get cut up by the locals. Ah, Sindhi spirit at its finest!
Gurzurk investigated the cavalry last night, and managed to identify the adventurers (six in light armour, and a mage).
We attacked this night as they slept. We hit the adventurers hard with offensive spells killing them all in the first moments of battle, whilst simultaneously our troops smashed into the encampment from the Gunja side of the road. They didn't stand a chance.
We suffered 15 casualties, whilst Hule effectively lost 260-odd men. The remainder escaped, bareback, without supplies.
Gurzurk (again!) has gone to Gunja keep to determine the viability of attacking it.
This mirror is a particularly useful item!
Well, Gurzurk investigated, and returned with four chests of gold and gems, and a throne. He is a sneaky bugger!
I guess there's little point in attacking Gunja keep, since there are suddenly somewhat fewer valuables there.
The chests contained 60000 gold total, and some extra amount in gems, which Gurzurk and Melany held onto (it was Melany's portable hole that was used to get the loot out).
We've decided to use today and tomorrow as rest days, so that the army can catch their breath.
(morning)
We first spoke to the man acting as spokesman for the Hule prisoners of war. Unfortunately, little that was productive came of the meeting. Zim started asking some inane questions, to which Gurzurk actually lost his temper momentarily. I was quite socked. I don't think I've ever seen Gurzurk lose his temper, not in all the years he's been with us. Most peculiar.
I spoke to the Legionate about prisoners. Apparently he'll be able to take on an additional 1000. Unfortunately, this isn't enough, so we'll have to make alternate arrangements.
(midday)
We went to Linear, but it appears they'll be relatively costly, and aren't keen on the idea of holding many prisoners.
(afternoon)
The Ruins in Davania's jungle. Perfect! There's plenty of shelter, and we can set up a gate to ship food through. Apparently Darokin has been getting bountiful harvests of late, so they're happy to supply food. Moreover, there isn't anyone for miles, so the prisoners can't even cause trouble. It'll be an open prison. We don't need guards here, and they won't be swimming back to Hule, not since they're on a different continent entirely, and don't even know where they are.
There are a few minor undead, and Midnight is still around, but that's not much to worry about. They're soldiers from Hule, not babies. They shouldn't cry about a few zombies, and I think Midnight will be reasonable.
Besides, it'll be a heck of a lot more interesting for the prisoners than staying in a cell.
Right, it's decided. However, we'll need to give Lani a chance to make the gate.
We successfully attacked Latehar today, the capital of Kadesh. It was probably our toughest battle so far.
Hule effectively lost over 800 troops. On our side, we suffered perhaps 200 deaths, not an insignificant amount. It was very tough, but well worth it, since the Mumlyket as now been liberated.
There are celebrations in the streets. I, of course, did one of those speeches that I am want to do these days.
The local Raja even saw fit to send for me. He's obviously still filthy rich, as evidenced by his the palaces accoutrements and size. He is no doubt unhappy at having lost taxes, though.
I must say, this Raja reminds me of a weasel.
After some initial chitchat, where we seemed to constantly be gauging each other, the Raja eventually indicated that he would throw the support of his Mumlyket behind us. No doubt his decision was influenced by us indicating our good intentions, and by his belief that we have powerful archmages at our beck and call. It's good he decided to help, since I didn't want to consider the possibility of deposing him.
The Raja was quite forthcoming with information.
To the north, on the border of Glantri, sits Peshmir. The ruler is a strange fellow, much like his people. They have strange notions of equality.
The ruler of Baratkand is his traditional rival. He's on the up at the moment, since he's a Hule sympathiser. He was the one who let Hule walk in in the first place.
Nagpuri, on the border of Darokin, is firmly under Hule's heel. A member of the mage caste rules Nagpuri.
Putnabad appears to side with whoever offers the most money.
Hule has not worried about Jaibul, the coastal country south of Putnabad, probably since the ruler is reputed to be a very powerful mage.
The ruler of Jalawar really doesn't like Hule much. Putnabad and Jalawar are traditional enemies. If not for Hule and the Rajadhiraja, they'd probably be fighting now.
Azdagal, with its many mines, is considered very valuable. The ruler dislikes Hule's presence. He does like his tiger hunts, so that's probably a good time to meet him, if we so desired.
Shajarkand is ruled by a Hule sympathiser.
He is unsure of the attitude of Jhengal's ruler.
Hule has obtained the nomads in the desert. A noticeable portion of Hules army is made up of nomads.
It has been agreed that Gawan's troops shall continue to guard Gawan, since it lies close to Gunja keep. Latehar's troops will assist in liberating other towns.
We next liberate Peshmir, which apparently has but a token Hule presence.
Melany scouted Peshmir today. Apparently there are barely any Hule troops. Roland could single-handedly defeat them.
We'll remove their presence tomorrow.
Melany also saw smoke in the distance. The Latehar general commented that it was probably a distant volcano erupting.
We made a show of force today, and Hule's ``presence'' was removed. There are only 25 of them, many of those non-military.
Subsequently, we were escorted to see the Raja, whose palace is even lusher than the Raja of Kadesh's palace, unlikely as that may seem.
It is clear from speaking to this Raja that he does not intend to take sides in any conflict. Behind pretty words he said he would not provide troops, but would be willing to provide food for our forces. He even agreed to provide food for as many as 5000 people, fairly much without hesitating. I guess he's happy with the sudden reduction in taxes.
Originally we were going to let Peshmir deal with the Hule prisoners, but later changed our minds. When our troops recovered them, they stated that they had been given lush quarters in the palace.
I made a speech in the city, and managed to recruit 40 warriors to assist the cause, and some peasants. Garan has agreed to take the peasants on. They'll probably move up to the warrior caste once their training is complete.
We've decided to attack a caravan prior to New Year's.
Unfortunately, we're not clear if they're on to us. We had Garan's seer determine if they expected trouble, but he stuffed up and partly fried his brain. Fortunately Melany patched him up.
The caravan then stopped for a brief period.
We've decided not to attack. We weren't too confident in the first place.
It was probably just a broken wheel that stopped them briefly.
Gosh, Gurzurk has been busy. He's single-handedly made Gawan well fortified. It now has a solid wall completely encircling the place, where the wall has been hollowed out, and arrow slits inserted. Not bad at all!
To think it's only taken him a few days.
I did a number of sendings across Sind. It appears that they're upset about something in Sayr Ulan (presumably us).
We also dealt with Midnight. Apparently he only needs to be fed a couple of times a year. Good, problem dealt with. Just got to get the prisoners there now.
Save it for after New Year's.
Interestingly, when Midnight left us, he somehow managed to squeeze his entire bulk through a small window slit. Methinks he's quite magical, considering he's eight feet long.
I think he'd make a good familiar.
We've headed to Darokin for New Year's.
Back in Gawan today, and all is far from well.
Hule sent assassins in last night, taking advantage of the Day of Dread. The assassins weren't the best, but they didn't have to be. Poisons cannot be magically dealt with when magic isn't working.
Our two Sindhi generals are dead, which is a great blow, and will drastically affect morale. Garan's illusionist, his recently hired warlock, and a warlock who's been with the company for a long time were also slain.
This is not good.
The assassins who attacked the mages were captured and killed. The ones who attacked the generals got away.
Unfortunately, it appears Garan has a policy of not raising any of the dead, lest others in the company desire the same treatment.
We enquired at a temple to Hades in Thyatus as to the cost of raising one from the dead. It is apparently 10000 gold, plus a permanent magic item. Not cheap.
A divination has revealed that there is no cheaper source of raise deads on Mystara.
I have agreed to foot the monetary cost, and will supply a magic item for one general. The other general already has his own magic item. Garan's officers managed to scrounge up three magic items for each of the mages.
We will attempt to raise them tomorrow.
We did not succeed at raising all of the dead. Unfortunately, the Warlock Garan recently hired didn't make it.
We will not advertise knowledge of the deaths.
Hopefully Hule will think twice before sending more assassins, knowing that this attempt hasn't been very successful.
We teleported the prisoners to Davania today. We spoke to their representative, informing him of the arrangements, and the expected behaviour of his men. I must say, Gurzurk was trying to make everything sound okay, and Zim was making the man sweat. Zim casually tossed remarks around like ``no-one should travel around alone, else the monster may kill you'', and ``the monster will probably kill some of you anyway, just for fun.'' I didn't know Zim could be so cruel!
He looked quite grim afterwards. Oh well, tough. They're probably getting better treatment than prisoners of Hule get.
The Karameikan priest of Petra, Yousef, cast speak with dead on the dead assassins. It would appear their target included all of the mages in a given building (the other group probably had similar orders for their building). All they knew about the person ordering them on this mission was that they wore the robes of a master of the whispering sash, an order of assassins based in Great Hule. Successful completion of this mission would grant them membership to the order. They were to escape by being at a given location at a specified time where they would be teleported out by a mage.
Interesting. I received a sending on behalf of Martin today. Apparently a Sindhi woman has been around hiring mercenaries.
Sounds like someone I should get in touch with.
Tomorrow I'll do some more sendings.
We managed to get her name. It is Rani Priya. Rani is a title, indicating that Priya is the sister of a Raja.
Raneshwar's general informs me that she is the sister of one of the southern Raja's.
I teleported Gurzurk to Latehar, so that he could speak to the Raja of Kadesh. Gurzurk managed to make his own way back to Gawan (no idea how) by evening. Rani Priya is the sister of the Raja of Shajarkand, a Hule sympathiser. It is known that she argues with her brother, and does have differing points of view. Given that baronies men are by no means allied with Hule, it seems likely that she's not working in her brother's best interest.
I communicated with her, pretending to be a mercenary mage seeking employment. I am to meet her in a tavern in Pret-a-porto, tomorrow, midday.
Unfortunately, there has been some bad news. My contact in Sayr Ulan has gone missing. Divinations reveal that he went to the catacombs to investigate powerful aerial magics that are under development. Apparently: ``There is one, who when his creation is complete will seek to join the Hulean forces with his unholy terror.'' This does not bode well at all, especially since he works with aerial magics.
It is not an immediate concern, but we should deal with him before he seeks to join forces with Hule. Interesting that he works in the catacombs, and is not yet part of Hule forces. Maybe they do not actively guard him, as Hule may not even be aware of him?
I met the Rani today. She seems like a friendly enough person. Her intentions were to attack the Hule forces in Sind, starting in Putnabad, and make her way up the river to Shajarkand, where she would depose her brother. She then planned to move up to Sayr Ulan in an attempt to liberate the capital.
A very risky plan.
Unfortunately, her brother merely sees rulership as a means of furthering his own power.
We have agreed to join forces, although she would like to see my forces first.
She is also aware of other groups trying to free Sind. One is the freedom warriors, a small group based in the capital.
She was obviously aware of us. Apparently Hule has decided to make it look like we are simply paving the way for a Darokin invasion force. I shall have to perform sendings, to let everyone know what is really going on.
A final group are the leaders of the new religion, Garath. Hule would apparently dearly love to crush these two leaders.
Rani Priya has hired on the order of a thousand troops. This will prove most useful.
She expected to be able to attack the capital within a month of setting foot on Sindhi soil. This seems like a reasonable time frame.
I've asked Xenith to start heading toward Sind.
I also had a divination performed: the aerial magics are expected to be complete within a month. We'll possibly need to deal with this guy before we get to Sayr Ulan.
I did not wish to remain inactive any longer, so we wrote up a list of target cities, rolled a die, and attacked the result. It happened to be Sambay, the capital of Jalawar. As good a target as any.
We attacked with two to one odds, in our favour. It was a tough battle, with house-to-house fighting, but they weren't particularly prepared. We lost 75 men, whilst Hule effectively lost over 500 men.
The Raja actually came to me and hugged me! It took me by surprise, so I didn't exactly speak eloquently or coherently in response. I somewhat suspect that Gurzurk probably smoothed any creases out though. Gurzurk seems pretty good at that.
Later I brought the Rani to have a look. She seemed quite impressed.
We've decided to free the remainder of this Mumlyket.
Rather than fight it out, we simply made a show of force, and asked for the surrender of the Hule forces in Kandaputra. It was accepted.
Hule loses 400 soliders.
Like Kandaputra, Bangore surrendered. Hule loses another 500 troops.
We have also added the Rani's troops to our forces.
Garan detected evil in the prisoners, and those found guilty were executed for their crimes.
Interestingly, not all of the trolls and giants were found to be evil. Consequently, they can expect to be given the same treatment as other prisoners.
The Jalawar Mumlyket has been freed.
Now we must decide what to do next.
I'm quite pleased with progress. Things are progressing far faster than I could have hoped in my wildest imaginings. Of the 11 Mumlykets, four have been dealt with. Not bad for but a months work.
Admittedly, they were the easiest of the Mumlykets.
However, our strike force is becoming quite sizeable. Garan has 1585 troops, we have 365 Northern Reaches heavy foot, 1505 Sindhi troops, and approximately 1000 mercenaries that Rani Priya has added to the pot. In addition, we have 10 mages, 11 priests, and 14 adventurers, plus whatever additional mages and priests we obtain from Jalawar and the Rani. Not bad at all. Almost 4500 men. There are now few places where we don't have a two to one advantage.
I wish people would stop holding their babies out to be blessed by me. Don't they understand that I am incapable of blessing anyone, let along a baby. Besides, even were I capable, I believe that the bless spell doesn't even last that long, and I can't cast permanency. All I can do is indicate I hope they live a long and good life. Argh! I'm a battlemage, not a priest! I'm not made for this crap!
And now I have Turia on my back about ``this Rani Priya chic.'' I've only spoken to her a couple of times!
I'll be glad when Sind is free. Then maybe the world will seem a little less crazy.