• 24/8/1016 (outside Harsdal, capital of the County of Harsdal)

Some of us made some more enquiries today. There are several points to note, namely:

• The tension has been building for a while now.
• The war with Robrenne was short and sharp. The king did not call on the freehearts to fight, a decision both popular and unpopular.
• The king is trying to create a standing army. Perhaps the intension is to have a force loyal to only him, rather than relying on the freehearts.
• The king is married, with four sons and two daughters. So the line of succession is clear, although there have been civil wars in the past, with new dynasties founded (usually with some sort of link to the old). Hopefully since the tension has been building for a while, things will proceed slowly, giving us time to choose our actions.

We also noticed a war wagon leave town, bearing the image of a bears head on it, no doubt the symbol of some lord. The war wagon left for the north. I have not seen such a contraption before, but the principle is simple. It is essentially a mobile miniature fortress. It moves along, and people shoot crossbows from within. It would be interesting to see their effectiveness in combat.

Presently we are at some farmers place, where Gurzurk and Thora are building a stone barn around the falcon. It should only take a few days, and will hopefully leave the falcon well protected. The farmer certainly seems to like the idea of a stone barn.

• 1/9/1016 (near Harsdal, at farmers place)

Gurzurk finished contstruction of the barn today, so now we are heading for the capital, approximately 60 miles away.

Unsurprisingly, the farmer (and by default the rest of his family) chose to avoid speaking to us after a short while. I imagine that they are somewhat discomforted by our outlandish appearance and ways.

The farmer's neighbours appear to be jealous.

• 4/9/1016 (en route to the capital of Eusdria)

A messenger almost rode us down today. He was heading full pelt for the capital, coming from the same direction we did. Thora headed back to Harsdal and found out that the Sea Wolves have raided all up and down the coast. The Sea Wolves are basically pirates.

I wonder if these events are related to the god war. Probably, I suppose. Can blame the god war for just about anything these days.

• 7/9/1016 (Gundagare, capital of Eusdria)

The city seems fairly decent. It is walled, and has a number of stone buildings.

We each found out what we could of recent events, and current attitudes. Turia and I went to the closest thing resembling an adventurers pub.

We didn't find out too much. There is an organisation of knights, which generally tries to do knightly things.

Although the war with Robrenne was short, Robrenne did destroy one of the eastern castles.

The goblins to the north have destroyed a village. Interestingly, there is a field of flowers between Eusdria and the goblins, where people travelling through are put to sleep. The goblins avoid this effect by waering some cloth, treated somehow one imagines, over their noses and mouths.

There are also lots of nobles in the (uneasy) city.

The others also found out a fair amount of information. The relevant bits are:

• A lot of politicking is going on. The dwarves like both the standing army idea, and the education policies. Freyja's group dislikes the army policy, primarily since women will not be allowed to join. The Al-Kalim faction is heavily involved in the education politics.
• The nobles are strongly against the king having a standing army. Presently, in times of war, the king has troops provided by the nobles. Furthermore, the king fairly much already controls the knights, a force of about one to two thousand strong.
• The temples are rpesently trying to win over many nobles to the education policy.
• The nobles have arrived armed to the teeth, clearly expecting trouble.
• The country consists of a duchy, a county, and two baronies.
• The education policy is for ages ten above, four hours a day, six days a week.
• The king is trying to promote the idea of a warriors honour (which involves all the usual yoo-ha).
• We asked Leo, and found that the most likely candidate to cause trouble is Count Theodamir, the Stutterer. He is the one with the war wagons.

Clearly a problem will arise if the nobles say no to the education policy, while the king says yes.

So things are not looking too good. However, on the bright side, Gurzurk can get us invites to the king's ball to be held in five days. This is a good opportunity to get to know the players involved, and to try to get a feel for expected events. We'll be invited as guests of the Renardy diplomats (the Lupines). These Lupines are a strange bunch. Their importance is based on how good their wine is. Crazy.

Interestingly, the king is half-elven, and a priest of the elven deity Tius (elves, wisdom, lore, and trust). Indeed, half the land is basically elven. There are also lots of half-elves. The humans and elves clearly live together well.

Of course, when asking Phoranin for her thoughts on this, she feels that the elves have clearly lost their heritage. I felt it my duty that with that view, then the humans have also lost their heritage. Not that either concerns me. Then again, I'm not much of one for racial purity.

• 13/9/1016 (Gundagare)

Oooops.

Guess we did something wrong somewhere. For example, inaction.

The civil war has started. Erm. Looks like we didn't stop it. Oh well. I'm sure Freyja is tearing her hair out and screaming in frustration right now. Sorry Freyja.

We attended the ball. Before it was interrupted, that is. The Lupin ambassador (never caught his name) was very polite. We exchanged meaningless words with a number of minor nobles, and sons of nobles.

We met Baroness Utha the fair (elven). She didn't seem to like Lani.

Shook hands with Baron Arthaulf (human), the forthright. He kissed the ladies hands. Good for him that he didn't linger on Turia's, mind you.

Duchess Beovilda the blunt (elven) greeted us in a tacless, informal manner.

We even spoke to the king, who asked about our strange countries. Usual petty talk. Even spoke to his son (and his advisor) afterwards.

And this all aside, the fighting began.

I noticed that the count did not look at all surprised by this. Clearly he was aware that fighting was to break out.

The fighting was not very intense. Who was fighting is surprising. It is apparent the enemies of the king are the Baron (Horse), the Count (bear), and the Baroness (fish). Fighting for the king are the knights (plate), and the Duchess (Tower).

Apparently the Baron is known to be a very honourable person. That he fought against the king is bad. There were people shouting out "free the king" so there was some confusion. It appears the common people at least have been mislead into beleiving the king is not free.

The attackers tried to gain entry to the castle, but the defenders successfully kept them at bay. I didn't participate too much in the fighting. I did try some non-harmful actions against the baron, but my actions had little effect.

Zim created an illusory dragon, that people thought was Pyre. It was quite effective, and even created a lull in the battle for a time. Some who saw the dragon even appeared to go unconscious.

At some point the king made an appearance, with Thora nearby, to state he was not charmed. I was just returning from getting some of our equipments. Unfortunately, the barons did not believe him, and re-ordered the fighting to continue.

There is also a mage among the enemy. He cast a magic missile, whilst invisible, and remained invisble. Not good. I dropped a fireball where he was, but I do not even know if I was successful.

Alas, Turia was captured on the field. She was going to try to kill the baron with a poisoned weapon, with the hope of stopping the battle early, but unfortunately failed. Instead, she was taken away.

I flew after her, after Zim made me invisible, and after a short struggle, managed to free her. That was definitely a close one!

Thora also spoke to the baron at some point, but was unsuccessful in trying to convince him he was being mislead. Apparently he appears to believe that the king is in triuble, and that he should be freed.

No doubt if they ever do manage to "free" him, the king will happen to die at some point. No doubt tragically.

I am tired. I need to rest now, so that I may re-memorise. I'm starting to feel a little stressed. Things are moving too fast.

• 14/9/1016 (Gundagare)

I am feeling better now, even though I was almost killed earlier today.

The siege has begun. The attackers have some siege weapons, although they are not very powerful. Mainly smaller ballistae, and small catapults. Well, they did have catapults, but more on that later.

Presently there is a small lull in the battle, although it is only afternoon. Actually, battle is the wrong word. There's no real fighting, and no-one has tried storming the castle or any such.

I spent most of my morning memorising sending's for the chamberlain. He wishes to get word out so that reinforcements can get here. One of the sendings (which I have now finished) was to a powerful mage, who said he would get here as soon as he could. Hopefully that means once he has re-memorised a teleport.

The non-combatants were allowed to leave the castle. At least they are civilised here.

The priests also did some divinations. Together with Leo, we have found that Kelvin the Magus ast a spell on the Baron, so that the Baron would believe the King to be in danger. Kelvin is a mage for hire who was staying in the city. So it would be good to dispel the magic, presumably a charm person or similar. The question is how.

Gurzurk has reinforced the fortifications.

Oh, and Thora seemed somewhat disgusted at Turia's assassination attempt. I don't know why she seemed that way. It's not like it comes as any surprise. She should get over it.

The morning was mostly quiet. They didn't start the attack until later. I imagine Kelvin wanted some time to rest and re-memorise.

Not much fighting happened. Ballistae aren't particularly effective against walls. The catapults were destroyed by my lightning bolts, and Gurzurk's rock to mud on a building a catapult was resting on.

One thing is pretty disturbing though. Shortly after my lightning bolts, I was attacked by some creature of air, or invisible creature. I was very nealry killed by it. That mage must have summoned it. I imagine he was flying nearby, with an improved invisibility. This is somewhat worrying. We need to kill this mage. And take his spellbooks too.

Someone also summoned a few undead, but they were quickly dealt with. There are many priests here after all.

So we have the castle, and they have the town. I don't see how either side can win at the moment. They will require reinforcements first, which no doubt are on the way.

Actually, I'm almost enjoying myself. It's been so long since I've seen a bit of action. Hmm. I'd better not tell Thora this though.

Our best hope probably rests in uncharming the baron. To do so I suspect we'll need to have the mage killed, otherwise he could just re-charm him.