Dice Chronicle of the Scavenger Lands (Exalted 3E) - OOC

[jaydude]

I'll have the Exalts all gather once Quill's returned with the orichalcum pieces. He's pretty much at the end of his quest by this point.

 

[Red Shadow Claws]

added the roll to my post

 

[jaydude]

Esbilon
Do you know when you'll next be able to post?

 

[Esbilon]

Today. Sorry.

 

[Esbilon]

So, how do we actually get more information on the situation? Wait for Mara to return from her expedition?

Militarily, do we have what we need?

 

[Rykon]

The simplest way would be to hand Ailera ( Sherwood ) a sack of jade or silver coins and let her have a field day walking the streets and carouse for information. This is what Solar Larceny excels at and it is her supernal ability after all. I'd say it'd be a bit more difficult to mine data from nobles than criminals, but we can come up with other ways of making that happen.

 

[Esbilon]

Sending Ailera to scout out the place sounds good to me. Question is where the rest of us wait for her. Nearby with the army at the ready, or do we split up?

 

[Rykon]

Militarily speaking, I'd say we take a fortress outside the capital. Hold our forces there, if we needed to be near to the castle in person, we could be, without the army being a dead give away of what's going on to the bulk of the capital.

Bonus would be if they did us the favor of throwing troops at the fortress once we hold it. That fight would go very poorly for them.

 

[Esbilon]

Do you mean a fortress inside the nation's borders? In that case, the civil war has already started. Nothing has been specified about what can be found in the surrounding countryside, but restoring an old fortress a short way beyond Nalia's borders seems like a decent thing to do while Aliera gets the intel we need.

 

[Rykon]

I think tactically, taking one inside the border has the merit of tempting them to attack us.

Meanwhile, my actual preferred means of taking the capital would be burrowing spirits to let our troops bypass the walls and hopefully make way to the keep directly. At the very least, we could leverage some for covering our approach.

Sapping was a bit of a thing in medieval warfare. Though I don't think we're looking to collapse anything this time.

 

[Esbilon]

I'm in support of getting the opposing army to come to us so we don't have to march through the country - that never goes well for ordinary people.

However, the point of the scouting operation was to figure out what the situation is, meaning that we want it to be completed before we move an army close enough to Nalia that we provoke the king.

 

[Rykon]

I suppose that makes sense from the perspective of being willing to change your mind about attacking/taking the capital. Otherwise, I'd think you'd want to let the opponent take the chance of splitting their forces or over-committing to a less advantageous conflict instead of a more advantageous one. Even while digging for information on the capital, with noticeably fewer defenders.

Really I'm probably overthinking it, as that is technically what Stratagem rolls are supposed to be for.

 

[jaydude]

Rykon Red Shadow Claws Esbilon Sherwood Epiphany

Shall I have all of the Exalts (and Lyla) gather to discuss things now?

 

[Red Shadow Claws]

Fine by me

 

[Rykon]

Works for me.

 

[Esbilon]

Sounds good.

 

[Sherwood]

Yuppers.

 

[Esbilon]

jaydude Quill's asking for an infodump. How much do you want me to decide, and how much do you want to define?

 

[jaydude]

jaydude Quill's asking for an infodump. How much do you want me to decide, and how much do you want to define?

I've got a few ideas of my own, but aside from that, you can decide what you want with regards to manses, demenses, trade, and relations with canon locations.

For custom nations and such, you can also decide what you want, though the more help they can offer Ysandre in regaining her throne, the trickier it'll be to win them over, or otherwise get their help.

The only things I'll define are as follows:

• The Immaculate Order has a presence in Nalia; after all, their hardliners were the ones who helped drive Ysandre into exile.
• On the river about 125 miles northeast of Nalia is the Duchy of Bayonne, an independent nation/city-state with cultural similarities to Nalia, though slightly less wealthy and powerful. The Duchess of Bayonne, a young woman named Melisande who claims to be a god-blooded descendant of the Maiden of Secrets, has traveled to Nalia's royal court on a number of occasions. She enjoys cordial relations with Ysandre's brothers (and Ysandre herself if you wish), is outwardly friendly and deferential, but Ysandre has always had the feeling she's more intelligent and cunning than she lets on.
• About 125 miles northwest of Nalia, and the same distance northeast of Alsein is the Duchy of Rouen. This is the homeland of the Northborn, the people/ethnic group who took over Ryan's homeland. They are an ambitious warrior people who would be happy to help Ysandre regain her throne in exchange for a suitable reward of wealth and land, assuming she's willing to risk Ryan's disapproval.
• About 375 miles south-southwest of Nalia, and 500 miles southeast of Alsein is the petty kingdom of Aberuthven. It too has been invaded by the Northborn, though so far it has resisted them and maintained its independence through both archery skill and the use of guerilla warfare within its forested domain. Were they to be helped in defeating the Northborn, they would almost certainly be willing to return the favour.
• All the lands east of Nalia, between it and the Wyld, and the Yellow River and Maruto, are as far as Ysandre knows occupied by dozens, if not hundreds, of barbarian tribes. Relations towards Nalia differ between each tribe; some might be amicable to helping Ysandre, others are indifferent to Nalia, and others hate the nation due to past conflicts and wars, and will attack "westerners" or other outsiders on sight.

I'll add all of this stuff to the map later on.

 

[Esbilon]

jaydude Some of those distances seem very large for a medieval-tech world. Particularly that the Northborn are a persistent problem for Aberuthven despire them being 500 miles apart. That's quite the buffer when most armies travel by foot and there is at least once nation between them.

 

[Esbilon]

Also, I've finally replied. Sorry about the delay. Part of the reason is that I find info dumps and most planning generally handled better OOC unless there are strong character interactions that can spring from it (which doesn't really seem to be the case here).

 

[jaydude]

jaydude Some of those distances seem very large for a medieval-tech world. Particularly that the Northborn are a persistent problem for Aberuthven despire them being 500 miles apart. That's quite the buffer when most armies travel by foot and there is at least once nation between them.

I'm largely using rough distances and 2E travel times to decide where to put everything. I judged Nalia and Alsein to be roughly 375 miles apart, based on the positions given to me during CC, and wanted to keep places we were likely to visit or otherwise become involved soon with close by.

What distances do you feel would make sense for neighboring nations in a medieval-tech world? I'll revise the distances accordingly.

 

[Esbilon]

I dunno. It depends a lot on exactly where the borders are and how the people in question pursue warfare: Are they raiders, horse nomads, heavy infantry types?

 

[jaydude]

I dunno. It depends a lot on exactly where the borders are and how the people in question pursue warfare: Are they raiders, horse nomads, heavy infantry types?

Mainly armored cavalry and infantry. Basically, Rouen and the Northborn are analogous to the Normans, Nalia and Bayonne to medieval France, and Aberuthven to Wales following the Northern Conquest of England. Each of them's the equivalent of a city-state/petty kingdom, perhaps with a few villages that provide food to a single, capital city/stronghold.

What if I were to put Rouen halfway between Nalia and Alsein, and then half the distance between it and Aberuthven? Basically, I'll shorten the distances enough so that besides Nalia and Alsein, no place is more than 250 miles/a month's march away from each other?

 

[Red Shadow Claws]

Our illustrious GM, might Quill be able to make an Introduce Fact about this nation we seek to Ally with?
If so, I will PM you my idea, for you to approve.