Archon's Curse [Pathfinder Kingmaker]

[Imperator Pax]

Gozran 4712
Taxfest, and a Pitaxian lackey aside there were countless other things also going on. There was an end to things. It always seemed that his attention was always called to investigate some new development. Eire was looking at the eastern, and very poorly defined, boundary of his domain as Perlivash the faerie dragon continued to chatter on about his kind who inhabited the area around lake silver step.

The lake was technically within his domain. It was on his side of the border... which seemed to be mostly defined by natural features like the rivers, and by the Tors... that or Restov had drawn up the charters using a crooked map and drawn a line more or less straight south from Fort Serenko on the south Rostlandic road and worked from there. He wasn't even entirely sure that Fort Serenko had been built on the Brevic side of the border when he looked at some of the maps that existed... cartography issues though were not the matter at hand.

It was not the faerie dragons that concerned him. It wasn't the alleged great wyrm who's foot had made the lake.... which he was skeptical of. It was the normal sized silver dragon population of dragons that inhabited the area... which was the reason he was contemplating a visit to the Lake. That would not be today though. "Excuse me Perlivash." Valerie interrupted, and the faerie dragon fluttered back a respectful distance ceding the floor. "Has there been any word from the Temple of Shelyn?"

Eire was ignorant of the precise contents of Valerie's response... and truthfully he had considered inquiring about the words that made it on the paper but it had not been a subject the blonde had wanted discussed... he had also considered inquiring around as to where Shelyn's church was building their temple... but he had stopped largely on the basis that it was in neither his own, nor Drelev's domain. It would have been in the charter boundaries of the Iron Wraiths, but they had disappeared without a trace.

"There has not. I have received no official communications, nor anyone claiming to speak of the Brevic church of Shelyn, or its interests." He replied. Indeed that this was a brevic church matter it was possible that there were other pressures in play, but he withheld that speculation for the moment. "This is not Brevoy, and while I do not pretend there is not Brevic influence, it is not anywhere near sufficient to change my mind." It was true, but there was also the possibility that if the Brevic branch was weighing their options ... well Valerie's family were brevic nobility and they might needle Jamandi which while still not going to change his mind would be a nuisance in and of itself. There was a knock on the door, "Well, we should return to the realm."

Arsinoe, the golden eyed cleric of Abadar, had arrived in the hall. She was not alone though, and Eire was a tade surprised at the small Numerian delegation that had added to part of those who hailed from Alkenstar in the south lands. It merely added another minor religious contingent to the equate. The small church of the minor goddess Brigh... who was apparently also affiliated with the matter of Taxfest. That was not of course the only interest in the bronze lady's faith.

Brigh was a goddess of artifice and knowledge. That ranged from metal working and stonemasons, very important to Narhold's needs it was not a particular evangelizing faith. She was worshipped by blacksmiths, and jewelers, humans and gnomes made up the bulk of her church, but there was representation aplenty of half elves and half orcs. Both of those were growing populations even if it was unlikely they weren't going to approach the human population in scale they did already outnumber gnomes and halflings.

It was rather transparent what Abadar's church hoped to gain by making such introductions. Favor. Brigh's church was interested in the developments of the realm... and being apart of such expansion of knowledge , and construction, the research and exploration, documentation to advance knowledge, and innovation... and of course he needed, Narhold needed more specialists, and that included craftsmen.

Kanerah glanced at him contemplatively, "Where will you put them?"

"Here most likely." Eire replied.

"And the Milanites?"

Milani's church... he had had considered constructing a shrine at Hereford, but, "New Colton," He replied, and he doubted there would be any issue between them and the faith of Irori who he expected would want to establish their own church. "I think that will better fit their needs," and of course it wasn't as if he intended to prohibit their continued use of the Cathedral if they were going to have their own place... well he had planned to place them at New Colton given the settlement's growth. "As for their request, I think here is what they're looking for." While he was willing to continue to permit their use of the Cathedral he didn't want to give the impression that he viewed Milani's church as just a cadet or subordinate wing of Iomedae's church

"The church of Abadar hopes for a place, or that you'll convince Oleg to permit them to build a temple." The Tiefling observed she moved long fingers around the rim of her glass.

"Or both." He agreed, "Arisnoe," The Aasimar cleric, "wheedles and deals well. She's been speaking with Dead Dave and I think her church also would like a place at Nettle's Crossing," but though it was still called that, the small hamlet was a part of the domain of Svetlanna's sister, and the fact was Kressel had more martial pursuits... she was more likely to welcome Milani's church into their small fief, and more like still Cayden Cailean. It was not a decision he was going to rush her to make. The truth was that the crossing was too small at the moment to require a decision. "How are preparations for the spring fair," the first major market day of the new year.... and really the first market day the kingdom would have to actually warrant distinction. Much as Shaoyu didn't want to hear about sheep flocks and anything related to farming they were of critical need to any feudal realm regardless of the progress they had made towards monetization.

Kesten Garress bowed, "The guard have received their new uniforms, my lord, and," The disgraced brevic noble paused stumbling over his next words, "We should be prepared for the fair."

"I am aware of the manpower shortages Kesten." Eire remarked. The guard was a formal institution but it was a capital institution and even without the trolls Kesten had in no way been prepared for the degree of immigration, the volume of people arriving from the south. Add the troll problem into that Garress's guards had been overworked over the course of the winter, and the uniforms were partially compensation of sorts. The barony providing them with spare sets of clothes was bonus that wouldn't have been common outside of more prosperous more establish realms... though for different reasons. "That will be a priority in the coming year."

Valerie's expression suggested it was more than that. The realm was expanding, and while it was perhaps not appropriate to ... go straight to kingship... much he more or less already regarded it... he was apetty king, and duke was probably a more appropriate title in the Taldan sense. "and as the realm grows, given matters with the lizard folk we need to raise a more permanent host."

Hargulka had had encounters with the Longtails's rivals... and if not for his food shortages had been looking to impose his will, and establish overlordship over the more belligerent tribe. The thick skin tribe was a thorn in the south to be dealt with as the days warmed... but the faire was first... and there was the chance that any steppe migration coming west, or one that was coming south and east from numeria might supersede that depending on details that they couldn't predict.

If anything Valerie was concerned about steppe nomad as she was at the possibility of monstrous humanoids being a threat to the realm. The reality of the faire's security was that it was likely to be fairly safe given the presence of everyone. "If anything I believe it is the opportune moment to integrate both the long tails, and now the trolls further into the kingdom," And hopefully cement peace. The old scyamore's communities were regular facets at Shrikewall... the kobolds more commonly so than the mites, but mitish crafts had begun to circulate in the markets as the small fae under the 'wolf queen' began expand their production in order to participate in the newly available markets. This was itself an important development become the silver mine was producing the silver that was minted into the silver currency by Shrikewall's mint for the barony. The coins had a hole in the middle to run a chord through which meant they were slightly larger than the brevic Link piece but was roughly the same purity and weight. The realm had had little reason to prioritize gold coin production though they had the taldan gold mines near old scyamore as well, and there were still plans to examine the hills for further precious metals.
--
Notes: So ordinarily I get quibbly over fantasy swords especially in DND, and adjacent fiction. I don't so much for Iomedae's icon, because its an icon and while a little larger than practical (In stark contrast to most sword art which are generally fuck off huge for some reason), and featuring a hilt type that is both ornate and in a style I ordinarily am not especially fond of Keren Rhinn has a very nice mostly practical sword design.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Gozran 4712
Part of the mystique, the masquerade of Kaessi, they cultivated that caused trouble was when there was a difference in opinions the sisters had. It wasn't just the sweet teeth. Kanerah and Kalikke had different opinions of different members of court... and different preferences on policies, but it was the interaction with the other members of court that had the potential to really endanger their apparent agreement with a servant of Nethys.

It really was quite vexing... probably to all involved, not just Eire. The baron though was unsure how to deal with the problem given the entailed divine servitor's conditions. It was a headache, and one that he was worried about... however it would have to be put to the side for the time being. Whatever the twins situation was it did not seemed to have changed... Akiros, Kundal, and Amiri had gathered with Perlivash to resume discussion on that great lake in the east of the realm.

'Silverstep' the silver dragon didn't seem to have been seen in living memory... well human living memory there were probably elves alive from the last time he had been seen. The Kellid tribes who followed the mammoth herds still kept the memory of the absent silver alive in their stories, and they recited those stories as they travelled. Merchants travelling from the east also spoke of a silver dragon in the Tors of Levenies, but one younger than Silverstep. The Kellids, and also according to Perlivash, the local faerie dragon community claimed she was Eranex daughter of the absent elder... which seemed to lend credence to the Kellid legend that Silverstep had journeyed to 'the otherworld' to be with his fae bride.

That brought them to a handful of other details. Silverstep was, while certainly a wise and old dragon, not the alleged great wyrm who's alleged foot had made the lake. He had apparently made a lair in the region, which it seemed likely he may have passed on to his daughter, but neither he nor she were apparently the only silver dragon in the region. There was no way to be sure, or know, at the moment if the other silver was kin or not.

But the details gathered from the local Kellid tribes, and passing merchants had been something that had ... probably been wise to bring to the attention. The sweet teeth were already on their way to the east... but not going far enough east to reach the lake, that wasn't their goal. They could be on a snipe hunt that would do nothing, but better to investigate the strange reports they had. "One more thing to include to my next letter to Maegar I think." He replied, and while he was grateful to know about this... whether it was Eranex or 'Silverstep' at the lake an adult dragon with twenty or so miles of Varnhold was certainly a detail that their neighbor might do well to know.... assuming of course that the dragon hadn't made herself known. "Thank you for bringing it to me." He paused to turn left to Kalikke, "Have the Sweet Teeth sent word back?"

"Nothing significant. They've charted a ford across the Gudrin river," and left a marker for other members of the barony to use it when they crossed "and are working their way east, but so far they've seen no sign." No sign of whatever mischievous or malicious presence had spooked visitors through the Kamelands. Truthfully they weren't sure what it was they were looking for... but since it was important enough to be carried by visitors it wasn't likely just scared children... but a 'bitter evil wind' didn't tell them much. The moniker 'stolen lands' was pervasive for a country as young as Brevoy, and especially Pitax. The irredentism simply didn't make sense. Brevoy was barely two hundred years old, and tottering on the brink of an increasingly likely civil war... too. Then on top of that was the local Kellids also called this expanse something that could loosely be translated as 'stolen lands'... which made more sense rather than less... they could at least in theory point to some ancient ancestral memory of Taldan expansion.

... except that didn't seem to be the case either. The Taldan tribes didn't specify out anyone, and if anything their stories spoke of a time before Aroden, before the raising of Absalom going back allegedly into the Age of Destiny.

Eire had to wonder if the ancient Iobarian cyclop might not have also called this something along the lines of the Stolen Lands as well. He thought of the cylopean ruins, but so far they hadn't encountered anything that would prove, or disprove that thesis. ... and of course there were questions how accurate of a recounting ancient claims were, how much attention should be paid to them.

He flexed a hand, and the sands changed somewhat... nothing significant, only reflecting the spring weather of the realm... but as the weather continued to warm they were going to have to focus on charting more and more of the barony. They were behind, in no small part due to the trolls, but also the untamed nature of the wilderness. His best guess was that the Iron Wraiths charter, and that of his own and Maegar Varn were roughly the same size. Not that the charter encompassing the Hooktongue was much smaller , but of the three realized baronies, it was the only that sat on a truly developed trade route. It was true that traders did come in through the Glenebon and that Casmaron traders made their way to Restov overland through the dunsward, but not to the same degree that traders had plied the now painfully stifled East Sellen river.

... and that was the other matter... "My caution to Kressle regarding silvers should apply to everyone, trade into the Slough is still being stymied?"

"That is the word." Kalikke responded.

He supposed he shouldn't have been surprised. Hargulka had actually grumbled about not having thought to raid borba shipping to the west as a policy. He'd launched a couple of opportunistic raids last year, but certainly nothing that should have been significant enough to choke trade to a standstill... at least not by itself. Probably more going on... but Eire didn't have the resources to pursue it, though he'd be surprised if the merchants come from the south didn't try and reopen the passage... it seemed absurd not to given the value of trade along the river, and that it would allow direct access to Brevoy's capital and the broader waterway dominated by Lake Reykal.

... but of course there was also the aquatic dinosaurs, among other 'prehistoric' beasts, that seemed to inhabit the Slough, particularly the south. But the complaints hadn't been about monstrous plesiosaurs...

"There may simply be more trolls to the west, but certainly if there are , well beyond our borders." Jaethal declared dismissing the matter... and as with the last time this had come up, Eire felt himself in agreement. There was a border, and gallivanting into Mivon's staked territory, or Drelevs to go on a wild goose chase wouldn't have done them any good.

"And we will leave the matter be, so long as it doesn't come into the domain." and he hoped they didn't. They had too much to do. "I need to know if the tribal migrations change any further, and of course if its at risk of hostilities." They were now pivoting from the western frontier, to their eastern one. From the narlmarches proper to the Kamelands. Thankfully the rivers created natural geographic zones. The area between the Shrike and Gudrin, between the Gudrin, and Little Sellen, both in the west would make convenient administrative regions to focus on.
--
Eire took the time to prepare for the tallies. There were no major Iomedaen holidays that fell within the first several months of the calendar year. Minor observances of increasingly distant Arodenite days that had long sense lost their significance even before the death of the last Azlanti... simply had no point in being celebrated. The celebration of Remembrance day on the blossom moon was the most important, and it fell early in the month this year.

No Taxfest on the ides of Gozran had sufficed as an administrative day as they worked to tally arrears... but even it as a gather better reflected the climate of the Inner Sea rather than the Stolen Lands, but it sufficed as a perfectly serviceable period in the year to collect geld and poll taxes, especially with the recent troll troubles... and of course that had made sense for other practical reasons.

Desna was right around the corner, and that would open the market faire, and mark formal spring time pronouncements of what the realm's tax revenue would be going towards. It was not a fully monetized economy which coupled with the tax income, the distribution of the population, the lack of a developed land holding class ... well having Abadar's church around wasn't quite so bad.

Amiri stared at the ledgers, and looked prepared to bolt from the room at the voluminous records... and even Linzi looked a bit stymied.

"I'd rather a tax on property, and incomes," but that was impractical, and certainly he wasn't going to allow anyone... not that he had anyone else, leave to mint coinage for a fee. That was probably never going to be an issue, as opposed to the use of foreign currency. Then of course there were law fines, which were money paid to the coffers , but truthfully that money was to support riding judges, and and Garress's guards and associated other institutions.

... and this was where the Church of Brigh came in.

"The printing press?" Linzi squeaked jumping up.

"Yes." He didn't have time to work the magic to make the small parts necessary for a functioning steam driven press, or a paige style typesetter... and frankly he'd reiterated that that kind of speed wasn't necessary. The literate portion of the population wasn't going to consume that much written word to warrant such a complex production when a more basic linotype machine.

There was another matter as well which made a faster compositor a problem... that of posting in two languages... so a simpler machine in Taldane was the immediate compromise. A second machine in Draconic could follow suit, but probably not this year... but Linzi would be at least getting a printing press something before summer, if the Church of Brigh's craftsmen could do as they promised... and if they succeeded then Abadar's clergy were likely to be happy as well.

Jubilost wasn't so much 'happy' per se, as intrigued... though he was quick to point out that such a device would require a civil service, bureaucracy to operate it efficiently. Still two years to get to this stage, two years to get to adding a printing press to the domain wasn't a bad indicator of progress.
--
Notes: So we fooled around with the 2E kingdom building rules... and I have come to the conclusion that for the most part I prefer the original ones and on that note what will probably happen is that there will be snap shots at some point down the road of kingdom development over time

Maybe, cross posting to formatting is a bitch, I had that problem with Character sheets idea making that practical. (Posting a Jump Build is so much simpler)... we will deal with that in a couple of updates.

Speaking of updates, the nominal plan for this week is probably to resume JumpChain updates probably tomorrow, and hopefully update the Luxen contracts this week as well.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Desnus 4712
The Spring Faire opening also entailed the annual commemoration of the Stag Lord's defeat... or at least ran through the anniversary as it approached Rembrance day as it fell this year. The stag lord's defeat though meant little compared to other events given the predominantly immigrant population. The, anniversary of the, coronation was the following week, and of course the formal pronouncement of the barony was further later in the year.

Desnus meant a growing volume of tradesmen, and merchants coming to demonstrate their crafts, and ply their wares. All the planting was done, and thus farmers could spent time they weren't engaged in repairing, or weeding indulging in homespun crafts, and the spring market was important... and for farmers using the old methods of farming it was about now that cows began to again produce milk as pastureland became lush and green again. That meant an abundance of fresh milk, and thus cheeses, and butters, and other dairy products.

That was more important because there was a greater demand for food this spring. Not just from the swelling human population, but also to feed the trolls added to the realm. A labor force that could be put to work drawing out rotating fields with more hearty fodder to sustain cow populations in the kamelands in a milk producing state through next winter. For now though there was additional consumption for diary goods from non direct holdings.

Eire suspected that the coinage that Hargulka was using to pay for the foodstuffs... probably originated from Drelev or Minovense sources... particularly given it was largely in Brevic bits, and links as well as less commonly gold crowns, and numerian silverdisks. The latter strange currency had attracted scrutiny and then an explanation from Octavia who had explained their national origin, and so the treasury was exchanging them for equivalents in Narland's own domestically minted silver pieces. He wasn't going to object to their sources so long as Hargulka and the trollish hold didn't engage in any private wars across the border to replenish their coin stocks.

That didn't seem likely, especially not with Hargulka more focused on the actual task of at least for the moment cultivating of agriculture. The plan was to start farming, and animal husbandry and then move towards constructing more permanent settlements rather than having the trolls simply coopt existing ruins... not that it hadn't occurred to him to consider some of the Iobarian remnants.

Hargulka spending coin was good, just as a demonstration of respect for property rights, and that it showed they could be trusted to participate in the civilization they were supposed to be a part of. It was also intended to calm any lingering concerns over the situation, even though it did need to be clear that while Hargulka's people had been brought into the realm that didn't necessarily apply to trolls in the lands beyond their western frontier... or for that matter any other possible other troll tribes, or clans. It was as with most things in a feudal system, in any sort of government system all part of a careful balancing act... and one to be more complicated still.

Shrikewall had no real competition in the realm of tradecraft nearby. New Colton might eventually need to have allowances made for its market days, but it simply lacked the population or the venues to compete, though from a feudal perspective its fey denizens were making an appearance at Shrikewall for the market faire, but for the most part the gathering ground was on the high plateau overlooking the tuskwater and in the plaza that opened out in front of the cathedral of Iomedae. Fair trade and good conduct were being overseen by a combination of Garress's guardsmen and an assortment of clergy.

Official fair duties were distributed predominantly between different cloisters of the Church of Iomedae but Arisinoe and Tristian had both volunteered their respective co religionists as well, and Jhod and a contingent of the Church of Erastil were also in company. Despite having issued cautionary advisories about it Eire had personally been hoping that if any Silvers did show up they might be from within Iomedae's church, or more broadly that any visiting dragons would be members of the Inheritor's church, or at least an allied one... more likely of course were visiting faerie dragons and their presence wasn't really a surprise. There had been no sign of Shaoyu's mother for good or bad... and Shaoyu rushing through the nave of the cathedral with warning of an adult silver dragon was not how Eire would have liked to have opened his time at the fair today.

It really would have been preferable to see the half elf form in the vestments in black and red, or white and gold or any indication that she was affiliated with the church of the inheritor... but that was not the case and the dragoness wore a blue grey gown, and hood. A Silver Dragon in fealty to one of the Fae's Eldest.

Introductions were made.

Eranex daughter of Silverstep... presumably Silverstep the younger if the legend that a Silverstep had made the lake with his foot... and thus presumably were all a continuous lineage of silver dragons... but that wasn't relevant to a visit from his point of view to the present situation.

"Thank you Shaoyu, please go find Jaethal if you wind." The young red wyrmling started to protest but stopped, and then withdrew... probably to tell the Inquisitor that a cleric of Shyka was here with a coterie of faerie dragons in tow.

They took a seat in one of the second floor acloves and so began the story of what had brought Eranex to the River Kingdoms, and the Stolen Lands in particular.

Shyka the Many had sent her subject here because of a lost artifact. It wasn't like this had been Eranex's first resource either, she had been looking for allies, and the news that Restov had a potential undead problem due to followers was the missing 'Count Ranalc', one of Shyka's fellow Eldest, was something Eire knew would need to pass to Kassil Aldori and thus Jamandi.

"And, you could not locate them?"

"I could not spare much time to search for Amvarean, and none could speak to her whereabouts." The fey silver replied, "My next recourse were the human tribes, but Orsig has gathered a concerning number of allies of his own, which has forced me to look further, and further the lakeshore for aid." But time was running out.
--
Eire couldn't claim he was thrilled to have at least the servants of two of the faerie gods warring on his eastern frontier. Ranalc was missing, had been for ... a while... while Shyka had a tendency to just appear whenever 'they' felt like it. "And that is the situation as it is laid out." He declared before offering a sealed scroll to Kassil Aldori that detailed the potential threat from an apparently potent cleric of the missing eldest.

Truthfully if Eranex's report on the Ankou's allies were correct this Ebana might well be more than the Free City might be prepared to handle on short notice... but hopefully Jamandi, and her fellow sword lords could with the Church of Erastil put together some kind of handle to the problem... it would depend on how many mummies and ghasts were running around. It was all that they could do for Restov in the situation. Ebana was not the only ally the Ankou, Orsig, had gathered, and the presence of a Rusalka witch was perhaps the more dangerous threat given that fae breed's inherent immunity to natural fire.

In light of that it almost certainly made sense to send Tristian with Kassil... but the cleric of Sarenrae would need to remain here, and close at hand. Shaoyu had the advantage of the cold iron longsword taken from the tatzylwyrm's small collection of treasure. Eranex had her concerns of facing the Ankou, who's claws were purposefully made to harm other fae, and the Shae would be immune to her breath weapon on top of that.

Jaethal was right. "If what she has said is true then we will need a second party." That was why Tristian needed to be here. Any undead force in the Stolen Lands would need to be dealt with, so Tristian, Regongar, Octavia, and Amiri comprising at least part of a second force with probably Perlivash joining a contingent of Eranex's own coterie of faerie dragons and other fae That would hopefully be enough of a force to block a significant number of potentially ravenous undead that the cleric of Ranalc might have created.

Eire wanted to grumble that if it wasn't one thing it was another, but at least they had manpower in this situation to leave a potent enough force in the capital for the time being. That would once again leave Valerie in command, with Kesten and Harrim available to assist, as well Kaessi, and in all likelihood the sweet teeth, and some additional support to manage the countryside.

Perhaps the best news was that they would be able to sail basically the entire length of the Gudrin river from the Tuskwater, and thus Shrikewall docks, to Lake Silverstep.

"We have one other issue," There was a pause, seemingly for dramatic effect, "that is being overlooked related to recent events."

He turned left to face Jaethal, "And what would that be?"

"The kobolds."

Eranex was a dragon. That hadn't escaped him, but he hadn't considered how the presence of an adult silver might effect either the sootscales or the southern kobld tribes. The latter were less of a concern. They had less of a defined political organization, or at least a less authoritative one because they were less organized and smaller... but with the faire going they couldn't leave Shrikewall immediately , and ducking the kobolds would be impossible to do for the duration... which meant contending with introductions at the very least.

Not have received a verbal acknowledgement Jaethal continued to needle him about the matter for a few minutes.

"No you are correct. I am sure the sootscales must think they live in a time of myths come again." Linzi liked that turn of phrase, and the idea of interrogating... interviewing the various kobolds who lived in the capital about Eranex's visit. While the halfing was enthused by the prospect of doing that she wasn't so excited to leave the council meeting in order to go ask them questions.
--
Notes: This week looks to be increasingly stupid hence I am outline the following tentative update schedule: JumpChain (Probably PJO, not definitive), Luxen Contracts, Highland Faire Interlude, Turning Chapter Conclusion (Against the Tide), Warlord Timeline, Highland Faire 8

The other possibilities are of course this updating again because while I haven't finished Varnhold vanishings arc bout half through, I've got spare content. There are other misc Battletech stuff, there are some other things like for example a cultivator esque reinterpretation of Autumn of Empires that I've been playing around with, JumpChain SG1 resuming updates, HPGENFANFIC. It will depend on how the week progresses.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Desnus 4712
While by no means uniform or flat, the rolling expanses of grasslands that comprised the Kamelands had much wider sight lines than the heavily wooded and varying elevations of the narlmarches, which comprised the western reaches of his domain. With the Tors of Levenies to the east one might have thought the Kamelands would have been drier as a result of the rain shadow but the grasslands were well watered by alpine rivers rlowing down until they joined other bodies of water eventually running into the broader sellen river network that shaped eastern Avistan.

Even for the pair of falls that cut them from directly accessing Restov by direct riverine route, Eire suspected that this route and the broader river network was to be ultimately the shaping feature of the realm. The rivers flowed down from high places, and drained into lakes, and marshes, and worked their way for the most part south.

It was the river and the stones that formed by and large the boundaries of the baronies Jamandi had sent explorations to establish. In the far west the nearest thing that could be said to be Numeria's border was the Sellen River. The idea had been to have the mercenaries who had disappeared form a barony across the glenbon upplands... and it was probable that the Iron Wraiths had simply run afoul of some kellid tribe of nominal numerians who considered them to be in Numeria rather than the 'stolen lands'. The Hook Tongue Slough was fed in the west by the silt strand river flowing down from high hills in the easternmost fragment of the glenebon range, and its eastern extent was well a question mark in a sense because the charter called it where the slough began in the east... and of course his own domain ended in the west with an unclear delineation based off of the Tors of Levenies that referenced various river courses... and Maegar Varn was given leave to settle 'the whole of the Dunsward', for the sake of civilizing influence of course.

Thus in a literal reading if Maegar had wanted to he theoretically, at least from the Brevic recognition of his borders, across nearly three hundred miles of eastward expanse until the Castrovin sea stopped him. Thus technically the Varnhold could be considered the largest of the three in geographical claim. Eire knew that Maegar had distributed landholdings across the mercenaries of his company who had wanted to settle down and those who had wanted to continue the adventurous life of a sell sword had been promised a warm place to retire to if they wished to come in the future. It seemed doubtful that Maegar intended to act on such generous recognition as was in the writing of the charter.

The boat jarred as it beached on the river shore and they could look north east to the great expanse of the lake Silverstep wasn't as large as Lake Hooktongue but it was more massive than the Tuskwater, and by no small margin. While there were certainly rivers that flowed down from the mountains in the distance Eire would have been hard pressed not to agree the lake didn't seem natural.

Was it a dragon's footprint?

He was skeptical, but it certainly had the rough appearance of one. While the tuskwater was deep and clear, Silverstep seemed impossibly clean and clear. It was almost impossibly manicured... Eire assumed that to be the work of the native fae tending the land to explain the lilies, reeds and other lake flora that abounded in picturesque beauty.

... and there was no shortage of fae ranging from the expected faerie dragons, and grigs, to brownies and nixies all waiting for Eranex's return... and abruptly they were surrounded filled with a flurry of chatter in languages that ranged from slyvan, and draconic to the elemental languages of Earth, and Water. Most important among that chatter was the news of political disagreements within the bog dwellers in the north of the lake.

Silverstep, the dragon who had sired Eranex, had constructed his lair in the natural caverns that were part of the Tors of Levenies and had partially submerged sections throughout. It was sufficiently a large enough cave complex that it sustained populations of fae, as well as now unfortunately the followers of the missing Eldest Ranalc who were also seeing to find Vesper's Rapier.

"Is that going to be an opportunity?" Jaethal questioned.

Eranex was mistrustful of the undead, but had thus far tolerated her and in turn Jaethal had largely seen fit to avoid most of the acerbic prodding she subjected paladin esque doo gooders to. That was likely in snow small part because unlike Shaoyu's mother Jaethal faced a much more even fight against the chaotic good dragon in a one verus one encounter. That wasn't to say Jaethal would necessary lose but given the situation they were putting aside their mutual distrust in the face of more pressing threats.

That didn't mean Eranex was necessarily happy allowing the, corrupted, bog nixies to be slaughtered by the fethling clerics undead... and she wasn't the only one.
--
Amiri surveyed the cavern around them. It was completely different than the den of the berserk owlbear its proximity to the portal to the other world meant that there were all varieties of colors put off by luminescent rocks, and plants growing, and it was warm and humid here. She suspected that the caves could have easily held the entire six bears following comfortably here, and then some given they'd only made their way through a fraction of the caves working their way towards the sound of fighting.

A fight that she was eager to throw herself into. The bog nixies weren't their friends and she'd been warned to be aware that they were just as likely to be hostile, but there were also ghasts, and mummies to hack apart as well.

"The connection to the first world has grown stronger." One of the faerie dragons remarked. It was true that all the adult faerie dragons were about the size of house cats, but the ones dwelling around the Silverstep were notably smaller than Perlivash, who must have weighed something like thirty pounds by this point. He was larger in length as well, and the only faerie dragon carrying a satchel, which held his spell book. "The sword will appear soon."

Amiri nodded reflexively acknowledging the comment. She didn't know anything more than folktales about the otherworld, but she'd been told about the magical sword. This place felt eerily similar to the strange hall they had found deep below the old scyamore, the sacred place of the kobold and mites who lived under the tremendous tree. It had always been said amongst the Mammoth Lords that the otherworld was accessed by places beneath the earth.

If the old scyamore's shrine had been a campfire being tended by the small ones... this was a real bonfire, that was still being stoked with dried heavy logs for it. They had divided into the two separate parties moving through the tunnels as the lights continued to pulsate throwing shadows across the floors and reflecting in the pools of water. There was a heavy crash in the other direction, and Linzi who had been sent with them squeaked at the sound. "Was that a cave in, do-"

"They'll be fine." Amiri snapped gripping the handle of her great sword tightly as she spied the first of the linen wrapped shambling undead. They would be fine. They would be fine. They would be fine. As if confirmation fire flashed across the ceiling through the hall and tongues of flame lapped into the chamber. The heat increased. She wiped the sweat from her brow, and waved her sword at the undead, "Kill them all." Then charging forward, "For Gorrum!" She bellowed drowning out Tristians attempt at a word in edgewise.

Rocks slid down the pathway from above as dragons roared. Ice, and flame. Sunbursts.

They had their own battle clearing the eighty odd feet to crash into the undead back end as the eccleuithurge finished his chanting waving the icon of his goddess, though Amiri could not see it, felt the sunlight blaze behind her illuminating the dozens of undead, and nixies that lay in front of her even as the earth shook.

The hideous stench did nothing to deter her from bringing the giant's sword down through the first ghast she reached. This was battle, and Amiri shined in battle. This cave network had been made livable for a great dragon to live in comfortably there was plenty of room for armies of men to fight in.
--
Jaethal would have grumbled that if they had waited a little longer than maybe their enemies would have been further along in their infighting. Would have been weaker. It was clear that they had entered into a fight already begun. The Ankou was clearly deranged... under the influence of some kind of hallucinogenic, or poison that had driven him into a more murderous frenzy than could really be put into words. The emaciating bat like skeleton creature had been slashing at the shae rogues. The fetchling Cleric she was now engaged with had been fighting the Rusalka that was now fighting the silver dragon.

Shaoyu stood over the broken body of one of the rogues. The young red dragon had shed her human form in a blast of purging flame, and killed the second rogue of the trio within the first minutes of the fight. Her tail flicked as she stepped forward to face the bloodied and last of the sisters fire flickering from her jaws.

Jaethal kept her scythe, the favored weapon of her goddess, loose. She wasn't especially worried about the cleric's rapier, so much as the agitated angry pulsing of the portal further behind the hostile cleric. That was what had broken up their clash as the cave continued to shake.

The beserk ankou charged towards the baron's floating figure. Even maddened to the point of insanity there was no question that that monster was the more adroit flyer. Malicious claws sliced out against the red eyed baron's side tearing a nasty wound.

This clash had begun as one of mythic proportions, and seemed intent of escalating to greater heights as the noise from the lower levels became running feet as the others moved to join them. Jaethal would have preferred they stayed away even as the clash in the air resulted in a tussle that ended with the large monster breaking away and flying higher still. They were a hundred feet in the air as it was, and the cavern ceiling was probably at least that above them.

The portal pulsed and them exploded in a flash of silver blue light.

The Ankou shrieked, and Jaethal took the opportunity to launch a bane filled strike against the cleric as her eyes tracked the emerging weapon of the first world. Vesper's rapier was an artifact of the fey wild realms more grown than forged or manufactured by mortal hands. Its blues and grey hues looked as if it had its blade made of pattern welded steel. Its hilt was wrapped in if Jaethal were willing to bet was the mixed hide of black and green dragons.

This was a fight at level that was at the edge of lesser creatures.

Long fingers closed around the hilt, safe in the ornate hand guard. The rapier's blade changed in a soft summer glow becoming wider, into a notable triangular shape in contrast to previous long and narrow taper. Skeletal hands flailed desperately for it as as the ankou attempted to reach for the blade, only for the blade to sweep upward and slash through both of the horned bat creature's wrists. Disarmed, and then with its mouth pinned literally shut by the magical sword the Ankou faced a a thundering death as it crashed into the cavern floor.

The end that, the grisly fate, befell Orsig reverberated through the cavern that felt as if they were under the noon day sun. It should have been the end of the fight, but just to be sure Jaethal made sure to remove the fethling cleric's head with a swift strike of her scythe even as Amiri, Tristian, the little dragons, and the rest moved to join them. Eranex, and Shaoyu had both finished their respective enemies as well.

... and the question was now what. Jaethal wasn't entirely sure that a second fight was going to erupt but the baron had the sword that the silver dragon had been sent to retrieve... and hence her wariness. Eire looked probably worse than he was. The fight with dread Orsig had shredded his wool coat, and vestments, and if Jaethal were being honest the long gouging cuts across his midsection had turned flame red looking like scales where blood leaked.

She stepped forward look at the baron's appearance as the world continued to shake.

Oh enough of the humans had made comparisons that the baron resembled of sorts Tristian, or the Abadar cleric Arsinoe, suggesting Asimar like appearance, but if she were honest, more akin to a regal elf... not quite.

The undead elf cut her musings short as the red eyed lord turned his head slightly to one side and started to speak, "I believe this is yours." He remarked offering the sword hilt first... to someone who certainly hadn't been there with them before.
--
Notes: I think we will mostly follow a similar update schedule as last week.

Next time, as I reiterate in the next segment concludes the spring of this year, but it also marks the introduction of the perks from some of the jumpchain content. It is mythic deeds like this which from out of universe standpoint are what earn 'additional cp' or at least thats one way of looking at it. Milestone rewards.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Desnus 4712AR

Interlude​

In a silver hue the world turned, blues and grays. The sphere turned, but he recognized the shape of the continents, and also the shape of the landmass he had a bird's eye view of.


This was not Golarion. Golarion was an earth like world. One planet in a solar system rotating around a bright little yellow star with other planets in the system.


Earth. Looking through the lens of the First World a realization struck that it was the year 1917 on Earth... which ordinarily would have made his head spin. The simple cold logistics of the math though told him that he had woken in Avistan on Golarion in what would have been 1915. He was therefore prepared to discount his arrival, regardless of how scant his memories were, with the outbreak of the first world war. It didn't explain how he knew that that was going on on earth... that was simply something he took for granted as a facet of being in this place within the faerie realm.


He knew it to be the truth but he couldn't say why for sure he knew it to be so. That was the magic of the first world. That was Shyka's meddling. Shyka's meddling, her hand reaching out to take advantage of something, someone else?


The exception to the filter hue were broken fragments floating. Some were dull, and others still glowed with fragments of some foreign power. Those hadn't come Shyka ... but he couldn't remember... the last memories were rain and thunder, and night.


There was the gap after.


... and speaking of gaps as he looked at the mud and ruined fields of France through the looking glass he knew that even though Earth was very much a real place returning would do no good. A winding long road lay forward here... not here, but on Golarion. The prospect that it was 1917 caused him to consider the brief mental math.


... 1811 ? That would have been the Napoleonic wars in Europe... but he could think of nothing on earth that would have coincided with as catastrophic a set back as Aroden's death... it only reiterated to him that he doubted that regardless of whatever connections, whatever travel across the cosmos was possible that Golarion and Earth as worlds had much contact with one another. They obviously weren't too distant, but the prospect of time travel left him unbalanced...


... he turned away from the mirror view to look across the shimmering surface of Golarion, and specifically a look from a bird's eye aerial view of the mountains and of lake silverstep from high above.


One of the fragments of the broken baubles pulsed weakly. A not so much warning but notice at least that his time in this part of the first world was approaching its end... in this part. That was the important distinction he recognized. Shyka's realm bordered his own. The barrier between the stolen lands ... the border between this realm and the Stolen Lands more so than most of Golarion was especially trend. If he were to guess just looking at it it was because they reflected each other... maybe that was true maybe it wasn't but the Stolen Lands seemed especially reflective. Maybe it was the elf gates, maybe they had been built to take advantage of an existing confluence of factors... whatever the case was Shyka's realm abutted his in more ways than one it seemed.


Of course the First World was a place where it was nearly impossible to be sure of any geographic relation to one another. There were long winding roads and mists, and rivers, and bodies of water, there were forests and mountains that could take minutes to cross or centuries.


... and of course while there were the domains of the Eldest there were also the smaller realms that were more prone to change those of powerful creatures but whose realms were more ephemeral, more likely to change to grow or to disappear entirely.


He stepped on the road's pathway, and found himself walking through a field of stars. The shiny broken fragments and the diminished ones, and the dead baubles followed around. Eire grabbed the flickering one and kept walking. Golarion Avistan, the Stolen Lands, the little kingdom waited. The fragment of a broken sphere gave another weak pulse, fluttering like the twinkling stars surrounding the path as he walked.


Shyka's realm of grays and blues of haze and mirrors gave to bright light, and warmth. Where Shyka's realm had been occupied by buzzing bees, and herds of sheep, and cattle... and very much what struck him as the sights and sounds of a celtic afterlife, otherworld. This new place was warmer... more humid. There was less fog and more sunlight. It like Shyka's realm was dominated by a mountain in the distance... but he wasn't going there. The path would take him where he needed to go, just as long as he kept walking it with a destination in mind.


As morning light streamed on the horizon his mind burned with possibilities for what awaited him. The fragment of a broken orb slowly continued to dim. Pulsing weaker and weaker as the fragment's power was slowly absorbed and its power could be processed into something new.


He walked and walked the road winding down into a valley and by a river, and that river road eventually took him to a lake with waters clear enough to see the bottom. The dull broken glass fragment stopped pulsing but floated away to join the other nine shattered pieces of an orb.
--
The baron stepped through the portal he had departed from looking tired... but no more worse for the wear than when he had left them behind in the dragon's lair He ran both hands through his hair and groaned stiffly.


Jaethal recognized that the battle between the murderous creature would have sapped anyone's reserves after all, the silver dragon had wanted one of them to fight the beast while she dealt with something not quite as dangerous to herself.


The Many's envoy had felt the portal reactivate, but it wasn't as if she'd been particularly far away. Eranex had been searching the great chamber for any indication of her progenitor, to apparently no avail.... which Jaethal found equally annoying since it raised the question of where were two silver dragons instead of just one. It also raised the possibility of the half fey dragon choosing to stick around... for the moment though she had more pressing issues.


"What happened?" Linzi had rushed up pushing passed her robes, to the portal, her quill in hand, "What did you do?"


Quicksilver eyes glanced down, "I had very long conversation with Shyka about the origins of her sword, and the bard who once owned it." He replied. It was more than that, there had to be more than that, her suspicions were born out, as he offered a small bud, and the silver dragon stared in amazement. "The rather to point Mana Plant, though mana flower might be just as accurate. You asked how we would defend Olegton and Candlemere, and Hereford from hostil attack. When these are mature, when they've grown to maturity they'll be able to power heaven's flame barriers protecting all the communities of the realm."


She didn't ask if he knew how to grow them. To be able to cultivate them... to have the seed would have been the sort of thing to make her kinsmen in Kyonin insanely jealous. A single flower bed planted in Hereford's elven keep could indeed probably power wards to protect the entire western frontier.


Jaethal threw back her head and laughed until her side's ached.


Amiri blinked and rounded on the undead elf, "Is she broken? Its a plant, so its magic..." The Kellid warrior trailed off.
--
Notes: This was not originally planned I'm not sure if I'll update Against the Tide today or not. This is a combination of technically three segments, its nominally canon, you can see a mix of both the original drow cyoa origins in it, and the conclusion of this arc. The expended fragment is roughly a thousand CP: See below.

I haven't spoken with the jump maker yet I have some questions and I do have some issues with the structure and features of the Jump but the nominal expenditure of the CP gained from the fragment are included in the spoiler

Spoiler: Spoiler JUMP:KM

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jzrst_Ots68j_fTTGziovpLczyJJQhxm/view

You have 1000CP to get started.
Perks​

Lawful Good:
- Knightly (100CP, free for Lawful Good)
You hold yourself to a higher standard, and it would not do for your dedication to waver in the face of opposition. You gain a high degree of physical and mental discipline, and you'll find that you not only inspire others around you to act with courage, but that you yourself will never be overwhelmed by fear. This does not mean you do not experience fear - rather, such emotions will never cloud your judgement, cause your hands to shake, or otherwise leave you with such deleterious effects.
Undiscounted
- Esoteric Gardener (200CP)
Having a 'green thumb' is not so unusual - there are countless farmers, herbalists, and other such men and women reliant on their ability to cultivate plants, to speak nothing of what experienced Druids can accomplish. But your gifts take on a rather more… varied approach, and your gift doesn't end with mere mundane or common magical plants. Rather, yours is a gift eminently applicable to the nourishing and cultivating of supernatural flora, in particular those with a strong tie to the First World - with all that implies. Plants and other flora will flourish under your hands, and you could grow massive, otherworldly flowers literally luminescent with gathered magical energies as easily as others might plant wheat or potatoes. You know just how to make plants thrive even in hostile environments, and breeding new, often supernaturally augmented, plants is a trivial matter provided you have some time and a bit of fertile soil. And for those who feel that flowerpots and soil are a poor way to power… think again. A single First World flower, in the hands of a true master, can become a threat more insidious and terrifying than an entire army of invaders.

Items​

All items may be bought multiple times if you wish. You may freely import purchased items into existing ones you already possess, provided they are similar in nature. For example, if you have a specific suit you like to use, you may choose to make this the base item for your 'Attuned Artifact' purchase to grant it additional enchantments or abilities. All items are restored or replaced in a week, should they be damaged, lost or destroyed.
- First World Flora (100CP, first free with 'Esoteric Gardener')
The wilds of the Stolen Lands contain more than mundane or even magical plants and wildlife. Thanks to the unusually thin barrier between the physical world and the so-called 'First World' where fey make their home, the Stolen Lands see an unusually high variety of otherworldly plants and unusual, plant-like creatures. With each purchase, you gain a number of seeds,
saplings or other such materials suited for growing one of these strange plant types, including instructions on how to plant and nurture them. You also gain the means to control the more dangerous variants and ensure you don't find yourself (or your friends) on the wrong side of a hungry mass of vegetation. Though this control remains fairly basic and instinctive, given these plants aren't exactly smart, it is usually enough to train even the most primitive of these plants such that they only harm those they're supposed to harm - or those being suicidally careless. You may choose from the following options:
Second, the large, lush petals of Mana Plants are used to collect vast amounts of magical power. Though these plants take time to grow and they are useless on their own, their supernatural nature allows even a single such flower to generate vast amounts of arcane energies. Once grown large enough to fill a small room, this type of plant could power a multitude of arcane enchantments, equipment, and wards across an entire castle without difficulty.

The Kingdom​

Lands And Rule​

Forming the heart and soul of any nation, the territories upon which your kingdom is built are perhaps the most critical aspect to consider. The Stolen Lands, for all their wild, uncharted roughness, provide plentiful opportunities and will make for an excellent foundation to build your realm, but if you're willing to pay the price there are a wide variety of options available to bring your rule to new heights.


- Bountiful (100CP)
The Stolen Lands are a wild, untamed land, with few sites of civilization and barely any infrastructure. But while the region is little more than unmarked canvas on the map, behind its wild appearance lies a remarkable wealth of resources, ripe for the taking. This purchase ensures your entire kingdom is criss-crossed with a wide variety of advantageous quarries and mines, fertile soil or unique spices and crops, old fortifications that can easily be restored to working order, glades and vistas of unusual beauty to inspire bards and attract travelers, and other such locales of interest to a young but ambitious kingdom. The wide variety found in these improvements means improvements to any single aspect of your kingdom will be rather minor, but harnessing these resources provides one of the most reliable and effective ways to improve your kingdom's overall power, prosperity and influence with only minimal effort required.
- Waterways (100CP)
Rivers are the lifeblood of a region, with many towns and cities specifically built along riverbanks for the advantages they provide. Fresh water is quite valuable, fishing is a comparatively fast and reliable source of food, and rivers often enable much more convenient travel both by boat and along the side of the river thanks to (relatively) level ground.
Although the Stolen Lands barely count as being part of the so-called 'River Kingdoms', they are nonetheless criss-crossed with a variety of rivers, lakes, and other bodies of water. With this perk, the advantages of such terrain features are greatly improved. Rivers are made wider and deeper to allow for larger boats to travel their winding lengths, and your territory will become home to a wide variety of smaller streams that improve access to water for both drinking and farmland. You'll be able to easily construct any major towns you like next to rivers to connect them to the rest of your kingdom, with each gaining the benefits of piers, ports or even a lighthouse. You could even use the water for defense - creating moats around your cities or
heavily defended bridges across rivers that are otherwise hard to cross will not be a challenge for your people.
- Enchanting Wilderness (100CP)
The untamed lands of the Stolen Kingdom contain many dangers… but they contain many wonders as well. Fey glades where the wondrous and eldritch denizens of the world gather, ruined towers and fortresses of ages long past, magical pools whose water carries traces of arcane power… your kingdom has many such places now, and while they'll never be truly safe, they are overall very much a boon to you and your people. The wildlife might become more friendly thanks to heightened intelligence, fairy lights lead lost children home more often than they lead travelers astray, and the various otherworldly flowers and herbs that grow in the secret places of the world can make for excellent folk remedies, for example.
- Fey Realm (300CP, requires Enchanting Wilderness)
Although denizens of the First World do venture out onto Golarion on occasion, few stay for long unless they are particularly motivated or their new home is especially welcoming. With this upgrade, your kingdom's entire territory is shifted slightly closer to the First World, making your realm exceedingly popular as a place to settle - be it temporarily or permanently - for any Fey interested in the realms outside the First World. The esoteric plants and animals found in the First World become far more common, giving your entire realm an otherworldly and at times almost dream-like feel.
Unlike the effects of 'Enchanting Wilderness', these boons are not limited to the wilder and unsettled areas of your kingdom, and indeed the greatest benefits can be found in centers of civilization where people from all walks of life interact. Further, although Fey are often capricious and unpredictable, this upgrade wholly manifests as purely beneficial effects, altering and improving countless facets of your nation... though the exact details will depend on what kind of realm you rule and what other upgrades you've acquired for it.
Just to mention a few examples, a kingdom focused on strong defenses and fortifications might find its city walls threaded through with gigantic, thorny vines and poisonous flowers to ward off sieges or 'grow' temporary fortifications overnight. Illusory fog could disorient bandits and other hostiles while leaving traveling merchants and townsfolk unaffected, and your scouts might be accompanied by nymphs who could track a target by literally asking the plants surrounding them for directions. A content Owlbear could plow a farmer's fields as well as four draft horses put together, and the fishermen working the Tuskwater would be more than happy with Nixies guiding their fishing boats to the richest grounds for trout, eels, or oysters. Your Bard's College could see Satyrs teach music lessons as a Dryad or two shares the beauty of dance with any who wish to learn. Plus, the economic impact of ready access to First World fruits and produce is matched only by the cultural impact of the culinary feats made possible with them! In short, this upgrade provides minor improvements to your entire kingdom, enhancing all other upgrades with a small but noticeable - and potentially rather bizarre - change to their effect.

Economy​

Purchases from this section focus on the prosperity of your kingdom - offering improvements to trade, enterprise, and the overall wealth of your subjects.
- Marketplace (Free)
Serving as a center of commerce and the economic heart of the city, the Marketplace is the place to be if you're looking to buy (or sell) anything in particular. With shops ranging from food merchants selling produce harvested at nearby farms to exotic merchants trading in magical items from far-off lands, there's a wide variety of things for sale… though at least initially, you'll find far more of the former than the latter.
Your capital, and any other cities you might rule over in your kingdom, come with such a plaza or field, forming the basic backbone of your economic infrastructure. Though initially you'll have only very limited goods available, as your kingdom grows and prospers you'll find that you'll attract more merchants, gain access to a wider variety of goods, and you might even find yourself with occasional opportunities to set up exclusive trade deals.
If nothing else, the Marketplace will benefit from any other upgrades you buy for your kingdom - 'Bountiful' might ensure a wider range of raw materials, resources, or food, for example, and the magical institutions from 'Foci And Formulae' might open a shop or two where one may find magical items for sale.
- Safe Travels (200CP, free for Lawful Good)
A nation does not end at its cities' walls, and you'll find that the roads and farmlands that crisscross the wilderness of the Stolen Lands are at least as important as the grand institutions of the capital. With this upgrade, you gain the advantages of a much better protected travel system to support your people. Where before you might have had mere dirt tracks and muddy paths leading to your villages, now you'll have roads made with cobblestone or even granite setts - allowing for far faster and easier travel all year round. You'll likewise gain high-quality stone bridges over any rivers that might otherwise form obstacles, including a small garrison for protection against hostiles, toll collection, and other such economic and safety concerns. As your kingdom grows and prospers, you might even find yourself with easy access to watchtowers and other small outposts to keep the roads safe, further reducing the risk of banditry, goblin infestations and wild animal attacks alike.

Society​

Options in this section focus primarily on who your people are, rather than merely what they do. If you want to guide your people to a certain sense of identity, specific moral values, or to otherwise gain more fine control over their outlook on life, the purchases here will get you started.
- Nurture (100CP)
Mighty fortifications and rich treasure vaults might all speak to the imagination, but for true greatness in a kingdom you need to look beyond things made of stone and steel. The living, breathing side of a kingdom serves as an immensely important aspect of daily life, ranging from farms and livestock to the trees and gardens used to liven up the cities of your realm. With this upgrade, your kingdom receives an overall boost to using natural things, both in terms of growing plants and animals as well as finding more creative or appealing uses for them. Farmers are more skilled and produce more food, herbalists and gardeners provide a wide variety of folk remedies, and skillfully crafted city gardens and even a park or two can provide a remarkable improvement to the overall serenity of your lands and the happiness of its people. You'll probably be able to set up dedicated breeding programs for horses, dogs, and other such animals with little difficulty.

Some of the text is simply retained for sorting, and reference, but the formatting borked during copy and paste.

Spoiler: Songless KM Other Freebies

Class And Kit (Free) To be a Pathfinder is to have potential, and you're no different. You don't have much of a choice, really - the challenges and opportunities you'll face are unsuited to lesser men and women. You gain a single level for any (starting) Class available in the Pathfinder:Kingmaker game, and are ensured the ability to further hone these skills through practice, overcoming challenges, or whatever other methods you use to better yourself. You can choose the approximate details for this initial level, such as being specifically a Sylvan bloodline Sorcerer - though you cannot change these choices after you've made them.

Attributes (50CP, first purchase free) Like any other adventurer, the life of a Pathfinder has certain requirements for one to thrive in this line of work. There is no room for the slow, the dull, the weak - except perhaps as a corpse to be found for the more competent group who comes after. Consequently, you will, pretty much by necessity, excel in at least one particular physical or mental ability - strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom or charisma. With each purchase, you guarantee yourself peak human (or peak elven, halfling, or whichever of Golarion's races you might be) ability in one attribute, which will become a sizable boost to this attribute if you are already capable of reaching such heights (or beyond) without this Perk. This improvement is roughly equivalent to those gained by wearing some of the most potent magical items, and stacks with any other such boons you might possess. The first, free, purchase of this perk always applies to one of the ability scores that is most important for your chosen profession and Class, such as Dexterity for a Rogue or Intelligence for an Alchemist. Repeat purchases may be applied to any attribute not yet improved.

Basic Adventurer Gear (Free for all)
Though extremely simple, even the most legendary figures usually start with rather humble beginnings such as these. This collection includes a well-made but otherwise mundane weapon of your choice (including a sizable amount of ammunition such as arrows if required), a comfortable suit of armor such as studded leather or chainmail, various camping supplies including a few food rations, and a map of the Stolen Lands with a mere handful of landmarks filled in. It's enough to get you started, though you'll really want to get better gear as soon as possible.

The Capital (Free) The largest city that forms the heart of your kingdom, the capital is the seat of your power, and is usually the oldest and most powerful city under your rule. That said, by default it starts off as little more than a small collection of wooden houses and dirt roads in the middle of the Stolen Lands, with barely any other signs of civilization nearby. The capital comes with a decently-sized amount of territory around it, though most of it will (initially) be largely untamed wilderness. Its population is small, but your people are tough and determined to make a life for themselves here. Your 'court' will initially be little more than a large, wooden hall that mostly keeps the outside cold from creeping in. In short, it's... a humble start. But though you may begin with little, your kingdom could grow to glorious heights of power and influence if you play your cards right. The Capital will slowly grow in size and sophistication as your kingdom thrives and grows more powerful, be it as you put in the time and effort during your stay here to guide it to such grand futures, or because you took a head start by purchasing additional advantages further in this section. In time, you could rule from a magnificent palace, with the stonework streets outside clamoring with countless travelers, merchants, and others citizens under your rule. You will only have one capital in your kingdom, for obvious reasons, and this option can only be taken once.

The Tavern (Free) While your palace may be the point from which the land is ruled, and the various town halls provide more local leadership, it's the tavern which usually forms the (unofficial) heart of the various settlements in the Stolen Lands. Serving as a place to rest and relax after a hard day's work for the local population, a meeting point for merchants, travelers, and other outsiders, and the focal point of more than a few events of note, these structures are indispensable in maintaining a society's sense of belonging and community. Your capital and any further settlements you might possess come with such a meeting place, including the ever-present ale, food, and gossip one would expect from such an establishment. It's a good place to catch up on news and rumors, or simply to get some well-earned relaxation away from the hardships of ruling your kingdom. The Tavern may or may not (eventually) come with an Owlbear carpet and various other trophies, depending on your own exploits. Perhaps you'll find a few new surprises if you return after an adventure or two...

 

[Imperator Pax]

Desnus 4712 AR
The boat ride home had been simple, absurdly so in the face of everything. The Gudrin had carried them swiftly home to the Tuskwater and to the shores of Shrikewall's lake town... and that dream like voyage, or a brief 'quick travel' which turned into the quagmire explaining to everyone who hadn't been there.


It wasn't really possible to remember what Shyka the many looked like. The Eldest changed appearances all which were equally true to their existence. Vesper's Rapier was the Eldest's sword... because Vesper was Shyka... except wasn't Shyka... because...

... Amiri threw threw up her hands and grunted in exasperation as she tried to wrap her head around it... and then quit. Then she decided that she wanted no part in the first world's madness, or that of their native gods. Eranex the Dragoness was fine, and perfectly relatable but for Amiri things were getting too confusing.


The followers of the other, the missing Eldest had been dispatched. Though, that did raise questions about their patron... but Count Ranalc had been missing by at least as late as the 3rd​ century by Aroden Reckoning.... which of course raised many questions... if not earlier.... which again was way too long for Amiri to concern herself with. She was more concerned with the effects it had had on the baron not the missing god.


Ranalc had been potentially missing for four and a half thousand years... so... certainly who knew what that meant... and of course as had been brought up by Jubilost, "Ranalc's favored weapon was a rapier. Is I suppose," He spared a glance to the inquisitor. There was also the fact that the missing eldest, inspite of his long absence his clerics still drew the ability to cast spells, as Jaethal could firmly attest... and truthfully the inquisitor wasn't sad to see the silver dragon depart... but it still left them with the question of the other missing silver dragon... and she suspected that the baron would want to mount an expedition to locate the dragon sooner rather than later.

... though at least they were waiting until they had fully recovered. Jaethal was unsure of what manner of boon that the many handed Eldest had laid on the baron, but the truth was that they had still needed to withdraw back to the capital... and of course their return meant contending with the usual business of the barony, and the realm... and of course naturally explaining, as they were doing now, what had happened in the east.

"In addition to the matter of Amvarean's disappearance, and lack of response to Eranex's call for aid, that will need to be investigated. It seems unlikely that Eranex's sire will return to the lake, and Eranex herself did not specify when she might return, but all the same the Lake is a part of the realm. It would be I think prudent to settle a small community on the lakeshore, but for the time being the road from Nettle's crossing to Varnhold takes priority."

The swirling animated sands now stretched into deep gray peaks of the tors of levenies surrounding on three sides the perfect cerulean blue of the lake's representation. Among other features were small occasional bands of travelers. Caravans of and tribes... a mix of merchants and migrants. They ranged from a band of the kellid bonegrass tribe encountered coming south, the 'white stallions' a horse riding tribe of iobarians south of the little sellen, to a procession of Keleshite merchants making their way to restov, to still other varieties of the races of men from east, west, north and south.

The shrike cascades were only one waterfall that made going upstream directly to Restov impossible by boat. Further north still was a series of falls thus a direct river route could not exist. Instead with the East Sellen still closed to traffic, and the Shrike cascades and crooked falls stopping the river the road to Olegton and its spur that joined the south rostlandic road was the quickest overland route from the rivers.

That had brought traders and the people who followed them. This had become the normal procession of the summer approach. Merchants came, and went. With the East Sellen closed to them Mivon had reason to send people up river, and overland to directly commune with their more northern brethren who had chosen to remain in the homeland after the conquest.

Truthfully Eire suspected that the 'Houses', as in Houses in Exile, had in part come to see how much of a mercenary trade might be needed even though the troll situation had been resolved. He couldn't be sure, but he suspected that the situation in the Drelev demesne remained tense. It also wasn't as if Mivon wasn't their own southern neighbor coming to call again as summer approached.

Jaethal's native Kyonin had once stretched far beyond its present borders... admittedly though they shared a name, and the elves were long lived it was hard to really consider them the same political entity... rather that modern Kyonin, and the old empire, shared the name and demographic. Even though they weren't 'really' apart of the 'River Kingdoms' proper they were bound to all by their connection on the great network of waterways that comprised the Sellen.

They had survived another year as a recognized realm in the river kingdoms. Even Jaethal agreed that was something to celebrate, even if there was only so much that as an undead elf that she could derive pleasure from.
--
The boat ride down the tuskwater, to Candlemere had allowed them to visit the now active Longtails, but their destination was further up river, and around the bend in the Murque. Hereford, and specifically the Elven keep. The cleric of Findeladlara, the Elven goddess of architecture, the 'guiding hand' had surely had a temple here... at least a shrine... but there was little that remained and if one were to be honest not even those most recent miscreants had been the ones to deface it.


Nothing remained, and if a new temple was to be built, well there were going to need to be more elves. The humans who had been settled at Hereford had erected a church of Iomedae. Hereford was many things, but it was not Shrikewall in miniature. There were broad similarities on the surface, but both being built utilizing high ground and ancient ruins did not copies make.


In the time sense he had last visited the industrious settlers had cleared enough to allow access to an alpine lake within a mile of the main course of descent of the murque, with some further dredging they might even be able to make taking a boat directly to the lake. That also gave them access to the the elven gate nearby as well.


For today though there was an important part of interior work to be done within the old elven outpost, a bit of further restoration. It was true that by last year all the debris had been cleared, and now new roofs were capping the towers. It would have been simpler to built gate house in the large gap but instead the painstaking work to repair the thin walls to elven specifications had followed.


That meant the restoration of the pre earth fall habit of interior glass, and also the beds of largely decorative plants... it seemed very unlikely that whatever however the ancient elves had lived they had been able to grow major grain stocks indoors in such confines. It was possible that things like strawberries and asparagus had been grown but Eire doubted that on aesthetic reasons. This was in technical definition a fortified residence, it had been a castle, it had a keep, it had walls, but it was not some sprawling crusader fortification. It was the border, or a watch on a trade route perhaps, but even at its peak even as they continued to dig, and plough and clear land he doubted they would ever find evidence it had been more than a border outpost's footprint of a time or a kingdom before the starstone had fallen.


Hereford was not Shrikewall in miniature and nor did he want it to be. Hereford was positioned at a higher elevation than Shrikewall. It did sit on as useful of trade routes in the modern era. It wasn't going to enjoy the same kind of commercial or agricultural productivity. Eire recognized that even as he nestled the small seedlings into their raised beds. The dreams that earth was out there, were somewhat dimmed by the knowledge that they were even now engaged in the greatest tragedy of the the 20th​ century, the one that would lead to all the others.
--
Travel times were improving now that routes were charted, boats were available, and there were at least the beginnings of a common road system. Eire had been forced to turn his attention away from the further proposed work on the western frontier, that was to say the restoration of the Bronzeshield fortress, because Jaethal was a towering font of rage as she came through the door. This was supremely unusual for Jaethal and immediately alarmed her wizard retainer Bartholomew Delgado, as well as Linzi.... even more so as the undead tossed a battered looking half elf to the floor in front of him.

Eire made a pointed gesture of looking at the half elf, which somewhat lost its... its intended effect as Shaoyu immediately mimicked the gesture. Seeing their expressions the half elf nodded slightly, "If you would allow me to explain, let me speak I can explain everything."

"I do hope so Half blood." Jaethal had her hand on her scythe with emphasis, and turned to the members of the council present. "Have I told you the sad story of my death? It is sad most of all because I do not remember how my life ended. I wandered, exhausted, through the wastelands beyond the borders of Kyonin, until I could barely see my path. I stopped to rest, or perhaps I lost consciousness... When I came to my senses, I heard the call of my goddess, returning me from the dead."

"That's terrible... but I don't see what this has to do with this whelp." Harrim grunted looking at the dishevelved half elf. The dwarf clearly didn't appreciate the interruption to his investment in the pet project of restoration of the dwarven fortress.

"I am afraid," Eire started quicksilver eyes narrowed in a calculating gesture, "That this does involve you Harrim. This traveler is an inquisitor of the lady of the graves. You draw that knife and I will burn your soul to ash and ruin." He snarled in blast of draconic malice and the half elf sensibly moved his hand away from the enchanted dagger.

The threat prompted Shaoyu to shift her weight and put her hand on her longsword... and she wasn't' the only one, Mouri as well as a handful of clerics from different faiths followed suit.

"Oh, well that explains it then," Harrim shuffled his bulk around the table. "Professional grudge then, Inquisitors from rival faiths. Guess that's why you stuck me with the job." He grumbled, but for all the grumbling Harrim had his flail in his hand as he moved around the table insuring that if Enneo did try something 'smart' he'd be getting Groetus's favored weapon somewhere unprotected in short order. "Alright boyo lets hear what you have to say for yourself?"

Enneo swallowed standing up, "Ah well its true I am an inquistor of blessed Pharasma, but I am also a travelling merchant." The attempt at an explanation was rewarded with skeptical looks all around.

"Should I go get Arsinoe?" She paused her voice hitting a higher squeak than even her normal tone, "Maybe I should get get Kaessi to come?" Linzi asked.

Truthfully he didn't wish to bring the church of Abadar into this, especially since Eire suspected that they would confirm that Enneo did engage in lawful commerce... and had probably paid his taxes to do business in the market square... which wasn't going to do anything to to Jaethal's temper.

"Let us begin with the obvious, Jaethal, Half blood or not, this one is much too young to have had anything to do with your mortal end. I suspect more likely someone," Most likely someone of comparable social status and certainly in martial stature, unless Jaethal had become dramatically stronger after departing the elven realm, "in Kyonin deemed your exile too light a punishment and Pharasma's church takes umbrage with your reanimation." The look on Enneo's face somewhat confirmed where he stood... not that the fanatic wasn't appalled by Jaethal's past crimes in Kyonin, but Jaethal was centuries old, an elven noble woman and powerful member of Kynonin's court while Enneo had only been born around the time of her exile. "Yes, Linzi, go find Kaessi and see if she knows if any clerics of Pharasma are with the Orsirion trade mission..." He really didn't want to rely on the Kyonin delegation, "I need one of them to swear to take responsibility for this one." ... and hopefully they would make this problem go away.
--
Notes: This is more or less the conclusion of Spring 4712, and addresses Jaethal's companion plotline, specifically because I never really got the Enneo plot... from the way I remember the game, and I could be misremembering It didn't seem like Enneo could have been Jaethal's original murderer. And here, it makes more sense that Jaethal was killed by some rival elf from back when, and thats what I'm going with, but we will be opening varnhold vanishing with summer 4712. [That also goes to Jaethal is an elf and the problem of time span / her life time]


As it currently sits about ten to twelve thousand words have been done for Varnhold vanishing, thats not in a finalized publishing format, and only really covers part of Sarenith 4712. The CP expenditure dubbed Alternate A is probably the more likely one to be used, putting off fey realm for when the transition, or after, the realm is actually a kingdom with a king. Obviously though as mentioned Summer will begin and start the Varnhold Vanishing Arc.

I may do minor revisions to this, but it does follow on the previous segment with the implied planting of mana flowers at the elven keep at Hereford in the western narlmarches

 

[Imperator Pax]

Arc 3 The Varnhold Vanishing​

Sarenith 4712
Desnus had come to its end without much more excitement, and he would have liked if it had stayed that way. There was work to be done. Sarenith was traditionally the month of the first harvest, the summer harvest, while in two months the larger wheat harvest would come in over the course of Arodus as they made preparations for the coming winter.

High summer had arrived, and Eire supposed that it had been too much to hope for for a quiet season. It was the busiest part of the calendar year, and thus being informed Jamandi Aldori had sent a letter was ... a headache before he had even had time to reach the hall. It wasn't as if he absolutely needed to oversee construction efforts, the truth was there was enough construction going on in Shrikewall that he couldn't possibly have been everywhere to begin with.

"Greetings from Restov and congratulations on your triumphs. I hope that we are entering a time in which these lands will be called stolen only in history texts! Yet it would seem that for all your victories, your fellow colonists to the east have met with trouble. The settlers of Varnhold are not responding to messengers – and indeed, some envoys have gone missing as well. You may have noticed this on your own, but as the political climate here in Restov grows more turbulent, we find ourselves in creasingly limitted in the amount of aid we can send. Certainly, we cannot send troops south to Varnhold to investigate without our overly watchful lords to the north misinterrpeting the act. And so it falls to you, I fear, to investigate the Varnhold myster. For if something dire has befallen the colony you must realize that your own could be next!

Trusting in your discretion and experience,
Jamandi Aldori – Swordlord of Restov."​

The note was both short... and at the same time longer more formal, more highhanded, more grating than it needed to be. "Is it accurate?" He asked, "Have we lost contact with Varnhold?" It was a silly question to ask. Even outlined in Jamandi's letter was the issue at hand.

Maegar Varn had settled much of the Varnling Host onto lands of his western most territories sheltered by the Tors, and watered by the Kiravoy river. Those were predominantly fighters, and warriors. There was no significant volume of wizards, no excess membership of clerics. It was not a burgeoning magocracy. Communication depended on couriers largely travelling on if they were lucky dirt path through the wilderness. It took probably a rider a week to reach Varnhold and that was with the benefit of a road, and then another to get back unless they'd been entrusted with magic like word of sending items... and frankly Restov might have been a free city but it wasn't especially magical either.

A rider, the first or second messengers could easily be waylaid by common bandits or other normal threats... so initial alarm might not raise.. A messenger being late similarly wasn't a particular immediate concern of worry. They could be late in either direction by a few days. This had been the norm for sending messengers from Olegton to Restov, or messengers from Restov making their way down from Olegton... but it had not been the way Olegton, or the Temple of the Elk, Hereford, or Tatzlford communicated important affairs to Shrikewall that was accomplished by magic, or for less critical messages a trip down the Thorn, Shrike or Skunk rivers.

Even though in Oleg's case that meant sending a rider to Akiros's fief to send a man down river. Less pressing messages still came overland, but the waterways had become the principle arties of communication and trade. That was even when accounting for the road that they had made to link Shrikewall from the River Crossing, the joining of Thorn, and Shrike, to the Old Scyamore, now to the gold mines and up to Olegton that then appended the South Rostland road... and that road was useful but it was predominantly for trade that passed from the Tuskwater up and out to Brevoy.

Settlements could communicate important messages to the baronial seat, where no such apparatus existed for communicating with the Free City of Restov, or with the Varnhold. While Eire was used to travelling to other parts of the domain, Silverstep, or before that in the west, had'd become used to simply using magic to communicate with the towns of the Narhold.

Still if there was some sort of crisis then even if there had been a magical infrastructure to facilitate communication then perhaps it had been the most obvious point of attack... but more likely given the Varnling Host's composition that simply hadn't been a priority for Maegar not with more than a thousand men who needed to be settled onto their own farm plots and who knew what other responsibilities that went along with it.

Suffice to say there had been no word from Varnhold as high summer approached, and Jamandi's letter was the first indication that they might need to be concerned about it, even if it came off as a little shrill, and rather obnoxious.... but it didn't meant that Jamandi might not have a point.

If it wasn't one thing it was another.

Maegar had been born into a brevic noble house, but had not been in the line of successions, his older brothers would have had to predecease him, and without heirs and given Androth Varn was alive it seemed a doubly unlikely situation. That didn't absolutely discount trouble in House Varn's issian homeland, but it was unlikely. Iobaria's native perils were a much more likely explanation, the centaurs, or the nomadic horse riders , attacks by some race of monstrous humanoids could all have explained a short lapse in communication. Disease might as well... but a completely lapse enough to warrant Jamandi's reaching out seemed extreme.

"Oh, first Drelev against Hargulka, and then we got to meet Eranex, what could Lord Maegar have found? What challenge waited him?" Linzi's statement was accompanied by the excited waving of the long tail of her quill moving from the air. "Its a brand new adventure."

She was probably right, but the truth was Eire had a suspicion that his warning about cyclops hadn't been heeded.
--
The truth was that in the normal day to day administration Kassil Aldori was simply one more member of the court... and Eire did hope that the young half orc was learning something about the business of administering a realm, but truth was the young swordlord was still unpolished in the ways of war... and dueling skills would only have taken him so far. It had proven safer to keep him close at hand... and as had become the case a matter of course just to send him to Restov to find out what was going on the Free City.

He had useful insights. The ongoing tensions between Issia, and Rostland, the north and south of the country had been building ever since the disappearance of House Rogarvaria and the Varnhold had been a place that Jamandi had apparently hoped might prove fertile ground for a school of dueling.

What he couldn't tell them was anything about any potential enemies that Maegar might have had, or threats that might have posed a challenge. Nothing that stood out. The centaurs were a potential threat of course, and had always been 'unruly' and the iobarian tribes had already been discussed especially given the broader talk of kellid and iobarian tribes flocking to some new Tiger Lord banner.

Something for later. Eire found himself nodding, "Once we will have to divide our labor. Jaethal I would have you remain here," For among other reasons that he wanted to avoid any issues with Pharasma's church. He hoped to maintain good ties with the Orsirion trading delegation, their cotton was useful for making finished clothing and other goods... but also just to avoid unnecessary conflict. That, and Jaethal was a reserve against other threats, particularly from the west. Valerie, and Kesten would remain in the capital. Jhod hoped to speak to the Erastilian high priest of Restov but Ezvanki was visiting the temple of hte Elk so hopefully the old priests could find out other news. Assuming of course there was other news.


That geographic distinction was another matter. It summer now, time to take in the harvest, time to sheer sheep. It was also a key point in the distinction between baronial farms and their Erastilian, traditional, counterparts largely on the basis of crop rotation and better infrastructure facilitating all year around activity. This year, or what should have been this year was with the aid of giantish labor and cratfsmen were the expansion of that infrastructure. It was the sort of change that in the long run would further distinguish the old brevic timber construction, and sod houses further from the baronial long house and log cabin houses. Particularly as more and more bricks became available for baronial construction projects, and masonry stone allowed larger homes and workplaces to be heated from central hearths, and furnaces.

It was the sort of focus Eire would have preferred to watch, but his attention would need to pivot eastward, and up into the Varnhold pass, "Do we know how complete the road is?"

"No your grace, our own effort haven't reached border yet either."

... and there was no telling how far along Maegar's portion of the road was, but in their own defense they had needed to cross rivers, and to link to the old Taldan road of Sorrowflow that had dragged out construction efforts, even if it had made sourcing paving stones much easier in the long run, and thus diminished the chances of washouts.

"I will take a party to Davik's crossing and on to Davik's work camp," The undead was making good progress, more impressive really than had been expected, but he needed to connect a number of known, but unpeopled locations in addition to the border, "and make our way along the Crooked river from there and into the hills of Nomen," That was the geographic distinction made, it was the northern portion of of Maegar's realm, before they gave way to great iobarian steppe that was the Dunsward. "We will move to investigate Varnhold, and send word back." Eire was relatively sure what was likely to be found.

He counted off the young hell knight, Svetlana's sister, and directed them to assemble a small force of armsmen and placed them under Amiri's direction for if they needed to reinforce or otherwise secure the settlement.

"So its definitely something bad then?" Kressel asked.

"That is our working assumption." He agreed casually. He'd be leaving Akiros, Kundal, Octavia, and Regongar to watch the western frontier in broad zones but they were also supposed to try and piece together what was going on with the nomadic kellid tribes and their migration.

Ordinarily he wouldn't have taken the Order of The torrent's small collection of Armingers along with the young knight away from the capital, but he suspected it was probably best to bring Mouri as a reserve of conventional martial acumen... especially since she had volunteered in the face of an entire 'kingdom' disappearing.

The dunsward was a vast expanse, and... "Your grace?"

"If no immediate culprit seems apparent, if we have no clear answer, I am going to attempt to locate the silver dragon Eranex spoke of, or at least indication of what became of Amvarean." Whether that would actually yield answers, he didn't know about it would take them south into the Tors of Levenies... but that was all he was going to commit to in public planning thus far... they hadn't even reached Varnhold yet.
--
Notes: Though obviously we haven't gotten there yet, I do want to go ahead and address the issue of the World Wound / Wrath of the Righteous event that will be going on in somewhat the background. I am counting the 5th​ Mendevian Crusade as taking place from Arodus 4713 to its conclusion in 4718 with the ritual to seal the worldwound. That will largely be on the background and as a facet of kingdom building less than running through the events of the game or the AP proper, though Galfrey will make an appearance in summer of 4713, as will potentially others.

However as it sits, I'm sitll outlying the general course of the roughly five year long fifth crusade, and the knock on effects of demon attacks in Numeria that are referenced in the AP as a byline (along with implied other attacks) but demonic incursions into numeria down the sellen are the ones we care about in this time frame.

Additionally I bit the bullet, and bought the thirty bucks companion PDF its a 130 pages, so I still think its expensive for digital content, frankly for that price I think it should be larger, (and that all companions should have the full write ups rather than relegating Jaethal and Harrim for example to 'secondary companions') but it is other than the price point not a bad book. There are some things I'm going to use from it, and from the second edition kingmaker book, but not necessarily one for one.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Sarenith 4712
Davik Nettle closed the simple shrine up and locked the small model city behind little wire gates. They'd had a lot of work to do today. Good honest work. Abadar be praised.

He didn't sweat any more. That was certainly a plus to being one of the undead... the ability to meld into bodies of water was ... well useful ish. Davik Nettle had never been a particularly strong swimmer even as a young man, so it was little ironic that in undeath he was so much more capable in the water. In life he'd been somewhat religious, at least to Abadar in hopes of getting a fair shake, and he'd mostly lived according to the tenents of the keeper of the keys... but he wasn't going to pretend he'd lived perfectly

Certainly he hadn't been an exemplar of feudal loyalty. Courts were for kings, and the dragon had two heads, and frankly House Rogavaria hadn't done much for him... and the Issian bastards sitting the throne these days had done even less. So he'd moved south out of the lands of House Garess when it'd come time to look at retiring and he'd built his simple bridge...

the original bridge had been wrecked when the Stag Lord had killed him, and the new bridge wasn't quite so simple. Miss... Lady Kressel, probably more appropriate to call her that, hadn't objected to him establishing a small devotional shrine to Abadar... it was funny how undeath made one a bit more keen on staying on the gods goodside.

... and quite frankly given the pace of the work, and what all that they'd been able to manage this past month it probably paid dividends to thank Abadar, Water and stone were easier to work with. The waterways and the earth just seemed to be turning civilized. A blessing to be sure.
--
He folded the missive that had been coming by merchant word of mouth. It wasn't the sort of important news that had warranted its own courier, just passing along to the next tradesman bound for Shrikewall willing to carry it.

It was utterly unlikely to have been the culprit but the only news remotely close to the border, was that apparently there had been some goblin troubles of late. The southern brevic village of Nivatka's crossing had been able to deal with it without even needing to petition for aid from Brevoy, and the Barghest had been killed a few weeks ago before the disappearance of Varnhold.

The River Crossing was only about ten miles north east of Shrikewall's shores on the Tuskwater, and probably half that south of the Scyamore. So even as they spoke and horses pulled the transport barges along one side of the Shrike in preparation for heading north for the roughly twenty or thirty miles to Kressel's fief he was prepared for the kobolds already here though.

The River Crossing was not a town per se, but it might one day. It wasn't really a fortification. It might one day be some kind of burgh or another sort like that, but for the most part it was more like a way station for travel overland, and the boats passing the rivers. The road that ran along the Shrike crossed the river and then continued into the hills to the Old Scyamore, and then continued north to Oleg's.

They would part with Kassil here. Taking the Shrike as it flowed down from the north until they reached Kressel's domain. This though, was the juncture by which traders who had come up the Sellen moved on to go north overland to the South Rostlandic road and brevoy beyond... it was filled with overland traffic, crawling with merchants relative to what it had been last year, and certainly the year before... in no small part because Hooktongue slough remained closed. The longer Hooktongue remained closed the more incentive he had to expand the road north to Oleg's.

Even if the Hooktongue were to reopen tomorrow and Hannis Drelev removed his head from his oh so noble posterior then there was still plenty of reason to keep expanding the road. A highway running through the old scyamore and the communities around the great tree made sense, because there were veins of previous metals, gold and silver that had been discovered by the ancient Taldan that were being put back into the use. Sootscales, and Mites also had access to coal, and iron in the south east especially, and thus this was a region to expand. It was what he would have preferred to have been focusing on, but a major portion of Feudalism was the role leadership played in providing for collective security.

... and so flew a banner bearing a starburst ringed crowned lion, longsword and orb.

Unlike with Shrikewall there were few indications of Brevic architecture. Heavy a-frame style timber structures took shape on the western banks of the Thorn river, and large stones had been excavated as well. Men had dug a foot down, moved the dirt into dugout frames hammered it down to build simple dykes, and used the natural clay beds to form shallow flows that were still deep enough that they could float low draft barges. The winches pulled up craft north of where the two rivers met and could be offloaded and put onto wagons. A baronial granary stood stocked with fodder for horses. This was completely unlike what one might find in the north. It still wasn't quite a fort though...

Another, still blunt, letter Restov, the Lord Mayor in this case though in agreement with the Swordlord's council, was quick, and all too ready to blame the problem on the Nomen Centaurs... but even if they weren't to blame the Free City was eager to have the problem addressed if possible... either by exterminating the Centuars or forging a peace the swordlords weren't picky. They were more interested in the results than the specifics at this point.

They had been able to confirm one of their own citizens Tomin Hanvaki, had travelled to Varnhold from Olegton for a friendly business venture and had not returned. Tomin's brother Edrist had also carried word that the northern border fort, or southern from the Brevoy perspective, Fort Serenko had been abandoned as well.

Eire was prepared to discount that as related. If Brevoy was loosing border forts surely that would have warranted a mention from Jamandi, but there was no point in ignoring it. Something to have Kassil Aldori inquire about when he visited his mother.

There was a slightly other sort of problem. Unfortunately in outlying his contingencies before they had departed Shrikewall, moving up the Shrike to the River crossing with the intention of continuing up to Kressel's fief at Davik's crossing the word had reached the sootscales, and the Mites, that they were going to visit a silver. For the mites it was mostly a matter of gemstones and such rather than fascination their Kobold neighbors had with dragons in general, but excited kobolds meant excited mites and vice versa that was just how old scyamore was.

That created for them something of a clamor to work through, even as Amiri attempted to shout the growing crowd into order. This was not Shrikewall direct access to the feudal overlord was a thing to capitalize and make good on, especially when they were beyond the boundaries of the capital where most meetings could be structured more formally.

Eire worked the spell to cast word of sending to Valerie back within said capital and at least apprise her of the word regarding Serenko's abandonment. The barghest's defeat, and and the disappearance of Hanvaki he added more as an afterthought even thought it was unlikely that Valerie would need to act on such information, but he included in the magical message for the sake of completeness.

"Now," He replied looking at the sootscales, "Yes to address your questions." They were simple questions. The kobolds were a dragon obsessed lot, and were eager for word about friendly dragons especially. There seemed to have been some confusion about if Eranex had returned, but he wasn't sure that the rumor she had wouldn't just resurface because some kobold hunting party might have missed the message and started the whole thing again.

Frankly he doubted Eranex's half sister Amvarean, even if they could find the silver dragon, in this outing would necessarily be as gregarious to the sootscales... but who could say... certainly Eranex had seemed to have been used to having hangers on.... and given that had taken the form of both faerie creatures and faerie dragons that had been of interest to the scyamore denizens... and also to the fae of the old beldame's village.



--
Notes: this is today's update due to extenuating circumstances [unrelated to my buying a switch or getting pokemon violet] the PJO jump's update may be pushed till next week, . I'm not sure where I sit on the current update schedule I need to check some other things.

This was part of a larger segment which I divided, and will probably post the second half friday but obviously part of this can clearly see the start in terms of impact on the realm of that divine shard being absorbed into perks for the realm even though its not as per the jump document instantaneous.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Sarenith 4712AR
The boat ride had been un eventful, allowing them to cover the twenty odd miles of river course up river in the span of a little more than a day. If the warm afternoon of today held then there should have been few if any issues with riding overland except that it was another almost forty miles to the border and crossing over the Crooked river to enter Varndhold pass.

In contrast to the Narlmarches of the domain, at least this portion of Kressel's small hold, in this part of the Kamelands had been erecting largely following Brevic building traditions. It was a mix of Taldane style architecture, was clearly a holdover from the fifth army of exploration's colonists, shaped through the reality of local building materials. Most of the houses had been put together waddle and daub, there were some who's lower reaches had been constructed with field stone and then built up from there, but for the most part Kressel's small hamlet on the northern end of Nettle's Crossing very much resembled Restov in miniature... or would given time to grow into an actual town.. maybe comparing it to Nivitaka's crossing would have been more accurate.

Amiri was not commanding her own collection of troops, because she didn't really have troops in the same way as Kressel did. Kressel had gathered a handful of followers with here a mix of reformed bandits, and those who had entered her service after she had settled into managing the lands of Nettle's crossing. They thankfully included a handful of competent bowmen that she had collected to support Saeya's handful of polearm wielding plate armored armingers. Eire recognized that ... the simple reality was Amiri would need to to take steps to be more than just a brave Kellid warrior... but he supposed he shouldn't have been talking about such things without first expanding his own retinue... he had done little to start recruiting of formal regiments despite having considered it during the crisis with Hargulka this time last year...

... but a handful of co religionists with swords camped at hereford was a small start... and they had other problems now...


His eyes narrowed as the Shrike flowed down from the north, ... instead that had been resolved much like how they intended to resolve the Varnhold Vanishing...


... was he right, was his recollection of another world correct, was this Vordakai's doing? Or was it something else... he didn't remember the silver dragon, the lake any of that... and of course there had been other developments... Shyka he was sure hadn't appeared, and she had done something in front of that gate before changing bodies again.... They had done something else... something both seemed alien and familiar.

He'd been trying to think about it... but kept coming back to the mystery of the sword, and the disappeared Eldest, Count Ranalc... and the whole affair... as if he was looking right at something but kept missing the trees for the forest.

"I don't know if a bird could do that." Linzi remarked as she pulled her quill from the edge of her mouth, unheeding of his own internal musings, as he had been to the ongoing conversation.


Amiri scoffed. Apparently there were stories she had heard, from the migrating tribesfolk, of a giant black bird and somewhere called Talon Peak in the border lands. The Kellids could hardly have been expected to figure out who's side it was on when he and Maegar probably couldn't have told them about the alleged peak.


It was somewhere north of Lake Silverstep, and west of the Crooked river. Those same kellid tribesfolk had apparently indicated that there re was at least one, and probably more than one mountain pass that ran through the tors south east of the Gudrin River's source as it seemed that the mammoths migrated through the mountains and watered at the lake before continuing west into the kamelands. Neither the rumors of a giant bird living on the ruins of an ancient tower on Talon peak, nor the migration of mammoths seemed likely to be the cause of Varnhold's disappearance.


"Restov said there were cannibal centaurs in the dunsward."


... and Eire was skeptical of tales of human eating centaurs to say the least... but certainly he could have been wrong. Evil gnomes living the hills was another interesting tell... apparently they had stolen some magical bow from the centaurs but again it was unlikely gnomes up to mischief had stopped Maegar Varn from sending word either. "If you encounter any centaurs attempt peaceful contact first, do not initiate hostilities." Eire cautioned.

Linzi blinked, "Even if they've been attacking Lord Maegar?"

"Yeah, what should we do then?'


It was unfortunately more likely they might have caused trouble for him than any goblins, "Unless they attack you." He replied to Amiri's question. "I want answers to what has happened, and that is our immediate priority, and if we're engaged in fighting someone who isn't responsible that will take time that we don't really have to waste." The sooner they found Maegar the better, the sooner they found the other baron the sooner they'd be able to return. "We're going to occupy Varnhold and search for signs of why there had been no response."

"So you don't think they're there?"

He paused, Jamandi had said her messengers had disappeared... and certainly among 'mundane' answers a plague forcing quarantine could be possible... "The complete lack of word from the barony is what leads to me suspect something had caused them to disappear since we've heard nothing, since not one messenger managed to get out," Jamandi was right to be worried.

Shaoyu interrupted buffeting away from the crowd of sootscales and mites who had been asking questions. She huffed, and complained that they weren't, the kobolds and mites, weren't distinguishing between Eranex... and any other silver dragon who they hadn't met yet.

He wasn't surprised, he had had no more luck before the boat ride explaining that to the kobolds, other than he was relatively sure they understood that Eranex and Amvarean were siblings... which might have actually been compounding the problem he wasn't entirely sure. "Is there anything else?" He asked.

His ward crossed her arms, "Humans called Tiger Lords migrate west." she replied and obviously thinking of 'abu ijn's map', "Distant relations perhaps of those other ones. Their numbers are spread, they claim from the realm of mammoth lords, to Ustalav all the way to the far south and deep into Iobaria. They spoke of a big cat in the high mountains call speartooth." Amiri perked up

Eire nearly immediately prohibited the two from going to hunt the creature. He decided not to mention simply to avoid the issue being discussed later. "And?"

Amiri beat her to it, "In the lands of the Mammoth Lords, the Tiger Lords tell how it took a red dragon to fell their ancient war leader Armag." Eire wondered how that sat with the tribes relations with Brevoy or if it mattered to the Tiger Lords that Brevoy had been founded by a king using red dragons as the ultimate arbiter of his disputes.

"Are they hostile?"

Shaoyu paused, composing her response, "At the moment no. They were lead by a cleric of Gorum, while the tribe was accepting of hospitality it wouldn't stop future battles if the tribe were to be retained as mercenaries from fighting against us in the future."

... that was fair Eire mused. There were mercenaries, even mercenary companies that venerated Iomedae, but she was more goddess of questing adventurers... Gorrum at least of any of the gods of Avistan could be said to be the patron of soldiers of fortune. Of course so far the main line clergy of the Lord of Iron was concerned with all soldiers, and encouraged especially was taking impulsive courageous action... which might explain why the church of Gorrum's Saint Fang was apparently a Silver Dragon.

In Shrikewall, in the Narhold's case more broadly during the Troll Troubles of this past year they had never reached anywhere approaching even a one in four ratio of soldiers to farmers. The process of establishing thick hardwood palisades they certainly hadn't had the time to pivot to consider curtain walls made out of stone... because of course they hadn't expected the troll issue.

But with the summer harvest underway in the baronial domain there was a surplus now that would have been able to support a field force if that were ultimately required.... last year the news of the trolls had come too late to start planning to mobilize and take stocks... in part because there was no middle layer of feudal tenants to organize. "I see." Eire replied, "Let them pass so long as they don't breach the peace." That was one thing that could be said for the migrating tribes hospitality was sacred and the various tribes migrating had been good about maintaining the peace.

Eire suspected that that was reciprocity, and that further north in Brevoy the complaints about Kellid marauders might as well have been Issian and Brevic assumptions turning into self fulfilling prophecies. So far though tribes like the Tiger Lords, most recently, or the Greattusks who... obviously migrated following after the mammoths, or the bone grass. Akiros hadn't had any further contact with his adopted tribe, but then he also wasn't sure if Kundal's native tribe had passed through. He hadn't heard of Amiri's extended six bear kin group in the region either... and he couldn't pretend that he'd ordered an exhaustive list of Numerian kellid tribes compiled when this had first started, even though the most nomadic tribes had little grasp of political maps so much as respecting their hosts and the local ground when at peace.

Not that his long term priority wasn't to use the direct lands under his rule to support a standing permanent army... but that was proving to have other logistical hurdles unrelated to the constant disturbances brought on by events on the borders or elsewhere. Eire was keen to settle things in Varnhold quickly, "Eranex believes Amvarien lives in what is technically," Per the Rostlandic recognition of Maegar's realm, "Varnhold's far south."

"So you'll leave."

"You will occupy Varnhold with the forces following if we can't find Maegar," He replied turning north to face the shrike's course way and in the direction of Varnhold. "We're going to fly south east." They were going to cheat of course and use diving magic to search for Amvarean's lair he wasn't about to waste time flying all over the Tors, but finding the silver might yield answers, and Amvarean might be able to answer Eranex's questions about her sire's disappearance as well... but really finding the silver dragon and potentially securing her assistance or at least ascertaining her whereabouts had been something to do for some time now. Not knowing the disposition of an adult dragon was unwise.

He looked across the barge clad waters that stretched a few hundred feet wide waiting to offload and head north, or be loaded with goods heading down river to Shrikewall or Candlemere. They needed a better understanding of the eastern border looked like. They had a journey ahead of them even if it was only a couple of days easy riding by horse... which if anything made the lack of warning that something had happened to Varnhold the more disturbing.
--
Notes: At some point we will get a glimpse into Vordakai's perspective.


Nominally update wise I plan to do the next one Monday with the arrival at Varnhold pass, and then into Varnhold itself.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Sarenith 4712
The summer sun transformed the grasslands which defined the kamelands. They were awash with grasses as tall as Linzi, and blooming flowers. The road to Sorrowflow was up through rockier terrain, and it had been earlier in the year as well so it hadn't been in full bloom as this track of land was.

And with the summer bloom the Mammoths migrated heedless of any political boundaries on mortal maps. Eire had been told that there were other creatures as well. The Thylacines seemed as out of time to him as the smilodons, the dire wolves, the great elks and the rest. There were a host of more normal, as he thought of them creatures, coexisting with the ancient prehistoric ones, and of course then there were also Griffins, and wyverns, and drakes and more.

The last thing he wanted to contend with were Amiri and Shaoyu running off to hunt giant game though. It was an impressive sight though. The existence of bison travelling was just one more curiosity for the time being, another entry in a long list of avistan's fauna and flora. A detail that most people took in stride, or as simply a fact, and went on with their lives.

In the north rose the tors, and while it wasn't readily visible from here the pass that tracked eastward , and then much more southerly as the crooked river flowed down from the peaks. The crooked river though was not the pass, or at least not the entirety of it. Eire suspected this was another example of historic glaciation or certainly erosion as a result of thousands of years of flooding. Given the existence of so many Taldan mines most likely there was a wealth of ore, and precious metals, and gemstones in the region.

He doubted Jamandi had considered that. The swordlords... well Restov seemed to operate on a mercantilist view of trade a few centuries behind ideas like capital investment, and Adam Smith. Part of that was the limitations in local bookkeeping and banking systems. Restov trusted the clergy of Abadar but it seemed unlikely the Issians in the north were going to develop any sort of national bank on their own, and that created structural limitations.

"Its a few miles to the border." The unmarked, unguarded, boundary existed basically on paper and even maps couldn't agree exactly where it was sometimes even when two maps were penned by the same cartographer. He doubted they would find anything though. Kressel had sent out scouts to see if there was any activity, but they hadn't moved too far over the border before turning back having seen nothing.

There were no signs of the work parties. The varnhold side labor rotas that should have been working on their half of the roads were no where to be seen. The work camps were completely abandoned and with no obvious explanation. The fact that the small hamlet of Varnhold Pass where the workers should have been based from was the bigger red flag. It had been at that point Kressels men had ridden back over the border.

They had at least some idea of what to expect at the nearest settlement... an abandoned town. That should have been a cause for alarm from Varnhold proper reaching out to Restov, and Shrikewall... certainly when Drelev's outlying settlements had started being attacked by trolls he'd gone running to Restov, presumably relatively early in the crisis. Eire had begun to suspect that while the trade route was lucrative much of Drelev's legal domain was hard to cultivate marshlands forcing him to push further and further down the western shore, and that had been what had made his settlements of tenants vulnerable to Harrgulka in the first place. Trobold's lord could tell him little about the western barony that Eire didn't more or less already know... which was ultimately not a lot.

Drelev and Maegar Varn had both been working to settle their domains, but that had largely been dominated by the need to establish farms, and especially in Drelev's case settle his knights into their own feefs. The enoffment process seemed to have been Drelev's priority after raising his stone keep, the eponymous Fort Drelev. Of the three baronies the most classically feudal arrangement of land and power... and let Drelev had seemingly been the one first to call for aid.... but he'd been able to call for aid.

They followed the dirt road in silence for another hour slowly winding along the worn path scattering game as they rode. The animals skittered out of the path but none of their behavior whether the prancing deer or cawing crows showed any indication of serious distress. The land was healthy here as well. There were no signs of fire or other distress. Indeed as Kressle's scouts had reported by the time they road into the town set down in Varnhold Pass there was no one to greet them despite it being midday. There were none in the fields, and all the hearths were long cold.

There were no signs on the horizon either. No signs of campfires or the smoke from the large communal bakery Varnhold town proper had to provide daily bread was visible on the horizon. The town of Varnhold Pass was completely abandonned with no sign of a struggle. The most recent tracks crossed back over the Crooked river and were likely those of Kressle's retainers... but there was no indication of the inhabitants.

There were no expended arrows or other indication of conflict... there were no horse tracks. "This hasn't been long abandoned, your grace." A cleric remarked holding his reins as he swung down off the palfrey.

He nodded eyes searching around as parties were organized to examine the village. The construction was simple a mix of brevic style wooden homes that were clearly recent ish construction replacing sod dug out style homes. The state of the villages limited livestock suggested that 'long' was subjective. They hadn't' yet gotten near to trying to break out of their pens but they were skittish and needed clean water and fresh fodder put out.

A rapid search of men fanning out over the small settlement turned up no leads. "We ride for Varnhold. Send work back that the settlement is abandoned, and have a work party detailed to tend to the animals here, and maintain a watch." The parties had scrolls of sending... but the question lingered if whatever had come for Varnhold would give them time to sound an alarm by magic.

Varnhold proper, the actual seat of the eastern barony, was another ten miles east. They rode fast pushing the horses harder than the more guarded watchful pace they'd been managing. From a hillside near the pass it was clear that something was wrong even without a pair of binoculars, or a far eye telescope. The previous lack of fire signs from the bakery chimney or soot from the forge for that matter was a red flag, but more so than that was movement down below.

"Raiders." They were obviously not orcs, but while humanoid not humans, "Gnomes of some sort."

Spriggans. Ultimately not responsible but Amiri wasted no time in charging down the hill at the possibility that the malicious little blighters were responsible. Where she lead a party followed, and then a second. With that the relief expedition to Varnhold became a war party. Eire stopped part of the response and sent them to circle around and envelop the rest of the township. From the state of Varnholds crops standing mature in the field they hadn't gotten to harvesting. Heavy were the heads of grain that stood in the communal fields given the damage he expected some was from the spriggans and some just looked like hogs had been lose in the fields, and one couldn't discount deer.

There weren't enough spriggans to be responsible, they were just opportunists, which only made the lack of explanation worse not better. The baronial seat was as abandoned as the village in the pass had been. Eire swung and dismounted off the sable horse he'd ridden the second half of the distance to Varnhold from as they came up to the Spriggans poking around the nearest thing that Varnhold had to an official church. Its parsonage was the neatest of Varnhold's common fields, and the whitewashed building stood out amongst the host of buildings. Mouri was already in progress with a collection of young fighters, the looters attempting to fend them off with their own polearms. Spriggans were a strange offshoot of gnomes they still retained a touch of winter court and could change size growing ... to well gigantic proportions.

... but they were not warriors. The culchek tribe of spriggans had clearly looted one of Varnhold's armory of weapons, but their simple leather jerkins did little to protect them against the more effective pole axes wielded by the armingers, those in training for knighthood, and the young hellknight leading them in largely individual clash and melee. The stolen halberds from Varnhold's armory might have performed better if the Spriggans had been fighters and not raiders and bandits, or if they had simply been better protected.

Instead Mouri exploited the better protection offered by their heavier armor to force through and aim blows at un protected joints, or move to hook and push aside opposing polearms to then step into spear point thrusts. It was a matter of cumulative advantage, better training, better weapons, better armor, greater familiarity. Mottled grey green flesh and bulbous heads split and spriggans fell and without the aid of divine magic and clerics the Culchek tribe could not sustain a standing engagement... not when they didn't even have shoes on.

Though Eire was confident that they weren't responsible, this was important for other reasons. This was an important lesson all the same. It was this kind of fighting the barony needed to be prepared for, he needed a core of professional heavy infantry. As the last of the ring of metal clash dimmed and coup de grace were administered Eire approached the entryway the stained glass facade of the building was intact, which was better than could be said for the interior. Eire was unsure of how exactly Maegar had chosen to run his domain's administration. It stood out that the Erastilian church had a parsonage, but no rectory... which suggested that the presiding clergy had a home or lodgings elsewhere.

One of Maegar's companions that he had been introduced to previous was a cleric of Erastil so they might have had a home nearer to the Baron of Varnhold's own house... but Eire was certain that regardless of how Maegar organized his domain that the church here would have its own records. He stepped past splintered pews and a wine stained altar looking around. It took time to search but he suspected that the matters were well in hand, and indeed the Church of Erastil had a book, and ledgers of the church's business.

The local cemetery was a small affair even accounting for the occasional skirmishes with spriggans and centaurs in the wilderness, as well other monsters the most recent plot was still fresh. It, and its entry, dated it to be from the end of Desnus. That gave them a time frame.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Sarenith 4712
Eire stood by the window as the summer sun streamed in through the glazed glass. A large section of varnhold's livestock south of the Kiravoy had been slaughtered for no other reason than spriggan malice and left to lay in the southern pasturelands... they probably simply hadn't gotten around to doing it to the farms north of the river. There was a running tally of dead cows being laid, and other losses to the Varnhold commons. It was of course also possible that the spriggan chief had managed to stop his raiders upon realizing that killing the livestock served less of a purpose if there were no humans around

... not that it mattered Agai the Culchek chieftan had met his end to a flaming longsword as he had moved to join the battle. By the point the spriggans had started to coalesce it had already been too late. The stockade style fort of heavy timbers that Maegar had raised had never been intended to defend against flying enemies and while the raised platform allowed archers a somewhat protected position to fire the gnomish raiders hadn't been able to organize fast enough before the gates were open. Kressle's bowmen had been able to pen the remainder down. Then of course it had been a completed envelopment and to take stock of things.

Shaoyu sat on one of a handful of unbroken chairs that they had salvaged petting a a calico cat named dragon who had lived with the local weavers. There weren't a preponderance of cats in Varnhold and the rats had managed to feast and fight over the granary in the time since the people of varnhold had vanished.

They had not completed the search of the town but they were reasonably certain that the remaining searching could be completed over the following days. They had gathered what they could from the church, as well as from the various officers of the barony's possessions as well as any other possible indicators of what might have happened.

The kulchek tribe of spriggan had if not been destroyed certainly significantly weakened and driven off. A handful of other potential nuisances had also been dealt with but the Spriggans were one of two threats from the wilderlands surrounding the barony that appeared in the record... but their grievance with the Nomen Centaurs did little to explain the situation. Neither the gnomish raiders nor their centaur rivals explained the disappearance of the population.

On the table where no doubt Maegar Varn had held council was a longsword. The spriggan leader had stolen a bag of holding from someone and with in it had been among other treasures the blade. It was magical and more importantly for their reasons bore the crest of the Issian house of Varn. There was no reason Maegar should have been without hte weapon.

It was an ill omen to those of Gorrum, and of Iomedae's faiths. Maegar Varn was missing with all of his folk, and had disappeared without giving battle. All of Maegar's councilors were among those missing. The wizard, the cleric, and also Mr. Willas Gundarson who had apparently been installed as march warden. The ulfen ranger had apparently been put to task dealing with the northern reaches as his home, which doubled as his office, and easily distinguished by the long house's architecture, had had plenty of information on the centaurs including significant academic material.

Willas's journal, penned in the skaldic alphabet, had revised their chronology down to about a fortnight in terms of time. There was an entry about a bracelet which had only attracted attention because of a skaldic symbol to ward off ill fortune scribed next to it dated back during the spring thaws. There were a handful of reports of skirmishes with the centaurs but nothing that suggested anything deemed out of the ordinary. Thankfully despite the extent of the spriggan raiding there were enough redundant copies of maps between the fort, the ranger's home, the wizard's home, and the cleric's residence that they had a mostly intact picture of the lands of the hold that had been hitherto explored.

"It is clear that the spriggans were simply opportunistic plunderers, and it seems unlikely the centaurs were any more capable," It seemed that the Nomen from the history of encounters were based much further west and east and that Maegar had not pushed to seriously engage them. It was doubtful in the extreme that they could have done this given the capacities observed by Maegar's wizard advisor or by Willas Gundarson. "I want you to hold this position while we fly south," and used divination to discern the lair of the dragon Amvarean and hope that she was amenable to company, and guests asking questions... he wasn't sure if she would actually know anything, but hopefully she might go and get Eranex and the fae silver might be of some use in their present problem.
--
Amiri wasn't going to pretend she understood or could answer the questions Linzi had. The Bard had had to remain behind which of course meant a lot of chatter about everything they were doing, and had done. The Land of the Mammoth Lords was one steeped in tradition, the kellid ways were old and passed from generation to generation by elder to child. She had wandered across the civilized world and seen dozens of different ways the city folk chose to make their path through the world while still living in one place.

It wasn't like some people who tried to pretend to understand, tried to come up with explanations. Why did they need to do that? Did they have to keep trying to guess, and talk like they knew? Amiri didn't understand that more than anything city folk tended to do. As long as the thing worked shouldn't that be fine? If something didn't work you tried something else, it wasn't as if they weren't asked for input on various challenges.

Linzi though had had to remain behind while the baron went to find a silver dragon. The kobolds accompanying the expedition were equally disappointed at being left out, but since none of them could fly it wasn't like they could have gone.

... and for that matter who cared which of the gods you worshipped. It was what you did how you lived your life, that was what mattered. Varnhold the town though... was easily the size of a fully gathered following in the realm of hte mammoth lords and that they could just vanish without a trace she had to admit bothered her, scared her even... so Amiri was willing to accept that maybe Eire going by himself to find a dragon to ask was an acceptable solution to the present problem.

Unfortunately as a solution is left them sitting in an abandoned town that was missing all of its people, and that was creepy. It was made all the creepier by the books and parchments they had salvaged from the missing's possessions.

She was mostly relying on the others to read through the mix of Common, and Skaldic logs. Eire had of course told Maegar Varn about the Cyclops ruins and it seemed as if Willas Gundarson had been pursuing such in search of treasure. Much as with Narland the eastern barony had its share of cyclops ruins. Reports from eastern brevoy, to the north, including one such site that had been sealed off by order of one of the now dead Rogavarian kings some seventy plus years earlier.

It presented the possibility that something similar to the fate of Vladlena Lenyenko's adventurers had befallen the Varnhold's inhabitants, but this was a much greater disaster than just many adventurers disappearing into some long hidden dungeon built in ancient history by some long gone giants.

The documents did seem to confirm the belief that the mountains were likely home to great mineral wealth... but it didn't give them any proof to what may have happened to the missing barony. There were a few other settlements that Maegar had established largely placed in easily defensible positions along the trade roads that would hopefully enrich his nascent domain... but given the Varnhold pass village it was unlikely that the settlements nearer to Restov were any less empty of people.

"We still need to investigate the Kiravoy crossing." Even though the village there had likely already been checked by riders from Brevoy. It was after all only about twenty miles south of the Brevic village they had met Mouri in fighting the hags.

She grunted and pushed away from the table, it was better than staying here and dealing with these dusty books. Amiri had largely decided there wasn't likely going to be anything interesting at the farm so the notion that there might be more cyclopean ruins, or elven ruins or dwarves was pointless chatter. While there probably were some somewhere they hadn't found any records of any being close by and certainly none within a day's ride that the neighboring barony had known about before they had disappeared.

It was only as she was collecting her weapons and preparing to assemble a body of riders that she had to stop and put things down as the sending stone began to chime from the table. IT was not unfortunately Eire. Jaethal's voice came from the magic stone apparently talking hastily with Kaessi and Harrim in the background.

They took a minute to get everything to get settled, but then moved on. The Jaethal lead with a snide comment about the scholar's notes they found, a 'professor Penrod' who had journeyed from Oppara, "Vordakai isn't a god, he was an ancient cyclops wizard." Jaethal didn't elaborate on how she knew that but from the chattering background noise Amiri could guess that the sweet teeth had been cataloging the cyclopean ruins within the Narlmarches, but it was a name from out of time. From before the earth fall before the Elves had fled the light of Golarion's sun, and the cyclops must have died out.

"That would make sense." Mouri remarked leaning on the heavy oak table still wearing her armor.

Amiri was too busy searching for the Ulfen ranger's sketches. They hadn't found the 'bracelet', but it wasn't a bracelet. "Its not a bracelet, Its a giant's ring." The Kellid warrior declared finding it and tapping her finger on the charcoal sketch, which smudged it accidentally. She didn't curse the accident, and looked around at the others in the room as they again considered the fate of Vladlena Lenyenko's adventurers.

Linzi brought the conversation back around to the centaurs to the east. A cyclops wizard... it seemed that exonerated the horse folk, "the plan does not change then." He remarked. "It would be good to make peaceable contact with the centaurs but holding Varnhold is our priority." but Linzi was right given what they knew of the notes left behind by Willas and this 'professor penrose' and what they did know about the Nomen centaurs in general

 

[Imperator Pax]

Late Sarenith 4712
Jaethal would have preferred to have been in charge... or rather in charge on the frontier. As it was she was sure that either of the failed Paladins could have maintained things without needing her to be physically present... but the undead elf remained within Shrikewall confident at least of the plan... besides they were probably just going to end up with some silver dragon or maybe two visiting.

That there was a plan for visiting dragons was something of an insanity in itself... but better that they did have one. It had something approaching the force of law, at least so far as the official regent of the barony was concerned.

She was confident that they would have answers soon, but there was no denying that she was impatient... to the point of tapping her foot... and she wasn't the only one. Jhod and Akiros had both returned from the Temple of the Elk they both carried word, if differing opinions, on the passage of Kellid tribes migrating to the west with any luck the different tribes would keep heading west into Numeria and beyond. So far they had largely bypassed Shrikewall choosing to keep going north west.

Erastil was an old human god but he was an old human god of agriculture which was something that the nomadic kellid tribes had less time for given their constant migrations, but they still paid respect to the largely completed, and restored, Taldan Temple of the Elk, and to the other Erastilian shrines in the area as they passed through to enter the glenbon.

They couldn't count on that to continue to remain the case given the reports other migrating from a more southernly root that would probably bring them to one of the lake crossing... and of course with it being high summer there were the continuing strife of the lizard folk tribes. It was true of course that Harrgulka and the trolls were useful in keeping the thick skins in line, but with the baron in the east, and a significant portion also deployed in the west there simply weren't the manpower to act against the belligerent lizards beyond what they were already doing.

It did give the trolls something to do though. Jaethal wasn't going to pretend that wasn't a boon to the realm, and of course made her job easier. Perlivash abruptly buzzing through the chamber doors was a new nuisance, but one she she expected for the easily excitable faerie dragon wizard. If the baron had returned then it more likely would have been one of the clergy, like Brother Vaclav, from the cathedral, so the chattering dragon likely meant someone else had arrived.

It was difficult to parse the rapid burbling of draconic speech the faerie dragon was carrying on with Mik Mek the Kobold, and the chorus of dragon was grating.

Following through the doors was a half elf not the more human red headed form of Shaoyu as she had expected, but she recognized the half elf figure as Eranex's preferred 'human form' even with the grey blue shawl she wore.

Jaethal straightened from her looming over the magical map, but Valerie beat her too it, "I am afraid the baron isn't present Lady Eranex." The blonde human noble remarked matter of factly. Not that Jaethal was going to call her out on it, right this moment, but Valerie was used to being the loveliest thing in the room... with the possible exception of Tristian. ... again Jaethal suspected the two humans might not have had enough celestial blood to transform them into Aasimar but they were surely nearly there. It was an entirely different sort of attractiveness than what distinguished the baron or his ward... or the Tiefling. The silver dragon though in half elf skin was competition though for Valerie in that department to be sure. It was the same sort of physical perfection in appearance.

"I am aware," She replied with a perfect curtsey, "It is my absence to apologize for, it is rare though to have leave to visit the domain of another of the eldest and I hoped to visit." The Silver Dragon remarked.

Valerie nodded, "The baron has gone to search for the location of the Silver Dragon Amvarean you spoke of, we expect an answer any day now." Because of course the baron's plan was to return to Varnhold by recalling to the Church of Erastil in Varnhold proper... just as in the event of an emergency the plan was to snatch back any of their people over the border to the Cathedral of Iomedae. The expense of that equipment in time more so than coin had meant that there was a limit on how large the responding party to the neighboring barony had been.

It was a purely reactionary measure though. Any travel to somewhere had to be conducted overland or by the river where that was an option. Jaethal as spymaster of the realm recognized that it would be advantageous to have options even if just fixed points to move by, and the baron had done the same... they just didn't have the resources to implement such right now.

"A slumbering ancient has awakened in the east and would seek to rebuild an empire long lost to the sands of time."

Lovely, Jaethal wanted to groan at the cryptic portent the dragon delivered. It wasn't surprising she supposed, she wondered what Maegar Varn had found, but the warning was late... obviously, the dragon had said awakened.

--
Akiros took the news as well as he could. Giants were a fact of life. They ranged all over Avistan, and frankly as it happened the former Paladin of Erastil was really more surprised that they hadn't encountered more giants than just Munguk. It was true he supposed that trolls were giant folk, but the news of some ancient cyclops monster stirring in the east was still alarming.

... normal giants were after all a big enough threat but that the Varnhold had managed to awaken some ancient threat could make an entire domain awaken. Maybe it was for the best that the baron's recourse was obvious to gather draconic allies against this ancient Iobarian menace.

The undead elf lord, Hallit didn't distinguish a ruler's gender in the word that meant lord, had assured that she would keep him apprised. The details she had shared were really too academic to suit his needs. Akiros didn't foresee a point but hadn't argued he would listen when she spoke of what she found. Jaethal had put the scholars and arcanists of the realm together to work uncovering what they could

Cyclops were a venerable race who had lost much to the starfall. Unlike the ancient elves they had not fled through planar gates, and thus their ancient empire had collapsed. Such had been the depths of their loss the giants' modern descendants knew less of Ghol Can and ancient Casmaron than human scholars. Their decline had been such that Iobaria was frequently though of as a human land as a result of the migration of different human tribes of various ethnicities.

Thus where once a great and powerful collection of empires had stood as rival to the elves, and who knew what other ancient powers in the time before the earth fall they were just as brutish and crude as most of the giant tribes and petty kingdoms that Akiros was familiar with. ... and if it had been modern cyclops coming from the steppes of Iobarian or from the caves that would have been one thing.

The notion of some ancient monster from the mists of history that, that was the real danger.

... So dragons, Akiros supposed again.

"Dragons," Kundal agreed nodding in agreement as if... that this most surely was the sensible response to such ancient monsters.

In the mean time Akiros looked to the mass of felt tents of Iobarian horse lords who were migrating towards Numeria heedless of the cyclops threat. In the mean time he had to handle matters with the many nomadic barbarians who at least so far continued to pass peacefully through the frontier as they moved west. "Do you believe them?" He asked Kundal as he put the sharpening stone away a razor edge to his sword.

It was a conversation about reincarnation. Reincarnation was an accepted part of most kellid spirituality and not unheard of among other barbarian tribes and races. That a hero might be reborn. Kundal was not a priest or a shaman, and his brows knit. "I think the Tiger Lords have a great new war leader. If he is the champion of Gorrum reborn? That I do not know." He replied non committal, "If he is so what? Our lord in Iron will expect him to be a valiant warrior and not rest on his laurels, he cannot depend on deeds from a past life. His sword should remain wet with the blood of hated foes."

The Tiger Lords though were mercenaries. They didn't really have hated enemies so far as Akiros understood. There were simply too many separate bands, tribes and other units within the great following that all claimed part of the Tiger Lords folk. If he were to guess the most likely vendetta a Tiger Lord had was with other Tiger Lords.

Armag 'Twice Born' and his call to arms would either neither need to find someone willing to pay coin for his services or start attacking those enemies the tribes of his growing confederation had made... or turn to simply raiding Numeria's neighbors.... which included Brevoy, or the River Kingdoms.

All this talk of Armag was something to bring to his grace when he returned from the east... the truth was Jaethal was dismissive of some barbarian claiming to be the reincarnation of an ancient hero of his tribe as little more than a political stunt. Kundal grunted stiffening in a posture that he could quickly fight from as he rested his hand on the haft of his weapon.

Akiros turned following the barbarian's eyes to another new arrival. He recognized the attire they were wearing as members of the brevic church of Shelyn, though he did not know them by sight he suspected he knew their names... or at least one of the perfumed fool's names. Akiros bristled... while he wasn't quite as tall as the baron Akiros Insmort was not a small man, that inch or two of difference was more than made up by his more muscular build... but these were Brevic aristocrats not kellid warriors. All the same though he stood up from the long table. It was time to find this Ser Fredero. It was hard to tell, Akiros guessed anyone of them probably could have done with a punch in the mouth... if looks alone were to be the judge.

He took a breath. These were not kellid warriors. He had an obligation to bring them to see the elf lord first, if she introduced them to the regent as they would no doubt request then that was her choice.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Erastus 4712
Eire was getting used to missing Archerfeast. The realm always became too busy for one reason or another to observe the Erastilian holy day, and this year was to be no different. That much was clear. The flight had taken them seventy odd miles south deep into the uncharted reaches of the Tors of Levenies. Magic had lead them to a great entrance into the mountain side, and the cave's entrance followed into a wide and deep tunnel into the mountain side hundred of feet deep.

He sat looking northward from the mountain side with the cave entrance looming behind them. They weren't quite prepared to leave yet. The entry way lead to what had been the nest of Amvarean. Had was the word. He had needed to expend a potent spell given what they had found, but they had needed answers.

Had, because Amvarean had been slain some time ago by the ancient dragon Ilthuliak. A great wyrm of a black dragon... not that he had known the extent of the threat, but he had picked up a smattering of black scales from the central vaulted chamber... and he had seen the damage the dragon's acid breath had scoured into the cave walls.

Ilthuliak had in her youth raided the lands between Numeria and Casmaron and grown into a powerful specimen of her breed. No one had lamented her disappearance, or considered what it meant... but word of existence alone was something Eire had cause to consider.

The black dragon wyrm had clearly looted the younger dragon's cave after their battle... or at least he assumed that was why it was bare of Amvarean's mortal possessions. The adult silver dragon had been dead during the time that Vanrhold had been founded, and when it had disappeared, which was unfortunate, but reason to remain in the cave after her defeat here and with strength restored, and rested they were nearly prepared to return to Varnhold.

Amvarean though had concurred with his expectation that the Nomen centaurs, who she recognized as an offshoot of the large Rashalka 'Thundering Hooves' lineage, would not have been capable of doing what had been done to Varnhold.

He looked high into the grey clouds of the sky and to the white ish sun peaking out, and then stood as the adolescent form of Shaoyu and the half elf form Amvarean had chosen approached. He exhaled, invoked, and in a column of great fire they vanished into the heavens.

The whirring column of sunlight disappeared around them as they appeared looking at the stained glass façade of the Church of Erastil in Varnhold. Eire hoped that the horned god took no offense at his decision to recall into the church, but there was much to do.

He might not have found any leads on Varnhold but it was not a fruitless trip. "Eranex." Amvarean moved to greet the prescient appearance of the other half elf woman standing in the door way with a surprised looking Amiri along for the ride. The kellid warrior looked a little gobsmacked at their sudden arrival. Eire had suspected of course that Eranex's ties to Amvarean were more than simple association. Silver dragons were social of course, but the two being half sisters made a great deal of sense in terms of common range and their belief in mutual reliance on the other.

Amvarean had lived in the region and could tell them a great deal about its history, and its contemporary , if not individuals, than the social groups, and its interesting sites. She had long memories of flying through the dunsward from the Tors in the 'west', from her perspective, to the Maw in the north east, but she had ultimately chosen to settle in the cave she had found in the Tors near, relatively speaking, where her father had made his lair. She'd also made mention of a tribe of elves who lived to the west by her reckoning but what Eire interpretted as to be north east of Mivon's borders. Though he wasn't entirely sure how north, whether the elves were North of the Mivon Sellen river which formed the nominal geographic feature that was his southern border in the east.

The Mivon Sellen apparently flowed through a valley in the southern Tors. Its moniker of 'Sellen' was well earned apparently its source waters were well far in the north winding through the dunsward to the the great mountain chain further east in Casmaron proper. There was no proper map of what she described to him, Iobaria to the east was basically unmapped, just empty space so far as the civilized nations of Avistan were concerned. There was no actual coherent agreement on how far it was from say Restov to the Castrovin see some said three hundred miles, others wildly declared it to be perhaps double that. It seemed an extreme difference, but good maps were hard to come by.

"We should adjourn to Maegar's hold," He remarked, and they could handle introductions there. It would be simpler to introduce everyone, and deal with any fallout.
--
He found himself standing in front of the table where he had been several days before. The map was rough. Maegar had so far as the brevic chart of boundaries was concerned the largest territorial expanse because well they didn't care how far to the east he went if he could actually... or atleast they didn't care right now, if Varnhold had actually managed to start really doing that Eire suspected then they might care.

Whatever the case Maegar's territorial expansion, and settlement had been somewhat hemmed in by geographic factors, his territorial boundaries, and the natives to the east. The centaurs in the north had long been a nuisance to Brevoy and obviously Brevoy had hoped that Maegar would deal with them in time but the lord of Varnhold had needed a defensible settlement first. So he'd settled on his western border and begun working his way south, but that also meant putting him in contact with the native human populations of nomadic iobarians and other ethnicities, which did include Kellids and of course non humans.

"What of the bow we took from spriggans?" He asked. "You said you knew it."

"It is from the centaurs. Skybolt is a relic of their people."

He nodded. The darkwood longbow hadn't seemed likely to be of Spriggan manufacture, their size changing or not, but the provenance had not been a priority. There were still other matters to concern themselves with... and once they rescued Maegar they could investigate what had appeared to ben an elf gate in the south west, or the massive bleached and overgrown bones of some primordial draconic specimen, and indeed the Nomen centaurs later.

With Amvarean to confirm Willas Gunderson's notes, and other reference material Vordakai's island lurked in the midsts of the Little Sellen River, high in the hills of the western Tors. They would deal with that first, Vordakai was responsible for the disappearance of Varnhold... and they couldn't leave that unresolved. At the same time the spriggans had moved in quickly, very quickly.

In the feudal ideal, not necessarily so much as in practice, but in the ideal the core of soldiers were professionals. It wasn't that Maegar's settled portion of the Varnling host were all knights, but they should have all had the ability to furnish good armor, good weapons and act at drill as heavy infantry. If Eire were honest the Varnling Host should have been the most powerful conventional military of the three baronies and that might have gone quite a ways to explain granting Maegar, 'Issian' or not, the largest domain. "We have two priorities, brokering peace with the Centaurs, and dealing with the threat." ... and finding Maegar. In fact he hoped that there might have been settlements of the Varnhold not effected, but he frankly doubted it. Vordakai had somehow swept up all the villagers all the way to the border ... he wondered if the ancient liche had used the domain's own maps. "We'll go to this Valley of the Dead, Amiri I need you to lead an overture to the Cyclops and find out whatever you can, take Linzi with you." He stilled the protests. "No we need to move quickly I want to be ready to move south all things considered I want to resolve this before the half moon," The somal last quarter, "or failing that the new moon. That means carrying word to the centaurs and telling them about the threat.

The somal last quarter would be three weeks before the Inheiritor's Ascendance on the first of Arodus. He needed to finish and return home and preside over his own responsibilities to the realm.... or if they couldn't muster a larger expedition to scour the varnhold and explore for answers, but he didn't think that would be necessary with Amvarean's wings... but if it cam to that he hoped that they would be able to call on Eranex to assist as well... but for the moment the sisters needed a moment to reaquaint... and no doubt speak of whatever threat the Black Dragon posed.
--
Notes: The difference between the Varnhold Vanishing and Troll trouble is that the latter has a lot more kingdom building because it occurs over a much longer time frame. Varnhold Vanishing as an arc will be shorter b ecause it takes place over really just the summer of 4712

Additionally with the 1st​ Edition AP its particularly glaring how small a scale the book puts things at in terms of population. I'm not saying the Varnling Host especially if only part of the company settled in Varnhold should be ten thousand men, but certainly Varnhold should in canon be larger than it is IMO... and that is reflected with Maegar having a larger population that is missing.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Erastus 4712
The omens had been bad. Especially since they had been so imprecise.

This age was... Vordakai had attempted to test to see if he had simply made a mistake somewhere... but no something about this new era he had awoken to find himself in had comprised the reliability of oracular power. Prophecy no longer worked as it should have. He had attempted to compensate for local possible disturbances in the thaumosphere... but that didn't seem to be the problem... or at least not the principle one.

The atrophied lich weighed what he knew, and what he could speculate on. Obviously things had developed precipitously since the great cataclysm. What the humans had taken to naming the Earthfall. Obviously the elves fleeing through the gateways might have contributed as well... but his interrogations suggested that the death of one of the human gods seemed to have effected prophecy for most of the world significantly more recently.

That information had only encouraged him that the humans would be easy to subjugate. That it would be possible to erect a new empire... he had scryed his surroundings to be certain... after all in his weakened state he recognized he would need time even to subjugate the horse flesh of the steppe nearby the descendants of ancient barbarians who had been a nuisance ten thousand years ago. The lands of his home were overgrown with primitive barbarians ruled by simple metal weapons.

Nothing to be overly concerned about. To the north were more humans, but scarcely more developed. Certainly inferior magically, and artistically than the humans of his era. East, North, South likewise had proven a disappointment... there was nothing close in that direction perhaps far far south but there was no sign of Ghol Gan or of the human societies which had existed nor of the serpent folk either. Those were gone, and while there might been successor states the last cardinal direction remained.

To the west where the boundaries of this world and another magical plane came perilously close to one another, and frequently overlapping was a magical storm. Certainly the sort of thing that would have required him to compensate for any influences on his auguries, but knowing about it he could have compensated... the death of this 'Aroden' god had the more profound effect on damaging the foresight.

... so it had been back to interrogating the thief and his master.

Which only of course raised more questions. The humans could tell them nothing but myths and legends of the fall of Koloran. Koloran which had been founded by expatriates and exiles hoping to escape GholGan's fall into madness and debauchery by fleeing into the distant north... but given the cataclysm of the 'Earthfall' it made since... he couldn't recall much of the period so overshadowed was his fragmented memories of the very end... treachery, betrayal, blades in the darkness.

... but he knew enough to recognize that amidst the petty games of the northern barbarians who had carved their little fiefs there was a collection of oddities. Both thief, and petty lordling had independently spoken of the community of the western lands. An undead elf stood out among the recollections of the humans... but not limited to just a small community of living elves, there were native outsiders, and at least one other sentient undead.

The Cyclops moved across the faded mosaic tiles of his tomb and sat down across from the trapped human tyrant. He had grown fond of these discussions. It was true that Lord Maegar wasn't the most adroit gamesman, but the human was new to the game of kings and while it shared similarities to this 'chess' game it was not the same.

... there was a chance he would have a new opponent soon. He knew that the western forces had crossed the river. His raven familiar had told them seen them moving in. Not that he hadn't already known some about Lord Maegar's more cordial equal.

He had heard much over the course of these games... about these recent troll troubles, and their resolution. About the young dragon that was the neighboring ruler's ward. Vordakai was intrigued.

So the game began, and continued until his wards, registered the sudden surge of magic to the south. It wasn't someone attempting to breach the defenses. No. Unfortunately most of his tomb's defenses had long since been drained of power by the wear of time... the present oracular wardings were designed to seek out signs of potentially other spellcasters.

Voradakai recognized that in his present state, he lacked the ability to rely on the phlacterary to cheat death. He couldn't... the time he had spent in torpor had rendered his power fragile, weakened him. "Let us see then." He remarked paused to waved skeletal fingers in the ebony astrolabe that acted as a focus. It spun and crafted an image of the mountains to the south, slowly coalescing into the view of a broad high ceiling cavern.

This was far to the south of anywhere Lord Maegar Varn of Varnhold had explored. He had provided, as had the Thief a description of the neighboring feudal hierarch. It really had been a detailed, Vordakai had a talent for sculpting the people he met, a respectable hobby in Koloran the Koloran that had been, but a second hand description rarely did justice... and that was truer here more so than most.

It was true that Maegar Varn wasn't short by human standards, neither was his counterpart. Humans didn't, or at least these didn't, chose by something as base as height but it was hard to reject that certainly most human leaders were tall by their standards. Height though was only part of it. Vordakai any cyclops was taller still, but physical bearing was only a fraction of the ruler.

Vordakai hissed pulling a breath into atrophied lungs as the peerless diamond dissolved into a fine dust as the silver eyed figure in the image cast the spell. In the cave death was undone. Remains split and broken were replaced by seemless living tissue, bones covered in sinewy muscles and bright silver scales. A missing arm, and head restored.

An Adult Silver Dragon.

"Amvarean," A greeting, no a name he recognized the speech as draconic, "we are Eire of Shrikewall. I carry words of greeting and friendship from your sister."

The bound human tyrant gloated from his side of the game board as Vordakai watched the dragon fold her wings, and morph into a half elf shape. The image wavered and he ground his teeth as it dissolved into a smoky haze. His weakened state wouldn't allow him to maintain a connection for remote viewing of the source of the magic without expending precious reserves of magic.

He cut off Lord Maegar's gloating with a sharp correction of the human's faulty education on spellcraft. "It was not raise dead. That was a spell of true resurrection." He supposed that the human didn't properly appreciate the technical differences and distinctions that distinguished one from the other. The downside of non magicals, especially as rulers of a domain.

It was the equivalent of comparing some apprentice's ability to raising simple skeletons or ghouls to a master lifting fell knights into his service. There was a significant difference in the power and mastery of magic required.

Worse still was he had known through his conversations with the Varnhold's ruling elite about the first dragon. The neighboring tyrant's red ward. He supposed technically there was a possible second in the dragon's mother, but he had not been prepared to count her definitively. A third obviously existed in the sister to this one, and now a fourth, a second silver obviously, which given their cold breath he could contend with, but was still another potent spellcaster to reckon on the scales.

His modern kin. The modern cyclopes were a pathetic remnant of his day. It was hard to even begin to compare modern giants to their illustrious forbearers. The humans were similarly much reduced... after all the Thassilionians had brought lesser giants to heel, hadn't they, and they're magical talents had been respectable. The elves had run rather than stay and face the Earthfall, and were still much reduced. That left one last ancient power to contend with. He'd yet seen the modern serpent folk, but he doubted they had escaped.

The Dragons. Maegar Varn's court wizard had mentioned a dragon plague had swept Iobaria in the past, which had reduced their numbers, but he had also mentioned the sixth king of the mountains to their south, and the red dragons who had helped found Brevoy two centuries earlier.

The cyclop lifted his game piece and with his red eye gleaming moved it forward. "Our neighbor from the west has yet to arrive, and so this game should continue to its conclusion. I believe that makes it your turn."

 

[Imperator Pax]

Erastus 4712
The shadow moved. It was the only warning they had. One moment they had been contemplating Maegar Varn's amateur's fascination in Willas's far ranging archaeological misadventures as recorded in the baronial minutes, and then things had become excitable.

Claw tipped pale hands extended from the inky black cloud of smoke. There had been no warning. There were not any missing sentries or guards. At least not at the last check in. The Soul Eater lunged forward aiming at the dragon in half elf guise. The resulting crash sent books and notes flying as the table splintered in the sudden commotion, and then melee.

Assuming they could rescue Maegar Varn he was willing to take it on faith that the other baron would forgive them the damage his court had incurred from fighting demons as Amvarean shrieked as the shadow demon's claws raked her arm. She released a blast of white wintery cold in response.

Soul Stealers as it happened were not immune or resistant to cold. The adult silver dragon still in humanoid form. Amvarean had a different mother, and thus none of the fae abilities of her half sister possessed, but Amvarean was older than Eranex. The magical ryme of frost literally froze and broke off parts of the solidified shadows.

Eire doubted the daemon would be able to weather a second attack of that magnitude. All the same he regretted that he had already dispatched Amiri and her party to seek out and find the Nomen centaurs under a flag of truce. He hoped that they would succeed in convincing the Centaurs to parley, and make an appearance and that they wouldn't be endangered by the journey. Maegar had not pursued his northern frontier particularly strenuously, he didn't have the manpower for it, not truly.

His hand curled around the longsword and unsheathed it wreathing it in white fire. There was the possibility that another of these things had been sent after Amiri and her party which was a problem. The daemon had no head, he supposed he could aim to remove a limb, but short of hacking the monster to pieces he couldn't be sure of a way to kill it... assuming that would kill it, but banishing it back to its native plane would be fine as well.

He lunged forward a curtain of divine flame ripped across the room a cone forty feet wide slammed into the clawed wielding shadow as Shaoyu unsheathed her own sword. It would only occur later, with the benefit of additional facts, that Amiri had never even been a consideration of a potential target. She wasn't a spellcaster. Ironically Tristian or Jaethal would have been more likely to be targetted than most of the others.

If not Amvarean, he would have been the other priority, but Vordakai had targeted the resurected dragon first hoping perhaps to find a weak link, a chink in the dragon so freshly returned from the dead ... a target of opportunity selected for his conjured assassin./

... and also a testament to how far in power Vordakai the lich had apparently fallen that this was his best option.

The fight lasted less than a minute. Even alone Amvarean could have succeeded with help and with divine magic to remove the deleterious effects of the insidious claws of the daemon it was over quickly with no permanent damage done. That was the limitation of Vordakai's choice the soul eater wasn't the sort of summoned minion to be an effective team player. If they had been within the withered lich's lair perhaps a good distraction but it had been given Amvarean's name to seek out the dragon instead.

Still he looked around turning a flaming gaze to the surrounding searching for other enemies to appear even as the guards arrived. "There seems no other intruder your grace." One of the Armingers declared.

"Indeed." He agreed. "Amvarean if you would accede to it, fly to Amiri and inform her of the situation here." He wasn't sure that a communication spell would be sufficient, and truthfully, "I need you to carry word also on my behalf to Restov." further north.

"But the lich." She began to protest.

He was already weighing the prospect of caution, and turned, "Shaoyu if Vordakai is preparing an army we will not press the attack, do you understand? We will return and mass our own forces. The lich will kneel or be knelt, but it may require time to gather our own host." He was surprised, pleasantly surprised that the young dragon nodded and agreed.

He also knew that Amvarean was relieved as well. He had been concerned one or both dragons would protest. That there would be call for action or for greater caution. They needed to know more about the valley of the dead. He hoped there wasn't an army of the undead... but that was one thing they had seen no sign of.

There was no shambling zombie horde. Not humans not cyclopes... no undead minions. This was the first clear action against them that he had been able to ascertain. Tristian ... he was pretty certain had turn undead and that would be useful, at a more useful letter than many of the other cleric... he certainly wasn't going to bring Jhod over the border into this mess. Not into a warzone... the priest of Erastil could potentially be brought in to supervise relief and aid parties after fighting, but not before.

Would he need to bring Jaethal in?

He recognized he would need to weigh his options carefully.

Ideally they would be able to concentrate their forces while the lich was weak and strike, and that this would not turn itno a grinding battle of attrtion that might favor an undead enemy.
--
He pondered over the letter of introduction. They had agreed that it was perhaps best not to explicitly call attention to Amvarean being a shape changing dragon, silver or otherwise. Even if she had been a member of the Inheritor's church it was probably still not the best course of action. So they would decline to mention it overtly, and with any luck Amvarean could pass his report to the sword lords regarding ...

regarding this mess.

Maegar had or more likely given what they had deciphered of Willas's journal his march warden had stumbled into some cyclopean ruin, and found a ring... it seemed too strange to have another explanation to what had happened. The ring was missing but its description and the warding runes against bad omens had been telling enough. Willas had presumably brought attention to the Varnhold, woken the ancient slumbering Cyclops lich ... and brought the doom to varnhold... but their missing was hopefully a good sign.

If they were dead there should have been signs of a struggle which there wasn't. Hopefully they were alive. Hopefully they weren't a shambling undead horde, but there was no indication of that. It would warrant further investigation, which of course his letter to Jamandi and Amvarean would assure was under way.... he hoped by the time he returned to Shrikewall it would be to pen the letter that would inform Jamandi Aldori and the sword lords of Restov of his success...

... because if it wasn't the letter he would pen on his return to Shrikewall would be to the Church of Iomedae asking politely for additional assistance. Not necessarily more dragons, but certainly priests of enough skill to challenge and turn undead giants and shore up whatever military force he could put together.

He folded the vellum and placed it in the envelope, and then held the wax over the flame letting it drip over the edges, before pressing the signet lion rampant into the wax glob and waiting for it to solidify.

It was traditional.

"This should gain you entry and audience with the Aldori." She took the letter. He nodded, "Thank you." He compromised that he would send word if anything changed, but even that was limited by the conditions of magic. The recall items were keyed towards visited places of religious significance. He was confident that Amvarean could find her way to Shrike Wall, but he actually expected that Eranex was likely to locate her half sister first if it came to that.

If it came to that. If it came to it, what was the escalation, was the procedure for undead cyclops from a nation lost in the sands of time, and forgotten by history for the most part. The answer to that question was complicated. Eire leaned back and regarded the adult silver in half elf form.

Could Amvarean kill Vordakai by herself? Could Eranex? Could Jaethal?

They had come to investigate the Varnhold's vanishing, and were instead faced with a conflict far beyond anything Jamandi Aldori might have imagined.
--
Notes: as its relevant for next session, I just feel the need to point out the general weirdness of the Azata Empyreal lords, or the emperyeal lords in general but particularly how it seems like an excuse to cram kitchen sink fantasy full of real world religion, but hey thats useful. [Again, I don't get Golarion's cosmology canonically, I'm not going to hew to that terribly close on some things]

And since we're on the subject of that, and Golarion's tendency to kitch sink fantasy, I have no idea why they felt it was necessary to waste a whole chapter (9) on cramming yet another unnecessary lovecraft mini adventurer into Kingmaker P2, This will not be present in, is not present in pretty much any Pathfinder story I write. I digress.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Erastus 4716

Olah Kakanhket.
The Valley of the Dead.​

It was amazing that this ancient graveyard's markers remained even though the bones of the interred had long since been reduced to merely fragmentary remains.

A single ominous form waited for them. The first undead cyclopes... undead hostile to present itself, and the thing wasn't even actively aggressive. The brute hadn't even noticed them... not really a surprise the zombie was not particularly intelligent. It was observing with its single eye the approach, but had done nothing to as they had walked among the markers reading the names of those interred here countless centuries earlier.

Still the solitary monstrosity was a new addition. It had not been mentioned in Willas Gunderston's notes. The Nomen centaurs were suspected to be an offshoot of the greater Rashalka population... the inn in Vanrhold had had a wealth of information on the iobarian centaurs, and hopefully Amvarean would be able to put it to use in a way that Amiri wasn't likely to... or maybe Amiri would succeed in rallying them to potentially face the ancient cyclops by a more primal appeal to arms.

Shaoyu hissed wrinkling her nose at the zombie her hands flexing clearly wanting to take her sword up and severe the giant undead's head, but she restrained herself turning. "Isn't this too small?"

"Pardon?" He asked.

"Jaethal said that Vordakai was an ancient tyrant," The actual cyclopean word and title for their rulers, which lacked the later human negative connotations. "This is too small to be his tomb, he ruled a pre star fall empire."

Eire paused, and looked around the area... and while he was prepared to perhaps attribute some degree of embellishment on grandeur of historical empires perhaps both in their records as well as to their contemporary 'fans' and advocates... Shaoyu wasn't wrong. The steles were certainly of the correct style and period from what he understood... but she was right this was not some ancient citadel. It was not the ruins of ancient city.

This would have been the far frontier of any iobarian empire of the period. It was too far from Casmarron's heartlands, too far from the shining palaces. It made little sense for the ruler of Koloran at least the one who was known to the elves at the time of the star fall. It was possible of course that those records that Jaethal would have had access to could be wrong or exaggerated... but he felt that Shaoyu was probably onto something.

There was a sudden flutter of wings. He turned to see Eranex land with another good fey like creature... or rather that had been his intial assumption. While certainly fey like with animal parts the good outsider was an Azata not a denizen of the first world. The golden turtle man claimed to serve an Empyreal lord who's name sounded at least to Eire as vaguely Vieteminese, but he didn't press questions about this dragon king of Lac, even though it did niggle at the back of his mind as they prepared to move further into the valley.

Whatever the case they had a blind turtle monk along and apparently an evil artifact that needed to be destroyed... and thousands of trapped souls to free. "Have you spoken with your sister?" He inquired. "You abrupt departure," had not implied to him at least, "That you had much time to coordinate actions in concert with us."

"I have. She will rejoin us as soon as she is able." Eranex replied, with a pause, "She was not pleased that the humans in Restov were unable to muster any sort of aid. As you requested she passed word to the Church of Iomedae, but she has gone to rally the centaurs."

He spared a glance to the still oblivious lone undead sentry two feet up the path... and decided to go ahead and bring up Shaoyu's theory.
--
Amvarean had, as promised, returned. That was good. Amiri didn't particular care for riding horses and doubly so when surounded by horse people, it was just weird. The silver dragon's comments about the swordlordsd was a deeper problem.


They couldn't send aid to fight undead monsters?

By Gorrum they hadn't sent aid to contend with the undead minions of the servents of Count Ranalc... what good were the city folk of the so called free city then?

The Kellid warrior had never really understood the swordlords. She had arrived at Jamandi Aldori's big fancy house... because it was a promise of adventure. A chance to prove herself. She only had needed to hear 'adventurers wanted' looking for heroes, to know the next adventure was waiting to make her way from the tavern ... and she hadn't really been in Restov to really grok who these sword lords were at the time.

People with a preference for big words would have said that was impetuous. That they were city people really undermined sword lords as a title to here... oh they could duel, and could fight. She'd been in Restov long enough to recognize a bravo could actually scrap... but there was a disappointment in how unwilling to act at times against serious obvious dangers.

Ranalc first then this Cyclops. "We're not going to make it in time." She grumbled balling her reins in her fist. "We wasted too much time." She said we instead of You to the silver dragon but at least the 'barbarian centaurs' were here helping.

"There is no sign," Amvarean began to reply, "that Vordakai has compiled any force to challenge us. We are concentrated his forces are not."

She scoffed at the platitude. Amiri still felt like they were running late. They weren't there. There could be a battle in progress and they were still following the river south. There were no ominous portents. No rolling black clouds on the horizon no crows or carrion birds. If anything it was a hot summer day. That was the defining description. There was no sign it was going to rain no enemy on the horizon just grassland as far as the eye could see stretching in all directions.

The tors of levenies the mountains they would have to climb up into were still miles beyond the horizon... and, "We should forget going back to Varnhold." She declared. "Just ride for the Tors."

Amvarean frowned marring elven features, "It would do no good Amiri of Six Bears," The Dragon replied concialitory but firm, "Even if we rode all day we would still arrive in the dark at best, and tired besides."

She hated to admit that was true. They might be able to manage sixty miles in a day, but then what. If they stopped half way, and gathered their forces in Varnhold they would still have to ride further south and pitch camp. She loathed to think how far behind they would be ... how slow they would be in catching up without horse.

With the threat identified they rode into Varnhold, and in the morning departed riding south riding through the foothills that lead up into the mountains to the west and then to the great bleached bones of an ancient long dead crag linnorm. The flowing streams, and small rivers necked down through the hills and great mammoths travelled in herds to drink and graze. They weren't here to hunt though and the individual groups numbering about dozen were left be and undisturbed as they continued to ride south.

It was another warm day. Amiri wasn't unused to hot summers, contrary to what some people thought it did actually get hot in the land of the mammoth lords... most people just assumed it was winter all year round... though there was frequently snow in the mountains all year round. The great growth season however blanketed the land with flowers and plants and that could be hot.

She had thought she had prepared herself for any potential weird sites... and the entry to the valley of the dead by itself was in many respects what she had had in mind. The opening to the valley and its miles of warnings and strung together bones hanging from posts by cordage. That was what she had expected to see.


She didn't quite expect to start seeing people just milling about. Tens, became hundreds became thousands. By the time they had ridden far enough into the valley to see the first of the ancient cyclopean grave markers it was clear from even the briefest of conversation with the displaced these were the missing citizens of Varnhold. They had no idea how they had ended up here, only the vaguest of memories of disappearing nothing until they had woken up in this strange place.

The confusion was compounded by the fact that they were riding into the valley with a party of centaurs.... that took time to straighten out... and required them to more or less come to a complete halt, standing around for a couple hours as they let word of mouth slowly circulate. Amiri refused to split up the group they had brought, there was already too much confusion going on by having all these people, and the Nomen centaur... but with all of the Varnhold citizenry seemingly here it made sense to go ahead and pitch camp.

... and then try and figure out who was still missing.

--
Vordakai had had little understanding of the Nomen centaur. The Rashalka were a frontier nuisance in his age, and the cyclops lich had stated he had been, so far as that he could remember in his fragmented state been put into torpor by a rebellion of other cyclopes... that it had been a fragmenting of the Ghol-kan empire and infighting that had destroyed his efforts rather than an external threat.

He had captured Xamanthe for the same reason he might have tried to capture Willas Gunderson before he'd stolen the ring. That the centaur warrior was an intruder. Xamanthe had actually only entered the Valley of the dead roughly contemporaneous to Eire's flight south to find Amvarean's lair, and the headstrong horse had been detained by Vordakai's limited number of guards.

She had been able to provide the cyclops little more than what he had been able to learn from the officers of the Varnhold... too much of the tribe's history had faded into myth and legend and Vordakai himself was a name passed down from the mother tribes.

Eire might have distrusted the cyclops's recounting and claims of not recalling if not for the necessity of having the turtle monk shatter the ornate millenium eye that had replaced Vordakai's original. No doubt the occulus of Abadon had been exerting some kind of malignant influence on the cyclops, though whether that was its nature or some product of the thousands of years Vordakai had been exposed to the artifact was a matter to theorize over later.

Maegar Varn had been able to tell Vordakai the story of the tragedy of Vladlena Lenyenko and the dark. The difference was that between the two of them and the maps of ancient koloran still in Vordakai's position, the cyclops liche was able to potentially put a name to the one responsible.

It was only a potential guilty party, and of course 'Qand-si qadaal' might well have been long dead and his dungeon's defenses might have been independently responsible for killing off the several parties of interlopers hired by the mad merchant hoping to plunder its wealth. It was still too much of a coincidence.
--
Arc Conclusion Notes: Varnhold Vanishing as an AP (the third of the original first edition) is one of my favorites for sheer potential, for teasers and I really wish we had more material on Casmarron and really eastern Avistan like Brevy . This is the conclusion of summer of 4712 largely for the reason of avoiding getting bogged down with things.

The spriggans are an easy threat to deal with. There is diplomacy for making peace with the nomen, and Varnhold is rescued, and of course the occulus of abadon gets smashed and destroyed off screen in the fight. I had considered having this follow crpg canon and letting Tristian do it, but that runs into either revealing tristian as an Outsider and thus his origins as well as not introducing Eranex's companions for when they show up down the road. Its a little touch on heroes of another story type deal.

We resume Kingdom building with the next update and the start of a new arc next time, particularly with a couple of necessary features of medieval / feudal politics. As well as of course nomadic / barbarian / whatever confederations in the form of Armag continuing to grow:

Spoiler: Ye medieval powers

So in the CRPG Armag lays siege to Restov and also is implied to have defeated a brevic army, that requires a fairly large army. Now that won't happen immediately but in a general run down of events forthcoming among others: Pitax is already 'paying tribute' to Armag, read bribes, and this in 4712 will culminate in him using the Tiger Lords and the growing tribes aligned with Armag to subjugate to force to compel to make Hannis Drelev bend the knee.

Now this is important because this roughly contemporaneous with another feudal political move, in that while Drelev is submitting to Pitax at barbarian sword point Eire is enfeefing Maegar, and also Vordakai and the centaurs and Amvarean. These are all different sorts of feudal relationships. Maegar and Amvarean are the most classically normal idea of feudal military relations as is popularly conceived. Vordakai is less martial, where as the Nomen represent the feudal relationships, Eire uses the term foederati meaning a people he has a treaty with, but this is between a 'classically' feudal power structure and the older preceding tribal arrangements.

These enfeefments, these recognition of relationships are important because they are the basis of Eire declaring himself a monarch, a king. This will play a role because 4713 on (iirc) Armasse the Church of Iomedae (in conjunction with the other churches) proclaim a fifth Mendevian crusade (and also a couple months later WW1 ends on earth) and of course Deskari does his things (this is the wrath of the Righteous adventure path's beginnings, and its events will run through 4718 culminating in the great blow against the abyss, and the worldwound being closed). The important factor here is Eire's status as a king, and thereby expectation of being politically active on the church's behalf and there will be events across 4713 to this effect

And what will happen is either in 4713 or in spring 4714 Drelev looking to curry favor attacks Narhold, specifically he sends a supported army of his retainers to attack Tatzylford.

Spoiler: This is currently still drafting

This would either be occurring as Eire is returning from Mendev, or in the following spring during the traditional campaign season

But particularly spring of 4713 will to some degree be aimed at a little more slice of medieval life and general daily occurrences with the companions, Valerie, Tristian, Amiri (substantive kellid population in the region)

 

[Imperator Pax]

1 Arodus 4712 AR
He shook the last of the water from his hands, and dried his face. Eire inspected the alabaster vase with his now dried hands. It had been given by the Orisirion envoy as part of his embassy mission. It wasn't anything particularly special more the typical foreign mission gift giving for it had been sent before Jamandi's missive regarding the Varnhold's mysterious condition.

Today was the Inheritor's Ascendance, and Armasse was just over two weeks away. It was would fall the day before the new moon, but this year was different than last year. He didn't know what was going on with Brevoy, at least not in a detailed manner. A month and a half earlier Jamandi Aldori had sent a letter referencing tensions with Issia. The situation with the Varnhold had been mediated, the articles drafted, and new border delineations created dividing the Dunward. The Barony of Varnhold still existed with a territorial claim and recognition that extended to roughly running south inline from Restov's own western border. Operating from nominal recognition of the brevic charter that had recognized the original barony was an acknowledgement of the 'foederati' domain of the Nomen clan of centaurs. Then south of both dominated by the southern tors of Levenies was a domain allocated to Vordakai.

It reduced Varnhold's territorial claims to something more manageable. Roughly the equivalent of what Drelev's demesne seemed to actually administer. That was to say the area area Lake Hooktongue rather than the marshes of the slough further south. The new arrangements in the east though changed them beyond the position of claims of barony, county, or even duchy. They were the matters of kings, or even Empire.

Vordakai had very nearly risked annihilation. The atrophied Cyclops lich had allowed some of Varnhold's residents to be eaten, but his interrogation of Willas Gunderson, and then of Maegar, and the eastern baron's other companions had placed the lich in a complicated spot.

Part of that had been word of Jaethal, part of it had been Shaoyu's existence, and then of course his raven familiar had brought word of the investigation into the Varnhold Vanishing that had been mounted. Koloran as a polity had been an offshoot of Ghol-Gan. Ironically by cyclops rejecting the hedonism of that empire to settle in Casmaron. In Ghol Gan's era and thus that of Koloran the Elven Empires of the pre starfall had existed. Koloran had existed coterminous with those human empires that emerged and like them had died with the Earthfall of the Starstone from the heavens.

Vordakai's enfeefment was more a matter of practicality. The cyclops suspected that regardless of whatever degeneration had so afflicted modern cyclops if he had survived the downfall of his own people as a lich most likely there were others who had done the same... and that those ancient Koloran cyclops were like as much a threat to him as they were to other humans. Vordakai and his retainers had apparently been betrayed in as much political intrigue as he had been brought down by conflict with external human and centaur foes in the time of the falling stars.

Of course it was also possible Vordakai had quickly proffered that potential danger in order to increase his own apparent value rather than face Shaoyu, or Jaethal or Silversteps two daughters, or Eire himself in open combat... but so far so good. ... and he suspected Vordakai might likely be right and that the cyclops was looking at the possibility of mutual defense with complete seriousness against other Koloran survivors.

Monarchy.

That was where they stood, and that meant turning further away from Brevoy, and culturally Eire suspected much more towards the Inner Sea. Jubilost was quick to make comparisons to Cheliax, or at least Cheliax as it had been before the civil war, but that was mostly a product of the Church of Iomedae felt in doctrine and broad similarities in lex talionis and jurisprudence more generally.... but the gnome was right with where they sat now there needed to be more indepth political structuring to administer geographic areas in the realm.

This wasn't brevoy where the small crofts were roughly a day's ride from one another and larger villages spread out a little further and then towns, and larger towns and so forth until you reached the seats of the great houses. The River kingdoms were vastly less peopled and with freedom of movement and the migration of various nomads through it was too few of a fixed population to rely on that.

Land was cheap, and people sparse in comparison to Brevoy where it was the opposite. Eire dried his hands. Varnhold would need a larger more capable road system. The road needed to be widened graded and paved... at the very least to roman highway specifications...

... and then there were the elven ruins to consider as well. They created other questions beyond those and the Koloran ruins built by the ancient cyclops. There were no dwarven ruins in the east, the dwarves had not made their migration to the surface until after the elves had fled the earthfall and the cyclops had succumbed to its devastation the shield road in the westlands were much younger, if still old, than the ruins of elves and one eyed giants.

Thus remained the other enfeefment. The Silverstep domain or hold, for the children of the silver dragon... but mainly Amvarean. Her sister, Eranex, was in the service of Skyka the many and Amvarean intended to place her new seat on the lakeshore proper. Another matter of enfeefment because Amvarean would be responsible for the Lake's surrounding communities, and in all likelihood be point of contact toe the tribe of elves she had spoken of after her resurrection.

He stared at the fixtures that dominated the vaulted chamber. They needed an organized apparatus to work from... and as Maegar had put it, 'better you than me.' It wasn't a unique sentiment. Regongar liked being a 'war leader' but neither he nor Amiri expressed an interest in the necessary leadership aspects on the civil side, or the business of ruling. Jaethal was begrudgingly willing to do some things so long as he didn't ry and push into being chief justice full time.

A cassocked priest entered, and bowed "Its is time your grace."

--

The recognition of his ascension, a reiteration, rededication of the realm, and its commitments had occupied the religious festivities, and thus while the common folk were now engrossed in commiserating they returned to the business of state craft.

Harrgulka cleared his throat the large troll scratching his chin as he paused in exaggerated contemplation, "I don't understand, why become king now, and not before."

"Mostly a matter of geographic distinction." Eire replied taking his seat at the head of the heavy oak table. There was no point in discussing how ridiculously grandiose the Brevic charter giving Varnhold claim to hte whole of the dunsward was. The truth was each of the 'baronies' as Jamandi had intended of them really he would have called them petty kingdoms or potential dukedoms.... but he hadn't written them... and Brevoy didn't seem to have dukes.

Now with direct access to the steppes of Casmaron there were other trade opportunities even if those were to be the caravan routes. That most certainly would require them to coordinate not just with the Nomen Centaurs, and possibly other Rusalka branches, but also the horselords of the wide grasslands. In order to facilitate that he needed to expand the connections east to west.

While no dwarven outposts existed along the modern caravan roads of the steppe once long ago the same pathways had been host to cyclopean structures, and by and large despite the thousands of years those Koloran remnants still dotted the landscape. It was designed to provide them a starting point especially as the east west routes needed to cover the breadth of the kingdom... and of course that meant more work poured into the road of shields and its fortresses.

... which meant the potential issue of modern dwarves, and that was simply one more other thing that had been probably inevitable given the scope of the realm... and the mass of ruins. He'd known that elves and dwarves were a potential concern since the beginning. Humans were unlikely to come start laying connection to ancient Taldan fortresses or mines in the way the elves and dwarves might. Cyclops wouldn't, but as Vordakai had lamented his race had fallen mightily since the starstone had fallen from the heavens.

The introduction of, or expansion of, Kobolds into the trollish hold along with humans and lizardfolk into the souther fief had had another interesting development. He had intended for common, that was Taldane, to serve as the primary literate language but that was quickly being overtaken in written word... as trolls learned to write by draconic, which resulted in draconic superseding the common tongue as spoken. A not insignificant portion of brevic colonists, not just in his own, but from those who had helped settle the Varnhold, spoke Draconic it wasn't especially an issue but it did settle them neatly into effectively a de jure state of bilingualism given the law and government documents being put out regularly in draconic, even if this meeting was in the common human tongue.

"Well," The cleric of Groetus harrumphed, "What about that upstart hammer swinger from the woradash." Harrim grunted, for all the grumbling that Dragn supposedly did the dwarf had waited the more than a month it had taken to contend with business in the east.

"The truth of course is the bronzeshield is as good a place to build the kingdom's," And how easy it was to use the word, he'd been fighting the temptation to for a while now, "provisions to begin with," The road of shields, and its fortresses were more likely to be repopulated with humans and whether that would or wouldn't be an issue only time would tell, but "As for settling Dragn's shop there it makes the most practical sense."

Where the Shrike had flown into the Tuskwater had become basically the capital district. There was the baronial seat, and then under the most recent organizational outline a county of Shrikewall. There were broad territorial divisions of the north and south narlmarches and the Dire marches on their western border. There was recognition of Silverstep, obviously, and the Kamelands, and the northern border too.

... and of course annexation of the east and the boundaries there. Thankfully that had been simpler than it might have seemed. The nomen, the broader Rusalka still adhered to recognition of borders that hadn't existed in thousands of years. That was the nominal dispute cause offense taken, and retaliation so delineating that border would need to be done in stone... whether they would get that done before winter was another question. They could get started at least.

They needed maps though, and easily they were talking about a breadth of the realm east to west from the Dunsward to the border with the slough of a hundred fifty something miles. Obviously there was the completed roadway between shrikewall to varnhold that while not straight meant they also weren't starting from scratch, but that would require six months with a significant labor force, and it was doubtful it could have been done before Lamashtun came. Most likely work would have to be subdivided into regions, three hundred to five hundred men in the west and the same in the east, and connecting them.

"Do we have estimates for that?"

"With the existing roads? About half of it, seventy miles needs to be built across the dunsward frontier." Dead Dave declared, as he flipped creaking fingers across the instruments in front of him. "I'd also just like to say six months might not be enough." The undead engineer added unbidden from within his hood. "Lord Maegar has not the men for it, no villagers in the horse-folks lands to pool from." He elaborated, "Finishing the narlmarch road, well there is hereford which is small but its something to start from, and thats a smaller roadway."

And it wsan't just the old elven keep either. There the dwarf ruins, there were taldan ruins, there were even koloran ruins in the west as well. There was thorn ford further east of those. There were plenty of places to stockpile materials and set camps to and from. They had more options in the west in no small part because they had been focused there before the Vanishing.

Vordakai grunted, and breathed again. The liches bones sounding like dry branches. The Tors were perhaps even more sparsely populated than most of the river kingdoms, they were deep and inhospitable, completely unsuited to sustaining agriculture outside of very narrow valleys that frankly were too steep for much. The exceptions were in the valley cut by the mivon as it flowed down from the north or the source of the little sellen, but those lands were unpeopled and only really temporary stopovers by migrating nomads.... obviously in the little Sellen's case that was a mix of Vordakai's tomb and the historical belligerence of the centaurs hoping to deter interlopers out of ancestral memories passed down to prevent interlopers into the Cyclopean valley of the dead in the eastern tors.

That meant connecting the roughly thirty miles from the western tors to Silverstep's western banks where the Gudrin flowed out and towards the tuskwater was another complication. Certainly connecting the Little Sellen's northern banks to the Gudrin's southern would be useful... but again it was a question of labor in a year half over.

A simple reality of feudal politics. Being a king opened options, but he also knew that form monarchial status also brought other considerations abroad. The Church of Iomedae was no friend to Galt's revolutionary insanity, and of course there was Mendev and the great crusade to consider... and then less militantly there was the look north to Brevoy in hopes of success of influence there. It was a prospect that had hitherto been merely talk and not seriously expected of a small provincial freeholding lord in the hinterlands... now potentially something different.

--
His eyes creaked open against the sun light. The thundering trumpet calls of dragons.. Here again, dreaming in a place beyond Golarion, but one that wasn't earth. It was the weight of actions, and deeds, the metaphorical importance that shaped things. The force of will.

Bringing Vordakai and Varnhold into the fold, the Nomen were all deeds. Perhaps if Vordakai had had more time to rebuild, regaining his strength and had been more willing to engage in battle then it might have happened sooner.

... or not. Out and out conquest might not have allowed him to declare his coronation, his claim to kingship any sooner. Ten pieces floated of what should have assembled into an orb he thought... a sphere of some kind...

Harrgulka had asked why now? Maybe now was just the right the time. Eire had selected the first day of Arodus because it was the opening of the month, but it was hard to miss that it was an Iomedaen holy day as well. It was harder still to miss that his awakening here had come ... at a time of recognition by powerful subjects. Hargulka, and now Amvarean and Vordakai instead of the charter recognition of Restov.

Three fragments of an orb remained bright against the sky, six sat as dim cold, cloudy glass, and one pulsed weakly. Still the other three sat farther away, further in orbit around his head.

The land he found himself in was not the great lake of Shrikewall. Shrikewall was a promontory projecting into the waters of the lake. The vast green expanse was a series of almost rings, that were fed by long curling deep rivers into the surrounding countryside. Similar but not the same.

--
Notes:

First World images

Richat structure https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/ASTER_Richat.jpg
Llorens's atlantis gif https://www.artstation.com/artwork/e0d3x6

Now for the gif its really a combination of the second and third image just all green and blue that fuels the imag, but particularly the river network on the outer edges of the image, where as the central structure, the eroded dome in richat is more green valleys and trees. It bears commenting that this would be significantly larger than Shrikewall's area. The dome is twenty five miles across.

These images give some idea as to what is taking shape within the first world.

In terms of historical real world comparison Shrikewall is more based on well in many respects trends we see in Constantinople (not unintentionally in Eire's city plan) or Caffa or other cities / settlements on the black sea) of which part of that is also the geographic equivalence, Brevoy, the River Kingdoms and Iobaria are near as I can tell heavily based off of the pontic caspian steppe expanse and the countries upon them.

Anyway, further historical comparisons, ancient Harappa (this is a site in the indus valley) is a city center roughly three and a half miles and her city walls were forty foot thick (this is brick) at the base.


Persuing Paizo I found a guy did another interactive map: https://paizo.com/threads/rzs43p3k?An-interactive-map-of-Golarion

https://pf-wikis.github.io/mapping/

 

[Imperator Pax]

Arodus 4712
Crowns were largely ceremonial fixtures. Most monarchs did not wear them for day to day business, at least not the ones used for the coronation of a new monarch. He felt the flashing memories of a brow ringed by a burning crown of stars. He didn't have to contend with that or of somewhat mortal formal circlets either.

He had a few days more. The truth was the proclamation of the monarchy, the nominal changes in suzerainty, of the Varnhold, the territorial divisions did not meaningfully effect the daily life of the average common person. It didn't even change the affairs of those who farmed on his four field systems with the horse collars. Really what was changing was almost emphemeral to the majority of people. It didn't effect the average man on the street so much as those that belonged to other elevated social classes.

This was predominantly was felt among the clergy, but that was itself likely a result of the over representation of divine casters at court and among the council and by product. The merchants and martial elites certainly were effected as well, but they were a small minority of the realm. The Church of Alseta, a minor taldan goddess, existed in Brevoy as well as Last Wall, and Absalom of course, but in particular she was also a member of the Elven pantheon being the unoffical patron deities of the elf gates.

The Rings ... of which Eire found his domain had more than one in his realm now. The Aiudara were even called Alseta's ring in modern day Isger. Yuelral was another deity of the elven pantheon with a growing presence, though in this case more popular among the growing population of half elves in the realm. That was in conjunction to small growing flock of the Church of the Guiding Hand who had already made their presence known... to Jaethal's frequent annoyance.

The migrations, the immigrants from southern lands added new faiths. Within Shrikewall, Chohar of Mzali, Adanye, and Osiris, stood among the good gods. As did the chuches of the empyreal lords Falayna, Andoletta, and Ragathiel. Most of these had arrived with the human populations from the Inner Sea, or at least nearby kingdoms, but there were other arrivals.

Though Munguk had little interest in associated with the small tribe of stone giants there was a community of them, and they venerated Minderhal. In addition to that they venerated Erastil's apparent sister, there was some disagreement on orthodoxy, Fandarra... of course the giants also claimed Erastil as Estig... but it was the same god just a variation on the name. The exact relationship between Minderhal and Erastil ... was equally unclear to Eire, and it was not a debate he intended to weigh in on. He had no interest in an internal doctrine debate within another church, and hoped that Harrim felt the same.

While the giant folk came over land the Humans and half elfs, particularly those from Cheliax and Taldor, came by river. The addition of new folk also counted catfolk, ratfolk and tengu as well as others some came from the caravans of the east, but most still the river. The others was on the item today as Kalikke sat in her spot on the council. It was impossible to avoid the inevitable politics of migration from the inner sea, and from the rivalry of the three continents' great powers, and their long storied histories and relations with one another.

Kelesh, Katapesh, Osirion, Andoran, Cheliax, and Taldor. The Great City of Absalom and nations further afield.

Eire adjusted his sleeve. He had expected there were going to be disagreements, schismatics, and arguments from the religious sectors. Of course there were going to be religious disagreements that were likely wholly unique to the kingdom as well. Legal disagreements and so forth as well.

With the growing population Eire found the river freedoms less and less likely to be realistic requirements. They meant nothing to the majority of the population, and yet the prohibition against slavery, and slaving had been codified in the dragon law... and oathbreakers die was certainly another one with an equivalency found with in, though it did make it a government matter, freedom of speech could be broadly equivalence to the first.

Beyond that slavery was an abomination, while the name did have differences 'you have you hold' was more or less in practice... though based on English common law's historical distinction between burglary and robbery where of course theft by stealth was more harshly punished common law. Of the six, the only long term potential one was walk any road float any river, and if it had just been freedom of movement (given the expectation of Courts are for kings) then Eire would have less potential issue.

... but it came down to slavery and the fact that the Inner Sea's great empires all had institutional slavery... but that was less contentious than the racial component and discrimination non humans tended to face. That was the larger potential problem than slavery itself, and thus far as nominally one of the River Kingdoms and with most trade sailing from Absalom rather than from the others they hadn't had a problem...

He twisted away from the the gilt painted vaulted ceiling, but Tristian was already volunteering, "I can go and speak with them your grace."

"Thank you." Eire replied, despite it was not precisely the outcome that Kalikke would have preferred... though he doubted the blue eyed Tiefling had formulated a quite completed idea... Tristian could be a little naïve at times but he was capable as a diplomatic envoy particularly in matters of the Sarenite faithful. They'd need a more defined diplomatic bureau of sorts later, but there were limits on what they could do. "I would remark that those wishing to settle and start new lives here are welcome to do so."

... but it was a long journey to ask people to make, and a potentially dangerous one. Something like fifteen hundred miles by sea and river, and one most successful with support. Support that the down trodden and oppressed in Qadira did not necessarily have in comparison to Cheliax where the Church of Iomedae was happy to assist relocating others... he supposed he could ask.

--
The truth was the meeting had worn on him, there simply was more that needed to be done. Whether Brevoy wished to recognize it or not the increasing tensions between rostland and issian factions had impacted Varnhold's accession into the realm. Vordakai had abducted thousands .... admittedly through the use of ancient cylopean relics to allow him to accomplish such a thing... but he had done it as the summer harvest was just mature. That meant it had put Varnhold's farmers behind taking it in and the kulchek spriggans had left the granaries open on top of that.

Even with Varnhold's abductees largely alive and unharmed it had set them back on the harvest, and with damaged fields, and behind on planting and just all around where a medieval community dreaded being. Hence the political reordering. Jamandi didn't seem to understand that, or the specifics too caught up in her own games in the north. Eire didn't have time for that.

"It is relatively apparent, that a tour of the realm needs to be organized before the first snows..." they'd been able to duck this particular feudal responsibility because they were building from the ground up, but it needed to be done. At the very least a return trip to Varnhold to make appearances even if neither he nor maegar intended to stand overly much on ceremony, but he needed to visit Oleg, and the town there, Nettle's crossing, the Thorn ford and the bronzeshield and Hereford as well as the lizard folk and old scyamore.

Amiri might have been openly contemptuous of the notion 'twice born' armag but there were a lot many thousands of migrating nomads who seemed to believe. That worried him. Even though Amiri viewed the gathering of different tribes, clans, followings, and other different groups based on ties of kinship or similar relation as ultimately a temporary gathering ... Eire feared the mustering of a great horde capable of laying siege to Rostland, and Brevoy. A threat that Jamandi looked to be completely ignoring, but if she was she was and there was little he suspected that could be done to change her opinion... much as he didn't expect to change Amiri's opinion until something else happened.

Of course if their goal was Numeria, if that was where they were travelling to that meant that they had to pass through Drelev, into the Glenebon and further west still. At least a hundred fifty miles overland with no good roads. Not that the nomads necessarily would have followed the roads, they lived off the lands, and chased game, followed their trails through the wilderness, and navigated by the stars in the night sky.

He took his hands out of his pockets and rested them on the arms of his chair, but didn't stand up. They weren't done yet.

"Where would we begin?"

Tristian had already volunteered to interact with the missions, but, "New Colton, I would think, perhaps then to Candlemere, then going up the Gudrin to Silverstep, and then north." The first two could be done day to day... unless there was something specific in the communities that needed to be addressed. That was the advantage of waterborne travel from the Tuskwater, but the journey to Varnhold would be another matter.

The elf nodded in response, and with some resignation Valerie copied the gesture, "I will make arrangements." The blonde paused, "If your grace would heed me though perhaps this would be better served as two separate trips. Armasse is approaching, and it would be in the realms interest to I think for you to be present."

He nodded. "Yes. Perhaps visiting Varnhold after Armasse concludes would be better." The meeting wound on as another day waned.
--
"Are you alright your grace?"

Eire stretched out feeling the magic flowing through the air. He wasn't even looking at anything in particular, but since the proclamation of king he'd been feeling off... different... to an entirely new degree from the changes he had seemed to undergo after the events of Lake Silverstep... which was only part of the reason he wanted to visit the lake.

There was no guarantee Silverstep lake would give him any insight into his condition.

He closed his fingers and brought his hand back in. He almost asked the blonde former Paladin what she would do if he suddenly lost form and did something insane like turn into a dragon... that was how momentarily fragile his grip felt.

Draw a sword?

Maybe. He didn't ask.

The notion of turning into a dragon though made him snort... oh yes that would have made all the current kobold drama pale in comparison. They had enough drama. "There is so much work to be done." The cartographical situation of the stolen lands was a grand project, and the geological forces that had shaped the land also informed them of the lands characteristics. He looked out over the lake's clear surface. At the ships... and at the tents pitched upon his shore. "What do you make of it all?"

"We have made tremendous progress your grace. No one should be able to dispute that." She began, and then stopped, and not for the first time Eire was reminded that Valerie came from established titular nobility. Her parents were brevic nobles, patrons of the ... a church, and that out of perhaps anyone on the council she probably understood the feudal dynamics the best, "Or at least none should." She amended.

Jaethal was an elf who had risen to rank high in Kyonin, before her fall from grace. The twins had seen high society in Qadira, and before their discovery and own tragedy.

They were entirely different animals socially, religiously, economically.

The throngs of people brought by the cathedral continued to migrate northward into the new realm, but there was a change in the demographics. Chelish iomedaens still arrived, but their ranks were also present of halflings he suspected that the church was using the migrants as cover for the bellflower network ferrying them to a clearly abolistionist inclined Iomedaen realm, and that with the declaration of monarchy would expect for him to take more. It was too early to be sure, but it was the sort of thing that also was unlikely to be broached in public but the church's apparatus provided vital good.

"You wished to speak about Armasse?"

She nodded. "Not solely that, but also the migrations of the barbarians through the realms."

He nodded, "That is fair, given the situation in Varnhold, and our many Kellid guests I feel we will need to improve our armaments."
--
Notes: Among other details, and I'll be honest I do prefer the original AP, but P2 isn't terrible is that Jamandi's patron deity (pg27) is apparently Milani. In any event the 2e book makes some adjustments for pacing, but otherwise changes some details for the sake of apparently changing details, or adding them I'd really have to have both side by side to be sure. In any event of Eire's perspective of events for 4712 are done, but with the monarchy we will attempt to focus on not just Amiri, and Valerie but the other companions in part through their companion events but through other interaction to explore the nascent kingdom of narland and its surroundings, which will touch on things like the bellflower network in Golarion, and the various half bloods. This segment itself is just a for better or worse something of post kingdom founding exposition.

What will probably happen is the events of Rivers Run Red will probably take place in 4714 with the attack on Tratzlford and run through that year culminating in Armag Twice Born's horde laying siege to Restov in most likely late 4715 or possibly spring of 4716 potentially under the current timetable with various events between. However with Drelev, and the Tiger Lords, and Pitax I am aim towards a different portrayal in the events something conveys more Tiger Lords mercenary status and provides Pitax a bit more cover than the almost mustache twirling high handedness of the AP where Pitax does just casually suborn Drelev and then launch an immediate or nearly so attack on the PC kingdom, which admittedly is not so unrealistic for history but it has pacing issues given scale.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Arodus 4712
She tapped her foot under the table.

When she'd been a girl they'd called her the soft chieftain. How she'd wanted to be chief. Amiri had seen a lot as she had travelled through the Inner Sea and adventuring across Avistan... she had seen how city kings ruled, and everything she didn't like about how city people lived, and made their way through the world. For Amiri leaving the land of the mamoth lords had not really been a choice, but that had not meant finding ready acceptance in 'the outside world' beyond the ancestral kellid lands.

Adventurers delved deep into ancient and lost places. They sought the lost both people and things. They were hirelings protecting those who couldn't, or worse wouldn't protect themselves. Then there was the matter of 'organized religion', not that she thought of it that way, it was just ... calling on Gorrum, or the ancestors, the earth spirits of the green faith all made a certain amount of sense.

... Tristian spent entirely too much time talking about his goddess, and how nice Sarenrae was, though... which wasn't the only issue... but he was so soft it just highlighted it. Just as ... weird to Amiri was Eire's insistence to attend 'Mass', which were religious gatherings but they were so far as Amiri could tell the same formula read this book, talk about that ... it didn't make sense why you'd waste time doing it... which was what it seemed like to her

a waste of time.

Amiri to that extent was actually grateful she hadn't been born a cleric, or priest... someone needed to talk to the spirits sure, but no not her.

She watched the autumn haired ruler finish washing his face, even as one of the other clerics kept talking. "As far as public works project go your majesty..." Now it was Majesty, It had been your grace before... Amiri didn't really see what all had changed. Maegar was part of their following now... but how did that change anything for anyone else.

They were talking about a road, finishing the road to Maegar's town of Varnhold.

"And Armasse, sire?"

"Harrgulka will be assisting in reinforcing the turnpike to the west."

"Yes sire."

She decided to interrupt, "What about the Sharp Fangs?"

There was a pause, then the subtle change in body language more like watching the sky cloud, "Do you believe they are a threat to the realm? That I should act against them?"

Act... she stumbled over the prospect of the Kellid tribe, their latest visitors who had arrived as being at risk. Amiri grumbled that she was really talking about finding what they wanted... and that the barbarian especially the young warriors had been engaging in a lot of big talk that Amiri wanted to punch some of them over.

--
The eighth month of the year was named for Aroden, the last Azlanti in the Taldoran calendar, or the Arodenite calendar... it was complicated. Taldane the language shared its alphabetic script with that of Hallit, and Hallit borrowed a wide range of words from the southern tongue. Iobarian, Skaldic, and Dwarven all seemed to have shared with each other, and with Taldane... admittedly Skaldic seemed to be the western branch of whatever parent language had also eventually given rise to Iobarian. There was the matter of alphabet as well....

Today's business though only tangentially involved the written word in terms of recording things in writing. Hallit and its dialects were predominantly a spoken language, and most barbarians never learned to read.

That was unfortunate from a theological standpoint. The worship of major divinities like Erastil, and Desna abounded among them, but in aspects somewhat different than the Inner Sea's major churches. The venerated Gorrum most highly. They, and the Varisian travellers, were unlikely to see a point to converting to the Inheritor's church.

That wasn't per se a priority. There were many gods a man could pray to, and simply put the Kellid bands were not an ideal fit in culture to the tenants of civilization that rooted the broader arodenite church. Eire reached a long hand and pulled the sparking dragon child back. Tristian watched carefully, he had joined them this morning, as did Valerie and Amiri... who really it had been her idea... Jaethal was around here somewhere as well, "When I was a child I learned the story of steel. Do you know the riddle of steel?"

The blustering kellid warrior was tall, standing equal to Eire, and perhaps outmassing him by twenty or thirty pounds. He was a young man, probably Amiri's age his body written over with scars that painted bulging forearms and biceps. "I trust this." He declared patting his weapon a formidable greatsword made by his tribe's aged smith.

It was a good sword, well balanced with a long full tanged grip and robust pommel. It was even moderately enchanted, nothing to the level of Harrim's mace, or Valerie's sword, but impressive all the same. "Yes, a well cared for weapon can be trusted."

The Kellid warrior ground his teeth and paced the circle of equals that had been set around the bonfire for the tribes adults to hold the conversations that would determine what was important. Gannon here had been quick to find fault and speak up at every turn until finally he'd baited enough that it had been clear he wasn't going to stop until he had a fight to settle his youthful ego.

Jaethal and Amiri had both warned him about this in their own way that this was common among most Kellid tribes. If Kundal or Akiros had been present they likely would have made similar warnings. Amiri had even tried to go first, something which Kundal or Akiros might have also done he supposed, "the riddle of steel is not that it is strong for being rigid or unyielding." He had to be careful to avoid metallurgical comparisons here... specifying that Iron was rigid and unyielding but ultimately prone to rust and splintering that it was brittle. Steel was strong because it had tensile strength, "it is the steel in you hand is guided by that, by the commitment to your beliefs."

The overhead strike was telegraphed, but still surprisingly fast for a wholly mortal man. Especially one wielding a blade that by itself in excess of four feet and that even at the end of it was still almost a third of an inch just ahead of the point.

Eire's parry from his scabbard had mostly been focused on redirecting the sword, even though he could have stopped it fully cold if he had wanted to. Gannon cursed as his sword hit the lakeshore ground kicking dirt and pebbles up, but recovered with a grunt.

He threw a dirty look at the snickering from outside the circle but started warily circling suggesting that Gannon had been on the receiving end of better, more skilled swordsmen before... especially if this group had come up from Mivon as their previous stop. It was that possibility that had brought him to their campgroundsi n the first place just to find out what was going on in his southern neighbor now... but the Kellids weren't happy about the situation in Mivon, or things in the north and the blockage of hooktongue slough to travel. Gannon and some of the younger warriors had wanted to just charge up the slough and root out whatever the threat was in order to prove their martial vigor but they had been overruled.

Really who wanted to go through an unknown marshland if there were alternate routes. The kellids were more than just individual gorups of warriors, they were tribal bands with young and old apart of their groups moving from place to place. The course they treked to reach wherever Armag was holding his great gathering had to take into context the whole tribe not just hte most able bodied.
--
He took the offered cup and sipped as the great elk meat sizzled on the spit.

"You are a strange one Eire of Shrikewall." The grizzled shaman grunted. "I cannot see your past, and of your future I see only portents of war many corpses fed upon by eagles. I see fire."

"I see." Eire declined to indulge much in Durin's prophecy speaking role the shaman did for the Tiger Lords band.... but he wasn't going to immediately dismiss the portents the old kellid had claimed to have seen.

Armag's confederation besieging Restov lingered in the back of his own mind.

"Your city people will celebrate with arms soon." Durin observed. "Two weeks," he stroked his salt and pepper beard, "We cannot stay that long, but it is a good thing. Too many soft city people wouldn't do even that much. It must irk our lord in iron greatly." He said referring to Gorrum.

The conversation wound most the afternoon away. Time he would have spent touring New Colton, or its environs would have to be put off till tomorrow. Few details were seriously available about their distant cousins, and the branch of the tiger lords whose leader claimed to be the reincarnated Armag. The only consensus was that he was charismatic and had alreayd amassed a large following, and that they were willing to make the journey to hear what he had to say... the young warriors were especially eager to hear his message. As for Hooktongue slough no one knew, but the consensus was two fold there was still a monstrous threat in the marshland, and that secondly there was the matter of not wanting to fight Baron Hannis in the swamps themselves... which demonstrated good foresight.

The village which had been laid waste to decades ago by the corruption of the local nymph queen ... the curse turning her into a ravenous tree monster had never had a proper wall or any kind of fortification. Tiressia had never, nor had her people, seen the need for it, but they were going to have to establish more permanent fortifications. Not that she was hard to convince, Tiressia had understood the danger of the trolls and that even with Hargulka now on the correct side they could not rely on simple good will.

And what Tiressia could bring to the table were druids. It also helped that Kagar had come up from the longtails village to discuss things with a small company of lizard folk.They weren't here specifically for feudal obligation, but taht the Longtails in particular had always been relatively social as a tribe, they traded particularly for hardy metal goods weapons, pots, pans, so forth with native humans even discounting migration of humans across the stolen lands the new permanent settlements both at Shrikewall as well as New Colton meant there were a larger market for them to sell their goods as well as trade for goods they desired.

That was good for the longtails. Supply and demand were in play... especially since the longtails tended to speak better common than kobolds and there was a side job going on translating draconic, and so forth. Not that they thought of it in such terms. The Kellid warriors and the Longtails were barterings as much as using coin as a medium of exchange, which Eire would have certainly preferred if every exchange had been done in coin not kind, but that was simply a bit much to take in.

The Kellid tribes though made more distinction between a war leader and a chieftan, at least as separate positions. At least in comparison to how they understood kingship. It was easy to try and simplify from an outsiders position that any sufficently powerful chieftan of a confederation of tribes might as well have been a king... but it wasn't the same. A king in the land of the linnorm kings might have been similar but the Ulfen were not Kellids, and ultimately those Ulfen kings were not the same as dwarven kings with whom they shared similariities and certainly were the same as other monarchs in the south or in other directions.

For the Kellid rulership was a matter of ties of kinship, gift giving, leadership and prowess on a personal level, very different than the structured community and territorial arrangement of the Kingdom Eire was laying the ground work for. It wsa not simply the Kellids who still practiced these older traditions, the Ulfen and Iobarian humans north and east shared similar political practices.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Arodus 4712

Axes, and mauls clambered against wood as the summer sun sat high in the sky. The ground had been ploughed level ahead of time by a team of heavy horses with a large steel plough. It had cut through roots, it had found and pushed rocks up and all other debris dragging them to where they could be sorted into piles by workmen. Still other men with files, and saws, and chisels worked on pieces of wood meant for projects in later stages of construction.

Unlike larger more complex structures that the barony had constructed in Shrikewall to the North there had been little need for concrete footings for support. The heavy timbers were being anchored into place by stout wood poles being beaten several feet into the ground, or in some cases by other wooden beams, or shale stone. Again, this was another contrast to Shrikewalls more complex masonry where the Church of Iomedae had been invested in larger buildings to use brick, and concrete and arches.

This was simpler, and while not as rustic as Erastil's clergy normally used it was close enough for them. It was a compromise to make use of their labor services, as well as other portions of the labor pool based on housing that the barony had become used to raising over the last two years.

Linzi's Chronicle made the first royal tour a far more grand matter than it was. Much, as the small bard wanted to record things as they had actually happened it was too quick for her to quickly pour ever expansive descriptions of what they were supposed to be doing... and the result of that was to make things so much bolder and larger than life as they set about making a kingdom.

She was right about one thing. It had been an eventful year. There were still nearly four months left in the year. Harggulka had decided he liked the idea of Armasse... even if the troll king didn't care a whit about Aroden, Iomedae, or Milani.

Clad in his new 'jeans' the surprisingly erudite troll was observing the small works of reinforcing the turnpike further from the houses under construction. Vordakai had utilized the existing natural reserves of stone coming from up river to begin the process of raising, and repairing iobarian ruins that had been left behind into something approaching a not like new condition. The cyclops rejected that he was doing most of the work, merely a portion of the labor. Valerie doubted the old one eyed monster was being modest.

Still the road, and its protected post were a mass of work, and bustling bodies. The road bed was to be grouted with concrete and was to be carefully levelled for overland trade of wagons, and horses going east to west from the lakeshore towns with the idea of being as level, and well drained as was practical. Straight was good, but flat would be better.

With the harvest of grain crops beginning, the largest portion of the fall harvest even for the baronial fields, there was work to be done but it was already looking to be an impressive year. Even now gourds were being added to the table, squash and melons joining the harvest of potatoes, tomatoes, and corn from the ... no longer Baronial fields. The royal estates, Valerie amended internally. It had been the road they had been walking though, and that as chancellor she should have seen it before... seen the potential of what they had been doing...

Their party had done more than simply stop the predations of the Stag Lord and his gang. Even before the bandit's demise the ground work, the foundations of something more than a simple barony had been being laid. Valerie had found herself somewhat dismissive, and a little sour at the homage and involvement his grace had paid towards his church, placing the construction of a cathedral over the raising of a stone fortified redoubt that would have been the envy of many a brevic noble house... but in hindsight...

There was a thump as the koloran giant placed the heavy bound tome on the table. "I am skeptical that there is much this two week drilling will accomplish." The undead cyclops grunted, his new replacement eye milk like as it rolled around in its socket, "But if only to furnish guards then I suppose that is success."

Once Armasse concluded then they would need to determine both the travel of the royal tour and to potentially address quelling any potential further conflict between longtails and thick skin lizard folk in the south. There were a wide range of other places in the south that needed to be surveyed without even touching upon the northern half of the Tors of Levenies, or the western Dunswards. The migrating barbarians coming from south of the Little Sellen carried with it news from elsewhere.

Which of course worried Kesten Garess since there were no ... really they had done very little exploration across the other side of the Sellen River. That was a potential issue since as it happened they had the ability to reach Vordakai's tomb more or less directly by sailing up the Little Sellen River. There were no fortifications along the river, and currently the available stone they had quarried was needed for other projects... the Kamelands weren't precisely a wash with forests to harvest trees from either... and much of the realm's labor would be tied up either with the harvest or with the process of preparations for winter.

Valerie turned and watched as, at one of the smaller tables, the diminutive form of Mikmek scooped a slice of freshly carved melon and raised it up over his head squeaking something she didn't understand and then began to devour the sweet water treat. It reminded her of the abandoned ferry station where the little sellen flowed into the shrike about ten fifteen miles to the west of the cave where the beserked owlbear had lived. His grace was suspicious of the large cave system, but the ferry station had once been the sight of an attempt by the sootscales to establish a colony generations previous... and besides the koblds there was also Harrgulka's people settled to the west which could potentially provide some labor.

Harrgulka would probably have preferred being directed to smash hostily lizard folk, but they could not necessarily plan for that at the moment... there were so many other things that were going on.
--
The always bright magical globes of daylight insured the chamber was well lit.

Valerie struggled to keep her attention focused on the matter at hand. Her liege, the king, had asked the cyclops about something he had called the underdark after the two had spoken of serpent folk in ancient times... but Vordakai had known nothing of these 'Drow', of these horribly malicious elves.

Harrim knew of the underdark as the place his ancestors had tunneled out of and apparently the ancient orks had also been driven from the bowels of the underdark by the dwarves charging for the sky. Jaethal knew of the Drow, but less of the specifics of the 'underdark', the lands below.

They were preparing to put the matter aside though. "Well," Eire remarked prefacing his statement with a sigh, "It is unfortunate that we have had to delay this matter as long as we have, but there were other matters. We have had visitors from the church of Shelyn in Brevoy."

The former paladin tensed as another former paladin stood. The ex paladin of Erastil was such a contrast to her. Akiros had fully changed from his home culture assimilating into Kellid Numeria traditions despite having originally been from the inner sea. She would have preferred they talked about the need to tour the kamelands, the horse estates, the matter of farriers. Not this. "They," The Sharp Fang, "have departed my king," Akiros remarked, preferring what was really the hallit title of kingship, "But they, in their comments suggested that the situation is more complex."

Jaethal looked smug, more so than she had at the recent visit from envoys of her native Kyonin, as the paladin turned barbarian tribesman finished as if she had coached him on how to deliver this news. No this particular facet of courtly life was one that Valerie could understand, even if she did not wish to be the center of attention for the life she had left behind in Brevoy.... but her attempts to escape that legacy clearly failed as the Church of Shelyn within Brevoy pursued.
The undead inquisitor tossed the letter on the table.

It was addressed to Valerie but she'd never seen it, but she recognized the handwriting.

"Not yet." The elf chided. "it was delivered any hour ago. Animal messenger."

Akiros took this as instruction enough to continue. While the Brevic church of Shelyn did not technically consider Sir Fredero to be rogue he was away without leave. He had left his post without official sanction. This might have attracted overmuch attention if all had been going well, but the truth was that apparently the new temple that Federo's letter had initially spoken of was apparently behind schedule.

Fredero had dipped off somewhere apparently having gone to search for a lost taldane shrine to Shelyn somewhere within the boundaries of the Narlmarches. So he had headed over the border from Drelev's domain in not in secret , then at least without the Order of the Rose's approval. He certainly hadn't declared his travel... though the river folk would have surely said that was walk any road.

... or at least that was the Order of the Rose's side of thing. Apparently they had misplaced him long enough to grow concerned and had sent word to Shrikewall when Eire had been in Varnhold sorting out the crisis at hand.

Sir Fredero's latest letter was odd. It was certainly as high handed as the last one. The details did not quite add up.

Eire stood up to pace. "There is the possibility that the Order of the Eternal Rose is unaware of Sir Fredero's first letter. Certainly they must be unaware of this most recent one. It does not explain the long absence." It did suggest the knight was still alive. "I assume this shrine of the golden grove is the same shrine," He paused turning on his heel, "is the same shrine that was mentioned as being lost."

"He talks of other priests in restoring the shrine."

"Though not the largest church in Brevoy, there are many noble contributors to the church." Kassil Aldori added joining the conversation.

"Hidden conspirators more likely," Harrim snorted, then sourly continued, "Certainly I've not been told of this supposed restoration work. Certainly this ruffian would have known of the work on any of the Old Deadeye's temples or shrines."

"Has the church of Erastil suggested Shelynite activity?" The King questioned.

"They certainly have mentioned nothing to me." The surly dwarf said continuing to grumble about the the lack of his office being informed. Jaethal also denied being told.

"Valerie I must request you wait until we have completed our tour before acting on this challenge... we will move on it once I have spoken Lord Maegar in Varnhold, and more importantly after the three of you have," He fixed Jaethal, Harrim, and her with a look, "locate this shrine in my realm. We will contend with this once we have a location."

--
Notes: While I will use material from 2E for the most part 1st​ edition pathfinder lore largely takes precedence, additionally again I am not hewing entirely to canon. Particularly I chose to ignore most lovecraftian events, and I do this when I run most of my golarion table top games, if I want to do lovecraft stuff there are other settings. Anyway, but second edition lore, some of the ethnicities will be used some other stuff won't. This july there is supposed to be a dwarf three part AP coming out, I hope thats good, I'd like more dwarf stuff.

Anyway this is based off of the Companion Book, which I've already mentioned as being a bit overpriced for what it is. To the point it and the P2 book seem almost contradictory on some of the characters, like the P2 book (the AP) introduction seems to go out of the way to soften the characters like Jaethal and Valerie to lesser extent, but Jaethal in particular changes does little for my opinion of the P2 book.

Also: Just to clarify Vordakai here states Armasse is Two weeks long, this is not a mistake, even then the cyclops has a point its not long enough. Eire has basically differed from from Arodenite orthodoxy by doubling its length from a week to two weeks... which of course its not as if the Church of Milani or Iomedae are going to complain, with the transition to Monarchy. This is significantly more martial, so its a return to early Orthodox traditions over a longer span of time rather than extravagant partying..

 

[Imperator Pax]

Arodus 4712
Amiri was bored, which was largely mirrored around by the others who were sitting here... but it was either be here listening to reports... or have to listen to the reports about weights and measures that Kaessi was giving... and she'd rather hear what was going on in the north. Even Linzi had preferred to come and listen.

"Another Kellid tribe," Jubilost snorted as he sorted through more papers from Kaessi, that were in turn weird city folk things Eire had outlined. "Alright lets have it, what are they clan Hell Horse, I've heard his grace mention them in relation to the White Scars, or those Jade Falcons, hmm?" The gnome scoffed, "Well I suppose we should get on with it before the horse folk start talking about Sjohvornor again." It was clear that after the umpteenth time hearing of Iobaria's steppes and stories of the white dragon on more than one occasion the story had lost its bite, Jubilost had gone so far as to say it was nothing more than a story to frighten children, rather foals in this case.

"Six bears." The armored man remarked cradling his helmet.

There was a scratching of the quill as the gnome wrote it down almost suppressing a yawn as he made a note on a piece of paper to one side of the crowded table.

Amiri had frozen up, "What did you say?" It was one thing to Amvarean call her Six Bears but the Gnome had not even batted an eye at it. Jubilost must never have heard the dragon refer to her as Amiri Six Bears and thus the clan meant nothing to him. "Say that again." She demanded.

"Six bears." The dark haired arminger replied. "I made nothing of it Lady Amiri." The swordsman remarked straightening slightly. "The Nomen with me did not know them either, but we accepted their pledge of good conduct and allowed them to pass us and continue on their way. I did not think to mention you."

They were dealing with this, this was just luck, because Jaethal, Harrim, and Valerie had all been tasked to deal with this Sinnet braggart who was skulking around. Unfortunately that had to wait... this 'monarchy' thing had rules and since Maegar had joined their following it meant examining his part of the realm. She had originally been hoping to go wyvern hunting while they were doing this ... she'd been looking forward to a winter hunt all summer the chance to face some big monster in battle and cut its head off... but now...

Now she had to demand answers. Like: Why were there Six Bears this far from the Realm of The Mammoth Lords?

"Obviously, they're part of the other barbarians looking at this Armag." Jubilost interrupted grumbling, and scoffing. "It was only a couple weeks ago we had to deal with another group passing through. They'll move along soon enough."

The alternative of following the mammoths was put forward as well. They could be following the herd as it migrated south. It seemed outlandish that they would have made their way so far south for any of the other reasons put forward. It had also been years since she had departed the land of the mammoth lords, and with no real sources of news there was no telling how much had changed.

"Maybe there was a really big war!" Linzi suggested standing on the table. Then after a minute she hopped back off.

It could have possibly been that but the great distance overland made it seem more likely that Jubilost was probably right. The gnome clapped his hands at the admission, "Good I am pleased we could come to a perfectly logical conclusion, now what are we going to do about this." Well obviously they would have to find and ascertain what the Six Bears were doing or at least where they were in the northern stretch of the kingdoms. Thus far most tribes had had passed through heading north west if they had come into the narlmarches then there was the chance this Armag and the Tiger Lords were moving.

Not that Jubilost was volunteering to help with that of course, he'd been planning to make a trip to Lake Silverstep apparently to look for a purported shrine. Not the one that Valerie, et al, were looking for, "This is a shrine a colleague wrote to me about, one to the Eldest. Supposedly to Shyka the many in this region," Shyka was Eranex's patron deity, but the silver dragon was currently absent from the castle, and kingdom, and her sister was at the Lake so Jubilost hadn't been able to ask.
--
Eire recognized that Iobarian was ... basically the Taldan Empire of old's equivalent of Scythian, perhaps was the best classical comparison he could make. It referred to nearly every sort of person who happened to live in the north steppe lands of Casmarron. Frankly from what he gathered a similarly broad habit had been used to label Kellids... well Kellids, and the Varisians and maybe even the Ulfen to a lesser extent. Ghol can written sources were no help either. In both cases, both Taldan classical sources, and the ancient cyclopes sources, basically describing pre literate people, humans as barbarians who lived on the margins to the north of them. What little beyond that was unhelpful and largely generic.

The Thasilonians and the Azanti who seemed to be the same broad ethnic group had been known to the cyclops but because they were complex magic users they were not barbarians to cyclops of Ghol Kan or its own source civilization. Similarly the elves were not barbarians were the same reason... but complex magic using societies required the written word. It required a substantive knowledge and an advanced economy. The 'Iobarians' of the classical period had lacked this measure as well.

As a result Iobarian was an outsider's catch all term for a polyethnic people. He was pretty sure given the wide ranging differences of Kellids across central and western Avistan that it was basically the same issue. The migrating nomads, and agro-pastoralists could range in size from small scattered bands of a few dozen individuals to great extended kin groups 'clans' of many thousands. Indeed he was unsurprised that the eastern horse folk used a base ten system that rose up the unit of ten thousand, going from ten, hundred, thousand and then ten thousand. "Whats the latest word then Jubilost?" Because they were now definitely in the category of tens of thousands of nomads.

"Stretched from Numeria all the way across the Glenebon and into the south rostlandic plain." The gnome declared, "We'll be lucky if the summer bonfires don't start a wildfire."

They were peaceful for the time being. Armag had yet to declare some grand enemy, and it was possible that he was waiting to be acknowledged as elected by the greatest tribes before doing so... but as a member of Gorums faith he had invited Gorumite clergy from Brevoy to his court seeking an ancient Kellid burial ground ... something about a magical sword.

But Harrim was probably not being dramatic in saying that it was only a matter of time before they had to move.

That estimation that they were stretched across the thousands of mile area from eastern Numeria north of the Branthlend mountains across the rostlandic plain, enough that he could seek out the priest of gorum from Brevic cities for consultation... spoke of a truly massive confederation potentially being assembled.

... and that was only part of the problem. Kingship was not simply a slightly fancier ceremony, a fancier title and more land. To that end this chamber itself had not changed much simply because of the change in rank, "If there are tribes moving down out of the land of the mammoth lords then it is best we confirm that. Go with Amiri," he said speaking to Akiros, "See if you can locate her tribe and ascertain their intentions." And it was here that was the division of labor. "If they're within in our domain. If they're in the Slough or parts further west leave them be, if they're encamped in Brevoy thats different. If Amiri likes she can invite Regongar, Octavia, and Ekundayo if any of them wish to join. Once my business with Maegar is concluded I may return to the temple of the elk, or more likely recall directly to Shrikewall's cathedral." If they could locate the tribe so much the better, but summer had a month left, and four months left in the year.

There would be advantages and disadvantages to a mild winter. A couple of months spent in purely local construction could do a great deal to shore up local roads if nothing else. That was likely to be the principle sort of work they could manage in winter that would be long term productive.

He ran a hand over the raised edge of long wooden table, and looked down at the swirling sands as the map of his domain refreshed. Eire rested as the sands settled back, and he wondered if any had thought to create such a diorama. Was this unique? Or had some ancient wizard in a bygone age also contemplated such a model? It was a question that didn't ultimately matter. This was most likely unique within the Stolen Lands, maybe even Avistan as a whole, but if it wasn't if some ancient wizard had made an equivalent that was fine as well.

The truth was Eire viewed this as a utility. It accomplished an objective. It was a tool to provide a solution to the problems he had to deal with as a ruler. This was a land filled with ruins. Elf, Cyclops... he doubted there was anything Azlanti this far north and east, but it wasn't impossible for the continent lost ten thousand years ago to have had some distant fragmentary collection of exodites make it this far up the sellen. Whether they had or not it didn't matter. It was the Sellen that was the lifeblood of the realm, "If Valerie does leave the capital I trust you can handle administration in her absence." He remarked to Kaessi. The tiefling's air shifted and then she nodded. As it was they really were depleting the realm's administrative brain trust. Jubilost would be at Silverstep during his visit to Varnhold. The acknowledgement was perfunctory and the conversation turned back to the model... and what would happen with the Varnhold's addition. Technically Varnhold itself was close enough to appear within his map without any real change in scale, but not the whole of the dunsward. "I will probably need to make a map room that occupies the whole floor," He replied... his thoughts turning to diagrams of Qin Shi Huang's tomb and the flowing rivers of mercury... well he wouldn't need the mercury, but it was an idea.

The conversation turned to the barbarians, and beyond the matter of guest and host relations. Presumably as a result of The Earth fall or the reign of stars in Numeria, or some facet of the realm of the mammoth lords the majority of kellids didn't ride horses. There was no institutional cavalry.

That didn't mean they were stupid. The kellids even those that didn't ride understood the value and utility of roads, and there were tribes who might not have cavalry but did possess and utilize carts pulled horses, or oxen or onagers. Oxen weren't a good draft animal for cold grasslands. Bovines simply didn't forage in snow. It made sense that they wouldn't be suited to the lands of the mammoth lords outside of certain protected valleys.

"My understanding is that there are a dozen or so Followings of note among the kellids at any given time. If Armag could swing even just one of the large followings it would represent a significant population."

"There is," Jaethal paused, and using his phrase, "already a significant population." Which was true, every tribal passage west represented a gathering portion of an army that might eventually march on Restov.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Arodus 4712
As the month approached its end, and Armasse drew to its close Eire prepared to take his leave from his capital, but part of the end of the month also entailed drafting missives, and directive. As well as receiving such memorials to the throne that had been commissioned to answer his questions. He was unsurprised by some of the reports. Faerie Dragons had already been common relatively speaking within his realm. With Amvarean responsible for a fiefdom on Lake Silverstep it was no surprise to see that her assessment would speak of Dragon turtles in the lake, of course it was also an account of Faerie dragons, of pseudo dragons, and even of tidepool dragons.

He was a little more concerned about the apparent Kongamatos that was a fixture of the garrison of New Colton especially given the amusement the old beldame seemed to take of the adolescent dragonic creature's presence. She had not specified if these were naturally native to the area or if some of the colonists had brought the clutch of eggs from the inner sea... he wouldn't have been surprised if it was either.

Indeed the settlement of the lake the emphasis on his kameland holdings and New Colton would broadly had occupied his focus in terms of holding development. The kamelands had rich black soil underneath the steppe grassland. Wild horses were abundant across their expanse. It made sense to settle a place somewhere along the Gudrin to support horse raising, or accurately breeding and training for royal needs.

Maegar's Varnhold though was more than just a major human settlement. The linking of the road would mean that caravans from the Casmarron interior, and thus ultimate from the far south the Padishah empire of Kelesh could reach Varnhold and also pass through there to Shrikewall as well as up the Kiravoy to Restov and thus beyond into Brevoy proper.

He did wonder why they specified it as the padishah empire.... that seemed redundant to him. Padishah meant emperor. Regardless with the possibility of a better supported overland trade route into the north through the windswept wastes it was possible more trade would flow their direction... and if not trade could still up the sellen from Qadira.

Truly though his realm was a wild land, a wonder to behold. Jaethal had already spoken to him about the attention the realm's proximity to the First World would attract, a comment echoed by Jubilost independently, but the inquisitor's remarks also focused on the attention the flora, fauna, and fey denizens would attract from her homeland of kyonin to the south.

Attention that was likely to be both official scrutiny and unofficial in the terms of migration. Kyonin was a stuffy judgmental place, not that Jaethal would have described in quite those terms, but it was an apt Linzi-ism summary of what Jaethal had actually said.

Linzi would be accompanying him to Varnhold, which was supposed to be settling back into a more normal state of affairs, and truthfully he looked forward to seeing that. Linzi intended to record in full detail the real look at a settlement rebuilding for the historical record of course.

Eire suspected Keleshite was ... most likely a shared ancestor language with Taldane. Azlanti couldn't readily be described as proto indo european ... or at least that allegory didn't work in a historical context because well Azlanti civilization had been very advanced linguistically... more likely Azlanti potentially was a part of the same language family and it had cross pollinated with the other daughter languages of that ancestral language. Whatever the actual case was, whatever role draconic played it did matter in the context of legal overlordship, "And your advice remains that we should wait until Kyonin extends to the offer of an ambassador?"

"Yes." Jaethal replied. Diplomatic and trade envoys were one thing... but the principle matter, especially given permanent immigration was swelling the population of Narland... they were still simply too small to be taken seriously as a real kingdom so soon. Kyonin was to that end most likely to ignore them for the foreseeable feature ... but at the same time, "Unless we do something that attracts the attention of a particularly flighty bird," The word she actually used was probably more accurate specific to magpies, "We can expect that the isolationists will keep foreign relations to a minimum."

Kyonin was always slow to recognize river kingdoms. They were effectively at war with Razmiran, and were in an... what amounted to a cold war, regarding the elven nation's imperialist ambitions against Sevenarches over frankly presumptuous historical claims to the druid lead nation. What was perhaps interesting about that what that Sevenarches seemed quite similar to Narhold in relation to its proximity to the first world and its fey population... but sevenarches was much closer to Kyonin... so in theory they shouldn't have the same issues

"So we wait," He replied. They couldn't pretend that with the river that those five hundred miles were all that far. Eire had also been pointed that he wouldn't recognize Galt, and not just because that was the Orthodox Iomdeaen position regarding that the Red Revolution were a collection of chaotic evil murderers and accusations of abyssal cults being involved in the creation Galt's 'Final Blades'. He had entirely practical personal and political reasons to eschew the red revolution beyond just the allegations regarding demon worship... and having a government that had turned out to be dominated by a hag coven. "Cheliax is unlikely to ever," At least so long as the House of Thrune ruled, "extend an ambassador, and like Taldor the best we might expect is nominal recognition ala galt as a post imperial taldane successor state." Which was political recognition on the grounds that all had originally been a part of the post Earth fall human empire of Taldor... but such recognition was potentially double edged. "Qadira's recognition runs much the same issue of affiliation given the Padishah reputation for expansionism." Thankfully while the river made reaching the inner sea commercially viable, it was also a distance too far in the modern age of division and border tensions for the great powers to try and be expansionist.

"We're too far for them to care. Its why they're all too happy to shove their exiles, and bastards this far north." Kyonin was included in this category. They'd happily displace malcontents whether forlorn or embarrassing half elf ... indiscretions further north, much as Cheliax and Taldor and Qadira would do, were doing. "Osirion is the one who is the odd one." And even that could just be that word had reached traders and merchants from Absalom and that they didn't wish to miss something.... but there were enough Osiriani migrants that they had to be considered in royal decision making.
--
Linzi had sketched the Kellid murals painted, that depicted Kellid life thousands of years ago, and provided those sketches to show Maegar. They showed daily life before the arrival of the second army of exploration. Barrows which suggested them to be four thousand years old, and most likely the kamelands kellid structures were probably contemporary to the sites in the north.... which itself created another dynamic to relations with Qadira... and potentially wider interaction of the church of Sarenrae.

Frankly it was difficult to really describe the broad spaces to the east of the area of the Tors themselves as culturally part of the River Kingdoms. That would have required the area to have enough people to be able to speak of some kind of shared culture, and what people there were was largely the migrating Iobarians passing through as seasons and years passed.

Varnhold had been constructed as the Kiravoy flowed, a couple miles north, down out of its source waters in the Tors proper to take advantage of the terrain and establish farms to the east of the river for hte original settlement, which had gradually expanded as Varnhold had grown. Eire wasn't precisely sure when Maegar, or Drelev for that matter, had set out to stake their claims but the thirdborn son of house Varn had constructed a fairly traditional brevic settlement in the region, and from Varnhold had spread out small secondary hamlets like the one in Varnhold pass that anchored the road through the pass.

The baron of Varnhold put the sketches aside, "The word from back home isn't good."

Maegar didn't immediately elaborate on what he meant. He could have meant Issia, or be speaking more broadly of Brevoy's tensions in general. It had been thirteen years since every known member of House Rogavaria had mysteriously vanished and the Issian House of Surtova had taken up the throne proclaiming themselves initially regent but increasingly clear that Lord Surtova no longer viewed himself as regent... and that was causing tensions with more than just with the Rostlandic South Brevoy was far from stable, and the risk of civil war existed even without the growing volume of barbarians.



He paused, and thought about the slow trickle of people south, and of course the comments from Mendev, "So you believe Civil war is inevitable?"

"I'm astonished that its managed to this long without it breaking out," and Eire found himself nodding at the candid statement. It hadn't occurred to him... not really just how impressive it was that Noleski Surtova had managed this long without one erupting. Eire thought of the year he had spent in Brevoy, and the small Iomedaen church, Noleski had already sat ten years as regent... even if they were increasingly emphasizing King instead of Regent in the title of King-Regent. "The Surtovas attempted to send an expedition of their own, but they just disappeared."

"Into the Stolen Lands you mean,"

"Right. Into the glenebon highlands, which," he paused and shrugged, "Was where the Iron Wraiths disappeared from as well." The other mercenary company, besides the Varnling host, offered a charter to settle land. The conversation wound back to the Surtova's ambitions. Negotiations between House Lebeda and the Surtova were apparently aimed at wedding Elenna Lebeda to Noleski Surtova, which was apparently imperiled by Lander Lebeda's 'apparent' association with his Aldori sword styles... which was absurd given the sheer breadth of dueling culture across Brevoy.

"Could they also have been destroyed by barbarians then?" It was part of among other tribes, the historical range of the Tiger Lords as they well knew.

It was possible Maegar was willing to admit. He was too far away to have heard anything more than rumors about the situation with regards to Armag twice born though he did know of the Tiger Lords as mercenary bands. They had uncovered in the northern narlmarches indication of tiger lord settlements that had existed in the age before the Taldan Empire. Of course the Tiger Lords were far from the only Kellid tribe which had existed in the region either before, or after the arrival of the Taldan from the south.

Frankly they weren't here to talk about hypotheticals. The Iron Wraiths had disappeared into the Glenebon upplands... whether or not they had ended up on the wrong side of the barbarians, or giants or whatever it didn't matter really. That was on the opposite side of the realm, There was an entire other domain between them. However the migrations to the great gathering was a concern to the realm, and one where Eire knew he needed to look at military preparations. He didn't require grain provisions from Varnhold... even if Varnhold had started their harvest on time he wouldn't have needed it. What he did need was the Varnhold pass reinforced, and done before the years end... there needed to be a safe route of travel between the baronies original seats per the original plan that was more important now than it had been when concerning two independent states. He was concerned about the situation in Brevoy to be sure, but if Restov wasn't capable of providing aid to not one , but two distinct threats involved undead, then he doubted they would be able to provide military support against Armag if that came into open warfare.

The meeting concluded an hour later, as the sun began a slow descent, but had not yet brought darkness. Linzi looked like her hand hurt. A quill was simply not ideal for taking the sort of lengthy minutes such a session entailed, and Eire wondered if might be possible to have someone make a ballpoint pen.

He had examples of them in his backpack, but that created the problem of not just ink, but also needed paper that was practically suitable for using pens. Fountain pens had been the intermediary of choice even into the 20th​ century for a number of reasons. They had been generating a great deal of written records, and while movable type press made it possible to print copies of documents it wasn't practical for composing minutes.

"Do you really think war is coming?"

"Within Brevoy, or on our own frontier?"

It was no secret that Amiri did not approve of the feudal systems ideal distribution of labor, especially not the tripartite system of farmers farming, clerics praying, knights fighting. That was of course an ideal that reality often did not actually reflect, but Amiri could be said to basically just not like the societal concept.

For Linzi it wasn't that cut and dry. He was tempted to remind her when they had first met he had said he was more mercenary than hero. It would have seemed ridiculous at this stage. Maybe it had been ridiculous then. He did occasionally wonder whether or not he might have fit in better if he'd moved north from Brevoy, gone west to fight in the crusade... or just gone to Numeria to investigate the strange marvels of the star scorched wastelands.

"You wanted to chronicle the real course of history. This is simply a part of that story." He settled for instead. "That means that war is something that will happen at some point, just in the course of building a state, a central government must create the organization to allow tradesmen to be tradesmen, and soldiers soldiers." Did those occupations need to be fixed and hereditary? No. He did need soldiers, but he also needed roads and granaries. For someone from the Tumultous land of Galt was a fundamentally optimistic person, "Peace is something to hope for, but it is never given. It is not the default state of affairs. It is a period where something, some factor, had caused an absence of conflict."

Linzi looked crestfallen at the lesson, but Maegar nodded. "Right some body has to be there to knock enough heads to get everyone to act right." The mercenary swordlord remarked.
--
Notes: This is not technically the conclusion though its note is somewhat finality, but that note is necessary because most people have grown up with the peace dividend of the post second world war that somewhat takes for granted that peace between large states is anomalous. This is very much not the case for the majority of human history, and especially in a medieval context. At the same time medieval armies were not large conscript armies either.

You tried to avoid conscripting your peasantry because you needed them to do other things. Like make linen, or other cloth thats labor intensive prior to the advent of the spinning jenny in particular though not just limited to that invention. You needed them to farm. Wood products, metal products.

Speaking of products, I have skipped over/ glossed over, somethings as basically not being a priority, typically these things take place of the winter season but also to handwave one of the typical 'isekai' / in another world tropes of introducing goods, and part of that is handwaving some of integration of industrial developments via drafting documents, examples, but also magic in order to get around. Golarion already has potatoes, and chocolate, and coffee, and corn and, etc at lot of various modern commodities because kitchen sink fantasy for food but it would be one of those things where Narland's nascent industrial revolution is still in the future, despite some proto industrial developments made possible by magic... which of course is why Brigh, and Casandalee (which she ascends) are going to be prominent in the realm in a view years.... because Narland is a major religious center, because chuches with divine magic make it easy to have near universal health care coverage at least in your cities

This also goes to trade. Narland is too far north even in the Kamelands, and the Dunsward to grow coffee, it could feasibly grow tea, and mulberries, but coffee isn't a practical option, neither is cotton. Cotton needs to be imported from Osirion, finished and reexported... and while as a story this is about kingdom building, I also get that the degree of economics is probably not what most people want to slog through, and I don't want to focus all of my time on it. Thats part of the reason we will be getting some Amiri centric stuff, and some good old demon punching down the road... in addition to the bellflower network stuff, halflings, half elves, half orcs, tieflings etc.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Rova 4712
Eire was fully prepared to accept certain facts particularly that ambitions were different. That different people had different ambitions. The Varnling host had been settled in decent agricultural land, defensible territory...More to the point it had been granted a vast expanse of territory in their charter, and given its location in the eastern valleys of the Tor of Levenies Varnhold had access to both good agricultural land but also the thing that Brevoy generally lacked, quariable stone to build robust masonry fortifications.

In short Maegar and his company settling down here had gotten a really good deal, but it was hard to describe Varnhold as aiming to be an independent nation. That was the issue though, they were fresh settlers who had retired from being a mercenary company, the officers of the company who had succeeded maegar had gone off to fight for other contracts and left the retirees behind to carve out new farms in the wilderness.

Outside of an emergency mobilization reconstituting the settled Varnling host simply wasn't practical. These were men who had been promised farm plots upon which to settle their families, and raise children in order to be minor land holding gentry, or even potentially future town fathers. What Varnhold had not been planned to be was a 'condottieri' city state... because of course the vast expanse promised by the charter was so far as Brevoy was concerned just empty wildneress with no people... or maybe some horse lord savages with their herds passing through.

That was not say that Maegar couldn't provide swords, but that it would a generation before a new professional fighting company could be established, and that was optimistic. Indeed really what Jamandi Aldori had hoped to establish besides of course a trading partner was to have a school and a urbane dueling culture in Varnhold along the lines of restov or mivon, to culturally bind together the settlements in a broader Aldori identity.

It was precisely the long term political thought that was a hallmark of elven planning, even if Jamandi was 'only half elf'... and frankly Jamandi might well have expected to potentially see a point in the future where she might still be able to hire Maegar's grandchildren to fight as mercenaries on Restov's behalf in some far future conflict.

"Dave has informed me he believes it will be possible to complete the roadwork," A revision of his earlier statement but reflective of growth in the kingdom, and success.

"We don't have the manpower, not with fixing all the damage those gray skinned freaks did." Maegar replied, referring to the spriggans, "It'd take us months to build the roads and finish the bridge laying to accept two carts side by side." The standardized road dimensions for Narland, which were unusual for a feudal lord to establish, maintain and actually enforce.

"I am aware, but I have other resources to call upon."

"The cyclops?" It was clear Maegar wasn't precisely thrilled at that prospect. He had the cyclops and the centaurs as his most immediate feudal neighbors, unless one wanted to count Amvarean once she had established her own fortified residence on the southwestern side of Lake Silverstep.

Eire shook his head, "No. I require Vordakai's assistance elsewhere." He stated. The truth was that after his coronation, and the initial report Davik Nettle had provided with the timetable Eire had told him to do what he could, and, "Before i departed Shrikewall Dave informed me he was confident that sufficent progress was made that coupled with available resources he could probably cut the stones and embankments to complete the project."

"How I was told that we'd be lucky if it hadn't set us back almost a year?"

There was no denying part of it was the acceptance of foreign settlers from distant lands. Clerics and druids from the church of Minderhal and Fandarra alike had been accepted whether they were human or giant, and in the latter case that meant guardian animals capable of understanding, and in some cases speaking languages. Maegar had no real response to this. Instead turning the subject to his own settlement, "I could use the services of a cleric of Phrasma... the truth is I didn't have time really to send word to home before all this happened, but as the settlement has grown up and we've expanded," even if it wasn't as fast an expansion, people had started wanting more religious access, and with a mostly brevic population base that meant Pharasma as goddess of the common people within Brevoy. "We'll need a temple to Pharasma sooner or later."

Eire nodded, "I'm not sure how doctrine differs but the Osirion Church of Pharasma should be able to provide someone." And it wouldn't be all that troublesome to sponsor their building of a church here, or in Varnhold pass next year.

The conversation meandered. "Are you going to Oleg's nest?" Amvarean questioned.

"I truthfully considered visiting Kressel and Davik," There were some minor religious matters there that needed to be patronized. He was fairly certain Kressel was considering a shrine to Cayden Cailen while Davik of course... the undead engineer's patron deity was Abadar. There was no reason that they couldn't build both in different parts of the settlement, but he knew that the task of holding a fief and selecting a patron for her fief to publicly declare had been a difficult one for Svetlana's sister.

The conversation did wind around returning to Restov, and the Aldori, and that Jamandi's patron goddess though he hadn't noticed at the time of his visits to the manor was Milani.

He paused, "Yes, I've had that mentioned to me in passing," It had never come up with the half elf, which admittedly probably wasn't that strange, and he had no issue with the Milani church. In truth he actually kind of thought that Kressel might select Milani as her hold's patron, but it was ultimately her choice. He paused and shook his head, "Beyond the matter there have been other complications."

Eire doubted that Maegar was particularly religious, and he doubted the Issian house of Varn was a particularly religiously minded dynasty. Maegar's nominal patron, despite his bachelor status, was Erastil, and old Deadeye was the nominal patron divinity of Varnhold as both a barony and the town itself. Eire doubted that Maegar had much contact with the church of Shelyn, mercenary captain and the paladins of the order of the rose doubly so. Even so it did not hurt to broach Valerie's situation. Nor did it hurt to broach the matter again regarding the migration of various 'barbarian peoples', not just hte Kellids certainly word of the Six Bears did come to mind.
--
The visit had been relatively perfunctory, even with the added line item of 'Pharasma clergy / help wanted'. The Varnling host as large comprised of former mercenaries looking to settle down were a bit more accepting of previous enemies being allies, and were willing to tolerate the presence of Vordakai in terms of guest right, and hospitality. Not that the old cyclops had apologized for his actions, and Eire really didn't expect him to, but so long as they could move forward from there he would have been happy... so having a sudden fire at the town's inn was... unfortunate.

The burning to the guest room was significant, and localized clearly the fire had had some sort of accelerant used. That was clear enough indication of foul play, but even without a body to the crime it already a capital offense given it was clearly arson. "Any reason that the Technic league would be here?" Eire had not outlawed them by name, but given their slaving proclivities freedom of travel had been less than normal passer throughs... so them in the former domain of varnhold was unusual.

No one among the denizens of Varnhold was forthcoming with any suggestions.

He started to question what they knew of the dead man, and if he had met anyone recently, or planned to do so, but there was a chuff. There was a noisy exhale. Vordakai ... seemed to need air to talk, but he also used it as a social cue to indicate he had a question or was going to speak. "What is the Technic league?" The lich asked after a moment once he was sure he was being paid attention to.

Eire was actually glad that Regongar and Octavia weren't here, but he still explained the situation in relation to their story... since really it was only through them, barring Jubilost perhaps knowing something to add, and the actions of the league which ... just lead to the conversation turning into a broader explanation regarding Numeria to the west, but for the lich the bigger question was why let them come over the borders at all. There were reasons admittedly, but probably the most realistic was the simple fact that there was no practical way to secure the borders... high sorcerery could have accomplished it in theory but they didn't have the resources for that.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Rova 4713
The smell of burned sod, the thatch roof, and other medieval flammable materials made an awful odor, but it certainly could have been worse. The fire had crashed in from the window overlooking the street. The inn was oriented so that the rooms were that way... and it was a little surprising no one had seen anything. More interesting was the man who had presumably died from smoke inhalation, even though he was burned, which was an odor that Eire was unfortunately all too inured to.

The dead man that they had found in the room had come from Restov, but was originally from Alkenstar. That really didn't help them. His room was pretty severely charred but the ... napalm for lack of a better description which had coated his room from the window hadn't caught the rest of the inn on fire, and burned itself out relatively quickly... probably a facet of the late summer early fall rains that Varnhold was prone to receiving this time of year, but also the town watch seeing all the smoke and rushing to form a queue to put it out.

Apparently he and another friend from Alkenstar had been travelling together, but it was one thing that mercenaries liked to do it was drink. The Varnling host had been parceled out farms and farmers often brewed their own beer, and thus there was no shortage of pubs and taverns compared to the town's size. With good reason it seemed as if each of Varnhold's columns, company equivalents, had established a pub for their traditions.

To that end it had simply been a matter of heading over the river and through the dale to one pub after another looking for a man from Alkenstar. Simple, but tedious, and rather something that in more developed realms would have been left to the town guard, or even the Kingdom's constabulary to resolve... but Varnhold's people were still resettling their lands and with Summer near its end they needed to get the late summer harvest in and soon to save what they could so the communal fields were busy, and thus the pubs were busy once the men finished.

Thus strangers fighting stood out... though fighting was probably less accurate than describing it a drunken brawl having sprawled out into the street if not for the fact that they all looked so weird. Maegar, and one of his Aldori retainers unsheathed their sword even as the the men sprawled apart scrambling either for dropped weapons or for improvised ones in order to continue.

Eire strolled forward picked up the blocky golden gaudy even pistol and raised it to eye level with the first of the men in the costume of the technic league. The man's features underneath the cybernetic augmentations bulged slightly. Eire depressed what felt more like a button ala a mid 20th​ century sporting shotgun than a military single or two stage trigger, and watched the man's face evaporate as the laspistol did its grim work. A muzzle blast of burning dust and then a second as he wheeled to fire into the surprised second league man.

Neither men had been wizards, so probably not actually members of the Technic league , but merely enhanced hirelings of the numerian organization. Eire flipped the energy weapon to the side looking for identifying marking that weren't obviously decorative, but the pistol looked as if it had been built as a presentation piece,and while obviously dangerous its lack of moving parts didn't impart any insights into its operation.

The dead man's name was Bernhanius. He was from Alkenstar and had come from Restov, but before that he had been in New Stetven, where there had been ... certain not quite public auctions of materials that had their source in Numeria. They weren't 'stolen goods' per se... at least they hadn't been stolen from the Technic League, but they were artifacts and material that the Technic League didn't want in the hands of outsiders.

That Brevoy was a neighbor of Numeria meant it was easy for Numeria artifacts to go over the border, but the Technic League often tried to pursue leads of alleged numerian artifacts, even going so far as to occasionally chase down supposed relics of the 'Mad Mage Karamos' who had a thousand years earlier laid siege to Absalom with his machine armies. This put them naturally at odds with among other nations and organizations, Alkenstar, the Apsis Consortium and the Pathfinder society.

The church of Brigh had helped finance the mission to the auction in hopes of spreading mechanical knowledge, the exact opposite of the Technic League's mission statement, and had been looking to buy a copy of a book known as 'A Thread of Silver'. Supposedly it had been penned by one Lucius Worznik, a member of the league, in 4515, but had been originally stolen in 4625 where upon it had been duplicated and those copies found their way to market from time to time.

Unfortunately, according to the Alkenstar native, they had been outbid at the auction, though and had only been able to glimpse at a copy of the book. The actual winner of the auction was unknown to the Alkenstar pair but apparently they'd seen enough to kill for... or whatever numerian artifacts had been enough to kill over, though the gunslinger claimed that he'd already possessed his laser pistol before journeying to the auction.
--
The very night seemed to threaten to overwhelm the camp as the chill bit at the campfires trying to keep the dark at bay.

Amiri parried the attack. Feeling the biting cold against her arms and the reverberating crack through the sword as the spectral giant attacked. The ghost was crazy. He was talking to his brother. The handful of Six bears Nilak had lead into the Narlmarches had been fleeing this monster.

It had kind of hurt to know that they weren't really looking for her, that Nilak hadn't been really looking for her so much as running from the threat... that the whole following had fled the Realm of the mammoth Lords pursued by the ghostly giant, but at least her childhood friend was alive..

... for now.

The iron blade had a crack as long as her arm. The Great sword was failing.

If Amiri had been in a different state of mind she might have considered this a sign of Gorrum's displeasure, that she wasn't focusing on the battle ahead of her, or that she had failed to properly be aware of her sword's condition. Instead she swung.

The blade broke leaving her with a haft and a still sizable piece of attached ettin wrought iron that was maliciously sharp. She waved it against the monster. The giant scoffed and then recoiled at a sudden burst of frigid artic air driving any remaining hint of summer warmth from the evening.

"Outlaw." A new feminine voice hissed. The silver dragoness bared her teeth even in half elf form and brandished a fey touched mace in the spectral giant's direction. The ghostly form of Fionn had been openly contemptuous of the six bear group when Amiri had first arrived, he'd dismissed them as a threat when she and the others had rushed to their aid even as they hewed through his undead minions.

Eranex's single word declaration, not even an attack had changed all of that.

The giant backpedalled looking at the night's sky and then turned and fled as quickly as his ghostly limbs could carry him, and quickly faded into the twilight backdrop.

It would have been almost comical to watch if she hadn't just been involved in fighting the giant.

The evil spirit left the undead behind to be destroyed and Eranex did not pursue but seemed to seethe with a fury that felt like an avalanche just waiting to tear down the side of a mountain that she was standing on. The six bears around Nilak gave the half elf figure a berth of nervous contemplation.

Suspicion, anger, and curiosity radiated from their defensive posture as they surveyed her party and their sudden gratefully so reinforcements. The half dragon turned, and regarded the small collection of Six Bears. "We are Eranex, daughter of Silverstep of the line of Apsu." It was a start ... of introductions, and then questions, and reunions.

... this giant exile had been cast out of Skyka the many's realm. He had once been one of the vassal lords within Shyka's realm within the first world, Fionn however had grown bored with his immortality and delved into unspeakably vile crimes. The process of this banishment from the first world had left Fionn a ghost unable to reincarnate into a new body as he would have done upon his death had he been in the fey realm. The best that he could manage was occasionally possessing a new body hunting for the sword which held his brother's bound soul.

The sword... which she had found years ago on a frost giant's corpse.

The result of course had been that Fionn had traced the sword back to the Six Bears following and had rampaged through the following eventually splintering the following as they fled south. None of the six bears could say how many of their following still survived after their flight south had begun... they had been pushed further south first by the old chieftan's son but after his death the splits had increased, splintering the six bear following.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Rova 4712

[4712 AR Year Conclusion]​

Eire took the news in as well tempered a manner as he could. In truth he was somewhat relieved by the news that the Six Bears as a collective following were not going to swell the Tiger Lords ranks with manpower. The issue of borders was more of a general idea... the idea of cross border immigration control and such simply wasn't practical... barring tremendous amounts of magic... and of course it would have looked absurd to contend with the movement one way while simultaneously expending effort to encourage settlers from the inner sea to leave homes in Taldan, or Cheliax or across the sea.

It also wasn't as if his return from Varnhold was solely reliant on the matters of the intrusion of the Brevic Church of Shelyn within the realm, or Amiri's former tribe being chased into his realm by this apparent criminal from Shyka's realm.

Nilak, Amiri's childhood friend, suggested that some of the other six bear splinters had likely moved to camp with the Tiger Lords and other Kellid tribes to the west, while bands and individual families might still be in Numeria, or in southern Brevoy. Ordinarily her small collection probably tried to move on, but Fionn's breaking of Amiri's sword and encounter with Eranex suggested that the malevolent spirit might stop pursuing the six bears ... though that did raise the issue of whether the ghostly exile would refocus his attention to the kingdom itself.

Eire didn't have the time to deal with Nilak and her collection of tribesemen and if they were going to stay or go. They could work out their differences with Amiri over the latters deparature, or not but the giant would need to be dealt with... and preferably soon. This business with Sir Fredero at this Shrine of the Golden Grove as well. Then was the speculation of the continued blockage of the river traffic in the slough and what could be causing that... though despite chatter in Mivon, the southern Aldori didn't seem to consider it pressing... probably because they accepted they had an alternate trade route... and for that matter might have tolerated him better than Hannis.

He had heard little from the neighboring realm since the end of Harrgulka's escapades so he assumed Drelev's domain must have largely been running smoothly. Next week, this approaching week was going to be busy. Sunday would be the somal new moon and the following week would entail the Day of the Inheritor following on oathday, starday would mark the last day of summer by the calendar and the following sunday would be the fall equinox. In short at least two potentially as many as five different civil and religious officiatings over a span of four days. That would depend on the churches of Desna and Erastil, as well as Sarenrae and of course two weeks from the fall equinox would be ascendance day.

He had already expected that he would be travelling through the first month of the year, but with Amiri's broken sword to contend with, "Dragn has settled into bronzeshield," even though Eire had yet to find the time to visit the dwarf's shop, he had planned to visit the foritication soon, "And there are other smiths he can repair the weapon, As for Fionn," He turned to Eranex.

"No I will deal with the giant."

Amiri's protest was noted, but so to was the rejoinder that that might be more difficult than simply beating the giant. The six bears had driven the ghost off before... they needed a way to permanently dispatch the specrtal menace. That meant research and magic most likely.
--
The Golden Grove's story was as Valerie described at testament to her former's faith's hare brained and foolish obsessions with pursuing beauty in all its forms. It had been established several centuries ago, after the Taldan Empire's collapse and well beyond the early empire of Cheliax's control. This was a mistake because the group of Shelynites who had ventured into the Stolen Lands were doing so before the era of Brevic foundation. What would become the Brevic branch Church of Sheyln, after the Rogavarian conquest, never bothered to try and reclaim the remote shrine.

In short centuries ago the worshippers of Shelyn had migrated to a nice spot in the wilderness constructed a lovely shrine to their goddess of obscenly expensive marbel... and not long after their construction had been completed... were all killed by the monsters native to the region.

During the heyday of the rogavarian monarchs about eighty years earlier there had been an attempt to expand into the region, much as how Jamandi Aldori and the Issians before her had done over the past decade, ultimately culminating in their present state. To that end it wasn't that surprising to Valerie that an unsanctioned collection of idiots had moved into a shrine long abandonned for the risk of monsters and lack of governance to support them.

The Shrine of the Golden Grove was only partly maintained. Still it was an impressive structure if for the sheer expense that must have gone into quarrying the marble and hauling it here. It was built in the styles of the Inner Sea, of the Taldan empire not unlike the high dome that formed the basillica of the shrine if in miniature to the one in Shrikewall.

"Its smaller than I was expecting." Linzi remarked she trailed off looking up at the shrine's double doors and the facade of marble."I thought it was going to kind," She paused doing another double take, "of going to be bigger."

It was if as much as a third the size than the bassilica Shrikewall's cathedral to the Inheritor. Eire suspecting the interior dome height perhaps as little fifteen meters above the sanctuary floor. "I suspect that this was built with -"

"They didn't have magic, or at least only limitted means." Jaethal snorted cutting him off. "They surely built this to evoke memories of when Taldan's empire was this far north." She waved to a veranda supported by a colonade of ionic style columns, that were largely overgrown by flowering vines. The vines were nearly everywhere, except for the main double doors... and at one point they had probably been intentionally cultivated in order to blend well with the shrine... they had just not been tended for so long that they had gotten a bit out of hand. "But certainly Taldan esque architecture in miniature... or Azlanti I suppose." She dismissed, the elf waved a gloved hand.

That had been one of the observations of the Cathedral in Shrikewall that the cyclops had made when visiting was the obvious Azlanti influence in the cathedral's architecture that had passed down through Taldan's church of Aroden. He felt none of the radiance that permeated Shrikewall's cathedral grounds and that presumably rendered the city's protection against fire... but then again he suspected that that was domain magic.

Whatever the case the Golden Grove held a small cluster of human priestesses. Eire held a hand out to slow his chancellor and ward before they could move further. "The builders may have lacked magic," but there were multiple alarm spells placed around the grounds, which immediately prompted Jaethal's naturally suspicious nature, though did not necessarily prove anything.

Given the nature of Shelyn's clergy or even just the fate of the original shrine's builders it could easily have been a bard who had set the spells... or frankly a surprising abundance of caution... or Fredero was an inquisitor and able to cast the spell to protect the shrine. Eire had assumed from Valerie's recounting of her studies that the Shelynite knight was a paladin but that might have been in error.

They didn't have to wait long after their arrival as one of the sisters went to fetch the night. He was almost as grating, though not quite as perfumed and no where near overdressed as the Pitaxian dandy of a knight Moskoni. That wasn't really a surprise his letter had been obnoxious, "Valerie, you arrive at last!" The knight called out. "I worried that you lacked the conviction and bravery to answer my challenge," Shaoyu bristled at this, and even more so as the brightly dressed man continued "Or that your new companions would prevent you from doing so. Good that you came, though for is not this a place of beauty?" That was what he was concerned with, Eire kept a hand on his ward's shoulder, "I could understand if its sight alone could compel you to recant your ways and seek absolution but if you remain obstinate I am ready to make good on my challenge. Draw your steel to test against me , and we can exchange pleasantries anew after your defeat and return to the faith!"

"Sight alone?" Shaoyu glanced around a hiss of sparks, before spluttering in outrage "This small garden, Goddess Victorious, Shrikewall is testament of-"

"Yes Shaoyu these things have been said." He replied in draconic.

One of the priestesses, indeed he wouldn't have been surprised if all of them, were from Brevoy translated from draconic into vulgar taldane, which still a few minutes before they could move on. The rules of the duel itself were simple. The shrine's interior were off limits and subject to forfeiture since it was the sanctum. Fredero had well maintained, but entirely too ornate to be field armor, though his long sword was at least a practical design, even accepting the amethyst inlays. He didn't strike Eire as someone who used magic, but more a fixture of courtly society, but one who could wield a blade.

With the rules accepted. Linzi, Tristian, and Saeya Mouri stood to one side as the bard prepared to chronicle the events from the shade of one of the apple trees and he and Shaoyu and Jaethal moved opposite.

Fredero wasted no time as soon as the duel began with surprising elan for someone so overdressed and immediately went down the stairs aiming to force the blonde back and off balance, and met in a clash of steel. Sparks of fire trailed from Valerie's sword an improvement rendered in the face of Harrgulka's particular troubles to the realm, given that she couldn't conjure the magical flames herself. She had partially accepted the sword in part because Tristian could enjoin his scimitar with magical fire, presumably the enchantments on Fredero's sword were a matter of Shelynite pomp and circumstance as it dealt a harmful song like ring.

Eire frowned at the sonic attack, and damage, but said nothing, allowing the duel to unfold as it was , because at the end of it, Valerie had a clear edge. Her equipment was better, and while it was true that Fredero probably had years of experience garnered over the course of his life Valerie was a more capable fighter.

Fredero Sinnet might have been an acrobat and dancer certainly he was spry but Valerie had lived as a mercernary and with the aldori. She had probably at least as much dueling experience with the bravos of restov. She was a juggernaut in the clinch, and proved this by leveraging her longer sword to pivot around the plate protection to hip throw Fredero down the short rise of marble steps to her left.

Even with magic swords defeating plate armor was hard, unless that magic entailed some way to bypass solid steel, but a rigid sword made an effective bar to leverage a fully armored man easily enough, Fredero's tumble also disoriented him as he hit the transept nearer to a statue and reflecting pool close to the stand of fruit trees where Linzi was hastily and somewhat inaccurately, in terms, describing the bout while Saeya attempted to correct misused terminology.

The noise of the fight had attracted attention from the shrine. Another of the priestesses seemed to have peaked out to watch, and then ducked back in... he spared the movement a look considering perhaps the mother superior or whomever was in charge to chide her for slacking off... who knew. The fight continued for about another minute before Valerie forced a concession from her former mentor.

"And that Shaoyu is why we practice fighting against armored opponents," Why grappling and striking and leverage and footwork, and terrain and other details were important even when you could set the enemy on fire. Eire crossed over the path as Linzi began congratulating the chancellor for her victory.

Sir Fredero had a clearly broken nose, and a laceration on his scalp that was at least three inches running to over his ear that was oozing blood, but he'd avoided having his arm dislocated, and really wasn't that worse off. He spared only a passing glance at the statue of Shelyn, before moving on to the two armored figured. Fredero wasn't seriously hurt, but Eire also wasn't particularly expecting the out of breath knight to do anything stupid.

It was Linzi, who also venerated Shelyn, who pointed out that the statue was crying. Eire's head snapped back to look at the unusually forlorn statute of the goddess and ineed the tears running down the round feminine cheeks of marble.

He didn't have much time to contemplate what it meant.

"TULVAK!" Saeya Mouri bellowed her hands on her pole arm. "Hag!" She called in warning.

Eire whirled. Long swords unsheathed at the name.

He knew the name. The green hag had leaked the names of her coven at Nivakta's crossing, and where they could be found for her own spite filled ends two years earlier. He had never seen the green hag in person but he trusted the knight of torrent was telling the truth.

Jaethal slipped like a grim shadow and tripped the priestess who had translated his draconic earlier. "Stay there." The inquisitor of Urgoataha purred in amusement, and sinister warning daring the young woman to defy the command as she faced the entryway.

"Tristian, Linzi, rear guard." He ordered. "Tulvak." He called

"Hello there dearies. I didn't think I'd see you again." The green hag called waving a ferocious looking scythe of her own in the air, "It was so pleasing to see you deal with granny Ferras's hideous face." He thought of the bloated purple features of the iron hag his summoned octopus had drowned in the rapid currents of the Shrike river west of Restov amid a broken bridge. "I don't see that strapping half orc lad with you, that's a pity, he looked positively scrumptious."

... and then she triggered a magic ring and disappeared. He recognized the recall spell, but the question was where she had teleported to.


--

Notes: This is using content from the companion book, which again I retierate runs into the problem of writers not tending to understand scale. That being said, Eire, and Shaoyu are comparing a small shrine to the cathedral at Shrikewall while a fifty foot dome is small for a shrine its not that unusual in reality for somewhere on the frontiers.

But also this can be neatly interpreted as religious chauvinism, or also the difference in aesthetics, given Shaoyu's position while a cute garden its lacks the imperial splendor of the cathedral... but it bears in mind that Shaoyu also hatched in the Cathedral as it was being built.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Spring 4713AR
If Amiri didn't really care for urban areas cities especially as anything other than a passing place to eat, drink sleep, and occasionally use the market... the handful of six bears who travelled with her childhood friend Nilak were even more out of place within the city walls. Eire was willing to go so far as to assume that the winter had been the longest that the six bears had spent in any single place since their flight into the land of Numeria had begun...

Shrikewall during the winter months was a very busy place. The baronial seat, the royal seat now did not ice over... at best it did receive some snow typically in the early second month of the year but the Tuskwater being fed from the Shrike which remained quite brisk never froze over thus the port of Shrikewall was never shut to the flow of foreign traffic coming up the Sellen system. This meant that during the winter months people arrived but largely did not depart the capital. This was beyond the migration, as feudal homage also was included over these months.

In the culture of the Mammoth Lords it was a great symbol of power and prestige for a tribe to have foundling giants raised among their tribes. A clan commanding more than a dozen was enough to place it among the strongest of Kellid tribes, and and insured their broader following commanded great influence at gatherings as well as choice hunting grounds.

There was no questioning that Narhold was dominated by humans in population, but the significant migration of kellid, and iobarian folk from Numeria and the east as well as up from the south was bringing with it others besides just various barbarian clans to meet the proclaimed 'twice born' and so coupled with migrations unrelated to the Tiger Lords Shrikewall was a place of cosmopolitan nature that made it alien beyond the small towns of Numeria or the fringes of the world wound or Brevoy the small group had passed.


Eire watched a ship tack into the wind. "Have they given thought to where they will settle?" It was no secret that Amiri hoped that Nilak and the handful of others would settle... perhaps at New Colton or in the east somewhere in the Kamelands or on Lake Silverstep... but that they would remain close since they had been pushed from the lands of the mammoth lords.

She accepted that they were unlikely to consider settling within Shrikewall's direct boundaries. "Nilak doesn't know. It would be premature so long as that ghost bastard is still around." Compounding that was that while the worship of Desna and Gorrum were common in the land of the mammoth lords... well even Amiri had been ignorant of Iomedae, and the inheritor's church within Brevoy was small.

"Yes," Well, they were working on it. Eire regarded the lake, and then to his capital at large. The spring thaw would be begin soon, and that would gorge the rivers, marking really spring.

--
Eire was looking forward to well eventually a clocktower, and a university but the printing press by itself made it possible to provide for academic matters.

Vordakai cleared his throat making a rattling noise in his atrophied chest. He and Maestro Pendrod, a guest of Maegar's, had been discussing linguistics before the latter's return to Oppara. Modern Giant or Jotun was actually a mixture of Cyclops and Thassilonian, which was itself a part of the Azlanti language family though from a different branch. This made it distantly related, at least in the Thasilonian side, to Hallit and Taldane. To that extent most giants if they were willing to put forth the effort could learn Common or Hallit comparatively more easily than they could Draconic.

"I assume we have confirmation?"

"We do." The atrophied lich looked at the swirling sands beneath their feet. "The tiger lords call to arms towards various giants have gathered several hill giant bands to hear him out, with more approaching." Vordakai paused and with a suffering scowl continued, "Gragglebeard is a hill giant known for the brutality his host of ogres and his suit of wyvern armor. He will have to be destroyed with his host."

Amiri straightened suddenly intrigued at the conversation going on. "Destroyed?"

"There can be no negotiation with this one." That was a very quickly unanimous opinion. He had a well earned reputation for terror across the river kingdoms having wiped many settlements and was known from Numeria to Galt where he had last been reported in the east, prior to the report of his presence travelling north through the Mivonese countryside. If you needed some rampant destruction and had gold, or commodities Gragglebeard would be happy to oblige as long as he got first choice of booty. "Mivon has already placed a bounty on his head."

Eire nodded. He took the consensus in stride. There were other hill giants moving to join or at least hear Armag out and of course there was another giantish problem. "That leaves Fionn." He remarked bringing forward the discussion he had had in private with Amiri that morning.

"We have made the preparations to reincarnate Kean, and free him from the sword, but it will require waiting for the spring equinox." Which was thankfully not that far away. "Once his soul is free of the curse binding him to the sword Fionn no longer be able to return from being defeated."

He didn't like the should in that sentence, but it was the best plan that didn't involve either human sacrifice or asking Shyka to do something about her exiled frost giant. Amiri immediately volunteered to fight Fionn once he was mortal... it had been training for such a rematch that had dominated her activity all winter.

That left him with the matter of handling the reincarnation of the frost giant... and that left them still to contend with the broader context of international relations... or one of their less immediate neighbors' internal politics. While there were Giants who would have found Shrikewall's cathedral still small the fortress had been built with giantish assistance and its hall had very high ceilings. The chamber beyond the sea of shifting sands that formed the magically changing map of the realm was built and furnished in the same dark hardwoods and plaster facades mixed Chelish and Iobarian directed appearances. Vordakai shut the door behind them making him the sixth giant in the room.

Shaoyu, Jaethal, Amiri, Mouri, and two armingers accompanying her had followed. Four giants stood around a bound gnarled fifth... a cleric of the demon lord Kostchtchie who had been arrested having come from Iobaria. The cleric of Minderhal, a stone giant elder well into his ninth century, nodded. "if it pleases you?"

The bound giant licked his cracked lips, and recognizing Eire's nod began to speak.

Iobaria wasn't the problem, not at the moment at least. It was the opposite direction to the west lay the land of eternal winter. The domain of "Baba yaga will return soon." He repeated.

"Yes," The captured cleric rasped. "To replace her daughter Elvanna, to place a new daughter on the throne." The giant remarked.

He wondered if he was over thinking things... but earth's memory stirred at him. "The Tiger Lords, this witch queen could be seeking to bolster her army against her mother." Amiri suggested, which wasn't an insane idea... other than they were talking about the fucking boogeyman.

Jaethal happily reiterated Irrisen's, rather lurid, history that this had happened time and again, every hundred years the crone and her walking hut showed up to put a new daughter on the throne, and and whisk the previous queen away. There had been rebellions and defiance before... they never worked since the first daughter Jadwiga had been crowned in 3313 at the end of the Winter War.

The cleric of Kostchtchie knew nothing of that, only that five hundred years ago the ninth daughter of the crone had rebelled... and as consequence Kostchtchie had been driven from Irrisen to Iobaria. Tashanna had managed to locate the Torc of Kostchtchie which contained the soul of the frost giant demon lord. The torc which was supposedly locked within the veil of frozen tears... but that was in the far north... it was well beyond the distance that the six bears had fled across on the other side ... but the mercenaries sent to the necropolis had managed to penetrate the wards of the necropolis all the same and so Kostchtchie had some idea where it was, which meant an overland trek but being a practical sort was willing to hire adventurers of his own to see if any of them could secure his torc even if they weren't giants.

That still raised questions of what Elvanna, the reigning queen, hoped to accomplish with all of this given the events of past history. Still if Elvanna was intended to rebel... it did explain some of the migration small pockets of strangers from the west, reports of winter wolves in southern Numeria and so on. Some of course had initially been assumed to be Varisians and ulfens migrating from further west but now he suspected that there might be more going on.

He looked at the bound cleric and the manacles, they could only prove cattle rustling charge... which the evil giant was obviously guilty of and that was hardly some great shocker, but he suspected the cleric being the servant to a demon lord was likely guilty of more. "You are exiled from my realm, and declared outlaw, you will be taken to the border with Numeria and given sufficient rations for three days. Do not enter my lands without my leave." The branding magic flared a rune appearing on the purple skin of the giant and pulsed briefly.

Vordakai nodded, and the assembly reduced as the other giants and the armingers departed for the trip to the Numerian border. River Giants were used to playing the river and would insure that the cleric was sent to Numeria... and of course there were other errands that needed to be conducted. A civil war in Irrisen was not something likely to effect them... and the more he thought about it he doubted Armag's host would be in a position to march across the north without significant magical aid... and besides that would have made their lives so much simpler if the vast kellid horde simply decamped for the west and took those flocking to join them with them.

Jaethal was right that if Elvanna intended to raise rebellion it was doubtful she would fare any better than her sisters various attempts.... and if tradition held then at the end of the year there would be a new queen in Irrisen and the point would ultimately be moot.

The afternoon's course of events had them contend with several other similar matters of state, and the growing diverse population of the realm, and the king of less than a year settled on a less ostentatious, stern even high backed chair. "You have other misgivings?"

There were always going to be arguments within the church. There were squabbles between nationality... and of course he suspected given time they would see a similar 'export' from their own borders. Half elves were a complicated subject... half bloods in general. Half orcs could make a pretty good living in brevoy... if they adapted to the country, or if both their parents were half orcs... their northern neighbor was complicated...

...and the condition of the bastards of Golarion was complicated. It wasn't half orcs that were the main matter. He knew the bellflower network was active in his land smuggling small folk north to freedom, and he knew all too well that the Church as well as Milani's church were facilitating their safe passage. Eire had expected more of the same. "There is trouble brewing in Cheliax," and less charitably that Taldor was a basket case... and that played a role.

What those two nations shared in common was well... nobles and their indiscretions. Half elves and tieflings. Most of the tieflings were from Cheliax originally of course but given their status, and indeed frequent enslavement in the infernal kingdom they did escape to Taldor when possible... and well nobles in both realms tended to want to shuttle off their half elf children far from the sight of the courts as well. As Jaethal had predicted they had seen some increase in elven, pure born wood elves, to migrate as word spread of the first world cultivars. Kyonin's envoy, envoy not ambassador, was still not keen on interactions with the undead inquisitor but made the best of it if only for a peaceful position at court. That itself was a development an outgrowth of the change from free holding barony to a territorial kingdom and the monarchy.
--
Notes: Irrisen, Winter War and the actual AP will play only limited role in this part of the story... I had considered Eire making a brief trip to 20th​ century Earth (Rasputin Must Die!), that has been scrapped, Anastasia will be named dropped but probably will not appear on screen for a while though again her ascension to the throne of Irrissen will be mentioned much later in the year or in the following one.

The larger point here is to comment on the broader potential conspiracy Elvanna may or may not have engaged on to try and rebel against Baba Yaga during the course of the AP, which 'starts' in midsummer of 4713 roughly two months before the world wound incursion. (The romanovs were murdered in mid July on Earth of 1918). Again in the current version I do not plan to cover the events of Reign of Winter in particular detail, or for that matter Wrath of the Righteous other than the events of the opening of the fifth mendevian crusade, but I consider the timeline of events important even though it makes the summer of 4713 rather busy.

That being said my best estimation of Winter Reigns is that it takes place over probably a couple of months, at least probably two or three , and certainly overlaps with the world wound incursion (Elvanna thinks she's going to save the world wound for last, which leads into the next thing) supposed Elvanna oped up winter portal all over golarion.

I fully suspect that result of that would be Cheliax, and Taldor, and Qadira and the Keleshite empire (etc etc) would start putting armies through those portals to rearrange Irrisen's national face if the AP had lasted much longer than that, which might have implications on the world wound situation.

Jokingly:
Kingmaker: Winter portals in the kingdom

Damn it Nyrissa stop fucking with my kingdom!
Not me this time.

That being said the events of the torc of Kostchie are IIRC 4711 but we're going to handwave that in this particular case as I don't have that particular book hand to double check

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pharast 4713
Because Shrikewall was dominated by its geography, which in turn overlooked both the Tuskdale valley to the north and the river courses, and the tuskwater lake that impacted the city's layout. As a result the urban center was impacted by the geography. The cathedral, even with completion of the stone fortress remained the urban center of the castle town's dominant commerce structure because it formed the dominant portion of the urban center.

This had the natural by product of congregating most open air trade. Iomedae might not have been a goddess of commerce but it made sense to have in the vicinity of the cathedral in conjunction with the rest of the realm's administrative buildings other buildings related to managing the markets.

Kelesh was twelve hundred miles away, the great grass seas which dominated northern iobaria separated the Padishah empire and its satrapies from north eastern Avistan. Yet, it was an overland route that did make its way to Restov, and indeed to New Stetven for whatever reason. It would have made more sense if the Rogavarian monarchs still reigned... if Choral the conqueror had still reigned ... but those merchants still travelled.

The riverine route was possible, one could sail up the great Sellen River nearly the entire length of the river... which was why he was surprised no one had reopened the slough. It would have made more economic sense... but he wasn't inclined to look into why they hadn't when he so readily benefitted from the trade

Of the modern human empires. The Padishah Empire to whom was overlord of Kelesh was the closest to merit Vordakai's respect... Chelesh was a distant second even without factoring in its clearly declining status of power. Taldor, was so far as the cyclops was concerned, lucky it hadn't been ripped apart by civil war or conquered... though that wasn't why he respected the Keleshite's overlord. He respected them for their proficiency with magic, and extra planar interactions the same reason he respected Cheliax, and also Osirion, because they had extra planar alliances, and powerful magic. In the case of the Padishah, and also their broader cultural sphere, that was the ties to djinn and elementals.

At the same time though they did not reach the power and influence of the azlanti civilization of Azlanti high society, or their Thasilonian breakaways. The modern human empires were more territorially expansive... they were larger, and had greater populations but that meant little to Vordakai compared to, well crudely put, how much magic they could wield.

The cyclops had a voracious appetite for knowledge, and thus read whatever books he could put his hands on. They'd need to build a library. They needed to build a lot of buildings for hte capital, and for the other core towns. Those core towns, even Hereford, were much more centrally planned in layout than Shrikewall. It was in part that they weren't medieval towns at all... they, in contrast to say Olegton, or Tatzlford were the traditional arrangement of charters.

It was in this arrangement that the cyclops had turned his attention from the matter of the Sarenite faithful of Kelesh delegations memorandums to the throne, to face his single eye. He easily towered over the others in the room... none of the stone giants were present being unnecessary for the day's proceedings, and the same was true for the other giants of note in the realm. Amiri was off somewhere with Nilak waiting for the frost giant to be liberated from within her broken sword. Regongar and Octavia weren't typically involved in these matters of the realm.

So it was Vordakai, Tristian, Harrim, Jaethal, Valerie, Linzi, Jubilost and Kanerah all around the original table of the first hall that retained an accurate enough map of the 'Stolen Lands' and its surroundings. The gathering represented the council and covered the important distinctions between secular and religious view points, as well as martial, and economic.

Unlike matters with the giantish gods, Minderhal, or the demon lord Kotschie as had most recently been discussed, the Sarenite Faith was largely accepted throughout the known world... which meant it had many many individual churches, and a wide range of iterations and sects, and differing view points. Eire would not have been surprised if Sarenrae's church was actually the largest faith on Golarion, certainly as the official faith of the Padisah empire and its satrapies and its favored status across the nations in its cultural gravity ... it must have certainly been up there. Sarenrae herself was an ancient human goddess... though that would invariably provoked arguments over creation myths... and so forth.

Shelyn was likely an equally ancient goddess, she had originally been a member of the Azlanti pantheon... which raised other questions, but the necessity to rebuild Shelyn's shrine of the golden grove did attract the attention and notice of the other faiths. Shelyn had directly asked, beyond just hte crying statue, and forcing the hag's withdrawal from the shrine... well he acknowledged that doing anything with the Shrine of the Golden Grove might have prompted attention... divine direct meddling was...

"Tristian?"

The blonde sarenite cleric nodded, coughed slightly, and started to speak, "Besides orphanages, and hospitals," Sarenrae was patron of among other things lost children apparently, but also patron of healers... "I cannot deny that the dawnflower's church does involve itself in the work of the bellflower network... however."

"Tristian, the Inheritor's faith is at a minimum turning a blind eye to their abolitionist work, and I have made my opinion very clear that I support the abolition of slavery..."

"However not all of the church may feel universally compelled to do so."

Eire paused, and nodded. That was true... Qadira, Kelesh, Osirion, the Padishah empire more broadly widely practiced slavery. Azlant had practiced slavery when it had still be extent. Iomedae church while more theologically predisposed against slavery than Arodens ... was more akin to the medieval catholic churches' opinion so far as accepting, and preferred serfdom as an alternative, but was not prepared to actually force a catastrophically destructive war to abolish it. The best that Iomedae's church had been able to do was largely to eliminate it within the church hierarchy itself, regardless of financial losses.

Milani's church might have preferred they went further.... but there were realpolitik concerns that pervaded the Inner Sea. The best that could be done was ato support and encourage one view point, friendly viewpoints over those of the other branches of the church, but without out confronting them with militant force.

"There is also the other matter," Kanerah didn't like the state church of her homeland.... for rather obvious reasons. The red eyed tiefling also found Tristian's sermonizing annoying... which Amiri, and Jubilost tended to concur, while ironically Harrim didn't mind the theological disagreement, and Linzi welcomed the sunlight cheeriness. "I've been receiving requests from both the Church of the Dawnflower and that of Iomedae, and others about what resources could be provided to Mendev..."

"Yes, I've been fielding similar petitions since the start of the year... and the conclusion," that he had reached before being told, "was that there is a fifth mendevian crusade being considered. It won't b e formally pronounced until the churches in common are certain they have the resources to support it but the faith has begun petitioning its monarchs," Of which he now counted, "for considerations of support for the conflict against the abyss."

"Hence questions of grain, and iron," Vordakai observed, "And thus why the realm examines how we can transport such goods from the lands between the rivers," The word he actually used was a vaguely greek word in ancient cyclopean dialect that; in short a variation of mesopotomia.
--
Notes: Yes, that is being canonized as we move forward... I'm going to go edit that post, and do something comprehensive down the road. The fragments of divinity being absorbed are canon thats already happened with the Kingmaker jump's perks I should have phrased that better.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pharast 4713
As she wandered the plateau over looking the great lake Nilak was unsure of what to do, Amiri was doing her best to convince her small gathering of the surviving six bears to remain nearby, but that was a daunting prospect. She was glad to see her childhood friend, and the winter had been a respite, but it was more complicated than that... Nilak was happy that her friend was alive, and healthy, but her new following even contending that it was a settled people following with all accompanying oddities bordered on terrifying and would have been outrageous all the same even without the ghostly frost giant's unyielding pursuit of the six bears from the realm of the mammoth lords.

The totem animal of Amiri's new following, the great lion sat on the banners from the stone fortress gate houses, a common feature of settled people. Traditionalists would have rejected it out of hand for the frivolity of the work that went into such banners, but would have settled for simply scorning such a waste of time.

As was typical of southerners, of settled folk in general, there were a mass of of workers toiling at various tasks that produced goods that the Realm of the Mammoth Lords occasionally traded for, but usually saw no need to. The utility of far eyes was occasionally recognized, but most glass goods were simply too fragile to be of interest to nomadic tribes at least so far as conservative elders were concerned, it was rarely acceptable to trade for such frivolous things. Though sometimes the six bears had agreed to help transport such things to large gathering places where some other followings would meet to trade, that was generally harmless and often beneficial. She understood how markets worked.

It was better they had been told as children to render all you could from the hides of the great animals under the sky. To make beads, and catches and bindings from the bones and sinews of animals... though yes working iron or what the southerners called 'arsenical bronze' ... in comparison to some other sort of bronze Nilak supposed... to make weapons was a different story. Even those came from the earth itself, or from the stars falling to the world rather than the complex practice of glass making. Amiri had been gone so long that these things no longer really effected her, they were simply a facet of the life here, and that these crafts people created them.

It was normal for Kellids to view such alien goods with some degree of suspicion... but that wasn't what made this land's dominant following terror inducing. No that was better exemplified by the the silver dragon banking into the wind and flying down towards the great gathering hall... because such a thing attracted little notice. Within the realm of the mammoth lords it wasn't unheard of for a tribe to have giant members... and it was not unheard of for giant tribes to have White dragons among their ranks.

That was a frame of reference for what could be seen. Giants, and their kin, here spoke the southerner's tongue, the language of the once massive Taldan following of the far south. It was the language they called 'common'. It was almost unheard of for a giant tribe to in its gathering to pay homage to a human following.... at best giant tribes might settle for some token trade of goods, or perhaps mutual grudging respect... but submission was the sort of thing one only heard of happening far to the west in the great icy lands of Irrisen, where the daughters of the witch queen commanded the loyalty of ice trolls, and frost giants.... and like fey as well. There was no land of eternal winter here... but Nilak had to wonder if that was just an exaggeration, after all most southerners seemed to think that the realm of the mammoth lords was all snow drifts and taiga... so maybe the stories exaggerated too...

Whatever the truth was Nilak didn't know how to react to stone giants, and others pay home to a single great chief. It was too strange, and made all the more by seeing increasing numbers of people wear the same standard pieces of clothes turned out by these 'factory' things where people followed rote steps.
--
He shook his head. He had had his own dreams of dragon's fire, and there was the kellid shaman, and others... so maybe something was coming... but the experience with Shyka, and then the foundation of the kingdom and the dreams of what he assumed was a great island in a river valley in the first world still vexed him when he remembered the dreams. The occasional changes the shifting reflection.

Eire washed his hands, and his face, which never failed to remind him that Shrikewall, and indeed the core settlements had the benefit of running water... it was in part the use of bronze age hydrology, but it was also more complex metallurgy... and magic as well. Magic played an important role as well particularly in the construction of infrastructure, but it was not an all important part.

Jaethal was correct to observe that his magical abilities, and those of other spellcasters made it possible to build the cathedral but there was nothing impossible from an engineering standpoint in the cathedral itself. It was simply a matter of resources, and labor.

... and the elf came through the doorway, "Congratulations Eranex has returned," Not that he was surprised, the stone giant elder, a druid of several centuries, had told them he'd be ready soon... that wasn't today's item for the agenda, but he was sure that Eranex's arrival likely had excited the kobold population of Shrikewall as 'auspicious', which was a good translation of the draconic word. "She should be here momentarily."

He nodded to the inquistor of Urgothoa and collected the various documents he'd been purusing the evening before. Eire finished the draft documents, and turned the conversation to the morning greetings.

"yes, yes good morning." Jaethal rolled her eyes, but wasn't nearly as acerbic as her words might have suggested. Elves did sleep, their rem process was different, but not that different, but as an undead and one directly reanimated by a goddess Jaethal did not sleep per se. Her occasional torpor condition was further removed from trancing but was also sort of like meditating... the end result was Jaethal tended to work through the night. "I still have a lot of work to do." She replied, "But we're at least on schedule."

Schedule. He should have considered it more thoroughly but one of the problems with early adoption of mechanical crafts. Powered looms and so forth, like those manufacturing jeans was the matter of standard time keeping. That was without even touching on the matter of things like time zones... which was something he didn't want to start to deal with...

He hadn't thought to start dealing with organized time keeping. All the towns were new construction... they were going to need the introduction of standard timekeeping, with clock towers ordinarily he'd have put them in the time square... given the core townships in the kamelands... he'd revised that for those to integrate them into being apart of the new churches of the Inheritor being built in those royal settlements... but urban clock towers were not going to be enough. They'd need smaller ones ones that provided time at workplaces and also in bureaucratic institutions a step that by and large had not occurred in earth, despite clock towers having been a medieval invention and even considered a requirement of a proper city in northern european settlements in particular hadn't become standard work and government fixtures until the period of proto industrialization several centuries later with complex coal mines developing.

... and that was a whole other matter of the Royal Government. Eire just nodded, but he didn't say anything as they entered the adjoining solar. Valerie looked significantly more tired than either of them, and the blue eyed tiefling while chipper was also still dragging. It was a pity that Shrikewall's climate was wrong for coffee... they seemed like they would be able to manage tea, but they would deal with agricultural matters, especially ones that might require mechanized investment that they didn't have time for. Especially when any such discussion would be sidelined from tea and silk, towards the matter of either foodstuffs or yet still more exotic first world plants...

"Your majesty."

He nodded. "We have a few more days until the spring equinox," the half moon right around the corner, and a week from that would be the Rebirth, full moon bringing them fully into the spring season. "I believe that we can dispense to leave the farmers to farm, and focus entirely matter of the challenges to the peace..." which was a nice way of saying Gragglebeard, and the ghostly frost giant Fionn both needed to die. Those would be the first rides of the spring of 4713 by the Arodenite calendar, and today they would work out the allotment of resources, and the plans to make it happen.

--
Notes I was playing with the map, and leaving aside that Absalom is the prime meridian on Golarion, Restov would roughly correspond to Hamburg on Long/Lat projections, which again doesn't really meant that.

 

[Imperator Pax]

20 Pharast 4713
Spring came with the rains as the colloquial wisdom proclaimed. That coupled with the thaw as temperatures rose insured that the great rivers that comprised their portion of the Sellen river system were busy. The rain currently sheeting off the eeves of the hall tinged faint memories, but Eire turned his attention to other things.

Amiri didn't waste any time on the matter. As soon as Kean, the now freed frost giant, was able to stand on his own, she immediately went to the matter of 'can we please go kill his evil brother for good this time'.

And well lack of ceremony aside she was right it did need to be done. "I trust you know where Fionn is hiding then?" He inquired

The fierece barbarian warrior was quick to answer, and explain.

Apparently Gary had found the portion swamp in his exploring of the western frontier another of one of the Taldan border encampments like where they had originally found the boggard living. That was therefore the last impediment to the logistical matter. Fionn should now be able to be permanently laid to rest... but even if that were not the case, they'd know in a week if he returned after the full moon... which he hoped was simply a coincidence that it was called the rebirth moon. Amiri had begrudgingly agreed to permit Eranex to go with them in his absence. Shaoyu was not happy about not being permitted to go with Amiri and Tristian, and Regongar and Octavia... but the truth was there were matters of state.

Eire nodded, and while he would have preferred they waited for the rain to cease he bid them good luck, word from Mivon 's traders and those coming from the city state suggested Gragglebeard remained in the eastern frontier of that country. He was making a mess of things, including attacking some of the caravan trade that they received. .

The royal court, the great hall was a vast structure, cavernous in its height to accommodate people, to remain cool in summer and indeed to allow giants to stand unbent. It did mean that there were limits in the number of rooms, and that the number of floors were limited but it served the purpose it needed to... and of course part of that construction was that the foundation of the original cyclopean structures that the taldan settlement had been built up on were still solid, and had just been divided into two or even three levels when the Taldan's had repurposed the 'palace' site.

"Well since they're gone we should get on with it." Harrim complained. "I'm sure its terrible news... civil war perhaps? Are we to see a great tide of refugees upon our stoop?"

Eire accepted the letter from the brown haired priest... which as was never a good sign opened with ecclesiastic salutations of our brother in the faith. He suspected that he might well have begun to be looked at for support to this endeavor the new crusade before the monarchy but the actual proclamation did change the legal or accepted cultural process. He had been expecting these kind of communications once it became clear that there were inquests arriving through other offices of the kingdom's offices.

Officially speaking in Draconic his title translated to mean Sovereign of Narhold. In Common, in Taldane, it was King of Narland. Beneath such rested 'overlord of the narlmarches' which was functionally identical in either language... but at the kingdom level he was suzerain to the lands to the east of the Kamelands. There were the tors, and hills, and steppe.. per the brevic charter his realm's legal claim expanded deep into Iobaria as overlord to the Varnhold charter. It was a lot of land...

It was a matter of Chelish pride, and probably diabolic realpolitik that the nation supported the Mendevian crusades. The infernal house of thrune continued the tradition of support for the crusades against the abyss and its demonic denizens. Still it was more complicated than something as absurd as Evil and Good versus Chaotic. That wasn't the case, or at least it was a gross oversimplification that among other things ignored the participation of chaotic good entities that abounded.

Eire rose from his chair, which as the original hall was not on a raised platform, instead simply placed in the center of a great table. It was an arrangement that made the most sense to retain, and his motion of rising caused a small clamor as various warriors came to attention. "An army marches on its stomach," He remarked... and if there was any singular development of the realm implemented it was the agricultural reforms that underpinned his realm; such as the bringing in of stocks of 'iobarian wheat' which was typically planted after the late summer crop and grew over the cold months. Winter wheat in other words. Certainly a written law code and non arbitrary proceedings were good for stability, but the state of the granaries were arguably more important.

Transporting those goods meant travelling overland to the Numerian border and then down river before sailing up to Chesed, or the usual crusader route of up the west sellen. Grain unfortunately took up a lot of space... and arms and armor would be significantly heavy as well. The granaries would be a matter he could see to in private, but making his decision he began mental itinerary of who all he'd need to speak to. Decision made he called up the representatives from the church of Minderhal, Brigh, and deciding on including Arsinoe from the Abadar delegation. There was no notable presence from the church of Torag present at court, and it was only at this point that frankly that realization struck him. That was a little odd... but he supposed partly a result of so few dwarves in the realm at large.

It was not however intended to be an exhaustive gathering so much as the beginning of a list on what they could produce... to get the ball rolling. Just as a medieval army needed to start mobilizing months before the campaign season the process of supporting a crusade entailed many of the same steps even if one was only supporting the logistics of the war rather than directly sending troops.

--

Eire listened to the water powered hammer drop, and contemplated his options. Coal. That was what he needed to source, and a lot of it. He had seen no evidence reported of sources north of shriewall despite the gold, and silver reserves that the taldan had known about, and he had access to plentiful iron reserves. He wondered if his holdings along the marsh might hold coal reserves, or the opposite direction... it was preferable to use coal than to deforest timber to fuel furnaces, he'd need to produce steel en masse...

He stopped musing, and looked to his ward. "I will spend most of tonight studying," And that was true, that was very much what would dominate his evening, "indeed probably the remainder of the month." Though he was going to need to make certain journeys out of respect to his feudal obligations to his vassals, including New Colton, "If you go now you should be able to catch up with Amiri and the others." Shaoyu didn't need to be asked twice, if she wanted to join the punitive expedition against the spectral monster to the north. "Was there something else Valerie?"

With a somewhat reserved expression she nodded, "Sir Fredero has volunteered for the crusade." She was clearly uncomfortable with her former mentor's choice.

Eire rolled his eyes, he couldn't help it. The truth was with winter he had little focus on hunting down the green hag tulvak... and truthfully he much expected that now that Saeya thought the hag was within the realm she would eventually find the old monster, but Fredero remained as he recuperated naturally from the fight hoping to find his own redemption. He would have preferred to ship Fredero back to Brevoy, but he had withheld... the truth was Shelyn had made it clear she wanted the shrine restored...

... which was an imposition on the realm, but he would do so. That was part of the reason he hadn't outright expelled Fredero ... he didn't need the paladin committing suicide in disgrace he was already likely to have to contend with more interactions with the Brevic church of Shelyn than he wanted to. One of the storm giants who worshipped Shelyn as Syriss, their goddess of music, had made the now painfully reiteration that it was small. Still the first step to making sure the golden grove could function was a road connection, and of course having a protective wall built. He wasn't sure whether any of the Varisians would permanently settle they had a reputation as nomadic carvanners but there were likely gnomes and halfling, and half elves who might.

That was only part of his need to scour the current estimates of their population, and dispersion of people through the realm.

After a moment he turned, "Do you disapprove of this?"

"I do not disapprove of the realm supporting the crusade, without the crusaders to hold back the the tide of demons the world as we know it would be much worse." Valerie replied, "But I'm skeptical of how much thought has gone into it."

"Yes, well that is why logistics wins wars." He replied. "We will do what we can to provide aid to support the crusade, and do so best according to our means," But there were going to be questions about how successful this fifth crusade could be, "Speaking of crusaders, how are Jubilost's guests doing?" His visit to Lake Silverstep had found a kellid shrine to Shyka, and from there an invitation to something called the inconsequent debates that was being put on in the first world... after which the Many had simply deposited the participants on his side of the 'border' in the material world.

Sheyln's shrine of the Golden Grove, and Varnhold were very much a part of the growing east to west, horizontal, expanse of the realm, but the Kamelands and silverstep represented a more coreward version of that same sort of expansion. An irony given his titular titles focused more on the west, but it had been in the east most of the sudden explosive form of kingdom building was really taking shape. He thought of the road that was to run from New Colton to Hereford. The shield road as well that would need to be restored. The dwarf fortresses, and watchtowers were something to work on, as were the Taldan ruins that dotted the landscape.

There was a pause and a shuffling of large figures. The largest of them was a so called Slag Giant, her skin a dull orange. The others were mountain trolls who formed a separate collection from Trobold, which he also needed to visit, to the south. The mountain folk, who were themselves quite large, dwelled near Silverstep and were allies of the good fey who already were known to dwell in the region. Finding that out had been a relief.

Though he had not actually broached the matter, he suspected that word of mouth had likely carried the settlement of trobold had likely passed through the fey and brought the word to the mountain folk, and likely to other non evil giants, as well more neutral tribes in the iobarian border land. Whatever the truth, whether their movements were a result of that or related to the great barbarian convention to the west the few hundred different true giants, and the slightly smaller population of mountain troll tribes who dwelled near Silverstep were thus far a welcome part of his no longer so eastern realm.

He and Valerie waited as the objects were placed on the table. The long swords were all functionally of the same pattern. Scent stopper style pommels almost genteel quillons on the otherwise cruciform crossguard, the blade length just shy of three feet came to reinforced piercing tip. Together creating a blade that was unyielding enough for a knight to use against an armored opponent while still capable of being used as a cut and thrust sword.

The metals were treated alchemically during forging gave the cinderblade their namesake coloring, what distinguished these from normal flaming swords were that they were designed to imitate the properties of flame strike. Careful experimentation had shown that Jaethal could charge the sword with negative energy as well though the channeling only enhanced the blades default 'flame strike' esque effect.

They, this first batch of swords from the castle's smithy, were intended though for clerics of the Inheritor in the realm's service. With the prospect of the crusade though, there would be a renewed demand for magical weapons with such properties. These represented a change. The process that made these swords was a uniform, an industrial process in a way that Eire was relatively sure was unique in Golarion... and even if it wasn't the process of that alchemic treatment in the steel had other applications than just making magic swords.
--
Notes: We will resume normal update patterns most likely next week. That means we will round out Pharast 4713 monday, and I will update other things throughout the next week.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pharast 4713
Linzi heaped significant praise on Trobold's progress since the summer of the year before. She was right that a significant amount of progress had been made. Hargulka's tribe of trolls had been compelled to move from the Bronzeshield fortress for a number of reasons, but among them was that the size, and strength of the trollls, if somewhat limited by their lack of book learning, and experience was they could help raise their own lands.

Unlike his Kameland territories he'd largely allowed Hargulka to workout how to organize his settlement without creating a plan. It was not a surprise that Hargulka had focused on obvious things he had learned from the river folk. Most of the houses were a mix of sod and timber long houses that wouldn't have been too out of place in Brevoy... other than their scale.

One of the thing Hargulka had specifically requested assistance on was the matter of the river's flow rate. Simply put the murque was not fast enough to efficiently turn a waterwheel, or at least not of the type that was commonly employed in Avistan, not for what all they were using mills for. Its tendency to silt up was another complication as well, but more complex mills that could do things beyond just grind grain.

The trolls progress ...

Well at the core of it they were jumping well beyond the level of development most trolls on Golarion lived at. Harrgulka was no pun intended largely been aping human society, 'borba', trolls were willing to use fire for cooking and metal working but since most trolls lived in solitary groups or at best in small collections of extended families of hunter gatherers, with an emphasis on marauding hunters than gathering. Trolls were inherent omnivores not pure carnivores so they needed a mill to grind grain, because well borba kingdoms farmed, thus a troll kingdom needed to farm. The same logic applied to wanting to move from any sort of tribal system to a feudal one.

Also, by engaging in large scale agriculture a troll could farm enough land to stockpile through the winter... and indeed could actually support livestock through the winter which was bound to be even more popular with the common troll than bread alone.

So to address the matter of the water wheel they had used troll labor to dig a large mill pond. That had been the easy part, and now as green returned to the trees, and grasses bloomed, metal gearings were installed to insure the axles within the mill house worked efficiently and were more robust than a wooden gearing mechanism.

In the mean time Hargulka had other projects. Trobold's fields lay naturally beyond its simple palisade wall, but he had done the sensible thing of organizing a work to raise a rather impressive eight foot wattle fence around the fields. This a process of taking saplings in the spring, or other greenwood and bending the fences into formation it was the same broad technique that brevic peasants used to make their house walls.

This was useful as well since the trolls had not gotten to the point of needing to clear and drain the swamps they had started the process of raising pigs, as well as some cattle, probably some sheep on of the more marginal land. Hargulka planned to plant corn in part of his adopted three field system this year on top of that.

All in all things were going well... though... his actual reason for Corn was because the formerly wandering hill giant Munguk had set up with the assistance of some enterprising kobolds and mites a still to produce what was effectively high proof shine for local consumption. Hargulka had tried it, while visiting Shrikewall, and like most trolls who had tried it liked it, and wished to cultivate his own attempt.

As with the metal gearings for the mill, that was a specialty product that would take time to build, but it was good that Hargulka was looking to other products. Also Hargulka was wondering about fighting Gragglebeard.

The sluice gates opened, and the wheel began to turn, the installed gears turned the turbine within and the hybrid mill after a few minutes begin the process of turning. Then it was just a matter of making sure it properly ground the grain... they'd see what else it could do over the next couple of days

So that was what they did next with a few of the clerics of Brigh and, the Empyreal lords Bharnarol, and Eldas. The Archon lord's sacred animal was a beaver, and the beaver folk viewed him as their divine patron... though Eire wasn't actually clear if Eldas had created them or not. Their presence though was not unusual, far from it as the Empyreal lords were fairly well represented among Shrikewall's wide range of good deities who were broadly affiliated with Iomedae's own church. Somewhat less represented, and absent today's gathering were the small inclusion of Osirion and Tian Xia's clerical communities, but he didn't hold that against them. The presence of clerics of Minderhal, well their presence didn't surprise him at all.

In the mean time Hargulka also had questions about coal, besides the matter just making shine.
--
Shaoyu regarded the Mivonese Aldori with annoyance. She huffed and threw her red hair over her shoulder and continued to scowl at the upstart bravo who had the gall, the utter ridiculous absurd wherewithal to come and complain to the the great basilica of the inheritor regarding their problems.

It didn't help that she'd been left behind in Valerie's tutelage to over see the matters of the realm, not that she wanted to go see the trolls and their new water mill. The chancellor told the man that they had heard of Gragglebeard, "As of yet the giant has not crossed the frontier, and his majesty is currently down the river. So thus if the hill giant did cross with his brigands the problem would resolve itself in its natural course."

In heaven's righteous fire, but Shaoyu didn't interject that because Valerie hadn't stated Eire was away visiting Trobold, but the chancellor didn't specify that. Trobold was not a human settlement... well it had humans in it but the gathering of the settlement was built more along the lines of giantish scale... which was odd for the kobolds who lived there.

Shaoyu stopped... it made sense of course that Gragglebeard however dim and unintelligent hill giants were it had to recognize crossing north would be to stand against heaven's will... but why was this blackguard mercenary busying himself with plundering a ... what was the word, "Condeteri," She muttered stumbling over it, and drawing their attention, "Why does this mercenary tear across your hinterlands Aldori?" She demanded hastily.

The Mivonese man startled at the question.

Brother Vaclav clearly wanted to chastise her manners, but withheld himself. She had clearly struck upon something. Gragglebeard was not a mercenary of the city state, did not belong to the free city's companions, and great companies of armsmen... so there was no reason why he shouldn't per se. Brigandage wasn't exactly unexpected, but he was still far to the east of where he was presumed to be heading...

... but that was the thing they were assuming that Gragglebeard the giant and his company were moving to answer the call of Armag twice born.... what if he wasn't? A year ago she would have hastily rushed to accuse the preening cockerels who lived west beyond the great swamps... this Pitax place that Linzi spoke of... after all they had mounted several disreputable attempts of low warfare against not just the realm, but also were surely responsible for the attack on Jamandi Aldori's mansion before she had herself hatched.

... and indeed the attack on the manor home in restov struck her as suspicious. Such an attack by cut throats and brigands in such a brazen manner? Given the lessons about the history of the region and past behavior she would have accused Pitax without real proof... but she withheld the accusation... at least in front of the foreigner. Shaoyu would speak to Valerie after he was dismissed she decided.

The Mivon Aldori frowned in contemplation, and tugged at the end of his waxed mustache as he turned the rampage across his country's boundaries over in his head.

It was obvious that the strange land of Uringen and the dwellers of the Embeth forest would not do such a thing. Pitax was the only possible explanation... perhaps save unless the brutish murderous galtians were... but the simplest answer was in the direction Gragglebeard was attacking from... he was in the east... if Mivon moved to respond they would surely have to redirect troops weakening their western border away from Pitax.

An hour later she outright exploded the accusation within the sanctuary of the great cathedral.

Harrim scratched his beard, wrapping his fingers around the patchy hairs and tugging at his own facial hair, though with more force than the bravo. "I have to agree that its possible..." The dwarf grumbled and recalled how the attack on Jamandi Aldori's mansion had come in the middle of the night... and that while it wasn't entirely the same it was hard to dispute that such an underhanded craven tactic would very likely be within Pitax' wheelhouse of tricks.
--