“I see... then first I will take some time to familiarize myself with the city and do some planning, and after that I will try to recruit some volunteers for the new city guard. A small number to begin with, so that I can hammer out any issues.” Toran nodded thoughtfully. “Once the first batch are ready they can start patrolling the city while I recruit and train the next one. And once there are enough guards for the capital we can think about training guards for other settlements too.” He nodded again. “Is there anything else? Or anyone I should speak to? You mentioned someone named Diana earlier...”
(Well, my mood was kind of killed by current events as you know, but know what? I wanted to complete a game for a change. I'm going to. I was enjoying actually getting somewhere for a change. I think there's still a way to salvage this, not in the direction initially intended, but I want to see something through for once if everyone else does.) @Daylan It was after the conversations concluded that she had gotten the directions of where she needed to go. Very different from the mostly bright colored places of the island. The air itself seemed even darker and murkier. All of her senses before she even reached the gate called into question if this was even the same island. But this was the home of Lord Erik. She had been assured. She had the right place. This was really it. The closer she got, the more clear the sounds of clanging metal were heard echoing from the silencing. Sounds of things grinding, and as she made her way for them to become more definitive she could hear what sounded like people and a volume of swearing. The first sign of life she had seen was a few men scurrying across the yard with lumber and metal in a rush to grab whatever they could from the yard and a massive pile of lumber set out for them before running to the back area behind the manor. It became more apparent what the commotion was about. The fog had been too dense for her to see it from a distance, but the light emitting from the windows of the manor had let her peek up at the strange appendage at the roof. It was too difficult in the bleakness to make out exactly what, but the best she could gather was it was some kind of tower. But not out of stone. This one looked more metallic. She could see the wooden platforms they used where they were building, but none looked intended to be an actual part of the structure itself. Too thin to be a normal guard tower, but it didn't seem like this addition they seemed so adamant to construct, it was just for ascetics either. Whatever the lord of the manor was up to, it was definitely strange.
During the trip, Julius had talked. And talked. Mostly about some frivolous noble parties he had attended full of names Artemisa never met, heard of, or had any reason to care in the slightest about. Praising them or criticizing them for how well they followed vague rules that didn't really matter. If this was a plot to kill her by boredom it would have worked. The only thing changing when he got to finally mentioning the duke after finally coming up to it on the horizon. "Never cared for him. He still holds a grudge as well. Let us see if you will do better." The estate of the Duke was....something else. Even for the pretty impressive wealth of the city, this was a a scale that put those in city houses to shame. As they arrived a few patrolmen standing outside raced to alert the owner of the estate. Before they had made their way in, the front door had already opened, as a overweight old man began to shuffle out. In his hands, he had to walk with a cane. It didn't look like from any injury, other than as a cause of his own obesity. From just one look at him and Artemisa could already understand what kind of person he was. Yet, from the way he stood and approached it was as if he was completely convinced nobody sees it. "I see they have let the dog off it's leash. Must you make a nuisance of yourself in my own home?" The Duke didn't even bother hiding his contempt for Julius. "I suppose as a purebred, I wished to come over and play with the mutts.' The blond haired warrior responded with almost a proud smile and a nostalgic glint, clearly proud of whatever happened between them, before gesturing to Artemisa. "Lady Artemisia Kalymnos." "A charming woman." He didn't make any attempt to hide his leers and gaze. And he just stood there. Staring. His gaze went from lust to almost angered annoyance without her uttering a word. "Isn't there something you'd like to do?" Catching on, she realized he was expecting her to bow. Julius seemed to be deliberately making direct eye contact as if trying to antagonize him. The prince may have actually undersold the level of bad blood.
"That sounds possible..." Prince Isaac thought of it for a moment. "They can't always be on the attack. They have to eventually board to collect anything valuable." Thinking this through, the prince had given another nod of assent. "I could see this working." "Umm....Zentha might be able to help decide who should assist." Yanase offered a quiet murmur. "Well, if you can work that out, see that you do. Getting a hold of that ship would be a powerful weapon, but don't put yourselves in danger needlessly. I haven't really heard anyone say the pirates themselves were especially dangerous against trained soldiers, but you can't imagine the destructive power of that ship's magic until you see it for yourself." The Prince gave his thoughts before they were finally dismissed.
(Just going to move things along a bit so it slumps a bit less.) "Well, as long as we can establish proper defense in the city, that's probably as far as you'd really need to do before they can take it into our own hands." ♋Culturally, they typically enforce laws through small clans presiding over individual islands. My assumption is that the houses and their levies usually did that, but it seems they've centralized power to the capital while neglecting the rest of their territory. Hmm. Did you really know all of that? Quite impressive, I'll admit. Of course, if your captain needs to use you somewhere else, that's a lot more important." As Issac spoke, Athyln didn't look like he really had anything immediately in mind right now, just slightly shrugging. "He can probably deal with it well enough. For now, I think we need to go over how we're going to coordinate my unit with the royal army." Athyln gave his input which the prince seemed to accept as a reasonable point, stopping to look at Toran before the two made their way into the castle to go over their plans. "Diana usually patrols the merchant district. She's...a..." Isaac wanted to speak before hesitating. "Well, she's a really good fighter anyway and I trust her skills." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The merchant district is as wealthy as could be expected. It really didn't take much effort to find it either from the overview the castle grounds had of the city. Surprisingly sparse of people for now, but clearly they weren't suffering a financial crisis any time soon. As he walked by it was mostly what anyone would expect. Vendors trying to constantly grab attention, slander the rivals of stalls next to them, and much of them being obvious just from looking, they didn't have any legal authority for the things they were pushing. Yet, the lack of people only seemed to make them more aggressive for any potential business they could get. One slimy looking merchant had made a face sizing Toran up, but immediately backed down at spotting the sword at his hip. These people weren't the nicest, but from the looks of it things were getting by just fine without a lot of chaos. Then he could hear it. The sudden shift in tone as an eruption of cheering came from the people in the streets, most of the merchants immediately straightening up and either trying to look professional or trying to look sweet and innocent. "Thank you!" "I love you!" "Marry me!" "...this is all a little much, isn't? Come on." The cause for commotion, he could take a guess, was the person he was looking for. And moving forward he got his view of her. All of her. Nothing you could even call armor, and the few parts that kept her barely covered, tightly strained against her constraints. Her quizzical facial expression was to the villagers, more embarrassed over them showering her with praise than what she was wearing. At her side she dragged along a truly massive two handed blade that scraped against the stone a little bit. A definitely terrible way to carry a weapon, but she was more distracted by the constant loudness than anything. ♋That sword. She doesn't even notice the weight. She's much stronger than she looks.
Well, fuck... This sure makes for a great first impression. Still, maybe I can use it to my advantage. Artemisia shows no discomfort at the way the fat man leers at her, bowing low so that the man gets a good look at what she has to offer. "Perhaps, your grace, you have a bar or lounge - or playpen, where we can send Sir Julius, while the adults talk in private?" She shoots Julius a satisfied grin, though he'd never be able to say definitively that she wasn't just playing a role. "I don't need a bodyguard in here, I hope." The duke is certainly not as cute as the prince - still, this has the potential to be fun.
"That's great, now we just need to think of a way to get some good chances to strike." Marius replied to the prince, before looking to Yanase. "Let's go discuss this with her, she might have a good idea how to go about it." He nods, but as the prince gave his warning. "Yes, thank you for your concern, your Majesty. We'll strive to achieve some positive results." The young merchant just as the prince left. "Right, now then. Let's inform the rest of what we learned. Some of them might be itching for a fight after all." Marius tells his captain, before they look for Zentha to inform her, and ask for her opinion on the matter about the pirates.
(I'm in!) What in the world? was the thought running through Yolanda's head as she approached the foreboding manor and saw the... unusual construction taking place. Nobles could be eclectic people with equally eclectic means, as she knew from experience, and there might have been practical reasons for both the need for Lord Erik to live in such an unsettling location and building something with such a seemingly unclear purpose. Yet even knowing that, this was quite the unexpected thing to run into right from her arrival. Approaching the men and their pile of supplies, she cleared her throat when one drew near and asked, "Excuse me, good sir. Is the lord of the manor about?"
“Very well, then. I will go and meet miss Diana. If you'll excuse me...” Toran gave a polite bow to the young king, then headed for the merchant district to find Diana. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Finding the merchants' district was easy, and finding the woman he was looking for did not take long either. Upon laying his eyes on her Toran took a few moments to ogle her... er, to examine her. Damn, those are some impressive tits! I wonder if any of the king's female relatives could compare... And that sword she's dragging around... I pity anyone unfortunate enough to get hit by it. It likely won't even matter if the hit is with the sharp or the blunt part of the blade. Toran chose to wait for the woman to get closer to him, using the chance to look at her some more and taking notes of how she moved, how she stood when not moving, how she talked to people. Once Diana was close to where he was waiting he called out to her. “Excuse me, miss. I am looking for Diana. Do you know where I can find her?” He felt certain he had already found her, but he wanted to see her reaction.
"Fear not. I shall be a good boy, until you return." Julius surprisingly seemed more humored by her remark than anything else. "Yes, well...I'm quite sure, you'd be helping yourself even if I didn't offer." The fat old nobleman still sneered however, though Julius hardly look at any level concerned by it. "And I'm quite sure you enjoyed having your nose intact. Be grateful I am not the negotiating party. " As Julius seemed to eye a vineyard on the property and began to stride towards it, the tension was made clear. Duke Engel simply grimaced at the blond haired man's attitude, before redirecting his attention to Artemisa, obviously much more interested in her and clearly not for discussing politics. "I was about to have dinner. Join me, will you? It's not often the commoners get to be at the table of a nobleman." The lecherous old man had spoken, making the closest thing to a proper courting attempt that his mind was capable of. ♎ Do we have to? Even blondie knows a good vineyard when he sees it. ♍ Do you know how long fermentation takes? If you must drink, then undoubtedly accompanying the duke is going to involve wine prepared. I'd be hard pressed to believe a man like this ever heard of moderation.
"Is that so..." The elf had spoken, though clearly her mind was in a different place. It seemed as if preparations for an encampment were well under way. Marius had been used to the roaming enough to know that Zentha typically insisted on settling near hills or the coast. It made it much easier to respond to a sudden attack when they can't make an attack on all sides. Still, they were still setting up and hadn't begun on proper fortifications yet. Zentha was obviously preoccupied thinking of those, but she took a breath and then smiled. "I'm inclined to agree with Marius's and the prince's thoughts. Raiders still need to dock to take loot eventually so they can't simply sink anything that looks like a valuable target without boarding to seize it. Still..." Zentha frowned with uncertainty. Not a thing that usually happened. "Breathes fire from it's eyes."....I think...I once read about an explorer who had a similar account when encountering a civilization in the far north-east. But I barely remember what it said and none of it was too informative anyway. Though...that might be a problem. Trying to counter powers and weapons that I've never seen before is somewhat....difficult."
The gruff man scowled looking ready to growl as he turned his head, before catching himself as he took a look at the young girl and seeming to force himself to attempt some kind of dignified manner, his face having somewhat softened. "Sir Erik's overlooking tower construction right now. Careful lass, he's been really laying into those who aren't telling him what he wants to hear." (Difficult Insight Check: Pass) Unusual. This circumstance wasn't predicted in the course of things. Despite withdrawing his support, he's using his resources to take on a massive construction project. We don't see this thread intertwined with one where he is a traitor. "He's just 'round back. I'm heading there now. Come on, girl." Doing his best to be polite, the labourman made his offer to introduce her.
Julius ignored, Artemisia smiles at the duke, before holding out her arm for him to talk. "Please, I'm starving."
Already used to how camp was set up, all Marius was worried about was their current mission, and whether or not their unruly members will do anything stupid. But as Zentha seemed to agree with his plan, he smiles. Though, once she got to the part about reading up on the fire breathing ship, he gulped. "Well, maybe... I mean, I'm not sure how pirates opperate, but they wouldn't bring out their strongest ship for a simple fishing vessel... would they?" He asked, hoping that they'd at least manage to hit a few normal ships, before their main forces were alerted.
"I thank you for your aide, good sir," Yolanda replied as she fell into step behind the man, using the opportunity to ponder the other things she had heard. She did agree that this being an act of betrayal seemed quite unlikely. Something like that would have involved more troops and weapon preparation at the very least. A tower was either a more defensive measure or a place to isolate prisoners of particular worth. It was unclear which of those this was for... but perhaps that would come up in the conversation, if she was lucky.
(Sooo....this is stupid. I had a thing written out. Turns out, I never actually sent it after writing it. So I'll just make a quick thing to advance then hesistate.) "Mmm? I am." The noise she made was slightly out of it. She didn't appear especially interested, most likely from people approaching her being regular for one reason or another. (Insight Check Average: Pass) Toran could feel the boredom from seeing her face. Trying to get some insight in how she might fight, he could observe a few notes in her pose. From the way she stood, she looked like her guard would be pretty wide open and while her weapon was ready, she kept it at a relatively relaxed position. More importantly, was the reading in her eyes. Toran had fought with and against seasoned soldiers enough before to know a veteran's glare when he sees it. She...completely lacked that. Most likely, whatever her exact job was, it was unlikely she's even been engaged in real warfare before. It was probably easy to be a hero when your only real opponents were commonplace thieves and drunks who couldn't afford any real weapons. (Insight Check Hard: Pass) And yet....he couldn't quite place why, but he could get the sense that the reason she looked so utterly unconcerned with her surroundings wasn't because of overconfidence. But simply, because she didn't need to. This disdain wasn't overconfidence. She was reading her surroundings correctly. They were just of no consequence. Diana gazed at Toran a bit curiously, seemingly slightly more interested in a face she hadn't seen before. "Got something to report or....?"
Not even trying to mask where he was looking, he didn't hesitate wrapping one of his flabby and greasy arms around her to escort her. ____________________________________ The dining room was to be as lavish as expected. Several butlers and maids already running around at full sprint before the duke even entered. As he found his way to the head of the dining table, he sat. The grin on the fat lech hadn't disappeared. Taking in the full body sight of Artemisa, he began to gesture with one of his chubby hands to his lap. "Pour me some wine and take a seat." There was no shortage of other chairs available, though Artemisa knew a person like this would only have one thing on the mind. Even getting him to acknowledge the main reason she was here, might be a challenge of it's own. She could get the sense that this wasn't a test of any kind. He wasn't that clever. He completely expected her to be complaint.
"Typically, pirates usually want to get in as close as possible to make a show of overwhelming force to get vessels to surrender without a fight. Risking sinking an opposing vessel and the loot on it, isn't good for raiding. The other popular tactic is to use small quick boats to disable the rudder, then board quickly before the larger ship comes in with the rest of the crew to board while their prey is paralyzed. In either case, it's actually very likely they would employ their stronger ships even if they didn't need it. We still don't know the size of their fleet which might be a problem thinking of ways to deal with them or how they would work outside of probable tactics. They most likely have a lair....so even if they don't use the target flagship, if it doesn't appear, I'd suggest feigning surrender to minimalize causalities and then working on revealing their position....Eliza might have something for that." Zentha was being quite a bit more talkative now that she was properly engaged in the subject, but it was evident she was none too pleased by the lack of any real information to work with. "I...think they'll all come out okay though. I'm not good at fighting, so..I'll just make sure we have enough medicine for injuries when they get back." Yanase didn't look exactly happy about not really being able to be more help, though Zentha wasn't looking overly bothered, more focused on something else. "They?" I suggest Marius must be involved in the conflict. He made the promise to the Prince, did he not?" "That...that's true, but..." Yanase was trailing off, trying to think of a response to that. It would probably come in time. Zentha for her part, eyed Marius. She clearly expected him to particpate in some capacity.
As they made their way to the open area, she could see more platforms and tools strewn about with what must be a little under two dozen workers building tirelessly. The one who stood out was the one who wasn't wearing heavy work clothes. The torch light made it difficult to get a good look at him from a distance, but he had a rather skinny figure compared to the buff laborers around him. "Lord Erik? You got a visitor." The laborer began to make his introduction in the most formal way he could think of, though it was met somewhat dismissvely from the apparent lord of the manor. "Can they not come back later? I- As he turned to take a look, he stopped himself at seeing company already there. This close to Yolanda she could get a better view of his features. Somewhat pale. Not unattractive exactly, if not in a kind of femmine way. But from how much cleaner and expensive his robes looked, she could take a guess he was the one she was supposed to be speaking to. "Apologies, I am Lord Erik. I take it you're a foreign delegate? Forgive me, but my residence is not exactly suited to entertain right now. I'm currently in the process of an engineering project. If you need lodging, our inns, I can assure you are incredibly high class. I'll cover the expenses for the inconvenience, of course." ♒︎ He sure is eager to get rid of you, isn't he?
Grrr... Asshole... Artemisia grumbles to herself as he orders her about. She doesn't mind the fat man being lecherous - it's why she's here, after all, but she doesn't take well to being told to pour drinks. The busty sorceress struts over to him, rubbing her ass against him as she sits in his lap, and holds up the wine bottle. "I can think of better ways to enjoy wine." She raises the bottle to her lips and takes a swig.
