- Invitation Status
- Looking for partners
- Posting Speed
- 1-3 posts per day
- Multiple posts per week
- One post per week
- Slow As Molasses
- Online Availability
- On fairly regularly, every day. I'll notice a PM almost immediately. Replies come randomly.
- Writing Levels
- Adept
- Advanced
- Preferred Character Gender
- Primarily Prefer Male
- No Preferences
- Genres
- High fantasy is my personal favorite, followed closely by modern fantasy and post-apocalyptic, but I can happily play in any genre if the plot is good enough.
9:30 PM, full dark
The 31st Day of the Month of Harvest,In the Interim after Emperor Sigismund of Luxemburg,
Year 1439
Dear Cassidy,
After only four days in Rand, I am on the move again. We left early this morning, and have already made a fair deal of progress to our destination. I shall elaborate on where I’m going (and with whom) shortly.
In the end, as I knew would happen, I was forced to make a decision on what was going to happen. By yesterday evening it had been settled. No obvious solutions presented themselves, but there were a couple things that allowed me to reach my conclusion. I shall not worry about whether or not I made the right choice, as there is no way to know and the worrying would only distract me from all the things I need to do now.
I left the army behind in Rand, under the eye of Nils and Erich. Nils has been their commander since they joined this “army”, and it was never under question that he would remain with them. Erich is still healing from his wounds. This is the reason I have placed him as the temporary constable of Rand, as, despite his protests, there was no question of him traveling for another week. Jorg and Linus have joined Wulf, Marcel, Nicolan, and I in heading north.
Nils has set up his men in a camp not far away from the city, but far enough away to keep them from getting distracted. If needed, they could make it to the city in only a few minutes. He will keep them occupied to the best of his ability, but I fear they will quickly grow restless, for Nils cannot watch all of them all the time. In a few more days Erich will be able to join them and start on some archery lessons, which should distract them for a time.
I left Rand under martial law, but with the army moved out of the city and Erich in place as the constable I am uncertain of how long that will last. I would hope that the Baron would have the sense to realize that he is incapable of handling this situation and will leave it to someone who does have the necessary qualifications, but people in power do funny things when they think their position is threatened. All the same, I had no choice but to leave the army there. Rand is the gateway into Kessel for Shonand, and after this first attack it cannot be left unguarded. When I return to the Kessel Hollow I will speak to General Gerrit Brenner about moving some official troops out there, if we can spare them in the south. If not, Nils is going to have to turn his boys into a real fighting force, and do it soon. He would have stood a better chance if I could have left Jorg and Linus with him, but I need them.
The six of us are heading north along the Meadow River Valley, to the location where de Ecete is reported to be. From what I have heard he has over 300 men with him, but I have always considered everyone under my service worth ten men in war, so we shall really only be outnumbered 6 to 1. Obviously we shall not approach them directly. I will send Marcel and Linus out to scout when we get closer, and we will be able to use that to come up with some strategies to make these men think they are being hunted by an army of 600 rather than 6. Unreasonable terror can be one of the strongest weapons in situations like this.
I don’t truly think much of our odds of driving them out of Kessel, but we should be able to greatly slow them down. I do not look forward to the day when I will have to leave them here to return to Leisch, but that is a problem for another day.
I am sorry to hear that your home has come under invasion as well, and that someone else seeks to remove you from it. I don’t know much about the situation, however, I can advise you that your police are likely to do little to aid you in this situation, which it sounds like you have already confirmed. You are going to have to find your own way to discover the culprits.
It might also be very useful, as counterproductive as it sounds, to spend more time away from the house. To truly understand why someone does not appreciate your existence you need to understand the people there, especially those who have been there the longest and have the deepest bond to the land. I would recommend finding whatever the modern equivalent of the town well would be. The place where all the women go to gossip. Spend some time there, engage some people in meaningless conversation, and when the conversation is flowing well start finding out a bit more about the history of Applebury Estates. It may prove remarkably elucidating as to why someone might object to your presence. You might consult some of those records you mentioned as well, but they will likely only reveal the facts. To really understand, you need to figure out the emotion.
Best of luck.
-Ryker