Edited: tommyjl7
The interrogation of the rest of the group went smoothly. Those that said something new were spared, those that did not... let’s just say that Sebastian was enjoying himself right now. Just like the young bandit said, there are around 130 – 150 defenders of the castle, most of them were nothing more than cannon fodder, they had some basic understanding of how to hold a sword without cutting themselves, slightly overgrown muscles… and that’s it. They were merely causing a distraction, attacking caravans, merchants and villagers while the main squad dealt with any soldiers.
And that was the only troublesome part – the main squad. One of the men proclaimed the mountain bandit king was an ex-military man, that meant he knew how to deploy his people correctly and how to protect an outpost.
Sending few ambush squads to attack marching troops was also his idea. And that shows perfectly what kind of person our current enemy is. If we wouldn’t have acted like a front guard for miss Blackwater, her people would come under the walls of the castle severally injured, decimated even, for he ordered them to not kill soldiers on purpose and to wound them instead. If you kill an enemy, you get rid of a single unit in the enemy army, if you wound him, you get rid of two – the wounded, and the man that will have to take care of him. On the other hand, if we wouldn’t have helped the young Capitan, she would continue hunting bandits one by one. Eventually, she would have gotten rid of them.
The bastard was playing dirty. I liked that. The urge to test myself against him sparkled at the bottom of my heart. For now, I had to meet with Gisele and Lanele, we had to clear the path for the main forces. Then, we would have to have a conversation with young noble regarding our attack. But let’s leave this part for later.
I moved toward the place where the three of us were supposed to meet. Girls were already there. Of course they were, they didn’t waste their sweet time to ask questions, so vital for our own safety.
- “Zari, you shouldn’t let the ladies wait!” Gisele teased me with a grin.
- “I beg thy pardon, my fair mistresses, yet thy servant was occupied with the matter most dire. Forgive me, the unworthy, for wasting thy time.” I yelled exaggerating and bowing in apology.
- “W-what?” confusion appeared on dragoness’s face “… would ya mind using common speech?”
- “I was gathering information.”
- “B-but I hope you weren’t torturing them?!” Priestess apparently didn’t like the idea of excessively hurting other.
- “No, I didn’t have time for that. I let them choose between surrendering to the soldiers and dying on spot.”
- “I see…” she probably knew I wasn’t telling the whole truth, yet she didn’t dwell on the subject. Very nice of her.
- “Ok, we got it, you had your fun. Still, the only questions that is worth asking is: why did you even bother asking questions?!...” Gis tilted her head to the side “… can’t we just…”
- “Charge in?” I finished instead of her. She nodded in answer “… Gis, I can bet that in a fair fight you could defeat twenty of these bandits at the same time with one of your hands tied behind your back. But it will not be a fair fight. The idea of defending castles was meant to be as unfair as possible. And now, listen to me very carefully: if you would say this one more bloody time I swear, I will tie you up and leave you in the inn…”
- “That wouldn’t be THAT bad…” she snickered
- “… and order innkeeper to feed you only vegetables.”
- “YOU WOULDN’T DARE!” she screamed in horror
- “For breakfast, dinner, and supper you would get only broccoli.”
- “Why would you do this to me?!”
- “Gis, if it were only the two of us, I wouldn’t mind letting you do as you please, but we need to protect Lanele and all those silly people that tagged along.”
- “I-I just feel like a ballast.” Priestess smiled, yet that grimace was completely lacking any signs of happiness
- “Fineee.” Redhead groaned
The tip of her tail was nervously moving in a circle. Something was wrong. She is air-headed, but not THAT much! She needs to have a reason of her own to lie her sword on those bandits.
- “Gis. What’s wrong.” I asked in a bit cold tone.
- “What do you mean?”
- “Something is fueling you to act like this. It is not bloodlust, for I would have problems keeping you in place. You are eager to do it, but somehow your emotions cooled down…”
- “You call this
- “If she was bit more…
- “I just like killing bandits, ok?” she pouted angrily “… I promised myself that every single time I could get rid of them, I would.”
Looks like this topic is hard for her. It’s not time nor place to talk about something that made my girl so upset.
“Then I have some good news for you.” She raised her brow in silent question “… there are five more bandits squads in the forest. My little friends already found their locations, take Lanele and hunt them down.”
- “And what about you?”
- “I have to talk with miss Capitan. Prepare tactic and other boring things. By the time you would be done with those small fries we should have a way in the castle already figured out.”
- “Why would you do t…” she asked aloud, yet froze in the middle of a sentence “... wait, are you doing this for me?”
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- “For you? Everything! By the end of the day, we will drink the finest wine from the skull of the Bandit King.”
- “And they said that romance and chivalry are dead…” Lanele rolled her eyes.
- “Drink from someone’s skull?” Gis wondered about this idea for a moment “…That gross. Nasty. Dirty. Gruesome. I love it.”
- “It’s all settled then. Good luck darling, go now.”
- “Good luck?” dragoness laughed “… I don’t need luck! I got this!” she raised her sword a little.
- “Yeah, that’s one MASSIVE advantage on your side.”
She squinted her eyes trying to guess by my expression if I had mocked her here. Ha, you may try, my love, I have an expression of innocent angel plastered to my face!
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Some time later
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Change of plan. I am sorry Giselle, I have lied to you a little. Or at least I didn’t tell you the whole truth. I am not going to make the whole bloody siege strategy just so you could enjoy yourself. I have some dirty schemes of my own. To be honest, I felt terrible about it. I am using naivety of Gisele and good will of Lanele and all those soldiers for my personal gains. Oh, I couldn’t give a damn about Lana and soldiers. But, treating Gis like that was not fair, even if she would most likely never find out… or maybe I feel this way exactly because Gisele would never know about it.
Yet I have to do it. Yes, I have to. This world plays dirty games and I have to be prepared. You won’t win the war alone, this is why you need allies. As many as possible.
I stepped out of the forest and entered the main path close to the main attack group. I waved my hand from afar, just in case. You couldn’t really mistake me for any bandit, but I would still prefer if they wouldn’t shoot any arrows in my direction.
- “Mister Whiteraven…” Lady Blackwater greeted me again as I approached “… the bandits you sent our way just finished talking about fortifications and the defending group. It is very thoughtful of you to gather intelligence before the attack.”
- “Just as we are talking, Giselle and Lanele should be hunting down rest of the ambush squads. And I allowed myself to come as they are away because I have a plan of how to get inside.”
- “And why is it so important for your companions to be away?” noble asked without any change in her tone.
- “There is a secret tunnel that leads into prison section of the castle. My plan envisages that one person, me, would enter the castle by this tunnel and infiltrate the castle. If everything would go according to the plan, I would open side gates for you.”
- “The passage will surely be guarded.” She said after a moment of consideration
- “I figured this much, but with you under walls… Ah, indeed, I could be playing with your lives here. If you would perform few fake attacks… as if you wanted to climb the walls… Of course nothing too risky, you would pretend that defenders are pushing you back and then retreat, regroup and perform another fake attack. With dozens of heavily armored soldiers under their gates, they wouldn’t suspect an attack from the inside.”
- “That could work…” she stopped for a moment
“faking attack”. Ha! Nice phrase. That’s very risky, at least from her perspective. During those maneuvers, bandits would run them down with arrows and maybe even oil. They would most likely cause some damages, maybe even kill few soldiers. And in the end, these actions would cause anything good by themselves, as they would get any bridgehead. If I would fail, all these damages would be in vain.
- “Lanele knows healing magic, she could treat your people in case they…”
- “That’s not the problem here.” She raised her head and look me straight in the eyes “… I am not ok with you risking even more than we do. I… I can’t enlarge the debt that my family already owes you.”
That was her only problem? Really?
- “Listen now, child…” I started with a tone of a teacher explaining most obvious thing to a bunch of kids
- “Child? I am most probably ol…” she started.
- “Silence! You are one hundred years too young to talk back! I have survived an encounter with Amelia Scarlet…” though she beat me to the pulp and captured me “… I was a prisoner in Inquisition castle, bah! They have been hunting me since I was few weeks old! I am tougher than I look! I’ve already chosen a strategy that has the lowest casualties!... plus I am the strongest here.”
She raised her brow
- “I wonder if miss Gisele shares your point of view. I mean, regarding the position of strength.”
- “Physically she is stronger, but that’s it. I already defeated her in a duel… just don’t remind her about it, unless you want to hear how using magic is unfair, or that I caught her by surprise, or that she gave me handicap… or whatever else she would think about.”
She chuckled a little.
- “Fair enough… in that case, forgive me, but I will be counting on you again.”
She bowed her head.
- “Sure thing. Leave it to me. If we would ever meet again you owe us a dinner.”
I said turning my steps toward the castle.
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Few moments later
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The entrance to the prison was well-hidden, there is no way I could find it without knowing its location beforehand. For now, I was waiting. What for? For commotion. When the group of soldiers would get under the castle walls, the attention of defenders would be shifted on attackers, then I would enter the castle.
And then it happened. Bandits started shouting commands to each other, someone rang a bell. A madness started.
A new quest has been created [Watcheye Castle Siege]Conquer the enemy castle by either killing your enemies, chasing them out or making them surrenderRewards:- spoils of war [based on performance]
- Experience points [based on performance]
- Improved relations with [Blackwood family]
Battle startsSides:Deffenders:Attackers:Leader: Malcolm SteelfistLeader: Jessica BlackwaterArmy: 98 Bandits; 27 desertersArmy: 70 soldiers; 2 adventurersMorale:Mixed, depending of squad:
- Bandits [Motivated, Fearful]
- Deserters [High Spirits]
Mixed, depending on squad:
- Soldiers [High Spirits]
- Adventurer [Lanele] - [Confused]
- Adventurer [Gisele] - [Furious, Bloodlust]
So, Gisele is mad at me for leaving her behind while Lana is doing her best to calm her down? All according to the plan! Mua-ha-h… That was pathetic. Let’s just pretend I never let that evil-laugh, ok? OK!?
A side quest of [Watcheye Castle Siege] siege has been created
[Watcheye Castle Infiltration - optional]Enter the castle and open the gates.Rewards:- Drop in defenders morale
- Increase in attackers morale
- Experience points [based on performance] + stealth modifier
Stealth is option for this mission
…
Stealth is option for this mission
…
Stealth is option for this mission
…
Stealth is option for this mission
… It never ends well. I have never finished the game with [stealth optional] in stealth mode. Not without reloading save few dozens time. Welp, what’s the worst thing that can happen? People dying!?