Hello again. Today Lena learned about war.

She was very excited to fight an actual army, and thankfully the chosen victim of her tender attentions didn't seem to disappoint.

The lands of the Rottaxus are rocky, hilly, and barren. Not much good for anything besides herding and mining. The people of this land are hardy folk, and they have a tradition of martial excellence. The macemen and shieldwalls of their militias were renowned.

No soft targets here. All the villages were behind walls of stone the land so generously provided. Time and bordeom had combined to inspire the local folk to put massive walls around every single tiny village. Making the land of the Rottaxus one full of fortresses and redoubts.  All the boys and girls train with serious faces under the stern eyes of their parents to master weapon skills, and earn the right to wear the coveted armor of their ancestors. 

Only the best could wear the few armors they had left since the mines ran dry and the forges cold. And only the very best of those could move from village militiamen to true soldiers of the House Rottaxus. Making their forces far and away the most fierce and loyal heavy infantry in the kingdom. 

Or so I am told.

Hm, is it bad that I agreed to fight for and crown a queen without ever learning the name of the kingdom she would rule? 

...Nah, I'm sure its fine.

Anyway, Lena was in charge of taking out House Rottaxus. She had to capture the head of the House, without killing everyone. Shouldn't be too hard right? 

Well, it wasn't really. We snuck past the border patols. Ducked past the fortified villages. Crept up on the manor of House Rottaxus, and snatched everyone who looked like they could be in charge. We loaded them up in Sibyll and ran like heck. 

Easy as pie.

We smacked a few patrols of heavily armored militia out of our way and made it back to Morana in record time. 

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Which is when we discovered we had grabbed literally everyone in the Rottaxus family besides the head. He had already left with his elite forces to capture the lands of his neighbor to the north. The swamplands of House Fensfell. A family known for their poisons and medicines. Their standard is a green snake.

Which explains why we never found the army Lena was so looking forward to. If we had known they had already left we would have let her smash the manor more. She was very frustrated and demanded we rush off to find and beat the army. Oh, and capture the leader. If she felt like it afterwards.

So, we left the entire family of the Rottaxus House in Morana's capable hands and went back to find their wayward leader.

He was dead.

Apparently the attack on the swamp dwelling Fensfell family didn't go very well. I guess people in heavy armor don't float very well? Their rafts were sunk, their food poisoned, their days full of bugs and muck, and their nights full of fire arrows and poison darts. According to the handful of very dirty and smelly people we found. They had been sleeping in their armor out of fear of night attacks. Leather soaked in swamp water, sweat, and other fluids gets pretty ripe.

Most of the elite forces are dead. According to the survivors they had been ordered to sneak back to request reinforcements. As they were sneaking off they saw their friends and allies get swarmed and attacked. There might be some held prisoner, but the poor stinky soldiers didn't sound very confident of that.

More troubling than this was Lena never got a chance to really fight. She was planning on crushing the elite forces herself. Now that her army was defeated by a third party what would we do?

There had only been five armies to begin with. Now that we were down to three we had to rethink our plans. Originally since I had already beaten one and Onica and Fen were sharing one it would have gone, me when I chased off the yellow bull army, Lena, Julius, Onica & Fen, whole group.

After much debating (fighting with each other) a new plan was agreed on. Since Lena had the greatest synergy with fighting in the swamps she would get another shot at the Fensfell family.

Then Julius would get his chance to fight with the chivalrous heavy cavalry of House Destrier. Their standard being the blue stallion.

Onica & Fen would get to fight the famed hunters and archers of House Vultiaco. Their standard being the orange vixen.

I would have to settle for that short skirmish yesterday. I guess its fair enough. Hmph, lets see how they like roasted sprouts and warm milk for dinner!

By the time all that was settled the day was nearly over. So we dropped the survivors of house Rottaxus off with their tale of woe at Morana's place and headed back towards the swamps.

Tomorrow will be more fun I hope.

Good night.