“Is this the right course of action, Marcus?” Solomon asks his brother as the two sit down once more at the meeting table, alone this time. “I know we’ve come too far to back out now, but…”
“I don’t know what the right course of action is anymore, Sol. John has motivations and allies now that I can control, and your two eldest…” Marcus lets the implication hang in the air for a moment, and Solomon sighs heavily. “I agree with your choice of action. The time for division amongst the nobility is over, and Marietta’s suggestion is convenient for staging armed takeovers, but I don’t like it.”
Solomon nods, and looks down at the map their attendants had brought in. Why had it turned out this way? We were months from finally achieving the control we needed over the country to oppose Etrest, so why did Marietta have her prophecy now? Solomon shakes his head at the thoughts. He leans back in his seat, and looks over at the one his eldest son had been sitting in during the meeting.
“Do you think James would do it, if we asked?” Solomon asks grimly, a bit of pain in the question.
“If you mean die for our war, then… I think Marietta is the one you need to convince. You might have turned a blind eye to their relationship, but John says that both of them are willing to go so far as to renounce their titles if it meant not being involved with us.” Marcus responds dryly, and a thin, melancholic smile crosses his lips as he contemplates.
“I almost wish Marietta had just made this whole ‘undead army’ thing up just to keep James safe, it’d almost feel more believable to me than this sort of thing popping up now of all times…” Solomon grimaces at the thought of his beloved daughter conspiring against him like that. He knows she would, and probably is, but Solomon feels confident that she’d never lie about a vision.
“But yet… I received a report from a Marquis a couple dozen miles away from our border with Etrest, his daughter was killed on the road, bandits coming in from Etrest, no doubt, and he's called for aid from some of the domains near him for assistance in getting revenge. I’ve also had reports of kidnappings near there, and the Cult of Undeath has been more active now than in the past few years by far.” Marcus grabs the inkwell and quill off of the tray Solomon’s attendant provided, and physically draws out the potential connection between all of the documents, reports, and maps on the table. “I don’t think it’s inconceivable that all of this is caused by Etrest, from the bandits, to the cult, even the nobility that have begun defying you more and more in recent years. It could be a plot to weaken us, since it’s no secret our nations are preparing to war.”
“I don’t think that’s all connected, the bandits and nobles, certainly, but Marietta seemed pretty certain that Edora’s Hand wouldn’t be involved in the prophecy if it was related to a war.” Solomon corrects his brother, and shuffles some of the reports around again, reading them in chronological order as opposed to order of importance. “If I had to guess, some of the outskirts nobility are the ones that went to Etrest first, then I’d assume that rat bastard they call a king started releasing bandits across the border as part of some deal.”
“Right, that would be somewhat consistent with the frequencies of bandit activity near some of the more loyal border domains.” Marcus nods his approval at King Solomon’s deductions so far. Marcus's tone is far less pleased with his second statement. “And the cult activity is probably related to the prophecy, then, which would mean we’re looking at, what? Six or seven independent cult sects, four or five bandit groups, and a war on the horizon.”
“I know, brother, but you’re forgetting the three most important parts of this whole ordeal, the undead and elf from the vision, and the fact that we’re behind on consolidating the lesser nobility’s power with us.” Solomon reminds his brother of the other negatives of this awful situation, and sighs. “With how today went, at least some of the houses will either submit, or openly rebel, and at least with James’s threat, the ones who submit should be in the majority.”
“If they don’t call his bluff on it. I’ve ordered a portion of my domain's men to muster, since I assume I’ll be the one subsuming the domains nearest to me?” Marcus assumes correctly, without even needing Solomon to confirm it for him. “I can ask John if he’d be willing to have Crimson Mists help, but-”
“No, we need to have Crimson Mists on standby for any potential prophecy business. I’ll probably pen a letter to Edora’s Hand, Four Winds, maybe even Blue Blue, we need all the high-level adventurers with experience fighting undead to be looking for our prophetic enemy, not traipsing about running errands for our political agenda.” Solomon interrupts, and confirms what should be obvious, but he doesn’t hold Marcus’s statement against him. Wanting to keep your son out of the way of an undead that Marietta says could beat Edora’s hand is understandable, at the very least…
--
The discussion from then on had much more concrete plans and decisions than the simple back and forth the two brothers had begun with, and eventually a sound course of action was decided upon. King Solomon Riverta will request the assistance of major adventuring groups to the cause of preventing a prophesied calamity, something the peasant populace would likely eat up wholesale, and Duke Marcus Riverta Kaulderfield will handle the process of ‘silently’ wresting control of the lesser domains away from their current holders.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
It’s not the two brother’s best plan, but Solomon believes it will suffice for now. Etrest probably won’t hesitate to use the opportunity to better prepare their nation for war while Riverta waffles about, but if being slightly less prepared is the cost of the Riverta family still being in power when all of this is said and done, so be it. Solomon also asked Marcus to have his personal retinue of scribes and librarians look into all of the possibilities related to Pactbonds between mortals and monsters, and what the estimation of the undead and elf’s strength would need to be if they could take down Edora’s Hand.
The biggest potential hiccup in all of this is that Solomon and Marcus have no idea how far into the future Marietta’s prophecy is, and neither of them have any speculations or information on where an undead army could be hiding, or raised from, whatever the case may be. Regardless, King Solomon walks now through the halls of his palace, flanked only by two attendants, since after relieving himself in his chambers and allowing himself to be changed into less formal garb, his only remaining errand of this awful, awful day, is to go see his children. Fortunately, one of Marietta’s maids reports that they are in the same place. Unfortunately, that place is Marietta’s room. Solomon decides to get his anger and frustration at his useless kids out of the way now by cursing the entire way there.
--
“Cap’n, you sure this is the place you wan’ set up a camp at? Place seems lil… shitty…” Pidger’s idiotic voice asks Carver over the sounds of their horses trotting along the road towards the village on the map in Pidger’s hands marked ‘Nora Village’.
“That’s the fuckin point, ya dumb shit, if it was a nice town we’d have too much trouble with guards and adventurers to make it big there, yeah?” The slightly less annoying Shotty shouts from behind Carver, and he groans in response. All of these men are morons. Carver thinks to himself as he swivels his head around to count all the members of his gang. Thirteen morons, with the sole plan of ‘make it rich out in the boonies’... What a fucking joke.
“Shaddup assholes, doesn’t matter what the place is, whether it’s nice or sucks goblin piss, whether the girls there are hot or look like shit, or anythin’ else you might be thinkin’. Doesn’ fucking matter. We’re goin’ there cuz that was the deal, we fuck these lands good, we get double what we stole when we ride back home. And if we make too much… nothin’ gainst us disappearing and living happy lives round here, ain’t there?” Carver calls to all his men, trying to both rally and silence them.
Honestly, Carver hates having to leave his home so soon after earning his freedom, nor is he happy about being forced back into the life of crime, cheap booze, and leading morons and miscreants to do the same. A sense of patriotism, they’d said. You’ll be free to break as many laws as he wanted, they’d said. You can do whatever you want, as long as its on the other side of the border, they’d said. Horseshit, and Carver knew it immediately. But they’d offered to let the rest of his boys out along with him, and…
Fucking hell. I swear to the gods I’ll skin these bastards if they don’t start taking this a little more seriously. Carver turns back to look at Skivs, the only person in his band with any knowledge of Riverta to speak of, and prays to every god he can think of that Skivs’s egg-shaped head holds enough information for them to have at least a week of preparation before getting straight to the raiding and pillaging.
Level and Hit Die:
2, 2
Current HP/MHP
14/14
Armor Class
12
MP
N/A(Non-caster)
Class:
Fighter
Name:
Aaron ‘Carver’ Jack
Race:
Half-Elf
Subrace:
Human(Common), Wood Elf
Age:
21(32)
Alignment:
Chaotic Neutral
Height
5’11 ft
Attributes:
MHP
STR
CON
DEX
INT
WIS
CHA
SPD
LCK
NAC
Base:
14
12
10
11
11
9
12
30ft
-1
10
Race:
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Training:
0
2
2
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
Study:
0
NA
NA
NA
1
0
0
NA
NA
NA
Total:
14
14
12
13
12
9
12
30ft
-1
10
Proficiencies
Skills(Passive)
Skills(Active)
Magic Effects
Pacts and Curses
Simple Tool Proficiency
Cleave
SlavebindChainbreaker
Simple and Martial Weapon Proficiency
Sundering
Curse of Rapid Aging
Light, Medium, and Heavy Armor Proficiency
Leadership