NationStates Jolt Archive

thsi thread is set in the world located Here: http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=462780

Angermanland, consisting of Aotearoa and a chain of islands to the north west there of, is ruled by right of desent.

the entire system is run on a bizare combination of fudalisem and representitve republic, at every layer balanced and counter balanced by a myriad of guilds, unions, schools, churches, countys, and other such orginizations.

the only thing that can really be nailed down about who does what and when, at the end of the day, is that the Prince's word is law. wich isn't to say there isn't a system in place to balance even That, there is even legal alowance for removeing a Prince who has lost sight of the Way.

the Way, such an all encompasing concept is difficult to explane to those who do not live with it, and even those who do. for a prince, it means doing what is best for the nation and the people as a whole. not just short term, and not by one's idiology, but for the long run, and by what Is.

for a warrior, it is to follow orders on the battle field, and to fight and win and live, and if liveing is not possible, die well. for a warrior to flee without the order to retreat is to go against the Way. the Way is somewhat all pervasive.

Heraldry plays a large part in Angermanland. from the time they can walk, a child will bear their family's symbole, graduateing from various schools earns them more, as does joinging guilds, gaining rank, earning favour, mastering arts and diciplins, joining temples, swearing oaths, and winning battles. one bears the marks of who one is on one's sleve (and the rest of one's cloathing) quite literaly.
anyone who officially grants you the right to wear a symbole can also strip you of that right.

lacking ready deposits of iron, most weaponary is fassioned from a combination of Greenstone, Pete-bog hardend native woods, and occasionaly bone. gold, coal and sulpher are all mined and various building stones are quarryed. fine timber is readly available, and wool is produced in large quantitys. glass is also common, and used in meny places.

any guild, union, land owner etc who represents 0.5 percent of the population, with no more than half that population being represented by the same other representive, gets a seat on the national councel. the prince can over rule the councel on any issue except a vote of no confidence in him, wich results in a public election [each citizen votes individually] for a new ruler. this cannot take place untill at least three years after the succession.

In the event of war, armys are built from the top down. the prince appoints a commander, and mabey a few of the top level officers, who then appoint their underlings, and so on, untill you have an army. anyone who can afford to raise and run their own army can field units as well, with the onlyrestriction being that they are under the command of the princes appointed commander.
warriors are payed mostly in food, shelter, honer, etc, and officers arn't much better off.

the current Prince is his highness, Chargone uph Cant, first of his family to claime the throne, his predicessor haveing been removed after various mad acts, and an attempt to take the lands of variours underlings for his own.

list of guilds, unions, and other entitys referanced so far:

Enginer's Union: currently employed in the construction of the two 'great ports' these are the laboueres and specialistis involved in construction, excepting those with their own guilds.

Prince's Royal Guards: only standing army in Angermanland, and quite small at only 1000 men.

Trade Guild: runs various markets and merchant harbours, as well as most caravans. most merchants you meet will belong to this guild, as well as any craftsmen not otherwise affiliated.

Sea Capitans Guild: exists mostly to balance the influence of the trade guild in harbours, but the more welthy merchant capitans often belong to the guild as well. also runs/regulates the ocean fishing industry and the navy (when one is called for, and under the command of the military comander). strong ties with the Guild of Shipwrights and Carpenters

Guild of Shipwrights and Carpenters: .. shipwrights.. and carpenters.. yeah, fairly self explaintary. moderitly influential.

Banking Clans: a lose conglomiration of welthy familys who engage in the business of banking and investment. only the oldest and most stable orginizations and the Prince himself (for governmental perposes) are ever granted loans, as it is veiwed as an irrisponcible use of their clients money, and thus goes against their way. any clan memeber convicted of fraud or embezzlement or anything else of the like is doubly punished. not only is their position in the clan lost, and thus their income, so is their right to bear the clan symble in their heraldry. the reason this is a double punishment, is that the clan symbles are also their family symboles, useually the last and hardest thing to get revoked, and the core symbole that even the lowlyest peasent or criminal-slave wears.

Kant (sometimes miss spelt as Cant): province in the east of the South Island, homeland of the current prince, "bread basket" of Angermanland. contains one of the nations two major ports. the provence stretches from the Sutland border in the south, to the spinal mountian range in the west, and to the sea in the east and north. main products: barley and sheep related items. main administrative center: Shepford

Shepford: main administrative center of Kant, it is built on either side of the waimakariri gorge, with several bridges spanning the gap. mostly of stone construction, often built Into the landscape. the ford for which it is named still exists, as do the parths down to it on each side, but is basicly disused. the bridges were built so strongly that "cross bridges" were allso added, and all so wide that there have been government buildings [amoung other things] built ON them.

Deepharour: main port in Kant built in the pininsular crater it is well protected, but there's hardly enough flat ground to build anything on, as such most buildings either have raised foundations or are cut into the hillsides. stone in a common building material. the harbour is deep enough for a Master to moor.

Angerwraith: capital city of Angermanland. situated on the northern paninsular of the North Island, just north of it's narrowest point. includes the nations second major port.

Kainor: a small town in the far north of the North Island. it grew up around a watch tower, and the fact that no one really used to pay a lot of attention to such a relitivly worthless area. used untill reacently mostly as a dumping ground for those for whom no better position was open. well knowen for it's [illegal] brothels and low quality bars, the only reason it hasn't been cleaned up yet is because successive princes have had bigger worrys.

Southsea: a city in the far south, it serves as a point of depature to the southern most island of Angermanland, as well as The town for scholars. also much involved in fishing, a little bit in logging, and some small amount of gold mineing.

Alpini: mid sized town in the Central Pass, on the road between Kant and Timbwary. home base of the Snow-Tallions. exists mostly as a resting place for travelers, a quite out of the way place for a break from the world in general, and a military support town. seemingly contradictory, these seperate roles are all filled more than adiquitly due to the mountonous terrain.
Alpini is famous for the Snow Tallions, but even more so the pair of monistrys, although they are not dedicated to any one particular god or goddess so much as a way of life. the monistrys are named "phall meddemonixz water" and "plase medtrankwility"

Timbwary: the reagion to the west of the spinal range of the south island, from Sutlond in the south, to the northern coast. most of Angermanland's coal mines are located here, as well as most of the timber plantations.

Sutland: the lower quater of the south island, give or take. centered around the universitys and fisherys, with a little sheep farming as well.

Pharhaven: northern most island of Angermanland, the chain it is part of is closer to Terror Incognetia than to Aotearoa. it consists of a single town and various farmlands and jungles. site of first contact with Caladonn, as well as first unofficial contact with Terror Incognitaia. it is often refured to by explorers as "the last friendly port" and untill recently, any maps marked the land west of here as "unknowen" and the seas in all directions but south were marked with "'ware the Taniwha" this has since been partially corrected. Pharhaven is not yet big enough to warrent it's own councle, so is run by a pure democracy, which electes a representitive to the cresent councile each year.


list of previous rulers mentioned thus far:

Kerj the Bloody: one of only 3 rulers ever to declare themselves emperor, Kerj is remembered for almost running the nation into the ground, resinding the laws allowing for the peaceful removel of unfit rulers, desolveing the councles in favour of a system of governers under his direct control, and for the long and bloody war that it took to remove him. the law and councles were reinstated not long after his replacement.

Garjan the Mad: ruler directly prior to Chargone. tryed to change the laws to allow animals to be included in the councles and population totals. ceased the lands of various counts, who responded by initiateing procedures for his removal in the councles and the return of their land. as Garjan had just announced that he was going to dispand all guilds and replace them with ducks, most of hte rest of the councel agreed. the only decenting vote was the duck who had been appointed based on the animal=person law, wich was promptly removed after Garjan's removal. Garjan met with an unfortunate accident involveing two kippers, a ladder, two sheets and a tree branch not long after.

list of ship types referanced sofar:

Master: a long, narrow ship with a single, very tall mast ballanced by a large, partially retractable, centerboard with a specially shaped stone weight replaceing it's tip. two large sails are rigged along the ship's length, with a spiniker being rigable forward of these for added speed downwind.

Waka: a large, flat bottomed, ocean going cannoe. war waka will seat 50 men, 48 of them paddleing, 1 stearing, and one keeping rythem. it's bow is reinforced for ramming. other variants include the high sided merchent waka, which has had thirty of the paddler's places removed in favour of cargo space, and has no rythem keeper and two stearsmen. it's bow is not reinforced.

T'l-kargo: precurser to the master, it has two 'center'-boards, though neither is as large and they cannot be raised, and 2 masts, one on each side of the ship. each mast is riged the same as a master, however the spiniker is replaced with a mostly square 'pull sail', the base of wich is held infrount of the ship by a pair of spiniker poles, and the top is attached by long sheets (navel rope) to the mast heads. it is only run up when there is a strong enough wind to hold it off the fo'red sails. this designe stems from the need for a large cargo hold, which all but eliminated the possibility of placeing masts along the center of the ship. a t'l-Kargo is steared with a large rudder, opperated by a corispondingly large tiller, though later hulls use a wheel instead, like the masters. at the sturn is a raised deck, from which the stearsman (sometimes called the helmsman, and properly called such on a ship with a wheel rather than a tiller) can see what is going on and call orders to the 5 men (up to 15 in truely bad weather) manning the tiller it's self. bellow the tiller deck are generaly a few cabins (includeing the capitan's) and a gally, and in the bow, below the slightly raised forward deck, are crew quaters, 4 'cabin's full of hammocks and foot lockers.
the Aphrodit Raven is an example of a wheeled t'l-kargo.

table of Military ranks:

Jeneral-komander: highest rank, always appointed by the ruler to command an army.

Stratkom: cheif stratagist and logistics expert. also second in command. it is the Stratkom's job to keep trak of all the details involved in keeping an army running, as well as to form battle plans and routs of march, and stratagys in general. however, all such plans must be signed off by the Jeneral-komander, and he may change or discard them as he wishes.

Kommander of the Army's Phirst Kompany: reports directly to the Jeneral-commander and commands the Phirst Kompany. this company is useually mixed and under strength, though elite. it provides a body guard to the Jeneral-Kmoander and the Stratkom, provides garisons for base camps, and is the first called on for odd missions that don't fit into anyone else's specialtys. on the parade ground, he reports to the stratcom along with the other first level Kommanders

Kommander of the Army's Skouts: reports directly to the stratkom and leads the Skout company. under-strength, moa mounted, and trained in scouting, info gathering, and spying, these men and women are also the army's messangers. if required to fight, the men will dismount and fight with whatever style and weapons they are trained in.

Kommander of the Army's Enjiners: reports to both Stratkom and Jeneral-komander, depending on which has ordered the current task carryed out. Jeneral-komander's orders takeing precidence. while larger than the phirst and skout companys, the army enjiners unit is still bellow regular company strength. their specialtys are seige craft and the building of bridges and base-camps, but as they are drawn from the enginere's union they can be turned to almost any task one would expect such people to be capable of. capable of combat, but not specializeing in it, makeing use of mixed weapons and styles.

Kommander of the [numberd] Battle Group: this rank only exists when the army comprises of multipul thousands of men, and contains it's own first kompany, Enjiners, and Skouts. it does not include a stratkom. Battle Group Kommanders report directly to the Jeneral-Komander, or can be put under the stratkom's control for specific tasks.

all ranks bellow this point are either part of battle groups, or (if the army is smaller than 2000 men) directly under the Jeneral-Komander. if not part of a battle group, the phirst kompany, skouts and enjiners are not present, as they are replaced by the army equivilants.

Group Phirst Kompany: equivilant to the army first company, only at battle group level.

Group Skout Company: equvilant to the army first company, only at battle group level. reports to the Komander of the (numbered) Battle Group. if required to fight the men will dismount and fight with whatever weapons and styles they are trianed in.

Group Enjiner company: equivilant to the army enjiners. reports to the Komander of the (numberd) battle group. capable of combat, but not specializeing in it. mixed weapons and styles.

Kompany Komander, (numberd) Unit: leads one of the three regular Kompanys in each battle group, or in army is of less than 2000 men, one of the 3-5 regular kompanys of the army. reports to either the battle group Kommander, or the Jeneral-Kommander

(numbered) Serjet of Wheels: leads one of the two wheel Sub-kompanys. in each Kompany.

(numbered) Serjet of Rocks: leads one of the two rock sub-Kompany's in each Kompany

Serjet of Eels: leads the eel sub-Kompany in each Kompany. each sub Kompany, reguardless of type, consists of 50 men when at full strength.

Skwadead: leader of a 10 man squad, reguardless of that squadi's place in the military hirachy. reports to the ranking officer of the unit from which the men are drawen, be taht a Serjet [useual] or a Jeneral-Komander[rare as toast.]

Warrior: random average soldier who is not part of an Enjiner unit.

a list of named military units:

Snow Tallions:
elite, semi-privet, not Quite mercenary battle group. do not train rock troops, skouts, or enjiners and work their troops into kompanys by type, rather than sub kompanys by type. often called "ouhrakkausade meddeathz mente" in popular myth, the members of this battle group live only so that when they die, it will be in battle and takeing a large number of enemies with them. they do NOT retreat without a direct order from the comander of the army, no matter what the situaion, and will inflict as much pain as possible in the process. do not wear incognitian helmits and sholder plates, even when they are available. have a bad habit of getting high on anything they can find befor battle, and drunk on anything alcholic they can get hold of after, if theys survive. their current commander, Richar uph Alpini, has been atempting to put a stop to at least hte first half on missions that require disiplin. he has been mostly succesful. mostly. full strength: 1000 combat ready men.

1st and 2nd Hawk Skwadis: the first hawk troopers in history, made their combat debuet in the seige of [bambino?] in Aust. useing relitivly untested launch technology, ordinance that had never been tested at all, beyond peliminary testing while being developed during the 3 days befor, and useing the first Angerman gunpowder weapons in the form of some of their bombs, it wasn't surpriseing that they lost a 5th of their force just on the way in. well, it was. in that everyone was surprised that they didn't lose far more. the only well tested technology involved was the gliders themselves, but the men flying them had had what ammounted to a week of helping test the launch, then a 3 day crash course in "operation combat flying". full strenghth: 20 men, 30 gliders, and 5 launchers.

Currency:
Gold Cross: quite literally a crucifix made of 7 carrot gold, without adornments of any sort except for a 6 point star stamped in the end of each arm on both sides, with the date stamped on the long arm on one side, and the initials of the current king on the other. messureing 5X3X1/4 inchs

Prince's Writ: a wooden rectangle, about 6X4X1/8 inches, with a protrate of the prince and a small six point star on one side, and the date of production, the officail seal of the prince and a small six point star on the reverse. it takes 10 of these to equil the value of one Gold Cross.

Pau: Paua shells. size and quality vary, as does their value, but as a rule it will take 10 of reasonable size and quality to attain thevalue of a Writ.

forgery of currency is punishable by death.. generaly a painful death. as paua shells are produced natrualy however, there is a slowly increaseing supply, and they are impossible to forge. this does not, however, devalue them, as they are useful for meny things.

(OOC: I might send some explorers along later so consider this a Tag, oh and you spealt Aotearoa right.)

(OOC: I might send some explorers along later so consider this a Tag, oh and you spealt Aotearoa right.)

it's nice when i fluke out and spell something right the first time.

you said it might go live. if it is, i'll be there. tag.

I'll get people down there in Oceania, sooner or later.

ooc: yeah, once Aust gets around to sending some diplomats [after the current .. contact..] or something causes the need for armys to be orgainzed, taht sort of thing. then it'll "go live"

or when terror decides to prod it with a stick. either one.

*grabs stick*
*looks at it curiously*
*decides against prodding and throws it over left shoulder. turns out to be a boomerang, which hits the thread anyway.*

Having been accused elsewhere of being a mediator, I may have to actually do it, cos I'm interested in allying with you and Caladonn, and have a funny feeling the two of you may go to war sooner or later.

heh.. i'd like to get some IN charicter stuff going here eventually. and yeah, if you're allied with Aust, it looks that way. because the only way around you to Aust is through me. or that silly route through the middle east and indian ocean. if Caladonn joins the frozopians, that alliance is kinda [temporaraly at least] doomed.

Well, I think Caladonn is going to stay out of the Aust war, or that was the last I heard, so if he'll hold off you at least until that is dealt with...
The African fleet from Ostia is probably going to be too hard to intercept, and it would entail splitting our fleets, so they'll be dealt with on land.
The fleet from the North, on the other hand...if they don't come straight through me, they'll have _real_ supply issues, so I think they'll try to sweep through. If you could take a sort of armed neutrality, I won't get involved just don't come near me kinda line, I would be suitably appreciative ;)

IC: Incognitian merchantmen were to be found across the high seas. However, even they hadn't explored everywhere yet. A lone ship, sometime pirate, sometime trader, had heard rumours of islands to the south-east of Aust, and had traced through the scanty island chains east of her home port to find them.

The Waverush had now sighted land. It could be seen like a dark cloudbank on the horizon. It remained to be seen what opportunities this new land would present.

ooc: if you want good ports [deep, too] the major ones are where moden day Auckland and Christchurch are IRL. well, the christchurch one is actually south a little bit in lyttelton, but still. the capital is currently slightly north of the northern port.

IC:

Prince Chargone uf Cant stood at the top of the great watch tower attop the tallest of the Capital Hills. slightly north of there he could see work progressing well on the great harbour, one of two he had ordered built. the cannal from the ocean to the east to the ocean to the west was well underway, as was to be expected when you had master craftsmen and thousands of skilled and unskilled labourers working on such a task for nearly two years without pause. another year or two and it would be compleate. the shipwrights on the easten coast were built, as was the wall that encurcled the harbour. that had been relitivly easy. to the west the great pier was already half built. when finished it would have docks comeing off either side. placeing the foundations for the seaward end of it had been a challange, but his engineers were good at their job. a slow trickle of trade was begining to come in from the northern islands, as well as a more substantial stream between Angerwraith [capital] and KantiKath [southern harbour].

3 more of the master class ships sat in the deeper part of the harbour, and he knew there were another three in the southern harbour, as well as the three he had entrusted to Mahkath to placate the trade and sea capitans guilds exploritory desires, and another nine were under construction.

fishing boats saild in and out of the western harbour in a near unending stream. fish and barly were basic staples of the Angermen.

OOC: trying to set this up a bit, but i sorta ran out of things halfway through there. the rest i'll set up as i go. a note: the harbours are NOT particularly colourful, as yet, being still mostly under construction.

also, something i keep forgeting: the language of angermanland has no C, F, or Q. it does however have a charicter for CH, as well as one representing a space. more details on this when someone ends up trying to learn how to write it.

While Incognitians would never admit to being impressed by the works of foreigners...if they were honest here they would be lying. A massive harbour, watch towers and all...all under construction, showing a power on the rise...

Whatever nation this was, they were no mere savages...and they had political organisation to bring together the men for such a construction project. Worthy partners for both trade and diplomacy, at first look.

The Waverush stood towards the harbour. It was assumed there would shortly be a response from the harbour authorities, but if not they would simply anchor somewhere strategic in the harbour and await a response.

ooc: given the massivly important role heraldry plays in Angermanland, flying an unknowen flag will be enough to get attention. . . . you are flying a flag, arn't you?

OOC: Yes, my vessel will be flying the Incognitian merchant ensign, which is the circular emblem (if my description isn't good enough, check out my NS nation), on a light blue background, rather than the standard navy blue background.

Three medium sized merchant junks came floating over the ocean tide. Before them was a coastline. "Land Ahoy!" called the look out.

The captain of the 100ft long merchant junk nodded. "Bear south-by-south-east!" Two men turned great bars and the ship turned to the land.

This was not only a merchant mission, but also a mission of diplomacy, a royal courtier being on board as well.

OOC: sry for the crap post, but I'm moving fast. Is your nation ruled by a king or emperor or what Angermanland?

ooc: a prince, actually.

Chargone looked out to sea again. there was something peaceful about the way the sun glinted off the waves, grey as the sea to the west had a tendancy to be. then he squinted slightly "Gaph, you have good eyes," he spoke to one of his underlings. " out there, north-north west. what do you see?"

"ships, your highness. though in all my studys and travels, i have not seen heraldry of the kind they baer, and noone in all of angermanland builds ships like THAT." he pointed at the larger of the two "also, there is no corralation in the heraldry. might mean something."

"good to know. make note of the heraldry, send it to the archivists. they might know of it, at the very least they can make a record of it. if the cannal were build i'd send the masters over to greet our guests. but it is not, so waka will have to do." turning to another aid, this one in the uniform of the prince's guard he continued "have lord Barthorza orginize some men, armed in case of trouble, and get chancilor Kantkith to go with them. official greetings all around, polit enquires as to why they're here, a swift sinking if they're a threat. fairly standard." a moment passed "what? go already! yeash..." the aids scrambled to do as they were bid as rapidly as possible.

some 40 minutes later, the wakas were half way to the ships, aiming to come to rest with the ambasador on the center waka between the two, and a waka full of troops on the other side of each. the waka were each carrying only 40 of the 50 men they could hold, as it was unknowen what tasks awaited.

ooc: i named the guard properly in "time" i'll check it in a bit.

The Incognitian merchantman anchored in the harbour, her weapons stowed, her ensign flying proudly at her stern in the fresh breeze, and the jack showing the Incognitian roundel flapping at her bow. If there was no response soon, they would have to try and dock.

ooc: not really much i can say to that. there are boats (waka, to be specific) on the way out already.

Oh, right. I thought they were just for Oda?

Well, anyway...

Several vessels were approaching. The men were put in a state of...relaxed readiness. Nothing ostentatious...but the swivel guns were loaded. Meanwhile the captain stood in full view by the gunwale, speaking trumpet in hand. He could only hope they could understand each other.

ooc: well, they're for oda as well. you each only had one ship, yes? the chansilor's waka is going to come to a stop between you, and the escorts are going to be on the "out side" of the formation.
incidently [and i'll put this in the referance post] the language of Angermanland sounds like a weird hybrid of russian, french, and maori. though the sentance structure is compleatly different. it has some gramer elements in common with finnish.

IC:
the waka bore the royal heraldry, as well as that of the Prince's Royal Guard.
as the chancilior's waka drew into place, he called out in his own tounge, "you who come here with unknowen heraldry, identify yourselves befor the guardians of the gate"
this sounded rather obsurd to those in the wakas, but it was the traditional greeting for unknowens ariving at the gates of a city, and the chancilor was haveing to get a little inventive here.

The captain couldn't understand a word - he only assumed, since the occupants looked human and brought the boat out, that they were words.

Fortunately, there were those who had travelled in this direction before, though never this far. The gist seemed to be "Who are you?" though with some weird stuff about 'symbols' or 'shields'...possibly a reference to the ensign.

The man who seemed to best understand the speech was deputed to reply:

"We are men of Terror Incognitia. We come to trade, and to parley."

He tried to keep it simple, as his grasp of this tongue was far from complete, and he had his best chance of being understood using simple words and sentence constructions. No flowery words here.

ignoreing the other ship for the moment, Kantkith focused on the one that had responded. the reply came in what seemed to be a corrupted form of the dialect spoken in the far northern islands. something about trade, and they identifyed themselves with a name... at least, he thought it was a name. the gramatical structure was horrible, and the final segment had been unintelligable, the word hoplessly mangled with poorly applyed prefixes, suffixes, and accents.

but still, trade was peaceful enough, and they had armed men to deal with any misbehaviour. speaking slowly, or as slowly as was possible without breaking up the words strangely, Kantkith responded, again, working from tradition "then be a friend and enter the gate, and let the heraldrists add your heraldry to the greater lists." bowing he then continued, in less formalized style "you will follow the waka to the far side of you to an appropriate dock and wait there untill this other ship has been seen to. i will return and we shall speak further. the prince is aware of your presance, so poor behaviour would not be in your best interests"

it was fortunate that Kantkith had mastered the art of voice projection. shouting such a long speach accross the ocean would have strained anyone.

the escort waka slowly begain to move forward.

OOC: is it bad that i can't remember the names of half my own charicters ? hehe.

ooc: Not bad. Just poor record keeping:p

ic: Once again, some strange speech about symbolism. Linking this to the symbols prominently displayed on the foreign vessel, the Captain assumed that they were referring to the Ensign. It could pass for now. Hopefully they could make sense of it at the dock the man appeared to be indicating.

"Bos'n, weigh anchor!"

The crew snapped into motion as a stream of orders began, that would end with them docked in the indicated position awaiting further instructions.

ooc: and now we wait for oda... oops. i just noticed he has 3 ships.. o..k... just pretend that my third waka is on the far side of All of them from the chancilor's, and that when i said "ship" in referance to them, i ment "ships"

The Incognitian vessel came into dock. One, at least, of the foreign vessels was following.

ooc: dude, that is so wrong *laughs* first off, your ship is following it, sas it was leading you to the apropriate dock. wich one it was was never actually indicated beyond "follow that waka". second, YOU"RE the forigen ones here. but you got there, so, good enough. :P

Chargone had decided to take a... Personal interest in this unuseual event and after gathering a few Gaurdsmen to provide an escort, had casualy made his way down to the dock, where he'd been relaxing on a pile of empty sacs. he'd also had one of the local inns provide him with snack, wich he had just finished as the strange ship docked. standing up and stretching in a rather lazy maner, he gestured to the men, all five of them, befor casueally stroleing down to meet the new arivals

OOC: that's right. the prince is at the docks. what can i say? he was bored. hehe.

OOC: 1) We're arrogant enough that you are the foreigners.
2) We guessed
3) We move fast. Apart from that, let's get down to business.
IC: Though the party meeting them at the dock was very casual-looking, one had the bearing of a leader, and the rest looked like guards.
So, as the gangplank was thrown over the side, a side-party was swiftly mustered to welcome the dignitary; and the captain stood just behind.

ooc: it's a harbour. you can't be that much faster over such a short distance :P lets just say they both get there at the same timeish.

IC:
Chargone looked the ship over as the men from the waka made it fast and climbed the laders onto the dock. this far out, the dock was significantly higher off the water than the deck of a waka, so ladders had been built into the sides of it for when it was nesisary to dock small boats this far out.

"Greetings and Salutations" he called out, his speach as odd as ever. no one had ever quite figured out why he spoke like he did, but he was the prince, and that's how he spoke.

"who might you be, and where are you from? not anywhere within the lands under my rule, that's for sure."

one of the guards, who was also a friend of his from way back, at this point decided to point out an interesting fact

"sir, if they come from another land... will they be able to speak in anything aproximateing intelligable language? would they even understand"

"frankly" Chargone replyed "i haven't the foggiest, but it's all I know how to speak, so we may as well start somewhere, no?"

One of the men spoke a very rough approximation of the speech being used to address them; a dialect of the northern islands in this chain.

"He is saying...where are you from...and who are you....I think. And I'm fairly sure he said he rules here."

"Well tell him, we are from Terror Incognitia, and we are here to negotiate with him and trade with his people."

"I'll try sir. Not sure if I can get big words like negotiate though."

"And ask him if anyone here speaks Latin or some other civilised tongue."

All this was relayed diplomatically as best the sailor could manage.

to the guard, Chargone said "see? not an issue. though this is going to get old fast, i suspect."

after some puzzleing over the meaning of the somewhat mangled speach, he responded:

"whoever leads you, whoever speaks for you, and 5 escorts may come ashore. we'll work this out somewhere more comfortable."

to the trusted guard, he said "Ekrik, stay here and inform the chancilor that we went to the palace."

and to the rest of his men, those he had brought with him, and those from the waka, he gave orders " ten of you will guard this dock. ten will follow me as escort. the rest of you can go back to whatever you do when you're not doing stuff for people who tell you what to do." this got a bit of a grin, for the shear sillyness of how it was put "sort it out amoungest yourselves however you see fit without killing each other. but we need to be ready within 10 minutes"

knowing full well that 'however they saw fit' amounted to the ranking officers telling them where to go, he wasn't too worryed about them killing each other, really. but it was amuseing.

turning back to the ship, as the men scrambled to their places, he called "whenever you're ready!"

"He says...five guards, a spokesman and a leader to go with him."

"Well, that is easily arranged. Let us go. You, you, you, you and you, with me. Grab halberds.
Number one, the ship is yours for now. Just make sure there's no trouble."

The selected party of seven formed up on the gangplank and walked down it within thirty seconds, ready to follow, they assumed, to the palace.

his own men took a little longer to sort themselves out, there were more of them and a dock isn't That wide, but they too were ready quickly enough. grining chearfully he called out "this way. off we go!" .... and started running, headed for the royal park just north of the harbour works.

The running was unexpected. However, the crew shouldered halberds, and uncomplainingly kept pace.

Chargone was pleased these new arivals were able to keep pace. on the empty streets of the dock, at least. the more busy streets near the major construction projects or the markets would be more of a challange for them though.

it takes a certain kind of skill to run full spead through croweded streetes without upsetting stalls, breaking merchandise, knocking over people, and so on. being the ruler helped when people had a chance to see you first... but... he laughed. it was fun. leaping over a row of barrels and finding himself in a clearish spot, he stoped to wait for those behind him. he knew his men could keep up with anyone who didn't know the area, but wasn't so sure if these visitors would be able to follow him through the streets. if they didn't, the Guards had orders to take them on to the guardens anyway. he figured he'd give them a couple of minutes, at least.

This prince was playing games. He sped through the market, and eventually he sped away. Halberds were not the best weapon to run while carrying. Thankfully his path remained clear just long enough to mark which way he went, and soon they reached the prince, standing waiting for them with a gleam in his eye.

Chargon grinned at them as they appeared through the crowd. "heh. you're fit at least. come on, not far now. then we get to see if your diplomacy and mental abilitys match your physical capabilitys. much fun!" he laughed, and then began walking at a more normal pace, his guards catching up within a few steps.

after a few minutes of walking through a city built of wood and stone, fairly ordinary exept for it's lack of mettles, they arived at the Guardens, and the prince led them to one of the more secluded spots, designed specificly for meetings. at the entry way, he turned to all those following him "the guards shall secure the perimiter, to prevent interuptions mostly, it's unlikely that anyone will try and put an end to us yet. given a few more years they might, but i'm still relitivly new at this and haen't made anyone of any great importance angery yet. so, the one who speaks and the one who leads shall come with me, the rest of you get to "stand guard" and "patrol" ... such fun!"

"He says...something about our minds matching our bodies, I think. And we are to follow him, the guards to stay here with his men."

"Very well. You heard the man, wait here and don't get in any trouble."

"He also seems to think this is fun."

"As long as he's serious when we get down to business, all the better to enjoy getting there."

The two men followed the prince.

sitting on one of the wooden benches in the shade of a tree, Chargone geasutred for them to sit on the other.

"sit, sit. heh. incidently, you only got to see me quite this fast because i was bored. anyway, simple important stuff first, please, then i'll see what we can do about the communications issues. errr, speaking the same. understanding each other? whatever, something like that. moveing right along, first order of business: you bear no heraldry on you, and little on your ships. who are you?."

(Oda speaking)ooc: russian, finnish, moari? Dang...
IC:
the waka bore the royal heraldry, as well as that of the Prince's Royal Guard.
as the chancilior's waka drew into place, he called out in his own tounge, "you who come here with unknowen heraldry, identify yourselves befor the guardians of the gate"
this sounded rather obsurd to those in the wakas, but it was the traditional greeting for unknowens ariving at the gates of a city, and the chancilor was haveing to get a little inventive here.

The translator on the Han ship sat down and listend for some time. The language was not unknown, or at least parts of it, but other than that the language was very difficult. He sat there and tried picking out vowels and other verb usage as he listened.

The captain of the lead vessel of the Han ship saw that other foreign ships were present. Ones that they had never known before.

"Seems we will have a chance to speak with more than one nation here," the captain commented to his deck officer. The man nodded in reply.

The translator stood up finally and called out what he judge to be a lower form of the language.

"We come in peace from the Empire of Han which is led by the Son of Heaven Emperor Shui Han Di."

OOC: i take it he listened to the entire exchange with Terror's guys, Oda? going to have to pretend he did, anyway. otherwise it ceases to make sence. it only Sounds like russian, rythem and stuff, nothing in common with it otherwise, that i know of.

IC:


Having finished with the first ship, Chancilor Kantkith turned to the other, as someone abored her spoke

this was even more of a challange to understand, as it was even more poorly spoken, and heavily accented. after confuring with his aids, and puzzleing over it for a little bit, they were left with the knowledge that the people on board these ships intended peace, probibly, and that they followed the son of the sky. they were guessing this was some sort of religious figuer for the moment, as nothing else they came up with made sence... which probibly wasn't right. the very concept of empire worryed them slightly though, and was mentioned more than once.

finaly, Kankith called out "then be a friend and enter the gate, and let the heraldrists add your heraldry to the greater lists. you shall follow us to the docks."

with that, he signaled the warriors to begin rowwing the waka back towards the harbour. after a bit they had a good speed going, and had changed their angle sufficiantly to signal the waka on the far side of the forigen ships to come in allso.

"He is saying something about sorting out our language problem, I think."

"I hope so. This is getting tiresome."

"Then...questioning our 'heraldry' which I'm translating as symbols. I think he means who are we, and where are we from, because they don't recognise the ensign. He also seems surprised at how few symbols we carry on ourselves and on our ships."

"Tell him, we are from Terror Incognitia, a land North-West of here, ruled by the High Seneschal, aided by his Consilium. We ourselves are merchants from that land. I am commissioned by the High Seneschal to deal with any foreign princes we encounter, making trade deals and alliances. And that is what we have come for."

"Uh...Skipper...that may take some time."

"Just get on with it. Do your best."

The captain waited as his translator laboured to get the message across.

"He is saying something about sorting out our language problem, I think."
...
The captain waited as his translator laboured to get the message across.

much back and forth and hand gestureing later, some information had been got accross. Chargone understood the direction, and after grabbing one of his guards and sending him off to the trade guild offices for maps, had a vague idea as to at least where the eastern border of their home was. actually, he was astonished they hadn't been in contact earlyer, all things considered.

he'd basicly given up on trying to understand their terms for their leader and government properly and put them down to "ruler" and "councle" for conveniances sake. let the scholars work it out.

Trade, on the other hand, he understood and understood perfectly. that they wanted alliances was harder to figure out, but he got there in the end.

"well" he responded at the end of this exchange "most trade i really must send you to the masters at the trade guild to deal with, or at least send for them to participate." he looked at the blank expression "unhappy trade guild means problems all 'round. i can over rule them, but it's a headache to do. much easyer to just involve them in the first place. as for aliances, you deal directly with me. but we really need to be able to speak more clearly than this.

something that i am curious about though: your ships bore flags, and yet you yourselves bare no heraldry despite being on an important mission. it puzzles me. but i suppose that's for the schollars to work out. i know! i shall send you to the University in Southsea. they have some of the best teachers in the nation! errr. wait, no.. i'll send SOME of you down there. sending you all would leave us with no contact... humm.. pick 5 of your men best suited to languages and study. unless you must leave sooner than that? humm... well, there are schollars here in Angerwrath who could teach you, but they would have less time and are not so good at it. genious in their field, of course, just worthless at teaching. or you could even do both. depends upon your plans."

This one took a while. Eventually the gist was extracted:

"We bear our nation's flag, to identify us as merchants from Incognitia. We bear no other ensign or symbol. In most lands we know, this suffices."
"Very well. If we must deal with the Trade Guild for trade agreements, we will happily do so.
We would send some men to both of these places you mention, to learn your tongue. Though profit urges haste, further contact with your nation will require communication, making any who can speak with you able to name their price.
Methinks some among us would remain here, to trade and negotiate, while the others learn. We may need to take word of an agreement home, if we can make one satisfactorily with our language problem."

"Captain, are you making this hard deliberately?"
"Shut up and get on with it man."

This one took a while. Eventually the gist was extracted:
...
"Captain, are you making this hard deliberately?"
"Shut up and get on with it man."

IC: after the lengthy exchange that was becomeing typical of this conversation, Chargone sent one of his men off once agian, this time for official paper, inks, and some sealing wax.

"i shall send the appropirate messages. one shall go with your escort to the south. he shall be your guide and charged with learning your language as well as helping you learn about our culture.

another shall go to the masters of the trade guild.

a third i shall take myself when i escort whoever is going to study with the scholars here. they too shall be assigned a esscort, serving the same function. but the scholars here are more likely to listen in person.

accomidations shall be aranged and names afixed as soon as you decide who is going where. i would give you a writen message for your ruler, but it seems a bit redundant when no one would be able to read it."

he paused "make your desicions. i shall give whoever amongst those who leaves has the best memory a message for your ruler as well. or perhaps one of your men could write it in your own tounge. up to you."

with that, he turned to the guard who had returned with the stationary and, takeing the apropriate items, began writeing in the strange angular letters of the Angermanland tounge. designed originaly for carveing, these days they were writen with a brush, as anything else was painfuly slow. graphite writeing sticks had been tried, but lent themselves more to curved, flowing shapes, and as such had been religated to artistic uses.

The Captain sent a messenger to the ship. He had already decided who would go where. His first mate would return home, bearing a message scribed by the Captain, and signed or at least sealed by the Prince. He would stay here, with a few crewmen. His purser would go to the other place of learning with a few picked men. With a message to that effect sent, it was but a short time before the appropriate groups were gathered, the ship preparing to sail, and a small party awaiting the agreement to take back to the ship.

"We are ready."

OOC: you realize i'm makeing most of this up as i go, don't you?

IC:
haveing sealled the other letters, and sent for the escorts, the prince passed the letters to the escorts and then turned to the capitan and his translater.

"those of you headed south shall join Refij" he indicated the relitivly short man on his left "and shall depart tommorow, mid afternoon, as that is when the tide is at it's hight. it is fastest to take on of the Masters, as the entire return trip will then take only a few days includeing turn around times. i suggest whoever is leaveing go then, as it is the highest tide we shall have for some weeks, and the weather looks set to be quite good, with east to west winds. or so my meteorologists and the head of the sea capitans guild tell me.

For tonight, i can have accomodations prepaired in the palace, such as it is. doesn't really deserve the name, but the last one burnt down in a revolt a few monarch back, and no one's seen it as a priority since. anyway, it's that or staying on your ship. take your pick."

indicateing the taller man on his right, he continued "those of you staying here, Peskar shall be your escort. both escorts are in my direct service, and all will recognize them as such. you yourselves should not leave their care untill we do something about your cloathing. bearing no heraldry at all while wearing full clothing is considered shameful, as it means that not only have you possibly achived little, but you have been striped of the honer of showing it, and even to desplay that which you are entitled to by right of liniage. even the lowlyest peasent in the poorest provinces is entitled to bear the name of his father's house. that can be seen to tonight, if you so wish."

after cleaning his inkbrush, he continued "and now, perhaps, you would care to take that message? it will be simple, and probibly not expressed subtley, but it will be clear, i hope. anyway," he pushed the ink, brush, and paper accross the perfectly smooth stone table "here are the tools, write if you wish"

OOC: at this point, a good hour or two, at least, has probilby passed. Oda's guys Really should have got here by now, so as soon as he and i catch up his part of the events, expect your guys to be politly sent away, rather than escorted by the prince, as more pressing issues arise.

OOC: Making it up is cool. I do it all the time. Trick is remembering afterwards what you made up so's to be consistent.
Don't have time to respond in full, but will do soon.

Tag.,

OOC: i take it he listened to the entire exchange with Terror's guys, Oda? going to have to pretend he did, anyway. otherwise it ceases to make sence. it only Sounds like russian, rythem and stuff, nothing in common with it otherwise, that i know of.

IC:
Having finished with the first ship, Chancilor Kantkith turned to the other, as someone abored her spoke

this was even more of a challange to understand, as it was even more poorly spoken, and heavily accented. after confuring with his aids, and puzzleing over it for a little bit, they were left with the knowledge that the people on board these ships intended peace, probibly, and that they followed the son of the sky. they were guessing this was some sort of religious figuer for the moment, as nothing else they came up with made sence... which probibly wasn't right. the very concept of empire worryed them slightly though, and was mentioned more than once.

finaly, Kankith called out "then be a friend and enter the gate, and let the heraldrists add your heraldry to the greater lists. you shall follow us to the docks."

with that, he signaled the warriors to begin rowwing the waka back towards the harbour. after a bit they had a good speed going, and had changed their angle sufficiantly to signal the waka on the far side of the forigen ships to come in allso.

ooc: yea...guess so

IC:

"They want us to follow them I think," the translator told the captain.

"Then we shall," said the ships captain. "Alert the other ships and tell these...ships that have met us...that we will comply with what they want us to do."

The translator walked over the edge of the ship and shouted out to the Chancellor that the ships of Han would comply with their domands.

IC:

Kantkith was glad to be finaly moveing. to be honest, he wasn't that fond of the sea. he got sick easyly. the fact that the strange ships were following him as well was good.

the waka both docked further in on the opposite side of the dock from the Incognetian ship, and then as men secured them, the chancilor and some of the men formed a welcomeing party. it was then that [the guard designated to tell the chancilor where the prince went i'll probilby fix this later if he was one of thenamed ones] made his report. the chancilor nodded and sent him on his way, as the men who were not part of his escort pepaired to make fast the stranger's ships as well.

The Captain divided his men as instructed.

Meanwhile he sat down to write. "Can you go through what is said by what you have written?" (OOC Just to make sure we're clear)

"We are prepared to work with your men, to get appropriate symbols on our clothing, in accordance with your custom. We would hate to give the wrong impression unaware."

The Captain divided his men as instructed.

Meanwhile he sat down to write. "Can you go through what is said by what you have written?" (OOC Just to make sure we're clear)

"We are prepared to work with your men, to get appropriate symbols on our clothing, in accordance with your custom. We would hate to give the wrong impression unaware."


not reading the letters, as they had been sealed, the Prince responded "the letters to each of the heads of the universitys, that is the place where the scholars work when their tasks do not need specific enviroments, going with your guides and partys, call for the arangment for your men of appropriate food, houseing, and atire, co-operateion with your efforts to learn what is nessicary to allow proper interaction between us, includeing basic heraldry and a full grasp of the language, and instructions for them to learn as much of your language and the world outside our lands as possible. they are also instructed to find work that you can do at any and all points along the way, so that you don't make too big a loss out of this trip. i know how the Cross-counters can be.

we shall, in the morning, work on some basic heraldry for you, but it shall not be implimented untill you get to your destinations, due to time constraints.

now. the letter to your .... ruler. i can't get my tounge around the word yet, nor do i know the implications. at any rate, when you are ready, attach any apropriate and polite greetings from one ruler to another, or lacking that, the next highest rank available.

the message is short, and amounts to the following 'i greet you, nobel equile, and hope that future contacts progress to our mutual benifit. the men missing from these ships are studying at our universitys and schools so as to learn the language and customs so that they may facilitate such continued contact, and in the near future, i shall also send envoys to your lands to meet with you.' then attach the apropriate endings, mark that you translated it, i shall sign it, and then you may write whatever else you wish. save the paper, it takes a little while to make, though it is cheap and easy to do.

oh, and incase i forgot to mention it: untill you recieve your heraldry, stay Very close to your escort. it's in your own best interests, really. your average person is.. not particularly intelligent. the non-average person, however, may be found in all walks of life. an interesting piece of advice from an old sage, since passed on. i do hope you are one of the latter, and that your ruler is also."

OOC: your post wasn't quite clear on what he wanted to hear.. so, you got both ways i could see it being taken. hope that works ok.

"It is done. My thanks."

The messenger left to return to the vessel.

"We are ready. We are grateful for the welcome you have shown us, and hope, in time, to be able to express our thanks properly in your language. Beneficial side effects will be trade and diplomacy."

Chargone raised a hand "thank me only if that is all you can give me in return. if i or my nation gain from it, it was not alltogeather altruistic, and thus not deserving of thanks. it would, however, follow the way as dictated by my position quite nicely.

now, last thing befor i have your escorts take you to your quaters for the night: you have at least this one man who has some sembilance of speach, but you are splitting up. eventually we will learn to communicate better, but in the intrum, to you have another man with such capacity, so as to send one with each group? i'm reasonably sure you would have thought of this, but it pays to double check. not much i can do about it if you don't, but i suggest sending him with the south bound group if that is the case. i, personaly, am begining to understand a little of your tounge from our conversations, so would be willing to help to my limited ability here when i can."

"Sadly we have only one man who has travelled these islands before.

And I assure you, your nation will gain; that being the nature of trade, that both parties gain from it. Unlike war, where both parties lose. That is why we fight only when we cannot trade."

"this is good" Chargone stated, standing. he proceaded to walk towards the paved exit from this particular part of the guardens. "your escorts shall take you to your quaters now, as i said. I, on the other hand, shall be takeing My escort and going and seeing what is happening with Kantkith. he should have been here by now, even at that waddle he insists is a run." gathering his men, Chargone, shifting again from prince to bored barely out of his teens young man, took off running back through the city, headed once agian for the docks, his escort trailing at a slightly slower pace as the crowds headed home from work for the day tryed to close up behind the fast moveing prince.

leaveing the strangers, the name of whom's home he'd already forgoten (he'd always had problems remembering proper nouns he didn't use regularly. a strange quirk, but he delt with it) standing at the exit.


as the prince left, the two escorts turned to the men they were to be looking after and Rephij spoke "you will follow us now. we shall take you to your quaters." he enounciated clearly , with proper pauseing, and spoke slowly and simply. he had been present for some of the wrangleing that had gone on as the prince and the translator had tried to unravle some of the more complex speaches from each side.

with that, and a guesture, he turned and began to walk down the path at a much more reasonable pace than the prince had set. "the path" soon became a very Different path, as the night's destination was the palace. it wasn't fancy, situated at one edge of these semi-public guardens, it was a walled encloser containing three buildings of omaru stone, though niether of the escorts was sufficiantly knowlodgable in geology or architecture to say what that ment. each was three storys high, with a relitivly flat, open roof, though it was well drained. htere wwere quaters and facilitys for over 500 souls within those buildings, and a mixture of familys and single folk of all ranks. flanked by pohutakawa trees on the inside of each wall, they were a sight to behold when in season.

ooc: and there, for the moment, i leave it to give you a chance to do something, terror :)

ooc: fixed

OOC: thanks. sorry for going a little ranty there, i've just been shut down by a few posts like that.. i also edited the post to get rid of the rant and replied to you IC instead.

OOC: Oksie, get back to ya.

The crews of the three ships were tense as they approached the unknown island chain. Rumours from Terror Incognita showed that these islands were inhabited by advanced barbarians, but despite their level of civilisation there was always much to be feared when initiating contact with a new nation.

The three caravels got closer to the islands, and waited for contact from the barbarians. Captain Belanon was concerned that any overt moves would be seen as a sign of hostility, so they anchored offshore in a tense silence.

ooc: which island chain, btw? i have about.. *looks at the map* 3, possibly 4, depending how you define a chain. i'm guessing one of the northern ones? there's the cresent, which is kinda divided into two, the eastern islands, and the ones that would make up NZ if it existed in this reality, though it's questionable wheither or not they count as a "chain" it matters, because you'd get a rather different responce depending on which one it is.

IC:

Kantkith was glad to be finaly moveing. to be honest, he wasn't that fond of the sea. he got sick easyly. the fact that the strange ships were following him as well was good.

the waka both docked further in on the opposite side of the dock from the Incognetian ship, and then as men secured them, the chancilor and some of the men formed a welcomeing party. it was then that [the guard designated to tell the chancilor where the prince went i'll probilby fix this later if he was one of thenamed ones] made his report. the chancilor nodded and sent him on his way, as the men who were not part of his escort pepaired to make fast the stranger's ships as well.


OOC: just in case this got lost in the flow, Oda, this was the one you need to respond to.

ooc: which island chain, btw? i have about.. *looks at the map* 3, possibly 4, depending how you define a chain. i'm guessing one of the northern ones? there's the cresent, which is kinda divided into two, the eastern islands, and the ones that would make up NZ if it existed in this reality, though it's questionable wheither or not they count as a "chain" it matters, because you'd get a rather different responce depending on which one it is.
OOC: Well, I was thinking of around the Solomons, but it doesn't matter really- whichever you think is best.

The crews of the three ships were tense as they approached the unknown island chain. Rumours from Terror Incognita showed that these islands were inhabited by advanced barbarians, but despite their level of civilisation there was always much to be feared when initiating contact with a new nation.

The three caravels got closer to the islands, and waited for contact from the barbarians. Captain Belanon was concerned that any overt moves would be seen as a sign of hostility, so they anchored offshore in a tense silence.


OOC: haveing looked at the map, the solomons it is. i'm half asleep, so don't be surprised if this gets a Little messy.

IC:

Pharhaven was one of the most distant settlements from Angerwraith, and one of the newest. it's population stood at only 3 thousand, all up, and it was not yet large enough to justify it's own councles, so once a month meetings were held in the Speaking House to decide issues by show of hands. anyone with something to say could say it, though their speaking times were limited without previous approval by the adjudicator, and any adult could vote on any issue. such a meeting was due in but 2 days, so the main town, Norharb, was getting rather full. even the watchmen in their towers, while still alert, were more focused on the coming meeting than on their task. amoung other important topics to be raised was the issue of who was to be the islands Rep at the Cresent Councle this term.

Krijan Elderhurst, a capitan of the watch, one of three who shaired the rank under Commander Linermount, however, was Certainly focused on his task. his elder brother, whose name was Hammerjak for all that he was called Merj most of the time, was one of the more likely canditates for the job of Rep, and to be honest, Krijan would be glad to see him go. which was not to say he thought his brother was the best for the task, simply that it would get rid of him. the two did not get along.

scanning the horizen again, he saw some odd shapes in the distance. calling for the "telescope" as it had been termed, he looked agian, trying to make out exactly what he was seeing. as the telescope was brought to him, he marveld once again at the skill of it's workmanship. noone quite knew where it had come from, it had passed through Meny sets of hands befor finding it's way here, but it was a symbol of the watch these days, emblasoned onto their heraldry. since it had come here, some attempts had been made at replicating it, but they were poor of quality, the only truely serviceable ones being made with precious stones, and thus not worth the cost.

turning the telescope on the shapes, he saw they were ships, not flying any recognised flags, or bearing any heraldry. the second ment they were not Angerman ships, the first ment they were also total unknowens, and thus possibly pirates. quickly he lit the watchfire, then, realiseing it was the middle of the day and thus the fire would not be observed, put the water pot on it's stand over the fire and turned the lid untill the narrow "screech" vent was open. when the water steamed, that would be heard a good way, and the message would be passed rapidly. but heating it took a while. silently he thanked every god he knew of for the good fortune that had brought them the telescope, and for the fact he had seen the ships.

in the mean time, he called to the two men slightly lower in the tower "Sound the horn! unknowen ships!" and as that great noise went out, the town, normaly sleeping in the noon heat, came alive with men doneing what armour they had, which was little for none were profesional soldiers, and grabbing their weapons, which were of very mixed grade, as were the skills of those planing to use them. already men were at the docks readying the waka, and 4 sargents, along with their squads, were forming up ready to board.

Curseing what folly had lead to the decision that the island did not need a trained diplomat, despite being the first port of call for any traveling from terror, or anywhere to the west, to the capital. but he didn't curse too loud, for there weren't that meny, and the Prince had made the best of it. the part that truely irratated him, truth be told, was that this left HIM, as senior government official prepaired and aware of the situation, to deal with these strange ships, be they friend or foe.

OOC: the scholar houses are the southern universitys, but i forget what i called them. i'll fix it later, if i remember.

As he arrived at the pier, Krijan was pleased to see that the enterpriseing Ensij had managed to arrive ahead of him, compleate with his weapons and armour.

Doneing his gear, which bore the heraldry of his house, the watch, the island, the town, a government official, a graduate of the Schollar houses in the south of the nation, and one trained in the way of the whirling wheel, among other things and more details, he looked over the gathered men. most bore the mark of the wheel, a few the river rock, and about half the tellescope and taiahu of the watch. thanking and dissmising the ensij he took his taiahu and, wooden laqured armor clicking slightly, boarded the waka. the sargents and their men, allready abored, were ready, and he ordered the boat to put to see to meet with these new sailors.

and if they proved hostile.. well, he only hoped they didn't have any of the wepons of Terror, those that threw death from afar. he'd seen what one of them could do early on in his time in the watch.

OOC: the weapons of Terror ahh. The wonders of a reputation :D

IC: As the men settled into their exotically different quarters, they welcomed beds that didn't move in the swell, and that weren't hammocks hung above one another.

This building was not much of a palace, to tell the truth; even simple sailors could tell as much. Sturdily and handsomley built, it was not vast, not ornate, not opulent. But this only meant they weren't totally lost in surroundings they were totally unused to.

After a while resting, they managed to prevail upon one of the men to be found, to help them with this heraldry that seemed so important, so that they would be able to explore for themselves unescorted.

OOC:(I'm curious about this whole heraldic jazz, so that's why they're doing that).

OOC: ahh. The wonders of a reputation :D
...
After a while resting, they managed to prevail upon one of the men to be found, to help them with this heraldry that seemed so important, so that they would be able to explore for themselves unescorted.


OOC: officially, i belive the prince was going to send someone to do it all up properly for them, but i can have someone Explaine it to them at this point, if that's what you're after.

OOC: Or if we can skip to when the Prince send someone? Fluid time and all that?

ooc: eventually i'm going to update the first post again so i can find most of this stuff easyly *laughs* but i had to check back through the thread to make sure i don't conflict with previous statments. turns out that the issue is being "delt with" "tonight"

IC: Edjah, Steward of the Palace of the Prince of Angermanland, hurried to the quarteres assigned to the men of Terror. they had gathered in their lounge [they were numerous enough to be granted one of few the suites, rather than just single rooms] an had prevailed upon one of the servants to explaine heraldry to them, but the language barrier, and minimul knowledge on the subject, had caused such issues that the servant had given up and come to him to explaine it better. not really an issue, as he was going to be doing that tonight anyway, but this rushed him slightly. the tailors wouldn't be ready untill later on in the evening and even then it was going to take the entire guild, near enough, to get the gear done befor these northerners left the next day. fortunatly the prince had ordered it, so that is what would happen.

entering the lounge he was greeted by expectant and curious faces. truely these were a strange folk... shakeing himself out of his thoughts he began to speak:

"i have been told you wish information about heraldry? well, i'm here to give it, as well as gather information from you to give you the apropriate markings. i'm reasonably sure there will be a few we'll have to make up as we go, but any new ones must be entered into the official registry, after which they cannot be changed. of course, a subtle variation of what they represent can result in a subtle variation of symbol, but still," he shruged " at any rate, every single one of you will have semi-unique sets. any formal gear will have Everything on it, while causal day to day stuff will have only the most basic things, such as family liniage and home."

he paused, then continued "so, what do you wish to know? i'll awnser what questions i can, and then we shall get to it."

"What allegiances do men show on their clothing? Their family? Their trade? Their patron?"

A Frozopian ship on the horizon. Another diplomatic mission, and this one was no different.

Lord Nicholas of Frozopia was another ship sent way ahead of the invasion party, another attempt by Frozopians to secure a peaceful advance into Aust.

As the ship approached the shoreline, the Frozopians stared warily ahead, silently alert to any danger.....

"What allegiances do men show on their clothing? Their family? Their trade? Their patron?"

Edjah responded "always included on all but the cloathing of the most dishonered and disgraced, are the symboles of their family and their home. more formal gear will include more markings. war gear, for example, includes ranks, skills, appropriate possitions, training, achivements, awards, unit designations, and many other things.

any school one has attended will entitle you to wear the mark of a student of that school, and once you have graduated, if you have graduated, the graduate mark instead. not to mention the marks of any disciplins you are training in, and what skill levels you have obtained.

then there are bond marks, which come in various flavours, but are useually a bond variant of the family markings of each party involved. then it is possible for certan officials to grant you a specific marking in recognition of.. just about anything. but it is entered into the books, and becomes the mark of that thing.

and there are marks of civilian rank, station, and service length variants of each. come to think of it, there are service length variants on vertually Any postitional markings

and there are markings for membership of various guilds and unions, and religions, though the relgious ones are rarely used by anyone but the priests except on formal cerimonial and/or religious occasions.

the list goes on, but gets progressivly more obscure from there, for the most part.

as for trade, well, it's not showen directly, but between training, guild or union membership, station, etc, it's fairly obvious, or at least within a narrow area of questionablity, most of hte time."

he sent a servant for water and food. the barley cakes he liked so much, specificly.

"any questions, or shall we get down to it?"

A Frozopian ship on the horizon. Another diplomatic mission, and this one was no different.

Lord Nicholas of Frozopia was another ship sent way ahead of the invasion party, another attempt by Frozopians to secure a peaceful advance into Aust.

As the ship approached the shoreline, the Frozopians stared warily ahead, silently alert to any danger.....


OOC: Which islands, please?

"I think we should probably commence, trying to find equivalents."
"I think all our men should carry the national emblem, somewhere on their clothing. Obviously family insignia. And probably an emblem to show we serve our Prince. Beyond that each man will have to tell his own."

"I think we should probably commence, trying to find equivalents."
"I think all our men should carry the national emblem, somewhere on their clothing. Obviously family insignia. And probably an emblem to show we serve our Prince. Beyond that each man will have to tell his own."

"humm" Edjah had been provided with a detailed sketch of their flag for this purpose "i would suggest that the flag be on the front of the left sholder, the emblem for your familys would tend to go on the center of the chest, and perhaps the symbol of your ruler, or an apropriate variant if that is not correct protocal on the front of the right sholder."

taken pages which had already had human outlines marked on them, and useing an artists graphite stick, he marked the sholder areas with rectangles, and the center of the chest with a resonably large circle

"and then, well, i would need a list of things you wished marked. certianly any ranks and positions, as well as guilds, unions, units, etc should be placed somewhere. also i shall need your names. upon each page i shall write the name of one of your men, one at a time, and perhaps you would be so kind as to write it in your script too? and we shall list the various insignia they need, and mark the areas where those insignia shall go with an outline and number? i shall compose a list of insignia and descriptions there of on a seperate page.. well, several pages, and sketch any more complex ones. when we are done, this shall be sent to the taylors. we must work quickly though, if the gear is to be ready by the time you sail tommorow." he paused "remember this though: the symbols can't be changed once we are done."

"In that case if we stick to ones we can be clear about, so as not to set others in stone.
So, if we go with your suggestion on the national emblem, we take as the prince's emblem an anchor crossed with a sceptre, which I can help you with drawing, and the men tell you their own family insignia. OOC(assume they have done. Really doesnt matter here)
Then if you put something for Incognitian traders, maybe a stylised ship and some coins, that would cover it.

I'm sure we could go into far more detail, but best not to rush ahead if the symbols are final once they have been used."

OOC: Suitably (I think) EDITED.

OOC: Your call, preferedly where I can carry out my diplomacy.

OOC: a big ooc post :P relitivly speaking.

Frozopia, for diplomacy, you really want to get to the capital. which is in the northern part of what would be NZ

Terror, amuseing as it would be, you don't need to name them all. just make a list of what groups they belong to and we can kinda skip over/fudge them all getting the right ones. also, and this will be in an ic post too, for sailors and traders, the emblems Angermanland has, at least, you would have to join the traders guild and... the seacapitans.. union? guild? i forget. so you either get to fill in paperwork in a forigen language, among other things, and be bound by their rules [but, on the other hand, become a defacto citizen of Angermanland] or create your own.

i'll do an IC thread later, but for the moment, feel free to modify your last posts however you see fit. except Oda. Oda just needs to POST something.

and Cal, same reason.

"We think this is where their capital is. Or at least thats what Bellerus said."
"The fat merchant?"

The captain and Lord Nicholas were discussing the lands that had appeared over the horizon.

"Will we be spotted?" Asked the Lord Nicholas.
"Quite possibly. We will have to see." The Captain replied.

"I hope we can finish this business as soon as possible."

And the Frozopians advanced forwards....

"We think this is where their capital is. Or at least thats what Bellerus said."
"The fat merchant?"

The captain and Lord Nicholas were discussing the lands that had appeared over the horizon.

"Will we be spotted?" Asked the Lord Nicholas.
"Quite possibly. We will have to see." The Captain replied.

"I hope we can finish this business as soon as possible."

And the Frozopians advanced forwards....

OOC: oh joy, yet another "light the beacons" sequence :P

in the far north of the Northern island of Aotearoa, north of the capital, north of all but the ocean, infact, or so most of the inhabitants would claime. those who weren't versed in geography, at least. all that aside, at this northern most point there is a lonely point between two bays. upon it stands a watch tower, there both to warn ships of bad rocks and to keep an eye out for unwanted visitors. it was a lonely duty. Edward, however, was used to it. this is the kind of task one got when one's reputation and honer were destroyed but one could not be found guilty of any crimes. at least it was better than ending up in the mines. being who he was however, he still kept a sharp eye out, following his way, even if his superiors at this post didn't. huh. superiors. that was a laugh. the vast majority of the time they weren't even THERE. drunk or in one of the underground brothels in Kainor, or both, like as not.

as he thought these bitter thoughts, he swept his gaze back and forth over the ocean to the north, ready to light the fires if he saw friendly ships, and sound alarms for all others. he sneezed. another cold. they seemed inescapable here, despite the high day time temperatures.

as he wiped his nose and straightend, he thought he saw something in the distance. takeing his one item of value that he hadn't yet had to sell to bribe some official just to keep the lighthouse operational or get his boss out of jail again, [if he did not, he wouldn't get payed, and then he wouldn't eat.] he held it up in frount of him by it's cord. a finely cut diamond. the rarest of the gems to be found in these lands, and the rarest he knew of in the world.

it had been cut, just so, and if he turned it one way, it would make distant things seem closer, when held far enough from his face.. turned another, and angled properly, it could start a properly set fire. another still, and it would reflect the light, creating a flash which one could use as a becon or to send code. not to mention it was worth more than this entire area. were it not for his disgrace and the personal value he placed in this gem, he could have bought the land and set himself up as a count, earning himself a place in councle in the process, had he so wished. but for now, it was playing the part of a magnifying lense.

thought it, he could make out a ship in the distance. it's flag was... strange. a few others had come past some days back, but it had rained, and the tower was in a poor state of repair. the beacon would not light and the gong could not be heard over the thunder. in the end he had given up and hidden in the lowest level rather than die of cold. This day however, was bright and sunny.

lighting the beacon so that the ship would not run aground on the rocks [if it were a friend, it would know what that ment.. if not, free loot was never a bad thing] he jumped down the ladder way to the level below, and struck the gong as hard as he could, over and over.

the gong it's self was a strange thing. no one knew WHAT it was made of, or where it had come from, but it bore upon it so meny protective markings that no one was willing to remove it. the taniwha that guarded the oceans and rivers, the great Hawk that guarded the air, the fortresses that protected strong points throughout the land, and finaly the kea, the trickster, protecting from all maner of strange things, though prone to causeing minor nusances instead. it bore a strange skript also, but none could read it. All, however, could hear it, clear to the outskirts of the capital on a good day. there was another tower about two thirds of that distance away though, and it could be heard there in all but the worst of storms.

banging it one last time, he turned, checked that the beacon would not burn down the tower, then ran back towards the town, doning his armour as he went. it wouldn't do for his superiors to be drunk and asleep if invaderes were to land.

OOC: that gong is one of a kind *laughs* i wrote it in then remembered that the lack of mettles kinda precludes it's existance. .. gave me a couple of extra paragraphs though

"In that case if we stick to ones we can be clear about, so as not to set others in stone.
So, if we go with your suggestion on the national emblem, we take as the prince's emblem an anchor crossed with a sceptre, which I can help you with drawing, and the men tell you their own family insignia. OOC(assume they have done. Really doesnt matter here)
Then if you put something for Incognitian traders, maybe a stylised ship and some coins, that would cover it.

I'm sure we could go into far more detail, but best not to rush ahead if the symbols are final once they have been used."

OOC: Suitably (I think) EDITED.


ooc: ok, feel free to describe any important persons family markings when they get their gear, or at any point it would be important.

heh, i may not be able to write in Angermanlandian on here [no way to get the font or have the messages readable to others, even in this script] but i can SPELL in Angermanlandian. at least when people are speaking it.

IC:

it took a while, but eventually all the drawings, lists, mesurements and notes were done.

befor leaving, Edjah turned to the men in the room "are there any kwestions or important pieces of inphormation you have not yet asked of or given to me? speak now, bekause iph we are done, i shall take these to the tailors."

"We are done."

++++++++++++++++

OOC:Not sure what time we're at (could do with this time-stamping). But, after allowing sufficient journey time to get to you -

IC: The fast sloop "Bad News" had made all possible time on the way here. She bore important news for all who would listen. The Admiralty were uncertain as to whether contact had been made with Angermanland, and knew that if it had been they needed to be informed that Incognitia had changed sides in the war on Aust.
She was, by pure luck, following the track of the first ship to arrive, and land had been sighted. She would arrive shortly.

"We are done."

++++++++++++++++

OOC:Not sure what time we're at (could do with this time-stamping). But, after allowing sufficient journey time to get to you -

IC: The fast sloop "Bad News" had made all possible time on the way here. She bore important news for all who would listen. The Admiralty were uncertain as to whether contact had been made with Angermanland, and knew that if it had been they needed to be informed that Incognitia had changed sides in the war on Aust.
She was, by pure luck, following the track of the first ship to arrive, and land had been sighted. She would arrive shortly.


huge OOC:
all this stuff is happening sometime between the Frozopian fleet leaveing and whatever point in the war i actually join in. all the stuff involveing you, so far, has taken place dureing the corse of a day and a bit. people [except the tailors] will be sleeping soon. however, i really need Oda to speak again, as... his guys are ment ot be there at the same time.

the Frozopian ships are ariveing a couple of days later, so only your guys in the capital will have any interaction with them.

unless you have a sloop or other fast ship, it's probibly going to take *thinks* a couple of weeks, mabey, depending on weather? to get from your capital to mine. less time going the other way i Think, but not alot, again allowing for good weather.

also, as of right now, i don't even know there IS a war no one has told me yet.

umm, yeah, fluid time kicks in again.
by this point your guys will have their gear, and only those staying in the capital are here. going to have to skip some potentually interesting things in favour of moveing right along.

any suggestions for working around Oda's ships just sitting there would be nice... if frozopia feels like sinking them that'd be cool. they're cluttering up the harbour.

IC:
Another ship bearing the markings of Terror. it was unexpected that one would appear this soon, but it did not cause such a stir as the first. messengers were sent out to it, and to the men of Terror already in the city. all were summoned befor the prince, along with the schollars who had been working on the understanding of the language. this resulted in quite a large group, so once again the meeting was held in the guardans.

OOC: haveing looked at the map, the solomons it is. i'm half asleep, so don't be surprised if this gets a Little messy.

IC:

Pharhaven was one of the most distant settlements from Angerwraith, and one of the newest. it's population stood at only 3 thousand, all up, and it was not yet large enough to justify it's own councles, so once a month meetings were held in the Speaking House to decide issues by show of hands. anyone with something to say could say it, though their speaking times were limited without previous approval by the adjudicator, and any adult could vote on any issue. such a meeting was due in but 2 days, so the main town, Norharb, was getting rather full. even the watchmen in their towers, while still alert, were more focused on the coming meeting than on their task. amoung other important topics to be raised was the issue of who was to be the islands Rep at the Cresent Councle this term.

Krijan Elderhurst, a capitan of the watch, one of three who shaired the rank under Commander Linermount, however, was Certainly focused on his task. his elder brother, whose name was Hammerjak for all that he was called Merj most of the time, was one of the more likely canditates for the job of Rep, and to be honest, Krijan would be glad to see him go. which was not to say he thought his brother was the best for the task, simply that it would get rid of him. the two did not get along.

scanning the horizen again, he saw some odd shapes in the distance. calling for the "telescope" as it had been termed, he looked agian, trying to make out exactly what he was seeing. as the telescope was brought to him, he marveld once again at the skill of it's workmanship. noone quite knew where it had come from, it had passed through Meny sets of hands befor finding it's way here, but it was a symbol of the watch these days, emblasoned onto their heraldry. since it had come here, some attempts had been made at replicating it, but they were poor of quality, the only truely serviceable ones being made with precious stones, and thus not worth the cost.

turning the telescope on the shapes, he saw they were ships, not flying any recognised flags, or bearing any heraldry. the second ment they were not Angerman ships, the first ment they were also total unknowens, and thus possibly pirates. quickly he lit the watchfire, then, realiseing it was the middle of the day and thus the fire would not be observed, put the water pot on it's stand over the fire and turned the lid untill the narrow "screech" vent was open. when the water steamed, that would be heard a good way, and the message would be passed rapidly. but heating it took a while. silently he thanked every god he knew of for the good fortune that had brought them the telescope, and for the fact he had seen the ships.

in the mean time, he called to the two men slightly lower in the tower "Sound the horn! unknowen ships!" and as that great noise went out, the town, normaly sleeping in the noon heat, came alive with men doneing what armour they had, which was little for none were profesional soldiers, and grabbing their weapons, which were of very mixed grade, as were the skills of those planing to use them. already men were at the docks readying the waka, and 4 sargents, along with their squads, were forming up ready to board.

Curseing what folly had lead to the decision that the island did not need a trained diplomat, despite being the first port of call for any traveling from terror, or anywhere to the west, to the capital. but he didn't curse too loud, for there weren't that meny, and the Prince had made the best of it. the part that truely irratated him, truth be told, was that this left HIM, as senior government official prepaired and aware of the situation, to deal with these strange ships, be they friend or foe.
As the three vessels apporeached the shore, they noted that a sharp, piercing sound came over the waves. The lookout gazed through his glass and shouted down that it must be a warning of some sort.

At that, the crew became more tense. The Commodore ordered for the marines to be at the ready with their bows, and for the crew to run out the guns and clear for action. The trilling of the fifes and the pattering of feet as sailors doused fires and threw sand on the decks to improve the guncrews' footing were audible enough, but a truly imposing rumble came when the ports were opened and the guns were run out simultaneously, each side of the ships sporting two rows of ominous black cannons.

Though the Commodore was ready to open fire when he saw foreign troops forming up on the docks, the Consul stayed his hand. In an astonishing show of personal bravery he decided to go ashore in the Longboat with fifteen marine rowers. Despite the crews' trepidation at the adoption of this risky tactic, the Consul's orders were obeyed, and the longboat was hoisted out and soon bobbing over the waves, the silver and green with the white ship of Caladonn fluttering in the sternsheets above the Consul.

EDIT: Terror, it's quite possible I could find out about your diplomatic revolution here at the same time as in your homeland. That might even be easier, considering here I have a leader ready to make decisions as opposed to the diplomats in Incognitia.

As the three vessels apporeached the shore, they noted that a sharp, piercing sound came over the waves. The lookout gazed through his glass and shouted down that it must be a warning of some sort.

At that, the crew became more tense. The Commodore ordered for the marines to be at the ready with their bows, and for the crew to run out the guns and clear for action. The trilling of the fifes and the pattering of feet as sailors doused fires and threw sand on the decks to improve the guncrews' footing were audible enough, but a truly imposing rumble came when the ports were opened and the guns were run out simultaneously, each side of the ships sporting two rows of ominous black cannons.

Though the Commodore was ready to open fire when he saw foreign troops forming up on the docks, the Consul stayed his hand. In an astonishing show of personal bravery he decided to go ashore in the Longboat with fifteen marine rowers. Despite the crews' trepidation at the adoption of this risky tactic, the Consul's orders were obeyed, and the longboat was hoisted out and soon bobbing over the waves, the silver and green with the white ship of Caladonn fluttering in the sternsheets above the Consul.

EDIT: Terror, it's quite possible I could find out about your diplomatic revolution here at the same time as in your homeland. That might even be easier, considering here I have a leader ready to make decisions as opposed to the diplomats in Incognitia.

the waka was ready. it was a good thing they were large, for there wasn't time to organise more. slinging his Taiahu over his back by it's cord, a feature that had become standard, at least on Pharhaven, since Mahkath and his crew came past, Krijan stepped aboard the waka, gave an order, and the men set to with their paddles. an advantage to their design was that they made more than decent weapons if nessisary, with relitivly sharp edges and good balance. the one thing he was confidant of was that they could hold their own against any hostiles who let them close.

looking out towards this new ship, he noticed something odd. it was lowering a boat. it struck him as strange that such a thing would be carryed On the ship, but there was probibly a reason for it. given the chance he would ask.

it was hard to tell exactly what type of men were on it. but it would be best to come within shouting distance of it. if they were friendly, the would move closer and talk. if not, well, the men in the city would be able to deal with such small numbers, his crew would continue on to the ship.

that slight rumble in the air befor had been... interesting though. the two temples in the city had promptly run up flags bearing hawks and kea, and the local sea capitans guild had promptly run up a taniwha kite-flag, which danced in the wind like a thing possesed. garanteed to frighten off birds and faint hearted humans, at the very least.

and so they rowed onward toward these new ariveals.

OOC: i'll leave the actually meet and great beginings up to you. these guys are Very cautious right now.

OOC: Caladonn, happy with that as and when you make it to Anger's capital where my guys are.
Angermanland, on Oda's ships I suggest ignoring them and when you come back suggesting that they've been busy trading or dealing with the trading guild or something.

IC: A meeting in the gardens of the palace. They had been whisked off the boat barely after docking, and brought along while being swiftly briefed by some of the Incognitians here. Using their rapidly improving language skills to translate:

"We have been sent by the High Seneschal of Terror Incognitia, bearing a message he wishes all Kings and Princes to hear.
A war is fast approaching between Aust and an alliance of Northern powers; Aust is going to be invaded.
After much deliberation Incognitia has decided to align with the Northern powers.
The High Seneschal knows this will affect our relations with other countries, and so we have been sent to make sure the news is spread."

OOC: Caladonn, happy with that as and when you make it to Anger's capital where my guys are.
Angermanland, on Oda's ships I suggest ignoring them and when you come back suggesting that they've been busy trading or dealing with the trading guild or something.

IC: A meeting in the gardens of the palace. They had been whisked off the boat barely after docking, and brought along while being swiftly briefed by some of the Incognitians here. Using their rapidly improving language skills to translate:

"We have been sent by the High Seneschal of Terror Incognitia, bearing a message he wishes all Kings and Princes to hear.
A war is fast approaching between Aust and an alliance of Northern powers; Aust is going to be invaded.
After much deliberation Incognitia has decided to align with the Northern powers.
The High Seneschal knows this will affect our relations with other countries, and so we have been sent to make sure the news is spread."


Chargone, seated in what appeared ot be a comfortable armchair placed on top of a fairly solid wooden table for the occasion, thought on this for a moment

"Aust.... that is the land accross the sea of winds, yes? humm, Mahkath should be there by now. i hope he doesn't get caught in that mess. he'd probilby jump the wrong way. or just kill everyone on both sides indiscriminantly. you'd be amazed what that man can do with 100 mixed troops," he shook his head at the thought "of course, there wouldn't be meny of them Left. anyway. i am not sure about aligning either way in this war. but from what i am told, it would be in our best interestes not to oppose Terror at this point. and i have no great love or hatered for the men of Aust."

he thought some more. after a space of time in which it was quite possible for even the most diciplined to get fidgity, he spoke once more.

"Very well. i shall call for the formation of an Army. a small one, i'll admit, though even still we do not have the capacity to transport that meny men accross oceans. provide transport, and your" here he tried to pronounce 'High Seneschal' and mangled it dreadfully. " may call upon their services at need. it has been too long since the stratagists have had anything but theoretical aplications for their skills. too long since the men have fought." he smiled sharkishly, then lept to his feet.

turning to those of his own men who stood about the place he cryed out, in a voice that had great effect and, due to a variaty of carefully planed factors, carryed most of hte way accross the city "Gather the brave, the bold, the wise, the intelligent, and all who would fight for their Way! ANGERMANLAND GOES TO WAR!"

the city seemed to explode into chaos, though really, it was somewhat planed. within hours ships would be putting out to all ports, carrying messangers to all councles, officials, lords, wealthy men, veterins, and the like.

sitting again in his seat, and looking back at the .. slightly stunned ambasidors he laughed. "not what you were expecting, i bet. to be honest, teh various factions have been at each other too much lately. this should bring them back togeather again, i hope. at the very elast it will reduce the number of fighting men available to them if they decide to get serious. as i said, if you are willing to provide transport for them, these troops will be avialable to your ruler. it will take a couple of months to train them however.

and now, if you'll excuse me" he laughed " i belive i need to go hunt down a suitable commander. perhaps Edward. he is skilled, and unlikely to say no... " he continued talking to himself as he.. frankly 'wandered' back towards the palace, a couple of guards trailing after him.

OOC: yeap, Edward the Gong-ringer, the disgraced, bearer of diamonds, is about to become the commander of an army

"A beacon?" Asked Lord Nicholas.
"Light house maybe? I will tell the crew to anchor and we can row our way to land. God knows what rocks those harbours hide." The Captain responded.

35 minutes later and the Frozopians descended into the rowing boats, roughly 30 men would travel in two boats. In the bright sun light and flat waters the row was more a pleasure than a pain, and the men made it quickly to shore.

Nicholas stood to meet whoever ran that tower, standing tall in the thick extremely unsuitable Frozopian clothing of furs. Shouting loudly in Latin and waving his arms, he attempted to gain their attention.......

OOC: You're off the wall, but you have style, I'll give you that. :D

IC: The captain of the sloop, one John Ramsey, spoke to one of the men who remained.

"We have heard rumours of your...masters? Would it be possible for one of these to go to Incognitia carrying a message? We believe it would beat us significantly in getting there. If not, we shall depart at once with a message for our ruler, and return with troop transports and escort vessels."

the guard to whom this was addressed responded, slowly "you'd best go see the admeral of the Sea Capitan's Guild about that, sir. he Should be in the guild hall, down by the docks. well, not exactly by the docks.. it's more like half way betwe the two harbours, here. i'll show you." he walked to the edge of the guarden, which was on a slight rise so one could see over most of the city "down there, see? it flys a flag bearing it's heraldry, as well as a Taniwha kite-flag. humm. somethings got them spooked if they're flying that... could simply be bad weather comeing, could be a tsunami, could be a war" he shruged "might even just be a run of bad luck. never know. anyway. not hard to find it whle they're flying that. go speak to the admeral"

ooc: sorry my spelling's a little... erratic.

"A beacon?" Asked Lord Nicholas.
"Light house maybe? I will tell the crew to anchor and we can row our way to land. God knows what rocks those harbours hide." The Captain responded.

35 minutes later and the Frozopians descended into the rowing boats, roughly 30 men would travel in two boats. In the bright sun light and flat waters the row was more a pleasure than a pain, and the men made it quickly to shore.

Nicholas stood to meet whoever ran that tower, standing tall in the thick extremely unsuitable Frozopian clothing of furs. Shouting loudly in Latin and waving his arms, he attempted to gain their attention.......

Edward had been.. well, unlucky. so meny things had gone wrong, and he had only been able to gather 5 men. Garth, the accursed fool supposedly in charge of this post, had seen fit to destroy his reputation even further this day. he only hoped that someone further down the chain had seen fit to take notice of the gong.

his blade-staff slung accross his sholders, leading these 5 men who's presence was more a result of bordom than anything else, he climbed the path back to the tower. climbing to the top of the tower he looked once again at the ships in the distance. they had come to a halt, it appeared, and...

suddenly one of the men cryed out "there, on the beach! boats! not ours, certianly." and another, haveing made a quick count "thirty men, strangely cloathed."
still a third, who's hearing was better than the others and could hear over the wind that such a position was bound to have blowing even at the calmest moments, called "they're shouting about something. can't make it out. i'm not even sure if it's a language."

slightly stunned, edward turned to look where htey were indicateing. and they were right. quickly douseing the fire, it was almost out of fule and the wind was doing strange things to it, he jumped down teh ladder ways and quickly found himself at ground level.

"if it comes to a fight, we could win if we're lucky and don't screw up" he said to himself, though loud enough for those around him to hear "but there is a decent chance they're not raiders. not enough of them, and they obviously haven't a clue." spining on his heal he started walking back down teh path, takeing a different turning to end up on the beach. hesitatantly, the men followed.

OOC: if i previously gave Edward a taiahu as well, ignore it, i screwed up. he has a blade-staff.

OOC: 5 men could beat 30? What the hell? Not in a million years. Unless your men are equipped with Ak's........

IC:
"Lets head towards that beacon. Im sure someone will meet us there. I think I saw some movement around there as well." Nicholas ordered, and immediatly the 30 Frozopians formed 3 lines and marched towards mysterious beacon lighter.......

OOC: it's six if you include Edward himself, and if you take into account the terrain, a few rocks would reduce the odds a little. bows would probibly win them the day, but they don't have them, mores the pitty. you will note he said: if everything went right AND they were lucky.

errr... and that post is rather hard to respond to [people seem to like doing this] but i shall try.

IC:

from higher up the path, Edward saw this movemnt. quickly he sent his men into the scrub and trees to either side. it would slow them down, but if it came to a fight, ambush was more likely to be successful, and they were.. relitivly skilled at moveing quietly. they continued down the path untill they came to a particularly narrow point, where because of cliffs and the like, 4 men could quite possibly hold off an army. . . so long as that army didn't have reinforcements comeing from the bay on the OTHER side of the beacon tower.

here the path proper was only wide enough for a single man, if he wanted room to swing a staff, and the woods to either side were not much widder befor running into a cliff. on the left, when going down the path, you would fall a good 50 meters, at least, onto jaggard rocks, and on the right was a shear cliff face. the amazeing thing was that the plants grew here at all.

looking about him, Edward signeld the men to stop, and ready themselves "we wait here. stay out of sight and undetected untill i give the signal. if i turn my back come out peacfuly. if i bow a second time after greeting them, attack." this was an especially efective method of signaling, as to lead these new comers anywhere he'd have to turn away from them, and to unsling his bladstaff rapidly required a bowing motion to get the strap over his head and arm.

all was in readiness. now they just had to wait.

OOC: Oh please. Throwing rock would be lucky to kill 1 man. 30 men would take 6 men without a sweat.

IC:
The Frozopians advanced quickly up the slope and unto a path, surrounded by undergrowth and cliff drops, as the path slowly got steeper.

Wayne, a veteran spearman of over 30 raids pulled Nicholas to one side and whispered into his ear:
"There maybe men ahead. Look at the terrain: Perfect ambush territory. Worse I think I saw a shadow."
Nicholas frowned:
"It can only be the people who lit the beacon, so dont attack without my orders. But be on your guard"

The troop continued up the path, the soldiers warily watching the trees........

ooc: you did it again! how am i ment to respond to that? heh. and i was thinking large numbers of large rocks droped from the top of a cliff, actually.
seriously though, my guys are all set up and wating.. and all you do is "come towards me" some more.. yeash. an IC post here would go "they waited" .. that's pathetic. fortunatly, i have some imagination.

IC:

Edward and his men waited quietly as these strangers advanced up the path. suddenly, the gong in the tower started banging agian. apparantly Garth had finaly got it through his drunken thick skull that something needed doing, and was up there banging it for all he was worth.

OOC: What the hell do you want me to type? All I want to do is start the diplomacy, not trawl through some crap to reach you. I dont see how someone banging to the gong is a stretch of any imagination, if you want to start talking bloody introduce yourself.

Sheesh.

The Incognitian emissaries had left as swiftly as they had arrived, after getting some idea of the size of force that would need transporting OOC(as in I need to know what to send).

As soon as was reasonably possible, transports and escorts would be rolling in, ready to take Angermanland to war.

OOC: aproximatly 1000 fighting men, from Edward, commanding the army, right the way down to the lowliest foot soldier. errr... and their supplys. and some building materials... humm,a few craftsmen, healers and the like. all infantry, so no horses to worry about, and all melee troops, so no amunition issues either.

make your estimates from that.

whopping big ooc:

OOC: What the hell do you want me to type? All I want to do is start the diplomacy, not trawl through some crap to reach you. I dont see how someone banging to the gong is a stretch of any imagination, if you want to start talking bloody introduce yourself.

Sheesh.


well, it had potentual to kick off some sort of reaction *shrugity*

and, seriously, you've got random people turn up, the natives are being cautions, try actually walking ALL THE WAY UP TO THEM and SAYING something rather than just "they walked a little more"

that, and i'm Trying to build up the charicters. the guy leading that little ambush? he's the one who's going to be leading any troops of mine that end up in any of your battles.

the guy banging the gong? well, he's a drunken fool and i'm showing it some more. seriously, did you even read the thread befor posting in it? go back and have a look at how the whole thread is writen.

your whole attitude is very antagonistic.... *grins* though that gives me an idea.... not for a reply to this or anything.. but.. for later.... MWAhaHAHAHAHA!

OOC: When I say walk a little more, I expect your men to step out into the road as I advance. Because I cant walk upto your natives when they are hiding can I?

IC:

"God damn it!" Nicholas swore. "What the hell is that goddamn racket!?"

Walking up to where the Edwards troops were position, he shouted loudly in Latin:

"Hello!? Anyone there? We have come in peace! We know you are there!"

OOC: *laughs* dude, if you look back, Edward is standing in the middle of the road. only the others hid. though i'll admit the fact that they're All being quiet could throw you off.

IC:

Edward jumped slightly at the sudden shouting from the stranger, who had somehow failed to see him despite being mear feet away.

"greetings. i do hope you're intent is peaceful" he said. of course, he spoke in simple Angerman, not latin. latin was... new to Angermanland. the schollars in teh capital and in the south were only just begining to study it. stranded up here as he was, Edward didn't even know of it's existance.

"if they are not, i'm reasonably sure my superiour's continued stupidity will eventually bring some sort of military assistance to the area."

OOC: Oops misread. meh.

IC:
Rounding the corner, Nicholas spotted the man randomly standing in the middle of the road, jibbering in some unknown language.

"What the hell is he saying?" Nicholas asked.

"Bellerus called it Angerman lord." Replied a sargent. "Should we kill him? He should have some gold."

"No." Turning back to the man, he spoke loudly and patronisingly.

"HELLO STUPID ONE. WE ARE FROZOPIANS. DO YOU SPEAK LATIN?"

the waka was ready. it was a good thing they were large, for there wasn't time to organise more. slinging his Taiahu over his back by it's cord, a feature that had become standard, at least on Pharhaven, since Mahkath and his crew came past, Krijan stepped aboard the waka, gave an order, and the men set to with their paddles. an advantage to their design was that they made more than decent weapons if nessisary, with relitivly sharp edges and good balance. the one thing he was confidant of was that they could hold their own against any hostiles who let them close.

looking out towards this new ship, he noticed something odd. it was lowering a boat. it struck him as strange that such a thing would be carryed On the ship, but there was probibly a reason for it. given the chance he would ask.

it was hard to tell exactly what type of men were on it. but it would be best to come within shouting distance of it. if they were friendly, the would move closer and talk. if not, well, the men in the city would be able to deal with such small numbers, his crew would continue on to the ship.

that slight rumble in the air befor had been... interesting though. the two temples in the city had promptly run up flags bearing hawks and kea, and the local sea capitans guild had promptly run up a taniwha kite-flag, which danced in the wind like a thing possesed. garanteed to frighten off birds and faint hearted humans, at the very least.

and so they rowed onward toward these new ariveals.

OOC: i'll leave the actually meet and great beginings up to you. these guys are Very cautious right now.
OOC: Okay.

IC: The Consul and his elves continued rowing till they came within shouting distance of the barbarians. Then the Consul pulled out a speaking trumpet, and said, "Greetings! I am Consul Aramil Holimion of the Imperial Republic of Caladonn. We come to establish peaceful relations with your people."

He said this in Caladonnian, Carib, Aztec, Mayan, Incan, Amazonian, Latin, and Polynesian, hoping the barbarians would understand at least one of the disparate tongues.

OOC: Oops misread. meh.

IC:
Rounding the corner, Nicholas spotted the man randomly standing in the middle of the road, jibbering in some unknown language.

"What the hell is he saying?" Nicholas asked.

"Bellerus called it Angerman lord." Replied a sargent. "Should we kill him? He should have some gold."

"No." Turning back to the man, he spoke loudly and patronisingly.

"HELLO STUPID ONE. WE ARE FROZOPIANS. DO YOU SPEAK LATIN?"

Edward blinked. this was going to be awkward.
"you don't need to shout you know, it doesn't help. gah, who know's what you're saying" makeing 'follow me' guestures, he turned away from them and started walking back up the path towards the town. "come on. lets see if we can find someone who Does understand you."

as he started walking, the other few men melted out of the shadows around the newcomers, forming what could be an honer guard, or a very ineffective guard against them, depending on what was needed.

Nicholas shrugged and followed.
This should be interesting. He thought, as the group progressed through the forrest, into the unknown.

OOC: Okay.

IC: The Consul and his elves continued rowing till they came within shouting distance of the barbarians. Then the Consul pulled out a speaking trumpet, and said, "Greetings! I am Consul Aramil Holimion of the Imperial Republic of Caladonn. We come to establish peaceful relations with your people."

He said this in Caladonnian, Carib, Aztec, Mayan, Incan, Amazonian, Latin, and Polynesian, hoping the barbarians would understand at least one of the disparate tongues.


IC:
Krijan had no idea what this stranger was babbleing about. the one word he could make out was "peace" and he could tell that some of it was latin, as the men of Terror spoke, but otherwise it was a load of meaningless drivel, so far as he could tell.

still, it was .. a begining. ordering the waka to turn and come closer to the strangers boat, he readied himself to reply. well.. say something in return, at least.

"Greetings Strangers" he called in Angerman "we welcome those who come in peace" he repeated the word peace in latin. "and stand ready to repel those who do not. which are you?"

OOC: just a note: Angerman Sounds like russian, a lot of the time, but that's all they have in common. otherwise it's closer to a weird hybrid of english and finnish, with a few unuseual quirks all it's own. and a tendancy to use Maori nouns... but they're in NZ english anyway. also, i'm very curious as to what polynesian [as a language] is, and who actually speaks it. i'm reasonabley sure the awnser would be "it isn't" and "no one" in this reality, and have a suspicion the same might be true in the reality we live in.

Nicholas shrugged and followed.
This should be interesting. He thought, as the group progressed through the forrest, into the unknown.

ooc: err, did i name the town they're now headed towards? doesn't matter, but i forget.. oh well. Enter the Moa!

oh yeah, and guys? i err... altered the timeline a little ..hehe... this stuff is happening After that war anouncement. otherwise it just doesn't make sence.

IC:

as Edward led the men towards the town, the gong kept right on clanging. exasperated, he sent one of the men to the tower "Get that drunken fool out of there! he's going to give everyone north of the capital a headache for weeks if he keeps this up. superior or not, feel free to bash him in the head if you need to."

as the man ran off to do as he was bid, the group continued on untill they reached the town, where a surprise was awaiting them.

a group of Mokarv, Moa-mounted spear men, was waiting for them. prince's guard, no less. as he aproched, Edward saluted and bowed slightly, as was proper. they outranked him in far too meny ways.

the capitan of the group returend the salute, which was a little strange, and handed him a letter.

"what have you got here then, sir? these odd looking guys?"
"strangers. came in a boat. did you hear the gong?"
"oh yeah. they actually a threat?"
"haven't a clue. speaking some strange tounge. but i'll get to them in a minute. for the moment i should read this"

the letter had the prince's seal, which wasn't supriseing given who was delivering it.

Edward opend it.. read it... read it again... read it again..... then sat down suddenly.

"I... i've been given new orders and heraldry... to command an ARMY!?! an army, no less that's crossing the ocean! good lord."

after sitting a moment, he recovered

"ok.. this is good. i need to get back to the capital fast. if i could borrow one of your mounts?" he suddenly remembered the strangers as well "and if you could please take care of this lot? i'm guessing we'd best take them right through to the capital as well. see if any of your men can understand them, i sure can't..."

"umm, sure.. we're going to have to walk if we take these guys anyway. infact" he dismounted "take mine. good tempered, so long as you don't get in a fight, and Fast too."

"thanks. give me your name. i'll see you're rewarded."
"Phritjen, sir"
"very well Phritjen. heck.. i'll put you in charge of a unit!"

and with that he mounted and left.. leaveing a rather stunned group standing in the middle of the town.

Phritjen, now on foot, turned to the strangers

"well, that was... certianly different. lets see about getting you lot some food. come on." he guestured that they shoudl follow him, and made eating motions befor leading them to the local tavern.

as he started walking, his troops, tweenty of them, all told, set about seeing to their mounts.

OOC: and any more can await your responce.

Their excitable friend departed, the Frozopians followed the new man making bizarre food motions.

"I dont know about you boys, but I'm starving!" Nicholas spoke to the men, who all nodded in agreement.

"Could eat one of these scrawny natives! Not sure it would make me full though!" One of the men said, spurring some laughter from the group, who followed Phritjen.

Their excitable friend departed, the Frozopians followed the new man making bizarre food motions.

"I dont know about you boys, but I'm starving!" Nicholas spoke to the men, who all nodded in agreement.

"Could eat one of these scrawny natives! Not sure it would make me full though!" One of the men said, spurring some laughter from the group, who followed Phritjen.

ordering for those in his charge, as well as arangeing food for his men, Phritjen thought about what to do with these men. fairly obviously he should take them to the capital, though it would be slow to walk. comunicating the information was going to be a challange also.

haveing aranged ginger-beer, which was only mildly alcholic the way it was made here, and had meny benificial effects, and barley cakes for all the men and their guests, he was turning to make another atempt at communication when one of his men came up. a serj, by the name of Hakil.

"sir" he saluted "i'm not sure if you've noticed, but part of the time these men seem to be speaking something that has some resembilance to Incognitian."

"you're right, i hadn't noticed. unlike you, i'm too busy to hang around with the schollars in their stuffy little rooms."

"errr. . . yessir... the point is, i might be able to say... something... to them. not sure if it's anything helpful, but it's a start, and it means the schollars might have a hope."

"fine, go talk to them then. try not to get dead."

"sir!" he saluted again, then stroled over to where their guests were sitting.

speaking in a very rough form of the incognetian dialect of latin, he begain

"greetings. do you understand me when i speak this tounge?"

he was well aware he was probibly mangleing the language, but it was the best he could do.

OOC: and i forget my own rank structure. oh well. a Serj is a high ranking soldier. perhaps close to a mid-rank sergent[sp].

FinallyThought Nicholas. Listening to the terrible imitation of Latin, he got a vague understanding.

"Yes we understand your Latin. It is good to talk to someone from this country who speaks the same tongue! We are Frozopians from far to the north, and we are here to discuss diplomacy with your leader." Hoping the man would understand the Latin for diplomacy, Nicholas patiently awaited for the man to form a response.

FinallyThought Nicholas. Listening to the terrible imitation of Latin, he got a vague understanding.

"Yes we understand your Latin. It is good to talk to someone from this country who speaks the same tongue! We are Frozopians from far to the north, and we are here to discuss diplomacy with your leader." Hoping the man would understand the Latin for diplomacy, Nicholas patiently awaited for the man to form a response.

"i am sorry. i am not skilled in this tounge. the .." he fumbled for a word, then gave up and used the Angerman word for them "schollars" he returned to latin".. are... more skilled. if you come with us, we shall take you to them. the trip ... 3 days on foot. on moa, two, and more rest. not enough moa for all, so we walk. by ship, also 2 day, but start and end ... not day. no rest."
moa, of course, was in Angerman as well. latin had no word for it.
"the ... Emperor? not the right word, but close... he shall speak to you. "

Hakil paused to gather his thoughts.
"i am... not pleased.. my speach is .... wrong?... there is a reason i do not bear the.. [angerman word for heraldric marking or symbol].. of a [schollar] of any school. capitan says we eat, rest here. sky light, we move to capital. unless you wish to return to your ship? ... it is still there, yes? if so, ... sky light, back to the ship you go, bye bye" he shrugged.

Listening to man quickly became painful. It was like watching a wolf tear apart your price sheep. However Nicholas got the jift of it, or so he hoped.

"We can rest here and then head to the capital, if that is acceptable with you?" Nicholas put in, attempting to silence the man.

Listening to man quickly became painful. It was like watching a wolf tear apart your price sheep. However Nicholas got the jift of it, or so he hoped.

"We can rest here and then head to the capital, if that is acceptable with you?" Nicholas put in, attempting to silence the man.

"very good" Hakil bowwed, then made off to report to Phritjen
beds were arranged, as were stables for the moa. the plan was to leave an hour after dawn, giveing them plenty of travel time befor they had to stop and make camp. there wasn't a lot of travel on that rout, so no-one had built any inns. there was a postal house, but it didn't have room for so meny men. still, it would make a good stoping place when they got to it.

for now, they would sleep.

OOC: you can say or do some stuff here. if you've got any development or something to do... or i can just move on?

OOC: Move on when your ready.

IC:
The troops settled for a good nights sleep. It was a blessing to not be sleeping on rocking waves, and they sleapt comfortably till the morning.....

OOC: Move on when your ready.

IC:
The troops settled for a good nights sleep. It was a blessing to not be sleeping on rocking waves, and they sleapt comfortably till the morning.....


The soldiers rose with the dawn, readying mounts and checking gear. instriment was sounded, none was needed. enough birds started singing to wake even the deepest sleeper. most of them sounded quite plesant, too.

the troops formed up at the edge of town, ready to leave as soon as their guests were.

Nicholas walked through the rooms of the inn, giving the odd soldier a kick to wake up. 5 minutes later and the troops were ready to move out.
"Lets go." He spoke to the foreign troops.

Nicholas walked through the rooms of the inn, giving the odd soldier a kick to wake up. 5 minutes later and the troops were ready to move out.
"Lets go." He spoke to the foreign troops.

OOC: and i just realised i might have goofed. gah. this takes place AFTER the decleration of war, if i ever said otherwise.

IC:
when everyone was ready, they set out. south through the bush. it was quite thick in this area, with meny birds. they stoped at the posthouse and made camp around it that night, and at another the following day. the day after they aproched the capital.

construction was still ongoing around the ports. comeing out of the bush at the top of a hill, that was easy to see. large blocks of stone were being moved, and the cannal was being dug. this kind of bustle was almost perminant, and would be untill the task was compleate. already ships were useing the peir.

hakil turned to their guests "Angerwraith" he gestured to the city "Capital of Angermanland, welcome."

5 of the men on moa were sent to announce their impending ariveal.

***at the baracks***
Edward had arived the day before, and been given his orders, as well as his new rank marks, and had set to organiseing his army.

a good 900 men had arived, common soldiers. all he had to arange was the officers. and then see to their training. and supplys.. oh, this was going to get interesting...

***at the palace***

the 5 moa riders arived and were quickly granted audiance when they explained to the steward what was going on.

Chargone sat on his thrown. a proper one this time, as it was in the palace proper.

"what brings you back in such a rush? Edward mentioned some strangers landing in the north...?"

"we bring news, sire." the lead messanger bowwed "strange men from the north did indeed land. a good 30 of them, if i remember correctly. Capitan Phritjen and his men are esscorting them here. they appear to speak the Incognetian tounge they should arive by this afternoon."

"very good. i shall meet them in the guardens. return to the good Capitan and inform him that he, along with his men, are to join Edward's army."

"sire!" they saluted, bowed, and left rapidly.

OOC: The Frozopians will be ignorant of you declaring war anyways.
IC:
The Frozopians examined their surroundings. It was very different from home, a world away from the frozen hills and large cities. Where castles seemed to dominate every hill, as each Lord staked their claim of land.

Nicholas examined the area with the eye of a veteran warrior, examining it as if his troops were about to storm it......

to the south were meny great hills, watch toweres on the top of each, then the harbour, still under construction. the city it's self, north of the harbour was built on a hill. the palace, right near the top [at it's highest point you could see over the top of the hill] had low stone walls. the city it's self, however, was unwalled. a maze of stone and wood construction, it did leand it'self well to ambush. north of the city was a large open area, and then the foristed hills they stood on. it was not easyly defenceable, but had been built for it's ports and declared capital due to the hills that protected it to the south. untill recently no one had been aware of the potentual for threats to come from any other direction, or any source other than rebellion.

Phritjen saw the messangers returning, and called for the group to move on again, and Hakil passed on his message.

meeting the riders part way to the city, the previous exchange was rellayed to them. Phritjen sent Hakil and another rider with the strangers to the guardens, while he and the rest of his men reported to General-Commander Edward.

as the approched the gates, Hekil spoke "stay close. you have no [heraldry]. to most this means you have no... [honer], are disgraced. the General-Commander you met him umm.. befor. almost disgraced. only family [heraldric markings] left, see? not safe without [heraldry] better executed or exiled than striped of [herladry]"

his latin was less broken than befor. though still imperfect. practice will do that.

fortunatly, as it turned out, people got out of the way of the first Moa, and didn't close up untill sometime after the second had gone past, so all the Frozopians had to do was stay between them.

"I understand. We are not so different, us Frozopians and you."
Waiting patiently, the Frozopians examined the unfamiliar city.
Would be hell to fight through those streets.
Nicholas thought.

"I understand. We are not so different, us Frozopians and you."
Waiting patiently, the Frozopians examined the unfamiliar city.
Would be hell to fight through those streets.
Nicholas thought.

ooc: if i make more errors than useual, it's because i'm still recovering from some general anistetic right now, so don't be too hard on me about it, k?


IC:
they soon arived at the guardens, and upon entering the gate were greeted by one of the prince's guard,

"if you will follow me" he said, in poor but understandable latin "the prince wishes to see you at the ampitheiter"

dismissing the riders back to their unit, he spoke once more "the prince has no latin, yet. however, one of our schollars more skilled in the tounge is also preasent to act as interpriter" the sentance was.. mangled, but intelligable.

with that, he turned up the path that led to the well designed area the prince used for diplomatic negotions and grand anouncements. it was used for this as it's accoustics were prefect. stand near the open end, one got a good view of that half of the city, and if one stood in exactly the right place and faced out over the city, then spoke in the right tone, one's voice would carry clear to the southern hills and their watchtoweres. of course, that place was about a third of the way from the Other end, and at the hight of a growen man standing on the stand upon which the prince's outdoor 'throne' was placed. seated on that throne, or standing anywhere else in the thearter like arangement, it wouldn't work. though if one were to stand a quater of the way from the end that opend out over the city, and faced the throne, anyone and everyone in the theater could hear one speak. anywhere else, however, and again, it would not work. or not well, at least.

unlike most of the guardens, this area was also walled off, and 5 guardsmen were at the gate. they were there only when the prince was. the rest of the time anyone who wished to could use the area, as was the case with the rest of the guardens. however, when the prince wasn't their, neither was the stand or throne, so no grand announcements were made in that maner by accident. doing it deliberatly was illegal without the prince's permision either.
but the guards were there and thus, logic dictates, so was the prince.

as the group aproched, the guards stood to attention in such a way that none could pass. the latin speaking guard who was the frozopian's escort anounced their presence and informed the guard that they were summoned. the guards, expecting them, stood aside, and they entered. apon passing through the gate they had to choose to turn left or right. which way one went when one didn't have an asigned seat to go to, for example, really didn't matter, but you couldn't just go straight in. choseing the right, the guard led them along a path that ran the 2/3rds of the length of the top of the theater, befor looping back and running the full length along the base of the slope, curleing around behind where the prince's throne now stood, to follow the same path on the opposit side.

reaching the bottom of the slope, the guard walked to the center of the flat area, it amounted to the 'floor' really, and, once his guest's had joined him, announced them.

"and now, you procead towards the prince. stop a few paces befor the throne. you should be able to look at his face without hurting your neck or bending your back. i'll be here when you're done"

ooc: sorry for takeing a little control of your guys there, but you wanted to get to this point fast, yah?

The Frozopians approached the Prince, taking a kneel before standing again, a Frozopian custom. Nicholas ordered the others back, and the began to speak, hoping someone would translate.
"My name is Nicholas, a Lord of Frozopia, a land far to the north of here. We come here in the name of peace, but also to calm any suspicians you have."

"As you may know, there is an invasion fleet not travelling in waters not that far from here. Their destination? Aust."

"It is an allied fleet of Kiriusubans, Ostians and Frozopians. We hope to end the Austian Empire and all their evils, which is why we have come here."

"We humbly beg of you to aid us in the war if not stay neutral: In exchange we will promise and alliance with your nation and trade between our great nations."

"And thus speaks King Clauro of Frozopia."

OOC: Talking of invasions....as of now I'm working on there being 10 transports, each carrying around 100 men plus kit, and 2 for carrying your moas. Having seen that warships of the 14/1500's could carry in some cases 400 soldiers, I don't think that's unreasonable, assuming moa (moa? moas?) are not being brought for the entire force. The escort is as stated in the planning thread. Oh yeah, and some merchants have come too, to take advantage of the escort.

IC: Admiral Knox was pleased. This harbour was even better than he had been led to believe, and the voyage here, following the charts of the first visitors, had been swift, even bringing transports and merchantmen along with them.
"Right, Captain, take us in to dock, I believe we are expected."
"Keep that rabble (referring to the merchants) under control until we know where to put them."
"Carry on."

"Aye-aye, sir."

If their allies came to meet them, all the better, but if not they would make harbour and then send a message announcing their arrival.

IC:
Krijan had no idea what this stranger was babbleing about. the one word he could make out was "peace" and he could tell that some of it was latin, as the men of Terror spoke, but otherwise it was a load of meaningless drivel, so far as he could tell.

still, it was .. a begining. ordering the waka to turn and come closer to the strangers boat, he readied himself to reply. well.. say something in return, at least.

"Greetings Strangers" he called in Angerman "we welcome those who come in peace" he repeated the word peace in latin. "and stand ready to repel those who do not. which are you?"

OOC: just a note: Angerman Sounds like russian, a lot of the time, but that's all they have in common. otherwise it's closer to a weird hybrid of english and finnish, with a few unuseual quirks all it's own. and a tendancy to use Maori nouns... but they're in NZ english anyway. also, i'm very curious as to what polynesian [as a language] is, and who actually speaks it. i'm reasonabley sure the awnser would be "it isn't" and "no one" in this reality, and have a suspicion the same might be true in the reality we live in.
OOC: Actually, Polynesian is a group of Pacific Islander languages that are very similar due to the recent settlement of the islands around 2,000 years ago (Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynesian_language. These are the languages of the newly conquered colonies of West Caladonn, including most of the archipelagoes in the South Pacific. Assuming you have not deviated from RL, the language of the 'Crescent' islands, and to some extent Maori, are based off of this amalgamation of languages.

Therefore, if these languages are spoken in this reality, then most of what the Caladonnians are saying would be understandable.

The Frozopians approached the Prince, taking a kneel before standing again, a Frozopian custom. Nicholas ordered the others back, and the began to speak, hoping someone would translate.
"My name is Nicholas, a Lord of Frozopia, a land far to the north of here. We come here in the name of peace, but also to calm any suspicians you have."

"As you may know, there is an invasion fleet not travelling in waters not that far from here. Their destination? Aust."

"It is an allied fleet of Kiriusubans, Ostians and Frozopians. We hope to end the Austian Empire and all their evils, which is why we have come here."

"We humbly beg of you to aid us in the war if not stay neutral: In exchange we will promise and alliance with your nation and trade between our great nations."

"And thus speaks King Clauro of Frozopia."


Prince Chargone laughed out loud when the schollar he had giveing the position of translatore told him what was said "sir, you are too late!" his eyes sparkeled "just days ago, an Emissary of Terror Incognitia was here. we have already joined in. or at least, we will have. you should be able to see the army assembleing if you look out over the city. to the right there. they shall join Terror's men in that war, whichever side they are on." here he paused "not that i have anything against Aust, personaly, nor does my nation, but keeping Terror happy is slightly more important to me, and the men need the experiance."

OOC: Actually, Polynesian is a group of Pacific Islander languages that are very similar due to the recent settlement of the islands around 2,000 years ago (Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynesian_language. These are the languages of the newly conquered colonies of West Caladonn, including most of the archipelagoes in the South Pacific. Assuming you have not deviated from RL, the language of the 'Crescent' islands, and to some extent Maori, are based off of this amalgamation of languages.

Therefore, if these languages are spoken in this reality, then most of what the Caladonnians are saying would be understandable.

ooc:
ahh. thanks. didn't know that. Angerman speach is ... not one of those languages, sadly... and the natives sorta... resisted colonisation, dispite my somewhat british methods of doing so. so, yeah, the only hint of that still in my teritory are a few nouns. latin has spread far and wide in this reality though, which i find interesting.

OOC: Too many 'Roman' empires.

OOC: Too many 'Roman' empires.


ehh, most of them arn't really empires. in area terms, you're the largest, includeing Ostia. though that does include the water between your islands.

Nicholas hid his embarassment and irriatation. They had travelled so far, so unneccasarily.
"That is good. Tell me, you are sending men to Aust, but how many and of what caliber are they?"

OOC: Talking of invasions....as of now I'm working on there being 10 transports, each carrying around 100 men plus kit, and 2 for carrying your moas. Having seen that warships of the 14/1500's could carry in some cases 400 soldiers, I don't think that's unreasonable, assuming moa (moa? moas?) are not being brought for the entire force. The escort is as stated in the planning thread. Oh yeah, and some merchants have come too, to take advantage of the escort.

IC: Admiral Knox was pleased. This harbour was even better than he had been led to believe, and the voyage here, following the charts of the first visitors, had been swift, even bringing transports and merchantmen along with them.
"Right, Captain, take us in to dock, I believe we are expected."
"Keep that rabble (referring to the merchants) under control until we know where to put them."
"Carry on."

"Aye-aye, sir."

If their allies came to meet them, all the better, but if not they would make harbour and then send a message announcing their arrival.


OOC: there will be, at Most, 200 moa. probilby more like 100. haven't quite decided yet. they're more for scouting and messages than any serious cavelry business anyway. and the nobles/officers fight on foot, same as everyone else. i just don't have the armour or right kinds of weapons to make them effective cavelry.

IC:
the army was shapeing up nicely, Edward thought, though he wished vaguely that Mahkath were around, perferably draging Deehow along with him. those two between them could greatly improve an army's capacity for distruction. however, they weren't, so for the moment he had to 'make do' with Pi uf Joulin and Phritjen. one of very few women in the army, Pi was barely 19 and an exceptional stratagist and tactician. at least according to the various teachers she'd had. she was not yet old enough to have had any experiance. Phritjen was to command his scouts and messnagers, as well as assist Pi. his skill in stratagy was certianly above average, and had been proved in the Last Rebelion. that's what the historians were calling it, anyway. it probilby wouldn't really be the last, but one could always hope. of his other commanders, Gritan, Alfer and Befeij, were all well skilled in combat, and were used to giving orders, as they had all been members of the Prince's Guard. however, Linji, another of the women, commander of the engineirs, had no combat experiance. at 25, however, she had proven More than capable as an engineir,working on the harbours and other projects.

the troop breakdown was thus: Gritan, Alfer, and Befeij each commanded 250 infantry, broken into groups of 50 based on fighing style. two of river rock, two of whurling wheel, and one of eel.
Linji commanded 100 engineers, who could fight if nessisary, though their styles were rather mixed, and Phritjen commanded 100 moa-rideing scouts and messangers.

Edward himself commanded the remaining 50 men, more as a guard for bases, himself, and Pi uf Joulin than as combat forces. again they were a mix of troop types, but were orginised based on this.

as he ran through this information in his head, makeing sure there were no flaws, one of the sentrys knocked on his door, then entered.

"sir" he saluted "Incognetian ships have entered the harbour. 10 or 15 of them, or there abouts. they appear to mostly be large transports, though a few are obviously merchants."

"very good. gather 5 other men and come with me. i shall go meet them"

and with that, putting aside the paperwork, he left for the docks.

Nicholas hid his embarassment and irriatation. They had travelled so far, so unneccasarily.
"That is good. Tell me, you are sending men to Aust, but how many and of what caliber are they?"

ooc: drat. just put that info in another post *laughs*

IC:
"i'm not sending them to Aust. i'm sending them with the Incognetians. there is a difference. not a large one, if that is where they go, but it exists none the less. as for how meny and how skilled, well, how about we go and inspect them, hummm?"

with that he stood, turned, and strode towards the exit, not bother to follow the path.

their escort troted up agian, and spoke to the Frozopians "sirs, you'd best go with him. he'll just leave you behind, then get board and go do something else if you stand around looking like stunned salmon."

OOC: Ahem. You forgot the escort, which is 18 vessels. Not a problem though, more a technicality.

IC: A group of 6 men was approaching the dock. Admiral Knox approached the side of the vessel, with one of the few semi-comprehensible speakers of the local language he had been able to scrape up.

"We have come, as asked, as promised, to take an army to fight in Aust. We are ready. How progresses the army?"

OOC: Ahem. You forgot the escort, which is 18 vessels. Not a problem though, more a technicality.

IC: A group of 6 men was approaching the dock. Admiral Knox approached the side of the vessel, with one of the few semi-comprehensible speakers of the local language he had been able to scrape up.

"We have come, as asked, as promised, to take an army to fight in Aust. We are ready. How progresses the army?"

ooc: in the same vein, it's 7, not six hehe.

IC:
Edward blinked slightly at the lack of formality, but recovered quickly

"it goes well. a week more, at most, and they'll be all ready to go. just got to gather the last of the gear, sort out the various quirks in the system, that kind of thing. a question for you though. will your ships handle carrying 100 moa? they are.. very large...

oh! forgot to mention. i command the army that shall be going with you. but you'd best meet the prince. i shall send a messanger to tell him you're here. meanwhile, would you like to come and see what it is you'll be carrying?"

The Frozopians rushed to follow the prince.

"Ah, general, my apologies for being brusque. It is my habit. I mean no disrespect by it.

I am certain that we can take 100 moa, whatever they are, as long as they are not larger than horses, and your men can care for them on the voyage.

I would very much like to see your force. I can then suggest how we might best accommodate them on our vessels."

"very well, if you would follow me then?" Edward gueastured for the admeral to follow him, and then sent one of the men with him off to find the prince.

"err. though when you say "bigger than a horse" do you mean mass or dimensions? a moa is certinaly... not as long as a horse.. though it's probibly at least twice as high. you'll see when we get their, i guess."

they strode through the streets, and people moved aside to let them past. Edward smiled. it was good to have his markings back, even if they were very different from his originals.

as they entered the base, which included barracks, towers, stables, store houses, and meny other things, they were met with a suprise. the Prince had decided to inspect the men. he was being trailed by some.. slightly rushed looking men, dressed in very strange cloaths. then Edward blinked. it was the same men he'd met on the beach. this was going to be interesting.

turning to Knox he asked "sir, i had forgoten. by what name and rank should i introduce you? the prince, you see, is here rather than at the palace. unexpected inspection, i guess" he shruged.


ooc: as i bind yet more threads togeather.

" As long as the moa is not much larger, in all dimensions, than the horse, the mass should not be a great difficulty.

And I am Admiral Knox. Though I am certain that as a general you need not call me sir."

The Frozopians glanced at the two men, and then at the troop of soldiers they were supposed to be inspecting.

OOC:
Description?

Edward replied "well, Admeral, it is the way of things here. assume anyone new is superior, and you won't get in trouble"

just then the Prince looked around and noticed them.
"ahh! Edward. just the man i was looking for. allow me to introduce Lord Nicholas. though i belive you have already met?"

"indeed sir" was the responce "and likewise, allow me to introduce the Admiral who is to transport our men. Admiral Knox, befor you stands Prince Chargone uf Kant, Prince of Angermanland, in all it's parts, and ultimate ruler of all factions, peoples, and places there in."

the prince grinned, then waved a hand in dismisle of the introduction "yes, yes, we all know who I am... well, we do now.. but more to the point, i was about to show Lord Nicholas the troops we are to send to aid in his ruler's war, apparantly. Terror Incognetia being part of a larger aliance or some such just now."

"ahh. it just so happens sir, that this is the perfect moment to do it. we are going to be preforming some mock battles amoungst the men tommorow, which i'm sure you'll all like to see, in the meantime, however, it is time for the Parade."

as he spoke, a horn blew from each of the 4 towers in unison, calling the men from whatever they were doing. they came at reasonable speed, and from all directions. the kind of orginised chaos that occurs when a complex task is to be preformed and everyone knows their place.

the end result was a formation very pleaseing to the eye. Edward lead the prince and their guests up to a platform at the frount of the formation, where seats awaited the admiral, ambasidor, prince, and translators. then he stood at the frount of the platform. looking out over the men, he saw they had formed faster and more precisely than the last time, which had been an improvment over the time befor, and the time befor that, and so on. they'd been pretty good to start with as well.

each was dressed in full armor, unit markings on their helmits, style markings on their sholders, family and other missilanious markings, useually worn on the frount of civilian cloaths, in the equivilant places on the backs instead. rank and award markings, as well as relivant skill markings addorned their chests, though few bore high rank or much in the way of awards.

the Wheel troops had their taiahu on slung on their backs, the Rock troops had their swords reversed in their right hands, and their tower sheilds on their left arms, and the eel troops... well, they had their odd blades hidden in their sleeves, as useual, but had been forbiden their more... unuseual weapons while peradeing to avoid any accidents.

the scouts were all mounted, and the enginears bore their weapons also, though none carryed a sheild, and their armiment was mixed.

at the frount of each of the 5 units stood it's commander. on the left, as veiwed from the stand, were the scouts. each of their mounts was a good 4 meters tall at the head, though at least a third of that was made up by it's long neck. they were formed up in 5 colums of 20 men each, each row being a squad. directly to their left were the three regular units. each of them had 5 distinct elements. two of rock, two of wheel, and one of eel. they were formed in blocks 10 men wide and 5 deep, with the two rock blocks at teh frount, then the two of wheel, then the single block of eel troops, which was centered, rather than lineing up with the other 4. this patern was repeated in each unit. then came the engineers, on the far right. their uniforms were tidy, and they were well formed up, but they gave the distinct impression that they weren't soldiers. and in truth they weren't. they could fight, but it wasn't why they were their. seige weapons, defencive works, bridges, all these and more were their specialtys.

as they watched, a young woman's voice called out "Army! Attention!" the troops snapped stiff and striaght. upright, looking dierectly ahead, unmoveing.

"commanders will take roll!" the same voice called out.

in each row the right most man, fromt eh point of view of those on the platform, turned to his right, called names, gained reasons when a reply was absent, then turned to his left, where his imediate superior now stood. after he made his report, the superiour would move on to the next, working from back to frount, untill he again reached his own position, where he, being leader of the "block" would then march to the leader of the unit [enginears, scouts, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd regular] and make his own report. each of those commanders would then march forward to form a single line in frount of the person drilling the army.. who appeared to be a teenage girl.. and made Their report. the girl then dismised them, and they returned and dismissed their under officers, untill all were back in formation.

then the girl turned, and marched.. well, stroled, really, her movements were to distracting for one to really try and discribe them either way.. onto the platform, where she saluted Edward, if less forcfully than a man might have, and gave her report "Stratcom Pi uf Joulin reporting, Sir! all present or accounted for. a new record, sir. only 5 sick or injured." she grinned "they're getting better."

Edward nodded "indeed they are." then he turned to his guests "allow me to introduce Pi uf Joulin, Stratcom of the expiditionary army. Pi, if you would be so kind as to give the Prince and his guests the tour after inspection?"

"of course, Sir." she bowwed towards their guests "it is an honer to meet you."

Edward turned back to the assembled men "i am told you are improveing. this is good. we leave within the week, all going to plan. meanwhile, we have battle exercises tommorow. full gear, but try not to kill each other" he smiled "save that for the enemy. whoever they may be. Dismissed!"

the men and, this manouver reveled, women saluted in unison, turned 90 degrees to there left and marched untill they reached a marked point, though what the marking was would escape the cassual obsserver, then scattered back to their tasks, makeing sure not to get in the way of the unit's behind them.

"and now, good sirs" Edward turned back to his guests "i have some paperwork that needs doing. the guilds and unions are being a pain about equipment and supplys again. someone always fills out a form wrong, and they reject the entire unit's orders. if you require information, or wish a tour or anything, Pi is at your service" he blinked, realiseing what he had just said "anything Honerable, that is. though i doubt anyone of such high standing as your noble selves would care to think otherwise" saluteing, he left.

Pi grinned "hehe... he can be a little over protective sometimes.. thinks of me as the daughter he never had or something. anyway. what would you like to know?"

befor any questions could be asked, Prince Chargone spoke "i have business to take care of, so i shall be back at the palace. i will, however, be observeing the exercieses tommorow. "the last was directed at Pi, who nodded "that is good to know sir. it should be interesting to watch"

Chargone left, trailing bodyguars and translators in his wake.

"and now," spoke Pi, in near flawless Latin "any questions? oh! wait. i have one myself befor we move on. Admiral, can your ships carry the moa? they'll take up less deck space than a horse, ... but they may well take it up on two decks." she looked a little embarrased by this fact "and some of the engineers gear is quite bulky too.... umm. oh yes.. the eel troops. errr. i'll have to show you their gear. seriously, you DON"T want anything happening to That in a confined space... " she blinked "oops. hehe. i was ment to be awnsering your questions, not the other way around. Master Deehow would scold me greatly if he caught me prattleing on like this." smileing, she paused "so, yeah. talk, ask." the entire thing had been in prefect latin, from start to finish. or it would have been, if she haden't twisted the grammer, as her family tended to do, even with their own tounge, to suit her needs.

"Our vessels will be able to take the moa. The engineers and 'eels' equipment we shall have to see, unless we can simply pack it carefully in a normal cargo hold."

"When will the army be ready to load up?"

"And, what exactly is a Stratcom? It was mentioned as your position, but we were not told what it entails."

"Our vessels will be able to take the moa. The engineers and 'eels' equipment we shall have to see, unless we can simply pack it carefully in a normal cargo hold."

"When will the army be ready to load up?"

"And, what exactly is a Stratcom? It was mentioned as your position, but we were not told what it entails."

"well, that's good to know. yeah. the eels gear's going to be interesting. they're going to be useing paper packets full of coloured powder for the exercises. the real stuff one really doesn't want to unleash on one's own men.

you Might be able to pack it in a normal cargohold, but if anything happend to it, it'd be weeks, at least, befor anyone could go down there without suffering serious effects, if i remember right. sulfer gass and acids and the like... wait.. that would probilby eat it's way right through your ship eventually at least.... yeah, you Really don't want anything happening to that stuff.

anyway, to awnser your first question, well, as i belive the Commander said earlyer, all going to plan we should be ready within the week.

to awnser the second, I'm the army's cheif stratigist, tactician, and logisitics expert. all the unit commanders, as well as the general-commander are expected to have some knowledge of stratigy, i'm expected to be an expert at it. all are supposed to be reasonable tacticians, right down to the lowest sub-officers, i'm expected to be an expert at it. when it comes to logistics, i don't have to be quite as good, the general-commander is at least as good as i when it comes to book knowledge, and has far more experiance. as does teh commander of the enginier unit. still, it is my responcibility to make sure things in that area happen.

The general-commander, of course, has final say on all plans, and anyone can submit them, and often do at the tactical level, but it is my job to make them, or to assist otheres in bringing theirs to perfection, and the like. i'm also second in command of the entire Army.

of course, no plan survives first contact with the enemy, and keeping control of things like that is really the commander's job, as is.. well. lots of things." she laughed "don't go thinking I do all the work. he's got a lot to do, in battle or otherwise.

anything else?"

Nicholas politely remained silent.
A woman in the army!
Nicholas was also totally unimpressed by the troops in front of him, but then again he shared the common oppinion that a Frozopian shield/pike wall was superior to any other sort of infantry formation, so there was no surprise there. So far the closest Nicholas had seen was the Ostian shield wall, but it was still inferior, despite its interest turtle formation.

These people are lucky they are not fighting against us.

Nicholas politely remained silent.
A woman in the army!
Nicholas was also totally unimpressed by the troops in front of him, but then again he shared the common oppinion that a Frozopian shield/pike wall was superior to any other sort of infantry formation, so there was no surprise there. So far the closest Nicholas had seen was the Ostian shield wall, but it was still inferior, despite its interest turtle formation.

These people are lucky they are not fighting against us.

OOC: i'm going to wait and see if terror gives me anything to respond to. if not, i'll skip ahhead to the exercises the next day. i expect him to comment though. Noone want's acid eating through their ships!

"Ah, can these acids and such be carried as separate parts which can then be combined to form them when we get there? As in each part not being dangerous on it's own, but when combined their forming the substance you desire?
Or if not, how do you usually transport them?

Head of strategy, tactics and logistics? An important job indeed."

Thinking to himself - I don't mind a woman having a job that important...my problem is that she's so young.

"I look forward to seeing your troops in 'action' tomorrow."

"Ah, can these acids and such be carried as separate parts which can then be combined to form them when we get there? As in each part not being dangerous on it's own, but when combined their forming the substance you desire?
Or if not, how do you usually transport them?

Head of strategy, tactics and logistics? An important job indeed."

Thinking to himself - I don't mind a woman having a job that important...my problem is that she's so young.

"I look forward to seeing your troops in 'action' tomorrow."

IC:
Pi shrugged off the comment. she did her job to the best of her abilitys, no matter it's importance or lack there of.

"well, they could, the acids that is. but mixing them would be a nightmare. we only do so in carefully controld conditions well away from anyone's home and it would increase the amount of people and gear we'd have to take with us. not to mention they are put into specially shaped glass philes so they can be throwen as far as possible and shatter on impact, filling those without spilling them on stuff is... tricky. err. and any muckups in the mixing could cause very large explosions, which would give away positions, amoung other things. the one's we'd put on your ships have already been mixed, so that danger is passed.

basicly, it's doable, but it would be highly preferable not to have to. as for how we transport them, well. the short awnser is Very, Very carfully. in more detail, we pack them into cases, one phile deep, with straw below, between, and above them. then the cases are packed into crates in the same maner. any handlers Know what they're dealing with, if they don't they're not given the job of looking after the stuff. ultimatly, if you seceure them well, it's not a problem. the real issue arrises if they creats come loose and slide accross teh decks. even that's not so bad, untill they start crashing into each other. any significant impact Might break some of them, despite all the padding.

on the up side, you'd have to deliberatly smash a whole crate with a large rock or something equilly daft to cause any huge issues that way. the biggest worry is an acid phile breaking, eating through the padding, then another impact breaking the rest, and so on. eventually you'd have a whole crate's worth eating through your decks, and we'd have lost a lot of amunition.

so, yeah. all one can really do is secure them VERY well. we'll even provide handlers who's sole job would be to make sure that doesn't happen.
one way to counteract it if such a thing does happen is to have a large number of large barrels of water in the same hold. acid starts escapeing, we smash the barrels, half flooding the deck, or pour it over the paropriate area, whichever is going to be most effective. it dilutes the acid, and then it doesn't eat your deck. actually, the same thing would fix any sulpher leaks too. though you'd need larger quantitys and then you'd need to vent the area afterwards." she smiled "see? things like this are what i do. we could carry these things in waka, but the first bad weather and they'd all be gone, makeing bringing them a waste in the first place. ooh! then there's the fire-bombs. hehe. don't worry, they're not dangerous. so long as no one starts trying to drink the alchole fuel in them.... or lights their fuses ...."


straightening up, she continued "so, unless you would like a tour of the base, i think that's all. accomodations can be aranged for you here, or at the palace. or perhaps one of the taverns if you prefur. obviously Admiral Knox can sleep on his ship if he prefurs." she turned to the Frozopian ambasidor " and.. i assume you came on a ship as well? our watchmen didn't report one ariveing befor the Admiral's flotilia.. i doubt you flew. though some experiments are being made in that direction at the universitys in the south. with some success, apparantly. well.. not Quite flight. more like 'not falling so fast you die on impact' but still."
she gave Nicholas a questioning look.

OOC: just a little note here: the formation you saw was a parade and inspection formation. the actual combat ones are more. . . interesting. even Nicholas may be impressed. mabey.

Nicholas, was wondering what the hell acid was. By the sound of it, it sounded like fire-water, surely a dangerous and dishonourable thing. Hiding his ignorance, he spoke:
"Yes we sailed here. Before long I should be returning to the main fleet, and then Aust."

"It is best if we transport these thigns as you are used to doing, the risks are smaller that way. As long as we keep them on one of the larger transports, that will be fine.

With my thanks, as an Admiral should stay with his men, I will sleep on my ship.
However, I would appreciate a look around before that."

"well then" Pi responded to the ambasidor first "should we send messengers to your ship and have it come here to get you, take you their in one of the masters, or would you rather walk back? any of these can be arranged. but for now, a tour of the base as the Admiral requests. unless the ambasidor has any objections? i figure we'll start with the stables and storehouses. if you will follow me? we'll have to go to the stable to send any messages anyway, if you want them to get anywhere at reasonable speed." with that, turned and walked down the steps off the platform.

"I should appreciate a look at one of these masters; they sound most interesting."

"I should appreciate a look at one of these masters; they sound most interesting."

Pi responded as they walked accross the parade ground "easyly aranged. there are three in the harbour at the moment. though a good part of why they work is below the water line."

"Certainly true. However, I have never even seen one above the waterline from close to; and would love to know how they work. I may be an admiral now, but I started off with the thrill of sailing fast...well, it seemed fast...when I was supposed to be fishing."

"Certainly true. However, I have never even seen one above the waterline from close to; and would love to know how they work. I may be an admiral now, but I started off with the thrill of sailing fast...well, it seemed fast...when I was supposed to be fishing."

"i've got a copy of the plans stashed away somewhere. had to study them for part of a logistics exam a few years back. and i'm sure the ship-wrights will be happy to tell you all about them. they really are quite impressive ships, but the wrights tend to be a little.. obsessive about them" she stoped walking. "perhaps, if the ambasidor is agreeable, we can go down to the harbour and inspect them, take you or a message back to your ship?" she cocked her head slightly as she directed this last at nicholas, then turned back to the admirl "and then you, sir, could see one first hand, as it sails. i'd have to check that with General-Commander Edward first, of course. anyway," she started walking again, and indicated a pair of very tall structures just ahead of them "the stables are just over here. each one has room for 25 moa, and the scouts barracks are built over the top of the stables. behind these is a large feild where they are exercised regularly, and behind that is another pair of stables, also opening onto the feild." they entered the left hand stable through a small person sized door set into the larger door the moa would use, up to 5 at a time. geastureing around her Pi pointed out various bits and pieces "of course, flightless as they are, the Moa are birds, so, " they exited through the far side of the stable out into the feild "off to the left there is the hatchery and to the right is the store house for the moa's food, etcetera"

grining, she looked at the two men "care to take a ride?"

OOC: One question. You know Moa right? Are they anything like ostriches? Because if they are, they would probably be impossible to ride into battle. Or anywere, in RL. I went Ostrich riding, so I kind of know.

IC:
"We shall see these ships, and then perhaps you can escort us to our own ship." Nicholas replied.

"While I would welcome learning all I can about the masters, I admit to having little interest in moa-riding."

OOC: One question. You know Moa right? Are they anything like ostriches? Because if they are, they would probably be impossible to ride into battle. Or anywere, in RL. I went Ostrich riding, so I kind of know.


OOC: they kind of got hunted into extinction and eaten and stuff befor anyone tryed rideing them, so far as i know. thing is: they're significantly larger in all directions than an ostrich, which i'm guessing would make it easyer, and i can't remember but i think their wings are like kiwi wings, little [relitivly] stubs hidden under their body feathers, but i could be wrong on that one. they also have saddles, not riden bare back. but yeah, the troops generaly wouldn't have a lot of fun trying to fight and ride at the same time, so they don't. though moa would have a rediculously powerful kick. they're not really cavelry, in the traditional sence. scouts and messangers, as i said ic.



IC:

"very well then. your loss. to the left of the gateway through which you entered are the barracks, to the right the administrative buildings and storehouses. that's really all there is to the base.

now, we get to go get permision from the Commander for me to leave the base and inform him where you shall be, Admiral, then we advise the prince that the ambasidor is leaveing. sending a messanger would do, i guess."

just then a group of scouts came running through the feild, raceing. Pi reached out and grabed one of them by the sholder as he went passed, causeing him to come to an abrupt halt and fall flat on his butt.

"Hey! what do you...!!" he was, needless to say, unimpressed, untill he looked up, "errr. sorry ma'am. what was it you wanted?" he did his best to salute and stand up at the same time, and managed both, if awkwardly.

"take a message to the Prince. the Ambasidor is returning to his ship, and if the General-Commander allows it, Admiral Knox and myself shall escort him. we will be takeing a pair of the masters, to demonstrate their capabilitys. the Admiral and i shall return befor the exercises tommorow. the other shall return after dropping the Ambasidor at his ship. end message.

got it?"

haveing recovered his composer, as well as his ballance, the messanger saluted "yes ma'am!" and dashed off at full speed out of the stable area and towards the palace.

"and now" Pi spoke to the two men once again "I shall check with the commander, and then we can leave. you can come with me or wait for me at the gate, as you wish."

with that, she turned and headed towards the administrative buildings.








"enter!" Edward called in responce to the knock on his door.

"sir!" Pi saluted "the ambasidor wishes to return to his ship, and the admiral would like to inspect the Masters. with your permision, i have a plan to do both at once. the prince has already been informed, and i now awaite only your permison"

"very well, tell me your plan"

Pi filled him in on the details, and he aproved it "just make sure you're back for the exercises."
"yes sir!" she saluted, and left.

OOC: ok..at this point anything further depends partialy if your guys went with her or waited at the gate. and i'm aware this one 'day' is getting a bit streched.

OOC: Went with her. Don't care its getting stretched.

OOC: I will watch the exercises.

OOC: I will watch the exercises.

ooc: so.... is he going back to his ship or watching the exercises? you can't very well do both...

and... now we have to resolve that little bit of miscommunication IC, because she just told her boss you were leaveing.

IC:
stepping through the door, Pi was faced with the Admiral and the Ambasidor "well, everything's set. all we've got to do is go track down a couple of the capitans. they're not always on their ships when they're docked, obviously. Then we can take you back to your ship, Ambasidor. first place to check is probibly the sea capitans guild."

OOC: Im very indecisive today, bah I will go back to my ship.

IC:
"That is good." Nicholas hid his ignorance of what guild was. He seemed to be doing that alot recently.

OOC: Im very indecisive today, bah I will go back to my ship.

IC:
"That is good." Nicholas hid his ignorance of what guild was. He seemed to be doing that alot recently.


"right then, this way!" Pi struck a pose, pointing at the gate, then started walking towards it, expecting the two men to follow her.
"i must warn you, ambasidor, the masters' sleeping arangments leave something to be desired, they only have a single deck, and that's open to the elements, you see. on the other hand, it's fast, so you'll be back to your ship and comfortable cabin befor luch tommorow. mabey even befor breakfast."

passing through the gate, the group turned and headed down the street towards the narrowest point of the city. the sea capitan's guild hall in Angerwraith wasn't down by the water side, as it useually would be, but in the middle of the town. this was because the capital had two ports, one on each side, so it had been placed there so as to be relitivly easy to get to from either. it was also going to be reasonably close to the cannal between the two when it was finished.

one short but brisk walk later, they stood befor the guild hall.

"gentlemen, i give you the Sea Capitans' Guild's guild hall here in Angerwraith. inside you shall find meny mysterys. well, actually, the only mystery is what's in the stew. don't eat the stew." with that, she turned and entered, walked all of five steps, and was at the main desk.

"i'm looking for the capitans of the three masters docked in the harbour? any two will do. i have a job for them, but it has to be one of those three. do you know where they are?"

the man behind the desk looked at the log books for a few moments, thought a little, then replyed "Nervan is visiting family in the south, if i remember rightly, so he's not realy available for a couple of days. i don't know about Jasper, but given the kinds of places he useually frequents, if he's not on his ship, i would suggest a nice young woman such as yourself should Not be the one to go looking for him, and... " he thought some more then suddenly blinked "Aphallee uf Joulin is actually just in the next room, eating with some of his crew, actually."

"thank you" Pi smiled at him, a smile that, in typical style, left him just short of fainting. she then promptly turned on her heal, indicated the next room to the two dignitrys, and said "well, we're in luck. one of the capitans is actualy here. just through there. come on. we can get some food and stuff to, i don't know about you, but i haven't eaten since breakfast."

so saying, she walked through the door, across the next room to one of the tables, and in a sweeping motion, kicked the chair out from under one of the men eating there, upending his plate, and sending his food flying half way accross the room, fortunatly along a clear path, rather than over other patrons

"and then she ARGH!.. what the F---" the man looked up. "errr... i mean, Hey sis." he gave a fake little wave.

"don't 'hey sis' me, Capitan, you were telling them about the duck incident, weren't you?"

"ummm... no?" this was disproved in short order as the various other men sitting around the table started yelling out things along the lines of "yes he was" "no he wasn't" "i still don't get it" and "it took off!!! ahhahahaha!"

".... and how, exactly," Pi's voice was full of menace, "is this 'never speaking of it again' humm?"

"i can explaine!"

"i bet you can. you're going to have quite a bit of time to explaine it too. you see, these two gentlemen behind me here are Admiral Knox from Incognitia, and Ambasidor Nicholas from Frozopia. the admiral wishes to see how our Masters preform. the ambasidor wishes to return to his ship which is ancherd north of the gong. you and Jasper are the only Master capitans in town, and the admiral and i will need to return today. so guess what? you have the honer of comeing along... and drag Jasper out of whichever brothel he's in too. we're going to need him. got it?"

"yes sis"

most of Aphallee's drinking buddys were laughing now, one so hard he'd fallen of his chair. and it really was quite funny. a 25 year old sea capitan, well mussled, and good at what he did, air of command and all, spread-egaled on the floor being berated by his 19 year old sister.

Pi turned away, trying to surpress a laugh of her own "you've got an hour. meanwhile, i'm going to get some food. Go."

smileing, she returned to speaking in latin for the benifit of her guests "really, i just saved him. he should know better than to have the stew.

anyway. do you have any preferance for food? drinks wise we've got ginger-beer, water, wine... a couple of herbal teas. chose your poison. errr.. and you might want to sit down. it's kinda awkward just standing here"
she indicated a table out of the way of the general trafic to and from the bar and main room.

Nicholas and his men sat around the table, and turned to the woman:
"We would like some Ale."
The men grinned. The alchohol had run out on board, much to their disapointment, so they were desperate for a drink.

Nicholas and his men sat around the table, and turned to the woman:
"We would like some Ale."
The men grinned. The alchohol had run out on board, much to their disapointment, so they were desperate for a drink.


"i think i can arrange something. but it's going to be expencive. grain alchole is... less abundant than you might think. the vast majority of the barly we grow goes into feeding the people. on the other hand, it is Good.

... eh, you're visiting dignitorys. i'll charge it to the army, then pass it on to the prince when we do the accounts. hopefully the Commander and/or Prince don't have me forcibly ejected from the city by way of the top of the wall or something"

she looked at their faces "it was a joke. i'd just get yelled at, at most

what bout you admiral? any preferance on food and drinks?"

The Frozopians stared blankly. Humour was not at it highest among the common Frozopian.

"I would appreciate joining these men in an ale. So few nations brew ale properly; I should like to see if one of the many skills in evidence in your country is brewing."

"I would appreciate joining these men in an ale. So few nations brew ale properly; I should like to see if one of the many skills in evidence in your country is brewing."

"well, it's more of a rarity than a specialty, so i have no idea how good it is.. be right back." with that, she left to get their drinks. or, more accuratly, to prod some various staff memebers into getting their drinks.

returning shortly, servators in tow, with the drinks, and some barley cakes to go with them [being drunk on a ship was a recipey for disaster, and it was a well knowen fact that food reduced the effects] she sat down and helped herself to some as well.

"eating and drinking should give my brother time to round up the crews of the two masters we shall be takeing. most of them won't be too far away. when we're done, well go down to the docks, board the ships, and head out. the ambasidor and his men will go with Capitan Jasper all the way back to their ship, while the Admiral and i shall be abord my brother's ship. we'll go as far as we can and still make it back here in reasonable time. plenty of time to demonstrate the ship's capabilitys, at least. unless anyone has any objections?"

"None." Nicholas turned to his men: "If I catch any of you drunk I will string you up by your testicles! You understand!"
"Yes lord....." The men replied unenthusiastically.

The Admiral quaffed his ale, and grinned appreciatively.
"Your people do know how to brew ale. If you don't have much of it, I'm sure our people would be happy to sell you some. Lots in fact."

strange sounds came from Pi's direction as she laughed into her drink. the ambasidors threat was certinaly an effective one. after she had recovered, she replyed to the admiral

"i'm certain the trade guild will be pleased to hear that. not so sure about the various wine producers though. or the brewers. right now they can charge a lot for ale. but we shall see about that when we return. we'll leave when you're all ready, but in the mean time, perhaps the two of you could tell me about your homelands? i'm interested."

"Well, my land is a nation of islands, much like your own in that respect; however ours have far more people, and far more trading ships. We trade widely around the region, and are looking to expand our trade all the time. Our navy is strong, to protect this trade from pirates and enemies.
Our ruler is the High Seneschal; he is advised by the Council, which is made up of the great men of the kingdom; and by the Consilium, which represents the people."
"If you want to know more, I am happy to answer any questions."

"Well, my land is a nation of islands, much like your own in that respect; however ours have far more people, and far more trading ships. We trade widely around the region, and are looking to expand our trade all the time. Our navy is strong, to protect this trade from pirates and enemies.
Our ruler is the High Seneschal; he is advised by the Council, which is made up of the great men of the kingdom; and by the Consilium, which represents the people."
"If you want to know more, I am happy to answer any questions."

"well, the only thing that occurs to me right off the bat is this: why on earth is your ruler's title so unpronounceable?
though i take it that you've been to a lot of places yourself? perhaps you could tell us about them?"

"Ah, the title of High Seneschal. Seneschal was the name of a minor city official, but there came the point when a man rose from the bottom of society to a position of great influence; he had begun as a Seneschal, and technically he still was one. There had been no monarch until then; a title was needed. So High Seneschal was selected. The seneschal as a post has died out, so the name remains only for the ruler.

I have been to many places, but seen little of most of them, as I have generally been fighting my nation's enemies when I got there."

"in other words you could tell us where the taverns and brothels are, and very little else, huh?"

Pi paused to finish her meal

"i suspect that when the army leaves, we'll be stopping at one of your ports along the way? anything i should know, or are we going non-stop?"

"Not even that, in many places. Though I could show you the graves, and the shipwrecks.

Unless you specifically request otherwise we will go straight to Aust."

"Not even that, in many places. Though I could show you the graves, and the shipwrecks.

Unless you specifically request otherwise we will go straight to Aust."


"oh.. right.. sorry.

yeah, that would probibly be best."

ooc: question: after showing you the ships, you want to just skip over the exercises so we actually get to Aust befor they get done with the war, or do you want to actually see them?

"No need to apologise. War has been my trade. I am often not proud of my deeds, but I am proud that I have served my country well."

OOC: Skip. I'll see them in action when we get there to fight :D

"No need to apologise. War has been my trade. I am often not proud of my deeds, but I am proud that I have served my country well."

OOC: Skip. I'll see them in action when we get there to fight :D

OOC: very good then. it was really just an excuse to have any crys of "foul" occur Befor an important event. no biggy. random little fact: All my soldiers, except the scouts, are probibly in effect 2nd or 3rd rate marrines, as well as most of them being second rate soldiers. and that's only second rate as compaired to a standing army. compaired to malitia or leveys, they're probibly fairly normal. i say this because of how my guys conduct navel warfare.

IC:

unuseually serious, Pi replyed "i hope i can say the same when this is all over."
she looked around at the ambasidor and his men "ehhhehhe. i think we should proiblby go befor Lord Nicholas has to carry through on his threat. come on" with that, she stood up and kicked the table leg quite hard to get everyone's attanetion,
"come on. even my lazy brother should have the ships orginized by now!"
so saying, she turned and started walking, back through the main room, where she droped a collection of ... well, one would call them coins, though a lot of them were not coin shaped.. on the counter to pay for their food, and left.

as they approched the peir from which they were to ride a waka out to the ships, they were treated to an interesting sight. the two capitans were standing at the end of the peir, along with the men who would be paddleing the waka. as they aproched, a command was given and they all stood to attention, then saluted. this was apparantly too much for capitan jasper, who, it seems, had had rather too much to drink, and he fell over backwards off the dock and into the water.

"good lord, i hope that he's unconsious so his first officer can run the ship untill he sobers up," Pi shook her head as several sailors dived off the dock to fish him out befor he drownd, "he's a brilliant capitan. when he's sober. which, sadly, is never the case when he's on land. first officer's solid as a rock though. as a general rule we don't allow any alchole stronger than GB onboard ships. too dangerous."

they continued down the dock untill they got to the welcomeing party. Aphallee greeted them "we're all set..." he looked sheepish "well, we will be as soon as they fish Jasper out of the water. again."
"humm, i was wondering why the men were so wet"
"yeah, well, now you know. anyway, if you would be so kind as to step abourd, ma'am?"
"you're going to be all silly about the rank thing agian, arn't you?"
"not at all, ma'am"
"you do realise that as lead capitan of the master squadrons, you're actually a comodor, which gives you exactly the same rank as me?"
Aphallee blinked rappidly.
"obviously not." Pi sighed.

she then switched back to latin "would you care to come aboard sirs? we get in the waka, these nice men paddle, we get to the masters, and we're off. "

as she was speaking, the sailors hauled Jasper back onto the dock. bizarly, he was snoring "heh.. be happy, ambasidor. with him in this state, his first officier will be comanding the ship untill he sobers up."

In climbing in, the Admiral said "Let us go."

The Frozopians followed the woman without a word.

ooc: the frozopians really don't like talking, do they? ok, at the end of htis post, unless you have something you really want to say or do, we're going to assume that Jasper and his crew get Nicholas and his guys back to his ship and then.. whatever, k?

IC:

once everyone was aboard, the waka was rowed first to Jasper's ship, the 'Maiden' where the Frozopians and the snoreing capitan, as well as a few of the sailors got off, then to Aphallee's ship, the 'kia's beak'. here the admiral and Pi, as well as Aphallee and his men disembarked, and the waka was tied in position behind the master.

the idea of gioing up the coast with the ambasidor had been given up on. far better to head for open water where the master's true strengths could be seen.

as the Maiden departed to the north, Aphallee spoke "so, speed test first? or turning? or we could try the slingshot, despite not haveing a target."

Pi's responce was to turn to the admiral "sir? what would you like to see first? speed? handleing? special manouvers?"

"Speed first, perhaps? Then maybe a few turns, and finally any parts of your vessel's performance you are particularly proud of?

Really, anything that suits you, I am happy to observe."

"Speed first, perhaps? Then maybe a few turns, and finally any parts of your vessel's performance you are particularly proud of?

Really, anything that suits you, I am happy to observe."

ooc:really, i have no idea how fast these are. best estimate: a bit slower than their modern day counterparts, due to being made of less ideal materials.


IC:

"as you wish"
Pi turned to her brother befor continuing, "speed tests first, then pretty much whatever. push it to the limits, but no further."

Aphallee grinned "ok. this'll be fun. we have a clear down-wind run now."
with that he started calling orders. sails were tightend, the spiniker was unfurled, and the shipturned slightly so as to make best use of the wind. as it came into position it actually lerched forward slightly, the sails all filling.

as the ship got up to full speed, which did not take long, Aphallee called another string of orders, and at the stern some of the sailors, the second watch, mostly, boarded the waka, while others made it fast to the stern with wooden bars and more rope.

"you're in for a treat, Admiral" Pi informed him "though i warn you, a ship this narrow turning at this speed tilts quite a bit. might want to be ready for that. any way, my dear brother has decided that the 'whip-weight' manouver is next on the list. i belive you'll wish to look to port, and probibly brace yourslef firmly."

so saying, she took her own advice. shortly their after, the order was called "whip-turn a-port!"

almost imideiatly, the ship turned to port, men madly pulling in the spiniker befor it lost enough wind to drop into the sea and bring them to a grinding halt. the whole ship tilted a good 30 degrees into the turn, and at precisly the halfway point, the waka was reliesed. it launched accross the waves, and with hit's sharp prow, flat bottom, and the men on it all paddleing, hardly lost any speed from what the ship had been towing it as for a good 80 of it's lengths. at that point it ceased planeing and slowed down rappidly.

Aphallee then ordered the ship to turn, which it did again, and sharply, leaning as far the other way, and brought it close enough and slow enough for the men on the waka to paddle it back into position for the normal tow ropes to be attached, and to reboard the ship.

Pi spoke to the admiral again "normaly, the men in it would be warriors, not sailors, and more numorous, which shortens the planing length to about 60, rather than 80. the prows are all reinforced and the men generally carry grappleing hooks. so the master sails straight for the enemy, then preforms this manouver. the waka launches towards them, rams, and then the men board the ship. you can do it heading upwind too, but you are less likely to get a perfect angle and won't get as much speed. of course, at most one can only really have 3 ships attack one in this way. any more and they start running into each other. not pretty."

as she spoke, Aphallee had ordered the ship to tack back the way they had come, alternateing long and short tacks. on the longest ones with the gentlest turns, all one had to do was mind one's head near the center of the ship. on the shortest with the sharpest turns, one had ot brace one's self not to go tumbleing accross the deck and into the sea. this had been a significant factor behind the decision to have the main [and, in truth, only, appart from the small hold/sleeping area] deck lower than the true sides of the ship, even if it wasn't by much.

Krijan had no idea what this stranger was babbleing about. the one word he could make out was "peace" and he could tell that some of it was latin, as the men of Terror spoke, but otherwise it was a load of meaningless drivel, so far as he could tell.

still, it was .. a beginning. ordering the waka to turn and come closer to the strangers boat, he readied himself to reply. well.. say something in return, at least.

"Greetings Strangers" he called in Angerman "we welcome those who come in peace" he repeated the word peace in latin. "and stand ready to repel those who do not. which are you?"
OOC: I finally get a post lol. As for languages, I've taken the liberty of assuming that some of the Polynesian islanders in my crew that are near your borders understand your language reasonably well.

IC: Though the Caladonnians didn't understand the foreigners, one of the Marines that was an islander from nearby said that he understood most of what the foreigner was saying and he could probably translate. With this fortuitous circumstance, the Caladonnian replied, "We come in peace, and thank you for your welcome. I come from the land across the sea to negotiate trade and peace with your nation."

OOC: I finally get a post lol. As for languages, I've taken the liberty of assuming that some of the Polynesian islanders in my crew that are near your borders understand your language reasonably well.

IC: Though the Caladonnians didn't understand the foreigners, one of the Marines that was an islander from nearby said that he understood most of what the foreigner was saying and he could probably translate. With this fortuitous circumstance, the Caladonnian replied, "We come in peace, and thank you for your welcome. I come from the land across the sea to negotiate trade and peace with your nation."

OOC: it's been a long time. i gotta remember the guys name and stuff now. hehe. liveing near by would help. being polynesian wouldn't really. this stuff is happening befor/dureing all the stuff with the frozopians.

IC:

Krijan blinked a little. one of their number spoke an actual language rather than gibberish, it seemed.

"Everyone comes from accross the sea. kind of hard not to, being that this is an island and all. and most folk come from a land somewhere. it hardly tells me who you are. you bear no heraldry, nor carry the flag of Terror, though that has become a more common curcomstance of late. you say you come in peace? untill the councle or prince decide otherwise, you can prove that by leaveing your ship where it is and not causeing any trouble in the town,"
he smiled grimly, "i have yet to meet a man who did Not claime to come in peace, whatever his intentions, to be honest. still." he paused for a moment, then continued "there is a councel to be held two days hence. untill then, so long as your ship stays where it is and you cause no trouble you are welcome. then you may say your piece and decisions will be made. really, it's a question of weither we send you to the capital, send to the capital for someone to deal with you, just kick you out, or some idiot decides your a pirate and deserve hanging. of course, that would require a majority of the populuce to succum to such foolish ideas, but there are some that good at speaking.

at any rate, come. it is wet at sea." he grinned at his own poor joke "to land or to sea?"

"This ship...is marvellous! I have never travelled so fast. We shall have to trade with you for some. Possibly crossbows or the like, as you don't seem to have many projectile weapons."

"This ship...is marvellous! I have never travelled so fast. We shall have to trade with you for some. Possibly crossbows or the like, as you don't seem to have many projectile weapons."

Pi looked puzled "projectile weapons? what do you mean by that? heh. glad you like the ship though."

OOC: it's been a long time. i gotta remember the guys name and stuff now. hehe. liveing near by would help. being polynesian wouldn't really. this stuff is happening befor/dureing all the stuff with the frozopians.

IC:

Krijan blinked a little. one of their number spoke an actual language rather than gibberish, it seemed.

"Everyone comes from accross the sea. kind of hard not to, being that this is an island and all. and most folk come from a land somewhere. it hardly tells me who you are. you bear no heraldry, nor carry the flag of Terror, though that has become a more common curcomstance of late. you say you come in peace? untill the councle or prince decide otherwise, you can prove that by leaveing your ship where it is and not causeing any trouble in the town,"
he smiled grimly, "i have yet to meet a man who did Not claime to come in peace, whatever his intentions, to be honest. still." he paused for a moment, then continued "there is a councel to be held two days hence. untill then, so long as your ship stays where it is and you cause no trouble you are welcome. then you may say your piece and decisions will be made. really, it's a question of weither we send you to the capital, send to the capital for someone to deal with you, just kick you out, or some idiot decides your a pirate and deserve hanging. of course, that would require a majority of the populuce to succum to such foolish ideas, but there are some that good at speaking.

at any rate, come. it is wet at sea." he grinned at his own poor joke "to land or to sea?"
OOC: Yeah, I forget the guy's name and I don't really want to check, so I'll just call him 'the diplomat.';)

As for the languages- you're right, but anyone living nearby would be Polynesian, at least IRL, and I'm using RL demographics for this. And yeah, Caladonn doesn't really have heraldry- a national flag but that's about it.

IC: The Caladonnian diplomat replied through his interpreter, and said, "Heraldry? It is odd, I have never heard that word. What do you speak of? As for Terror Incognitia, we have an alliance with them. Our contact with their merchants led us here.

I understand you may not take our word for our peaceful intentions. After all, our ship is armed just in case. To prove ourselves to you we will wait until the designated time to speak with your council.

We are willing to continue to your capital if you can provide us with escort as to the direction. Any hostile moves against our ships will be met with hostility I must warn you however."

"Well, you have swords and such, but you don't have weapons that strike from a distance.
If you can hit an enemy before they get near you, then your battle is half won.
I would be happy to have our marines demonstrate crossbows and arquebuses, as two of the most common examples, for you when we get back."

OOC: Yeah, I forget the guy's name and I don't really want to check, so I'll just call him 'the diplomat.';)

As for the languages- you're right, but anyone living nearby would be Polynesian, at least IRL, and I'm using RL demographics for this. And yeah, Caladonn doesn't really have heraldry- a national flag but that's about it.

IC: The Caladonnian diplomat replied through his interpreter, and said, "Heraldry? It is odd, I have never heard that word. What do you speak of? As for Terror Incognitia, we have an alliance with them. Our contact with their merchants led us here.

I understand you may not take our word for our peaceful intentions. After all, our ship is armed just in case. To prove ourselves to you we will wait until the designated time to speak with your council.

We are willing to continue to your capital if you can provide us with escort as to the direction. Any hostile moves against our ships will be met with hostility I must warn you however."


"humm. come with us to the town. i shall send word to the capital. the prince can decide if he wishes to see you there, or simply send an envoy. in the mean time, you can learn some things. i must warn you, however, it is best to stick with those who know you. you claim not to know of heraldry, yes? that would explaine why you bear none, and is a danger to you. i'd rather avoid any unplesentness, especially so near a council."

a wave sloshed over the side of the waka and Krijan's boots proved to be less waterproof than advertised.

"enough of this. follow us back to the shore or return to your ship and leave. i've had enough of shouting and getting wet when i need not do so."

with that he signaled his men, and the waka rapidly turned and headed back towards the dock.

OOC: he really Isn't a trained diplomat. hehe. he's not even the leader of the watch, mearly a mid-ranking officer. but he's still cool.

"Well, you have swords and such, but you don't have weapons that strike from a distance.
If you can hit an enemy before they get near you, then your battle is half won.
I would be happy to have our marines demonstrate crossbows and arquebuses, as two of the most common examples, for you when we get back."

"yes. that should be interesting, but i would argue weither the battle is half won or not. " she paused, as if to quote from memory
" the war manuals say that half the battle is in the mind. convince your enemy he has lost, and lost he has. thus the eels, with their flames and acid, the war-dances befor battle, the berzerk charge of the wheel troops, and why the river rocks must be strong of mind as well as body. if your enemy belives he cannot win, or his men that they cannot survive, they will break, and one does not even need to fight.

also, they make mention; if the only way for an enemy to live, is to fight, fight they will. if the only way to live is to flee, that they will also do. the illusion of escape will reduce their strength. and so one should appear weak where one is strong, appear to leave open the rout that truely leads to the most distruction, and always keep one's goal in mind. rarely is the goal to kill every man in the land, and thus the goal is not generaly the distruction of armys. to attain victory, all one must do is successfuly avoid the enemy, while depriveing him of supplys and comfort, then appear when he is at his weakest."

she blinked "though i'm sure you do not need a leacture on the art of war from the mind of a young stratagist, when you have fought for years. especially not when i deal more with what happens on land, while you deal with the sea.

i can see the value of hitting an enemy from a distance. but if that distance is not greater than the distance from which he can hit you, what is the point?"

"humm. come with us to the town. i shall send word to the capital. the prince can decide if he wishes to see you there, or simply send an envoy. in the mean time, you can learn some things. i must warn you, however, it is best to stick with those who know you. you claim not to know of heraldry, yes? that would explaine why you bear none, and is a danger to you. i'd rather avoid any unplesentness, especially so near a council."

a wave sloshed over the side of the waka and Krijan's boots proved to be less waterproof than advertised.

"enough of this. follow us back to the shore or return to your ship and leave. i've had enough of shouting and getting wet when i need not do so."

with that he signaled his men, and the waka rapidly turned and headed back towards the dock.

OOC: he really Isn't a trained diplomat. hehe. he's not even the leader of the watch, mearly a mid-ranking officer. but he's still cool.
OOC: That's ok.

IC: The Caladonnian was a bit miffed at this barbarian's rudeness, but surmised that it must be part of their culture. "That is reasonable. We will follow you ashore."

The marines pulled on their oars and brought the cutter in to land.

OOC: That's ok.

IC: The Caladonnian was a bit miffed at this barbarian's rudeness, but surmised that it must be part of their culture. "That is reasonable. We will follow you ashore."

The marines pulled on their oars and brought the cutter in to land.

ooc: i'm sure i mentioned something about a young watchman who was sort of Krijan's assitant.. but i can't find it. anyone remember where it is? heh. the downside to my rather.. long.. posts.

IC:
upon reaching the dock, the first thing Krijan did was remove his boots and drain the water from them "water-proof he said. bah."
he then dismised most of the men. they were to send the towns-folk back about their business, while a few of them saw to the waka. he kept four as a guard for their .. guests.

removeing his wet socks also, he sat on the edge of the dock and waited. sending one of the young boys who were hanging around on the dock for unfathomable reasons of their own to get him some dry socks and another pair of boots from his quaters in the watch-house, he once again cursed the lack of diplomats. though he was thankful that at least one of these strangers could speak a civilized tounge. hopefully the boy would get back befor they did, but looking out over the water, he knew this was rediculously unlikely, as they were almost docked already.

"Well, if you hit the enemy from less distance than he hits you, then he has an advantage. So if you may not hit him from further than he can hit you, you may at least deny him the advantage.

I think it probable that there are many ways to half-win battles; the trick is making it the other half. I would be interested to know more of these war manuals, though perhaps another time.

Still, it is decided. My men will demonstrate their weapons when we return."

"Well, if you hit the enemy from less distance than he hits you, then he has an advantage. So if you may not hit him from further than he can hit you, you may at least deny him the advantage.

I think it probable that there are many ways to half-win battles; the trick is making it the other half. I would be interested to know more of these war manuals, though perhaps another time.

Still, it is decided. My men will demonstrate their weapons when we return."

"sounds good to me. i shall tell you more whenever you wish to hear it"

some hours were spent sailing into, accross, and against the wind. they were about to turn for home when the wind died all togeather, and the waka/master combination proved it's value in yet another way. with no wind, all the sails were taken down, and the majority of the crew boarded the waka, which was roped to the bow rather than the stern. the weight and shape of the master, combined with the shape of and number of paddlers on the waka, resulted in a respectibale speed even then. of course, Anything with wind in it's sails would have passed them, but had their been wind, they would have been useing it.

dureing this time, Pi and Aphallee explained the ship to Admiral Knox in great detail "it's speed comes from it's shape and the amount of sail we can mount. and we can mount the sail due to the tall mast. we can have such a tall mast on such a narrow ship without tipping it over, because bellow the hull is a deep centerboard, with a greywacky weight affixed to it's base. urr. that's a type of stone." they then showed him the mechanizem that allowed them to raise the center-board "it's annoying, and slightly dangerous to do so when underway, but very few harbours accomidate the depth we need, so it's the only way to both dock and keep the ship in one piece. needless to say we only dock in such ports in good weather, and under oar, not sail."

the crew quaters, such as they were, consisted of hamicks in the hold, even the capitan did not rate better quaters. "the ship is small, the crew size is small. you learn to deal with it. but it's a good thing these ships are fast, a good bed is far preferable to sleeping in here."

they returned to the harbour and docked just as the sun was beggining to set, lighting everything vividly, the greens somehow greener, the yellows yellower, and so on.

as they walked back up the dock, Pi asked of the Admiral "so, what did you think?"

"I think that while I would hate to fight in such a ship, they would be unrivalled as message carriers, and possibly as traders of high value, perishable goods, such as foods considered to be great delicacies.

What is more the crew showed great skill and professionalism. As a seaman myself, I consider that to be a great credit to them and their captains.

When I have a chance to report back, I am certain that the Admiralty will wish to discuss purchasing or learning to build these ships, for our own uses."

ooc: i'm sure i mentioned something about a young watchman who was sort of Krijan's assitant.. but i can't find it. anyone remember where it is? heh. the downside to my rather.. long.. posts.

IC:
upon reaching the dock, the first thing Krijan did was remove his boots and drain the water from them "water-proof he said. bah."
he then dismised most of the men. they were to send the towns-folk back about their business, while a few of them saw to the waka. he kept four as a guard for their .. guests.

removeing his wet socks also, he sat on the edge of the dock and waited. sending one of the young boys who were hanging around on the dock for unfathomable reasons of their own to get him some dry socks and another pair of boots from his quaters in the watch-house, he once again cursed the lack of diplomats. though he was thankful that at least one of these strangers could speak a civilized tounge. hopefully the boy would get back befor they did, but looking out over the water, he knew this was rediculously unlikely, as they were almost docked already.
The Caladonnian cutter came up to dock and the diplomat stepped off with a small escort, greeting the foreigner once again.

The Caladonnian ship came up to the dock. The anchor went down, and as a sign of faith the gunports were closed once again- but not secured, just in case. The diplomat went ashore along with five marines.

ooc: you brought the whole ship? ummm.. i think he expressly said something about leaveing it where it was... and i doubt your boat is big enough to have gun ports, even if it does have a gun.. care to correct that? or would you prefur to see what happens when you take a war ship into a guarded harbour without permision?

"I think that while I would hate to fight in such a ship, they would be unrivalled as message carriers, and possibly as traders of high value, perishable goods, such as foods considered to be great delicacies.

What is more the crew showed great skill and professionalism. As a seaman myself, I consider that to be a great credit to them and their captains.

When I have a chance to report back, I am certain that the Admiralty will wish to discuss purchasing or learning to build these ships, for our own uses."

ooc: you know, Angerwraith has two harbours, east and west.. i kinda pictured your ships landing in the west, and the masters in the east. not sure if that affects anything

IC:
"I'm sure they'd be pleased to hear it, only the best are chosen for the masters, so it's an honer to start with. being told they're good at what they do can only help."

they were headed back towards the admirals ships

Pi spoke again, "you'd have to speak to the prince about such things.. and then he'd have to prod the guilds into behaveing, but i'm sure an arangement could be reached. the masters them selves arn't really used in combat much at all, except for launching the waka. mostly they get used as couriers, exploration ships, and to tow smaller, slower things that need more speed."

they were aproching the western docks now, where the transport ships and incognitian warships were docked or at anchor. the sun had set full a few minutes ago,but the touches were lit.

"we head out on exercises tommorow at noon. perhaps if you could provide your demonstration befor then?"

"I would happily provide a demonstration tomorrow morning.
Discussion of the masters with the Prince is of no great urgency, as it will take much time to arrange a deal over them, and put it in place."


Next morning:
(OOC: Unless there's a problem with skipping to it?)
About 20 Incognitian marines were lined up holding ranged weapons. Ten held crossbows; ten held arquebuses. Two men were cradling longbows. A whole series of straw dummies had been set up, at ranges of from 20 to 100 yards.

"So, the longbow has the best all around performance, but takes years of practice to master; the crossbow is easier to learn, but slower to load; the arquebus improves all the time, and has more power and impact, but less range."

He looked around his audience.

"Shall we proceed to putting them through their paces?"

ooc: you brought the whole ship? ummm.. i think he expressly said something about leaveing it where it was... and i doubt your boat is big enough to have gun ports, even if it does have a gun.. care to correct that? or would you prefur to see what happens when you take a war ship into a guarded harbour without permision?
OOC: Ah, sorry. I guess I wasn't really thinking when I made that post. It'll be edited.

"I would happily provide a demonstration tomorrow morning.
Discussion of the masters with the Prince is of no great urgency, as it will take much time to arrange a deal over them, and put it in place."


Next morning:
(OOC: Unless there's a problem with skipping to it?)
About 20 Incognitian marines were lined up holding ranged weapons. Ten held crossbows; ten held arquebuses. Two men were cradling longbows. A whole series of straw dummies had been set up, at ranges of from 20 to 100 yards.

"So, the longbow has the best all around performance, but takes years of practice to master; the crossbow is easier to learn, but slower to load; the arquebus improves all the time, and has more power and impact, but less range."

He looked around his audience.

"Shall we proceed to putting them through their paces?"

OOC: no problems. just a slightly untidy end to the previous section. better than no end though, hehe.

Chargone, Edward and Pi, as well as the various unit comanders, were all watching the demonstration, Pi translating for the others.

"he asks if he can begin, Highness"
"one moment. have some of the men put armour on the dummies first. prefurably new, as yet un-marked armour."
"at once, your Highness"

"Admiral," Pi spoke now in latin "the prince requests you armour the targets. with sets of our armour at least, possibly yours on some of them if you have spare. i would not presume to know the workings of the Prince's mind, but i too would like to know what would happen should these weapons hit our men. even if we do not impliment them, knowledge is power, and it could save meny men to know this now, rather than later."

The Caladonnian cutter came up to dock and the diplomat stepped off with a small escort, greeting the foreigner once again.

OOC: hehe. thanks. haveing the watch storm your ship would have been funny, but this makes for better relations.

IC:
Krijan bowed to the forigener "you'll forgive my abruptness i hope, but i'm no sailor, nor a trained diplomat, so negotiations in a boat bobbing out at sea, with water in my boots, were not exactly going to be.... fun. especially as i do not have a lot of power in my own right to make such deals as would be required."

he paused to try once again to get the water out of his socks, wringing them out over the side of the dock

"since i doubt you'll wish to sleep in your boat for the next couple of nights, rooms have been arainged for you at the tavern."

"Of course. I should have thought to do so already."

Incognitian armour was swiftly brought from the ship's stores, and when local armour was found it was placed on the remaining dummies.

"So. First the arquebus."

They fired at the nearest targets, a mixture of both armour types. Reloading, they fired at the 50 yard targets also.

"Now the crossbow."

The process repeated, this time three times, aiming for the furthest targets as well.

"And finally the longbow."

The longbowmen were swiftly finished.

"Do you wish to inspect the targets? And the weapons themselves?"

"Of course. I should have thought to do so already."

Incognitian armour was swiftly brought from the ship's stores, and when local armour was found it was placed on the remaining dummies.

"So. First the arquebus."

They fired at the nearest targets, a mixture of both armour types. Reloading, they fired at the 50 yard targets also.

"Now the crossbow."

The process repeated, this time three times, aiming for the furthest targets as well.

"And finally the longbow."

The longbowmen were swiftly finished.

"Do you wish to inspect the targets? And the weapons themselves?"


while Edward was more interested in the targets, (it really was too late to try and train his army in the weponary. they'd be leaveing in just a few days) Pi and the prince were more interested in the weapons them selves.

Edward inspected the various targets with interest. the closer ones were... well, the armour, what was left of it, was no longer recognizeable as anything more than a way of keeping the holes togeather. in some cases the projectiles had penitrated right through and out the other side. something to keep in mind, he mused as he moved ot the next set.

the next set of targets, 47 meters away from the men, was.. interesting. the Angerman wooden plate armour, combined with the leather under it, stoped the few bullets that got that far, and useually stopped the crossbow bolts, though it never deflected them. the bits wtihout the plate over the top however, were punctired easly. the longbow shafts, however, punched straight through everything. the ingonetian armour had faired better, in a way. those few that were hit by bullets at that range were well punctured, but there were few hit. crossbow bolts seemed to be deflected or penitrate well into the target with equil messure, and the long bow shafts didn't appear to have done much at all. those that hit weak points went through, the rest were diflected or outright blocked by the armour.

at 94 meters, the aquabusses hadn't even got the range, there were no bullets. the Angerman armour, while it had diflected nothing, was not penitrated by a single crossbow bolt, though they looked like hedgehogs the armour stoped them short of penitrateing the actual target. only a single lucky hit had penitrated the incognetian armour at all, but that had gone through compleatly and was lodged against the armour at it's expected exit point.

the longbows had been more damageing here. their shots had arced, and few had missed. Angerman armour did not generaly inclue a helmit, and at this point that had proved fatal for the straw men. meny had been hit in the equivilant of the head, sholders, and arms, and almost every shot had gone straight through. the ingonetian armour, however, had only been penitrated when the shafts hit weak points such as joints.

Edward was frankly stunned. the potentual losses were stagering.

Meanwhile, Chargone was examineing the weapons themselves. why none of the schollars of Angermanland had come up with the long bow already was beyond him, as was how the aquabus even worked. the crossbow however, he was intregued by. "Pi, could you please inform the admiral that i would be most interested in aquireing 500 of these if at all possible? and do ask about the materials used in the construction of the aquabuses, and thier armour. it's here too. very hard, the aquabusses are hot, but the pieces on the crossbows are cold as rock..."

Pi was also distracted, but aware enough to listen when the prince spoke, so she passed on his request. she too was interested in the crossbow, and added a few words of her own, "as well as the prince's requests, i personaly would like a few of these to work with. it has potentual to be the solution to a significant problem with one of our new weapons."

she was stareing dreamly off into space, smileing slightly "imagine, if one could fly like the hawks. if i can, i shall also bring a few of the schollars who's reserch is related to the issue with us on the campaigne. does the princeipal hold if one builds these on a much larger scale?"

Edward, meanwhile, had returned, and was speaking to the prince. "your Highness, looking at the targets, if we want to survive, it is imperitive that at least sholder plates and helmets be made in the incognetian style. better yet, we should aquire some of theirs. at the closer ranges, one type is no better than the other, at mid range, theirs is genearally mroe inclined to difflect hits, while ours is more inclined to stop them befor they hit the wearer. aquabusses especialy. but at the longest ranges, those longbows shots come down from above, not straight, and would rip our men appart!" he was getting quite adgitated.

"very well" Chargone responded "when Pi finishes talking to the admiral, i shall see what we can do."

"500 crossbows? That is easy. We may have that number in stores in Nescia; if not we can purchase them, and have them on the next ships here after the message gets home.
The material is iron, and steel which is a form of iron. We have much of it; our trading partners Kilani have yet more. We will be able to obtain it for you in large quantities, along with the materials to work it.
I am no scholar, Pi, but I assume that the principle of the crossbow holds true on any scale; I could arrange for your scholars to talk to both our scholars and our workmen about these things."
(OOC: Hope you don't mind if I skip a stage and reply to Edward's as well)
"For armour, we can provide your men in this conflict with what spares we have; we may now have to go via Incognitia, as these vessels carry insufficient armour for the purpose. In the longer term, we can sell you armour to your own specifications, and help you to make your own.

All of these initial contributions will be given, as they will be from stocks we have standing unused at the moment. Beyond that we shall have to make or buy them however, so they will be just another trade good."

"500 crossbows? That is easy. We may have that number in stores in Nescia; if not we can purchase them, and have them on the next ships here after the message gets home.
The material is iron, and steel which is a form of iron. We have much of it; our trading partners Kilani have yet more. We will be able to obtain it for you in large quantities, along with the materials to work it.
I am no scholar, Pi, but I assume that the principle of the crossbow holds true on any scale; I could arrange for your scholars to talk to both our scholars and our workmen about these things."
(OOC: Hope you don't mind if I skip a stage and reply to Edward's as well)
"For armour, we can provide your men in this conflict with what spares we have; we may now have to go via Incognitia, as these vessels carry insufficient armour for the purpose. In the longer term, we can sell you armour to your own specifications, and help you to make your own.

All of these initial contributions will be given, as they will be from stocks we have standing unused at the moment. Beyond that we shall have to make or buy them however, so they will be just another trade good."


OOC: no problem.
IC:

"i hope we can prove worthy of the gifts. good news for you though, another master has just been compleated. the prince proposes to have it come with the fleet, it's shake down cruse being around the northern point and back down to join the fleet on this side of the city, and unless something goes badly wrong, it is to be sold or given or traded to you or something." she stoped for a moment, then a rapid dialog in Angerman between her and the prince followed. returning to latin, she spoke to the admiral again "ahh. it is to be traded to you at half it's value for what part of the equipment we need that that will cover, the remainder of it's value is a gift, and the intent to to fill it's hold with tradeable goods, again, half of wich shall be traded, the other half shall be gifts to the apropriate guilds, unions, or whatever other important groups it may benifit us to form good relations with. i am to ask what kind of good would be best for this perpose, to your knowledge."

Pi then did something she didn't useually do. she giggled. not laughed. giggiled like a school girl "can you keep a secret? if the crossbow principle holds true, with a little modification, we can make men fly, after a fasion, allowing them to compleatly bypass the walls of enemy citys, and rain fire and acid and sulpher down upon them. how's THAT for winning the battle of the mind? or for outrangeing the enemy." more giggleing ensued. there was a very slightly... manic edge to it, and an interesting glint in her eye. it was obvious to any skilled observer that the thought of raining distruction on their foes in such a maner pleased her greatly.

"we haven't had a way of getting them into the air unless the enemy were foolish enough to build their fortifactions at the bottom of a cliff or something similar, so far. the crossbow could well change that."

"You are our allies; you are already worthy of these gifts and more; and I would judge the master worth more to us than all the weapons we shall be giving you.

Tradeable goods? You seem to have interesting stones (OOC: the jade/greenstone); and your woodwork is very fine. They would trade well. There is but one overarching Merchant's Guild; however with your specific needs gifts to the university and the craft guilds might assist you also.

These large crossbows sound interesting. We may well be able to co-operate in this project; especially as the expertise with bows and metalwork will come from us anyway."

"You are our allies; you are already worthy of these gifts and more; and I would judge the master worth more to us than all the weapons we shall be giving you.

Tradeable goods? You seem to have interesting stones (OOC: the jade/greenstone); and your woodwork is very fine. They would trade well. There is but one overarching Merchant's Guild; however with your specific needs gifts to the university and the craft guilds might assist you also.

These large crossbows sound interesting. We may well be able to co-operate in this project; especially as the expertise with bows and metalwork will come from us anyway."


"yes, you have a point there. hopefully some of our own people can learn to make and use bows, but there is no point in learning to work iorn and the like, we have none. it's proibly more efficiant just to buy finished products."

she thought for a moment "i'd have to put some pressure on the Banking clans, or, more to the point, get the prince to, but would gold be tradeable? it's rare enough here, but then, so are lots of things that seem common elseware. it really does help that you have guilds as well. makes dealing.. slightly easyer to understand, at least.

i think, for the university, some of our books and a couple of the schollars who speak latin, perhaps knowledge of gliders.. though they wouldn't have to stay if they didn't wish to. what does one give to craftsmen though?"

ooc: once we get done with this conversation, it might be best to make use of fluid time and skip ahead. i'll make a final post at the end about the ships departing and then... we move to the conquest of Aust to begin the real work? or do we stop past your thread on the way?

OOC: We can skip for the soldiers, then in my thread do the fact that blokes have arrived on the fleet and are now trading etc. Ok?

IC: "I am certain that with the craftwork I have seen, you will soon be making some very fine bows.

Gold is the one thing tradeable everywhere, though it is generally best to trade something else and keep the gold where it is.

Your guilds seem a lot more important than ours; ours, to tell the truth, passed their peak a hundred years and more ago. Many traders and craftsmen now have no part of the guilds, though the best usually still do.

As for gifts to the craftsmen, I would suggest some small token, and then work. Interesting, well-paid work."

OOC: We can skip for the soldiers, then in my thread do the fact that blokes have arrived on the fleet and are now trading etc. Ok?

IC: "I am certain that with the craftwork I have seen, you will soon be making some very fine bows.

Gold is the one thing tradeable everywhere, though it is generally best to trade something else and keep the gold where it is.

Your guilds seem a lot more important than ours; ours, to tell the truth, passed their peak a hundred years and more ago. Many traders and craftsmen now have no part of the guilds, though the best usually still do.

As for gifts to the craftsmen, I would suggest some small token, and then work. Interesting, well-paid work."


"ack, the planing, the planing. it's a good thing you have so meny ships. so meny things... why couldn't my first task have been some nice simple rebelious noble?" Pi looked as though she was about to go a little nuts, teh regained her composure, paused, and continuted, "humm. i'm not sure about interesting, but large quantitys and good pay we can do, if only for the mettle workers. tokens are easy though. yes. yes. good. now, if you'll excuse me sir?" the camp horns were soundeing "the exercises are about to begin, and there are meny preperations to make. i may not see you again untill we leave. "

with that, she saluted, bowed, and then made a mad dash for the parade grounds. fortunatly one of her asistants had orginized her gear. it really would not do for the Stratkom to the be last to arive, even if she was the youngest person of any rank in the army.

****-- later, one week and one day since Admiral Knox arived--****

Chargone watched the fleet leave from the same vantage point he had occupied when he first spotted the first Incognitian ship. hopefully he was not sending too meny of them to their doom. if all went to plan, this should bring great benifit to the nation, great honer to all concerned, and earn him a lengthy passige in the standard history books. truely, the fleet looked magnificent. one day, he vowed, we shall have a fleet to rival any on the sea. one day.

OOC: and that's that. the fleet is gone, the army is gone, and now we're off to Terror Incognita! incidently, the exploartion ship will arive after these guys are gone, or at a different port, whichever is easyer, they're not ment to meet.

so, i now awate the apropriate post in the apropriate thread.

OOC: Yay! Finally. I got 10,000 men with a promise of 40,000 more out of Kilani quicker and easier than 1,000 out of you (as the 10,000 are now in Incognitia :P)

IC: The Admiral sailed with a heavy heart. He had grown to like this land, with it's eccentric people, and now he was taking their men to war. Many would return, but all too many would not. He would do what he could; they would not die on his part of their long journey.

OOC: Yay! Finally. I got 10,000 men with a promise of 40,000 more out of Kilani quicker and easier than 1,000 out of you (as the 10,000 are now in Incognitia :P)

IC: The Admiral sailed with a heavy heart. He had grown to like this land, with it's eccentric people, and now he was taking their men to war. Many would return, but all too many would not. He would do what he could; they would not die on his part of their long journey.


ooc: yeah, sorry about that. but which was more fun? *grins* lots of detail in this thread. and lots of long posts. just imagin what i'm going to do to the War thread :P

it also occurs to me that you actually got 750 soldiers, 100 enginers, 100 scouts, 50 assorted officers and elite guards, a ship to keep, potentually a new kind of seige weapon, 20 waka, 2 other masters that my guys are bringing with them, and Pi's strategic ability :) not to mention that 150 of those soldiers are eels, compleate with acid, fire, and sulpher grenades :)

OOC: Yeah, I won't deny it's been FUN. Hell, it's been great. And, for a few of my ships for a few weeks, some crossbows and some infantry armour, I get a master to study use and copy. :D

OOC: hehe. thanks. haveing the watch storm your ship would have been funny, but this makes for better relations.

IC:
Krijan bowed to the forigener "you'll forgive my abruptness i hope, but i'm no sailor, nor a trained diplomat, so negotiations in a boat bobbing out at sea, with water in my boots, were not exactly going to be.... fun. especially as i do not have a lot of power in my own right to make such deals as would be required."

he paused to try once again to get the water out of his socks, wringing them out over the side of the dock

"since i doubt you'll wish to sleep in your boat for the next couple of nights, rooms have been arainged for you at the tavern."
OOC: No problem. Having my guns shoot grapeshot into your massed watchmen would have been funny too, but never mind...

IC: "That is understandable. I thank you for your kind offer and I will take it up."

OOC: No problem. Having my guns shoot grapeshot into your massed watchmen would have been funny too, but never mind...

IC: "That is understandable. I thank you for your kind offer and I will take it up."

at that moment, the boy returned with his gear. sitting on one of the posts along the dock while putting on the dry socks and boots, Krijan spoke again "you must realise, of course, that this is a minor provence and a relitivly new settlement. there's nothing particularly fancy about it. still," he stood, gatherd up his wet stuff, guestured for the forigeners to come with him, then started walking, "we offer what we have. there's fresh fruit, which i'm sure your men will apreciate. if you've go things to sell, then it'll be easy enough to gather the coin in the market so you can buy some. barley cakes and ginger-beer, as well as cacao juice are readly available as well, though the cakes and beer cost more than in the capital or Kant, gotta ship the grain for the cakes, and the beer it's self, you see. ahh. here we are."

he had stoped in frount of a somewhat impressive building, constructed, for the first to floors, of stone, and the next two of wood "no naked flames above the ground floor if you please, we Don't need the town burning down. "

at that moment, the boy returned with his gear. sitting on one of the posts along the dock while putting on the dry socks and boots, Krijan spoke again "you must realise, of course, that this is a minor provence and a relitivly new settlement. there's nothing particularly fancy about it. still," he stood, gatherd up his wet stuff, guestured for the forigeners to come with him, then started walking, "we offer what we have. there's fresh fruit, which i'm sure your men will apreciate. if you've go things to sell, then it'll be easy enough to gather the coin in the market so you can buy some. barley cakes and ginger-beer, as well as cacao juice are readly available as well, though the cakes and beer cost more than in the capital or Kant, gotta ship the grain for the cakes, and the beer it's self, you see. ahh. here we are."

he had stoped in frount of a somewhat impressive building, constructed, for the first to floors, of stone, and the next two of wood "no naked flames above the ground floor if you please, we Don't need the town burning down. "
"Yes, that is fine. I am sure it will be better accomodation that on shipboard. I appreciate your generosity, and I'm sure we have some commodity that we can sell here."

"Yes, that is fine. I am sure it will be better accomodation that on shipboard. I appreciate your generosity, and I'm sure we have some commodity that we can sell here."


ooc: shall we apply fluid time here and skip ahead, or is their something specific you want to put in befor the council?

ooc: shall we apply fluid time here and skip ahead, or is their something specific you want to put in befor the council?
OOC: No, it's okay, I'm fine skipping ahead. My elves will just be learning about Angermanland culture and such.

ooc: oh yeah, i forgot about the ears.. heh.

IC: the sun dawned bright and the weather clear on the day of the council.

Krijan stoped by the tavern where their unuseual guests were staying, "it's time to go, folks. council starts in less than half an hour, and you get the honer of being the first issue on the list"

ooc: oh yeah, i forgot about the ears.. heh.

IC: the sun dawned bright and the weather clear on the day of the council.

Krijan stoped by the tavern where their unuseual guests were staying, "it's time to go, folks. council starts in less than half an hour, and you get the honer of being the first issue on the list"
OOC: Meh, it's not so pronounced. More of a height and agility thing.

IC: "I thank you for this honour. We will come with you in a moment."

The diplomats were soon ready and departed with Krijan.

"all set? then follow me" with that, Krijan strode from the lodgeings and started up the street, an escort falling into place around the Caladonnians. he lead the way to a large semi circular area, designed so the voice of the one standing near the center could be clearly heard by all sitting around the edges. canvas covers kept the worst of heat or rain off of the seats and podiums, but one still got wet or hot going from one to the other or comeing and going. as everyone settled into their places as the small party entered, and Krijan was acknowledged by the chairman.

"people of Pharhaven! today i bring befor you men, odd looking men but men none the less, from a far away land accross the sea, who come in peace. yes, yes, i know" he responded to various taunts "all men come from accross the sea to get here, all come from far away, and all claime peaceful intent. that's why they're Here" he pointed at the floor "rather than in the capital or on the end of a rope already. they shall tell us why they are here, and then we shall question them, they shall awnser, we shall decide what to do with them. bear in mind, there is a reasonable chance the prince might want to see them, so don't be too quick to call for ... perminant... action, got that?"

generaly affermative muttering ensued.

"in that case, i yeild the floor to our guests, that they may tell us their porpose."

"all set? then follow me" with that, Krijan strode from the lodgeings and started up the street, an escort falling into place around the Caladonnians. he lead the way to a large semi circular area, designed so the voice of the one standing near the center could be clearly heard by all sitting around the edges. canvas covers kept the worst of heat or rain off of the seats and podiums, but one still got wet or hot going from one to the other or comeing and going. as everyone settled into their places as the small party entered, and Krijan was acknowledged by the chairman.

"people of Pharhaven! today i bring befor you men, odd looking men but men none the less, from a far away land accross the sea, who come in peace. yes, yes, i know" he responded to various taunts "all men come from accross the sea to get here, all come from far away, and all claime peaceful intent. that's why they're Here" he pointed at the floor "rather than in the capital or on the end of a rope already. they shall tell us why they are here, and then we shall question them, they shall awnser, we shall decide what to do with them. bear in mind, there is a reasonable chance the prince might want to see them, so don't be too quick to call for ... perminant... action, got that?"

generaly affermative muttering ensued.

"in that case, i yeild the floor to our guests, that they may tell us their porpose."

The diplomat bowed. "I thank you for this opportunity."

Then he raised his voice and spoke to the assembled barbarians, "Greetings! I am Larian Holimakir, and I come from Caladonn. Caladonn is a great land far to the west, inhabited by elves such as myself. Since our expansion from our homeland we have ranged far and wide in this Pacific Ocean, and now, after colonising all the island chains to the west of here, we have come to you.

We were surprised to find another advanced civilisation in the area. For many decades we believed there were no other nations such as our own. Thus, we are glad to come into contact with you and enter into a long and mutually beneficial relationship.

Primarily, we come here to trade; from what little I have seen of your land, it seems bountiful, and yet there is still much that we of Caladonn could offer you in exchange for your goods. In addition, we come to learn of lands beyond your borders; as I said, this is the farthest Caladonnian exploration has reached."

He bowed once again.

the word "elves" caused quite a stir, as the man translated it as "phasmaix" meaning "spirit" or "ghost" rather than "personix" meaning people, or "manix" meaning men. the more superstitious and those subscribieng to certian religions were all for burning them then and there, as a result, however it was quickly pointed out that it may well have been simply a translation error. never the less, it soured the mood a little in some places.

then one of the cartographers spoke "if you belive you have conqured all the lands to the west, you're either very poor at mapping, prone to beliveing your own exageration, or you conquerd some of our allies. which is it?"

then a merchant spoke "you were surprised? hah! you obviously haven't romed very far at all. though we have only just begun to expand and look around, even we know well that there are meny others. infact, a war is being fought right at this moment where five such civilisations are takeing over a sixth. One of them is from half way around the globe, probily as close to you in the other direction as we are."

another spoke "so, either they lie, or are ignorant. the latter seems most likely. however, we are always open for trade, are we not?"

"only if the trade guild decides to allow it, and you know that as well as i do" that was a guild rep, surprise surprise, "still, it would be best to see what they offer befor dismissing them."

"let us call the Incognitians. perhaps they know something of these 'phasmaix' they have, after all, been romeing the seas longer than we have." a sea capitan, this time.

Krijan spoke again at last "so, the first question is: do we call for the prince's decision, bump them up to the cresent council, or simply make a decision ourselves? i would have them awnsr your challanges and observations befor this decision is made. it is a motion. in favour?" suficiant right hands were raised "good. so, Larian Holimakir, speak on."

the word "elves" caused quite a stir, as the man translated it as "phasmaix" meaning "spirit" or "ghost" rather than "personix" meaning people, or "manix" meaning men. the more superstitious and those subscribieng to certian religions were all for burning them then and there, as a result, however it was quickly pointed out that it may well have been simply a translation error. never the less, it soured the mood a little in some places.

then one of the cartographers spoke "if you belive you have conqured all the lands to the west, you're either very poor at mapping, prone to beliveing your own exageration, or you conquerd some of our coloneys. which is it?"

then a merchant spoke "you were surprised? hah! you obviously haven't romed very far at all. though we have only just begun to expand and look around, even we know well that there are meny others. infact, a war is being fought right at this moment where five such civilisations are takeing over a sixth. One of them is from half way around the globe, probily as close to you in the other direction as we are."

another spoke "so, either they lie, or are ignorant. the latter seems most likely. however, we are always open for trade, are we not?"

"only if the trade guild decides to allow it, and you know that as well as i do" that was a guild rep, surprise surprise, "still, it would be best to see what they offer befor dismissing them."

"let us call the Incognitians. perhaps they know something of these 'phasmaix' they have, after all, been romeing the seas longer than we have." a sea capitan, this time.

Krijan spoke again at last "so, the first question is: do we call for the prince's decision, bump them up to the cresent council, or simply make a decision ourselves? i would have them awnsr your challanges and observations befor this decision is made. it is a motion. in favour?" suficiant right hands were raised "good. so, Larian Holimakir, speak on."
OOC: I thought this was one of your most westward colonies. I won't respond to that till we sort it out.

IC: "It appears that there are far more advanced civilisations in this area than on our continent. Currently we have traveled practically the length and breadth of the lands near to us, to the frozen tundra in the north and south, and we have encountered no other civilisations.

I take offence at your suggestion that Caladonn is an ignorant or untruthful nation. It is, after all, we who have traveled across the entire Pacific Ocean to your lands, and not the other way around. We have chosen to focus our colonisation in your direction, finding only endless seas to the east.

We are allied with the nation of Terror Incognitia, and it is through them that we contact you. I am sure that you will hear no ill of us from them. If you have met the nation of Kirisubo, they too have come into contact with us.

As for trade, Caladonn has much to offer. Our elves are fine metalworkers, shipwrights, and bowmakers; likewise, we have many bountiful resources including timber, whitestone, a stone harder than granite yet as beautiful as marble, and many other goods and services."

ooc: oops. i read east. for some reason. but i'll fix that, but it still partially holds true. our allys in terror are close enough to the west of us that we would see the smoke if you started a fight there :P anyway, i'll go fix that.

OOC: I thought this was one of your most westward colonies. I won't respond to that till we sort it out.

IC: "It appears that there are far more advanced civilisations in this area than on our continent. Currently we have traveled practically the length and breadth of the lands near to us, to the frozen tundra in the north and south, and we have encountered no other civilisations.

I take offence at your suggestion that Caladonn is an ignorant or untruthful nation. It is, after all, we who have traveled across the entire Pacific Ocean to your lands, and not the other way around. We have chosen to focus our colonisation in your direction, finding only endless seas to the east.

We are allied with the nation of Terror Incognitia, and it is through them that we contact you. I am sure that you will hear no ill of us from them. If you have met the nation of Kirisubo, they too have come into contact with us.

As for trade, Caladonn has much to offer. Our elves are fine metalworkers, shipwrights, and bowmakers; likewise, we have many bountiful resources including timber, whitestone, a stone harder than granite yet as beautiful as marble, and many other goods and services."


"ha!" one of the men called "you are allies of the Incognitians, and yet have taken all west of here? you contradict yourself."

"timber and stone we have in abundance" called another "depending on what you mean by whitestone, we have no need for them."

Krijan himself spoke "what do you mean 'metal' workers? ... that's not even a word in our speach." he paused to think for a moment... "bowmakers.... makers of bows... you mean like the incognitian longbow? humm."

he called to the council in general "perhaps, it would be best, if we send them on to the prince in Angerwraith. what say you?"

muttering and grumbleing could be heard, and then the vote was cast. they would be sent on.

"who shall make the arangements? who shall be responcible for them"

his brother, in typicaly discuised malicious fashion, called the suggestion "You, brother!" a few other nominations were made, the vote cast, and Krijan found himself with a new job.

turning to the emmisarys, he spoke "well, THAT"S brilliant" then sighed "there are other issues to be discussed today, but we need not stay for them. i will speak to the quatermaster of the sea capitans guild about getting some heraldric flags for your ship, if only to save time and hastle when we get to the capital, then we shall board your ship and sail for the capital. unless you have any arguments?" he looked around "which you can tell me about on the way. come on."

and with that, he turned and walked away towards the back of the assembly, where he spoke breafly to the quatermaster, then headed off to the guildhall.

"ha!" one of the men called "you are allies of the Incognitians, and yet have taken all west of here? you contradict yourself."

"timber and stone we have in abundance" called another "depending on what you mean by whitestone, we have no need for them."

Krijan himself spoke "what do you mean 'metal' workers? ... that's not even a word in our speach." he paused to think for a moment... "bowmakers.... makers of bows... you mean like the incognitian longbow? humm."

he called to the council in general "perhaps, it would be best, if we send them on to the prince in Angerwraith. what say you?"

muttering and grumbleing could be heard, and then the vote was cast. they would be sent on.

"who shall make the arangements? who shall be responcible for them"

his brother, in typicaly discuised malicious fashion, called the suggestion "You, brother!" a few other nominations were made, the vote cast, and Krijan found himself with a new job.

turning to the emmisarys, he spoke "well, THAT"S brilliant" then sighed "there are other issues to be discussed today, but we need not stay for them. i will speak to the quatermaster of the sea capitans guild about getting some heraldric flags for your ship, if only to save time and hastle when we get to the capital, then we shall board your ship and sail for the capital. unless you have any arguments?" he looked around "which you can tell me about on the way. come on."

and with that, he turned and walked away towards the back of the assembly, where he spoke breafly to the quatermaster, then headed off to the guildhall.
"No, we have taken all west of our lands until we reached here. That is in fact to your east.

Surely you must use metal? For tools, weapons, ornaments, even hinges and lanterns...

Yes, our bowmakers make bows like the Incognitians. We have two varieties, the longbow, much like the Incognitians, and the crossbow, less well-known but easier for a less experienced soldier to wield. They are an integral and some would say primary part of our art of war.

We are willing to come with you to this 'Angerwraith' if you wish."

The Caladonnians followed Krijan out.

ooc: slight stuttering of the timeline there, huh?

IC:

as he gathered up the flags and banners in the guild hall, Krijan spoke to the ambasidors "as i said, metal isn't even a word in our language. for tools and the like, we use either wood, or 'green' stone. apparantly it is a type of jade. bows are... new .. to us. no one had even thought of them untill we had contact with the incognetians. lanteurns tend to be made of clay. pottery.

anyay" he found the last banner "shall we head for your ship? i see no need to bring anyone with us, and i have everything i need" he was wearing his full armour and weapons, a pair of eel blades and a taiahu, though the lack of helmet and abundance of markings on the armour made telling who he was very easy. "i shall tell you how to get to the capital when we get to the ship"

ooc: slight stuttering of the timeline there, huh?

IC:

as he gathered up the flags and banners in the guild hall, Krijan spoke to the ambasidors "as i said, metal isn't even a word in our language. for tools and the like, we use either wood, or 'green' stone. apparantly it is a type of jade. bows are... new .. to us. no one had even thought of them untill we had contact with the incognetians. lanteurns tend to be made of clay. pottery.

anyay" he found the last banner "shall we head for your ship? i see no need to bring anyone with us, and i have everything i need" he was wearing his full armour and weapons, a pair of eel blades and a taiahu, though the lack of helmet and abundance of markings on the armour made telling who he was very easy. "i shall tell you how to get to the capital when we get to the ship"
OOC: How?

IC: "Hmm, very interesting. We have never met an advanced culture that does not use metal. As for bows, we assumed they were relatively commonplace also.

Yes, I will come with you to the ship." The Caladonnians continued to follow him.

OOC: How?

IC: "Hmm, very interesting. We have never met an advanced culture that does not use metal. As for bows, we assumed they were relatively commonplace also.

Yes, I will come with you to the ship." The Caladonnians continued to follow him.

ooc: some stuff happend in between what you were responding to and your responce that is more likely than not to have made it not line up. of course, it wasn't impossibl which is why i didn't really complaine. and... it was Your ship we're headed for you know. so, i'll just.. not comment on that bit just now.


IC:
"yeah, well, the whole bow thing has left a lot of schollars scratching their heads and saying things to the effect of 'why the hell didn't WE think of that?' still haven't a clue what this metal you keep blathering about is though"

OOC: Ok then. We'll go to my ship instead.

IC: "Yes, bows are arguably one of the most important factors in the Caladonnian fighting style. As for metal, it is hard for us to believe that you have never heard of it... still, we have no idea of your greenstone, so that is comparable." The Caladonnian gestured to the mail coat of one of his guards, saying, "We use metal all the time in both warfare and our everyday lives. This mail coat is made up of tiny metal rings that provides protection from enemies.

Ah, here we are now at the ship. Shall we depart immediately?"

The route to Angermanland was becoming ever better known to Incognitian mariners. Regular trading had begun, taking metals, and bows, and other goods, and trading them for greenstone and anything else the Angerman traders would sell.
Naval traffic was, nonetheless, rare; especially since most of the navy was far to the north.
So a sloop coming in to dock, crashing into the side of the jetty, and disgorging a squad of men who rushed to the Ambassador's abode; this was unusual.
When there was then a flurry of activity, culminating in a note in rudimentary Angerman script being sent to the Prince, it became clear that this was no ordinary diplomatic communique.
The note, swiftly delivered, read:
"Our ally Kirisubo has been invaded. We are sending all available forces to help them in their time of need. Any troops you can send will be most welcome. Transports for any you feel able to send are available."

ooc: just so you know, the caladonn bit should happen befor their arival, so i'll deal with that first. oda's on a break anyway. i need Krijan there, you see.

and i'll skip over the voyage to the ambasidors ariveing. err.. which involves takeing control of all involved for a moment... sorry.

IC:
"I see no reason why not" was the responce.

and with that, they boarded the ship. like most citizens of Angermanland, Krijan had enough knowledge of the sea and stars to keep them roughly on course, and they arrived without too much incident, though they had barely got the Angerman heraldric banners up befor comeing close enough to raise an alarm from the lookout towers.

"welcome, my friends, to Angerwraith, capital of Angermanland!" Krijan cryed out, as they entered the harbour "i haven't been here in a while, and there is constant construction, so it may have changed a bit. i suggest takeing as few men ashore as possible, and sticking close to me. the whole heraldry thing. and bring down the banners, i'll take them to the guildhall here after we see the prince."

a pair of waka, their crew unarmed save their paddles, which could be lethal enough in the right hands, came out to meet them, and to guid the ship to it's berth. it had been discovered early on, with the increase in merchent traffic, that this was a far better idea than haveing the ships sail in to dock, as evidanced by the reduction in damage to the piers and warfs since it had been implimented.

the ship was soon safely docked and mored, and all was in readyness for the ambasidor and his contingent to disembark. word of their arival had been sent to the prince by way of an official messanger from the harbour masters office, and would return the same way shortly.

ooc: btw, Angerman is an adjective, Angermanland is the noun. so, it would be the rout to "Angermanland" not "Angerman" .. not important, but tidy. if you want to be fancy it's the "Principality of Angermanland"

OOC: edited. Hope you're happy now :P
And in all honesty, even with fluid time, I'm not sure my ship should have arrived yet, so feel free to ignore it for a bit.

ooc: just so you know, the caladonn bit should happen befor their arival, so i'll deal with that first. oda's on a break anyway. i need Krijan there, you see.

and i'll skip over the voyage to the ambasidors ariveing. err.. which involves takeing control of all involved for a moment... sorry.

IC:
"I see no reason why not" was the responce.

and with that, they boarded the ship. like most citizens of Angermanland, Krijan had enough knowledge of the sea and stars to keep them roughly on course, and they arrived without too much incident, though they had barely got the Angerman heraldric banners up befor comeing close enough to raise an alarm from the lookout towers.

"welcome, my friends, to Angerwraith, capital of Angermanland!" Krijan cryed out, as they entered the harbour "i haven't been here in a while, and there is constant construction, so it may have changed a bit. i suggest takeing as few men ashore as possible, and sticking close to me. the whole heraldry thing. and bring down the banners, i'll take them to the guildhall here after we see the prince."

a pair of waka, their crew unarmed save their paddles, which could be lethal enough in the right hands, came out to meet them, and to guid the ship to it's berth. it had been discovered early on, with the increase in merchent traffic, that this was a far better idea than haveing the ships sail in to dock, as evidanced by the reduction in damage to the piers and warfs since it had been implimented.

the ship was soon safely docked and mored, and all was in readyness for the ambasidor and his contingent to disembark. word of their arival had been sent to the prince by way of an official messanger from the harbour masters office, and would return the same way shortly.
The Caladonnians looked about them at the foreign capital. It paled in comparison to Calad, of course, but was still quite impressive. Once they were docked, the diplomat and two bodyguards departed with Krijan.

The Caladonnians looked about them at the foreign capital. It paled in comparison to Calad, of course, but was still quite impressive. Once they were docked, the diplomat and two bodyguards departed with Krijan.

ooc: i'm MAJORLY skipping bits to move this along, but take a look at the other sections where the prince met new people for an idea of how it works.

IC:
the messenger had returned. the Prince, as had become his habit when possible, would meet them in the guardens outside the palace, in what had become his "meet the forigen dignitrys" place. the same one where he had first started negotiation and discussion with the Incognitians. a couple of the Prince's Royal Guard arived to escort them.

they arived, wtih the minimum of fuss, and found the Prince dozeing in a hamock in the sun between a pair of trees. one of the guards, after announceing their presence and getting only "mrrrphurmph" as a respone, prodded him with a small stick, where upon he half jumped, thus setting the hamock out of ballance, got fliped over and fell on the ground.

"I'm Awake Already!" he yelled, as he stood up, dusting himself off. "you really didn't need to do that you know" then he looked around a bit "oh! the new ambasidors. hello, hello. good to meet you. i do hope you have someone who speaks our tounge, or Latin. conversation's going to be a right pain otherwise. though, my Latin is pretty bad. but i have interpriters who can speak it quite well."

he paused, realised he'd got totaly off topic, then begain again "Anyway, what can i do for you?" he asked, as he sat in one of the chairs around the stone table that was the center piece of the guarden. he now seemed totaly in control and the monarch he was, at total odds with the goofball the hamock incident showed he also was.

"as a direct result of the sudden begining and then increase of trade with Terror Incognetia, metals and other odditys were, while still expencive, plentiful enough for them to become commonly used, at least for important and large scale things.

the introduction of gunpowder and ranged weponary, as well as reports from the war in Aust by way of the Masters, had all led to evolutions in military and navel thinking

as the 10th, 11th, and 12th of the 18 "Master" class ships was launched, plans were already underway for a new deep water warship. *

Labled the "dominance" class, it was a catamaran, with shortend versions of the Master centerboard on each hull. it followed the genral princeipal of the braodside as implimented by Icognetian and Austian ships, but due to it's shape, had it's main armiment aligned a for and aft, rather htan port and starboard.

along the for'rd and aft raised decks were lined 5 balista, while below each of them was a pair of cannon, bought from Incognetia. supply issues had resulted in the cannon being used as a method of launching a variant of the firebomb used by the hawks in Aust, as plans had been sent back along with the messages, rather than cannonballs.

on the port and starboard sides, however, there were ... interesting constructionsa variant of the balista used to launch the hawks, they instead launched hollow wooden tubes packed with firebombs and gunpowder. these had a single fuse, which was lit just prior to fireing, and were, in theory, highly devistateing. the nose of the tubes had a sharp iorn barb, and grappleing hooks trailing back from it, so even if it didn't quite hit the enemy perfectly, it would still possibly catch in rigging, or on railing. when it exploded it scattered fire over in a large area, as well as provideing a satisfying boom in it's own right. if it exploded befor reaching it's target, the force would propel the mettle tip to a higher velocity, as well.

of course, all of these wepons would become relitivly useless without supplys from incognetia or some other source, but it was still an improvement.

the ship had a pair of masts, one on each hull, riged much as the masters were, though with each sail in three seperate sections so that parts of it, could be taken down or raised as needed. rather than a spiniker, however, it also had a third, square rigged, mast in the center, the braceing of which had been tricky, but doable. a minor weakness lay in that it's stablity was mostly derived from being riged to the other two masts.

crewed by 150 men, fitting sleeping quaters onto it had been a chalange. a challange soon solved by extending teh forward and after raised decks the whole way allong the ship, which had also improved the stability of the center mast. the crew, except the capitan, slept in hammocks in this galery, with their stores and supplys kept in the ships "hulls" explosives and flamables were kept with the water barrels in the gun sections of the lower deck, on the principal that if they went up, the water would help keep them under control, and the wepons would be worthless anyway.

all of this led to a ship only slightly slower than the Masters, and infinatly more powerful, though just as incapable of carrying any large number of troops or cargo, and slightly less manuverable. it did not, however, suffer from the same issues when turning as teh Aprhordit Raven and her sister ships**

6 months later, [that is, well after the end of the sige where the hawks first made their debut, and at least 4 months after the army bound for kirisubo departed] the first three were put into the water. they were named "Dragon" "Taniwha" and "Great Hawk" and soon proved their worth.

*interestingly, it was the tenth "Master" that was gifted to the Incognitians, and renamed the "Zepher". details of it's usage can be found in most historys of Incogniatia available in the university librarys.

** the Aphrodit Raven, and her capitan, Alphried Tazkook, along with his crew made a name for themselves by being the first to curcumnavigate the globe, as well as creating the maps that later allowed the empire to colonise large portions of the world. more detail on this can be found in the section 'exploration and trade' later in this series.

the History of Empire, from First Contact to the Present
Ejin Komph

ooc: it should be noted, that that information is not available ICly to anyone at this point, except for terror's knowledge of the Aphrodit Raven and the Zepher.

OOC: Just had to say, interesting...things are really progressing in you nation Anger, we will need to make direct contact at some point...prob during battles in Aust, joint operations...

Reallydrunk']OOC: Just had to say, interesting...things are really progressing in you nation Anger, we will need to make direct contact at some point...prob during battles in Aust, joint operations...

ooc: i make a point of makeing realistic progress in highly unuseual directions. and the plan is for my exploerers to come past your teritory on their way around the world anyway, and they'll proibbly get there befor word from the Austian war does. or not, they'll be exploring random places on the way.

OOC: Sounds great, should be interesting...

ooc: i'm MAJORLY skipping bits to move this along, but take a look at the other sections where the prince met new people for an idea of how it works.

IC:
the messenger had returned. the Prince, as had become his habit when possible, would meet them in the guardens outside the palace, in what had become his "meet the forigen dignitrys" place. the same one where he had first started negotiation and discussion with the Incognitians. a couple of the Prince's Royal Guard arived to escort them.

they arived, wtih the minimum of fuss, and found the Prince dozeing in a hamock in the sun between a pair of trees. one of the guards, after announceing their presence and getting only "mrrrphurmph" as a respone, prodded him with a small stick, where upon he half jumped, thus setting the hamock out of ballance, got fliped over and fell on the ground.

"I'm Awake Already!" he yelled, as he stood up, dusting himself off. "you really didn't need to do that you know" then he looked around a bit "oh! the new ambasidors. hello, hello. good to meet you. i do hope you have someone who speaks our tounge, or Latin. conversation's going to be a right pain otherwise. though, my Latin is pretty bad. but i have interpriters who can speak it quite well."

he paused, realised he'd got totaly off topic, then begain again "Anyway, what can i do for you?" he asked, as he sat in one of the chairs around the stone table that was the center piece of the guarden. he now seemed totaly in control and the monarch he was, at total odds with the goofball the hamock incident showed he also was.
As the Caladonnian delegation were shown in, they smiled slightly at the clumsiness of the foreign ruler. If the Consuls or Senators of Caladonn were prodded awake with a stick in front of foreign dignitaries, they would be very cross with the prodder.

Still, as the barbarian chieftan assumed rather more control of himself the Caladonnians got back to business. The diplomat stepped forward with a bow, saying in smooth latin, "Greetings. I will not bore you with extended salutations or introductions; suffice it to say that we have come from Caladonn to begin relations between our people. Who might you be?"

As the Caladonnian delegation were shown in, they smiled slightly at the clumsiness of the foreign ruler. If the Consuls or Senators of Caladonn were prodded awake with a stick in front of foreign dignitaries, they would be very cross with the prodder.

Still, as the barbarian chieftan assumed rather more control of himself the Caladonnians got back to business. The diplomat stepped forward with a bow, saying in smooth latin, "Greetings. I will not bore you with extended salutations or introductions; suffice it to say that we have come from Caladonn to begin relations between our people. Who might you be?"

"Kame tosee Prinse ophAngermanland, you. itbe? am he, i. ultimate ruller ophalllands ophAngermanland. sorry be sopoor, my latin." he sent one of the guards off to get one of the interpreters befor coninueing.

"understand better than speak, I. wait phorinterpreter, we. be Chargone uph Kant, my name"

his name came out, to a non angermanlander's ears, as "sha'go- uff can't"

switching back to Angerman again, he was now talking to himself "i Hate languages. why can noone just speak a sane tounge and make sence?" he then sent a random servant off to get food and drink for his guests.

ooc: i'm not 100% sure that's how his grammer would come out, but hey, Angerman and Latin? it's going to be a mess *laughs*

"Kame tosee Prinse ophAngermanland, you. itbe? am he, i. ultimate ruller ophalllands ophAngermanland. sorry be sopoor, my latin." he sent one of the guards off to get one of the interpreters befor coninueing.

"understand better than speak, I. wait phorinterpreter, we. be Chargone uph Kant, my name"

his name came out, to a non angermanlander's ears, as "sha'go- uff can't"

switching back to Angerman again, he was now talking to himself "i Hate languages. why can noone just speak a sane tounge and make sence?" he then sent a random servant off to get food and drink for his guests.

ooc: i'm not 100% sure that's how his grammer would come out, but hey, Angerman and Latin? it's going to be a mess *laughs*
The Caladonnians were very confused, but just smiled and nodded.

OOC: Possibly waited long enough for my expedition to show up?

OOC: Possibly waited long enough for my expedition to show up?


ooc: nothings really gone anywhere in any other thread, has it? thus no time passed. what i'm currently waiting for is for caladonn to...expand... his last post to something i can actually respond to reasonably.

and possibly for Aust to look at "time" again. i'm going to grab Mahkath and Deehow back... stupid rebooting computer.

ooc: terror, they'll arive soonish. sometime after this post :p

IC:

it had taken longer to return home than it had to make their way to Aust.. the winds had been against htem, and they had been hit by a storm. they'd also been fired on by Austian ships, and hadn't found out why [though they had lost a waka and half the crew of a Master] untill they reached Terror Incognitia, where they were informed that Angermanland was at War with Aust [this annoyed Mahkath. the potentual for sabotage had been.. high...] and an alliance had been formed with the Incognetians and, by extention, several other powers, some of whom even Deehow had never heard of.

upon ariveing in Angerwraith, three months after setting out, and two weeks after the incognetian fleet had departed [Mahkath expressed disbelife that they had not chanced accross them on the way] they had been given a week off, and 500 gold crosses with which to do what they wished between them. though it was suggested that they use some of it for their next task.. raising the re-enforcements for the Austian Attack Army.

of course, they would have an "official" budget as well, but the "elite" units would proiblby be outside of that.

*****two weeks later, in Kant*****

"humm, it appears we shall be seeing combat once again. the word is out, and we have tentative numbers from the recruiteing stations," Deehow was simuhltaniously conversing with and reporting to Mahkath "we shall be getting more men than we expected, and the prince was kind enough to release the extra funds. we can probibly pull togeather six full battle groups, minus scouts, have enough to maintain them, and still have enough left over to hire the Snow-Tallions. though i'm not sure if they'll be as good as their reputaion in the heat of Aust."

"still, they are an elite unit. haveing them here will raise moral, at the very least. so. 7 battle groups, less scouts.. was that due to lack of men or mounts?"

"lack of skilled men, sir. though there is a counterbalance. we got more enjiners than expected. we can feild full kompanys for every battle group, as well as the Army Enjiners"

"that IS good. fairly typeical training mix?"

"a few more eels than normal. and the prince has released some of the crossbows he ordered from Terror Incognitia. i have seen their effect, they will be good to have. a Kompany's worth, in fact. i would suggest asigneing them under the command of the Snow-Tallions. balance the total inexperiance with the weponary and combat style by paring them with rock solid troops.

the Snow-Tallions, however, have no Rock troops, scouts, or enjiners. they've two kompanys of wheel and two of eel. this.. May.. counterbalance that."

"very good. have the orders writen up. all going to plan, everything will be in readyness by this time next month. we'll have the Tallion's suplliment the Guard on training duty.. see if we can drag some of the Incognitians who have been hanging around in the Southsea Universitys up here to train the cross troops. or at least help train them in the use of the weapons themselves."

"it shall be done"

pulling some papers from a stack on a shelf behind him, Mahkath layed them out on the desk

"on a different note, the university sent up some... interesting... plans for a new seige wepon. come look at this...."

Those men who had been in Angermanland for some time, now had a good working grasp of Angerman, and had begun travelling around the country to get to know it better while polishing their language skills.

They were currently in one of the major cities, Southsea, in the region of Kant; and made a quite conspicuous party, despite the fact that they now had heraldry. To tell the truth, the Captain was looking for some useful employment for his men; at the moment they were rather better at ordering drinks and chatting up women in the local language than doing anything practical - and sooner or later one of them was bound to get into trouble, at this rate. Frequent reminders that they represented Incognitia were beginning to wear thin.

Those men who had been in Angermanland for some time, now had a good working grasp of Angerman, and had begun travelling around the country to get to know it better while polishing their language skills.

They were currently in one of the major cities, Kant; and made a quite conspicuous party, despite the fact that they now had heraldry.


OOC: kant is actually a large area... i never named it's capital, or the port. only said that the port was there. besides, the army base is sorta out in the planes a bit. i'll edit the first post to name it's capital a little, and then you can tweek your post, and then mabey, by that point, i'll be inspired as to what exactly to do next.

edit: and i went back and looked.. it's southsea, not southport.. i'll have to fix that in any IC posts...

edit2: check the first page in the thread. i updated it a bit. it'll now tell you about the capital and the port of Kant.

Those men who had been in Angermanland for some time, now had a good working grasp of Angerman, and had begun travelling around the country to get to know it better while polishing their language skills.

They were currently in one of the major cities, Southsea, in the region of Kant; and made a quite conspicuous party, despite the fact that they now had heraldry. To tell the truth, the Captain was looking for some useful employment for his men; at the moment they were rather better at ordering drinks and chatting up women in the local language than doing anything practical - and sooner or later one of them was bound to get into trouble, at this rate. Frequent reminders that they represented Incognitia were beginning to wear thin.

ooc: i'm sure the guy had a name at one point...

a week or so later, after being sent to southsea and back, a messanger arived with, surpriseingly, a message for the Incognitian traders. it was politely requesting and requireing that they meet the Angerman Reinforcement Army on the planes 2 days north of Deepharour. it stated the reason as being "to train a kompany of men in use and maintinace of Crossbows." and to report to Kommander-Jeneral Mahkath, or Stratkom Deehow on arival. failure to comply would result in.. well, it was vague. but it implicated that doing so would be a good idea, and that pay was forth-comeing.

ooc edit: dude, southsea isn't IN Kant. Kant doesn't go that far south. and you messed up my post :P

OOC: Dude, assume they have a poor idea of your geography. :p And he did have a name, I might bring it in when I remember it.

IC: "Well men, I'm sure I could try ordering to do this; but do you want to? It sounds interesting to me."
A general murmur of approval did away with the need for words.
"Well, gather your kit then."
Some time later....
"We are all coming. And we are now ready. Lead us to this reinforcement army."

OOC: As in control them to get them there.