The Necromancer War (IC)

[Northern Davincia]

Arda of Josdon

Marten was quick to observe the odd choice of sending more troops to recover the party that had been dispatched before. To Arda, it was a matter of not sending another Roscaelite into danger senselessly. Marten was, as the captain perceived, under her protection. She valued the political bond between her kingdom and Marten's, and if his people were killed in Lakar, she feared it would damage relations. "I am not sending you into a situation where I cannot predict the outcome, sir," explained Arda. "I apologize if that sounds irrational. This position is easily defensible, and we avoid the risk of you being ambushed. I want at least one of your people to stay alive in this endeavor." There was a coldness in her voice as she spoke. Despite her love of country, it seemed cruel to send low-ranking soldiers to their potential deaths.

It was never an easy thing to do, but Arda felt that leadership demanded such things.

---

The guards were doubly stunned at Aurel's magic tricks. They let out terrified screams as one was constrained by ivy. Neither of them were ready to deal with a mage, despite guarding the chambers of the arch wizard herself. Silence fell upon both in the moment that the sword was shattered from the freezing temperatures.

"Uhh..." the other guard stammered. "I-I guess I'll take you to see His Majesty. F-follow me..." he ushered Aurel to accompany him to the king's throne room, but not before flashing a terrified glance at Esmae, as if begging for her help in dealing with this potential menace.

[Endem]

Aurel

Aurel's face brightened "Very well!" He shouted, "Onwards then, on to entertain the king with my unmatched musical skills!" He continued as he started to quickly move towards the door, however, just before opening it he remembered about something "right, I nearly forgot to do one thing or two" he said to himself.

Then his magical influence on the pieces of the swords stopped, they shattered as they hit the floor around "That's one thing, now, on to the second one" he then had the ivy that took hold of one of the guards stopped, then start moving away from it freeing him, and moved towards the woman, however, before it reached her, the ivy changed into a beautiful flower of unidentified species, however, it smelled strongly with a smell that no perfume could ever hope to match, and bards ( excluding Aurel ) would have a hard time even finding words for the newly made flower, that now laid before the lady.

"I intend this as a parting gift, and I'm truly sorry how this first meeting went, oh please beautiful lady, allow me to visit you once again in the future," Aurel said while teleporting away from the door to pick up the flower and hand it to the lady, after the flower was safe, floating before the lady waiting for her to take a hold of it ( by "the lady", I, and Aurel, mean Esmae, however, Aurel still needs to learn her name ) he then teleported to the guard, grabbed his hand and pulled him along "lead the way!" As he and the guard exited the room

[Kaledoria]

Marten

Initially Marten wanted to complain, that Arda underestimated him but when she spoke of him as possibly the only survivor of his expedition, it was clear she underestimated all of them - and possibly her own people on top of it. The fate of leaders who would prefer to do all the task they have to delegate themselves. Thus Marten just smiled and answered: "It definitely is more cautious then any of my leaders would be but there is reason in gathering our combined forces here, first and then all act in one coordinated plan."
It was a confirmation of some of the stereotypes Roscaelites and Lakarns had for one another, with his people being the impulsive individualists, always looking for personal glory, while his hosts were people of discipline, loyalty and conformity to their groups.

So Marten stayed at the outpost and waited for the messenger to bring back the group that was exploring the area to the north. At the evening of the third day they returned together but as Marten saw they approaching from the docks, he realized there were only three of his people among them and rushed down to meet them in front of the gate. "What happened, where are the others?" he asked them and Sir Quade answered first: "Don't worry, they ... were fine when we parted. But the messenger said Captain Arda is here, I should thus report directly to her."
He was probably right but the decision was undermined by one of Marten's brothers in arms summarizing the story as they walked to the main hall: "You got our pigeon message, right? Okay, after that we found out, the old father of the laird of the first farm that got attacked had been a locally famous adventurer 40 years ago. Even had a sword that was said to be magic but we could not find it anywhere in the ruins of his estate. Anyway, we also received word from the border outposts closer to the Vaxolgan border and they had nothing to report. Combined with the tracks Siegbert had found, this leads us to estimate, that the enemy only has a small scouting force, probably no more then ten to fifteen people, here in the lands, hiding from the main roads. They probably sneaked in somewhere between those outposts, from Vaxolga, maybe even from Sutalia, near Condeta but they did not leave that way. We tracked them further north but then they turned westwards into Roscael. At that point, Sir Quade decided we should turn around and coordinate with the Knights in command of the other outposts but Siegbert and two others decided they follow the tracks on their own, just scouting, no engagement, while Alister said he knew the Clan Chief of the area west of the border and would get a formal allowance for both us and the Order to hunt down the Necromancers on his land. Not that this was really necessary but ... well, you know those eastern chiefs. As a demonstration of respect."

Sir Quade sighed, giving up on telling Arda first as protocol would demand it: "But before we could speak with the other commanders, the messenger found us. You also forgot to mention that this Sir Siegbert also has our second messenger pigeon but other then that, yeah, that's about it."