[Mkguild] Plain & Simple part 4

[Chris]

   The room was empty except for Lord Thomas and Phil. He would have
preferred Thalberg to be here too but Phil’s skittish rabbit instincts
made the presence of any carnivore extremely difficult. The stallion was
seated in a comfortable chair. Across from him the rabbit was perched in
a large, overstuffed chair.

   “What do we know of George?” The equine duke asked. “Do we at least
know his last name?”

   The white rabbit morph shook his head. “No. He was born of peasant
farmers from the Midlands. I don’t think he has a last name. Misha says
he was born in the Outer Midlands near Salinon. I have no way to confirm
or disprove that. He has led an interesting life; bandit, bounty hunter,
scout, caravan master and general. Several times a general.” Phil
laughed. “There are no less then seven bounties out for his head.”

   “For what? All of our visitors made grave charges against him,”
Thomas said. “I must consider their requests seriously.”

   Phil nodded in agreement. “I have been studying George since Misha
first mentioned him several months ago, and I have amassed considerable
information. Aldred Fitz Williams claims to be the representative of
Marshburg. More then likely he represents some of the merchant guilds
there. The various guilds in Marshburg are always feuding and fighting.
He was working for the Clothmakers guild and when they won the last
round of fighting the merchants decided to kill their mercenaries rather
then paying the very high rewards they had promised.”

   “They’re infamous for their greed and treachery,” Thomas agreed
shaking his massive head making his mane flap about. “What ever happened
to loyalty and trust?”

   “It doesn’t exist there. Their only interest is in making more money.
George led a large mercenary band there and they cut their way free
destroying a lot of the city in the process. But it is hard to tell who
caused most of the damage.”

   “What of Alinux Arthlow?” the Duke asked.

   “There was a long civil war in Isenport some twelve years ago between
two brothers vying for the throne. The fighting at Sandport wasn’t a
massacre as he claimed. The general in command of the troops of Prince
Harry was a George Cutlass.”

   Thomas gave a snort of laughter. “He certainly has a flair for
dramatic names.”

   “That George commanded Harry’s troops for several years and handled
them brilliantly. He would have won if someone hadn’t poisoned the
prince.”

  The Duke leaned forward “Are both Georges the same person?”

   “The descriptions do match,” the rabbit answered. “And Lord Arthlow
thinks so.”

   “He must have done very well to have a reward still on him over a
decade later.”

   The rabbit nodded in agreement. “This man is a leader with
considerable skills. If we do not hire him Nasoj is sure to,” the rabbit
warned. “He has more then enough money to buy George’s loyalties.”

   The Duke shook his head. “I don’t think so. This one has more sense
then to just follow the one with the most gold. When you are a mercenary
you do not get to be his age by being stupid or greedy.”

   “True,” the rabbit said and nodded in agreement. “But can we trust
him?”

   Thomas shrugged. “We’ll find out in two weeks. If he stays and lets
the curse take him then he means what he says.”


**********************


   George was quiet for a long time pondering everything he had heard.
They had gone into more details then Misha had the night before but very
little of the new information had been noteworthy.

   “I’ve been thinking about this since Misha first asked me to come
here. You’ve got a bad situation here. A strong enemy to the north and
your own assets are small, poorly organized and badly scattered. On the
good side you have a dedicated and loyal population and the narrowness
of the pass means they can only attack from one direction. That makes
things a lot simpler. What we need to do is to push this fight north.
Get it away from our settled areas and into Nasoj’s territory.”

   “For a start double the number of patrols you run from the Keep
itself and make sure they go all the way east and west to the valley
walls. Next reinforce Tarrelton. Put a good sized garrison of soldiers
and cavalry there. They’ll patrol the full width of the valley from
Barnhardt’s castle to Mycransburg,” he said tracing that line on the map
with his fingers. “The open farm land will give the cavalry an
advantage. Also rebuild the tower to twice its height and put observers
at the top. They can spot raiders a lot sooner and signal the Keep.”

   “Signal the Keep with what?” Thomas asked. “We have too few mages to
waste them sitting in towers watching for raiders.”

   George looked at the Duke perplexed. “Why use spells? Haven’t you
heard of signal fires? Signal mirrors?” he asked in a surprised tone.

   “Evidently not,” Thomas answered flatly.

   “You keep the fire covered except when you want to send a message.
Then you uncover it so many times. The number being different for each
message,” the old scout explained. “A fire, even a small one can be seen
for a long way off.”

   “Four flashes could mean raiders to the east, three to the west,”
Misha explained.

   “If the number of flashes stood for individual letters instead of
whole words the number of messages could be infinite,” Thalberg added.

   Thomas nodded his head. “Impressive. A line of such towers spread
across the valley could give us almost half a day’s warning of raids.”

   “Only if combined with good observers and a well organized scouting
group,” George added as he sipped some wine.
 
 “The hard part will be holding off the bandits long enough to actually
BUILD the towers. Nasoj will simply concentrate on attacking the towers
and destroy them,” Thalberg countered calmly.

   “So?” George answered laconically. “All the better. If they go after
the towers we can be waiting in ambush. No need to go hunting the
raiders. They’ll come to us! All we have to do is wait.”

   “And while they are attacking the towers the towns and villages will
be left alone,” Misha added.

   It was such an obvious and simple plan that made so much sense.
Thomas was stunned and it showed. “Good. Very good.”

   “Combined,” George said. “the patrols from the Keep and Tarrelton
will seal off the southern half of the valley from raiders. They’ll have
to cross two lines of patrols to get there. They’ll be a few bloody
fights at first but all raids south of the Keep will end within a
month.”

   The old bandit bit into a large piece of pastry and continued to
speak, spraying crumbs everywhere as he talked. “The first rule of
warfare is attack. Get the enemy to react to you. Keep Nasoj busy
fending off your attacks and that will relieve the pressure on the
villages and towns here in the valley.”

   “How?” Thalberg asked. “We do not have the people needed to invade
the Giantdowns.”

   “Invade?” George asked angrily. “Did I say invade? Why do all
nobleman always think of huge armies?” he exclaimed in an annoyed tone.
“RAIDS!” he shouted. “The Lutins are raiding you in small groups so you
have to strike them the same way. Besides with all this forest,” he said
and waved a hand over the green colored portions of the map. “You don’t
have any room to maneuver a large group of soldiers. Certainly not a
bunch of arrogant noblemen riding around on horseback waving banners and
making all sorts of noise. I’ve killed lots of fools like that.”

   “So have I,” Misha added calmly. “And so have the Lutins.”

   George tapped a spot on the map to the northeast of Barnhardt’s
castle. That was the ruins of the destroyed castle. “We’ll clear these
ruins first. No doubt they’re using them as a lookout post. All sorts of
good places to hide there. But first we’ll sweep the tree line on both
sides of the road. I want a full company of infantry nearby. People good
with swords and spears.”

   “Why?” Thomas asked bluntly.

   “If we flush out anything too big for us to handle they’ll help,”
George explained. “And when we get done clearing the ruins they’ll stay
there and make sure no Lutins return.”

   “Those ruins are empty,” Standing next to the Duke was a tall
wolverine morph. He was wearing a gray robe trimmed in dark green. On
both cuffs was the same emblem in gold: two crossed lances on a shield
above which was a crown. Andre was not happy with the scruffy looking
man even if Misha did think highly of him. “We search them every day. I
was there this morning.”

   “You mean you rode through there on horseback,” George corrected.
“Maybe even got off and walked around a little.”

   Andre opened his mouth to reply but George cut him off by dropping a
small pouch onto the table. “I’ll bet you all the coins in that pouch
that we find Lutins there AFTER you ride through.”

   The wolverine morph extended a clawed hand. “Agreed.”

   “And what do we do after clearing the ruins?” Thomas asked.

   George shot the stallion a cold, hostile glare. “That’s a stupid
question,” he spat back. “You rebuild the castle and garrison it.
Patrols from it will block over half the entrance to valley.”

   “We don’t have the troops and resources to garrison it,” Thalberg
countered.

   “THEN FIND THEM!” George shot back harshly showing teeth in the
process. “Metamor has a standing army. I saw how many you have guarding
this pile of stones. Send half to be the garrison in the new castle.”

   “No,” Thomas answered. “If Nasoj invades again we will need them to
defend the Keep.”

   “Stupid, narrow thinking,” George answered and cursed fluently in
several languages. “To get to the Keep he would have to besiege the
outpost. He could not afford to just bypass it. Why do you think he
attacked it the last time? It will take several days to reduce the
place, giving you plenty of time to raise the feudal levy and march
north to meet him there. Caught between the castle walls in front of him
and your relieving army behind he will have to retreat or be wiped out.”

   George calmed down a bit and spoke in a softer tone. “And it will
keep the raiders out of the rest of the valley. The Lutins would always
have to work their way past the castle and its patrols first to get in
and then to get out. Then the people of Glen Avery wouldn’t have to live
in holes in the ground anymore.”

   “Part of the garrison will come from your nobles,” George explained.
“They could serve their annual feudal service at the castle as the
guards. That would allow us to use your professional troops for patrols
and chasing down raiders.”

   The room was silent. No one had spoken throughout George’s tirade. It
was Andre who broke the silence. “I don’t like what little manners you
have but I do like how you think,” He said simply. “It makes good use of
what resources we have.”

   George smiled. “I’m not here to be polite. I’m here to win a war.”

   “The bandit does have a point,” Thomas commented calmly both
complimenting and insulting George at the same time.

   “How long would it take?” Thalberg asked.

   “Several years at least to make most of the valley safe,” George
answered.

   Misha nodded his head in agreement. “It will take months just to
organize the scouts and the light infantry.”

   “This will not be easy. We will have to fight to take the ruins and
then fight harder to keep them. And they are sure to try everything to
stop us from rebuilding the place,” the old bandit added.

   “He will have every lutin, ogre and troll within a hundred miles raid
the construction site,” Thomas commented, “to keep us from restoring the
fortress.”

   “But while they are attacking there the rest of the valley will be
left alone,” Misha countered.

   “If we could get one or two good harvests in without raiders burning
the crops that would help greatly,” the alligator said.

   “Why don’t you raid the lutins and steal their food?” George asked.

   Misha shook his head. “You do NOT want to eat anything a lutin calls
food.”

   The old bandit had a confused look on his face. “What does a lutin
eat?”

   “Anything that doesn’t eat them first,” Andre commented. “Including
each other.”

   “There is no garbage dump in a lutin settlement,” Misha added. “And
no midden either.”

   “Do they keep cattle?” George persisted.

   “Some do,” the fox answered. “There are even a few who do something
that could vaguely pass for farming, but most survive by hunting and
raiding each other.”

   “In more peaceful times some Lutins used to trade with the Keep,”
Thalberg said. “At least one tribe used to trade several varieties of
mushrooms including ones with a cap several feet across. They tasted
quite delicious.”

   “They’ll only trade peacefully with the Keep when that is the only
way to get what they want from us,” Misha explained.

   “Peace only comes when you have the military might to back it up,”
George commented.

   The stallion nodded in agreement. “All too true.”

   “Are there any drawings of the old castle? If so I want to see them.”
George asked. “And I want to talk to people who were there when it was
taken.”

   “We have complete diagrams of the whole fortress,” Thalberg answered.
“I will have them delivered to you right away. There were few survivors
of the siege but I’ll locate them.”

   Misha scratched his ears slowly. “I wonder if any plans for the old
Seuilman fortress are left? They might tell us if the legionnaires
buried any surprises.”

   “The library would be the best place to look,” Thalberg said. “Any
surviving Seuilman records would be there but I doubt they are complete.
The invasion destroyed a lot.”

   The fox scout nodded. “It’s a place to start at least.”

   “First we take the fight to the Lutins. Start raiding into the
Giantdowns,” George explained. “Strike at the Lutins and Nasoj. Make
them have to defend their homes. Then we retake the ruins and rebuild
the outpost there. After that you can build those signal towers and we
can work on plugging any gaps they are sure to find. After that it is
down to a war of attrition. We keep killing the raiders till we’ve
killed all the aggressive ones. Then the rest will leave us alone.”

   “You make it sound so easy and simple,” Thalberg commented.

   “The best plans are the simple ones,” George countered in a cold
tone. “But let this be clear. This is going to be a long and bloody
fight. No grand battle and a victory celebration afterwards. This will
be a nasty war of countless little skirmishes, ambushes and chases.”

   “Do we have any other choices?” Thomas asked.

   “No.”

   “We are already fighting this war Thomas,” Misha commented.

   “And loosing,” George added.

   Thomas stroked his chin as he looked at the map. Then he turned to
George. “As of this moment you are The Duke of Metamor’s chief of
scouts. Henceforth all scouting and scouts will be under your control.”

   George smiled broadly. “Good! I want a meeting of all the scouts,”
George ordered. “All of them. I want to see the people I’m leading
immediately.”

   Thomas nodded. “We will do that. It will be set for two weeks from
today.”

   “I prefer tomorrow.”

   “No,” the stallion countered. “After the curse takes you. Then I know
I can trust you.”

   George’s reaction was unexpected. He laughed. “You’ve adapted really
well to using that curse.”

   “A good leader uses what resources he has at hand.”

   The old bandit smiled. “Indeed.”

End part 4

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