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Aftermath of Peace
Prelude
You all find yourselves together at the tower in the town square. It's close to midnight now, it was about a half hour ago that you were sent for. While waiting, you all discover that you were each asked here for the same reason, Council Business. The guards sent for you were rather polite and even apologized for intruding at such a late time. After waiting for a short while, a woman named Alania comes to get you, she's followed by a guard. Alania thanks you and also apologizes for calling on you at such a late hour as she leads you to a chamber at the far end of the hall. The chamber is rather large, and as you look around you can see people sitting at a horseshoe shaped table, plus guards all around. Morduke can see the leader of his temple's delegation standing with the head of the Kord temple here. Olowniuk can see his ships captian standing behind the Votu delegate, Cutter notices that none of the Bistal delegation is present. The man at the head of the table stands up, he's an older man with a slightly long white beard.
"Gentlemen, I apologize for calling on you at such a late hour but time is precious and we must move quickly. I am Grandel of Dinasis, Council Head." he makes a motion and servants bring in a table and place it at the end of the horseshoe table, allow you to sit and still face them all. "Please, sit. There is much to talk about. First you should know that there was an attack on the Council just moments before the attack on the town square and docks happened. Members of the Council and the delegations were killed in the attack, including the, ironically, mother of the Council Queen Valnaha. However, in spite of the tragic events that happen here today and even those that followed in the last ten hours, we feel that the Council is needed more now then even and have already sealed the Declaration of Peace. Tomorrow we will also conduct a public ceremony where we announce to the people that the Council is ready to fight this amazon threat. We will also present each of you with a medal for the bravery and the heroic messures you took today." The council claps at the mention of your feats, he just smiles and holds his hand up to quiet the applause. "However, this next part is out of my area of expertise. I will now give you to General Balrik of the Dinasisian Army, and Commander of the Council Forces." Grandel sits back down. A tall, powerful looking man stands up and makes a motion to some one. A giant tapestry is dropped and you can see the threads swirl through out it, until the form a map of the known world. Balrik steps up and begins to speak.
"Today the balance of the world has just taken a major shift. A shift that will change, and probably destroy civiliazation as we know it if we don't correct it soon. After the attack today, each delegation did their best to communicate with their homes to report and gather information. We have spent the last 9 hours today gathering as much information as we can about our new threat. The information we have gather has not been pleasant in anyway. First, at the same time you were saving the city from our attackers, every capital of the kingdoms in the Council were attacked. They were small quick strike forces, it seems the attacks had two goals. One was to get our attention, get in, do as much damage and get out. Second was to kill any nation leaders if possible since reports on assination attempts have been coming in all day. There were no surviviors from the enemy, they all commited suicide just like the ones here. However, their attack plan was a 100% successful in one kingdom, Bistal. They managed to take the castle of King Haronis, slaughter him, his family and his entire royal council, reports are vauge but it appears there is almost nothing left of the capital. That's not the worst part gentlemen. An attack like this would take planning, we're guessing that they've been planning this for over a year. It is well known that Xiania held Valnaha's ear, and we speculate she may have used the forming of the council to keep us and Valnaha distracted while she planned her treason. And now the salt in our wounds." He makes a motion over the tapestry and it changes again, some kingdoms are colored in blue, some in red, some in green and the rest in gray. "The kingdoms in blue are members of the Council. Ambroe Isle, Votu, Kryll, Corison, Gri, Bistal, Paruv, Dinasis, Pallegan, Hikria. The kingdoms in red are those, that we have knowledge of are in alliance with the Amazon forces. Mesasis, Minneva, Svykur, Astol, and Ithaky. The ones in green are not involved with either alliance. Perreth, Lylival, Balna, Iron Shores, Great Wasteland, and Mykyll, who was once a member of the Council but doesn't want to fight. The ones in gray are kingdoms we haven't heard from or who we can't figure out. Nystol, Timor Plains (although we know they are fighting with Gri) and the Majestic Kingdoms - Rajahmeer, Ximeng, Kaildor, and Ost. However, it is general knowledge that Ximeng and Minneva are involved in slave trades with each other."
"But how is that salt in our wounds, General?" you turn to see the orgin of the question and there is a older looking man, probably in his late sixties stand by the door, dressed in dull green robes, holding an even older looking oak staff. Balicus recongizes him almost instantly, the rest can hear Bali whisper the name Nadimus. "Truely the number of kingdoms in this Council are greater then those in this alliance. I'm sure as long as we engage in some fancy diplomatic footwork with the neutrals to keep them from taking the other side, our armies will crush our foes with ease." Nadimus smiles at bit at himself, then looks you over. Everyone blinks as they see white light sparkle inbits ofchaotic patterens through his robes as he looks you over. Both Balicus and Olowniuk feel a shiver go down their spine as he looks at them. Balrik laughs a bit at Nadimus.
"Good wizard, I wish that was the case but it is not. If the Amazon strike forces are any indication in to what their armies are like, plus add in their new allies we are unprepared to fight them. At the moment we do not even know where they retreated to after the strikes, we don't know how big their force is, we don't know what their overall goal is, and we don't know when, where or how they are going to strike next. And our current situations will factor into how well we can respond." Nadimus looks perplexed as he listens to Balrik.
"Well then General, what are our current situations? And what can we do to remedy all this?" Nadimus asks calmly.
"Well Sir," Balrik makes a motion and pointer appears in his hand, he points to the northern continent. "In the north we have our allies Corison and Gri. Corison is in the northern part of the continent, on her borders we have Astol, a comfirmed Ithaky ally, then Lylival and Mykyll. As it is, Lylival doesn't even allow normal traffic throught their borders, they won't allow military forces and I'm sure they'll make sure Mykyll follows suit. Which leaves us only the sea in which to get supplies and equipment to them. Gri has had the barbarians of Timor Plains pushing their border for the last two years so I don't see that stopping anytime soon. And this new threat will not change the fact that Corison is on the verge of a holy war between religous factions. The Corison forces are weakened due to this religious infighting and Gri is barely keeping the barbarians at bay. So we have two allies in the north that will be at odds keeping their own lands safe, let alone lend aid to others. In the south we have Dinasis, Pallegan, Kryll, Hikria and Bistal. Ithaky has already divided us with their alliances with Svykur, Mesasis, and Minneva. This move has left Dinasis and Pallegan isolated from the rest of the allies and even then they are divided by the Great Wasteland. Kryll is completely alone with all three of the Ithaky allies on it's border and rumor has it that Falgarra is going to join Ithaky. Leaving Hikria and Bistal to stand alone. As it stands now, Kryll is so infected with corruption that it's hard to say who's doing what and for whom. Dukes and Baron's have their portions of the Kryllian armies off doing things for their own needs leaving the kingdom almost defenseless. Pallegan is on the verge of finincial ruins, they can barely feed their people, their armies are busy controlling crowds and protecting what farms they have left from raids. Bistal, as we all know may be completely taken over. This leaves us Dinasis and Hikria. While the Dinasis Republic is basically free of any internal problems, we have seen nothing but peace for the last 100 years. So what I have to offer is a force of well trained soliders that have no battle experience what so ever. Hikria has offered all she can, His Majesty King Tyren has promised supplies, food, and military support to those in need. So Dinasis and Hikria will be mixing forces, experienced with the new, and will be able to offer a battalion of men to each kingdom in a little over a week."
"And what will we do about the Bistal situation, good General? We can't lose one of our members with in weeks of becoming unified. Besides we don't know if those involved in the coup are acting on their own or in alliance with these women or Ithaky." the rooms mubles in agreement with Gilpenlock, the delegate of Pallegan.
"Well Delegate Gilpenlock that is why we have requested the presence of our heroes from today." he waves his hand and the tapestry changes again, this time with seaways and roadways marked. "Since we don't know the state of either the armies or the rulers of Bistal, if they even exist, we're going to send a small group in. Princess Genna of Hikria has offered to go with them to help restore a ruling structure again. Our group will leave Paruv on the Weeping Winds, take this seaway to Torken's Port in Hikria, where they will then head to the capital of Jynrik to accompany the Princress to Bykin in Bistal and stay as her personal guards and aid her in the restoring of control to Bistal." he steps down from the small upraise he was on and walks towards you a bit. "We were hoping that the group would be you gentlemen. What do you say?"
And suddenly, all their eyes focus on you.
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