GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 12: Dealing with Dukes

Characters:

Granmarg The Striking Vanguard, The Boulderstruck, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate
Pomegranite The Treefallen, The Spymaster

Mielikki The Field Marshal, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

Thicket The Grandmaster Terramorpher, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

 

The Imperial College

The earthling army marched back out of the province of Tauschun and to the College far to the northeast. The further north they travelled, the longer the red sun hung in the sky.  By the time they were approaching Halberst, there were only a few hours of normal daylight, the rest an orange twilight, with night perhaps half as long as it should be.  As they passed through the rocky and mountainous terrain that had been transferred to the College in the recent treaty with Ulrich, some of the College magisters took their leave from the army to begin the work of assessing the value of the region.

 

Weeks of travel through the rocky highlands of Halberst later, they arrived at the Imperial College itself, which was defended by a one hundred foot tall circular wall of solid, magically created stone which was, they noted positively, similar to earthling construction methods.  Leaving the bulk of the army to camp outside the city, the commanders arrived at one of the great circular gates and walked down the broad thoroughfares of the "new city" until they arrived at the edge of the College campus, which had been built over the ruins of the old city following its destruction after the rebellion of the old King of Halberst.  A few sections of the old fortifications still stood, typically where they abutted buildings.

 

As they arrived at the campus, a small delegation led by High Magister Curzo came out to meet with them.  There was no fanfare, and those from the College wore only their typical robes.  Curzo extended a curt greeting, and congratulated the commanders on a successful campaign in Tauschun.  Mielikki explained that, though they had acquired some of Tauchun's land, they had been unable to secure the province's support for Cliffside, the nephew of Thicket that they were supporting as the next Emperor.

Curzo agreed that this was not ideal, and stated that he would have to consult with his colleagues on this.  For now, he continued, they should discuss the transfer of land.  At that, the highest ranking of the magisters who had gone with the earthlings approached him and engaged in whispered conversation before handing over several reports.  As with the last time they'd met with a High Magister of the College, Curzo seemed broadly disinterested in politics and governance.  Likely, he thought of this only as a distraction.

 

Pomegranite requested any news they might have missed while on campaign, and Curzo replied that, after much study, they had determined that the Path of Prophecy was indeed entirely gone.  Mielikki, bothered by the fact that the sun's behaviour seemed to match what Edelina had described as the apocalypse laid out by the Book, the human religious text, asked for some assistance in studying this.  Curzo replied that they could provide copies of the Book, though it would likely not be of much use as it only described the structure of the cosmos through allegory.

 

In his opinion, and that of a sizable number of magisters, the disappearance of the Path of Prophecy had unbalanced the Paths, and this was causing energies to surge out into the physical world, resulting in strange phenomena.  Though Mielikki was annoyed that he lacked the knowledge to understand these explanations fully, he took some small solace in the fact that the College clearly had experts in charge, which was, in a way, modelling themselves after (the obviously superior) earthling society.

 

In a hurry to end this exchange, Curzo returned to the subject of their new lands.  The earthlings were to receive the Seigniories of Socerne and Frilothurn, which lay to the northwest, bordering the earthling province of the Highland Forests.  He recommended they meet with the men who ruled the region, Seignieurs Muller and Bachofen, to work out what form annexation would take.  The commanders had already sent back some messengers, and so knew that they would meet with an earthling administrative council which should have been dispatched to the region to survey it ahead of their arrival.  Of note, it would be led by Petra, Pomegranite's old flame, who had done well in The Games.

 

Schoolwork

Thicket and Granmarg consulted old tomes of knowledge in the College with the aid of a human magister regarding the spiral patterns that they'd first seen in Tauschun and were now engraved on their chests.  It was an archaic symbol of the human goddess of form, Clio, matron of the Paths of Creation and Change.  Her great temple had been built on the southern isthmus of Tauschun, and that was where worship of her was strongest.  Still, the earthlings had never gone nearly far south enough to come even to the edge of the isthmus.

 

The magister's opinion was more or less the same as Curzo's: the Paths were unbalanced, and so some energies of Change had leaked out into the world and altered them.  Granmarg welcomed this explanation and went further, realizing this would also make a suitable explanation for the collapse of the Mountain's Maw.  Thicket disagreed, as clearly a human "goddess" that didn't even exist couldn't possibly be responsible.

 

Mielikki similarly studied the Book with a human aide, looking for whether Edelina's claims of the end times were evidenced or not, and how they conflicted with earthling myth.  The mention of the sun hanging red and low in the sky was more or less accurate, while the closest he could find on the subject of the earthquakes and volcano foretold in his own understanding of the apocalpyse was a section on the earth being torn asunder and great beasts emerging from deep within.

 

He also found a section that looked to conflict with reality, where seers were driven mad with impossible visions of doom.  Though it was obviously a mention of the Path of Prophecy (or so the magister would have him believe), magisters of that Path weren't being driven mad, but were merely unable to cast spells relating to it anymore.  For completeness' sake, Mielikki also looked to what was supposed to happen at the end of things, and found a frustratingly vague mention of the faithful going to paradise while the unfaithful burned.  It was unclear whether this was supposed to be an afterlife or physical place, and his aide was little help; theology was not a valued subject at the College.

 

It seemed that all three of the Imperial Faith, earthling faith, and College research granted some understanding, but each gave an incomplete picture.  For now, Mielikki adopted the theory that one of the false human gods, who he believed to be in truth aspects of Terra, the one true god, were behind these events, and were trying to supplant Terra.  Conveniently, this matched his political views.

 

Pomegranite spent his time gathering rumours and catching up with information from his spy network.  There was much news from Tauschun, though having first-hand knowledge of the events, this was of little interest to him.  Thicket and Granmarg had become noteworthy for possibly having been exposed to the magic of the Path of Change, and some magisters were curious to study them but were shot down by higher-ups to avoid a scandal.

 

Another subject of debate was whether it would be possible to bring balance to the Paths by destroying the Path that lay opposite to the Path of Prophecy.  However, that would be the Path of Healing, which would be disastrous to lose, not to mention that the imbalance of the Paths was still only a theory.  Ultimately, this was mostly an academic argument, and nobody had put forth any idea on how one could destroy an entire Path.

 

In other provinces, Baronde was struggling without Prophecy, and had had a series of disastrous harvests, leaving them in a place of weakness.  Wrost was still a black hole of knowledge, with only the fact that there was a civil war making it out of the Grand Duchy.  Who was actually fighting was a complete mystery, though the rumours were either the lesser dukes rising up, infighting caused by College meddling (which was mostly dismissed out of hand by the magisters), or even a lost descendent of one of the old kings raising a peasant army to retake the throne.

 

Annexation

After two weeks, the commanders took their leave of the College and headed northwest toward their new lands of Socerne and Frilothurn.  Shortly before their arrival in Socerne, they met with the earthling council that had been dispatched, and Petra explained that they hadn't been in the region for long, but had done some basic surveying.  Socerne bordered Lumene to the north, while Frilothurn's west was a range of hills that eventually went down into the deserts of the dwarves.  Both were marginal as far as agriculture went, and while the humans here made due, it would take significant terraforming to enable them to cultivate proper earthling crops.

 

Politically and economically, this was a backwater.  The two seigniories would, in most provinces, be duchies, but after the rising up of the old king of Halberst and subsequent handing over of the land to the Imperial College, the remaining nobility had had their rights and titles reduced as punishment.  Though they likely weren't expecting much, as a minority inside a nation they shared little in common with, it was likely that the Seignieurs would resist any move to revoke their titles completely.  

 

Onto the question of who among the earthlings would receive the land, the general legal case was that any conquered lands would go to those responsible, which was usually the offices of the Triumvirate (as distinct from the individuals who made up the Triumvirate at the time).  However, powerful landowning families and the temple of Terra would both be expecting to be granted lands as well.  Further, Thicket pointed out that they could buy the loyalty of their troops and the officer corps by extending the definition of who was responsible for conquering lands.  Further, they could set up the terms such that on death of the current landholder, title reverted to the four of them, and, with most soldiers being peasants, this would largely go unnoticed for decades.

 

Lastly, as it would take decades of terraforming to prepare the lands for earthling agriculture, Petra assessed that it was more important to focus on the current political problems facing the province and empire when distributing the lands.  Mielikki noted that, militarily, they largely did not need to worry about the border with Lumene, as any force that wished to attack the Highland Forests would do so across the Bloody River.  It would be too difficult to march an entire army south into the hills along the north of Socerne, so only a handful of outposts would be necessary.  To the west, Frilothurn likewise had a natural border of hills facing the Dwarven Undersands.

 

Socerne

The commanders marched down to the castle town of Socerne which surrounded an old disused keep, where they were met by a platoon of trumpeters playing strange horns that seemed to lack a mouthpiece, and Seigneur Muller himself.  Muller was a plump man, with thinning red hair and thick mutton chops wearing a splendid silk tunic.  He gave a deep bow and welcomed them graciously to his lands, which Granmarg corrected to their lands with a lighthearted punch on the shoulder.

The Triumvirate were led to the keep's great hall, where banners featuring the heraldry of Socerne flew, accompanied by a few hastily sewn banners of the Highland Forest's green tree on red.  Muller proudly proclaimed that, though they may be humans, he had spared no expense in procuring earthling fare for them to enjoy, including some delicacies that had been acquired at great expense.  He seemed to be making an effort, though the rockflower turned out to be of somewhat poor vintage; as was often the case with humans, they purchased gems that looked beautiful but had been exported from the Highland Forests specifically due to their lacking in taste.

 

Over the meal, Muller asked Thicket if he had any ideas for improvements to the region, and the Grandmaster Terramorpher replied that, though he appreciated that the man was looking to the future, he hadn't had enough time to assess the lands, and would spend a time making maps to better come to a decision.  Muller insisted that he would have his own scouts and personal retinue aid Thicket in his work, which was appreciated.  Granmarg caught on to what he was doing, and asked what Muller's ideas were for the integration of their militaries.

 

Muller claimed that such a move was simply common sense; surely the humans in the new territories would have to be integrated.  He was obviously trying to show that there was a use for humans (and especially himself) in earthling society, as expulsion from their lands (or worse) was certainly on the table, if the Triumvirate willed it.  Pomegranite asked what his dealings were like with Lumene, and the seigneur replied that they had little business with outsiders as there was not much to trade; their main export was trained hawks, and there were precious few of those.

 

This grabbed Granmarg's attention, and at the Champion's request, Muller had his own hawk, Astra, brought forth by a servant.  Muller whistled without moving his lips, and the bird flew over to his side, where a small place setting was being arranged, and began to eat the meal it was offered with fork and knife.  Granmarg was in awe of the potential use of such a bird; just imagine how much faster they'd be able to communicate compared to messengers on foot!  

 

Mielikki, meanwhile was curious as to the nature of the whistling, and the horns being played earlier, and inquired as to how the humans were performing these feats.  Muller was pleased to explain that they were local spells that had been handed down through the generations, all to do with fine control of the movements of air.  A similar type of magic was how they were able to train the hawks as they did.  It was not too different, he figured, from the earthsinging that the earthlings performed, and similarly, was not of interest to the College.

 

Towards the end of the feast, Muller had a scribe brought forth so they could establish the written contract of oaths and obligations that would properly annex Socerne as a fief of the Highland Forests.  He also offered to provide a place for the Lumenian humans they'd taken in as refugees, but the Triumvirate shot that down as unnecessary.  The contract ultimately ended up reinstating Muller's old title of Duke, while simultaneously granting almost all of his fief that was not currently productive over to earthling use as the Triumvirate saw fit.

 

Pomegranite arranged to receive a trained hawk as a gift, which he creatively named Bird.  Though he lacked the local folk magic and hadn't studied the Path of the Sky, he did have basic College training and with some effort he was able to mostly recreate the whistles that the Socerne Master of Birds demonstrated.  When Granmarg asked for a dozen such hawks to establish communications between Bedrock and the front the next time they went to war, he was turned down as there were precious few available.  They each took a long time to raise, and there were only 5 such trainers in Socerne.

 

Frilothurn

The next morning, they dispatched earthling surveyors to get a better sense of Socerne, then set out for the second of their new lands.  Petra explained as they marched: the population in Frilothurn was centered on one fertile valley surrounded by gentle, arid hills to all sides.  To the west, past the hills, was the edge of the desert below which the dwarves dwelt.  Even moreso than Socerne, Frilothurn produced little of value.

 

At the outskirts of the smaller castle-town, they were met by only a small group of four, led by Seigneur Bachofen.  A tall, gaunt man with short dark hair, he bore no finery other than a brooch which denoted him as a Magister of the Path of the Void.  Bachofen was straight to business, stating that he hoped the arrangement he had with the earthlings would be similar to what he'd had with the College, though the Triumvirate weren't particularly aware of what that meant.  Before they could ask for clarification, he pressed on, curious to know their preliminary thoughts for the region.

 

Pomegranite opined that they could use perhaps three to four dozen fortresses on the western border with the dwarves, to prepare for their (inevitable) treachery, which resulted in an awkward pause before Mielikki gave a clattering cough and redirected the conversation to the terraforming of currently unusable land, then inquired as to what the people of Frilothurn could provide.

 

Bachofen admitted that they were a rural folk, if hardworking, with little in the way of goods beyond subsistence.  He then turned the conversation around to discussion of the governance structure that would be deployed in Frilothurn.  He'd heard many things about the earthling meritocracy, after all.  This was a question that shocked all of the Triumvirate, but especially Thicket, the arch-reactionary, who was appalled both at the implication of human participation in the meritocracy and the fact that, as far as he was aware, such participation would be entirely legal.

 

Further, despite the opinions of the Triumvirate on the matter, which ranged from extremely negative to indifference at most, the human refugees from Lumene had integrated so positively into earthling society that any attempt to institute a ban on human participation would be deeply unpopular with most earthlings.  Under the new High Priest Friedrich's efforts, the same was true for toleration of the Imperial Faith.  To top it all off, they couldn't rely on clever rhetoric to sway the public with claims of "protecting" the meritocracy after how nakedly corrupt the last Games had been.

 

After a few seconds of silence to think of a proper way to phrase it, Mielikki finally replied to Bachofen by saying that human participation in the meritocracy was currently allowed.  Bachofen, for his part, understood the message and dropped the subject immediately.  As the conversation continued, Mielikki got the impression that Bachofen either didn't want to consolidate his position with the earthlings, or that he didn't think it was possible at all.

 

It seemed like there was little the lands of Frilothurn had to offer, but in the name of fairness Bachofen would receive the same deal that Muller had received: the re-establishment of his title and rights as duke, while the majority of un-utilized land went directly to earthling control.  Further, the earthlings would get a large tithe of any future industry constructed in the duchy.  As the meeting closed, Thicket asked if, as a magister, the duke had ever seen battle, to which Bachofen stated that he hadn't, and was more interested in the fundamental architecture of the Paths.

 

Mielikki wondered how he carried out that study here, and was told that Bachofen spent roughly half his time at the College.  During that time, one of his advisors ruled in his stead.  Any urgent decisions would result in his being recalled from his study, but that hadn't happened in years; this was a quiet region.  Though Mielikki wasn't fully satisfied with the situation, it would at least be good to have a man in charge who was content with his station, rather than one with ambitions.

 

Bedrock, At Last

Once the earthling army had finished the weeks of marching back to Bedrock and disbanded, the Triumvirate got to work finalizing the distribution of new lands after hearing an update from Pomegranite's spy network that had been monitoring the various groups of reformers.  They were divided into many factions, and many had irreconcilable views.  One of the most politically powerful groups was a collection of nobles who'd attained posts in the last Games and were upset that people were questioning the legitimacy of a system which benefited them, who only wanted to get rid of (open) corruption.

 

Other nobles who had lost out on major roles (typically blamed on bribery, though many had lost fair and square) wanted reforms that would place themselves back in power, whether that was a monarchy, federation with much more explicit inherited noble power, or a sort of republic where only nobles with land had say.  Lesser nobles, merchants, and guildmasters who found themselves with newfound power after buying political office were actively attempting to institute something like a republic where any with money could vote, while the vast, uncoordinated masses of the peasantry and tradespeople wanted radically increased rights, pay, and reduced tithes.  

 

Curiously, despite all their frustration with earthling society in general, the peasantry were divided over whether the Triumvirate were actually doing a good job or not.  For now, they were also so decentralized and leaderless that there was no negotiating with them either way.  Thicket advocated placating the high nobles, but, after some arguments from Mielikki swayed Granmarg, he was outvoted 3 to 1 and the peasant soldiers would receive the majority of the land, with a minor share going to the church, noble families, and of course, the offices of the Triumvirate themselves.

 

 

Notes:

No games for all of June, RIP.  A lot of player (and, in fairness, GM) knowledge was forgotten in that time, unfortunately.  In particular, the stuff about Clio was mostly already known back in April.

 

An interesting situation with the difference between the College's and the Imperial Faith's models of the universe is that only Pomegranite really knows that information in-character, with the others equally in the dark about both.

 

In a classic "there's no rule saying a dog can't play basketball" situation, the PCs discovered in the discussion with Bachofen that there was nothing preventing a human from participating in The Games and therefore earning office within earthling society.

 

Similar situation: as part of their reduced rights, the Seigneurs were restricted in the number of men-at-arms they could raise, and were banned from keeping court magisters.  Seigneur Bachofen got around this by becoming a magister himself. 

 

There was much talk by Mielikki of the Seigneurs being "threats" to the earthlings due to the difference of the militaries of the two.  Earthling levies are heavily centralized, with all armies being raised under the direct authority of the Triumvirate (technically the Field Marshall specifically), while the humans in the new lands would respond to the Seigneurs first, who would then second them to the Triumvirate's control.

 

The pet political issues of the PCs as of the current moment, and how serious they're taken by the rest:
Granmarg - Cultivating trained hawks for communications.  Reasonable.

Mielikki - Shoring up the military defenses of the new regions.  Reasonable.

Pomegranite - Destroying the dwarves.  Total crank shit.

Thicket - Earthling and Terran supremacy.  Inflexible and often inconvenient, but otherwise reasonable.

 

Bachofen's bit about the "fundamental architecture of the Paths" refers to the field of study focusing on the structure of the Paths and the space between them, as well as the "missing" Paths.  There's also a radical school of thought that there are further "Lesser" Paths in a ring beyond the current known Paths, which may explain certain folk magic uses that don't fall neatly into the known categories.  This is the same field that High Magister Eva is the foremost expert in.