Book 3, chapter 22.

22. The Battles For North Shire Pt. 1

Thedum telling me that I would find no condemnation from him for my actions did not ease my conscience, for it also meant he could provide me with no repentance.  I checked with Eclipse for a second, but she was just excited that I’d used her sword in a duel that would become infamous.  She was never one for moral quandaries to begin with.

I had killed a man.  Because he had promised to inconvenience me, I had ended his life, and given his body to the Gray Man to prevent his rebirth.  My actions were monstrous.

Voss was a traitor to his nation, pledging to shelter those in open rebellion.  I fought him in honorable combat and won by the skin of my teeth.  Uncle Auroras acted on his own accord.  My actions were … understandable?  Acceptable?

Firming my resolve, I put the matter behind me.  After spending some more time coordinating with the Travelers who had already recursed with me into The Recent Past, I sat on my throne, and began to work.

First, I updated my objectives.  Previously I had assigned six overall goals, for which hundreds of quests had been generated.  I removed four of them.  Nial Kingslayer, I decided, would come to justice eventually, but he was not my priority at the moment, and I was in no danger of forgetting him, so I struck him from the list.  My mother and brother’s safety were moved to the top of the list instead.

I was no longer interested in investigating the murders of my uncles.  My friends had spent months doing that for me, and come to an unfortunate conclusion.  They had all killed each other, each paying the assassins’ guild to make them first in the line of succession.  Storm, it seemed, had survived due to a combination of luck and paranoia.  Auroras had survived because he did not play that sort of game, and had been in the Deadlands at the time.

That would make Auroras the lawful heir of the two contenders, but like me he didn’t want it.  Or couldn’t hold it, was perhaps the more correct thing to say.  Thedum wouldn’t allow The Gray Man to rule Yuikon.

So that left us with …

I pushed aside the thoughts.  There were a few other options in my generation to be considered, but first I had battles to win.  I continued to narrow my objective until they looked like this.

• Use any means necessary to protect Analise Teoran and Rain Teoran II
• Through marshal might, remove the Northridge Freelancers from North Shire, or bring them to justice
• Protect any and all noncombatant Natives local to North Shire from the violence
• Stabilize and secure North Shire and Thorn March against a possible flood of Travelers

The list had grown shorter than before, with only four objectives, but I would update it again once the battle was won.  I waited for the system to update.  In a few moments, thousands of quests were marked as inactive within The Recent Past, while hundreds of new quests were being written every second.

“Keep me safe!” was a common one, I noticed.  I reviewed several versions of them before approving, but they were simple quests to defend one of my allied quest givers should the battle come to them.  There was nothing I could do except fight to reduce the possibility of that happening, and so I would have to be as aggressive as possible.

I began writing quests for the Natives who had been roped into the Traveler army to hand out.  Quests to siege the bandit’s strongholds, to build and defend our own.  And quests to prepare them for the upcoming battles.  I coordinated my Quest Writing with Stone, Theresa, and Luke as much as possible, since they had eyes on the ground and a good idea of what sort of quests our side would benefit from to influence the outcome.

However, the situation was once again one of “Hurry up and wait.”  We could kick off the offensive at any time, but my friends in North America were sleeping, so I would rather wait for them to wake and return to my world before I began.

I managed two nights of fitful rest, and spent the rest of the time on my throne tweaking things or listening to reports.  The bandits knew that they were surrounded, but did not seem aware that their escape routes were likewise blocked off.  They were overconfident and outmaneuvered.  At least, unless our side was missing some crucial piece of information.

Finally Tarisha logged back into my world, with Laurant a few minutes behind her.  Phil, Thena, and Corinth joined them within thirty minutes.  They gathered in the war room which had sprung up inside the Temple of Thedum and looked at me.

“This is the last chance to back down,” Tarisha reminded me.  “If you don’t start--”

“I killed a man, just because he stood in my way in bringing peace to North shire,” I said.  “It shook my resolve, but every foundation needs to be tested before it is built upon.”

And so I cast [Summon Karmic Warrior], and the room began to fill with hundreds of Travelers with blue auras.  From through the stained glass windows, I saw thousands more.  It wasn’t very long, however, before Stone began cursing.

“The bandits are getting reinforcements,” he announced.  “Travelers are showing up right inside their compounds.  There’s nothing we can do to stop them getting in.”

“You’ve only ever had to stop them from getting out,” I reminded him.  He did not take the words well, and began barking orders at the new arrivals, trying to take charge and direct them to where he thought they needed to be.

I, however, could do what I needed to do from here.  Pulling the [Battle Core] from my inventory, I focused on three points of the map of North Shire which had been set up near my throne.  With the combined power of the Core, the Throne, and the Map, I initiated three battlegrounds at once.

I quickly selected nonparticipation when the option to join came up.  That was an option I had this time around, and everyone who had been active with me during the last few days knew to do the same.  The reports came in that the bandit’s reinforcements were vanishing back into the system, and I relaxed.

“Hey Hail, want a favor?  I could make that map a whole lot better,” Eclipse whispered to me.

“I’ll take it, I said, and once more darkness and light erupted from the mark she had put on my right hand.  The magic coalesced on the map table, engulfing it in a sphere, and fading away a moment later.  Leaving the table changed.  The map wasn’t set on it anymore, but built into it.  It had become a real time updating map of North Shire, and it showed me my active battle ground areas.

So far, the plan was working.  Because I held the battle core, I could see the statistics of who had answered the call, and I found the number a little staggering.  Rumors about my intentions had spread farther than I had realized among the unaffiliated players, and millions had signed up to join the first string of battlegrounds.

The vast majority of players who had been online just now, in the entire world of Lagrea, had gotten the option to join my war.  I saw that most selected the mercenary option, which would balance the sides inside of the battlegrounds.  That wasn’t important.  The more participation there was, the more devastated the bandit fortresses would be in the wake of the battleground.  And I would issue battleground after battleground until my side won.

That is when Phil and Laurant’s teams would sweep in and arrest the surviving Native bandits, as well as any Travelers not willing to fight to the death.  Those would be limited to the Travelers who had been summoned by the balancing portion of my [Summon Karmic Warrior] ability, as the rest of the battleground participants would be returned to their starting location by the system.

Leaving the local survivors to deal with the fresh soldiers who had abstained from entering the battleground.

Victory by attrition.  It was a valid tactic.

Holding my [Battle Core] and looking at my new map table from my throne, I was able to somewhat see how the battle was faring between my forces, the bandits, and the mercenaries on both sides.

The mercenaries were suffering devastating losses, but that was because they were all choosing to spend their time ‘dicking around midfield’ rather than completing the objectives of destroying the bandit or army fort, as they should be.  I ignored it; the death ratio between the two forces only mattered for respawn rates.  My side was organized, and its core wasn’t dying as they set about raiding the bandit camps with whatever forces they could bring with them.

Some of the bandits tried to rally, but they were betrayed by their own mercenaries who, upon realizing that they had been assigned to the bandits, decided to turn coat on their own initiative.

The first battleground was won in twenty minutes.  The second eight minutes after that.  The final of the three was won fifteen minutes after that.

I waited to hear the field reports as they were relayed up the chain.  Twelve prisoners from the Northridge Bandits.  An undetermined number of Native bandits killed.  All of the Traveler bandits had chosen to fight to the death rather than be captured.

The bandit camps had been destroyed, and more importantly they had been destroyed in a battleground.  That mattered; the bandits couldn’t hold them again without challenging the outcome of the battle, and that would require the creation of a new battleground.  It was unlikely that they had the cores or Authority to make their own [Battle Cores].

Once I had been told the reports, I waited an hour for everyone to get into position, and then I started the next three battlegrounds that were part of my planned opening salvo.  The results were not as favorable to my side this time.  With the element of surprise spent, the bandits realized that they were playing a defensive game, and managed to destroy the siege fortresses that we had established for two of their own camps.

Not without cost.  The system said that one bandit camp suffered 87% damage and was on the verge of collapse when the conditions for victory were met.  The other battleground managed to conserve themselves at 64%.

I immediately started a new battle, selecting new encampments slightly further away to replace the destroyed ones.  This is why I had created a core with so many extra charges, anyway.  The bandit camp that had only barely survived the first round fell within moments, and the second one lasted only twenty minutes after that, although they put up a significant fight.

In the other timeline, these bandit camps had been found and destroyed by my leaderless forces as well.  But the bandits had faded away from one camp to the next, establishing a new hiding place whenever the last one was destroyed or discovered.  They had not expected the blitzkrieg tactics I had just launched on them, and I didn’t know that they could recover.  I wouldn’t let them get the chance.

Once the final tally was in from my soldiers – former steward Arkan and former constable Montague had been arrested, but Tervin Riley, the bandit leader, remained at large – I again pulled out my [Battle Core].  It had nine charges.  I expended five of them all at once, sitting on my throne, to create a single battle ground.

Attention!

An Event of Note is taking place in the Recent Past right now, and this is your chance to be a part of it!

Earl Hail Jeoran has initiated the following battleground!

Bandits: Seek and Destroy!

As the initiator of this event, you do not have the option of not taking part.

Your allegiance is to House Jeoran.

Your role has been automatically selected based upon your allegiance.

Faction Leader

Hail Jeoran (50 Morale)

Enemy Faction Leader

Tervin Riley (50 Morale)

Victory Conditions

90% of remaining bandit forces are killed, arrested, or driven from your lands

Loss Conditions

Morale Reaches 0

Prepare for combat!

Good luck!

I studied the system prompt for a moment, but before very long my body turned to mist as the system brought me out of Lagrea and into the lobby to prepare for the beginning of the battleground.

I noticed, before I was whisked away, that my death was not listed as a loss condition.  My team would simply lose 50 Morale.