Episode: Paved With Good Intentions
Posted by Story on 01/08/19
The massive project to build a unified system of roads between much of the major cities of the Compact is well intended and it's widely admired, even as many caution that such a project would almost certainly cut through land by the Compact in name only, and is effectively under the control of hostile Abandoned. In some cases, this has been generational, with large holdfasts deep in the wilderness that have been left alone by the Compact for so long they have been forgotten, and many have become regions that wise travelers simply avoid. The Great Road avoids these conspicuously in the Crownlands, perhaps due to more recent interaction with many of the different Abandoned tribes, but the road seems to actively court confrontation in the Oathlands- and it soon becomes apparent that courting a conflict with ancestral enemies is precisely what some Oathlands hardliners want. And one such example is what happens in the March of Greenwither, a Laurent vassal. The son of Marquis Marcel Beaucage is killed in one of the Abandoned raids traveling on the Great Road from Greenwither towards the Telmarch, and House Beaucage promptly calls its banners, with the statement that, "The time to end the Abandoned scourge in our lands is now." House Beaucage and its vassals immediately simultaneously hunt methodically through their lands, and put every man, woman and child to the sword that is not sworn to the Compact. In one large Abandoned holdfast called Hopehallow, at least two thousand are massacred, and House Beaucage celebrates this by proclaiming that Greenwither has been cleansed.
It quickly becomes apparent that while many of the Abandoned clans in the area war with one another, they also talk, and an army is of numerous clans is raised to respond. Coming from near the Greenwood, a large Abandoned force raids the county held by House Bellerive, a vassal of House Blackram. The Abandoned are driven back, and flee far north, pursued by Bellerive soldiers... and chase down the Great Road towards a disputed border, where both Bellerive claim the lands, and they are also claimed by House Threerivers, a county sworn to House Acheron. The Bellerive soldiers get into a skirmish and kill a patrol of House Threerivers, and the enraged Count Trevor Threerivers calls his banners, and immediately declares war upon Bellerive and invades, laying siege to their ancestral home at Last Bridge. Bellerive, of course, is united by marriage to the Marquis of House Decalmbre, a vassal of Farshaw, who immediately calls his banners, and goes to attack Threerivers lands, in the Northlands. Their troops, on the way, cross the lands of House Fireside, a Sanna vassal, and the border patrol for the county refuses the Decalmbre bannermen passage- who promptly attack and a heated battle ensues before the Decalmbre troops are driven back to regroup. The Seraph of Highrock, a particularly not well liked seraph who came to House Threerivers lands to 'convert the ungodly', preaches that all this came about because of unholy worship of spirits. He is promptly lynched.
And this is just the start of matters brewing between the Oathlands and the Northlands along the Great Road. News will, of course, begin to trickle in from elsewhere.
It quickly becomes apparent that while many of the Abandoned clans in the area war with one another, they also talk, and an army is of numerous clans is raised to respond. Coming from near the Greenwood, a large Abandoned force raids the county held by House Bellerive, a vassal of House Blackram. The Abandoned are driven back, and flee far north, pursued by Bellerive soldiers... and chase down the Great Road towards a disputed border, where both Bellerive claim the lands, and they are also claimed by House Threerivers, a county sworn to House Acheron. The Bellerive soldiers get into a skirmish and kill a patrol of House Threerivers, and the enraged Count Trevor Threerivers calls his banners, and immediately declares war upon Bellerive and invades, laying siege to their ancestral home at Last Bridge. Bellerive, of course, is united by marriage to the Marquis of House Decalmbre, a vassal of Farshaw, who immediately calls his banners, and goes to attack Threerivers lands, in the Northlands. Their troops, on the way, cross the lands of House Fireside, a Sanna vassal, and the border patrol for the county refuses the Decalmbre bannermen passage- who promptly attack and a heated battle ensues before the Decalmbre troops are driven back to regroup. The Seraph of Highrock, a particularly not well liked seraph who came to House Threerivers lands to 'convert the ungodly', preaches that all this came about because of unholy worship of spirits. He is promptly lynched.
And this is just the start of matters brewing between the Oathlands and the Northlands along the Great Road. News will, of course, begin to trickle in from elsewhere.