/qu/ - Quests/Roll

>>6872

My bad on the wording, the exact stat procedure is thus: Random scores from 1 to 20 OR manual investment of 70 points.

You are Sir Ichabod Lael, of Irish descent.

>Are you a noble of the Pale (English colony), Anglo-Irish, or Gaelic?

These sub-choices determine initial troop, equipment and funding availability.

Ireland is harsh and wild. Your people are sturdy and combative, but you have less available funds.

Through your portal blows sand, the scent of sea air and the raucous cries of gulls. Initial exploration reveals it opens onto sand dunes, stretching to the horizon. A broken stone tower, half buried, stands sentry in the distance.

>>6876

Once you've chosen your Irish subgroup you will have access to a recruitment pool of people on your land, as well as mercenaries and interesting characters (IE with statistics).

The basic available characters are likely to be household servants or minor functionaries like militia captains or tax collectors.

Subgroups:

>English Colonist (more funds, some English equipment and mercenary access.)

>Anglo-Irish (slightly heavier and more advanced troops and equipment compared to Gaelic)

>Gaelic (better troops stats-wise, motivated but lower tech)

The subtype will also influence later events (religious/magic most importantly).

edit to earlier - P is Perception, not Personality. I forgot the standard SPECIAL system, woops

>>6878

You owe allegiance to the Anglo-Irish, your lineage stretching back to the Norman invaders. This puts you at odds with both the English and Gaels, but your people's unique inheritance sets you apart.

In your coffers are 800 valuable coins.

Several interesting men have come calling, requesting entrance into your expedition:

-Fearghus Cadhla: A huge, ugly and ungainly man known for his short but explosive rages.

A warlike clan chieftan, he would bring a company of raiders to the expedition.

For his help he wants "half the spoils and as much land as my people can ride across in a day".

-Oengus Crimthann: A wiry, slimy man adept at diplomacy, haggling and swindling.

He asks for a wage of ten coins a month.

-Remann Seafraid:

A local troublemaker who nearly always gets away. He wants to join in exchange for a full pardon of all his crimes, which include theft from your own treasury (he hasn't offered to give the coins back).

—

Military:

You can afford to levy a regiment of 2000 peasants with varying arms, though this will decrease the earnings of your Earthly holdings.

You have a personal guard of sixty men, armoured in chain and wielding spear, kite shield and javelins.

You can call upon local noble families to serve you, they will bring a guard much like your own as well as a variety of troops, but need an upkeep of 100 coins a month.

You can hire light raiding cavalry cornets, galloglaich (professional heavy infantry) and medium mixed infantry (crossbows and spears, with French ties) at 200 coins a month.

You can let peasants follow your expedition (easy source of supplies and equipment but very expensive and hard to protect), purchase supplies and baggage carts & handlers beforehand (200 coin) or go it alone and forage off the landscape (higher chance of men dropping out).

—

Equipment:

A local blacksmith is renowned for his work (any personal non-gunpowder, moderately expensive) or you can rush a purchase from English merchants (any bulk incl. gunpowder, very expensive).

—

>You can take all or none of these people and can send out notice for more if they are not satisfactory. Similarly for the military - if you so choose you could go completely alone (turns events into a more traditional quest) or migrate your entire holdings to the new world in a massive tide of peasants. Or do both in sequence, anything you want.

>>6883

Levying the peasants costs nothing in the short term as it is their duty to serve you (and there are large men with heavy sticks making sure they do), but in the long run the earnings and condition of your ancestral territory will decline (not enough workers to take in the harvest, that sort of thing). For now though, you have an instant army.

Levy Regiment (2000 men):

-899 Peasants (pitchforks, knives, hoes, staves, felling axes, sharpened stakes…)

-215 Men-at-Arms (Leather, some chain, some helms, shields, axes, swords, spears, javelins, some crossbows and bows)

-306 Peasant Hunters (slings, bows, crossbows, boar spears, stake traps, gutting knives…)

-738 Peasant Levy (spears, axes, small shields, some javelins, some light wool armour)

55 Cavalry (Leather, chain, some plate, shields, lances, some bows)

-91 Riders (Leather, some helms, small shields, some bows, javelins, spears)

2 Aspiring Heroes (one of Peasantry, one of Soldiers)

For the sake of convenience unless otherwise specified warriors are sorted into seperate companies based on type - if you think particular combinations would be better it is easily sorted.

—

Upon being told that he will be joining the expedition Fearghus roars with glee and slaps you on the back hard enough to knock you over, before shouting loud enough to startle birds nearly two miles away. His raiders melt out of the landscape and form up before you, 162 light lancers on fast horses, armed with some bows and many javelins, eager to go a-looting.

Oengus takes his first month's pay, immediately assuming an air of superiority. "My lord, your coffers are full and the new world presents a wondrous opportunity, you should invest in trade goods - that tower shows that there are people there somewhere. Just in case they're not amenable, though, do invest in equipment for your personal guard, to keep m- us safe." Fearghus snorts with disdain.

Remann looks terrified - his request ignored, he awaits judgement (standard good/evil/neutral "alignment" choice, will affect relations with other characters).

You have 800 coin, which, in Oengus' opinion, should be entirely invested into trade goods and the best armour and weaponry you can afford for your personal guard.

Fearghus thinks you should use the money to hire more raiders (nothing to do with how he has three other brothers who are each in the same profession, oh no…)

I'll be updating whenever I can, basically - the faster we play, the more posts the board gets, after all. A guideline for large-scale quests is just to not sweat the small stuff unless you have to (like personal equipment requests).

You can purchase a consignment of outdated hand cannons from English merchants at 3 coins per, including 12 charges for each, or relatively new arquebuses at five coins per. An ammunition cart could be found, for the price of 100 coins and possible explosive demise.

As far as siege weapons go, your castle has an extremely elderly ballista that could be fixed up for 50 coins and there is a pot-de-fer available because of your French ties. This could be bought for 150 coins but is ineffective except at short ranges and has an extremely long reload time.

Purchasing supplies, baggage carts and handlers sets you back 200 coin, ultimately cheaper and easier to manage than camp followers. The baggage handlers and carters have light peasant weaponry (knives, staves and cudgels) and can defend themselves to a limited extent. The baggage train includes blacksmiths and forges able to slowly repair damaged equipment, full provisions for a week, as well as miscellaneous tents, stakes and tools.

>Gained Baggage Train & 102 peasants.

If you fixed the ballista and bought the pot-de-fer (with associated supplies and personnel) and an ammunition cart this brings you down to 290 coins, enough to purchase 96 hand cannons or 58 arquebuses.

Alternatively you could hire a single mercenary company and 30 hand cannons or 18 arquebuses.

You could also request custom non-gunpowder equipment from the local master blacksmith, his work is of excellent quality. An average commision from him costs 30 coins.

—

You plan ahead for full military conquest - it's your portal, on your land, therefore everything inside it belongs to you! It looks like your preparations were in good stead, because an enterprising scout who had climbed the broken tower reports back to you with news that the sand dunes eventually give way to grassland, from within which he spied a column of smoke.

>Final purchases and orders before we set out on the expedition

Further exploration by adventurous scouts reveals that the smoke comes from a huge fire pit, around which can be seen dancing wild, primitive people. In addition, an oddly coloured haze in the distance seems to indicate another portal nearby…

—

Arbalests and arquebuses cost 5 coins each, crossbows and hand cannons cost 3 (Arbalests and Arquebuses are essentially straight upgrades to crossbows and hand cannons).

Most of your men use javelins and spears, the Irish way of war being less advanced than the Scottish, which is less advanced than the English, which is less advanced than the continental doctrines.

You can order low-tech items like javelins from the blacksmiths and cottagers on your lands, at a cost of 1 per and an exponential amount of time - they can make roughly forty spearheads a week, as a rough figure.

Purchasing the French Pot-de-Fer and the service of it's operators sets you back 150 coins, bringing the coffers to 440.

Oengus knows several merchants who would follow in the baggage train, they'd bring their own wares and would pay you for the privilege (and protection) but might be hard to handle.

You could purchase goods yourself, but it would be a costly investment - Ireland has no luxuries industry and anything you could buy would be imported at great expense (100 coins for a few bolts of silk, for example).

>Gained artillery and operators

>Your expedition now stands at 2264 men and a baggage train of 34 carts

>You have 440 coins

Check the previous posts for relevant information on prices, equipment, troops etc. You don't have to spend all the coins.

Time passes, as you are bogged down in negotiations and the process of mustering your forces.

Scouts report signs of battle at the strange fire pit, scorch marks and charred bodies lead back to the other portal, the native dead untouched by flame.

There are signs of activity there, of earthworks and a camp.

Someone else has travelled through and laid claim on your land… You may have a fight on your hands.

The terrain is rolling grassland, perfect and pristine, there should be no trouble maneuvring here, but skirmishing will be more difficult due to the openness.

Due to the haste at which you must act, all prices have now doubled.

>Do you give open battle to the newcomer

>Ride out and try diplomacy

>Or simply ignore them and explore in another direction

Most quests die because the GM buggers off, yes? I didn't think my hosting was boring enough to dissuade players…

You ride out with Fearghus and his raiders as an escort and approach the camp.

Strange red war-banners fly over the defences, which are patrolled by short, oddly coloured men in almost conical armour.

One of the guards sounds a horn, which brings an elderly man out of camp. He stands fearlessly before you, looking up with interest at the panoply of weaponry before him.

"你想幹什麼?"

It seems there is something of a language barrier here.

>How do you communicate with him?

This is a non-update update to say the quest is not dead or on hiatus but will probably not receive updates on Thursday and Friday because I don't get back from horribly arduous and time consuming history lessons and travelling until quarter to eight in the evening, almost dead from exhaustion.

So yeah expect that gap but I give you an Infallible Promise™ that the following update on Saturdays will be extra large.

Fearghus and his raiders pull back to a short distance behind you, as you continue attempting to talk to the man.

"如果你不打，然後離開。"

He waves his arm as if to say "be off!" and walks back into the camp, the latticed gate shutting behind him.

You draw back with Fearghus while your army advances across the grasslands - the sentries see this and the commander, who has positioned himself in a tower above the gate, starts shouting orders, positioning his men in response - more archers line the walls as huge drum beats echo from inside camp.

The gate opens again, a warrior on horseback armed with a glaive charging out, he shouts "我們將努力爭取三百回合！".

It appears he offers single combat - who do you send against him?

>Go yourself.

>Send Feargus.

>Send Oengus (lol).

>Send an Aspiring Hero (Soldier or Peasant).

>Send your most able soldier.

>Send your least able soldier.

>Give the order to fire and simply cut him down.

—

Your army approaches, the individual company captains look to you for approval:

>The artillery crew will site the Iron Pot behind Fearghus' raiders, then fire an iron bolt at the front gate once they're clear.

OR

>The artillery crew will advance to the front gate and fire at point blank range, with the Men-at-Arms attempting to cover them and to rush in once the gate is down.

>The Riders, Raiders and Cavalry will form up en masse and skirmish, riding around the camp.

OR

>The mounted troops will dismount and join the main attack.

>The peasant hunters will skirmish with the frontal defences, trying to cover the main attack

OR

>The peasant hunters will harry the camp from every side.

>The peasant levy will aid the main attack.

OR

>The peasant levy will flank and attempt to enter the camp from another entrance.

>The peasants will hang back as reserves.

OR

>The peasants will join the main attack.

—

The camp walls are simple pallisades, the pot-de-fer can deal with a gate or possibly blow a hole in the wall.

You only have the one artillery piece, so to attempt other entrances would be down entirely to the strength of troops (they'd try to pull or push a gate down, for example).

Due to the open grassland, feints will be ineffective - the enemy commander can respond to your movements very fast. Luckily, he appears to have substantially fewer troops than you do.

—

As your army advances to the field of battle, the enemy champion approaches!

>>6972

Update-update, late Friday or Saturday afternoon probably, gotta keep up the Real World (>tfw travel 3 and a 1/2 hours to hear history professor comparing scorched earth medieval warfare victims to "refugee" migrants).

All is well. I'll try to simplify choices in the future as the earlier descriptions and lists were passed over.

Fearghus pushes his horse out of the ranks and charges forward, hefting his battle-axe. The enemy champion holds his glaive low to the ground, swishing through the long grass as they gallop to meet one another. At the first pass, Fearghus brings his axe crashing down while the champion sweeps the glaive upward. They meet with a clash of iron, but neither gains an advantage.

This stalemate continues for several bouts, Fearghus managing to parry or block the sweeping glaive, his axehead turned aside with deft movements. Both men tire, eventually stopping. They exchange words that neither understand, recognising their equal match.

Oengus sighs mightily, having rode to your side "A pity, if he died We- you would be all the richer in spoils." He keeps his voice low, the two of you being in the centre of Fearghus' raiders.

The two champions retreat, Fearghus rejoining the line as the artillery crew finishes setting up behind his raiders.

You move the cavalry behind the emplacement and sit back in the saddle, waving to the gunners.

"Tirez!"

The cannon bucks, shifting on its bed of earth, sending an iron arrow crashing through the encampment walls, opening a small gap in the palisade. The gap is quickly filled by enemy soldiers with large iron shields, but you can see they shift about, clearly nervous of the strange weaponry.

The gunners begin the process of reloading the pot-de-fer, clearing it out and repacking it with clay and earth. The next shot will be ready in some hours, unless you consent to risking fire with unset wadding (increasing the likelihood of explosive misfire).

The peasantry is arrayed protectively behind them, in case the enemy sally out.

Your cavalry moves around the enemy emplacement, darting in and out of range to to score a few kills. The missile combat is roughly equal, both sides losing men.

The peasant hunters follow on behind the cavalry, performing similarly, though they lose slightly more men and inflict slightly less casualties upon the enemy.

There don't appear to be any weaknesses in the defences, save for the small hole opened up by the cannon. The camp has four gates, laid in the cardinal directions.

The peasant levy and men-at-arms form up into a great oblong, the two aspirants at the front, aimed straight at the tiny gap in the wall, just big enough for three men to pass abreast.

>Order the infantry to attack

>Order the cannon to fire early, then order the infantry to attack

>Continue the skirmish and wait for the next cannon shot

>End the skirmish and wait for the next cannon shot

Via horns and trumpets you call back the skirmishing men to just outside of the enemy's range, concentrating on the three gates not covered by your main formation.

The portal which your strange foe came from is easily marked, flags and pennants leading in avenue from the rear of the camp toward it. A small squad of guardsmen were seen retreating from it and heading into the camp as the skirmishers enveloped the area, making it likely that this enemy has no backup.

—

Your army lays in for a siege, several days passing with the slow and methodical gunners punching holes in the wall, which the enemy fills with their large metal shields.

Your forces are kept busy, constructing small camps and trench systems to shield themselves from enemy fire and the elements.

The enemy champion sallys out several times, and each time Fearghus meets him in single combat. By now they are familiar to eachother, and Fearghus thinks he's starting to understand the language somewhat, if only through mutual smack-talk.

On the fifth day the enemy sallies out in force from their rear gate, several hundred men with halberds, spears and crossbows, led by the commander. They appear to be making a break for the portal, and in their midst is a cart with a large chest securely lashed down.

Bowmen still line the walls and there are still troops covering the wall breaches, but there are slightly less, and they seem to be more nervous than usual. The gate was broken and wall breaches are now quite substantial, the largest with room for eight men abreast, though all are defended by earth fortifications and heavy shields.

>Trust in the local skirmishing forces to handle this (Enemy will probably break through, but take casualties)

>Order the entire net of skirmishers to converge on them (Heavy losses on both sides, enemy may break through)

>Order the skirmishers to hold them in place and send your men-at-arms or levies to attack their rear (heavy casualties, casualties from range, slight chance of enemy escape)

>Order a general attack while the enemy are preoccupied.