Swords, shield and wands!

[Sheng Kaldres]

OOC: Grandfathered thread with permission granted via the Helpdesk.

IC: Timestamp: Third Cycle of Cryxatum, Summer of Era XIV PF

Paravel Keep

In the north-west part of Daltina stood a tall, square, and above all very large building, the only complete portion left of a building that was mired deep in the legacy of the Kingdom. Paravel Keep had once been part of a grand castle, the name of which was now, alas, lost to history, in which the royal family and their subordinates sheltered in times of war. And Daltina was at war fairly often.

After the kingdom had been merged into the mighty Empire of Aelyria, The castle had fallen into disuse, and much of it crumbled, until the Daltinan Armed Forces moved in, and restored Paravel keep. A few outbuildings remained, which now generally served as barracks, and some of the wall still stood proudly marking the outlying reaches of the royal fortification, but little else remained. The keep had been the stronghold of the cities own defenses for a long while, until Era XII Post Fractum, when they had been disbanded by the city council due to monetary constrants.

Now, it had been inhabited by the Imperial Legions.

With the reforming of the Legions, and with Fortress Charisma inhabited by ghastly things men should not wot of, the Meavewood Guards had moved in almost as soon as the Daltinan Armed Forces had moved out. What the city officials thought of this was unclear; they had probably grumbled about it in the privacy of their own residences, but ultimately there was little they could do about it. It had however, brought commerce and industry back to the Tireless Sanctum, so presumably the merchants were quite pleased.

The keep itself was fairly uncommentable, though the word 'formidable' did come to mind. It had originally been the safehouse of the royal family, but over the years had been adapted into a defensible position, including crenallations on the roof and arrowslits practically everywhere. It contained the armoury, training rooms, officer's offices, the messhall, storerooms, and even some barracks. It had been made out of ordinary grey stone, and was said to be one of the oldest buildings in Daltina, even older than the original Aurora Palace, before it had been heavily restored. Naturally, it was now the place to go concerning any dealings with the sixteenth legion.

The time had come for the meeting as ordered by Provost Imperatis Sheng Kaldres. Thus, the soldiers assembled as ordered in the place designated. There was a time that this meeting might not have proceed as planned given the situation in the city.

Daltina felt that it was a city under siege and the gates were closed. The commanders of the various Legions were not able to enter the city despite the show of good will by the Legions to disarm in the city. It was only this brightening when the arrival of a messager from Aelyria Prime that the commanders were able to enter the city.

In a room somewhere in Paravel Keep, the commanders of the various Legions gathered. They had first met at the gates and were guided to this room.

Sitting in one corner were Imperatis Thamivon Ivellilil, Commander of the Castellian Elite. Together with him were two other commanders, Imperatis Gwindor Ciryatan of the Phedos' Prodigy and Imperatis Raynard Ilaesti Ralishul Maeve of the Maevewoods Guard. At the other side were the commanders of the Centripax Legions, Imperatis Davben Battlebeard, Commander of the Blackrock Legion Imperatis Galif, Commander of the Alyssan Guard.

Entering finally were Provost Imperatis Sheng Kaldres, accompanied by Imperatis Cassandra Saddon, Commander of the Manjet Legion and Provost Moham Renau, Sheng’s mage advisor.

Upon Sheng’s entrance, the commanders stood and saluted. Sheng saluted and motioned for the commanders to sit down.

“Serale.” And the meeting was to proceed as it was planned.

[Sheng Kaldres]

Sheng looked around the table as he assessed the general mood in the room. Cassandra was her usual self; calm and poised, though that knew her better would sense her sense of anticipation.

Next, was the Imperatis from Enamoria. Imperatis Ivellilil, an elf with honor. It was said that he once chased down a man over nine cities just because the man insulted his honor. Now, he was poised for war. Imperatis Ciryatan looked to be ever ready for war given his various scars and the deadly look in his eyes. Imperatis Maeve looked pampered but Sheng had no doubt of his abilities given his part in vigilance against Malice.

This was the same with the two Imperatis from Centripax. They were well trained soldiers with reputation for being hard on the soldiers and harder still on the enemies of the Empire.

With these soldiers, Sheng was confident of how the war in Sheria would go.

“To begin, I will like to announce to all present here that I’m creating a new post, Chief of General Staff. The officer that will be given this post main task is to coordinate the various efforts of the Legions involved in Sheria in terms of logistics, manpower and the authority to do whatever is needed for the operation in Sheria to procedd smoothly.” And Sheng paused as he looked as Cassandra, cueing her to stand up.

“For now, I’ll appoint Imperatis Saddon to this post in addition to her duties as the Commander of the 9th Legion. Whether I’ll need her to subject herself to this new post entirely or will the post remain permanently after the war will depends on how the war proceed.” Then, Sheng looked around the table. “Any questions?”

Given the few nods in understand for the new posts and the affirmation in the commanders’ eyes, Sheng went on as he pulled out a map of Sheria and Enamoria, “Now, let me detail the plans for the movement of the Legions into Sheria.”

“The plans are simple; you are to move the Legions into Sheria as soon as you can and the route is simple; part of the Legions will be moved from Daltina, overland to the edge of the Enamoria province. This is to blockade the any orcs from outside of Sheria reaching Sheria. At the same time, part of the Legions will move over the seas to reach the coast below Narim, preparing for a campaign against the orcs in Narim.”

“Now, at any time, the soldiers situated at the edge of Enamoria may move into Sheria under the stealth to provide for a two prong attack at Ire or to provide blockade of aid from Ire to Narim. The orders may come at any time, so the Legions should be prepared at any time to move according to the orders.”

At this, the Imperatis again nodded as they looked over the map and pondered over the plans that had been laid.

“Questions?”

[Sheng Kaldres]

After some pondering, Imperatis Ivellilil stood up and walked over to the map and pointed at the border that separates Enamoria from Sheria.

“Sir, may I suggest that instead of splitting the soldiers into two groups, we concentrate the forces into one and camped at the borders before we move in. This can provide a bigger force to cut off the orcs and we can blockade the borders better if we have more men.”

“I too, think that this a better plan.” Imperatis Ciryatan said in support and Imperatis Maeve also nodded in affirmation of that. It seemed that the Enamoria Imperatii of Enamoria were worried about their province being vulnerable to the orcs.

Sheng’s plans were to split the force into two so that the forces can surround Narim more efficiently. The soldiers from Sheria could need more men. But Sheng could not ignore the anxieties of his Imperatii.

“Very well, we’ll do that.” Sheng said and went on with his orders. At this, the Enamoria Impertii looked to be more relaxed around the eyes. It seemed that Sheng had addressed their issues.

“With this finalized, I want the Legions to move quickly and with minimum fuss to the borders to the borders. Now, I want this movement to be as smooth and unnoticeable as possible. I want the Orcs to not sense the movement of the soldiers as late as possible. If it was possible, the Orcs will not know what hit them until it is too late.”

“For logistics, I will let Imperatis Saddon take over.” And Cassandra handed out some sheets of parchment to the Imperatii.

“For logistics, the main thing is about the supply line. The parchments contain the details and numbers regarding that. Any problems with them?” Seeing that the Imperatii were silent, Cassandra went on, “The parchment also contains the training requirements. Seeing that we are dealing with orcs, I request that each Legion be trained in the use of either the bow and arrow or the crossbow. These had been used to great effect in the last encounter with the Orcs.” Cassandra managed not to hesitate at the mention of the last encounter.

“I also included the practices of the use of the soldiers to use spears to a better effect against the Orcs. The Orcs have a tendency to rush at opponents regardless of the opponent’s weapon or number. So I have included some maneuvers that required that the soldiers grouped together and two spears or even three spears be used to take down one Orc. The Orcs may be stronger and more hardy than the average human or elf but what we have are the ability to work efficiently as a whole and I intend to use that to the best of our abilities.”

[Sheng Kaldres]

The instructions were clear and made sense. It should be. Cassandra had come up with them from painful experience.

Looking at the Imperatii with a fire in her eyes, Cassandra said, “These are the instructions for now. We’ll adjust our tactics as we move closer to the Orcs. To sum up the points discussed up to now; First, the men now here at Daltina are to move to the edge of the Enamoria province to create a base camp to attack Ire and at the same time, create the necessary fortification to blockade the Orcs from land. Next, the logistics for the campaign will be coordinate by me and I will provide the means for them. Last but not the least; the soldiers are to practice the maneuvers that I had mentioned.”

The points were taken and Sheng took over once more. “With this understanding, we shall discuss in more detail regarding these points.” And the meeting went on, with the Imperatii expressing doubts and their doubts being cleared. The plans were made based on the three points mentioned. At the end of the brightening, the Imperatii understood their part in the campaign and went back to their Legion with orders for the soldiers.

From now on, it was time for war.