[Location] Auster

[Gauls]

Fifth Cycle of the Month of Imperos in the season of Autumn;
Era II of the Celestine Mandate, Era XIV Post Fractum

The village of Auster was a little more established with permanent structures than many of the more smaller villages scattered across the southern portion of Sheria. The village sat upon a trade crossroad that branched off in the directions of Narim Castellum, Hiems, and the Daittern Ruins. Another fair sized town, Aestas was only a brightening and a half away to the southwest as well.

Being at such a juncture has allowed Auster to grow faster than the other villages that were more out-of-the-way. Travelers wanting to avoid the added travel time it would take to go through the Deepwood use the road that runs through Auster. This has brought many traders and merchants to the village to sell their wares, meet and greet, and rest before heading to any of the other villages linked to Auster.

The village itself if much like all the other simple villages in the area but Auster sports various permanent wood structures that are mainly geared toward catering to the many travelers that pass through each day. There are at least two inns, two taverns, and an established trading center near the village square. The trading center is mostly made of easily collapsable stalls that the vendors passing through throw up to try selling some wares before they have to move on in a day or two. There is a small one room school and a church which draws children and church goers from the less fortunate villages in the area.

There are no real defenses to speak of except a 3 foot tall fence that surrounded the whole village. This fence is more for establishing boundaries for the village than putting up any real defensive position. Watch towers which were mere raised platforms for use in forewarning residents of impending danger were all that protected the village. The residents have always relied upon the Wilderness Watch in the past for their security needs.

[Isil Telperion]

First Brightening of the First Cycle of the Month of Junctior in the season of Autumn; Era II of the Celestine Mandate, Era XIV Post Fractum.

Isil and his men entered the village of Auster. Talking to the people he soon found out that they had no defences except for the three feet tall fence that surrounded the entire village. The fence was weak, perhaps it protected from wild animals and marked the village boundaries, but it was of now use against an enemy attack.

Concerned about the vulnerability of the village Isil gathered his men and returned to his commander with the report.

ooc: this post come in the sequence of http://www.playbypost.com/forums/sherad...s-unknown.html

[Adder]

Auster was a village that had as yet seen little of the action but much of the rumours and as a result the villagers were on the edge of panic. They clung to the hope of the troops being there as protection and they were reluctant to see the men leave.

That the village was still untouched would be valuable information for the troops commander, but it wasn't the final objective of the mission.

[Chargul]

Brightening 7, Cycle 1, Month of Kalendryas, in the Season of Winter,
Era I of the Celestine Mandate,
Era XV Post Fractum

Chargul arrived at the village with a company of provincial soldiers. With him there was 1000 from the 7th Regiment and 1500 from the 9th Regiment. They had brought supplies and tools, so as to raise a southern defensive fort in Auster, as was demanded by the defensive plans that Chargul had projected as being necessary. With an imperial mandate, Chargul knew all he needed to do was find a good defensive position and amusingly enough, a watchtower already occupied that.

"Good people of Auster!" The esh'lahier called out from his imperially granted horse. "I grant you a chance to serve the empire, to be recognized when an emperor is found at last. I have come with a portion of the 7th and 9th regiments to construct a defensive fort here. All those who help me will be helping themselves from the impending orcish assaults. You may offer your labour, you may offer your stone. All help is welcome."

Chargul did not wait for an answer. He commanded the 7th and 9th regiments up to the watchtower, from where they would start construction of the fort.

"I want a road leading directly from the city centre to what will be the fort's main gates." He said, and assigned ten man to that duty. Chargul didn't care how long that was going to take. He knew the road was going to be somewhat serviceable and there were other pressing matters at hand first. He rode around on his horse and stuck down poles at locations, to mark where the outer rim of the fort was to be. He needed it to be large enough to effectively house a thousand troops and to be capable of handling an additional two thousand in case of emergency. The outer rim he was marking had to take into account wall thickness, the soil and relief of the land.

When he was finished marking, he returned and gave out some clear orders to the officers.

"I want twenty wooden lodges to serve as barracks built. Make them twenty meters long, five meters wide. I want them to fill out an area fifty meters by fifty, ten on each side with four meters between them and three meters out to the perimeter of the site, facing west and east. Doors on both sides of the barracks. You'll find the area marked by the grey flags, they mark the boundaries. Here are the blueprints." Chargul handed the officer in charge a blueprint detailing the plans. "They're to hold three thousand and two hundred men at most, with bunk beds. Have twenty work on each house. They should be done in a cycle if all goes well."

"On the western side of the barracks, I want three supply depots built. These need to be underground and dry. They're going to be food storage, two for regular supplies and one for emergency and long-lasting supplies. Here are the blueprints, the area marked out is fifty meters along the length of the barracks and twenty five meters wide. Get digging and make sure to have the ceiling amply supported. Build too many beams, not too few.”

Turning to another, Chargul commanded “Eastern side. I want water. There’s gotta be some water in the underground here, so get digging. We’re going to need a lot of it. I want several wells and I want them deep. I also want a supply depot with water just north of the wells. Again, underground, store the water in barrels and make sure there are enough or even too many support beams. I don’t want it all submerged in dirt.”

“Just north of the barracks, I want a fifteen meter wide messhall, running the length of the barracks and supply depots. The whole one hundred meters. My calculations say that should be enough for 1600 people at this time. If we get more time to build it out, you just may yet get more comfort, until then, it’ll have to do. There’ll be room for a large kitchen too.” There remained a few things to be ordered.

“Let’s get an armory built on the southside. Same as the messhall, except only half as long from the water wells.” Chargul handed out blueprints for the rest of these designs. He was rapidly running out of parchment and paper, but it was possible he could get some more in Auster. He’d look into it.

“I want palisades to follow the path I made with those sticks out on the edge. Everyone who isn’t able to work on the armory, barracks, messhall, supply depot, wells or sanitation, get working on the palisade and ditch. We’ll build a bigger, better wall when we have some basics up. It should be possible for us to at least get two watchtowers circled in, so let’s get that done. I want a third watchtower built between them. If we can’t get two watchtowers circled in or even one, then let it be known that I want three well-built towers out of wood facing west, northwest and north respectively. They should be able to scout out the entire area around here without issue. Heck, if you have time, build a fourth one in the southeast corner”

“I want sanitation and trash holes dug out in the southwest corner and northeast corner. The main gate is to be southeasterly, headed towards Auster, I want a much smaller gate northwesterly, so that we can make sorties if we have to. Use the dirt from the ditch to build a motte on the other side and for the sake of your own peace of mind, follow those blueprints and lets get a symmetrical fort here imperials!”

The palisade was going to run evenly around the fort, leaving roughly between ten and twenty meters of open space between the wall and the buildings, depending on the area. That would be valuable expansion space and good sparring grounds.

Meanwhile, Chargul retired to the camp that was rapidly being set up and began to review his plans, looking for gaps in the security of the fort. Any officer with the guts to review them with him and be part of finding horrendous errors was welcome to join him.

[Chargul]

Brightening 8, Cycle 1, Month of Kalendryas, in the Season of Winter,
Era I of the Celestine Mandate,
Era XV Post Fractum

Chargul decided to tend to the defences of the ramparts. He knew that most orcs were easily within a few days march and they could be coming at any time. While building up sleeping and eating areas was important, nothing went above the importance of a good fortification. Thus, Chargul decided to take a ride around the ramparts, checking out how the fortifications were looking.

He noticed that, while having palisades, a ditch and a motte were all very useful in effectively slowing down enemies, it provided no defence against heavy artillery or archery barrage. There was also the issue of the terrain being too favourable for a charge up to the walls. That was unacceptable. Chargul didn't have any solutions regarding ranged attacks just yet, but he knew what he could do about melee attackers closing in too fast on the ramparts.

Beyond the ditch and out about fifty meters from it, Chargul would want the land plowed. He wanted it to be uneven and he was sure that he could get some farmers in Auster to help him, if he just paid them well enough. It was possible he could even get them to do it for free, but he didn't expect that. Then again, it was winter, they didn't have much to do and it was in their own interest. He'd have to check and would do so later that day.

After the plowed land, Chargul wanted a heavy mass of small holes, never more than a foot deep, to cover the land for at least fifty meters, if not a hundred. He realized that a hundred meters of small holes could be difficult to pull off, while everything else was being built, so priority was given to the first fifty meters. The holes were intended to be placed closely together, without being larger than what an orcish leg could fit through. The effect was meant to cause cavalry and infantry charges before that point to be ineffective, as horses, worgs, orcs and such would fall into the small holes, twist their ankles or even break their legs. At worst, it would slow down incoming troops and break formations. Chargul designed them so that the holes wouldn't crumble together under typical weather conditions and so that heavy rain or snow would only make the holes muddy and less visible, while equally deadly.

Chargul wanted at least a 100 from the 9th Regiment to be working on that. There was no point in having them all on patrols and this was an important facet of fortifying the area.

[Adder]

Brightening 16, Kalendryas, Winter, Era XV

Modplan

The troops had spread out under their various commanders and spent the first brightening settling in and getting the various rota's and duties organised. That many men arriving in such a small village meant that they needed to be completely self-sufficient, and that meant a supply chain had to be established back to their original base.

Some raw materials were on hand, but on the whole everything that was needed for the construction had to be found and in this case it meant sending out working parties, which with each brightening had to travel steadily further and further away. At first the men got in each others way for there wasn't enough raw materials to do anything, but by the third brightening, order was starting to become apparent with the crews who would build working on the earthworks, flattening ground and digging post holes. The officers in charge knew what they were doing, and they took the time to make sure that everything happened as it should even if it took a little longer.

After that things started to happen and the various buildings started to rise from the ground. But it was intensive work and there was little that could be done to speed up the cutting of trees, the de-limbing and trimming.

By the end of the first cycle on site the buildings were up though the roofs had yet to be added. The palisade wall was mostly complete though the watchtowers were still unassembled. Working parties were now starting to work on those and in a few more brightening's they would start to rise above the walls.

Working parties were scattered about the area around Auster, some cutting, some hauling, and along with them were the guards necessary to protect them. Fully half the strength were outside the walls during the brightenings, but by the end of that brightening the last of the gaps in the palisade wall could be expected to be filled.

[Chargul]

Later that same day in the evening, a company of five hundred men from the 9th Regiment would arrive from Daittern. The arriving part of the 9th Regiment had been ordered to guard workers, patrol and post up sentries.

Brightening 18, Cycle 1, Month of Kalendryas, in the Season of Winter,
Era I of the Celestine Mandate,
Era XV Post Fractum

The sixth regiment from Daittern, five thousand provincials with Chargul at its lead, was making its way towards Auster and would be there on the eighteenth, if weather did not slow them down. With them were supplies of stone from the walls of Daittern - a single day's work. Naturally, they also carried food and water in the supplies, but that was not intended for Auster.