[Thane's Estate] Plotting Destruction

[Amber Brightwing]

Evening, Brightening 2 of the First Cycle of The Month of Junctior in the Season of Autumn
Era I of the Celestine Mandate, Era XIII Post Fractum in the Age of the Darkening

Amber waited for Dorvold Hammerhelm to arrive at the Thanal Mansion. He was expected to arrive a good fifteen minutes before the Lieutenant Commander of the West Wardens, which should be sufficient time to inform him why there were provincial forces showing up at their doorstep. If Dimitri had held his word then he shouldn’t have been informed on it after all and she figured it might be a good thing to do that before they started discussing strategies.

The room itself was fairly empty, only containing a few chairs and a large table. On it were a few maps laid open. There seemed a few that displayed the layout of a building and others displayed parts of the city. Perhaps the dwarf would recognize the Southern Quarter, more particularly the area where the Blood Alley Gang had their head quarters. A few large windows looked out on the garden surrounding the mansion.

[Dimitri Wladisyaw]

Dorvold Hammerhelm was a different creature than Dimitri, less consumed by his hubris and far more concerned with long-term goals. He dressed in his uniform, a plain setof full plate armour with a sash bearing the Vortexian symbol upon it. His beard as ever was adorned with golden beads and gems and his hair was tied with a black ribbon behind his head. His face bore a few scars and his lips were set in a grim line. His retinue was small, merely two Dwarves from his clan attired in chain mail and each carrying a large ornate axe, Dorvold himself had no axe weapon merely a few bottles strapped round his waist and secretly a hand crossbow hanging from the same belt with one poisoned bolt inside.

Dorvold arrived at the gates and as opposed to Dimitri's bluster Dorvold merely said in his quiet voice, "I was called by the Thane, will you take me to her?"

[Amber Brightwing]

“Yes sir, follow me.”

No weapons were asked and even his escort was allowed to follow if they wished so. Dorvold was acting commander of the guards after all and a direct superior, so the gate guard supposed he’d know what was best. The dwarf was lead through the mansion to one of the rooms more towards the back. The Thane was already waiting for him.

“Ah, sir Hammerhelm. I don’t think we have met before. Amber Brightwing, nice to meet you. I suppose you already suspect that I called you to discuss the arrival of the Provincial troops yesterday. Do you already know anything as to why they are here?”

She had asked both Dimitri and the Lieutenant Commander to hold their silence, but nothing said either of them had done so of course.

[Dimitri Wladisyaw]

(OOC: Sorries!)


Dorvold nodded gently, and moved into the Thanal abode. He cared little for pomp and fine things in such a place, the best palaces were those carved from the rock and were large, size meant everything to a dwarf. Strange they should insist on such high ceilings when offered the chance. Dorvold remained stoic as he was led before the Thane, he nodded his head gently as he entered as did his entourage.

"I know little of provincial matters Lady Thane, if I were to guess what they were doing I would assume they were seeking to flush some bad element from the lower levels, a few bad apples down there for sure." He smiled for the first time though his mouth did not open, that grim line merely curved upwards for a moment and then slowly moved back down again, monotonous.

"I care little for them in all honesty Lady Thane, my clan were here long before the Empire and will be here long after it has fallen like every state before it, if you wish to lend the cities men to their efforts however I shall not complain." He nodded as though agreeing that this had been a prudent answer, Dorvold was a diplomat but it was not necessary here.

[Amber Brightwing]

Amber just smiled at the guess. It seemed like a logical thing perhaps, though if made her wonder if he thought she was foolish enough to let Imperials into Har’oloth or whether the governor would be ignorant enough to send so few. They could send all the guards they had as aid, she didn’t see them having a chance against the Vysstichi and Esh’lahier residing below.

“Quite the contrary. They are here to aid our men to flush out some bad elements above ground. They are going to serve as shock troops for when we take down the Blood Alley Gang Headquarters.”

The Fae paused for a moment as she observed the dwarf’s behaviour. He seemed to dislike the Imperials less then his captain, not opposing to cooperation. That would certainly make things easier.

“I’ve send a request for help over a month ago. Only Dimitri knew of it to prevent it from leaking out, and he approved of the line of action. I would have contacted you earlier about this, but I only had the reply on my porch yesterday myself.”

There was sarcasm in her voice. Though she appreciated the help, but a little warning in advance about their arrival would have been nice. She waited a moment to see if the dwarf had anything to say before she would go into the details of the plans that would be discussed.

[Dimitri Wladisyaw]

"Tell me Lady Thane, when you wipe out the Blood Alley Gang what then?" He paused and began to play with a large golden ring embedded in his pitch black beard, "Seems to me you shall be left with a vaccum either you shall fill or it shall be filled by more undesirables." He paused as thought considering his words, "If you intend to to remove the worst part of this city then perhaps you will replace it with something worthwhile, a new industrial center for this city perhaps? Foundries and smithies so we might reap the rewards of existing right next to the Great Mountains and their abundant resources." He pursed his lips and continued, "I have to apologise, as a Dwarf and a proud one from an ancient lineage I always feel the way to success in this life is through financial and mineral plans, a period of rebuilding pushing money into the most deprived quarter would help us in the long run, and it would make the lesser races who struggle in this world trust your city if we provided them with proper services. This in turn would stamp out future trouble to a degree, which would make my life easier."

He continued fiddling with his beard lazily as he eyed the Thane, "How do you suggest the guard proceed with things, Lady Thane."

[Amber Brightwing]

“What then? That’s a good question. According to Dimitri we should have sufficient guard to patrol the area. I don’t expect to create a true vacuum, but rather break apart the different groups that from the Blood Alley Gang. Those should be easier to combat and keep under control then a single large organization.”

She paused for a moment as she considered his more economical oriented proposal. “If you’re willing to set up foundries and smithies to provide more employment I can only encourage that.” Another pause. “Actually, with Paxia being rebuild we might be able to expand economy. Their headquarters are quite large and could easily harbour the infrastructure and if we manage to capture the top floor we’ll have a large quantity of their loot. If we make a sale with that we could let that money go to the development of the Southern Quarter.” She grinned at the dwarf. No doubt their would be more people interested. “It would be only fair to let others have similar opportunities of course, but I like your ideas.”

“As for how to proceed, I suppose the exact details are best discussed with the Lieutenant Commander of the West Wardens – who will be arriving soon. My general idea was to let the West Wardens take the building and let our guard take the streets and control the crowds. Vortexians aren’t too fond of Imperials, so we want our guard to have the most visible role. We’ll possibly be facing strong resistance, so it makes sense to let the most hardened troops take that head on.”

[Dimitri Wladisyaw]

"Here in Vortex we dont like the Epire controlling us much, so we took on a large number of orcs during the troubles to make sure they were safe, and they are loyal and strong which makes them good guardsmen you understand." He smiled gently, "So I dont think we will be having any trouble with numbers, and an orc can heft a man even better than a dwarf, and few races can do that let me tell you!" Dorvold almost managed a smile but soon slipped back into his dour expression as he began to fiddle with his bead adornments again.

"And aye let the Imperials do the damage, why dont we set a cordon round the area and pick off stragglers, let the Imperials do the deed and we will go in and make sure they stay all impartial and dont help themselves to any loot." He nodded, "I like the way you think Lady Thane, and I will stomach Imperials overruling me this time, let them come and let them clean the city they want to knock down. And then let Vortex feel a new era of Dwarven commerce that will carry it onwards and upwards." he smiled, "And aye the loot will come in handy for the city."

[Amber Brightwing]

“I prefer it that the Empire leaves us be as well, but we’d be crazy not to take advantage of it if we can, no? If we’re going to have to pay taxes we can just as well get something in return. And I’d like to point out that the Imperials won’t be overruling you, but working alongside you and under me even, though their commander holds a final saying on what his troops do.

She shifted the her weight on her feet, not commenting on the ‘Dwarven’ commerce. As far as she was concerned, all races and people in general would get an equal chance at this. Dorvold would have the advantage that he knew about this in advance, but that was about it.

“Now, there’s a final thing I wanted to speak you about before the Lieutenant Commander arrives. The aftermath. We want to capitalize on breaking their union and perhaps lowering their numbers a bit. I was thinking about arresting all gang members we see during the action and jailing them for a while. We mingle the different gangs together, spread the rumour amongst the guards that one of the gangs sold the others out and just let nature take its course. Any thoughts on that? Or better solutions?”

[Dimitri Wladisyaw]

Dorvold nodded gently at her words and sowly agreed, "Aye the Imperials shall sweat blood taking every street, let them Lady Thane, I shall not have my boys so danaged." He smiled and resumed, "As for the criminals you should treat tham as they deserve to be treated." Dorvold Hammerhelm was a pragmatic dwarf, he knew the values of fear the loathing and the nature of Vortex made one outcome natural. "You give the Imperials and the guards permission to capture any members they find, kill the rank and file and keep the heads, they are dangerous men and women Lady Thane, a spell in the gaol and a smack on the botty wont make them change. You havta remove the problem all together, make an example of them and then if you want crime to be mopped up, let the Dark elves fight for it or put your own gang into operation, made the crimes legal."

"Or you give crime to the Toherans, let them run the southern quarter for you. They are tax collectors at the moment anyway." He smiled, "The people here revere the old ways, they are the old ways, Vortex must find its identity again, necromancy and commerce must rise in the wake of your gangs falling, it is the natural way of life here."

[Amber Brightwing]

She looked at the dwarf as he talked, wondering if he had fully understood her idea.

“Anyone offering resistance should be put down without hesitation of course, the same for the leaders, though unfortunately, identifying those might be troublesome. I have quite reliable informant on their organization, but there’s nothing solid to be found on who’s in charge. That’s why we should try to let them solve that problem for us.”

“Even though they cooperate, the ties between the different gangs aren’t that strong. If we can set up the foot soldiers we captured while they are in the goal, for example by spreading false rumours one gang set up the other, and let them take out their hostilities now and then, no longer kept in check by those above them. When they have done their sentence they can return to their old gang and further spread the feelings of distrust and hatred for their former partners.”

The mentioning of Necromancy made her frown. That almost sounded like Dimitri.

“I can agree that more commerce is always welcome, especially when it can replace the gangs. Necromancy is still illegal though and I doubt anyone forgot what happened the last time Vortex declared not to live by the empires rules on that subject. Not that I want a witch hunt, but I won’t officially approve nor promote it.”

She didn’t see much benefit for necromancers to be allowed to practice openly anyway. She’d never seen any other mage openly practising in the middle of the street, so why would necromancers have any desire to do so?

[Dimitri Wladisyaw]

"Aye it shall be as you say Lady Thane." Dorvold Hammerhelm ran a hand through his beard until he found a small peice of jade, he began to roll it round in his fingers as he pondered. "Give me a time and a date for this little mission and I will form up the men." He smiled through his beard and for a moment his teeth were shown and a flash of gold came from inside his mouth.

"As for the guard and the army, both of which you have entrusted to his Grace, the guard are a yellow lot and craven too, yet they stay and fight mostly due to the fact they are morally bnkrupt. They will loot and pillage given half a chance, it is the way of Vortex. People join the guard from the slums to get a free meal. Will you allow me to handpick a smaller elite unit that perform special tasks." He paused, "Tasks such as guarding yourself Lady Thane and moving undercover in Vortex to root out the criminal element."

He resumed, "And I also ask permission to slowly increase the size of our army from its current one hundred soldiers to somewhere closer to ive hundred. If we can conduct small patrols around our city it shallendear us to the Govenor and also improve trade I hope."

[Amber Brightwing]

“A time and a date as well as the further details of how to run things we can discuss when the Lieutenant is here. I’d rather have it sooner then later though.”

She pondered on his further questions for a moment before answering.

“If the guards will loot and pillage given half a chance then it’s up to you to make sure they don’t get half a chance. Whether you do something about their morally bankruptcy or keep them in line through forcefully is up to you. If think you can use a elite unit in your tasks, feel free to create one. I don’t need one for my personal security though.”

For her defence she only relied on herself. The guards at the door were nice and the twins most likely loyal, but in the end their primary purpose was to warn her when things went really wrong more then to defend her from it. With her Necromancy and an easily opened window she should be able to keep her alive easily enough when this way.

“The increase of the army sounds reasonable. Even though we don’t need to train a large army to defend ourselves it would be nice if we could keep our cities surroundings safe.”

[Dimitri Wladisyaw]

"His Grace has started crafting a unit of elite soldiers already I confess your Grace. The owls they are called, the order of the forgotten owls to be precise." He smiled and held up a hand showing a ring bearing the white staring face of an owl. "If you need any little jobs done you do not entrust to the regular guard, the Owls should fufill your needs. The membership move udnercover in plain clothes and rootout dissent mostly Lady Thane." He smiled softly and span the ring round so it pointed downwards, best for security evidently.

"We shall increase the size of the army and use it to aid trade, the Citadel shall be used properly again I assure you of that Lady Thane." He smiled softly and thrust a hand into his chest as a salute of sorts, "Anything else Lady Thane? That you care to mention before we conclude this meeting. I am at your leisure."

[Dicemonk]

With the practiced march of a soldier still showing through in his every step, Alexei Deinrovich made his way up the walk to the estate of the Lady Thane of Vortex. The long run of damaged tissue which covered a good portion of his left cheek moved every so slightly as an amused smiled spread over his lips. The thought running through his head would not have been an acceptable subject in civilized discussion, but it served well enough to fulfill his need for joy before the impending planning session. He was not looking forward to giving the command of his men to a civilian, even if the civilian happened to be a Thane.

A small entourage of four soldiers trailed along behind the Lieutenant Commander up until he reached the gates of the estate. As if part of a well-planned maneuver, all four soldiers side-stepped, turned on heel and took up guard just outside of the gates, hands on hilts. Alexei ignored the perfect precision of his soldiers and made the final few steps to the city guardsmen on his own.

"Alexei Deinrovich, Lieutenant Commander of the West wardens. I have an appointment with Her Grace, Amber Brightwing." His tone said that he would not be questioned better than the actual words could have. His smile had faded and he now stared down the closest of the two guards. This was not a man accustomed to waiting.

OOC: I'll leave control of your lads to you.