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Aphonion Tales: The Archducal Council -- Unedited notes; later posts are edited transcripts (posts MWF, update 3/1/23)
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<blockquote data-quote="CPaladin" data-source="post: 8925444" data-attributes="member: 7030144"><p>Session 148 (October 20, 2022)</p><p></p><p>[Field Marshal Lord Brightspan is now the Earl of Brightmount.]</p><p></p><p>Alistair raises an issue with the Council. "I was thinking about all the refugees who are heading into the area around Lyneham. There's going to be a serious food issue. So, I propose that we send some pretty giant caravans of food up with as efficient food as they can carry. I was thinking already milled flour and some salt pork and the like. There are other people who can fill in the details better than I can. But we can send that up along with a very large amount of seed corn of various types with the goal that they can plant enough in the spring planting that when that harvest comes in they'll be able to feed everybody, but also that they can feed people in the meantime out of the supply of food that we're sending up. We'll probably need to send a couple of caravan trips, because we might have like 225,000 or something people there. The amount of food that takes is pretty huge.</p><p></p><p>"Even for basic sustenance," agrees Kit. "That's an excellent plan, even if we're only trying to get them basically subsistence living. That will make it easier also to then start sorting them out as they arrive into people who are going to be farmers and people who are going to work in the mines and people who have other skills and will work in the towns."</p><p></p><p>"Also, the Archbishop should send at least an archdeacon, and should perhaps consider erecting a new diocese there, because if there's going to be hundreds of thousands of people living there, they will need an organized Church as well. The other part of that is we should expect that there will be some people among them who will attempt to maintain structures like slavery, or to reimpose slavery on people who have escaped from bondage, and we'll need to be vigorous in making sure that gets stomped out."</p><p></p><p>They send off some messages to get that process rolling.</p><p></p><p>Separately, Kit sends a missive by teleport coffer to the spy mistress of Mandrath to find out if she needs to come to the funeral in person. Alistair and Dame Brionna will surely attend, but if Kit is not needed for intelligence coordinating purposes, she would stay in Canberry to assist the Empress in maintaining smooth governance.</p><p></p><p>15 O-Tar</p><p>Kit is informed that a rider from Lyneham has arrived, carrying a message from a priest. Kit asks that he be brought in and given refreshments and then travels to a meeting room to find a rider who is less ill-favored than poorly bathed.</p><p></p><p>“My lady, I come from Father Percy. He’s a worrying man. He’s been counting the barrels, and the number of people come in who will be needing to draw on them. The innkeep’s been opening the cellar, but there’s more of them every day.”</p><p></p><p>“We are sending reinforcements already.”</p><p></p><p>“Reinforcements?!”</p><p></p><p>“Reinforcements of food. And healers, since they’ll likely need some of that. If you have numbers, that would be helpful.”</p><p></p><p>“Aye, Father Percy and Sister Beatrice are overstretched as it is. Father Percy sent this record of the numbers.” He shows her a document with hash marks on it—many hash marks. “Those are each families. Most of them have little with them—not even a cow. I’ve never seen so many families without a cow in my life. And many of the families have no menfolk—Father Percy said I was to tell you many of them have been … conscripted?”</p><p></p><p>“Yes, conscripted. About what I expected.”</p><p></p><p>"A lot more children on their own than you would expect, and a lot more households that are used to functioning with two grown-ups that only have one. And very few of them even have a cow, m'lady, as I said."</p><p></p><p>"We will do what we can. I'm not sure how many cows we will be able to send, but we will absolutely do what we can to get enough food and shelter and other people to take care of the refugees so that the burden doesn't all fall on you. Thank you for bringing this. Do you want to rest overnight before you go back?"</p><p></p><p>"If it pleases m'lady, I couldn't rest in a place like this, though. It's so beautiful."</p><p></p><p>"We will find a place for you out in the City, somewhere in a one of the guest houses."</p><p></p><p>"Thank you, m'lady." He crawls over and kisses her foot.</p><p></p><p>"Please rise," replies Kit, trying to conceal how uncomfortable she is with that. "Come back here tomorrow, after you have rested and eaten and bathed, and I will send a message back with you for Father Percy, including a report of how well you've performed."</p><p></p><p>"Thank you, m'lady, and thank you for the food. I hadn't been eating--I've been riding for days."</p><p></p><p>"We're going to send food back with you so that you don't have to go hungry on the way back."</p><p></p><p>"Thank you, m'lady. Didn't want to take anything. So many mouths..."</p><p></p><p>"We will be sending help soon, and thank you for this."</p><p></p><p>Kit brings word of this to the Council, and is glad that they have already set things in motion. She asks who she needs to talk to and give specific numbers and information, and Alistair tells her that he's been organizing it through the Master of the Household. It's not really properly part of his responsibilities, but he is a senior functionary and courtier with responsibility for supply and logistics, so it makes sense to coopt him for this. Kit goes to talk to the Master of the Household about supplying food to those people, and that more are coming even beyond that.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, Dame Brionna comes to the Council with an urgent letter from the Earl of Brightmount. In the western Archduchy, there are an increasing number of refugees.</p><p></p><p>"An incident has occurred that needs direct intervention, I think, by you, Your Grace. In the western Archduchy, there are increasing numbers of Hanalian refugees-- in particular, an increasing number of refugees who are unwilling to settle in Masque are traveling along the mountains and are coming to our western lands. The initial two dozen small groups were welcomed, but local people are being more restive and now reacting badly. Last night, a particularly large group of refugees were waylaid by local young farmers. Two of them were killed, and others are seriously injured. Field Marshal Brightspan--the Earl Brightmount-- and the local nobles have captured the perpetrators. But Brightspan feels that he doesn't have the right to high justice, as this is not on his land, and that he feels uncomfortable under circumstances figuring out what to do with these murderers, and also that there are serious issues in terms of the pressure of refugees. And so he would like, as he puts it, the input of either 'your august self' or an appropriate member of the Imperial Majesty's Court with the let of his Imperial Majesty. To be quite frank, I think this is an issue that should be decided, not by me, but by you, and possibly Caitlin. I also have a thought about the larger refugee issue, but I think the crime should be dealt with first."</p><p></p><p>"We need to deal with this swiftly and in a clear, visible way. I'm inclined to think that I should travel out there with a judge, and have a quick and decisive trial. The sentence can then be presented to me immediately for confirmation."</p><p></p><p>"And the sentence, if it was an intentional murder..."</p><p></p><p>"If it was what it sounds like, then at least one of them will have to be hanged. And hopefully the judge will be able to distinguish between some ringleaders to be hanged and the rest of the mob to be otherwise disciplined, but there's nothing else for it. Anything else would send a message that this is tolerable, and we can't have that. It's one of the few occasions when it is inconvenient that we don't maintain the despicable practice of slavery."</p><p></p><p>"I maintain that a clean death might still be preferable to that."</p><p></p><p>"I don't really disagree. I'm just never happy to send people to the gallows."</p><p></p><p>"Field Marshal Brightspan mentioned that they were young farmers, and depending on their age, if they are not full adults, I think some mercy might be shown."</p><p></p><p>Kit interjects, "Again it depends on what evidence they put forth. If this was actual murder, then they're old enough to know that that's wrong. If this was a fight that got out of hand, that's something else."</p><p></p><p>"It also matters if they are 19 year olds or 16 year olds or 12 year olds. We can't make an exception just because of age for full adults, for teens it depends on the circumstances. For truly children, then how did that happen?"</p><p></p><p>"There could easily be children among them along with some older ringleaders," points out Dame Brionna.</p><p></p><p>"In which case, again, part of the what the judge will need to do is to sort that out, and I don't want to be doing that myself, because I have neither the expertise nor I think is it appropriate for me to pass judgment personally, except in highly exceptional cases."</p><p></p><p>"I agree with you going out personally, Your Grace, although we'll need to do that fashion, probably by voller or by teleport. The matter is most urgent. With regards to the larger refugee situation, it seems to me that we have two related problems. I really do wonder if we can figure out some way to to use one to fix the other. Which is that the Southlands are still vastly depopulated and in need of of new people--particularly new people who are not flavors of evil. And on the other hand, we have all these refugees."</p><p></p><p>"If they are willing to go there, then yes, absolutely," says Kit.</p><p></p><p>"Obviously that's a much longer distance."</p><p></p><p>"And also, I would imagine, the farming is a lot different in the Southlands than it is in Hanal, so we'll need to set them up with some help. They'll know how to be farmers, but they won't know the kinds of things that they can grow in the Southlands."</p><p></p><p>"Is that something where we can reach out to the temple of of Gunnora?"</p><p></p><p>"Certainly," replies Alistair. "There is another issue. Ideally, you want to be absorbing refugees or people who are coming into a land in general with an adequate amount of of already local people. That way, you can absorb them instead of simply having a new, disorganized, foreign enclave. That's challenging in the Southlands, because we already have a large refugee population that we're trying to organize and defend and establish. I see a different but somewhat related possibility. Instead of moving them all the way through the Archduchy of Canberry, along the borders of the Eastern Nomads territory, and then down into the reestablished Southlands, I'd note that the river Canberry City is on runs to a mouth to the south and slightly to the west. It's some 200 miles or so from the City. I have thought for a long time that territory, which is essentially unclaimed, notionally beyond the archduchy but there's nothing much to the south there, would be a sensible place to want to establish a port city for maritime trade."</p><p></p><p>"Which the Archduchy essentially has none of at present."</p><p></p><p>"There's this large bay more to the west of the Archduchy, west or northwest."</p><p></p><p>"I believe that there has been a history of attempting to establish settlements in that area that have disappeared without a trace. We now assume that's because they're being sucked into the forbidden mine complex, although we cannot confirm that. There was also a flotilla that left the Forbidden Island down off the south shore. We set up trenches filled with seawater, and arranged for elven vollers to bombard them, but we know that some hundreds or possibly a couple thousand beings made it to shore and escaped. So I think obviously we don't want refugees to the west of our borders, because we need to solve that problem, but refugees are not going to help and might be in danger."</p><p></p><p>"No, indeed," replies Dame Brionna, "but if we can settle them down south along the Canberry River successfully that would both be advantageous for the long-term development of the Archduchy and to solve the refugee problem."</p><p></p><p>"How did the Hanalian refugees get here?"</p><p></p><p>"It says in the letter that they skirted the mountains because they didn't want to go into Masque. They're cutting all the way over to the western part of the Archduchy, they seem to be making it over or around the mountains in the west, though, not taking the familiar passes."</p><p></p><p>"That's strange--there's no major road or pass through in the west. That's why the Cities of Trade exist, because there needs to be a maritime portage. The other reason why we need to start having are people manage this flow by the way, beyond protecting refugees is that realistically, we have to assume that at least some of them are not in fact, refugees, but are enemy agents or creatures."</p><p></p><p>"And notably if they're traveling through an area that we know, or strongly suspect, is under eldritch control to get here the chance of of corruption is high."</p><p></p><p>Because the mouth of the river is notionally in the lands of the Duchy of Grimcliff, albeit basically unsettled, they call for the Duke of Grimcliff's representative at court. A hobbit wearing Grimcliff colors, via Mountainmarch, quickly attends on them: Lord Sandyburough.</p><p></p><p>"How can I help you, Your Lordship?"</p><p></p><p>"We're curious about the mouth of the River Canberry."</p><p></p><p>"Beautiful area! There should be a city there."</p><p></p><p>"That was indeed, precisely, our thought, that you would expect that such a place would naturally grow a city."</p><p></p><p>“Yes, I agree. Unfortunately, the sea giants see otherwise. His Grace, well, His Grace two generations ago, thought to put a port there to increase the strength and prosperity of Grimcliff, and thus of the Archduchy. The sea giants disagreed, and demolished it utterly. He was not very diplomatic, and we didn't have much of a navy. Truthfully, we don't have a navy at all, so the sea giants and our land-based catapults exchanged large rocks for a while. And ultimately His Grace gave up."</p><p></p><p>"To clarify, did His Grace in fact seek to negotiate with the sea giants at any point in this process?" asks Kit.</p><p></p><p>"Oh, no, no, my lady. I'm sorry. I'm afraid that His Grace, the elder one, was not the diplomatic sort. He was a great general, though, but it's hard to fight things in the water, without boats."</p><p></p><p>Dame Brionna turns to Alistair. "Your Grace. You know more of a lands of these people, and so forth. Do you know whether sea giants are innately hostile?"</p><p></p><p>"Sea giants are not one of the more numerous varieties of giants. They are amphibious, make their castles in shallow water, are very territorial, and tend to hunt certain creatures near shore on land. Some even follow the Light. I wouldn't think they would be innately hostile."</p><p></p><p>"It seems like you might be able to open up communications with them? Because if we're trying to establish a port city, and we need to invite in some sea giants, that's not a bad thing. If the reason that we don't have a port city is just that one interaction went really badly, and nobody's bother talking to them, this is a really badly missed opportunity. We need to do something about that."</p><p></p><p>"Yes, agreed. Also it's entirely possible that we could form an alliance with them, incorporate them into the Empire, and given everything going on in the sea at the moment, that would be a great gain as well."</p><p></p><p>They send for a historian to find out more.</p><p></p><p>"We wanted to know about the history with the sea giants by the mouth of the Canberry River."</p><p></p><p>"Oh, yes, yes. Well, in recent years there hasn't really been a history. Some 700 years ago, the Duchy of Grimcliff had had a fishing village by the mouth. As I'm sure His Majesty knows, Grimcliff has been the most loyal vassal to the Archduchy since its formation. The Archduke of the time--I believe your ancestory by fourteen generations--saw fit to determine that all of the fishing rights in the bay should belong to the Archduchy. The sea giants were unwilling to give up their food source and to abandon their homes, and the sea giants destroyed the village. There was then no contact until the former Duke of Grimcliff, two generations ago, I believe, not a man of letters in any way, saw fit to attempt to open a trade port there. That resulted in bombardment, according to the records I received from the military attache, of the Duke of Grimcliff's forces resulting in the destruction of the nascent city, and ultimately the frustration of the Duke's forces. Is that at all helpful, Your Grace?" The scholar twitches as Alistair stares at him silently. "I'm dreadfully sorry if I have inadvertently insulted a member of your family... Please tell me if I have given offense..."</p><p></p><p>"To be clear, what you're saying is that we don't have an extraordinarily valuable port city on the mouth of this river, where there obviously ought to be one, not because the sea giants nearby are inherently unreasonable, but because thus far all of the nobles of Canberry who have seen fit to interact with them have been unmitigated asses to the point where the giants decided to start throwing stones?"</p><p></p><p>He looks panicked. "Begging your pardon, but yes, Your Majesty."</p><p></p><p>Kit says with a laugh, "There's the answer to your question, 'Have you avoided giving offense?'"</p><p></p><p>"Yes, don't worry, no offense was taken. Now that we understand what happened, my sense of practicality is offended, but not by you."</p><p></p><p>"Yes, Your Grace," quivers the scholars voice.</p><p></p><p>Kit turns to the representative of Grimcliff. "Is that area directly under the control of the Duke of Grimcliff, or is there an earl or such who claims it for him?"</p><p></p><p>"My lady, I can't remember. No one has exercised any claims recently."</p><p></p><p>"Do you think that Grimcliff would be willing to cede that area to the Archduchy itself, if we could establish a port there, in exchange for some reasonable concessions of land elsewhere?"</p><p></p><p>"I'm sure that His Grace would be delighted to serve the Archduchy in whatever way Your Imperial Majesty says."</p><p></p><p>"I want to be clear that I'm not trying to step on his grace's toes here, but at the same time I think this might be more readily solved by direct imperial negotiation than by working through the House of Grimcliff."</p><p></p><p>"I believe, Your Imperial Majesty, that His Grace would be particularly pleased with an additional grant of farmland."</p><p></p><p>"I think that that is eminently plausible. I cannot promise that it would be contiguous with the current duchy."</p><p></p><p>"Perhaps if we had a place to put our young men who farm and their wives and children, I cannot imagine that His Grace would object."</p><p></p><p>"I could imagine, then, setting them up extending southeast from there, and setting those areas up as within the Duchy of Grimcliff, and positioning additional archducal resources to protect that area. There's a history of orkish problems in that area, but we've largely resolved that recently."</p><p></p><p>"If it please Your Majesty, I can forward this suggestion to His Grace."</p><p></p><p>"Why don't you do so, and at the same time as that is going on, we will send a diplomatic mission to attempt to open conversations with the giants."</p><p></p><p>Dame Brionna sends mentally, <<It's interesting looking at the genealogy of Ashberry, none of your family has chosen to marry into the Grimcliff family for 10 generations, where you're grandmother notably chose husbands from several of the other duchies.>></p><p></p><p><<She definitely did not pick Grimcliff, though my stepmother was from Grimcliff.>></p><p></p><p><<I forgot you had a stepmother, Your Grace. We so rarely talk about her. Is she still living?>></p><p></p><p><<Yes, she went home to her home duchy after my father's death. She has indicated no interest in resuming any familiar contact with me-- which, to be fair, when we shared a household she showed no interest in engaging in any familiar contact for understandable reasons.>></p><p></p><p><<Is there reason to believe that her family is at all biased against you?>></p><p></p><p><<My impression is that they are loyal, that they have hard feelings towards my father and a lack of any interest in pursuing future marriages with the archducal family, at least for some generations. But I don't think that they would be opposed to any developments here.>></p><p></p><p>They ask the Duke of Grimcliff's representative to reach out to his liege about the matter, and they appoint an appropriate ambassador to open contact with the sea giants. The poor historian is only too grateful to be allowed to leave, after having had to obliquely criticize the Emperor's family and then hearing the Emperor curse about his ancestor.</p><p></p><p>"Is there anything else pressing?" No one has anything. "Then I think I should get on a voller."</p><p></p><p>"I should go with you, Your Majesty," says Dame Brionna, who rapidly begins planning the team that will travel on the voller with them. "Make sure that you have a ring of teleportation on, please, just in case."</p><p></p><p>"And I will stay here. I received a message back from my counterpart in Mandrath, and she would very much like me to be there. So therefore I thought that I should stay behind to give Caitlin back up while you're gone, and so that we can go over all the things that I won't be here to help her with when we're gone for the funeral."</p><p></p><p>"Makes sense, though the Empress has proven most able at managing such matters."</p><p></p><p>They travel in an actual man-of-war for this, though the Air Navy hardly knows how to fight it. The point, however, is not to be battle-worthy, but to look awesome. They will be traveling several hundred miles so it will take them a day or two to get there, which means that it's likely that they will need to teleport directly from this to Mandrath. They bring along a senior judge (Justice Balthazar) and an advocate to represent the defense (Advocate Dunstan), plus a prosecuting attorney (Lord Maxim Sedgedge). They intend to make it utterly clear that the proceedings are fair and impartial.</p><p></p><p>Alistair meets with Justice Balthazar shortly after departure. "Lord Maxim will need to conduct an investigation, and Dunstan will want to speak with his clients, and perhaps perform investigations of his own, and then, when they are both prepared, they will present the case before you."</p><p></p><p>"In the interest of not allowing myself to be in any way prejudiced, I am going to withdraw to my cabin, and I will take my meals there until we arrive."</p><p></p><p>"Understood, and I do want to be clear, that the Empire's only interest here is to see justice be done."</p><p></p><p>"You wouldn't have picked me otherwise, my lord."</p><p></p><p>With that, Justice Balthazar bows and enters his cabin, not emerging until arrival.</p><p>[cont'd]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="CPaladin, post: 8925444, member: 7030144"] Session 148 (October 20, 2022) [Field Marshal Lord Brightspan is now the Earl of Brightmount.] Alistair raises an issue with the Council. "I was thinking about all the refugees who are heading into the area around Lyneham. There's going to be a serious food issue. So, I propose that we send some pretty giant caravans of food up with as efficient food as they can carry. I was thinking already milled flour and some salt pork and the like. There are other people who can fill in the details better than I can. But we can send that up along with a very large amount of seed corn of various types with the goal that they can plant enough in the spring planting that when that harvest comes in they'll be able to feed everybody, but also that they can feed people in the meantime out of the supply of food that we're sending up. We'll probably need to send a couple of caravan trips, because we might have like 225,000 or something people there. The amount of food that takes is pretty huge. "Even for basic sustenance," agrees Kit. "That's an excellent plan, even if we're only trying to get them basically subsistence living. That will make it easier also to then start sorting them out as they arrive into people who are going to be farmers and people who are going to work in the mines and people who have other skills and will work in the towns." "Also, the Archbishop should send at least an archdeacon, and should perhaps consider erecting a new diocese there, because if there's going to be hundreds of thousands of people living there, they will need an organized Church as well. The other part of that is we should expect that there will be some people among them who will attempt to maintain structures like slavery, or to reimpose slavery on people who have escaped from bondage, and we'll need to be vigorous in making sure that gets stomped out." They send off some messages to get that process rolling. Separately, Kit sends a missive by teleport coffer to the spy mistress of Mandrath to find out if she needs to come to the funeral in person. Alistair and Dame Brionna will surely attend, but if Kit is not needed for intelligence coordinating purposes, she would stay in Canberry to assist the Empress in maintaining smooth governance. 15 O-Tar Kit is informed that a rider from Lyneham has arrived, carrying a message from a priest. Kit asks that he be brought in and given refreshments and then travels to a meeting room to find a rider who is less ill-favored than poorly bathed. “My lady, I come from Father Percy. He’s a worrying man. He’s been counting the barrels, and the number of people come in who will be needing to draw on them. The innkeep’s been opening the cellar, but there’s more of them every day.” “We are sending reinforcements already.” “Reinforcements?!” “Reinforcements of food. And healers, since they’ll likely need some of that. If you have numbers, that would be helpful.” “Aye, Father Percy and Sister Beatrice are overstretched as it is. Father Percy sent this record of the numbers.” He shows her a document with hash marks on it—many hash marks. “Those are each families. Most of them have little with them—not even a cow. I’ve never seen so many families without a cow in my life. And many of the families have no menfolk—Father Percy said I was to tell you many of them have been … conscripted?” “Yes, conscripted. About what I expected.” "A lot more children on their own than you would expect, and a lot more households that are used to functioning with two grown-ups that only have one. And very few of them even have a cow, m'lady, as I said." "We will do what we can. I'm not sure how many cows we will be able to send, but we will absolutely do what we can to get enough food and shelter and other people to take care of the refugees so that the burden doesn't all fall on you. Thank you for bringing this. Do you want to rest overnight before you go back?" "If it pleases m'lady, I couldn't rest in a place like this, though. It's so beautiful." "We will find a place for you out in the City, somewhere in a one of the guest houses." "Thank you, m'lady." He crawls over and kisses her foot. "Please rise," replies Kit, trying to conceal how uncomfortable she is with that. "Come back here tomorrow, after you have rested and eaten and bathed, and I will send a message back with you for Father Percy, including a report of how well you've performed." "Thank you, m'lady, and thank you for the food. I hadn't been eating--I've been riding for days." "We're going to send food back with you so that you don't have to go hungry on the way back." "Thank you, m'lady. Didn't want to take anything. So many mouths..." "We will be sending help soon, and thank you for this." Kit brings word of this to the Council, and is glad that they have already set things in motion. She asks who she needs to talk to and give specific numbers and information, and Alistair tells her that he's been organizing it through the Master of the Household. It's not really properly part of his responsibilities, but he is a senior functionary and courtier with responsibility for supply and logistics, so it makes sense to coopt him for this. Kit goes to talk to the Master of the Household about supplying food to those people, and that more are coming even beyond that. Meanwhile, Dame Brionna comes to the Council with an urgent letter from the Earl of Brightmount. In the western Archduchy, there are an increasing number of refugees. "An incident has occurred that needs direct intervention, I think, by you, Your Grace. In the western Archduchy, there are increasing numbers of Hanalian refugees-- in particular, an increasing number of refugees who are unwilling to settle in Masque are traveling along the mountains and are coming to our western lands. The initial two dozen small groups were welcomed, but local people are being more restive and now reacting badly. Last night, a particularly large group of refugees were waylaid by local young farmers. Two of them were killed, and others are seriously injured. Field Marshal Brightspan--the Earl Brightmount-- and the local nobles have captured the perpetrators. But Brightspan feels that he doesn't have the right to high justice, as this is not on his land, and that he feels uncomfortable under circumstances figuring out what to do with these murderers, and also that there are serious issues in terms of the pressure of refugees. And so he would like, as he puts it, the input of either 'your august self' or an appropriate member of the Imperial Majesty's Court with the let of his Imperial Majesty. To be quite frank, I think this is an issue that should be decided, not by me, but by you, and possibly Caitlin. I also have a thought about the larger refugee issue, but I think the crime should be dealt with first." "We need to deal with this swiftly and in a clear, visible way. I'm inclined to think that I should travel out there with a judge, and have a quick and decisive trial. The sentence can then be presented to me immediately for confirmation." "And the sentence, if it was an intentional murder..." "If it was what it sounds like, then at least one of them will have to be hanged. And hopefully the judge will be able to distinguish between some ringleaders to be hanged and the rest of the mob to be otherwise disciplined, but there's nothing else for it. Anything else would send a message that this is tolerable, and we can't have that. It's one of the few occasions when it is inconvenient that we don't maintain the despicable practice of slavery." "I maintain that a clean death might still be preferable to that." "I don't really disagree. I'm just never happy to send people to the gallows." "Field Marshal Brightspan mentioned that they were young farmers, and depending on their age, if they are not full adults, I think some mercy might be shown." Kit interjects, "Again it depends on what evidence they put forth. If this was actual murder, then they're old enough to know that that's wrong. If this was a fight that got out of hand, that's something else." "It also matters if they are 19 year olds or 16 year olds or 12 year olds. We can't make an exception just because of age for full adults, for teens it depends on the circumstances. For truly children, then how did that happen?" "There could easily be children among them along with some older ringleaders," points out Dame Brionna. "In which case, again, part of the what the judge will need to do is to sort that out, and I don't want to be doing that myself, because I have neither the expertise nor I think is it appropriate for me to pass judgment personally, except in highly exceptional cases." "I agree with you going out personally, Your Grace, although we'll need to do that fashion, probably by voller or by teleport. The matter is most urgent. With regards to the larger refugee situation, it seems to me that we have two related problems. I really do wonder if we can figure out some way to to use one to fix the other. Which is that the Southlands are still vastly depopulated and in need of of new people--particularly new people who are not flavors of evil. And on the other hand, we have all these refugees." "If they are willing to go there, then yes, absolutely," says Kit. "Obviously that's a much longer distance." "And also, I would imagine, the farming is a lot different in the Southlands than it is in Hanal, so we'll need to set them up with some help. They'll know how to be farmers, but they won't know the kinds of things that they can grow in the Southlands." "Is that something where we can reach out to the temple of of Gunnora?" "Certainly," replies Alistair. "There is another issue. Ideally, you want to be absorbing refugees or people who are coming into a land in general with an adequate amount of of already local people. That way, you can absorb them instead of simply having a new, disorganized, foreign enclave. That's challenging in the Southlands, because we already have a large refugee population that we're trying to organize and defend and establish. I see a different but somewhat related possibility. Instead of moving them all the way through the Archduchy of Canberry, along the borders of the Eastern Nomads territory, and then down into the reestablished Southlands, I'd note that the river Canberry City is on runs to a mouth to the south and slightly to the west. It's some 200 miles or so from the City. I have thought for a long time that territory, which is essentially unclaimed, notionally beyond the archduchy but there's nothing much to the south there, would be a sensible place to want to establish a port city for maritime trade." "Which the Archduchy essentially has none of at present." "There's this large bay more to the west of the Archduchy, west or northwest." "I believe that there has been a history of attempting to establish settlements in that area that have disappeared without a trace. We now assume that's because they're being sucked into the forbidden mine complex, although we cannot confirm that. There was also a flotilla that left the Forbidden Island down off the south shore. We set up trenches filled with seawater, and arranged for elven vollers to bombard them, but we know that some hundreds or possibly a couple thousand beings made it to shore and escaped. So I think obviously we don't want refugees to the west of our borders, because we need to solve that problem, but refugees are not going to help and might be in danger." "No, indeed," replies Dame Brionna, "but if we can settle them down south along the Canberry River successfully that would both be advantageous for the long-term development of the Archduchy and to solve the refugee problem." "How did the Hanalian refugees get here?" "It says in the letter that they skirted the mountains because they didn't want to go into Masque. They're cutting all the way over to the western part of the Archduchy, they seem to be making it over or around the mountains in the west, though, not taking the familiar passes." "That's strange--there's no major road or pass through in the west. That's why the Cities of Trade exist, because there needs to be a maritime portage. The other reason why we need to start having are people manage this flow by the way, beyond protecting refugees is that realistically, we have to assume that at least some of them are not in fact, refugees, but are enemy agents or creatures." "And notably if they're traveling through an area that we know, or strongly suspect, is under eldritch control to get here the chance of of corruption is high." Because the mouth of the river is notionally in the lands of the Duchy of Grimcliff, albeit basically unsettled, they call for the Duke of Grimcliff's representative at court. A hobbit wearing Grimcliff colors, via Mountainmarch, quickly attends on them: Lord Sandyburough. "How can I help you, Your Lordship?" "We're curious about the mouth of the River Canberry." "Beautiful area! There should be a city there." "That was indeed, precisely, our thought, that you would expect that such a place would naturally grow a city." “Yes, I agree. Unfortunately, the sea giants see otherwise. His Grace, well, His Grace two generations ago, thought to put a port there to increase the strength and prosperity of Grimcliff, and thus of the Archduchy. The sea giants disagreed, and demolished it utterly. He was not very diplomatic, and we didn't have much of a navy. Truthfully, we don't have a navy at all, so the sea giants and our land-based catapults exchanged large rocks for a while. And ultimately His Grace gave up." "To clarify, did His Grace in fact seek to negotiate with the sea giants at any point in this process?" asks Kit. "Oh, no, no, my lady. I'm sorry. I'm afraid that His Grace, the elder one, was not the diplomatic sort. He was a great general, though, but it's hard to fight things in the water, without boats." Dame Brionna turns to Alistair. "Your Grace. You know more of a lands of these people, and so forth. Do you know whether sea giants are innately hostile?" "Sea giants are not one of the more numerous varieties of giants. They are amphibious, make their castles in shallow water, are very territorial, and tend to hunt certain creatures near shore on land. Some even follow the Light. I wouldn't think they would be innately hostile." "It seems like you might be able to open up communications with them? Because if we're trying to establish a port city, and we need to invite in some sea giants, that's not a bad thing. If the reason that we don't have a port city is just that one interaction went really badly, and nobody's bother talking to them, this is a really badly missed opportunity. We need to do something about that." "Yes, agreed. Also it's entirely possible that we could form an alliance with them, incorporate them into the Empire, and given everything going on in the sea at the moment, that would be a great gain as well." They send for a historian to find out more. "We wanted to know about the history with the sea giants by the mouth of the Canberry River." "Oh, yes, yes. Well, in recent years there hasn't really been a history. Some 700 years ago, the Duchy of Grimcliff had had a fishing village by the mouth. As I'm sure His Majesty knows, Grimcliff has been the most loyal vassal to the Archduchy since its formation. The Archduke of the time--I believe your ancestory by fourteen generations--saw fit to determine that all of the fishing rights in the bay should belong to the Archduchy. The sea giants were unwilling to give up their food source and to abandon their homes, and the sea giants destroyed the village. There was then no contact until the former Duke of Grimcliff, two generations ago, I believe, not a man of letters in any way, saw fit to attempt to open a trade port there. That resulted in bombardment, according to the records I received from the military attache, of the Duke of Grimcliff's forces resulting in the destruction of the nascent city, and ultimately the frustration of the Duke's forces. Is that at all helpful, Your Grace?" The scholar twitches as Alistair stares at him silently. "I'm dreadfully sorry if I have inadvertently insulted a member of your family... Please tell me if I have given offense..." "To be clear, what you're saying is that we don't have an extraordinarily valuable port city on the mouth of this river, where there obviously ought to be one, not because the sea giants nearby are inherently unreasonable, but because thus far all of the nobles of Canberry who have seen fit to interact with them have been unmitigated asses to the point where the giants decided to start throwing stones?" He looks panicked. "Begging your pardon, but yes, Your Majesty." Kit says with a laugh, "There's the answer to your question, 'Have you avoided giving offense?'" "Yes, don't worry, no offense was taken. Now that we understand what happened, my sense of practicality is offended, but not by you." "Yes, Your Grace," quivers the scholars voice. Kit turns to the representative of Grimcliff. "Is that area directly under the control of the Duke of Grimcliff, or is there an earl or such who claims it for him?" "My lady, I can't remember. No one has exercised any claims recently." "Do you think that Grimcliff would be willing to cede that area to the Archduchy itself, if we could establish a port there, in exchange for some reasonable concessions of land elsewhere?" "I'm sure that His Grace would be delighted to serve the Archduchy in whatever way Your Imperial Majesty says." "I want to be clear that I'm not trying to step on his grace's toes here, but at the same time I think this might be more readily solved by direct imperial negotiation than by working through the House of Grimcliff." "I believe, Your Imperial Majesty, that His Grace would be particularly pleased with an additional grant of farmland." "I think that that is eminently plausible. I cannot promise that it would be contiguous with the current duchy." "Perhaps if we had a place to put our young men who farm and their wives and children, I cannot imagine that His Grace would object." "I could imagine, then, setting them up extending southeast from there, and setting those areas up as within the Duchy of Grimcliff, and positioning additional archducal resources to protect that area. There's a history of orkish problems in that area, but we've largely resolved that recently." "If it please Your Majesty, I can forward this suggestion to His Grace." "Why don't you do so, and at the same time as that is going on, we will send a diplomatic mission to attempt to open conversations with the giants." Dame Brionna sends mentally, <<It's interesting looking at the genealogy of Ashberry, none of your family has chosen to marry into the Grimcliff family for 10 generations, where you're grandmother notably chose husbands from several of the other duchies.>> <<She definitely did not pick Grimcliff, though my stepmother was from Grimcliff.>> <<I forgot you had a stepmother, Your Grace. We so rarely talk about her. Is she still living?>> <<Yes, she went home to her home duchy after my father's death. She has indicated no interest in resuming any familiar contact with me-- which, to be fair, when we shared a household she showed no interest in engaging in any familiar contact for understandable reasons.>> <<Is there reason to believe that her family is at all biased against you?>> <<My impression is that they are loyal, that they have hard feelings towards my father and a lack of any interest in pursuing future marriages with the archducal family, at least for some generations. But I don't think that they would be opposed to any developments here.>> They ask the Duke of Grimcliff's representative to reach out to his liege about the matter, and they appoint an appropriate ambassador to open contact with the sea giants. The poor historian is only too grateful to be allowed to leave, after having had to obliquely criticize the Emperor's family and then hearing the Emperor curse about his ancestor. "Is there anything else pressing?" No one has anything. "Then I think I should get on a voller." "I should go with you, Your Majesty," says Dame Brionna, who rapidly begins planning the team that will travel on the voller with them. "Make sure that you have a ring of teleportation on, please, just in case." "And I will stay here. I received a message back from my counterpart in Mandrath, and she would very much like me to be there. So therefore I thought that I should stay behind to give Caitlin back up while you're gone, and so that we can go over all the things that I won't be here to help her with when we're gone for the funeral." "Makes sense, though the Empress has proven most able at managing such matters." They travel in an actual man-of-war for this, though the Air Navy hardly knows how to fight it. The point, however, is not to be battle-worthy, but to look awesome. They will be traveling several hundred miles so it will take them a day or two to get there, which means that it's likely that they will need to teleport directly from this to Mandrath. They bring along a senior judge (Justice Balthazar) and an advocate to represent the defense (Advocate Dunstan), plus a prosecuting attorney (Lord Maxim Sedgedge). They intend to make it utterly clear that the proceedings are fair and impartial. Alistair meets with Justice Balthazar shortly after departure. "Lord Maxim will need to conduct an investigation, and Dunstan will want to speak with his clients, and perhaps perform investigations of his own, and then, when they are both prepared, they will present the case before you." "In the interest of not allowing myself to be in any way prejudiced, I am going to withdraw to my cabin, and I will take my meals there until we arrive." "Understood, and I do want to be clear, that the Empire's only interest here is to see justice be done." "You wouldn't have picked me otherwise, my lord." With that, Justice Balthazar bows and enters his cabin, not emerging until arrival. [cont'd] [/QUOTE]
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Aphonion Tales: The Archducal Council -- Unedited notes; later posts are edited transcripts (posts MWF, update 3/1/23)
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