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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cerebral Paladin" data-source="post: 3045694" data-attributes="member: 3448">The last message, under the seal of the personal arms of Field Marshal Sir Derrick Brightspan and with the slight charring at the edges that marks teleported parchment, provided a battle report from his campaign against the barbarians.  They engaged elements of the barbarian horde yesterday.  The barbarian horde had substantial surprising cavalry support, including lancers, a type of unit the barbarians had traditionally lacked.  After three charges, the barbarians broke, but Sir Derrick withheld pursuit to tend to his own wounded and pursue slowly.  The barbarians have also assembled a small number of primitive fortifications-- stockades and the like.  Sir Derrick requested permission to burn fortifications if the civilians refuse to quit them.“He delayed pursuit to tend to his wounded?” asked Kit.  “That doesn’t sound like what we know of Sir Derrick.”Alistair focused on the signature.  “It wasn’t entirely his choice, I think.  The signature isn’t his, and matches the notation at the bottom from his private secretary.  If his private secretary is signing his correspondence, Sir Derrick has probably been badly wounded.”“You’re not going to give him permission to burn fortifications with civilians inside, are you?  It would be a slaughter.”“Your grace, it may be necessary,” responded Dame Brionna.  “The army cannot afford to leave possible foes behind it, but if they take the time to besiege each until it falls, their advance will be horribly delayed.  And the sieges will not be bloodless, either.  I do not relish the possibility, but it may be necessary.”Alistair closed his eyes for a moment.  “We can hope that if he does start burning fortifications, he would only need to burn a few before the other civilians were more sensible.  Still… I won’t order that if I can avoid it.  We’ll consult with Field Marshal Broadfields.  If he agrees that it is necessary, we don’t have much choice.”“Field Marshal Broadfields always attends the morning services, your grace.  We still have time to attend and speak with him afterwards.”“Fine.  It will be useful to make an appearance for political reasons, anyway.”The three all made their way to the palace chapel.  As this was simply an ordinary day, the chapel was far from capacity, although there were still a score of congregants.  About half of the worshippers were nobles and high officials of the Archduchy, entitled to attend the Archduke’s chapel because of their rank.  The balance were a group of wealthy and highly favored nobles with standing invitations as a sign of the Archduchy’s favor.  Alistair ignored the views of the other congregants and proceeded directly to the Archducal pew, where he ran through the pre-service rituals in a small, private, but precise and easily visible, way.  Kit’s sharp ears could hear the murmurs of pleased surprise from the merchants-- they had not expected to see Archduke Alistair in church except on festival days and perhaps for the weekly great Mass.  Perhaps he was more faithful than the rumors suggested?  Kit relayed this mentally to Alistar, who maintained his solemn face while feeling pleased about the politics.  The nobles seemed much less surprised by his presence, and much less impressed.  But then, they had a keener awareness of why their liege might attend church regardless of his personal feelings; some of them were probably simply keeping up appearances, themselves.The chaplain ran through the morning service efficiently, including the required liturgy but cutting every optional portion and keeping things moving.  Upon arriving, Dame Brionna had quietly mentioned to the priest that the Archduke preferred the daily services to be quick so that he could return to his duties, and the priest understood and obeyed.  Alistair again made a show of participating fully, while creating the impression that this was a personal devotion not intended for the eyes of others.  Kit did her best to follow along, still feeling somewhat uncomfortable in a Glor’diadelian church.  Only Dame Brionna participated fervently and without either show or discomfort; her only complaint was that the Archduke’s preference for a quick service ran directly contrary to her own.After the service, Alistair caught Marshal Broadfields eye and made a small gesture to wait.  He then mingled through the others who had attended the service, making small talk, discussing the day’s scripture readings, and in general trying to inspire personal affection and loyalty while creating an impression of great piety and devotion to duty.  Kit, listening to the thoughts of the various merchants and nobles that Alistair spoke to, heard both the surprise but also the tremendous shift towards positive feelings in their thoughts.  She nodded to herself; Alistair certainly knew a thing or two about making people like him.  [A 37 on his Diplomacy check didn’t hurt, either.]As the remainder of the congregants dispersed, Marshal Broadfields made his way over to Alistair and his companions.  After moving to a more private chamber, Alistair passed Field Marshal Brightspan’s message over.“We suspect he may have been injured, based on the uncharacteristic message about pursuit.”“Certainly.  It suggests that he was badly wounded, in fact.  If he were simply forced to withdraw from the front, he would still send his army forward.  But if command had passed to one of the generals beneath him, the more tentative approach is easily explained.  This poses a tremendous danger to the empire; if he cannot resume command quickly, the campaign could be greatly prolonged, with a much higher total loss.  And if he dies… some of the generals in his army should not hold their ranks.  It is possible they could even manage to lose.”Alistair nodded.  “You’ll need to be ready to teleport out and assume command.  We’ll do everything we can to aid his recovery, but if he does not recover, we need a competent general in charge.”The field marshal nodded.  “Yes, your grace, that makes sense.  I’ll review the reports in more detail and make my preparations.”“What of his request for permission to burn the fortifications?”“Unquestionably correct, your grace.  Bypassing the fortifications or besieging them without burning them are both untenable options.  The strategic consequences of either would be to slow our advance and weaken our army-- precisely the opposite of our goal in striking a hard blow against the enemy to break their will to fight us.”“Very well, then… he’ll have his permission.  I only wish we did not need to; many civilians will die as a result.”“Your grace, that was inevitable when they took to the fortifications and refused to surrender when beaten.  You should also know that the use of fortifications is unusual among the barbarians.  Traditionally, they have only had light mobile shelters, without actual settlements or fortifications.  I suspect that this is another example, like the lancers, of the khan adapting to improve their techniques.  It is a dangerous trend.  And it makes the over-caution of the more junior generals more problematic.  We should not give them time to adapt further.”“We need to shore up the chain of command, your grace,” commented Dame Brionna.  “It’s all well and good to rely on Sir Derrick, and to send out Marshal Broadfields if he is slain, but we need the other generals to be capable and aggressive enough as well.”“Indeed.  Do you see anything inadvisable in promoting the most aggressive and skilled officers?  We could include that in Sir Derrick’s orders as well.  It should both strengthen the top of the chain of command and inspire the rest of the officers.”“A wise plan.  Do you know if there are any of the Elite Hand with the army?”Alistair did his best to conceal the fact that he had no idea what Marshal Broadfields was discussing.  “We would have to check.”The field marshal nodded.  “If there were any there, if they could… discomfit some of the least effective generals, it could provide additional room for Sir Derrick to remake his command.”Dame Brionna found herself grudgingly impressed with Marshal Broadfields’s practicality.  She couldn’t fully approve of what he was discussing-- the Elite Hand are the Canberran military’s best spies and assassins, and “discomfiting” less effective generals could easily mean arranging fatal accidents.  But the army needed to be able to win this war and the possible future wars, and if that meant some generals would die in the meantime, so be it.Alistair thanked the field marshal for his advice.  Back in his quarters, he turned to Kit and Dame Brionna.  “I think we know about everything we need to before responding to Sir Derrick.  But I’m also planning on giving him some more specific instructions about how to handle the Khan.”“It sounds like the barbarian’s whole effort centers on the Khan.”“Indeed.  And he has no clear heir-apparent, either.  Five children, all under the age of eight, four full siblings, thirteen half-siblings by his father, and two half-siblings by his mother.  If he dies, the barbarian horde is likely to degenerate into infighting over the succession.”“Are you thinking of trying to have him killed, your grace?”“In part.  If Sir Derrick has the opportunity to kill the Khan on the field of battle, he should take it.  Pressing hard in a single battle at the Khan’s personal guard could end the war,” Alistair said.  “At the same time, the Khan seems like an effective and foresighted leader.  I also plan to ask Sir Derrick to reach out through diplomatic channels, during discussions of exchanging wounded or truces or the like, to ask the Khan to agree to meet me personally.  Of course, during any diplomatic communications we could do nothing to harm him.  But if he could be persuaded to ally with us instead of fighting us, we could use a leader of his caliber.  And I wouldn’t mind adding an eighth duchy, either.”Kit and Dame Brionna agreed with Alistair’s plan, although perhaps with less enthusiasm and confidence than he brought to it, and Alistair quickly dictated a letter to Sir Derrick for teleportation out to the front.</blockquote>

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