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Message: <blockquote data-quote="s/LaSH" data-source="post: 695036" data-attributes="member: 6929">The question, then, is "What do the Cresians do next?"Do they hang back and recoup their losses? After being invaded, what, four or five times now, I'm getting the distinct idea that they're a little bleeped off and would quite enjoy putting an end to the Jongans once and for all. However, they themselves have suffered heavy losses...Do they charge in and try to kill every Jongan they can see? Again, doubtful; they've learned enough about war to know that the Jongans would defend their homeland just as furiously as the Cresians did, and losses would doubtless be hideous; victory is not necessarily assured, even accounting for fog tactics and scurvy sea dogs (arr).My bet would be on the Cresians demanding surrender from the Jongans. However many prisoners they took during the Battle of the Mists (not guaranteed to be many, seeing that the most effective combatants at that time were ravening beastmen), they can use them as hostages. I'm certain that a large number of Jongan lords would have been at the forefront of the battle, and would be very valuable to the Jongan people.So the Cresians send one ship back to Jonga, perhaps cutting off the right hand of every man on board (they can use magic to heal the wound itself, although regeneration is centuries in the future, so they don't die on the table, so to speak). They send the message with them: "Surrender to our rule now. Convert to the worship of the Dog God, give us all your weapons, raze your forges, and institute a sizable Cresian garrison in a governor's fortress on your island, and you get your men back. If you don't, well, we send them back in pieces."It's a harsh tactic, but remember, the Cresians have a history of punishment (the original schism between fire-users and the ancestors of the Dog Cult in Part One, as you recall). I fully expect they'd do it.But do the Jongans actually surrender? Well, from their perspective, they just lost nearly their entire army. The Cresians are confident enough to demand surrender. But they're still fortified, they still have some elites held back, and they could guess that they hurt the Cresians fairly badly. The key question is, How badly? And, Can the troops they have remaining take out our defences? I think it could go either way, even considering the pride of a warlike people. As Worf once said: "There is no honour in defeat."Of course, with the entire Jongan army defeated in the Cresian heartland, the Cresians are likely to acquire themselves some bronze weapons of their own. They're just lying there! Grab some shields, some swords, maybe some pikes or halberds if they were in use, and train all soldiers in their use (I expect that there would be more Jongan soldiers defeated, lethally or otherwise, than there are Cresians at this point). So the Cresians suddenly have technological equivalence with the Jongans (although they can't sustain it beyond the next few battles).In a morale-sapping display, a Cresian ship can be pulled (I wrote 'sail' then realised the Cresians don't use 'em) past the Jongan barricade with bronze shields fastened to the sides, just to demonstrate how cool they are.I think that, at this point, the Cresians are well past dismissing bronze on religious grounds. They've been on the recieving end for ten years, and now that they've got a huge supply of weapons and armour to their credit, they're quite willing to employ them for their own ends, even if they can't make the stuff... and they'll be more willing to research metallurgical techniques once they realise how useful this stuff is. Even if they don't use it in war, someone's going to hammer a sword into a plough, and say, "Hey, this is much better than this old wooden thing!". Metallic revolution is mere decades away... unless they start breeding darkwood (DMG pg243), of course.Darkwood itself could be developed by the priesthood by breeding and modifying hardwood trees. If they've been doing this since the war started (noting the effectiveness of Jongan armour technology), then they're probably beginning to reap the benefits about now... namely spears that are more effective (as masterwork weapons), shields that are less obstructive to the wielder (as -2 to armour check penalties), and of course enhanced ship hulls that are easier to haul and thus faster than their Jongan counterparts. While not well suited to slashing weapons or armour, darkwood is definitely an advantage to the Cresians. It's still only as tough as wood, though... the main advantage is in lightness.From there, I'm guessing that tougher woods would be developed, but only over the next few hundred or thousand years... possibly woods that concentrate metal, like copperwood or the more advanced ironwood. But, for now, darkwood is as good as it gets. If it even gets.PS: RW... what's that in your sig about d20 comics? I've been meaning to ask but forgot.</blockquote>

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