Skip to main content.
Back to actions

Action Id: 3875 Crisis: Participants: Orrin(RIP), Michael, Mia, Thesarin, Asher(RIP), Mikani, Peri, Kaldur(RIP) and Scythia
Status: Resolved Submitted: March 14, 2020, 10:57 p.m. Public: True GM: Apostate

Economic Resources: 7500
Military Resources: 7000
Social Resources: 5500

Action by Orrin(RIP)

Trouble on the Mourning Sea! Except for around Pearlspire, which has held down piracy/raiding (staff confirmed in previous requests/page conversations) because:

* the Portress (action 3141)
* careful vetting of refugees (action 3358)
* navy growth: the caravel 'Tiga' (action 3654); most recent RFR on goal #819; plus routine army purchases mean the Seliki fleet is in line with the Grayson fleet
* cooperative patrolling with Crovane and Kennex (action 3584, which ended raids on the Northlands coast; a PRP in plot 526) - understood as ongoing
* the Crovane-Seliki marriage and building of the Crovane port (action 3642)

The foundations are in place. The time has come to build out for the defense of the mainland coast.

House Seliki and friends are going to visit the various coastal islands adjacent Pearlspire, then heading northward along the mainland coastline toward Stormwall, southward toward Arx.

* Islands held by other Crownlands or Northlands holdings get help building towers
* Islands that are uninhabited get small military stations and towers built
* Islands that are inhabited get towers after...
1) peaceful outreach first, with a message about the peace from pirates and
    reavers Seliki's patrolling has provided (join us, we protect you!) +
    good trade with the mainland as benefits to swearing fealty to Seliki +
    the good care Seliki shows all its people (medicine, artisans, training)
2) those disinclined get a wary eye: if they seem to be harboring pirates/
    reavers/cultists/enemies will turn into military engagements (and Seliki
    will attempt to take and hold those islands by force)
3) disinclined but peaceful Abaondoned get additional warnings about
    threats: Shavsbane, Eurus, and will still be added to patrol routes in
    case they change their mind (Seliki chains no-one)/so that badness
    doesn't take hold.

Signal towers are built purely for function: a continuous line of signaling up and down the coast (Stormwall to Arx, Brighthold if possible) is what we want. Early warning against Eurus (or other naval forces not bearing Compact flags) attacking.

SHORTER VERSION: Take islands, build signalling towers, protect the coast with early warning. The rest is just implementation details.


Action by Scythia

Countess Consort Scythia would assist Orrin with prepations by visiting the coastal islands that are adjacent to Pearlspire. She would be avoiding any skirmishes if at all possible (and if skirmishes break out, she would be out of there like woah). Her role is in the capacity of diplomat. She would seek to survey the inhabitants, keep matters peaceful, and discreetly alert Orrin to any of those that seem to be less on the up-and-up and more hostile in nature, be it mundane or more nefarious. If she can persuade those to bend the honest folk to bend the knee, all the better.


Action by Kaldur(RIP)

Kaldur, Duke-consort of Stormwall, emerging from a year spent raising cavalry to patrol Stormwall, turns his attention east. He rallies his people and his vassals to the work of defending the coast, painting the picture of their defense of the mainland not just as defense of their homes, but as service to all of Arvum. The Compact supported Stormwall, helped it rebuild, and now, they must stand as sentinels and shields.

He encourages any contribution to the great effort, from the small: meals cooked, tools mended, songs sung, to the large: boatloads of timber and quarried stone.

This exhoration of effort extends to /any/ encountered, bolstering and coordinating with Scythia.


Action by Peri

Peri uses her knowledge of war to command and work with those under her authority to

1) Manage the logistics of naval approaches to various islands, some of which may harbor dangerous and hostile elements.
2) Plan the emplacement of signal towers and work out the logistics of their use (especially in war). This will allow for expansion of the signaling network which in turn allows for quick marshaling of forces in events like invasion fleets or for marshaling help during natural disasters.
3) Perform blockades on any islands harboring hostile elements. This will shrink their resources and lead to their defeats.


Action by Michael

Michael Bisland makes it known wide and clear that House Seliki takes precedence in naval matters across Bisland. Its true, isn't it? Admiral Peri Seliki being a Seliki and in charge of Bisland's Navy in its entirety.


Action by Mikani

No one likes dealing with the finer details. Well almost no one. Mika on the other hand does all the book keeping and the inventory tracking. She also makes sure that none of them get ripped off during this large investment. Though it is the others that go and see her work. She just makes sure that everything is in place for them when they go.


Action by Asher(RIP)

Asher knows that building a structure requires more than just good masonry these days; iron and steel are needed. The same can be said of repairs for ships. He will be on the spot as requested, to hammer out whatever is needed for the building of these temporary towers, as well as repairs for ships that invariably will take damage during any skirmishes or upon the reefs and such. If necessary, he can also repair or craft armaments for those in battle.


Action by Mia

The Eurusi fleet on the way to Sungreet isn't all there is to worry about. There are already Eurusi ships landing with people fleeing fighting in the Dune Kingdoms - ostensibly, anyway. There's also a whole world of cultists and other servants of darkness and demons even before Eurus got into the mix, too, as Mia is well-aware. She has the language skills (Eurusi, Crownlands shav, Northlands shav) to listen in on most of the Eurusi or Abandoned they might find on Crownlands-adjacent isles, and if there are refugees that aren't really refugees -- spies or cultists or other adversarial plotters amongst the Abandoned they find -- she'll be able to find them out and signal the appropriate fighting forces. Alternatively, if there are friendly -- or at least non-hostile -- locals with misgivings about their home islands getting scooped up for this purpose, she'll be able to further help tune diplomatic messaging to address their particular concerns. Mia has, after all, taken in refugees more than once. She took in several hundred of former Abandoned that were freed in Kennex's reforms -- specifically those whose tribes had been otherwise wiped out by Thrax raiders and Abbas' plagues -- as well as tribes fleeing oncoming threats from the North and from Shavsbane during the flare ups from the Great Road and the attack on the Lodge. She has a reputation of being good on her word when she offers protection to those in need and of a willingness to work together against threats to Arvum as a whole, and a long-standing one at that.


Action by Thesarin

Thesarin is not at home on boats. When it comes to the details of naval warfare, he's more than content to let Seliki's admiralty handle the overarching strategy.
On the matter of ground combat, however, he's rather undisputed as a master of the practice. The War Chief of Riven will be helping the Seliki defenses in their deployment and preparation, where they can hold and how to best allow defense and escape; on any islands where there's intractible resistance to be found, he'll lead soirties and raids to allow the defenders at their work, and drive out packets of reavers or pirates as need be. He's never been a man to shy from leading soldiers by example.


Result

It's not cheap or easy to construct a series of watchtowers on islands, and geography doesn't make it easier, as there's certainly islands, but they aren't exactly in a perfect semi-circle around the coast or have spacing that could be ideal. Which creates a very irregular claiming of islands, and one island that's essentially a slab of rock jutting from the sea is perfect since it's several hundred feet above sea level, and building a several hundred foot tower gives immense cover over the coast, but it's a tower that will have to be supplied repeatedly at expense time and again. Still, they get it done with construction on uninhabited islands proceeding immediately, as Thesarin gives his expertise on the strategic deployment that could best give warning on likely fleet movements.

Inhabited islands are trickier.

On two islands, nomadic groups simply flee rather than talk to the Compact. Scythia manages to talk to two groups, Clan Redbone and House Waltherton. Clan Redbone is happy to bend the knee as long as their cultural traditions are respected. Like, say, cannibalism. They are pretty defensive of that, in that they only eat convicted criminals and they are cooked first so it's not like they are savages. Still, that probably won't fly. House Waltherton on the other hand claims the land where Pearlspire rests, saying they have claims to it from the time of the Reckoning. They'd settle for half of the current city being set aside for their use, or being introduced into the Compact as a great house. These seem unlikely.

But, Seliki expands its territory, and watchtowers for (nearly) complete coverage are established. It'd be nice to have the islands Waltherton or Redbone claim, but it's probably not strictly necessary.