After Raus, Arcus, and Caernak talk for a
couple of days here and there, occassionally along with Daryli the priest, the
shrewish Jezra, and Morrah the sun domer, Raus becomes quite attached to you
and makes an offer:
"Arcus, I have thought about
what you said earlier and I realize I am in need of men like you here at
Ronegarth. I realize you may have other ties, but I can make a sweet
offer. Picture yourself with a stead
on the riverfront in my lands, close to the newtling village below our
cliffs. Take in the beauty of the
bog below as it flowers in the spring.
Your family could live in safety there with you, and you could become
the captain of my Riverguards.
You'd have a plot of land to farm, servants to help you, and great
financial gain. I'd assign
newtlings to take you to Sun County when you wish for trading and worship. Plus I'd be sure to keep your warrior
skills honed with some exploits to explore and protect my lands under Daine's leadership. Daine is in need of an archery master to
instruct his warriors. Yet you'd be
assured peace when you need it, and the protection of my name and my
warriors. If you wish, you could
try this for a year or two and see if you like it. Ponder it, my friend."
Arcus' response to Duke Raus is
this:
"My Lord,
that is a noble and generous offer.
You must know that my loyalties are first to My Lord Yelmalio and the
Sun Dome Temple, and then to the River and its people. That being said, however, I have
recently lost my standing in Sun County:
politics are not my strong point, and in seeking to do good for Sun County, I had become something of a political
embarrassment.
I do not switch loyalties easily,
in fact, I do not know if I can. However, I am lost now without the Sun Dome
Temple, and must find some direction to apply myself. In addition, the recent troubles have
separated me from my family, I would find a secure
home for my wife and my child. Your offeris extremely tempting.
I would like a few days to
consider your offer, I cannot undertake such responsibility as you would like
without careful thought. By your
leave, would you allow my consult with my friend, Caernak, the Acolyte of the
River, and with my country-man, Morrah?"
There is some discussion of
details, and Arcus realizes that there is a lot of flexibility with this
position, and starts to think he’ll accept it.
After a day or two,
Arcus approaches Caernak and lets him know that Duke Raus has made a generous
offer to Arcus to become the archery master for his warriors, a captain of
Raus' Riverguards. With his
standing in Sun County in doubt, and word of the troubles in Pavis, Arcus is
strongly tempted to take up the offer, he needs to
provide a home for his family. He
asks Caernak for his thoughts and advice on the matter.
From
what John has said, this would offer (if accepted), would make Arcus the
official River Voice envoy in Duke Raus' domain, and would allow us pretty free
access.
Caernak replies to Arcus:
It might be a good thing to have Arcus take this position, at least for a
time. As Arcus has ties to both Sun
County and the River, his presence would be a good indicator of Raus's
standing. Not to mention the
obvious benefits of having a spy there, or the other side of that coin, being a
hostage. Caernak would mention the
upcoming change of emissaries to the One - between the Dragon and the Duke, I think he's got options. Caernak is also pretty sure Arcus and
family would be well taken care of at the Pool. I don't think Arcus is in on all the
stuff that's going to be going on there - Caernak just mentions that he's sure Arcus
would have something to keep him busy, that he wouldn't just be sitting around
leeching off the cult.
Caernak is OK with
Arcus taking this position if he feels he should. It would be even better if Raus could
provide a couple of armsmen (or women) to take his place. Like Antonia? Heh heh heh. That would go over well next time we're
all in one place - probably better not to try that one. A couple of lower skilled armsmen, to
bolster our fighting strength and learn, and do what the River needs done.
On to
real discussion. Arcus remaining here
brings up another point for negotiation!
Caernak makes sure the Duke knows Mr. C is glad we could arrange for
someone to stay here to cement the bonds of friendship between the River and
Ronegarth, help the Duke fend off Chaos in his area, and work towards his
goals. He'll make a comment about
"taking my best trainer away" (intended as a joke, hope Raus finds it
amusing) and MIGHT make a joke about spying and Yelmalians and how nobody
suspects them because they're so stiff and formal (he shouldn't make this kind
of crack, but Mr. C trusts Raus and doesn't see Arcus as a spy; if Caernak fucks
up on a roll or something, or if he's been drinking a bit, I think this is what
he'd do - blown Orate wouldn't indicate hesitancy here, but overfamiliarity -
assuming too much good will, maybe pounding the Duke on the back. It's the kind of social faux pas that
Caernak would make through naivete.)
> Raus smiles at the joke and says he'll
keep a helpful eye on Arcus.
The "best
trainer" leads to the new point for negotiations. Arcus will presumably be doing some
training for the Duke. Caernak
would like to be able to send some River Folk down here to train with Arcus and
Raus's men, "Like young Greyreed here. While he'll be under my personal tutelage
much of the time, my skills as an archer are limited - I'm pretty sure the
pointy end goes towards the enemy [pause for laugh]. He'll do better learning from
Arcus." He'll talk about the
"River Guides" concept - training some Mru to better defend
themselves from localized threats, and look out for things the River Voices
need to handle. This will, of
course, benefit Raus as well, regardless of where the Guides are trained... but
if some of them are trained in part at Ronegarth, it will benefit him even
more. Stronger ties to the River Cult
AND to various Mru communities as Guides return home to tell of how Raus isn't
evil; it also means that the trainees will know one another, and hopefully
become friends, lessening the likelihood of random violence between the two
(hopefully <G>). Caernak
would also like to arrange for two "Fighters to be named later" in
trade for Arcus. Once the Duke is
less pressed for manpower, Caernak wants to grab a couple of promising trainees
from the groups Arcus is training.
They'll remain Raus's men, as Arcus remains a River Voice and Sun Dome
Templar (or whatever he is), but will fight with us. While Raus will lose their services for
a while (and perhaps permanently given the mortality rate), they'll come back as
better fighters and might even have a goody or two from adventuring!
> Raus thinks this
is all a grand idea. Give him a
season and Daine will select men that are right for the job.
"Daine is a fine
judge of swordsmen, but River Voice work requires some odd qualities quite
apart from skill at arms. It might
be best if Daine chooses several promising candidates; I will test them and
pick one or two who show promise."
Since Caernak is looking for specific stuff like Honor and RV
personality traits, it's likely that his choices will not be the best of the
pupils - this is a bonus for Raus.
Caernak isn't worried about spies, but Daine is a scary dude and I worry
about his choices. Of course, Daine
might not choose to lose his "best pupils" and stuff like that. We'll work it out.
Provided this goes well
and the Duke agrees, the timeframe for Arcus's return will be "after the
next ZF Holy day", and he'll show up with some wet-behind-the-ears
recruits to play Ronegarth exchange student, along with his family and the
blessings of Brighteye. Assuming,
of course, that the Five Eyes don't just kill us next week [waits for nervous laughter]
(just so Raus knows that while his end sounds good, those fiesty newtlings
might not agree, despite Caernak's good offices, and that this remains a
dangerous mission).
Caernak also starts
figuring out how best to present this to the Five Eyes (probably been thinking
about that for a while too, as part of the Raus Situation). Two days with the Duke remaining? About that? Caernak will consult with Raus on the
kinds of things he's willing to accept from the Five Eyes, and any suggestions
he may have for cutting the deal.
He's probably got an idea or two that might work that Caernak wouldn't
think of. Mostly, he wants to make
sure he's got a very good grasp of what concessions (not called that) the Duke
will make, and what he won't accept, so that he can negotiate fully. Once he's picked Raus's brain for any
new ideas, he'll start laying out his talking points and writing his main
oration. Arcus gets to hear it ALL,
several times, and any suggestions he has will be incorporated if Caernak
thinks they'll help.
So after talking to
both Caernak and Morrah, Arcus approaches Duke Raus and basically accepts the offer,
as long it is understood that he will not take part in any conflicts between
Sun County or the River cult, he has leave to go on Sun Dome or River Voice
missions (provided Ronegarth is not under attack), and that he may organize
regular chaos hunting parties, to both identify large chaos nests and take out
the small ones. He would also like to
visit Pavis before he starts his duties, so that he may get Haloric's blessings
and may take care of his affairs there.
> Raus would like
you to feel out the situation with the 5 eyes and come
>
back to him with an offer. He
does not want to make any offer beyond
> an
offer of peace and a way toward reconciliation. Raus doesn't seem
> too
keen on exactly outlining what concessions he'll make, he is a
> shrewd
bargainer and doesn't want to play his hand yet. You may need
> to
go back and forth between the 2 places with negotiations over the
> next
few weeks, he thinks, so start off by feeling out their
> prerogatives.
Absolutely. Mr. C will return with a counter ASAP -
though ideally, we'll be spending exactly the same amount of time at the Five
Eyes as we did with Raus. If they're hospitable.