Spheres of Influence: Alliance

The latest news from the auction is that someone is leading bidding with a bid of 200,000 gold. The auction house has put up a notice that they will consult with representatives of the government before the final sale, as their understanding was that the item was legally acquired under adventuring salvage laws, as it had passed out of any specific state or individual's ownership long ago, but they wanted to make sure this was legal before selling it.

Shortly after this news, a followup announcement came that the adventurer who had initially listed the hammer had withdrawn the item from auction and paid the associated fees.

An update to the Auction House scenario.

The Durganthull hammer was nearly stolen just recently. However, the adventurer in question who originally put the hammer up for auction defended it from being stolen. He has, it has been determined, opted instead to return the hammer to the dwarves afterall, after paying the Auction House's withdrawal fee.

Update on that dumb letter the Post sent earlier: Haha, oh crap, wouldn't ya know it, there's another borehole under St. Genevieve. And it's barely a borehole, more like a bore-cavern that you can just. Walk straight down into the underdark in. We had a moment of incredulous gawking, but considering Ríoch Geród's... delight in adventuring (particularly in such an area), the fact that he apparently would have had a small army to go in with, and that our wizards have determined very little magic happened here that wasn't D'Or's efforts to fortify the building....

Dudes, we think he's down there, maybe, and we don't have like, an underdark-ready force to go after him with, what with those particular two armies decimated in the reclamation and all. Someone should probably go get him?

Thedrin will report that he has already sent 1,000 combat power worth of Dwarves down into the underdark to search for Gerod and his company.

With luck, he'll be found.

A much more calmer Ovis reports that the Rambuctious Slimes shall join Thedrin's forces, tightly attached, friends!

Alyn announces that the Unity will inform its explorers down in the Dark to keep an eye out for Gerod and aid in the search.

Through the means of Freed Bay Post's postal services. A public announcement from Ríoch Geród of Tiranóg, who has emerged badly injured but alive from the Des Accour Borehole.

The Alliance is under attack from foreign Dwarves that are literally undermining the Alliance! In an attempt to find an escape tunnel from the Duchal Palace, Geród and his forces uncovered what they had at first determined to be an escape tunnel built to escape sieges but was, in fact, yet another borehole leading to the Underdark under an Alliance capital.

By the time they had realized this it was too late to turn back, and so had to suffer weeks lost in the Underdark, where they encountered a foreign Dwarvern Army patrolling the Underdark utilising clan markings not familiar to any of Alliance holds, whose armours bore Demonic facemasks rather than ancestor faces, and who used fantastic weaponry such as repeating rifles, and liquid-fire spouting weapons that can set columns of men on fire. In addition they were in possession of ironclad ships in the underseas. They had used these to decimate their forces and capture the rest. Geród managed to escape after what he could only assume was intervention by some unknown Goblins, who had apparently also destroyed one of their ironclad ships, which is perhaps what stalled them long enough to allow Geród to escape.

The Enemy Dwarves made encampment not far from the Des Accour Borehole, which was why he could so easily return to the surface after escaping their camp.

A more detailed recounting of events will likely be distributed amongst the diplomatic circles in time.

Thedrin is overjoyed to hear that Rioch Geród is alive!

He does have news of the Deep Dwarves, however. The army that he'd sent into the Underdark under the command of General Thora Thunderfist had run into the expeditionary force Gerod described. They had immediately opened fire on Thora's army, so she organized her men and fired back, felling a number of them as the rest fled on their iron warships.

In the aftermath, a number of armor samples, demon masks, and other such things were discovered on the dead. Casts of the demon face masks, as well as a record of maker's marks and sketches of the armor and ships, will be sent to the various powers of the Alliance. Thedrin will note that their soldiers are extremely dangerous, far more so than the High Kingdom's own. Thora's army had only won by the virtue of their numbers.

It's also worth noting that some of the maker's marks upon the armor match those of the Dwarven tools discovered by Tiranog beneath Dunfelian. It's very likely they were responsible for the explosion at Dunfelian earlier this year.

Captain Ovis is joyful that friend Rióch is back from the dead, but mourns the poor soldiers missing or killed...

The Unity expresses relief at the news that Gerod is alive, and will be watchful for the threat of the Deep dwarves.

Tiranóg, after consulting with the Kingdom of the Cresent Wastes and the Antipode Coalition, petitions to use the Elf money to fund the construction of a Waterlock elevator to provide direct naval access to the Underdark so we can better defend and eventually directly confront our new enemies underground, as well as provide direct, bulk commercial access to the Underdark for more efficient exploitation.

The position such a construction would be located is in the Antipodean Borehole which is the biggest one currently known, the finished canal would be cooperatively owned by the Alliance as a whole, albeit with Antipodean ability to collapse the canal should we face an invasion threat from below that can't be stopped without doing so. Which is understandable given the Canal's proposed location.

The Crescent Wastes are okay with this, obviously!!

Kor Vurneus believes that if we are going to do this eventually, this seems the best way to do it for now and agrees.

Antipode is obviously in favor.

Orbona doesn't really agree, mostly because if the canal collapses, there would be no bugs to fight.

The Post abstains from voting.

The High Kingdom is for it.

Due to a lack of funds with which to properly defend the construction of the canal, Antipode motions to delay its construction until such a time as defense is feasible. And perhaps until such a time as the Alliance has more steam-powered ships to actually send through the canal.

Kor Vurneus suggests that any nation that foots the bill to defend the canal, either through manpower or footing the bill for a fort's construction, be paid a reasonable reimbursement in the future once the Alliance as a whole has funds again to repay the lent money.

Such as if the alliance gains a windfall of gold again either from spoils or fines. So if someone paid 1 million for a fort to be funded right now, they would be prepaid at least this amount in the future.

(Just setting this post up for Pharms I believe unless a sudden change of heart happens.)

After some discussion, Bigfist begrudgingly foots the one million gold bill. That’s right, that several metric tons of shinies is going to be paid by Orbona, as long as she gets to name the fort (and get a big statue of her posing in the front) and go through the canal to fight underworld dudes there.

Also it’s kind of poetic, she is using money from killing bugs to make a secure entry to a place filled with bugs.

Actually you know what Bigfist is going to foot additional bills so the fort is all hers and also she going to staff her people there.

Bigfist never does things in Halves.

The Unity has no objections and will be sending a delegation to attend the wedding of Gerod and Justine

The Royal Wedding in Tiranóg was an unusual affair - For anyone unfamiliar with how such things were typically done.

All the heads of state and government of the member nations of the Alliance were invited to attend, and some very much did arrive in person, while others sent representatives. The Dwarven kingdom of Thertarr, normally content to pretend its neighbours didn't exist, consented to send a younger member of their royal family as representative. While the Kingdom of Gundarth on the other hand, showed up with all due pomp and circumstance, their foppish extravagence at odds with their rough and tumble demeanours, hard features, barking laughs, and rough spun cotten tunics and kilts that were Gundarthian traditional garb.

King Thedrin of Khuln Kalduhr and his Queen, Durgana arrived, as did, rather controversally, Admiral Jack Rousseau of the Freed Bay Post, a calculated but appropriate choice for the Post Office to send. As decorum meant the state could not be denied an invite for diplomacy's sake, but the tensions meant most possible representatives sent would be considered inappropriate, a naval officer was the closest to a neutral candidate and one welcomed by Tiranóg. Aztra of the Antipode Coalition, Tiranóg's closest neighbor by sea arrived, as well as the other representatives of Alliance states, great and small were invited and had arrived for what was intended to be a symbol of Alliance Unity and strength after a year of Chaos, both for Tiranóg nationally, and for the Alliance as a whole. Surprisingly, and perhaps to some alarm, the Queen of Borok had been invited as a sign of good faith on Tiranóg's part and had arrived with her entourage, rowdy and proud, keen to prove to these soft Southerners they were not to be taken lightly.

The Wedding Ceremony itself was as formal as everyone had expected it to be, taking place in one of the lesser Cathedrals of Dunfelian, as the newly instated High Priest of the Tiranógi faith officiated the proceedings, invoking the blessings of Ashurian, the Tiranógian king of the gods and god of kings on both sovereigns. An unusual deviation of normal proceedings, as typically only one of the pair was truly sovereign until the marriage had taken place, hence only one of them needed to be specifically given over to Ashurian even though the spouse always had to adopt him as one of their gods to become consort, but given the strange state of affairs, and Queen Justine's ascension to the Royal Dignity prior to the wedding, both had to be officially blessed, anointed with oils and finally after the vows and the cheers, ritually doused in buckets of Whiskey as a reminder of their duties as Heads of State and Warlords to drink of the common water in times of war. The common water being, obviously, cheap whiskey in this analogy. Queen Justine was less enthused by this part of the ritual but she was consoled both prior to and after it by Geród's good cheer. After which, according to tradition, the consort was allowed the blessings and rites of her own gods if they wished, while the Tiranógian monarch would seek the blessings of his church's other gods after Ashurian.

Then the brawls would begin.

In Tiranógian tradition and since antiquity, weddings were raucous affairs, especially as the mercenary and adventurer traditions became more ingrained in society. Centuries ago, one of Geród's ancestors managed to convince the Captaincy, both of his military and the Mercenary companies, to at least hold off on their shenanigans until after the religious ceremony had been concluded. This led to the tradition of the Caller, whose sole duty was to speak when it was time for the celebrations to begin in earnest. What began as a barely threadbare measure to withhold the raucous chaos of Tiranógian celebrations turned into a prestigious position, equivalent to the Best Man and awarded by the Sovereign to a person held in high regard. This Wedding's Caller was chosen to be Duic MkFieldan and with great gusto and aplomb, as the royal couple left the Cathedral, he gave the call that the Wedding had been concluded not a second after the dousing in Whiskey on the Cathedral steps. As tradition dictated, the street festivals began in earnest and would continue onwards throughout the week, but for the night in question, it was open feasting, drinking, song making and not an hour into the festivities, the first fistfight broke out between a Tiranógian Captain of the Crimson Guard and a cocky young mercenary.

After that, and much to the shock of some of the continentals, several of the Tiranógian nobility got involved, as did the Gundarthians who had similar traditions, while those guests less so inclined were invited to the feasting hall by the Ríoch. The Borokians, not to be left out of the affair, would begin challenging all comers and be promptly trounced by the nearest Half Elf Dignitary, if not King Bigfist herself, or the nearest dwarf who'd happily enjoy the challenge. The fights were as often broken up as they were started as much by the Dunfelian citizenry as by officers of the law who were well used to this nonsense culturally and easily began sorting out the worst of the offences from the simply recalcitrants and directed the fighting to pre-arranged boxing rings drawn up in the market place specifically for this tradition, the 'Mercenary's Wedding Feast' as the custom was known in the past became the norm for the Tiranógian Wedding reception throughout the nation, the royal wedding was just an especially large and boisterous affair given its importance. The Borokians had the time of their lives at least.

It was, however, also the one occasion where the normally libertarian Tiranógians, when it came to weaponry at least, confiscated and banned open carry in the city except by authorized personnel and special guests. It was all said and done, a grand affair of much feasting, drinking, and tearful rapprochements after one two many busted noses, blackened eyes, and chipped teeth. While those guests less inclined to the rowdy end of the Tiranogian tradition were treated to a round of balls and feasts in the Noble Houses and estates of Dunfelian to bask in the higher end of the cultural display.

It was hoped that this one event however small in the grand scheme of things, and despite everything that had occurred, would help ease tensions and provide confidence in the stability and the unity of the alliance in spirit and trust if nothing else.