Drewsport - contested territory.


#61

“Well, Cleric, we can send the Hobnail Wing out to escort your vessals in from a meeting point, we can not garuantee their protection too far beyond the port,” stated the Dead Captain. “As to who you offer your services to that is your business. We only can ask that you harm none if possible or you will be asked to leave.”

Starting to walk down the street, he glanced over his shoulder, “Walk with me for a bit.”

About two blocks down the street, he stopped for a moment at the intersection of the road from the north gate and the main street from the docks thru town. “South of this road is the section of town controlled by the Greater Unen Trading Syndicate. We do not have authority there, so I would ask you to warn your people against antagonizing the Olgogs that are there. For the most part they are willing to work with Earthers as long as they do not threaten or attack them. The citizens are allowed to travel freely about town.”

Walking down to the docks, he waved to the south half of the harbor. “those are the GUTS control docks.” Turning to the north, “these are control by north Drewsport, We have been using the northern most dock for the Ironclads.” as they were talking several dead walked up out of the water carrying buckets filled silt and rocks. “as you can see, we are trying to improve the harbor and clear out the debris left by the battles here.”


#62

Cleric Oswaldo smiled "My people shall remain in the territories controlled by you, in order to make sure that there are no misunderstandings. If any earthers from other territories wish to come for aid they shall be treated. If we can get ships near the northern dock we can use a flare to signal your ship for assistance. If they can dock safely then they can deliver supplies, which can aid the town. This could be a good first step toward normalizing relationships between our peoples.


#63

(OOC I believe Unicorn is a mount in summoning, if not, I will change it when I get back to my books.)

Lalon rode into drewsport on a unicorn he summoned. He heard about the incoming flow of pirates and was here to find the captain. Unit 817 had help him and his tribe earlier this year, and he was here to offer them help. And Lalder did not want to see a city where Olgogs and Earthers were living and working together get destroyed.

Lalon asks around to find the Captain.

When he finally finds him, he will approach and say “I am Lalon of the Herd of Auf Lal’ al, apprentice to Tor’ab. I am here to offer you help and plan our involvement in defending your city if you accept. I was sent as soon as we knew something was happening, so others of the UtR maybe on their way too.”


#64

Most of the Outcasts rolled into Drewsport looking for other members of G.U.T.S. They quickly set up a command post on the docks and sent runners to find the local leadership in the area so a defense can be co-ordinated.


#65

Looking at the new comers, torlok’ab replied " I have just received the warning, thak you for your offers of aid. We have enough underground shelters for the civilians but it would probably be best if the pirates were prevented from closing with the town. the more of them that we can keep from reaching town the less damage they can do."

Turning to the Cleric, “I must ask fi you knew anything about this attack?”


#66

Cleric Oswaldo shhok his head, “Unfortunatly this seems to have been above my pay grade. If i knew about it I certainly would not have set up shop in a large easily shot at building with no fortifications. There is a basement in the church, you can use it to hide local civilians, also the medical equipment is set up, so injured earthers can come in for treatment. I will understand if you do not trust us, so if you want to place guards around the church i will not be offended.We shall stay out of the battle besides providing medical care to the earther population.”


#67

Nodding to the Cleric, Torlok’ab replied “Guards won’t be necessary. Our recon flights report that there are a large number of non earthers among those approaching. With the reputation of your church amongst non earthers, you are probably more of a target than almost anything else in town. Those pirates are going to see you as a symbol of hatred, and if they can’t destroy anything else, I figure they will do their best to destroy the church. Which would be most annoying, as we put so much work into repairing it.”

Looking around at the others gathered nearby, he continued “I know what forces we have to defend the town with. What can you supply and are willing to use? We would prefer to keep the death and blood shed to a minimum.”


#68

Urik shrugged
“I bought most of people and all of our firepower. We can set up some gun nests with interlocking fields of fire. We may be able to keep them from leaving their ships. As for keeping death to the minimum your best bet there is probably to utterly destroy the first couple ships and crews that try to make land.” He shook his head “I know that sounds a little crazy but these are pirates after a pay day. The fastest way to be rid of them is to show that they won’t get an easy time. Most of them won’t want a real fight. If they see that’s what they’ve got they’ll look for easier targets.”


#69

Lalon says "While they can setup on Land, we will take the Air. My tribe can field a good number of Lur Union Fighters to take down Pirate ships. Though we would be aiming to sink them following the same principle that Urik mentioned.

I also suggest we patrol the area and sink any pirate ships attacking Olgog towns or Drewsport directly. I doubt they will make their first and only attack at this city. Some will, but not all.

To know where to strike, we may need some lookouts from the tribes here who know the friendly pirates and non friendly ones. We will not attack the Bruskis. And we want to avoid that at all costs. While we are protecting this area, we don’t want to start a tribal dispute as well.

The last part you will need help with countering their elemental Attacks. Especially any water and tidal waves. Its how I would destroy a port city. I can have a few summoners bring water spirits, but I’m not sure if they will be powerful enough."


#70

Cleric Oswaldo looked at Torlok’ab, “If you can keep them from destroying the Church we can keep helping the injured. We have plenty of medical equipment for now, but after the battle we will probably run low. I suggest that before the battle begins you encourage some of the earther population here to visit the Church to donate blood. Your…“abilities” will be useful for treating the sick and hurt but your people cannot be everywhere at once and you will be very busy fighting. We can use more mundane methods to treat people, so having a goodly supply of blood would be good just in case there are those who require it. My team is qualified for minor and major surgeries as well. So if you can make sure that the roof isn’t collapsing upon our heads we will do our part in keeping the innocents alive.”


#71

Looking at Lalon, Torlok’ab states “We need to stop the raiders from attacking ANY towns, not just Olgog. The majority of towns around here are populated by Earthers. If you can not see past your hostile attitude towards the Oners, and protect any and all of the innocents, then I will have to ask your forces to leave. This place will not be the next battleground between you and the Oners. The people here have expressed their desire to live in peace and stay out of your conflicts as best as they can. We have earthers and olgogs in the city militia. The port has trade coming from both sides. It may not be much now but it is growing. We will not let you bring the devestation of Jamestown, Bartsport, and the Great Uf to these people.”

Glancing at each of those gathered, he continued in a quieter voice “We don’t need to kill all the pirates. If the members of GUTS can talk them into not attacking and peacefully joining us here to build a better place, then that is our goal. That being said, we must do our best to keep the raiders from pillaging and killing the people of Drewsport and the surrounding areas. In response to your comment about Leays attacks, Lalon, If we can keep the raiders out of sight of the town, they will have a much harder time using them effectively. Any useful suggestions?”


#72

Lalon grew angry at the Captains, the warmongers dead statement. Lalon says "I am no diplomat, but an apprentice sent in advance to get things planned. So pardon my coming non diplomatic response to that statement of yours.

We are here to help protect this city where Earthers and Olgogs live together. We can continue planning, but I need to correct a few things you said that are wrong.

First, I assumed that these pirates only had one objective, destroy drewsport. And since its run by Oners, I could see them attacking Olgog towns. I did not think they would attack Earthers. Also I’m not from here, so I didn’t realize that in the Olgog lands, that more towns were earther than Olgog. So thanks for jumping down my throat for not knowing my geography and population of a land I haven’t spent much time in or seen.

For Bartsport, my tribe had nothing to do with it. None of our members were there. I like how everyone seems to blame that on us, but we had nothing to do with it.

As for the Great Uf, your unit’s soldiers were there responding just as tribesmen were. I believe we worked together there.

On Jamesville, The battle wasn’t between Olgogs and Oners that destroyed it. It was the Warmonger’s Dead that still follow the warmonger. Unit 111. The Warmongers forces who attacked it. My tribe worked with the Oners to defend Jamesville and before they betrayed us. Their attacking us, let multiple warsouls and warmonger forces in, which resulted in a later battle with the warsouls that destroyed Jamesville. I got to watch it and almost was killed by one of those monsters.

Our tribesmen fought at Jamesville to protect earthers, Olgogs and Oners there. And in the Weeks since, our tribes gogs have worked with and fought along side Earthers and even Oners. Why do you think Lalder is not here right now. Through their recent actions, I have seen it is possible to make peace with some of the Oners here and most earthers here in the south. But I doubt there will ever be peace with the Oners at Dunesphere as this pirate attack shows.

Back to business

We will have our Lur Union fighters patrol the area and respond to Pirate attacks and hunt Pirate ships that may attack cities here.

The reason we won’t attack Olgog pirates is we don’t need to add any tribal war to this mess with the earther Pirates attack. We are not an Unen tribe, so we do have to be careful. We will protect any city being attacked, but we would like someone local working with us to keep us from causing more trouble than we are preventing.

If you want us out at sea taking down pirate ships, we need to know they are pirate ships. Thats hard to tell if they are not attacking if you don’t know the local tribes and ships. We could assume all Pirate looking ships with Earthers on it is an enemy, but I don’t believe thats a good idea. We need help with this.

As for keeping the ships out of sight of Drewsport, We would have to take the battle to them. Damage their ships. If every ship that gets too close to drewsport starts having big holes blasted in them, they might think twice about
taking up this job.

For the tidal wave protection, I think if we create a reef, a barrier to the harbor to cause any waves to break before they come to the shores, this would lessen any damage a tidal wave could do. Also this would create an much smaller area for ships to be able to sail into the bay. Make it more defensible. "

(OOC Lalon is an older Juvi, an apprentice or Tor’og not an Auf. So thats why the less than diplomatic response :-p )


#73

Looking at Lalon, the Dead captain shook his head “Child, I never said you or our tribe were at Bartsport. I said that we would not let you bring your conflicts here and have this place fall victim to the devestation that befell those places. I know that you weren’t at Bartsport, but members of the leadership of both the UTR and Lur union were there and involved in the destruction. You stated you were here to help setup for them to aid. They have a history of conflict with the Oners. And if you had listened and thought, I already mentioned that our recon flights had shown that most of the pirates attacking are non Earthers. Do you really think most non Earther Pirates would willingly and knowingly follow the instructions of the Church of One?”

Glancing at the Cleric, “No offense, cleric, but the church in Dunesphere hates all non earthers.” Looking back at the rest of the group, “It seems more likely that agents of Dunesphere tricked most of the pirates into attacking. Other than the lighthouse we’re planning to build the tallest building in town is the Church of One steeple. So the first thing you see as you approach the harbor is that rising above town. The pirate are probably coming to ‘raid’ the ‘Oner town’ and get revenge for past actions of Dunesphere. Most of the raiders likely have no clue that the town is no longer part of Dunesphere zone of control. So if we can get some mebers of GUTS to attempt to talk to them, there is a chance to convince them not to attack. I don’t expect it to stop all of them. But it should lower the number attacking. Especially if we can convince them to join us here to build a better place.”

Pausing for a breath, he proceeded. “also, if any of you can contect the colonies, they might like to know about the raider vessels coming from the north, as they are passing thru Colonial waters to get here. I am sure that their milities and government would prefer to lower the number of pirates preying on their shipping. Maybe they can send some help.”

Looking back at Lalon, “As for not knowing that in ‘tribal lands’ the majority of townsfolk would be earthers, you should learn to pay more attention. you rode thru the surrounding lands. These lands have been control by colonists from dunesphere for over a hundred years. Before the destruction of Bartsport this was just a large fishing village. Bartsport is only 3 days ride north of here. This area has been under ‘earther’ control for far longer than you have lived and probably longer then your mentor.”

" if we just wanted to sink the raiders ships, we have several aircraft and ships to do that. We would prefer to stop the enemy nonviolently. we have no urge to feed the ancient evils. So if we can find volunteers from among the members of GUTS in town to go talk to them first that would be a best start. If after we give them a chance to stop their attacks they continue, then we will attempt to disable their vessels outside of town.

We have built underground tunnels to keep the civilains safe. if we can get them into the tunnels and close the entrances, we can protect them easier than if they were exposed on the surface. we would prefer to keep the damage to the town limited as much as possible. Some things like the Oner clinic can’t be transferred to the Undercity in time before the raiders arrive."


#74

Lalon says "So we’ll spot ships for you. You can then send someone from GUTS to intercept. If they attack either a City, town, GUTS or us, we’ll interven.

Do you wish for us to make the Harbor more defensible by putting in the reef like construction to create a break for waves and to limit the accessway to the harbor?"


#75

“A reef and some break waters would be good. Rum-blood can probably do something about any waves raised in the harbor itself if they get pasted them.” He turned to Torlok’ab “And don’t be to sure about who pirates will work for. You throw around enough money and the promise of more loot. They’ll sign up with just about anyone. I respect that you want avoid blood shed but I ain’t gonna hold my breath. They didn’t come all this way to turn around because we asked them nicely.”

“Still it’s definitely to our benefit if they never get close enough for an attack. Maybe instead of spotting and sinking them we could have scouts find them and make storms or at least strong winds. Blow them off course, scatter the fleet. They probably won’t attack at all unless they get here with overwhelming force.”


#76

Torlok’ab nodded “Okay, sounds like we got a plan. let’s get about it”


#77

“All in all, a good day for a battle. To those released of their own honor, just remember that this port is protected.” Dol looked out over the town. “Time to rebuild, again… DO NOT make the building look like ships this time. Or at least try harder.”


#78

Cleric Oswaldo had been tending to his small flock in Drewsport for quite a long time and the town had grown quite a bit. Now however bandits and foul undead threatened the prosperity of the town. The Cleric would request a meeting with the various leaders of Drewsport to discuss the threats facing the town.

“We have bandits, and other criminals who seek to divert the wealth of this town to their own nefarious ends. Something must be done about this, I know that I Cleric Oswaldo simply run a small clinic within my Church however this problem affects us all. We must come together in order to survive this trial that the Almighty has set before us.”


#79

Despite repeated attempts to speak to the leadership of Drewsport Cleric Oswaldo had been stonewalled for over a week. No one would meet with him. It seems that he would have to look to protect his Church as he could do little else.


#80

Riding up, Nameless finality came to a stop in front of the Church of One chapel. Dismounting, he approached the doors and knocked. when the knock was answered, he states “Sorry about the delay in someone responding. Most of the Unit has been busy with developments elsewhere and the troops that are still here are mainly for defense and security for the town. What did you wish to discuss?”