Serault's bandit-clans are riven by feuds. The Black Knot hate the Shuttered Lamp, who have warred on the Blasted Oak since Serault was young. The Dead Rose and the Corpse-Dancers have been locked in a spiral of betrayal and betrothal for a decade. It seems impossible they could put their differences aside, but if they did...
"We should harry them before they have a chance to unite," counsels the Baron. "Like your mother and I did back in the Bright Summer! Time to make some songs of your own, Marquis!"
"They're no fellows of mine. I never swore their bloody oaths, and if they stop murdering each other it's bad news for both of us. Someone should teach the nasty scroats a lesson." The Dashing Outlaw looks at you, meaningfully. "By which I mean someone with soldiers and shiny armor and a great big sword. And not, for example, an improbably pretty outlaw with a negotiable attitude to legality. And an excellent hat."
The outlaws are massing west of the river. It's said they meet in the Greenvault: a clearing where the ash trees soar as tall as temple-pillars. A sacred place, where the bulk of their quarrels are set aside and the remainder are settled through ancient, bloody contests.
Available actions[]
1.
Lead a force to harry them The forest is their home. The bandit-clans are honed by generations of strife and subterfuge. They'll be hard to find, harder to catch, and harder yet to kill.
Try to significantly reduce Serault's Peril.
Difficulty: Woods-wise*6/7
Success: The Battle of the Greenvault Forgotten trails lead your band into the heart of the bandit's council, where the chiefs of the Red Song and the Shuttered Lamp wrestle among the scattered leaves, sharp knives glinting as they dispute primacy. Your soldiers fall, baying, on the unprepared bandits. It's over in minutes.
-20 Peril
Failure: Watchers in the wood The Black Knot have put watchers in the trees, their hands and faces painted with mulch. As your soldiers creep below the bandits hoot like maddened owls, alerting their comrades. The council breaks, the bandits flee, your men pursue, and the day devolves into a string of brutal running battles between the trees. A number of your troops don't return, and Serault's coffers creak under the strain of replacing them and compensating their families. At least the bandit-clans will be wary for a while.
-10 Peril, -10 Prosperity, -30 Health
2.
Place agents at the council Pitched battle on their chosen ground? Too risky. But you can at least recruit agents among them to learn what's decided at the council.
Difficulty: Cunning*2
Success: Bound in blood Afterwards, your spy tells you of the peace that was forged between the Corpse-Dancers and the Dead Rose, and how the clans agreed truces to carve Serault up like a roast hog. Pacts between the outlaw-clans promise no good, but at least you know where their attention will fall. You dispatch extra soldiers to guard the key thoroughfares.
+10 Peril, +5 Clues, +10 Prosperity
Failure: Witness You recruit two agents, one and a half of whom return. The second was identified, tied between two horses, and pulled apart. Your first agent could only retrieve the slower horse Dull-eyed, he tells you a little of what he witnessed: a new marriage between the Chief of the Blasted Oak and a son of the Shuttered Lamp. The Dead Rose's chief losing a throttling contest with the Corpse-Dancers, and with it the plunder rights to the southern forest road. There's more he knows, but his comrade's fate has shaken him. He'll say no more.
+10 Peril, +5 Clues
