A Red Journal

[WriterX]

A red tome, a journal, kept upon the person of Marcellus. A glimpse into his thoughts. The very first entry upon this journal:

Tesrin Hray 20th, IY 7788

I have began feeling incensed, more so than I ever was before. I recall how I felt in a similar manner many months ago, when I was drawn off my seat for the first time. The chaos, the fighting, and now it happens again.

Back then I felt conflicted, I could hear some distant thoughts of mine telling me how my life's work was being undone, yet I fought them back. I knew that for as long as I remained I could still, somehow, steer these things back, and for now, everything was going in the right direction.

Today however, I watch the city, what the Accord is doing with it, and I am slowly being filled with rage. They have remained here for longer than I, some, like Colmes, Rosseau, have been almost as long as I. Yet they behave as if the City was their own playground. They do not serve the interest of the city, its people, but their own.

Filth that crawled out from the Old City and settled here, festering and boiling over. They will undo all the work I put into this city, trying to maintain its peace, its stability. As a Legate I am forced to welcome them into my office, smile to them, shake their hands, but over the past two months I felt that these fools will lead this city to ruin. We are nearing that moment, that explosion, when their actions will affect not just them, but everybody around.

The Leagues, the Accords, all infested by goals and desires that rip us apart. Instead of being united, we are devided. Instead of fighting our enemy together, we fight one another. Had I the power to do so I would cast them all out, exile them into the desert, let them suffer the pain and helplesness of those people who are forced to endure beyond our walls.

They say I have grown stagnant, but I see that they have grown fat, and lazy. They do not remember about the suffering of the people they once were. Of people forced to flee their home, to arrive to the Well on their first day, with barely a dinar to their name.

And I ponder on this as I look to Banafsi. My campaign there. My desire to see them overturn the Archon, to end the war. I extended my hand to the Accord, hoping it would birth cooperation between them, to coordinate, but I was a fool.

A fool who believed these people could be reasoned with, could be tamed, could be steered.

No. There are individuals with promise, but their organizations as a whole are failing. Even internally there are cracks, divisions. The Janissaries perhaps least so, but Colmes has disappointed me, and he will continue to disappoint me.

Banafsi, my campaign, my war, will be won by my hands, by my hard labor. The Accords will not be given the satisfaction of participating in it, of reaping the rewards they do not deserve. 

The people wish the city to focus upon the Orcs? Then I shall not strip their limited resources, and that will be my explanation. You have your war to win, I have mine. The people do not wish to give a single dinar toward Banafsi? Then I shall gather every single dinar myself.

As a Legate much work I had to do myself. If I did not do something myself it would not be done at all. Even asking others to aid would not always work unless I personally was involved in it.

If the city burns, because of the incompetence of those in power, so be it. I cannot stop a firestorm once it has began, but I will be there, when the ashes settle, to rebuild, as I have always been, as I have always done.

As Izdu instructs, to build wonders, and as Agaslakku says, what is broken shall be reforged.

My own League, now a corpse, lifeless, abandoned. The people there not knowing what they desired
 themselves. I grow tired of it all. Eventually there will be a chance to rebuild, to return.

For now however, a singular purpose.

War, and Victory.

[WriterX]

Tesrin Hray 24th, IY 7788

It is hard to maintain anger with people who in the face of adversity remain steadfast. Our recent raid against the Orcs left only the hard-fighting Janissaries pushing deeper, and deeper against unreasonable odds, and in the end we prevailed. We overcame those threats and dangers, bent but not broken.

Yet I still feel some measure of distance between myself and Colmes. He left the Purple League, he uplifted Ahmet, and then he pursued the war against the Banda Rossa and the Dragon.

Bold, on one hand, as he sees to accomplish his goals, but the way by which he does this leaves me in doubt.

All the politics aside, the day of the battle swiftly approaches. I gather the funds, and in the coming days I will have to finalize who will attend me on the field. The battle will no doubt be a test of brawn, but I hope that the recent bouts against the Orcs did not leave too many crippled or injured.

And we all know how these matters can unfold. No matter how much planning I do there is no guarantee who will be present for the deed itself.

In four days time, the clash against the Orentids. After that, further battle against the Archon and her supporters. How much will we achieve however, and in what amount of time? How decisive will this battle be? I hope sufficiently to tip the balance in our favor.

And then the question of the election. I have mostly decided that this time I will not run. I desire to fight, to rally our forces, to win, and I feel that as much as I can do as a Legate, there is also a ball and chain attached to it all. The expectations of who a Legate ought to be, what he should do, completely different to what I would want to be doing.

It is not just a question of fighting, going out into the field, but also gathering funds, responsibilities. There is less flexibility when you sit upon a high pedestal.

But, if I do not run, who will? I detest that question, because I imagine most would point to me, press upon me to try again, and again, especially since I would be running against Argent.

Thoughts that should not occupy my mind all too heavily, for the battle approaches, and that is where all my effort should go.

All for victory.

[WriterX]

Kanön Hray 1st, IY 7788

 The battle went well. The Orentids were crushed, as were the Archon's forces. Two of the three general objectives were achieved, but I feel we did the wise thing not marching for the Mint. It would had been too risky, and too difficult. Perhaps we would had won, but the lossest could had been much higher.

 That is not to say the battle was simple. First we clashed against the Archon's fleet, sinking corsairs and even a Modini Galleon, something I'd wish I could collect a trophy from. Then, as we landed we marched for the Depot. The sheer number of people sent to oppose us was staggering. It reminded me of the clashes we had with the Orcs. Wave, after wave of poorly trained, ill equipped soldiers, all struggling to overcome our arms and training.

 They had some elites, of course, as was expected, but just as elegantly we dealt with them. We almost killed their commander as well, but the man fled when he finally expended the rest of his manpower and the artillery fell silent. The Depot was damaged, but apparently still salvagable.

 Luckily, some intelligence was also found, Richo handed it over and it could had been supplied to the Royalists. The reward from the King was also substantial. Plenty of potions, plenty of gold. We are well on our way toward total victory.

 Yet, upon my return the Assembly, what happened after it, and the ongoing troubles that Carrot faces, all continue to anger me. If the Orcs descended on us today I imagine half the city would begin quarreling over who is to take command. The backroom politics of it all, the plotting, it will lead to nothing good. I fully expect, at this rate, for us to be completely unprepared and in no state to brave the Scald. Even if the Dragon was to hold onto his seat, the continued clashes with Ahmet will be disastrous. If another White Leaguer takes control I fully expect our city to collapse. If Dragon remains, it may be troublesome, but not a collapse.

 Our Purple candidate is largely unknown to me. His policies are sound, but I do not know the man's character at all. Whether he would be a good Legate or not still hangs in the air.

 Now, I await further news from Banafsi, and more opportunities to clash with the Orc. The Titans remain an ever-present issue which is difficult to deal with, especially since they seem capable of "retreating". Who knows whether we haven't been fighting the same Titan, over and over again.

 Can we even, truly, destroy them? All we collect is their shards, minor things really. Tiny pieces of them. Hopefully we will find a solution soon.

 If there will be a lack of other campaigning my next campaign should be dutiful preparations for the crossing of the Scald. A part of me believes I should coordinate this with the Warmaster, or the Accord, but considering how well they handle their affairs, it may be best to make this a parallel effort.

 First of all, I need information, how challenging the crossing will be, how long, what to expect. Further, supplies, gold, pay for my men, organize. It would be good to have a date, but, once again, I might be asking for too much from our "Leaders".

 Let us gather the one resource that will be nedessary, dinari, and then, work from there. 

[WriterX]

Kanön Hray 2nd, IY 7788

 While I still await response from Jamileh, I have been drafting the size of the force I want for the crossing of the Scald, with some brief calculations as to how much dinari I will need.

 The extremely ambitious version is two companies, each of ten men. One commander chosen to lead each company. One runner to act as messenger between the companies and myself.

 If we assume similar compensation as for Banafsi, that alone would be around 20,000 dinari. But, if the Scald is indeed as dangerous as I believe it will be there will be additional costs in other supplies, such as water, food, animals, additional help, which might very well increase the overall cost to 30,000 dinari.

 Whether this can be achieved depends on the sponsorship I could gather as well as the gold I can earn myself. I could, with some certainty, obtain around 10,000 dinari. Which sadly is short of my overall goal. The other issue is the time constraint. There is no clear message as to when Carrot or the general march would occur. Because of that if Carrot is correct I have around two weeks, maybe even less. Good for ten thousand dinari, not good for anything beyond that.

 If however either of these events occurs later, I may have the time to amass the needed amount. If the gods are willing and favorable, I may have the "army" I envision.

 Still many questions left to be answered, a lot of uncertainty. Even today, listening to the bellows I had the growing belief that the city is inches away from collapse.

 That in addition to the recent Kha'esh incident makes me ask the question, do the Legates even know what they are doing?

 Let us continue our work, and achieve our goal. Banafsi was a good sample of what can be achieved. The Scald will be my next great victory.

[WriterX]

Kanön Hray 3rd, IY 7788

 I may have secured a large portion of the needed funding for my campaign. Now all that remains is to secure more, and more for the war chest. The greater the sum the more prepared we shall be, and the better we will be able to coordinate.

 I have been sending out letters to whom I can to learn more of the Scald. I have also need to choose sub-commanders for the march, but the challenge here is timing. If I knew when the march occurs I would be able to prepare myself for it all.

 The greatest challenge of the march will be to maintain communication and coordination. We would need to use signals to better order different companies. Supplies can be purchased but they must also be preserved and transported. But, even if we have our entire host, the next question becomes, what is our final objective? Does the March include the final clash with Iakmes, or is it only the braving of the Scald? Will we have to setup an outpost, or fort on the other side? I took a glimpse of the War Map, and the answer is not clear.

 Perhaps a bit of probing into the minds of the War Council will help me in turn prepare.

 We must also find a way to deal with the Orcs and Titans. We found an effective way of destroying the Titans, that is, to abscond with magic, but it also means that if the Orcs aid the Titans we will be ill prepared. We can either enspell ourselves for the orcs, or strip ourselves off magic for the Titans.

 The planning moves onward. 

[WriterX]

 Kanön Hray 15th, IY 7788

It has been a while since my last entry. The saving of funds has been going well, but the finer details had to be amended. As I understood it, the march does occur, but while our city escorts the Cannon, people such as myself shall remain back in the Well, called in when necessary.

Because of that I pondered on what exactly I could do, to better prepare us for the march ahead. A small step was offering water donations, but, that is a minor thing, in the grand scale of things.

While Argent has supported my Warmasted bid, Ahmet I did not see since the last time we spoke, which is about two weeks ago, if not longer. I also did not see Colmes since the election. It's all a little hodge podge. Confusing.

I can feel that many are preparing, but our direction feels blind.

I pondered on the idea of perhaps rallying the independents, but repurposing the Temple into a makeshift barracks I do not think is wise, or rather, I worked so long on the Library, the Museum. To simply push it aside now to try and form an army? And it wouldn't even be an army. A collection of mercenaries and caravaneers at best.

But, wouldn't doing something be better than doing nothing? I recall the visions I had. If only I had more room for all of my books, I could make it work.

What good is gold? Gold in itself is not worth that much. What you end up doing with it is what is important.

I need to ponder on this more closely. Find a direction, or I will end up striding confused and in circles.