Now seems like a good time.

(Or rather, she rolled the dice for "where do we start the preemptive maintenance from for this month" and they came up with this wardstone.)

...Unfortunately, they can't give a day's warning to the commander of this wardfort like they usually do, because nobody she can get to dream at anyone has met whoever's responsible for the barbarians, that they know of.

So the first notice they get is...

...an eagle dropping a note tied around a pocket-mirror on the most important-looking building present, actually, because there's better ways to arrange for this to happen than just showing up.

The scroll is sealed with red wax, emblazoned with what is recognizably Lastwall's sigil, albeit with an extra rampart beneath it because Diana's command is beneath the Precentor of Garrisons and Sieges.  On the portion that shows is written "From: Lastwall.  To: Whomever Is In Charge."

Dear Occupant,

 

You may not know this, but Wardstones, such as the one in your fort, require yearly maintenance.  Lastwall, as the originator of Wardstones, strongly prefers to do this ourselves.

The forces encamped here are not presently signatories to the Worldwound Treaty, to the best of our knowledge, and thus not obliged to let us access the Wardstone at all.  It will not falter, though it may become more vulnerable.  It is not impossible for any good cleric to do the necessary ritual, either; if you wish to send someone to learn, that can be arranged.  But it is Lastwall's contention that it helps the defenses when the forces who hold the line can work together, and utilizing our expertise in the Wardstones is a good baseline to start from to build the foundation of cooperation between our people.

The mirror this is attached to is a command-activated divination focus, paired to a specific counterpart in our hands; I plan to be available as the sun sets this evening if you wish to speak with me personally, but if you simply wish to arrange our maintenance team's visit, I have left its matched pair with the cleric who is on rota for this, and once you have confirmed this reached you, there will be someone listening for a call at every hour of every day.  We try to keep coordination across forces up; if there is something you wish to tell us, or your neighbors, it will be passed along with alacrity.

 

I am glad to hear of another force willing to fight for important things, even with the prices we pay fighting here.

With hope,

Watch-Commander Diana Pallas

Paladin of Iomedae

Lastwall Worldwound Border Garrison

One of their hunters is the first to notice the unusual eagle, but he notifies the Herder fairly quickly, so she's the first to read it.

This is not something she knows how to manage. Helping each other out? Sure. Negotiating terms for that? Still pretty much a foreign concept.

Fortunately, she has someone for that. So, after training is done for the day -

"'Stel, we got an advance message from Lastwall about the Wardstone. With a communication mirror. Doesn't sound complicated, but - read it over?"

"Of course. Lastwall won't be trying to pull anything deceptive, that's not how they see themselves. Still..."

She looks it over.

"This seems straightforward. I think we should meet in your tent just before sunset, I'll need to do some of the talking and at that point we should just have all our leaders together."

"Yeah, Corl can just be there quietly if he doesn't think of anything. Anything I should keep in mind?"

"They'll probably be disappointed in us to the degree that we're - partly here to spite the Grandmother and remove her claim on Kellis, not just to push in the Wardstones for their own sake. But I think they'll be pleasantly surprised in - a lot of the rest?"

"Yeah, that's - well, no one's pure Good. But it's fair. Do you have a telepathic bond today?"

"Haven't used my mask's scaffold. I'll link us up just before, good thought."

And so, as the tribe is mostly getting the cook-fires ready for dinner and the sun is starting to set, Corl and Estel meet Ata in her tent to talk with Lastwall's Watch-Commander.

And the Watch-Commander is present.  Her office is - warmly spartan, smooth stone and a steady light-source that's probably light-on-a-rock, from what they see of it once she's opened the chiming mirror; she was idly working over some figures, judging by the clacking of the abacus she promptly puts down to give them her full attention.

"Ah, hello.  This is Watch-Commander Diana Pallas of Lastwall.  To whom am I speaking?"

"Hello, Watch-Commander. I'm Herder Ata of the Steel Exiles Clan, which I founded this past year; all the activity you've seen around this section of the Worldwound border is under my command. Also with me - I'm not sure how well you can see them - are my main lieutenants and advisors; Corl the Tower, who is a fourth-circle shaman - or priest, by your terms, I think - and Estel the Forge, who is a fifth-circle swordmage and our main training officer."

"I was formerly a Signifer of the Order of the Pike, but I have resigned and been renounced."

Do you really have to-?

Yes. They would consider it important information. It's a Law thing

Your call.

Whatever flickers of emotions showed, she pushes away.

"Do you have particular topics you want to discuss, other than the obvious one of maintenance?"

"I would like to note that I prefer to not say that a priest is a shaman or a shaman is a priest without much more information on what they do and how they do it; there's been a few of both with quite the range of abilities on our lines at one point or another, beyond the forces Lastwall considers itself competent to raise - which would mostly be priests and paladins, as well as the ranger corps.  Regardless, it is a pleasure to meet you, Herder Ata of the Steel Exiles Clan," which she is already committing to memory, from the way the name falls from her lips with deliberate distinction, "Estel the Forge, and Corl the Tower."

She doesn't comment on the ex-Hellknight.  That's really none of her business.  She might ask the Pike for records, just to get a better sense of the woman, but really, she leaves the paranoia about "is it secretly demons" to Mira.  Mira is good at her job.  (She's pretty sure that someone who resigned their oaths is not a demon plot, anyway.  It doesn't have the same panache, to have someone resign instead of dramatically explode mid-crucial-task.  And - perhaps this is colored by the news she gets, even despite her efforts otherwise, but the demons that infiltrate far enough that they're worth the effort stopping, rather than watching and hoping Good rubs off on them, tend to have a dramatic streak.)  "I'd like to - well, compare notes, if you've the time and I don't get interrupted by some demon thinking they're smart for trying to sneak over the lines at night, and see if there's anything we could help with by virtue of having relative advantages, in exchange for similar assistance.  I imagine you don't have much cold iron, for example, unless there's a lot more demons making their way to your fort than I'm under the impression would try you.  You don't...have a very large piece of the wardline.  And...well.  Irrisen's quarter of the wards has a bit of a reputation, too, from what we've overheard."  She grimaces.

"I'm not sure how much or how long that will last, but I do think that if we can take advantage of the surprise your forces represent to a demon expecting casters, to pull the lines in, we should.  To that end...I think my best option, support-wise, is pulling some of my deeper strike teams - hunters, rangers, that sort - and enduring support casters - mostly alchemists, strangely enough, since if you do the "obvious" things with that skillset it's practically throwing money away - and a couple clockworks that cure at-will, but also definitely some paladins - off my lines where they're under less stress, to support your forces as we move the stone; unless I miss my mark your battle lines are going to be a lot more mobile than mine out of sheer necessity, and you'll need the backstop - not against a fodder flood, but against the biggest threats the Abyss has, because when they catch a hint of the wardstone moving - and I've yet to see them not - the bigger demons will show up.  It's the time when a Wardstone is weakest, even if, properly maintained, they're invulnerable to anything short of gods."  She hums, briefly, and calls out to someone who's not in the mirror's view, pretty loudly.  "...Mira!  Is the Chronicler available!  We've got a shiny daring thing in the offing, probably!"

"...There is the option of getting in touch with your neighbors to see if they'll commit to helping, but I imagine there's a reason why the first I heard of you was now, not that the chicken huts tell us anything.  I'm Law-bound to not disadvantage you for your having told me, and it would also be strategically bloody stupid to use any such information for harmful purposes, so, uh, is it Irrisen or Cheliax?"

Oh, for goodness' sakes, Diana, at least wait until the call's finished to start throwing plans around.  Still, the précis she got from the Ranger-Marshal did seem to support the idea that throwing whatever song-sorcery the Pathfinders have dug up, at the sort of people that tend to cleave right through the swarms, especially, would help.  Paladins, clerics, inquisitors, they're very good at focused strikes.  Not so much mass combat.  If you mix skirmishers with a bit of heavy infantry to stiffen them, they work a lot better than either alone, but Lastwall doesn't really have the skirmishing tradition necessary.  It's more of a smiting tradition.

...The Commander's going to end up doing something stupidly heroic again, she just knows.  May the gods preserve her.

"The issue is Irrisen. She's been our enemy since before she conquered the Ulfen west of the mountains, and she's taken the Worldwound as a pretext to claim authority over all of our lands. It would likely be better for the world for us to make a treaty with the Ugly Grandmother, but we're not willing to and probably never will be."

"Our supplies of cold iron are... adequate. Before returning her and founding the Steel Exiles, I did some adventuring for hire, and didn't put much of it into my own equipment. That bought a company's worth of cold iron and steel surprisingly quickly. Enchanting it would be hard, of course, but being used to much worse weapons, our warriors haven't complained - they all have at least a cold iron axe. But I should have spent more of it on arrows; I hadn't realized quite how much would be fought at range."

"Aye, and that's as is your right to be, to wish to determine your fate yourselves.  And you've much better reasons than the Mendevian nobles I must suffer.  ...Though I imagine it would be possible to set you up on better terms for the aftermath than you'd otherwise get, if you had another power backing you when you signed on...Regardless, I think that might be over even my paygrade."

"What sort of bows do your people use?  And as far as enchanting goes, I'm told that if you can't find the spellsilver demon blood works in a pinch, and if there's something any Worldwound battle-line has in excess, it is yet more bloody demons."  She allows herself a bit of a wry smile-and-eyeroll at the line.  "We have some specialists we contract that out to; they sell back to us at-cost in exchange for preferential access to our, quote, certified not acquired by human sacrifice, unquote, raw materials.  You'll want to talk to Genevieve Costanza, with Aroden's Dream, about setting that up and the right sort of collection procedures, if you think it'll be worthwhile.  My gut says it will be; they produce the automata that keep our forces from dying even when the priests are out of spell slots.

"...And, because I'm sure that if you've heard of Aroden whatsoever that you're wondering about why they're devoutly Arodenite just as much as I was when I got the offer from them in the first place - well, they say they mostly aren't?  That, quote, their vision is not to build a single man's dream, but build the foundation of hopeful aspiration upon which he dreamed it for everyone who's come after, end-quote.  I'm pretty sure I don't get it, honestly, but I think they'd appreciate what you're doing here."

He was the dead one, right? Who died with prophecy?

Yeah. God of - building civilization, mostly. Lawful Neutral. Used to be Cheliax's state church. Presumably civilization is what his 'dream' was.

Seems alright. Might set the more traditional men on edge...

"We don't pay enormous attention to gods in Kellis, but I've heard of him. Our shamans can make some talismans out of the bodies, but yours sound much more useful; we'd be happy to trade with them."

"Kellids almost all have recurved shortbows for hunting, made for them personally with an appropriately high draw strength - we're notably stronger than you on average. We've been replacing them with longbows as they break, but every warrior can make a shortbow and most don't know how to change the design to make a longbow, so we haven't switched aggressively, hasn't seemed worth setting aside people as dedicated bowyers."

(Well, if you asked the Order about what Aroden's dream was, they'd have a couple dozen opinions on what Aroden actually wanted all quietly warring with one another in the background as they shrugged and said "That's pretty much what we think he was after, but - the funny thing is that no, actually there are a lot of people who shouldn't go to Axis, who would be hurt by it - and we don't want to make that happen to people against their will?  Unlike certain Hellknight orders, cough, Nails, Rack, Coil, Wall, cough.  Which is why what you're doing here is so impressive.  You're forging a new path to take, laying a new foundation to build upon.  And it's important that people have a solid, secure foundation, from which to pursue their own dreams and aspirations."  But they're not in this conversation, so this insight into their motivations goes un-presented.)

"Oh, we can definitely arrange bows and arrows for you, if that would help.  I'd have to ask the Ranger-Marshal about the specifics, because I'm mostly delegating the non-siege ranged weapons to him, but there's craftsmen to spare in Lastwall, and failing that, credit extended by Osirion, to keep us in mundane goods for a long while; we're shortest on combatants who will actually survive a fight.  Compared to Cheliax's...meatgrinder strategy.  Or Mendev's, though at least Mendev has St. Clydwell's Ward!

"...Realistically, though, the problem is sourcing cold iron or equivalent effects.  There's a lot more spells and effects that replicate silver's properties, and while I'm trying to adapt the ones that show promise, it's not been easy going; I can only get what I'm calling the Cold-Iron Wardirge - tentatively; I'm adapting Kintargo's Song of Silver and you just have to use some assonant name when you're emulating a legend - to take...maybe half the time, yet?  And I'm composing the bloody thing.  ...In the meantime, I recommend getting bleeding arrows to use Abundant Ammunition on, because the damage they do is a property of the shape of the arrow and thus 'sticks' in a way that apparently cold iron's resistance-piercing doesn't, because that's meta-physical.  Or so I'm told, not being a wizard myself.  Magic weapons of sufficient potency would also work, but those are more expensive and less likely to be readily available; even with all the work-speeding tools you can shake a fist at, there's only so much work a person can do in a day.

"...Speaking of vocals, though, I should send you a recording of the words to St. Clydwell's Ward; we have that to spare.  It's not perfect; strong-willed demons can overwhelm it, and it doesn't stop the ones that have area spells from happening to deploy them on an area including ward-ees, but it is an effect that will keep your people safe from backstabbing demon surprises long enough, if they're quick, and on top of that it isn't a spell effect, no matter that it replicates sanctuary.  Doesn't help with cultists unless they're demon-grafted, but you're not Mendev, so I suspect you don't have that problem.  ...If you do have a cultist problem Mira's told me she's gotten things as secure as she can around here save for necessary spot checks, and she could thus be loaned out to do investigative work for all that her combat-power's often necessary, but I don't expect that to be something you need, considering that you wrangled all these people out here to begin with, unless I miss my mark?  And that's not the sort of thing that breeds cultist-flavored discontent."