It's 40 hours from Augustana to Almas, by galley. It's eight hours by speedboat.

A substantial fraction of the whole population lives within a two day hike of Almas. The rest mostly live on navigable rivers. A speedboat can go up a river in hours, no problem.

You spent three days marching to Augustana, and a day taking it. Tomorrow morning you can resupply by teleport.

Tomorrow afternoon half of Andoran's army will reach Augustana, back from Almas, on those same galleys.

Augustana is rubble with no functional defenses left. Cheliax has no functional navy.

You're going to wake up to a naval landing and then a field battle. Most of your army will still be injured.

The commanders think it's a good idea, absent orders otherwise, to retreat. It'll put them in a better position for negotiating the succession crisis, if they're not dead.

The wizards don't care whether the rest of you retreat. They can retreat whenever they want.

The Hellknights do not think they should retreat. They obey orders. They have been ordered to take the city, and hold it. They have taken the city. Abrogail should have your heads for even suggesting such disobedience.

The injured would prefer they don't retreat quite yet. If they retreat now they'll be left behind. No doubt the Andorens will torture them to death when they get here.

This is not actually the first time Aspexia has had to have this conversation.
It's the third. Why is Cheliax like this.

Hello everyone. Is this the commanders' tent?

According to a commune from Lord Asmodeus, Abrogail II is unavailable and we are unlikely to see her again. According to the laws of Infernal Cheliax, she is no longer able to exercise her duties as monarch and the crown is up for grabs.

According to Asmodeus's compact with Abrogail I, Asmodeus may approve any scion of house Thrune, that is any lawful descendant of Abrogail I, who is living and able to exercise the duties of the monarch and a bunch of other conditions.

I propose you all figure that out real fast.

With all respect, Most High Priestess, you are not actually our commanding officer and we have not been ordered to obey you. Asmodeus does not rule Cheliax, house Thrune does, and your name does not end in Thrune.

We will figure things out at whatever speed most suits us.

Is it a good idea? He's probably going to have to do something as least as dangerous as this eventually

My name ends in Thrune.

If my beloved cousin is gone from this world, I believe I would be a suitable new king.

Where the Hell did you come from?
Have you just been standing there this whole time?

I am a powerful Inquisitor of Lord Asmodeus.

I go where my Master needs me.

Aspexia said she's not dead, or even destroyed. She might come back.

And then we'd have two kings.

I don't want to have accidentally endorsed the wrong one.

Terthule Thrune mysteriously disappeared in 4682, just 28 years ago. There wasn't a civil war then, his niece signed a compact and sold her soul and nobody ever heard from him again.

It'll be fine. It's a House Thrune problem. People like you don't need to worry about it.

Then how do we know who will be the next king?

Since the Thrune Ascendency, House Thrune has rejected suggestions for a formal line-of-succession in favour of a more free-form system. The first person with a compact from Asmodeus saying they're the new monarch wins.

Of course Asmodeus won't give such a compact to someone who lacks any negotiating leverage to begin with.

I'm physically standing where the largest chellish army is, and I'm probably the first Thrune to find out about this, so if I win your support I've got a pretty good shot here of outrunning my relatives and getting the throne.

Do we know where the crown is? Having it would add quite a bit to my legitimacy?

Just so we're all on the same page, you're physically standing where the physically largest chellish army is, but it's also far away from the throne, and in enemy territory, and severely injured, and low on supplies, and about to be attacked by Andoran forces.

Are you sure that's the strongest hand? There's probably a Thrune currently in Egorian who can just sit on the throne right now.

Actually, we moved the capital to Westcrown. It was two days ago, you probably didn't hear about it what with all the marching you were doing at the time.

There'll be a Thrune physically near the new throne in Westcrown.

Naturally instead of fighting we'll both pay for a commune with Asmodeus and ask who would hypothetically win in a fight and then whoever He says would lose would instead surrender to the authority of the stronger cousin.

I'm reasonably confident I'd win, if you all swear to fight for me.

If I wouldn't win, I will of course almost certainly just negotiate instead of leading you all to your deaths.

What do we get if you're the king?

Hypothetically, if we support you and later you win.

I swear on my Law to disproportionately favour those who recognised my claim to the throne early over those who recognised it later.

I swear I'll give the people counterfactually necessary for my rise to power and who had the sense to bargain for it, escape clauses out of all my most pointlessly tyrannical decrees.

None of that matters if we die tomorrow afternoon.

I also swear that, Asmodeus willing, I'll give you orders to retreat from Andoran, and that I'll make reasonable attempts to negotiate with Andoran forces to let us leave in peace.

Let you leave in peace. Obviously I can just use a scroll and leave whenever I want to.

... Deal.

Great. Now I have to demand a Plane Shift to Hell, so I can sign some prelimenary contractual rights to negotiate compacts later, when I've got slightly more time, while I still have this amount of leverage.

No.

What do you mean, no?

No, I will not agree to a deal where your army leaves Andoran and I don't stop you from doing that.

I would prefer to try and stop you from doing that.

Why not?

I would prefer to waste as much of Asmodeus's resources as possible, whenever I have an opportunity to cheaply do that.

It'll make Cheliax less of a problem in the future.

What if I swear Cheliax wont invade Andoran again?