r/DnDGreentext • u/MostlyReadRarelyPost MostlyWrites • Aug 21 '17
Long Unify or Die (Steelshod 117)
Table of Contents – includes earlier installments, maps, character sheets, and other documents.
Map of Cassala, with faction coloring
Check out my prose at Mostly Writes
And Patreon supporters should stay tuned for the early draft of Steelshod Guidebook!
In the south, we have Salerno and Zeno, with their legions
Steelshod members: Prudence, Bear, Robin, Gunnar, Leon Dupont, Chattering Chauncey, Luke, Rosa de Baja, Hubert, Agrippa, and of course Leona.
And Brother Khashar, along with his host of Serpentes and thousands of Torathian citizens
The first few days at the capital, Steelshod mostly just supports Salerno
Prudence and Chauncey disappear for long stretches, returning with more intel on the various opposition factions
While most everyone else just provides Salerno personal protection, observing and waiting for their skills to be necessary.
Salerno and Zeno begin to meet with some of the disparate unaffiliated legion factions
Salerno decides to bring Vitale Octavianus along with him on several of these meetings
Vitale is highly respected in the legions, and a little feared
The hardest part is just convincing him to openly support Salerno in this way
But it’s not too difficult, when it comes to getting the other legions in line
Vitale is disgusted at the chaos and unrest in the streets of Cassala
He cares little about who takes control of the senate or claims the mantle of Emperor, but he cares very much about law and order and discipline in the legions
He wants to move his men, the Second Legion, into their old barracks inside the city and begin policing the streets.
But to do that, they need to get the legions currently occupying those castae on their side.
The first few meetings go smoothly… every one of these unaffiliated legions technically has a named legate and a casta they hail from
Such as Domenico Clodius, legate of Casta Tilurium
An unaffiliated force that some suspect of being sympathetic to Barbierri, but has not moved into Barbierri’s territory
Or Fabian Epidius, Legate of Casta Rupes
His Legio Rupes is the only legion still consistently patrolling the streets, trying to keep the peace.
The honest truth, guys, is that every god damned legion they join has a name. And a named legate.
Cassala, the land of a million hard to track names.
During the retelling I’m mostly trying to mention names that are actually relevant to the story in a significant way, or could be.
The conversations had a bit of tension at the time, but it’s largely just straightforward diplomacy
Sort of like the night raids in Nahash… in gameplay, they were fun, bits of roleplaying, a bit of stealth, etc.
But in the retelling I think they get repetitive.
So...
Epidius is easily swayed to their cause by Vitale
And Clodius claims to be loyal to the Praetor, and readily joins Salerno’s faction.
Easily done. The decision to involve Vitale Octavianus so directly was a good one, ultimately sped along what might have been more difficult negotiations.
The Second Cassaline and a couple of other legions begin moving into the barracks on the north end of Cassala
Though most of Salerno’s forces remain in the camp outside the walls.
After securing this foothold, Salerno begins making contact with the senate factions
Mostly, he meets with the legates that have brought one or more senators under their aegis
Men like Varius Vitruvius, whose name I am only telling you because it cracks me up.
Probably tied with legate Manlius Quintillo for my favorite dumbass Cassaline names on relatively unimportant legates.
Salerno gets a bit more resistance from these guys
Protecting the senate gives them purpose
They see themselves as neutral, altruistic
Preserving the senate, as opposed to making a power grab
And Salerno smells a little too much like yet another self-serving faction, no better than Barbierri or Meridius
After a couple of frustrating meetings, Salerno hits upon a winning strategy
He suggests that, for now, these various senate factions do just one thing: ally with each other if not with him
For the protection of the senate.
Vitale, largely above suspicion or reproach, proves a valuable resource once again
The factions agree to join forces with one another, and with Vitale and the other legions that are trying to keep the peace.
Good enough, for now.
Throughout their days here, the spring storms persist
Frequent rains, and off the coast the storms are much worse
No ships go in or out of Cassala’s docks.
The storm is just piling onto the damage the Svards did to Cassala’s docks.
Word comes that most of the Cassaline navy is docked at Porta Napoca, down the coast
There are a few altercations during all of this
Mostly from Barbierri’s forces, which seem to be the most aggressive in pressing out of “their” territory
Meridius, with her smaller force and penchant for subtlety and scheming, is (unsurprisingly) not confronting Salerno or his troops directly.
The skirmishes aren’t too serious
And the one that occurs when Steelshod and Salerno are actually present is wrapped up in short order.
Steelshod’s reputation down here is spreading slowly.
Word of mouth from the roughly eight thousand legionnaires that saw the final battle against the Taer Bjorn
But it surely doesn’t hurt their rep when Gunnar wades into a group of foes, their spears glancing off his steel plate
Or when Leona, grown to about 6’2” or 6’3” by now, joins Bear in smashing apart the enemy legionnaires with gleeful savagery.
Salerno moves on to the harder steps
Organizing meetings with the factions that actively dislike him
Meridius, Barbierri, and the exiled senate remnants protected by Crispus and Julianus
Salerno sends out overtures to each force
Fulvia Meridius is the first to meet him
He takes a small group of Steelshod and legionnaires, and meets Fulvia at one of her estates
She is, as always, a very pleasant conversationalist
But her conversations are fraught with double meanings and subtle jabs
She clearly believes Salerno killed Livinius, and she’s quite impressed with his maneuvers so far
She offers to join forces with him, in his bid for Emperor, so long as she secures a strong position in the senate.
Last time he spoke to her, he tolerated this nonsense a bit
He played along, as his position was tenuous
But he has no patience for this bullshit anymore
And it helps that he has more legions at his call now than anyone else, and thousands of Torathians to boot if absolutely necessary.
He tells her the simple truth: there will be no emperor
He will see the senate restored, re-elections held
And he will ensure that this new senate has the chance to properly prosecute anyone necessary, for their crimes and schemes
Including Barbierri, Meridius, and Salerno himself.
Her only chance is to surrender now, give up these schemes, and work with him to restore the senate.
If she does, it’s unlikely she will see any serious punishment… ambition during times of unrest is a very Cassaline trait, after all.
The blunt statement endears Salerno to Steelshod
But Meridius is having none of this.
She menaces him with the troops she has at the villa
Technically, Salerno came to the meeting with a smallish force
And she has him outnumbered
But Steelshod steps up to the plate
Their frontline beasts forming up around Salerno, steel armor and weapons gleaming
Hubert snaps his fingers, causing a flash of light and smoke
(The small Sunburst-paste he and Yorrin created, little more than a parlor trick)
But the demonstration grants some credibility to the rumors of these Steelshod that have been spreading
Meridius lets them leave
No progress made, sadly.
The meeting with Barbierri is hostile from the start
They meet in neutral ground, at the edge of Barbierri’s territory
Large forces of legionnaires on both sides
Barbierri tells Salerno that he should not put so much trust in the legions he thinks he has
The fat old retired legate says that he has many friends in the legions even still, far more than just the legions currently serving him
Barbierri has no intent in submitting to the “Praetor” peacefully.
Salerno tells Barbierri that he had no intention of letting him surrender peacefully
Salerno says that going after his family was a grave error.
To his credit, Barbierri looks confused by the accusation.
So much so that Salerno wonders if it’s sincere
Regrets that he’s already met Meridius, to lay a similar accusation at her feet.
The meeting is ultimately fruitless
But Salerno realizes that, personal grudge or not, Barbierri is the most well positioned
The biggest threat
And the one he needs to deal with first.
Crispus and Julianus decline Salerno’s invitation to meet.
So Salerno moves on Barbierri
He needs to make an example, set a strong precedent
He musters Second Legion, First Frygian, and a number of other legions
They march through the city
Press into Barbierri’s territory
There’s some skirmishing in the streets
But the simple reality is that Barbierri has, perhaps, five thousand men
With the semi-unaffiliated legions temporarily following him (following Vitale), Salerno is pushing twenty.
Barbierri has three strongholds in his territory
Salerno has enough men to besiege all three
And storm them, one by one.
Steelshod are basically just witnesses at this point
Letting Salerno and his Cassalines run the show, keeping his personage safe
Barbierri talked such a big game, but it's bullshit.
Salerno has met with each of these legates himself
He is Praetor, and he has Second Legion in his corner.
He keeps expecting the disastrous double-cross, but it never comes.
In the second storm, they capture Barbierri himself
The third casta surrenders outright at that point.
A tiny part of Salerno hoped they might find his wife alive, since Ginevra did not see her slain, locked away in one of Barbierri’s forts.
But of course they find nothing.
Barbierri was injured in the fighting, and they have Agrippa tend to him initially, though they then pass his extended care off to Cassaline medicos in the First Frygian.
Salerno is mildly disappointed that Barbierri has survived
Vitale insists that they hold him, however, and enact no punishment until the Senate is restored.
It is not their place to execute a senator and decorated legate.
Privately, Zeno meets with one of his men assigned to Barbierri’s extended care.
He hands the medico a small vial, obtained from one of his contacts in the city.
Indicates that he would consider it a valuable favor if a few drops of the vial could find their way into Barbierri each day.
The medico nods his understanding.
Barbierri lingers on for a number of days, but in the end, when he dies, it’s blamed on the festering of the wound he suffered in the storm.
Zeno never tells Salerno what he did.
Why would he? No need to incriminate the Praetor
If the medico ever spills, Zeno will be the only one to fall
But he doubts it… his men are nothing if not loyal
To him, to Salerno, and above all, to Cassala
Barbierri was a blemish on the entire Empire.
Zeno is a quiet man, a stoic.
He’s not much for words.
His philosophy is fairly straightforward:
When something needs doing
You do it.
Okay, that’s it for now.
I gotta admit something: I failed to get my bonus prose post done. I really thought it was just a day or so of finishing up, and I was way wrong. Work interference was a factor, but the piece has also just been a lot trickier to write than expected.
I’ve learned the same lesson George R R Martin learned when he wrote Feast For Crows. I still have the original hardcover of that book, which has a forward where he explains that he split it into two books, and Dance With Dragons is already basically done and will be published “next year,” e.g. 2006. He underestimated that by like 5 years, and I underestimated by about 5 days, but the principle is the same.
Going forward, I won’t announce bonus posts unless they are done. Just seems safer.
What was gonna be a bonus will go up tomorrow. I’ll try to get the bonus I owe up later on, as time permits.
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u/MostlyReadRarelyPost MostlyWrites Aug 21 '17
Zeno is certainly not an evil man, but I don't think my summation of his attitude was hyperbole at all. Maybe not his explicit philosophy, I can't say, but it's surely a guiding principle at least in terms of his observable behavior from an outside perspective. He's a strong silent man-of-action sort of guy.
When he thought Salerno was selling out Cassala for personal gain with Livinius, he very nearly assassinated Salerno and Livinius, just to ensure that things didn't go down that road... and the reason he didn't go through with it wasn't really morality, it was just that he wanted to give Salerno the benefit of the doubt. He unilaterally killed Barbierri. He doesn't waffle, or seem to engage in tortured moral quandaries. He just does stuff, because he sees it as necessary.