Editing User:Trungle/Cataphracts Idis/Recap (section)

=== The push to Uuqita ===

After quickly taking back Hounslow, we began our march to Reihulo. The details of this march are less interesting moment-to-moment than most other parts of my story. The Uuqitan winter was harsh and we walked at a reduuced pace. We at one point became trapped between two forts, each of which would send harriers every night. Telefor concocted a fascinating plan to deceive the harriers and attempt to kill them, which I simply signed off. Telefor’s playstyle, as I would learn, was quite different from mine. I felt foolish many times when I saw the way he played. I had never considered suggesting my army do something to the harriers. I hhve to wonder the ways that other people got creative with the rules while I boringly kept my mind firmly ''inside'' the box.

I am not the one who has the right to brag about the specifics of this plan. It would have been successful regardless of my involvement. I am simply grateful for the lessions I learned from it.

During this march, I also received a message from the Uuqitan dictator, Urtu, who had heard of my recapture of both Ghenio and Hounslow. In this message, Urtu essentially admitted defeat, but also warned me of some potential treachery on the part of Narith. He claimed that a Narithan force had arrived by sea to Reihulo, despoiled the capitol, taken him prisoner, and demanded to know the location of Shivan. As promptly as they had come, they left, seemingly to besiege Shivan. and offered to rule Uuqita as a Fenpri protectorate under my authority, conditional upon me removing the Narithan forces from my retinue and signing a deal with him.

If this message was to be believed, did that mean that Telefor’s alliance with me was just meant to draw me away from Shivan? If so, was I playing into Narith’s hand?

If it was fake, how did Commander Urtu know about Shivan? If it was real, why didn’t Telefor do anything to block my mother from going back to Torvaldsen to collect a recently-raised army during the time this operation was presumably meant to be carried out? The Narithans’ plan in this story is also weirdly convoluted. Surely it is more economical to march their force into Shivan unimpeded after helping me capture some cities than to sail, at great expense, an even larger force around the entire continent? They would risk all the lives of the army that was traveling with me as well as those of the larger naval force and a sizeable fortune in loot. In the first scenario, the only risk was that they might lose some of their men traveling with Telefor. Not to mention what I might do to the contingent traveling with me when I learned of their treachery. Isn’t having a nation’s gratitude much more useful than having its ire?

In the end I decided not to trust a word of it. There were too many inaccuracies. My initial theory was that Urtu had heard the name “Shivan and thought he could trick me into self-sabotaging out of fear of the Narithans. I decided not to show the letter to Telefor as we would receive confirmation in just a few short days. Days during which I received even more confirmation that Telefor had no intention of stalling us in Uuqita. He imparted portions of his supplies to me when he could have simply denied to do so, letting me starve long enough to convincingly overpower my larger force. So much wasn’t adding up, however.

When Reihulo rose over the horizon, however, we were confronted with the horrifying truth, confirmed by our own eyewitness accounts, that Reihulo had indeed been attacked. I considered that perhaps the city ''had'' been attacked but by a different force. Maybe the Pirate faction who I had heard were encamped in the bay or the Lomowazans. Maybe West Uuqitans, althought there was scant proof that West Uuqita existed as an organization at that point.

However, further evidence was found that Urtu was telling the truth: the locals were abuzz with rumors that the attackers were indeed Narithan. Cautiously this time, I posited that this could be a rumor started by the dictator himself. I wouldn’t put it past him to pin an attack like this, were the perpetrator’s alignment was not known on the party that I traveled with just to make me doubt myself.

Apparently, however, I didn’t need to hypothesize so much. Telefor, upon hearing the news, claimed innocence but offered up a different possibility: that the other force of Narithans, behind even his back, had gotten impatient, assumed Telefor had died or abandoned them, and gone after the artifact themselves. I had been thinking in absolutes, assuming that if Narith ''had'' attacked, that meant that Telefor ''was'' in Fenpr to distract me; but this proved not to be the case. We jointly signed letters addressed to the various leaders located at Shivan, imploring them to come to a peace.

As we waited for those responses, we basically just walked into the already badly-beaten city, captured the dictator, and, after he refused to offer up any information, executed him. Then, it was time to return to Torvaldsen. We considered leaving by boat but assumed that the walk back would not take ''too'' long.

The return journey was plagued by familiar problems, primarily food insecurity. We weathered these conditions, but not without losing a wizard and a detachment due to the poor conditions.

We also heard back from Shivan. The confused mayor explained that no force had ever arrived at Shivan, perplexing us further. Where had the Narithans actually gone? As it turned out, the Narithans had simply lost their way and gone to the wrong fortress. They were at Calimai, to the east, as we were informed by the frantic commander at Calimai, understandibly worried about the large force now gathering outside the walls.

It was at this point that Telefor sent a letter which I also signed, commanding the other army to cease their hostility and meet us to talk things out.

The final scene of my adventure was at the remote fishing village of Bayside, where all of our armies met to discuss. We made peace and returned the banner to the Narithans, which they would take home not only as a symbol of their authority to govern but also as a reminder of their wholehearted cooperation with Fenpr, an alliance which its founders hoped would last generations.

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