For a season, Mancante Terra was a beacon of the future. The first retaken Concordian region (ignoring the Steinvault Pass) since the treason of Khasim Al’Jaani. As settlers flee the ramshackle housing and camps spread around Lerona Mere to claim the abandoned houses of the long dead in Korrence and Loricazzo, there is hope. A Lerona Mere sits on the Senate to represent the region, The Concord is growing! En Avante!
The Drowned remain in La Dove Dormani, working towards ends that cannot be known. However that does not mean the war is at a standstill. Between the beasts of salt and sea within the sinking city of Mandrianos and the allure of a united Mancante Terra, there is still much to know.
The Darkness Has a Way of Sharpening the Mind
In the War Chambers of The Concord and the sunlit courts of the Civil Service, a bitter argument is brewing. It is a debate of parchment and oath, of sacrifice and strategy. Can we claim to hold the Plateau of the Gods if Mandrianos is still belching beasts each night? Can The Concord, in good conscience, ask soldiers to garrison a place they can barely survive, let alone tame?
For the Civil Service, the answer is simple. Yes. Holding Mandrianos is necessary. It is a linchpin of administration. The Concord has begun taxing Marepato. Settlers have moved into Boisombre. Coin is flowing. While there is no intent of allowing families to move into Mandrianos, The Concord needs to control Mandrianos to have control over the region, otherwise it belongs to the Drowned more than it does to us.
But the War Chamber thinks differently.
Soldiers from the Legion of the Blackheart Bear, no strangers to horror, described the city as “a mouthful of broken teeth, half-swallowed.” Their Ritters reported routine disappearances, brine-sickness among the garrison, and entire squads turning on one another after too many nights stationed above the flooded temples. The suggestion is that even if Mandrianos does not fall to the Drowned, it may eat the Concordian soldiers who stay there too long.
Several proposals have emerged, none without opposition:
Hold the Highlands
Fall back to the rivers and hills around the city. Let Mandrianos rot. Build siege camps, forts, and garrisons to ensure no one else claims it. Deny the Drowned without occupying the city directly. Doing so would require material support from the Senate or elsewhere, and would rob The Concord of the mysteries and lost wealth of the city, but would also keep distant the worst of its corruption.
Arcane Quarantine
A common stance born of not particularly knowing how it works, but the phrase “can’t we just throw the Shardcircle at it?”. Civil Service workers speaking on the Shardcircle’s behalf would caution against it, but they also would deny its impossibility. Using the combined resources of the Schools of Magic, the Arcline, and whatever Crystal Mana could be collected could produce an arcane barrier over the city. But nay-sayers quickly point to the Crystal Maw as an example of what happens when the Shardcircle oversteps in experimentation.
Commit and Cleanse
The same voices that ask to throw the Shardicle at these odd problems are quick to follow up with “If not the magi, then what about the Greenwealders?”. In truth, the concept of flooding the city with Cursebreaking Houndspriests, Avowed Knights, Farseers, Learned Arcanists, and Bravos isn’t far-fetched. It would likely turn Mandrianos into a charnel house that produces two things; Heroes and Corpses. Likely not an overly swift plan, but one that could see the end of the worst of the corruption.
Wipe It Clean
A radical plan to burn Mandrianos to the ground, erase the sacred temples, salt the bones, and leave nothing for the Drowned or anyone else. It would be a blow to the Artebazzani legacy and to Concordian pride, but possibly a mercy in the long run. Using the newly discovered Aetherial Kyanite being pulled from the ground in Bolsterlee, vast supplies of Blazesap, and old-fashioned hard work could see the city collapse in on itself, leaving a cursed, seeping rubble, but likely one no more dangerous than say… The Roiling or the Crystal Maw?
All of these options are expensive. All of them are bloody.
And still the waters rise.
Game Information
Never ones to be overwhelmed by circumstance, the inventive minds of the War Chamber had attempted to find new ways to overcome the difficulties of Mandrianos. While not all the answers are equal in their quality, speed, or cost, they are all possible answers. Each of these possible plans will be presented to their relevant parties and it will be up to the heroic contingent to see which (if any) of them are investigated further. All of these choices will require the approval of the Senator of Mancate Terra and the Champion of the Revolution.
Relevant Parties
Hold the Highlands - Champion of the Revolution
Arcane Quarantine - Archmage
Commit and Cleanse - Chapter Kaptain of the Krezenberg Abbey
Wipe it Clean - Senator of Mancante Terra
Nice Swamp, I’ll Take it
Within the cooler halls of the War Chamber, where ink often flows more freely than blood, a radical question has emerged from familiar voices: Why wait for the Drowned to strike again? Why not take the war to them? At one Concordian Plaza, the small staff of Civil Servants of the War Chamber scour records for any advantage that might be found to trek south into La Dove Dormani. It might be just as drowned as Mandrianos, but by the Spheres at least it's not haunted. Hopefully.
La Dove Dormani hasn’t even been considered by the Generals and Admirals of The Concord, they were happy to reclaim what they grasped. But every year The Concord does not strike, the Drowned fester. Every year the brave few who scout its borders return with fewer limbs, fewer companions, fewer answers. And with the Drowned armies growing in strength every season, time is running out.
The thinking is that if La Dove Dormani can be taken, then Mandrianos won’t be as essential of a consideration. The territory could even be given over to the wilderness, freeing The Concord from its concern.
But the options are as mad as the Drowned themselves:
- A seaborne raid up along the Vaddios Bianca, attempting to travel upriver until the Busa Tiambe bridge. Taken swiftly enough, it could be the strike needed to start the fall of enemy positions, but it is a surprise attack only possible once.
- A New Cordisian causeway, left unrepaired and uncompleted, is said to run along the eastern coast. It was once used to move supplies from Vidania to the building sites further inland. While abandoned, if it could be repaired it would provide The Concordian forces a piece of solid ground from which to operate in the area.
- The people of Lerona Mere are not stupid, they can read the writing on the wall. If they do not act to secure their own gains, there may not be any gains to hold. A group of Bravos within Korrence, supported by the Steel Sigils political party, are offering their services as scouts and assassins to strike against the Drowned, but only if they strike against the Drowned. This would-be spy network is useful, but their terms may be simply too ‘Lerona Mere’.
Each plan promises high risk, unclear reward, and uncertain cost.
But the argument stands: if The Concord does not act now, they may never act at all. La Dove Dormani may become the next Nazafeza, lost, then retaken, then lost again. If the swamp is left unchecked, the Drowned will sing again. And next time, it will not be just Mancante Terra that falls.
Game Information
Much the same as the circumstances in Mandrianos, the War Chamber has decided to not leave the forces of The Concord unsupported, and have worked hard to produce options to change the nature of war in Mancante Terra by opening up the Southern warfront against La Dove Dormani.
La Dove Dormani has gained the following trait:
| Trait | +Cas. Inf. | +Cas. Suff. | Special |
| River Raid | - | - | The first Concordian Fleet to take the ‘Raid’ order targeting this territory will also count as having taken the ‘Support’ order targeting this territory.
However the proximity to shallow water may see the fleet take some casualties. |
Repairing the lost Causeway would be a difficult and expensive endeavour, particularly since it needs to be in use as quickly as possible. War Chamber plans account for this but it does little to lessen the cost.
If the Concordian Commandant is delivered:
- 10 Wains of Arcstone
- Five Vaults (to pay for labourers)
during the Summit before a Season where a Concordian army takes an aggressive action into La Dove Dormani, the territory will lose the ‘Foul Flooding’ trait.
Finally, ‘The Saltknives’ mercenary company has offered to become a Spy Network for The Concord, taking much of the setup cost onto themselves, as long as The Concord meets the following requirements:
- The position of Blademaster of the Saltknives is nationalised to Lerona Mere
- Their headquarters is based in Marepato
- They are used to target the Drowned for at least two years after their construction, or until Vidania is reclaimed, whichever comes first.
In exchange The Saltknives will use their cash reserves and salvage from Mancate Terra that they have claimed to pay for ten wains of Mithril towards the construction. This leaves The Concord to make up 5 Wains of Mithril and 5 Vaults to found the spynetwork.