Rolly's pronouncement of an army of Jotun got everyone's attention. Duchess Claudia was on her feet immediately. "Jotun? To be clear about this, you're talking about the fifty-foot-tall ice giants that we fought at the Battle of Crystalthorne. There were three of them, and they were terrifying. How many do we have to deal with now?"Rolly stuffed so much food into his mouth that he had the people who didn't know him staring in awe. Then he swallowed once, started talking, and began to make another sandwich. "A lot more than three...but it's complicated. I can't give you better information until I secure an agreement between you and the Snow Goose Rebels. The Farmer's Guild still has them listed as terrorists because of some misunderstandings during their yearly visits. They haven't been back to the Empire for a century. They want to vacation down here, but the GAC is nervous about that and the DHQ is backing them up. The SGR doesn't want to send scouting reports until they get a full pardon for 'All crimes, real, imaginary, or unproven.' We came to a compromise when the scouting reports were sent to me, but I agreed to negotiate a pardon before releasing them.One confused General said, "GAC? DHQ?"Rolly shrugged, "Oh, sorry, I forget I'm talking to civilians sometimes. The Goose Air Commandos are the crazy, handsome fellows that have been running raids against the Winter army and getting the inside information on troop movements. They infiltrate the camps, listen in on secret meetings, steal orders, cause some chaos, and pass on the information to the DHC before looking for their next target. They can stay in the field for weeks with just a bag of groats to sustain them If you see the remains of burned tents or broken rakes, that was them. Duck High Command has been getting me their information, along with the ariel scouting reports that Sir Benjamin and I have been passing on to House Franklin and the Imperial Couriers. The work of the brave lads in the GAC has cost a few of them their lives, but we've saved the lives of a lot of soldiers and caused confusion in the enemy. SGR refers to another brave outfit, the Snow Goose Rebels. They operate up north, and are the people who we want to recruit for our spy network. After a few niggling details are worked out, that is."Ben, Suzette, and Ozzy absorbed all of this and didn't bat an eye. Claudia was trying to turn things over in her mind, and commit the abbreviations to memory, but she had few doubts about the Shepherd's statements, especially watching his three companions. All of the other people in the room were either amused, confused, or mildly irritated about being called civilians. Some started to speak and Claudia raised a hand for silence."What do you need from me in exchange for the current scouting reports, and further reports? I'm going to trust you that the information is worth the downside of pissing off the Farmer's Guild."Rolly pulled out a folded piece of paper that declared in large letters. 'Snow Geese Rule, Farmers Drool! The Party is On!'
"They said this would be enough."Claudia took a pen and ink, and signed her name to the rumpled document, then dried the ink with sand from the small container next to the inkwell. Then she handed the paper back to Rolly. "It's going to be interesting trying to explain why I'm pardoning geese to my husband. I may hold off on that for a couple of months."
Roll out the whiskey and gin, and hide valuables. This fall sees the return of the most raucous and chaotic gathering of hard-fighting waterfowl to ever hit town! That's right...IT'S OFFICIAL! Goosapalooza is coming back to Wolfsburg and the surrounding farms this fall! Sponsored by Duchess Claudia Greywolf and her husband, Duke Carl Greywolf. Festivities start as soon as the corn is in the barn!
She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Oh, maybe a bit sooner. Shit, it doesn't matter. That's a problem for later. I need to know about this army of Jotun and barbarians and how to deal with them. What information do you have?""I'm betting you don't have a map of the far north, above the scrublands, the rocky wastes?"Claudia shook her head. "I've looked in our archives recently. A few journals of the travels of merchants who risked the trips, but they are an amazingly tight lipped bunch, not wanting others to know the trade routes and markets they found. And most don't return after a few trips. It's described as a land of frozen rivers of ice, rocky mountains, snow and more snow."Rolly started shoving what was left of the food down to one end of the large table. "For some of the north, that is a good description, but there are a lot of good areas where food is raised, forests grow, and animals graze. Think of the north like an ocean with islands. The islands are the good areas, and the water would be the icy mountains and glaciers. The terrain can drop thousands of feet from the mountains down to the valley floors, and the valleys are shielded from much of the violence of the storms." He began to rearrange the food on the table. "The bread slices are the valleys where the barbarians have been grazing their herds. They have some hardy varieties of winter wheat and rye that they harvest, gourd vegetables, and of course, taters, carrots, beets, and other root vegetables. This valley with the salami on it has hotsprings, and this one with the sliced beef is a sulfur spring. The porkchops are lakes. Very cold, but the fishing is great. The giants catch twenty-foot long salmon from them. The biggest lake stretches far north and has an outlet to the northern seas. Polar Kraken's use it for mating and laying their eggs."Squirmie said, "I want to try Kraken Eggs. Your weird new friend had me drooling when he talked about catching the young kraken and the unhatched eggs."Rolly paused and patted her head, "Then I promise to take you there someday. I think the next hatching season is in a couple of years."Rolly continued to lay out all the food, creating a decent, if odd, map. "The border between the Empire and the North has always been vague, mostly because the land between them sucks. It doesn't benefit from the warmer climate of the Empire, and isn't cold enough for the northern creatures. Baron William was ceded this big strip of the Empire along with the better lands to the east that contain small villages. No one cared at the time. It's arid scrubland, with bad grazing. Too far from Northguard to have protection, and too close to the north. Building a village there is an invitation to being raided by the barbarian tribes, wild yeti, or the any numbers of things that roam the wilds. Above the scrubland is even shittier scrubland. No grass, tough bushes and lichen, and rocks. There are a few dwarven mining colonies in this stretch of land, but you wouldn't know it from traveling the area. They're all underground and they don't like strangers unless your selling alcohol or high explosives. Lots of glaciers, slowly coming down from the high mountains and foothills. Once you get up the mountains, that's where the North really starts. The valleys the barbarians have been living in are up where I have the bread. Say, can we get some more bread? I could use another sandwich and I'm running out of food for mapmaking and snacks."The Duchess and her generals had been listening to Rolly casually describe areas they'd tried to get information on for the last few months. Winter had appeared on their doorstep, as it did every war, gaining the advantage of surprise. Her eyes snapped from the map, looked at the lack of food anywhere but the map and pointed to a messenger and two bodyguards. "Hit the kitchen tent. I need sliced bread, sliced cheese, sliced meats, and anything thin, colorful, and tasty." Then ran off quickly for a resupply run.Rolly started pointing out different areas. "The barbarian tribes are being pushed through these passes. It's happening faster from these valleys, and my spies tell me the people doing the pushing are some nasty yeti and ogres. Anyone who doesn't flee is being eaten, the same with their herds. But the bulk of them are on the move. The advantage of a semi-nomadic lifestyle. The Jotun are over here, in these valleys, pushing slower, but advancing at a steady pace. They don't seem to be in a hurry, unlike this group over here." He gathered up anything lose, counting them out one by one, and placing them directly behind in the middle of a pass in the mountains. "These guys are rogue Jotun. Outlaws, and not part of the other tribes. They've interbred with ogres and other large monsters over the centuries. They aren't as big as the true Jotun, only about twenty-five feet tall, but there are fifty of them pushing hard on one group of refugees, and following close behind. They're nasty, and my sources tell me they don't like following orders, and love mindless violence just for the sake of it."Claudia looked at the map. "So the tribes from the valleys are being pushed out, along with their herds, and caught between our army and the Jotun. They'll have to resettle in the scrublands, or start heading further out, into the wildlands a few hundred miles away, that we know less about, except they are far worse with larger monsters. That's assuming the monsters don't push them even further. This has an odd feeling to it. If someone is taking advantage of the Winter Council losing a war this badly, it was planned in advance, and that's a type of nasty politics I truly hate."General Talbot gave his opinion. "We have a perfect opportunity for total victory. We have a numerical advantage against them, and they are pinned into a small geographical area with few supplies. And now they have to defend their women, children, and herds. It's perfect."Ozzy started to say something, but Suzette was watching Ben and held Ozzy back when he went to stand. Ben rose slowly and looked at the Duchess, then General Talbot. "A perfect opportunity for genocide? When they invaded us, it was war, and we fought. Now they are running. If they turn and attack, we'll fight. But what if they don't? Are you prepared to wipe them from the face of the earth? We aren't fighting an army now, we are fighting beaten tribes, running from two enemies and caught between them."Talbot nodded, "Exactly. They chose to invade. Let them reap the whirlwind of our vengeance. Ben glared at him, "I hate bad analogies and casually condemning people to death. The whirlwinds were on their side, and I don't recall you at the battle when I, and a few other people in this room charged the Ice Tyrant. Winter has been a cold and murderous enemy to fight, but the tribes are the least of their forces, and far closer to the people of the Empire than the monsters of the north."Talbot did his best to glare back at Ben. "They are a problem to deal with. Wiping them out will send a message to the north."Ben rolled his eyes, "Really, I would think wiping out the Winter Council, the Rime Knights, and killing 70% of their army had already sent a message. And can you afford to fight? Moving farther and farther north with only Gadobhra to resupply the army? Chasing after nomadic tribes as they flee into the badlands? And, might I point out, coming closer and closer to several small armies of monsters? Let those tribes have the scrublands. The worst threat they will present is minimal. No one lives in that part of the Empire to be threatened."Claudia held up her hand. "I've heard both sides of this debate. Not that I won't hear it again, I'm sure. But two points our Paladin makes strike me as important. We don't have the soldiers to try and wipe out these tribes. Hurt them? Yes. But in doing so, we hurt ourselves, and we still have wars to fight in the south. And, I don't like the idea of giving winter a chance to send those monsters against us, or give them a reason to do so. If we keep them moving and they leave the Empire, I won't pursue further."The food arrived, along with another table to deploy it on. Rolly took a couple of minutes to make a sandwich and devoured it in three bites. Then he picked up a bowl of sliced cucumbers. He started laying out the cucumbers along the border of the Empire and then working his way back to Northguard. "Except they won't want to settle in the scrublands, not while there's lush prairie just across the border. Summer came and shook things up. The glaciers are retreating slowly and a lot of water is being released and moving south. I'm sure Sir Benjamin can tell us about the rampant growth of lush grass in the area around Northguard."Ben added a few cucumber stripes, but put a circle of rye crust in one spot. "Nothing will be growing where Northguard was. It's been blasted down to bare rock. Great place for a new fortress though, with the foundation work done for you. The area around it is becoming green meadows, ready for farming or grazing. Pinchpenny's gift to his historical lands. I hope he chokes on it while he sits in Tartarus."The Duchess stared at the map. "New problems. If that land is good for grazing, the lords and ladies further south will want a crack at it. Northguard is gone, but there will be a dozen distant relatives wanting to be named Baron. The barbarian tribes will try to stay on the land, and if they prosper, become a bigger and bigger threat. And, of course I'll have homesteaders heading that way, taking advantage of a number of old laws to claim wilderness lands and create new villages. Perfect targets for barbarians in the next valley over. The political drama this will cause is going to be a real shitshow."Ben took a handful of black currants and laid them in a long line. "Let's complicate things more. Those lands the tribes and homesteaders will want? Those were ceded to Baron William of Gadobhra. Aren't they his problems too?"Claudia smiled, "Oh, my, you are right. That's not wilderness land, open for claiming, it's part of the Barony of Gadobhra. I'm glad I'm not at court when this gets out. He's still going to have people heading his way, but he can tax the hell out of them and has authority over the area. It will cause even more problems for Gustavus, but I am so happy that part of the Duchy is under his control." She looked around at her people. "General Talbot, I want you to get this ragged army in shape. We may or may not have to fight soon, but get us ready." She looked at Ozzy and Suzette. "As representatives of the Baron, I have jobs for the two of you. I need the Butcher to figure out new supply lines for the army, since we are going to be leaning heavily on Baron William to supply us as we head north. And I need everything that Sedgewick has to offer. The Healing Beer, Apple Wine that keeps you awake for days, every potion you can supply, and anything interesting that you think my army needs. You'll be acting as the Baron's proxy and taking orders. Gus and William can figure out the payment, they have some deal in place, and I want to take advantage of it."She turned to Rolly, "Edible maps are interesting until I need to move camp or someone get's hungry. Can you draw that out on paper."Rolly nodded, "Sure. I've got enough information and ariel reconnaissance to create a complete set of topographical maps of everything past Northguard and a few hundred miles into the north. Squirmie and I will get to work on them."Ben said, "And I'll be glad to help you with that."Claudia smiled at Ben, and it sent a chill down his spine. "No, I think you'll be too busy for that. I need a fast moving messenger with diplomatic experience who can handle himself in strange situations.""Ah, and the strange situation would be?"She put a hand on his shoulder. "Get me information. Scout the tribes, talk to them if you can. They'll respect a man riding a Snarlfang. Then get as close to the Jotun as you can, and see if you can find out their plans."Ben took a deep breath, "Sure, that sounds easy. Deal with the enemy Jarls and sneak around a bunch of fifty-foot-tall giants to steal their secret plans. Piece of cake."Ozzy gave him a thumbs up. "Say hi to Brogthall if you run into him."