Kingdom Come: Ch 15

The War Room at Korona was nothing like the palatial digs at Vulkan Keep. There were no fancy maps or mahogany furniture here: just chickens in the hallway outside, old boot-trodden reeds on the floor, and large solid wooden table covered in a messy jumble of maps, markers, notes, bottles and wooden cups. The cup nearest me smelled like fermenting fruit juice. There were a couple of mold floaters on the surface of the liquid inside. The walls were covered in maps, ledgers, notes and scraps of parchment, with routes through the Endlar marked up with flags and pinned thread in different colors. I couldn’t help but notice the vast majority of the swamp was uncharted.

“Kutzi keri. You see what I have to deal with?” Istvan said sourly, plopping down onto one of the chairs. He knotted his fingers up through his hair, staring down blankly at the map nearest him. After a moment, he pushed it away and took up one of the bottles. “Do any of you want a drink?”

Karalti darted her head to one side like a curious bird, staring at a shiny letter opener on the table glinting under the light of the chandelier. Suri and I glanced at each other, then at the dirty cups.

“Not for me, thanks,” I said, steering the dragon to a seat as she reached out to delicately push the knife off the edge of the table.

“Suit yourself.” Istvan got one of the cleaner mugs and filled it to the brim with a milky, frothy liquor that smelled a cross between sweet bourbon and yogurt. “So, you want a briefing on Koronya? A thousand men arriving on short notice, another hundred in quarantine, close to a hundred injured – some brutally – and a constant flow of refugees beating on our gates. There’s plague in the refugee camp. Everything has been a disaster since Karhad fell. You want to know my problems? I can summarize with one word. ‘Soma’.”

“Listen, I know you hate the guy, but this kind of talk isn’t helping you or anyone here. He’s your commanding officer, whether we like it or not.” I steepled my fingers and let them rest between my knees. “You’re talking yourself into a hole, my dude.”

“Because the situation here is beyond hopeless.” Istvan paused to slam back his drink. “There’s nothing to do in Myzsno now but join the ranks of the dead.”

“Start from the beginning,” I said slowly. “Because you look like the kind of man who doesn’t scare easily or normally say shit like this. Tell us what happened in Karhad.”

Some of the fight drained from Istvan’s wiry frame. He shook his head slowly, taking another pull off his mug. 

“The Demon destroys everything in his path,” he said haltingly. “He twists the land, seizes or butchers the animals, tramples and Stranges the fields. The dead are added into his ranks. They march without tiring, destroy without caring. The only things that repel them are fire and water.”

“And what about you?” Suri asked. “What’s your story?”

“I am... was... the Castellan of House Borza.” He looked up, his pale green eyes flashing. “Racsa is the native land of my father’s people, and my life was spent in service to the Voivode of Myszno. I served in Egbolt Castle in Karhad, fighting while Andrik Corvinus refused to send aid. We struggled alone against an army who grew larger with every battle we lost. Every person who falls is added to this… this thing’s army. I lost my family, my hold… then I had to fight them. My wife. My children, my neighbors. Even my own dog came at me, guts hanging everywhere. Nearly everyone here has a story like mine, except for Soma.”

I leaned back. “Jesus.” 

Karalti crooned in agreement, searching the table for things to push onto the ground. Istvan bowed his head. 

Suri was standing, as she usually did. She wasn’t much of a sitter. “Fuckin’ oath. What kind of tactics did the Demon use to take Karhad?”

“You must understand first that Karhad is not a city built for war, but for river trade,” Istvan said. “The city walls are wood and daub. The worst things we ever saw there in my lifetime were Tyrannosaurs, Yanik raiders, sometimes monsters. In a thousand years, Lagash never even made a pretext of war. We did not need them until now.”

“What kind of tactics does the Demon use?” Suri asked. “Any idea as to his overall strategy?”

“Who knows? We have no idea what he wants.” Istvan shrugged. “As for tactics... in Karhad, they hurled the living dead over the walls with catapults to begin the assault. Kalxat came forth next, blacking out the sky alongside chimera stitched from the bodies of wyverns and quazi and other animals. The horde follows. The dead attack with teeth and nails, throwing themselves against our barricades in overwhelming numbers. They climbed over their dead as the bodies mount against the walls, and soon, they were over. The wall fell quickly. How can you fight a man who pushes himself along your pike and feels no pain?”

He sighed. “We held them off at the castle for a while, but then the Demon came riding a great skeletal aurochs. He cast foul magic on the grounds. The gardens withered before our eyes, and the gates rotted away. His army poured in... it was all we could do to flee for our lives.”

“You’re lucky you got away,” Suri said.

“Am I? Truly? Everything I loved is gone.” The Captain picked up his drink and threw the rest back in a couple of long swallows. His hand tremored as he set the empty cup down. “The only reasons I’m here now are honor and dread. Honor, to revenge my Lord’s people, and dread, because I cannot bear to think of this plague flowing out over the rest of the world. But now, it’s hopeless. Our largest mercenary company deserted just the other day. Food and medicines are short. Talks with the Yanik have faltered, and we have not been able to recruit them to our side. My father’s people, abandoning us! My best captain, Zlaslo, has fallen ill with some disease the healers cannot cure, and Soma ordered my best men out into the swamp on a fool’s mission. All for his ego.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Suri crossed her arms.

Istvan fixed his gaze on me. “It does if you think like a self-involved idiot. The man he sent, Vash Dorha, is an incredible warrior. But he is Tuun. He is proud and insolent to those who do not earn his respect. He was the hero of the soldiers here. The sight of him on the walls bolstered everyone’s spirits. He could leap from the bailey up to the bastions in one bound, and he once punched a zombie wyvern that had climbed onto the wall and laid it flat with a single blow. He invented the healing potions that cure Wasting Fever...

“Is he a PC?” I asked. “He sounds like a Play... er, a Starborn, yeah.”

“No. But maybe I should have spread the rumor. Soma and Vash had an argument that ended badly. Soma retaliated by ordering him on a harebrained ‘scouting’ mission out into the Endlar, or he would have him hung, drawn and quartered. Everyone here knows that to venture into the swamps is death. Not even the Demon’s army has been able to mass and get through, except in small quantities. Our scouts already report that the Demon is preparing to cross the river to the east, hoping to go around the Endlar toward Boros.”

Suri glanced at me and Karalti. “If he’s as good as you say, he could still be alive.”

“Not a chance. Not after six days.” Istvan shook his head. “The woods are full of hungry dinosaurs, monsters, mires, and worse. Just because the Demon hasn’t been able to get anything more than small attack squads through the swamp doesn’t mean there aren’t any undead there, either. Vash Dorha and the men who went with him are dead, and everyone knows it. That is why the Orphan Company deserted us. Everything that gave the men sanity, Lord Soma has taken away. The men loathe him for it, and now insubordination is on the rise. I tried to serve this lord faithfully and well, but I’m at my wit’s end with him. And now you’re here: a pair of foreigners full of fairytales about Starborn, here to lay claim to my Lord’s county. You know why Ignas sent you here, don’t you?”

“Yeah.” I nodded, absently rubbing the small of Karalti’s back as I normally would have while thinking. “He sent us here to win this thing.”

“No. He sent you here in exile.” Istvan tipped the edge of his cup toward us, then drained the rest. “To get you out of the capital.”

“Nonsense. We put him on the throne,” Suri snapped. 

“You are naive.” The captain barked a short, bitter laugh. “That you put him on the throne is even more reason to be rid of you.”

“Look, this is pointless.” I waved him off. “We’re here to fight a war. You’ve listed off a bunch of things that are wrong: let’s start talking solutions. We need to solve problems.”

“There is no point if the Volod will not send the troops we need to fortify us.” Istvan’s face sharpened, the muscles of his jaw tensing. “While we are under Soma’s command-”

I stood up from the table and banged my hands down, rattling cups and trash. Karalti jumped in her seat. Suri and Istvan both froze.

“Quit. Whining.” I stared him down. “Soma might be a piece of shit, but he’s not the only one with an attitude problem here, Commander. There’s hundreds of thousands of people in Myszno in danger. The ducal seat is fallen and it’s not going to reclaim itself. You want to lay down and die? I’ve got some rope in my inventory. Go hang yourself and get it over with.”

Istvan’s face darkened. He shot to his feet. “You dare-!”

“You were jumping Soma’s shit about HIS ego.” I slashed my hand toward the closed door to the room. “Well, what about yours, Usoya? I did not travel all this way to hear an officer speak this way. We go out and we recruit. We fix the morale. We repair the walls. We brew potions, heal or evacuate the wounded, and we go out into the damn swamp and drag Vash back by his asshole if we have to. There is no practical choice in war but to win, and winning starts with strong leadership. You WILL lead, and we WILL fight to win from now on. Do you understand me?”

“Yeah!” Karalti leaped up like a kid at a baseball game, beaming with excitement.

“I... you...” Drunk, flushed, and furious, Istvan tripped on his words.

“This is the time you salute and yell ‘Yes sir!’ soldier!” I banged my hand down again.

“Yeah!” Karalti beat her hand on the table too.

He paled slightly. “Yes... sir.” 

“Damn straight.” My face tingled with pins and needles as I retook my seat. “You should be able to give us a quest with all the shit you need done. Assign it and we’ll get started, my dude. This place isn’t going to fix itself.”

Istvan’s mouth twitched, as if he was fighting back a sneer. His expression turned sullen. “Fine. I will compile a quest. For all the good it will do... do as you please.”

He closed his eyes, and I got an alert from my HUD. 

[Congratulations! You have reached Leadership 6!]

[Istvan Usoya has been added to your Heroes menu!]

“Yikes.” Beside me, Suri winced. “Check out his profile in Mass Combat.”

I closed down her PM and did what she'd asked, then also winced. We were at -50 amity points with Istvan, buuuut... “Okay, he hates us. But at least he’s recruitable?”

Suri snorted aloud. “Yeah, and he’ll bite your fingers off if you try and shake his hand.”

Karalti’s expression turned thoughtful. “Is that what amity is? Can I do that to people I don’t like?”

I thought back to Soma swinging his cloak around Karalti’s shoulders. “If they try to touch you without your permission, sure.” 

She made an excited snorting sound. Dragon noises.

Istvan opened his eyes, blinked a couple of times, then frowned. My HUD chimed, and Suri cocked her head, listening to the same unseen sound. So did Karalti. “Fine. There you go. It’s long.”

[You have a new Quest!]

Quest Update: Unto Death

You have arrived to discover the Myszno Defense Force in shambles. The Prezyemi Line is undermanned and underpowered. Koronya Fortress is plagued by low morale, limited supplies, and feuding officers. The people’s hero, Vash Dorha, has been sent on a suicide mission and is now missing. Desertion is rife, all while the Demon’s armies loom on the horizon.

The Fort Captain, Istvan Usoya, has issued a series of quests to address the problems of the defense. View each Individual Sub-Quest for more details: 

+ All the Kings Men: Find the Orphan Company and convince them to return.

+ Into the Swamp: Rescue Vash Dorha and the soldiers who accompanied him - or retrieve their bodies for proper burial.

+ Supply Train: Find out who - or what - is holding up the supply train from Boros to Fort Koronya.

+ Bayou Warriors: Recruit the Yanik tribes to join the defense force. 

+ Hold the Line: Discover sidequests in Koronya to bolster the defense and gain Renown.

Special: All sub-quests are optional. The number of quests you complete will affect your main quest line.

Difficulty: Varies

Reward: Varies: See individual sub-quest descriptions

“Okay. Thanks.” I clapped my hands on my thighs and stood again, eying the ‘Dark Moon Pact Oathbreaker’ status that had accompanied me from Taltos. “We’ll get back to you with some good news as soon as we can.”

Istvan eyed the liquor bottle. “We’ll see about that, Tuun. We will see.”