Rúthui, a High Elven mercenary captain who has of course only heard of Naggaroth spoken of in dark whispers and absolutely did not not grow up there, reads the contract calmly, nods... she may want to negotiate a few clauses, but yes, this overall seems very reasonable to her. No commander likes being out of work; there's three hundred men under the banner of the Fireheart Company, and that's three hundred men to feed and pay every day, regardless of whether there's any money coming in. Fortunately, the Border Princedoms are a fine place to find work. A year as 'military advisors' seems a safe enough work, and a year is hardly any time to a woman who absolutely did not grow up under someone who had been King for more than four thousand years. She'll keep an eye out for traps, of course, but the most probable way for this to go wrong is that Lord Berra plans to start a war, and needs a captain who can win it... which is, of course, her job, and not one Rúthui has any objection to doing.

If there's any sign that they suspect her of being a dark elf, they don't show it!

Either they got really lucky, or whichever Marsden took control of Heramere had their pick of spots, because as far as the border princes go, it's prime real estate. Not so valuable as to attract a constant stream of claimants, no, but with notable advantages; it's located by a bend in the the Treblecz river just north of the Khyprian Road. The local terrain maps she has for the area are total garbage, of course, and she hasn't been in the area herself to supplement them with real experience, but even with just the trade map Pauline brought alongside the directions the keep looks to be on something of a hill, so the sight-lines are probably fairly decent. The river means that sourcing food and water will most likely not be a problem, but road or no road if she wants anything from civilization that they can't produce there, she'll have to pick it up now or else prepare to wait weeks for the round trip.

In terms of war targets, the only other local princedom of note seems to be the Somerlads off to the west, but there are a couple smaller princedoms like the Detwilers at River Run Altdorf that are plausible routes for expansion. If the war he has in mind is a defensive one... there's no shortage of threats to a Border Prince, but greenskins, beastmen, or their fellow humans would be the most likely candidates.

Upon hearing that Rúthui plans to accept the offer, Pauline offers to leave one of her escorts behind to act as a guide, while she and the rest of her people return so that Lord Marsden has time to finalize accommodations for several hundred additional people. Given the relative pace of riders on horseback and a marching army, however, even once the company is ready for travel they will outstrip them along the journey handily, so Fren is not in a rush. She makes herself available to answer whatever questions Rúthui might have to the best of her abilities.

Given the lack of hostile intent, it will likely take Rúthui a bit longer to notice than it would to notice an equivalent Druchii, but Pauline has a charisma about her that comes not just from natural talent but also practiced skill. At the moment, it seems aimed at ensuring she creates a positive impression, but it's fairly obvious why she's employed as a courier and diplomat.

Well, Rúthui is not really surprised, is she? That's the sort of person you'd send. Rúthui will be as charming as she can while making sure that the contract won't commit her to anything dreadful (and has the legal option to back out of it if Pauline turns out to be lying) and get the contract signed and registered in Myrmidia's official contract registers; if Lord Marsden sells her out and the Fireheart Company sacks his castle, Rúthui wants exactly why she did it to be ironclad.

Turning on your employer is a risky decision even when it is justified; for whatever reason, people tend to think that might generalize. Still, if you do have to do it, doing so for breach of a publically filed contract is one of the best reasons for it, and generations of Border Prince mercenaries have worked to make and shape an institution for it. The people there know Ruthui, and the process has been streamlined as much as possible for the benefit of the rather large class of less educated mercenary captains. They’re also familiar with Pauline, and she’s able to register Berra’s agreement herself, though per procedure they will send a message themselves with part of the registration fees. The consequences from Lord Marsden’s end for breach of contract are, admittedly, rather smaller than hers, but that’s what happens when one party lives and dies by their reputation in a way that the other doesn’t. These are just the costs of doing business for mercenaries.

The weather is, blessedly, rather good; a little drier than the norm for Sigmarzeit in the Border Princes, but not so much so that the temperature has really started to climb or water prices started to hike in Mymridens. Some people have been taking advantage of this and hired aquatic transportation for their own travel, but there’s still enough available for Ruthui to charter transportation along the Black Bay coast to Somjek and most of the way up the Treblecz river at reasonable cost if she knows who to talk to. The river is unfortunately not completely navigable for large transport craft, but at least it’s not Skull River; they’ll only have to march a relatively short distance at the end.

Rúthui has no intention to turn on her employer unless her employer turns on her, but weakness is death. Once the contract is registered, she can start talking to captains heading east who want protection; it's easiest for her to cut a deal if the other side gets something out of it, too, and she's been here long enough that she knows who to talk to. By ship to Somjek, by riverboat until the riverboats go no further, and then the march to Heramere, and seventy-five lances of troops flying the phoenix banner will be at Lord Marsden's service.

That's not going to cover all the transit to Somjek; there's just not that much coastal shipping in the border princes, and much of what's there already has contracted protection. Still, even amongst those ships where added protection is less a necessity and more of an additional bonus captains are often willing to give a her discount; with the average local level of wealth, Black Bay merchant shipping is an industry with only modest profit margins and cuts corners to match, including in how much martial assistance they're willing to pay for on a day to day basis. Having a dozen extra trained soldiers does a lot to ease worries about Orkish pirates. The fact that Ruthui is a former captain herself is no small bonus here, both in terms of making connections and in terms of perhaps slightly inflated perceptions of how much training her mercenaries have at marine work. Her species serves her likewise; even here in the shadow of Barak Varr, Ulthuan's navy and merchant marine are legendary. Once the more optimistic get over their disappointment that Rúthui has no plans to whip up the wind to cut their travel time in half, she still has no shortage of offers from captains willing to grant her and a few companions the passage for free.

The riverboat captains are a bit less overawed, but at this point in the spring there's frankly not that much in the way of demands on their time and won't be until harvest. Payment will have to cover time, wages, and maintenance, but there's no need to outbid other consumers.

There's no obvious border where Heramere's neighbors end and its claimed lands begin. Such borders between the territories of nobles can be fuzzy even in established locations, where the exact boundary may only be outlined in a handful of ancient (and disputed) treaties, charters, and grants. In the Border Princes, the reasons are different, but the same phenomenon arises; for some of these boundary farmsteads, it may well be that nobody lays explicit claim and taxation to them if the administrative resources of the surrounding states are lacking, or there may several disputing claims operating on hallowed legal principles like "might makes right" and "dibs." Still, the people here look reasonably well fed, and their reaction to a few hundred mercenaries marching through their towns and by their farmhouses is less terror and more caution. Likewise, their reaction towards mercenaries after foraging... well, no, there's definitely still hatred there. But if the amounts are relatively reasonable, it doesn't overcome fear to go past the level of dirty looks, and the writs of tax relief given in compensation by the accompanying Marsden soldier seem to at least be worth the paper they're written on even if not their actual face value. You can learn a lot about a border prince from how their peasants act, and in this case they seem convinced that the Marsdens are both here to stay and forward thinking enough to have concerns other than maximal value extraction. This is something of a bad sign in terms of how likely it is that they'll be sent to fight in the field against foes they'd be tactically better off waiting out in order to protect an investment, but a good sign in terms of their chances of him actually being able to pay their full rates at the end and any expansionist wars being ones they have a shot at winning.

Eventually, the farms give way to a relatively large town, surrounded by a roughly chest height stone wall. It's plainly incapable of stopping any real attack, even by a force as small as theirs, but a more casual raid will most likely find itself funneled to a few mid sized entrances that are actually defensible. The houses are largely wood and wickerwork, not stone or brick, but the same cannot be said for the keep. It's situated on a hill overlooking the town proper and constructed of worked stone, clearly inspired by dwarven architecture and equally clearly only the budget version thereof. Compared to the fortifications at Naggarond or even Clar Karond, it's distinctly unimpressive, but that's hardly surprising; such work is as nearly as expensive as it is unnecessary. Due the the elevation differential from the river that cuts around one side of it, serious irrigation is rather impractical, so instead of more farms it's given over to grazing for some sheep. A relatively flat area next to the main road up the hill seems to have been cleared for an encampment, lower than the fortress itself but notably delineated from the town proper. It'll require some digging to be truly flat, but if Rúthui's mercenaries lack such equipment it would be reasonably suitable as is, and at this point in the growing season acquiring workers from the town to labor would likely not be too costly.

It's not a very bad trip, as they go. Rúthui has naval experience, and her force knows what they're doing; the most expensive thing is the horse transport, and there's ambushes in need of settling, just the regular work of a trip. Rúthui is careful to maintain discipline; the line between foraging and outright pillaging is narrow, but her troops stay on the right side of it with considerably less terror than a dark elven crew would require. She'll settle her troops in the cleared area, and under the command of one of her officers they can pitch tents, and so she and the rest of her officers are ready to meet their employer.

(The odds that she is about to be ambushed and killed by Lord Marsden engaging in vengeance-by-proxy for someone with a grudge against her are low, which is not the same thing as zero. She and the rest of her officers will go in polished dress armor that is still, and this is very important to her, armor.)

They'll welcome her in; Pauline is there to identify her, but "high elf" is typically sufficient to disambiguate even if it isn't a scheduled arrival at the head of a mercenary company. Unless Rúthui has objections, Pauline will escort her and her officers out of the atrium and across the courtyard to another building, where there's a meeting room with a table and chairs, as well as ample natural light not in the line of fire from outside the walls. Two of the men from the gatehouse will fall in behind them, but several steps back; the escort is less "keep control of these dangerous intruders" and more "ensure nobody 'accidentally' slips off."

Yes, one of Rúthui's many advantages is that nobody here knows how to distinguish elves. (A fairly tricky endeavor, given how few generations separate her and the Ulthuan-born.) She also has the distinguishing feature of a red phoenix on white on her surcoat, as do her other officers, sometimes quartered with more personal arms.

She and her officers have no objections to this program.

There are four people already seated at the table, plus an empty chair for Pauline and several for her and her officers. Not enough for all of the people she brought with her, but they've brought in a pair other chairs off to the side for those not seated, and what looks to be their scribe has their own personal desk with a few reference documents and the meeting's minutes. Across from her are a man that looks to be a soldier, wearing armor and with hair just starting to show streaks of grey, a man in somewhat eccentric but understatedly expensive clothing fiddling with something, what appears to be a Sigmarite priest, and at the head of the table-

A young noblewoman, perhaps 16 years of age if Rúthui has a good grasp of human aging. She's not wearing armor, but her clothes are practical if well made, the kind that could stop or blunt a knife rather than whatever passes for court dresses amongst the backwater border princes. Karen Marsden, almost certainly, and therefore Berra's heir. The man himself does not appear present.

"Welcome to Heramere Keep, Captain Rúthui."

Rúthui has a priest of her own, Adalbert Ziegler, Ulrican and the sort of Ulrican who says "Sigmar's god, Ulric." Her other top officers are Henri Lamarre (back at camp), a former Brettonian peasant wanted back home for his opinions on the feudal hierarchy and the consequences of certain actions based on them, Torben Siegart, an aging former officer of an Elector Count who had thought a coup against Karl Franz wholly practical and whose officers had been replaced when he was, and Giustino Bandoni, a Tilean lancer who'd won promotion for enough repeated acts of bravery that even the cynical Rúthui had found it best not to ignore them.

Lady Marsden. Alone. Berra was a man of honor - the best kind of foolish predictable, for an mercenary. His daughter... well, there are young fools born every day. Only time will tell how much she needs to be steered by her military advisors. Or how much her military advisors can steer her.

"Thank you, Lady Marsden. It's a fine construction." The 'for humans on a human budget' will be left unspoken. "Are we all assembled here, or will your father be joining us?"

"Unfortunately, he's indisposed at the moment. He's not as young as he used to be; things that someone my age could shrug off without issue become a serious concern, and he had a bad time of it in the field last winter. He'll make a full recovery, but in the mean time I have command. It's a bit of a step up from just managing domestic affairs, though, so he suggested get some assistance with military affairs in the short term and had positive things to say about your abilities."

There might be a flicker of something in that last bit, but it's here and gone too quick to be sure what. Annoyance that he thought she needed help? A dislike for who he picked out? It might be nothing, but it's unlikely Rúthui suffers from a lack of paranoia when it comes to people's opinions of things that involve her.

Positive things about my abilities from her father means they don't see eye to eye; it's about dear old Dad, and anyone he recommends is a threat to her? Certainly it means he doesn't trust her to manage defense on her own.

"Tell him he has my prayers for his recovery," Jinarah says. "The Marsden line is famous for its virtues, and every captain in the Border Princedoms knows he was a fine lord."

And she may as well pray, given that the Cadai haven't struck her down yet. (Really, she's not sure they exist.) Either way, though, right now she'll see about letting Lady Marsden do the talking.

"I will be sure to pass that on to him."

She unfurls a map across the table.

"Our strategic situation is thus: in addition to you and your men, we have 29 cavalrymen and 73 heavy infantry from my and my father's personal retinues, as well as 640 or so semi-professionals with some campaign experience to draw upon, 80 of whom fight mounted. In terms of levies, we could most likely draw up between 1,000 and 1,500 additional militia given a few week's time, but the quality and equipment would suffer significantly and the organization would be poor if we were forced to do so rapidly, not to mention the expense of keeping them in the field come harvest time. In terms of irregulars, we have almost two score scouts, as well as healing from Celeran and mystical support from Daniel here. He's most likely not up to the standards you're used to, but as far as us humans go he's quite skilled at casting Hysh spells.

"Most of our lands have been ours for decades now, or were taken from lords no longer living, but we do have a handful of territorial disputes off to the east, especially with the Detwilers; Ulricsdorf used to fly his banner until father took it from him on campaign three years back, and he's formed some kind of alliance with Lord De Lancy the details of which are unknown to us. The region of Hyargir forest nearest to us is home to the creatively named Sharp Tooth Ork tribe; they've been culled back recently but it's never a sure thing how long that will keep them out of trouble. Rumors from the southwest suggest that there's a relatively large mercenary group on the move in this direction looking for some place to settle, possibly Tilean in origin, but it's not anyone I've heard of and I expect we can divert them to a softer target without too much trouble if they do materialize. Making an opposed crossing of the river would hand us an easy victory if he attempted it, and if he swings far enough south to avoid that he'll end up passing through a few easier conquests."

Right. "I may know the Tilean captain's name, or one of my Tilean soldiers might; if you give me a few guides to introduce my men to the locals, I can start patrols up and down the river. We can also start training programs for the militia or semiprofessionals; spear-and-shield militia are half the armies back in Ulthuan," and how different can those be from Dreadspears? "and my main questions are about the Detweiler situation. You say they have a new alliance?"

"According to my sources, it's approximately Verre, possibly Vernes, Verme... word of mouth is not exactly precise on that, especially when they heard it from someone who heard it from someone who only heard it pronounced. If they are Tilean, it's most likely the last of those, but if they're not it's harder to guess. Most of my contacts are that because they trust me, but I'll see about making some introductions where that isn't true. Charles," she continues, nodding to the older soldier on her right, "you'll be taking point on arranging joint training. Start with those who weren't on the winter campaign, then excercise your best judgment."

"As for the alliance... previously, it would have done them more harm than good, but our alliance with the Somerlads has been strained as of late" and who's fault is that, dad, she doesn't add or allow to show on her face or tone of voice "-so they know they'd only be facing our forces in a direct confrontation. It's not clear how committed they are, and thereby whether they think it will help them win a direct confrontation or if they just want to fend off any further actions, but either way it means we need to keep more attention on what they're up to."

"Your forces and mine," Rúthui says. But, returning to the topic, she nods. "I don't know the Man myself; we'll see if any of my Tileans do. How spread out are your forces? How many posts are you garrisoning? Are they watch posts, castles, fortified crossings?" She wants to know in advance if they're coming... and to know just how concentrated the troops her side has on hand are.

(And she'll admit to some worries about the Brettonians, if de Lancey even in his name; she's known them to be fierce guerillas against Druchii warbands, a vast line of trembling peasants that broke at the first charge, and knights with a steel lance clenched in a gauntleted fist that trampled down all in their path. All depends on which Brettonians you get.)

She's competent to answer that, for the most part, although when it comes to who's specifically deployed at each fort she tends to lean on Charles. The Marsden defensive strategy seems to rely on relatively fortified towns, with a garrison composed of a mixture of local forces who are cheap to keep deployed there, have additional incentive to keep it safe, and who's deaths would anger the populace at whoever did it, and higher paid external troops there to provide additional skilled combatants and to discourage anyone local and popular from thinking to try and break loose. The more internal territories are primarily the former, while the border zones get their additional troops from the interior zones. None of the forces are enough to hold the territory against concerted assault, of course, but they can bleed any attempts at quick, deniable raids and retreat into a central defensive position against a serious attack to buy time while the main Marsden forces come in to crush whoever is doing that. Militia units can fill the role on a temporary basis if the full muster gets drawn up, but that's not plan A for a reason. It's a fairly common strategy for border princedoms of this size, if they can afford it, but there's an efficiency to it from years of practice and tweaks that many haven't yet managed.

In terms of infrastructure, most towns seem to have at least some sort of wall that may or may not encompass the entirety of their buildings, and a central stone structure to wait out an attack or organize a counterattack from, but little in the way of castles. Heramere keep is one of two worthy of the name within their territory. The other is, thankfully, on the Kyprian road by the one real bridge over the Treblecz river this far north and is located besides a fairly sizable town that grew up on the same spot, but there are a handful of other potential fords at the northern side of Marsden territory that have only a hilltop watchpost to keep an eye on them. The Bzura river crossings, thankfully, seem better defended, most likely owing to having been in Marsden hands for longer and the road running alongside that both eases transportation and supplies them a notable monetary incentive to be able to exert control over the territory involved.

Rúthui is happy to listen to all that, nodding along and making the occasional suggestion where she thinks she has some sort of insight. Her chief worry is making sure no surprise army can make it here without her being able to devise a plan against them, but she's getting information about that...

Supplies for her troops are laid out in the contract. Lamarre is handling the initial settling-in. She'll want to talk to the wizard later, probably to the priest later so Ziegler doesn't cause problems...

"Understood. I'll want to scout out the lay of the land myself, and we'll need to construct barracks and stables sufficient for the force - my lieutenant Lamarre is presently surveying that matter, who should we talk to about supplies when he's finished?"

"My steward, Gemina Kostos, is in charge of supplies; she works out of the north wing, and any of the guards should be able to guide you or relay a message to her. if it's specifically labor you need, though, then you'll want to talk to Mayor Balor; the keep's workforce is otherwise accounted for. I've made sure to let him know to accommodate you, but if he tries to drag his feet about it let me know."

Left unsaid, of course, is that the quality of useful labor one can rustle up from a farming community depends heavily on both charisma and connections; Karen is his liege lady and resides within view of the town, so if Karen can't compel his assistance things are already fucked and Rúthui should start planning her exit, but what she can get in terms of enthusiasm, speed, or non obvious skilled labor will be dependent on what kind of an impression she makes on the mayor, and realistically speaking most likely something in the way of bribery if she's ever in a hurry about it.