Eternal

Maybe it isn’t the most tactically sound decision, but he’s still an Eternal and you feel like you should give him a fighting chance. It takes some convincing, but Brenda eventually agrees with you, but she still thinks this isn’t one of your better ideas. You both go back inside to tell Warrick the news.

“Okay, Warrick after talking it over, we’ll help you indirectly by breaking trade with the Eternal Dominion.”

Warrick’s face doesn’t show a great degree of happiness, but one more of relief..

“Thank you. Thank you both, my friends. This might not seem like much, but it still helps. I’ll never forget what you’ve done here.”
“Yeah, yeah, you better go before I change my mind.” Brenda says.

Warrick, not wishing to wear out his welcome he bids you both goodbye and takes his leave. Brenda remarks again that she sees no good coming of this, but what’s done is done and you’ve all made your choices now. The pair of you go back to bed and try to get some sleep.

Year 56

“Great that’s all we need a war with the Eternal Dominion while we have a fucking epidemic going on right now!” Brenda shouts throwing a paperweight against the wall in frustration.

When the trade routes were broken with the Eternal Dominion, Edgar did not take it well, and while it was always a risk, you didn’t think he’d actually wage a two front war over it. He immediately suspected you both were in league with each other and declared war on you both.

You would probably fare better against the ED, but a terrible plague has hit Nalin pretty hard around the same time. Nobody knows exactly where it came from or how it spread, but the common thought is that the Eternal Dominion has something to do with it. You on the other hand entertain another idea, one that you’d rather not believe and that’s Warrick had something to do with it.

Destabilize your country and weaken it to a point where the Eternal Dominion can destroy it completely while they also waste their own manpower at the same time. Possibly even spread the plague to their own lands too. It’s a good plan.

If that really is the case, you question your judgment and beginning to wonder if you’re even fit to command anything anymore. You know Brenda has been a little distant towards you lately, however to her credit she has not blamed you for the current situation. Though she wouldn’t since she’d only blame herself as well for agreeing to break trade with the ED to begin with.

In any case, right now is not really the time to second guess or lament possible past mistakes, a serious situation rears it’s ugly head right now and it must be take care of.

“Well, the plague hasn’t hit eastern Nalin yet and we’ve drafted every healer, medic and hedge wizard we can find to help cure this blight. We’ve managed to quarantine the towns and cities that have been hit the hardest. The problem with that though is we’ve had to redistribute soldiers to those places where we could desperately use them on the northern borders.” You explain.
“Yes, I’m aware of the situation, what’s your solution?” Brenda demands.
“Kill everyone in the quarantine and cleanse it with fire. No more people, no more plague and we can focus on the war.”

Brenda chuckles.

“Figures you’d suggest something like that.”
“Well I’m coming up with the most efficient plan, waiting around for the docs to come up with a cure isn’t really time we can afford.” You say.
“And massacring entire settlements isn’t going to endear us to anyone. You know what? To hell with it, I’m leaving this up to you, I’m sick of running this fucking country anyway…” Brenda says and walks out the room.

You aren’t exactly sure of what to make of that response, but you go through with your cleansing plan since you can’t afford to wait around for some cure that may never come.

Killing everyone has worked for you on several occasions in the past, no reason to change tactic now. First thing you do is get every remaining “old guard” officer that’s still serving since the days of the Empire and have them put in charge of this operation. You know they won’t even question this command coming from you. Then you tell them to go through their personnel rosters to see who is going to be up for this grim task. You personally suggest including all of those elves you made into orphans years ago. While they may all be good indoctrinated soldiers now, you think they wouldn’t hesitate at a chance to kill some humans and would be good candidates for this job. Besides, elves seem to be more resistant to the plague anyway.

Three entire towns are put to the sword, gun and torch until there is nothing left, but burned corpses and hollowed out buildings. In keeping with non-humans being seemingly less affected by the plague, you have kobolds remove the bodies and clean out what they can. They’re more than happy to do this as they get the chance to loot some stuff for their own impoverished reservation you’ve set aside for them.

This action causes a great outcry and you even have to execute several soldiers who took up arms against you during the cleansing. Many Nalin citizens aren’t happy with the fact that you’ve implemented several non-humans in helping with this massacre as well. Indeed some begin calling you their inhuman “Eternal overlords” and wonder if they aren’t already under the rule of the Eternal Dominion.

As far as the plague goes, you did successfully wipe it out from being an ongoing danger. Medics, healers and the like are able to focus their attentions on the places where it’s less of a problem and eventually it is gone completely.

As for everything else, western Nalin, is in horrible condition and soldiers from eastern Nalin have to be brought in to reinforce the northern borders which have now changed hands a bit as the ED army has pushed you back. Eastern Nalin is in good shape as it was spared the plague and isn’t in any immediate danger from the fighting, but there are rumors of the population aren’t happy.

With the plague gone though, you dig in ready to focus on the Eternal Dominion invasion.

You have 1 choice:

« Go Back