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`Apr. 25, 2025` · [[Horseapple]] · #Fragment #Characters #Warband
> [!custom-callout]- All mentions, includes keyword *“npc10”*
> *Pulled from* [[2-strings-(Warband)]]
> - “I have heard what you told Bunduk, about giving every common criminal the right of appeal to the {king/ruler}. I do not approve. Bandits should be hanged when caught. Give them a trial or an appeal, and they will talk their way out of the noose. Bunduk is a good man, but no man can fully understand what these wolves in human form do to women”
> - “Greetings there, {Brother/Sister}! Here's to the doom and downfall of all high-born lords and ladies!”
> - “It's a long story, but if you get yourself a drink, I'll be glad to tell it.”
> - “A sergeant I was, in the garrison {s19} at {s20}. Twenty years I stood guard for the city, taking many a hard knock in many a tough fight, until they appointed a snot-nosed, downy-lipped princeling, barely out of his mother's cradle, as commander of the garrison. He came upon me standing watch atop the tower, with my crossbow unstrung -- on account of the rain, you see... Can't have the cord loosen... But Little Prince Snot-Nose tells me that an unstrung bow is dereliction of duty. Says he'll have me horsewhipped. And something in me snapped. So I walked off my post.”
> - “Now I'm here getting drunk, and the Devil take tomorrow.”
> - “I don't know if I told you or not, but I deserted my unit after I struck a young noble who had ordered me to be horsewhipped without cause. Since then I've been laying low. Thankfully I had the wit to pilfer my captain's purse before heading out, but the money is running low.”
> - “Are you, now? Well, that's a sight better than swinging from a gibbet for desertion.”
> - “You won't regret taking me on, {Brother/Sister}. I'm a dead eye with a crossbow -- a beautiful weapon, it can right punch through a nobleman's armour and spill his blue blood upon the ground. And I've trained more raw recruits than you've had hot dinners, begging your pardon. I don't toadie to the high-born.”
> - “That's good news. But I'll ask for one last thing, captain. I have a woman here in {s20}, a tavern wench, and she says she has my child in her belly. I want to give her some money before I leave... for the child, you know. Do you think you can spare {reg3} denars?”
> - “Begging your pardon, captain. I can't say that I'm happy to see us {s21}. Those are just simple people, trying to make a living. If we could try to go easy on the poor wretches, captain, I'd feel much better.”
> - “{Brother/Sister} -- I can't say I like to see us {s21}. You should treat your men well, and they'll repay with interest.”
> - “Excuse me, captain. I hate to trouble you with such things, but I just wanted to let you know that I can't abide that fellow Rolf, the one who calls himself a baron.”
> - “He's just a simple brigand, as far as I can tell. House of Rolf, my arse. Genuine blue-bloods are bad enough, but those who pretend to be blue-bloods are bloody intolerable. Anyway, I might have said something a bit sharp to him a minute ago. He seemed to take offense, anyway. I just thought you should know.”
> - “{Brother/Sister} -- a question for you. Are you in charge of this company, or is it {s11}?”
> - “In that last battle he was shouting at me: 'Go forward, go back, hold the line.' When I told him to mind his own trimming he said he'd have me flogged. Captain, that man is looking for a crossbow bolt in his chest, begging your pardon.”
> - “Ahoy, Brother! I wish you joy of your victory! Say, old Mother {s11}'s not bad in a scrap, is she, for a woman of her years? Although I'm getting to be a bit of an old dog myself, now.”
> - “Heh. It just goes to show that youth ain't everything, that experience also wins battles. I reckon she and I could teach the young puppies of the world a thing or two, couldn't we?”
> - “I've had enough of tromping up and down the length and breadth of Calradia. I've got enough to buy a small bit of land somewhere, so I think I'll give that a try. So long, and best of luck to you.”
> - “Captain! It's good to see you. You see, it turns out I'm not much of a farmer. Too soft on the hired hands, I figure. I let them rob me blind. I guess fighting is what I know best. So tell me, captain, are you still looking for good men?”
> - “D'you smell that fresh air, Brother? This was my home, before I went abroad in search of coin. It's good to be up in the hills again. It's the smell of freedom. This is the cradle of Rhodok liberty, here under Grunwalder Castle”
> - “In my father's day the Swadians would come calling, thinking to make us knuckle our foreheads and call them their overlords. But Grunwalder, an old veteran of the wars from the hills, showed us how to form a battleline with spear and crossbow that could break a Swadian charge. He fell in battle, but the people gave his name to the castle that was built here, where he fell, so that we would remember, and always stand firm against the horsemens' onslaught.”
> - “We grow mulberry trees here for silk and kermes too for the dye. We take it to Jelkala where they weave it into the finest velvet -- not that I have ever had enough denars in my pocket to buy velvet, mind. But the craftsmen of Jelkala also make good crossbows, and for that I'll not begrudge them their little luxuries.”
> - “Born and raised in Jelkala, {Brother/Sister}, and I hope some day to buy land there. But I had a mind to see a bit of the world first, so I took my crossbow and went off to the wars.”
> - “Well, {Brother/Sister}, I suppose there must be {kings/kings and queens}, and if there must be {kings/kings and queens}, then you would be as good a {king/queen} as any...”
> - “Certainly, {Brother/Sister}. But I'd ask that you consider a thought of mine. If you became {king/queen}, then I'd ask you open your court to the common folks, and not just to the lords and blue-bloods. I'd ask you to let it be known that should any man be judged and sentenced, that he have the right to appeal to you directly. Right now, the lords have the right -- I say every man in Calradia should have it, too.”
> - “Well then, {Brother/Sister}, give me leave for a few weeks and I can go about this land, letting the common folk know that you will rule justly and equitably, and that lord and common alike should be one before your law. Men will speak of you as {king/queen}, and that's a good start to becoming one...”
> - “I hear that you've got Nizar spinning poems to justify your ascent to the throne. I can't say I approve, {Brother/Sister}. If men fight for a {king/sovereign}, it should be because they know they're going to get something good out of it, not because they've taken a liking to a silly song.”
> - “Captain -- I was thinking that some of my old mates in the garrison at {s17} would be glad to see me. They are good lads, and would never betray the city, but like me they have no particular affection for the bluebloods that command them, and may be willing to slip a little political gossip our way. The gentry are always falling out over one little thing or the other, but the lads might be able to know if there's real dissent brewing.”
> - “You'd make me a lord? Well, no thank you -- but if you would call me 'tribune' -- the tribunes being the people's servants in the old times -- then I suppose I could bring myself to run {s17} for you. I'd put food in the bellies of the hungry, and raise a fine force of Rhodok foot to fight on your behalf, {Brother/Sister}. But I can't promise that the real blue-bloods will enjoy rubbing shoulders with me in your councils.”
> - “Well, it looks like the tides of fate have led me to make war on my old captain. Maybe things started to go wrong when you became my liege -- I suppose I was never much suited to vassalage. Anyway, here we are now. Maybe, when the world is changed and there are no more masters and servants, or lords and vassals, then we can meet together as friends.”
>   <br> ![[encyclopedia_calradica.gif|center|300]]<br>
>*“A massive `Mount & Blade` wikipedia.”*<br>About [Encyclopædia Calradica](About-the-Encyclopædia.md)<br>About the [Project](Project-(Pillar).md)<br>About the [Author](Horseapple.md) <br>