Part 33: 1332: Arrival of the Horse Spawn

Our snake-skinning agenda made us a profit--but at the cost of human life.

You bastards! The sudden appearance of thousands of snakes, and you don't see the hand of Jenestni, calling the trickster god's curse down upon us? If you had trusted me, young Alagar wouldn't have had to die! What good is being on the ring if I can't save one small child's life?!

I can't help but notice that you're wearing a full snakeskin suit.

Looks bitchin', doesn't it?



The fire season means raids. In order to protect our tula, I have ordered the construction of a temple to Vinga, goddess of women with the souls of men. Her Fyrdwomen blessing will allow our women to fight alongside our men in defense of the tula.



Resident woman with the soul of a man Rana says the hunting ritual was successful, and that our forest is full of game. Maybe this is a good time to turn some of our farmers into hunters.



Especially since our recruitment plan was successful. 28 children--what a lot of useless mouths to feed. I wonder if we can replace them with 280 goods.



First raid of the season, and it's outsiders, arriving on their mighty steeds. Hey, who was it who just built an anti-horse stake perimeter? Oh yeah, it was me.

Still, even with the defensive line things aren't looking good. Fortifications do two things--they reduce the losses incurred when the enemy defeats us in battle, and they save lives when we use the "survival" tactic. Of course, if we use the survival tactic, we're much more likely to lose the battle and have them steal cows and burn houses and such--but hey, we have this great stake perimeter that will keep our loss-related losses to a minimum! Or we can use Maneuver to turn our knowledge of our home turf against the invaders, or we can just charge in and get slaughtered like idiots, a very popular choice.

A single weaponthane has the strength of five men, so we have effectively 163 warriors against their 153--it would be a fair fight, were it not for the power of their horses. Also, they probably have strong magic. Things are a bit grim, and at this point it's not victory, but damage mitigation we're seeking.