World Revolution

[Dracos]

"This place will be no man's land before we leave.  We'll camp for a bit when we are done."  Dracos gets the map and indicates a spot reasonably out of the direct path between the citadel and the dreadmarch army.

Dracos

[Brian]

"Very well," Eske says, nodding.  "When shall we leave?"

[Dracos]

"As soon as the men are ready to leave and the place is setup.  Would you like some food and a spot to rest before we go, Loremaster?"

Dracos

[Brian]

"Yes, certainly," he says, nodding gratefully.  "Those things would certainly not go amiss."

[Dracos]

Dracos nodded, and promptly made sure both of the wizards were afforded as much comfort as could be obtained out here until the men were ready to go.

Dracos

[Brian]

Eske and Mattias are glad for the chance to rest.  After a few hours, they return, and Eske announces that he's ready, assuming you are.

[Rezantis]

Rez and Dracos actually aren't ready, because once they were done with the command staff they withdrew to somewhere with some privacy and had a conversation of their own.

"You remember what I said about the whole cipher thing?"

[Dracos]

"Yes.  Your plan?"

Dracos

[Rezantis]

"Well. I think getting a secure line of communication with the keep is important, so.  We can just use a simple cipher. Bjorn will know how to do it, and I'll give him some hints as to how to construct the key. He'll know what I refer to, but people who aren't of our group . . . won't.  This will let us talk to the keep, and even more importantly, exchange notes between you and me and Bjorn. I think that could get very important later, because we don't want the Dreadmarch to know everything that we do."

Rez pauses.

"The downside of this, of course, is that this language uses pictograms, so I'm going to have to do it in English."

[Dracos]

"Hum.  Do it with Maithias before we leave here.  Leave a trail going to here by doing so.  We'll gate out right after you are done.  Bring him up to date on the situation here as it stands."

Dracos

[Rezantis]

"Right. This will take me an hour or so to work out . . . hopefully we've got some writing materials around."

Rez goes off to go hunting.

[Brian]

Your army has no writing materials whatsoever.  Fortunately, Eske and Mattias do, and you manage to get a few sheets of paper, and a bottle of ink (which is cold, and needs to be stowed under your shirt for a few minutes to thaw).

[Rezantis]

Rez does, in fact, question Mattias on this before he starts.

"I know another language, and if I write it down I can . . . well, scramble it. Bjorn, vassal of Hamar at the keep, will know how to read what I do - is there any way for me to get a perfectly replicated verbal message to Bjorn? Or can I read it to you, have you repeat it to Radagast, and have Radagast either write it down or repeat it for Bjorn to write down? It'll be fairly long and nonsensical, so I'm not what's practical . . ."

[Brian]

"It would be faster to send an image," Mattias says after a moment.  "Why wouldn't I just do that?"

[Rezantis]

"Because I didn't realize you can do that, which makes the entire exercise about ten times simpler." Rez grins, before heading off and getting to work.

Rez thusly sets to, and it takes him close to an hour to figure out keys and the cipher.  Too freaking cold to write properly.

Code Select Expand


XACCSSWZPRSUVTYLDXCWGGAGNBIMRNGNFENFZNJDYLHRIVXYQXHQXCQRXXZNHMBDGLDDGGTNEWOJXAPAXTUNTZCUFGHIIGNWLGNH

JZGITSUWWTOFFKUQXBQGMRYLXVQWTZLVYNDFPIZXZTPTNFQOIERHMOMIHURQTQAOBCPILCSDHZSRR

GTHISNBNHNYPDYUVMCVRCTXTUVHGTOOXKBIUBQVXYBHXGNRGXXWASDAEMWVXHBXXXPCUBAVXJJLDNVOLWFSNSAZLXHKPKPLTFC


That's the contents of the sheet of paper Nathan hands to Mattias.

"I need you to get Radagast to make as exact a copy of this as he can - he'll know who to give it to.  Also give him this message to pass on: The key is in three parts. The first part is a blade the likes of which has never been seen, the second is what you owe me and have been refusing to pay up, and the third is the watermelon girl who hung around the null-space a lot. Combine them and you have the key to the cipher - have fun!"

Rez gives another instruction a couple of minutes later.

"Also, just tell Radagast outright what they already know we know - we found an army of a thousand thousand orcs near the citadel, lead by an archon, a jotun, and a dwarf."