With Merlin and his extensive retinue now well installed in the former House Sawall lands, the choices of where to go next are far from obvious, which perhaps accounts for why the next move has not yet occurred.
As can be seen from the map on the right, House Sawall, like all the other house ways, lies at the edge of the central Thelbane lands. The route to Thelbane Palace passes through a swathe of neutral territory, with influence from House Geib and House Jesby.
While both these houses are Minor houses in the Thelbane aristocracy, neither is a particularly soft target, considering the losses that the battle for Sawall caused.
On the left hand, House Jesby is not overburdened with significant personnel, but the one worthy of note is that Duke Darik, the current head of house, had recently married Seraphina Hendrake, daughter of Duchess Lintra Hendrake the Younger and Duke Thomas Chanicut, and thus connected to two major houses with both resources and in the case of Chanicut, connections to the Mandor regime.
On the right hand, House Geib is headed by its founder, Princess Suzanna Geib, one of the daughters of Swayvanna, widow of the late Gramble Sawall and currently affianced to Count Jurt Sawall, keeper of the Logrus. Again, someone very well placed within the Mandor regime, and possibly strongly committed to vengeance for the taking of Sawall.
Should he decide to pull back from the current front, his choices again are not obvious. The entire west side of the Thelbane lands is complicated by Sarrabann – House Helgram stands at the border between Thelbane and Sarrabann, and a pinch point exists there.
On the East side he faces Hendrake in the North and then the solid block of Chanicut and its client houses further south.
On the Southern edge he faces the haunted houses – Barrimen unoccupied for over 4000 years, yet not reclaimed by anyone else. Karm unoccupied for about 2500 years and still not reclaimed – could Bleys unlock those routes for Merlin? I am inclined to think not, or he would have started out from there and saved himself the effort of taking down Sawall.
So – much like King Mandor himself, we must wait and see what Merlin does. It will not be an easy choice.
Fascinating stuff, Lord Wellesley.
Very…….
I’m wondering, will this be the start of a new “Where is Waldo?” type series? Or perhaps, “Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?”
The Cornelian version….
“Where in the World did ‘Merlin’s Armygo’?”
(OOC- I used to watch Carmen San Diego with my daughter when she was small. There is a theme song for Carmen done by Rockapella, a barber shop style group and mouth music. So I literally hear the Where did Merlin’s Army go? Thing. And its perfect for adapting for use in game as it was about tracking down an international criminal mastermind. (and teaching American children where other countries were located) The gauntlet is thrown, make your own best lyrics from a game standpoint…
Best Theme Song Performance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuzc4jgwlT8
Original “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego” Theme Song Lyrics
by Rockapella
Well she sneaks around the world from Kiev to Carolina,
She’s a sticky-fingered filcher from Berlin down to Belize,
She’ll take you for a ride on a slow boat to China,
Tell me where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?
Steal their Seoul in South Korea, make Antarctica cry Uncle,
From the Red Sea to Greenland they’ll be singing the blues,
Well they never Arkansas her steal the Mekong from the jungle,
Tell me where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?
She go from Nashville to Norway, Bonaire to Zimbabwe,
Chicago to Czechoslovakia and back!
Well she’ll ransack Pakistan and run a scam in Scandinavia,
Then she’ll stick ’em up Down Under and go pick-pocket Perth,
She put the Miss in misdemeanor when she stole the beans from Lima,
Tell me where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?
Oh tell me where in the world is… Oh tell me where can she be?
Ooh, Botswana to Thailand, Milan via Amsterdam,
Mali to Bali, Ohio, Oahu…!
Well she glides around the globe and she’ll flimflam every nation,
She’s a double-dealing diva with a taste for thievery,
Her itinerary’s loaded up with moving violations,
Tell me where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?
ooc: I remember it making it across to the UK at some point…..
Just the thought of Merlin as an ‘international criminal mastermind’ is amusing enough….. I’ll see what I can come up with.
The show has been turned into a game several times. There are a whole host of other criminals that you catch along the way, some henchmen, and a few bigger fish. A verse for Swayvanna might be appropos. And really most of the people that live long enough with these powers will turn out to be indictable for something. :)Or you just have to be writing the history from one side or another? So there’d be one from the Merlin camp and one from the Mandor camp?