Device and Tristan sat in the the main hall, sharing drinks with the soldiers who stood in the defense of New Ahmerrad. The lords had drawn straws to determine who would help the men shovel the bodies of fallen Legionaires off the outer wall, and the Not So Innocent Virgin's straw had come up the shortest. Device felt somewhat guilty rigging the game, but not guilty enough to condemn himself to working with the body flippers under the hot sun. Talanarsis could manage a day of hard labor.
Tristan poured a cup of wine and said, "The battle was almost disappointing. I feared for the city, but the siege was won handily. A closer battle would have brought more glory."
Device snorted "Hah! Sucks to your glory. It's hard to reap the benefits of glory or, more importantly, drink wine and fuck girls when you're dead. I'll take my sure-footed victories over your narrow battles any day. Besides, I rounded up every single courtesan I could find East of New Ahmerrad. If you'd have lost the city we'd have lost the women. If that had happened, there would have been no point in you surviving the battle. Afterwards, I would have killed you myself."
For a time, they simply sat and drank. As the day was coming to an end, the soldiers began returning to the keep. An exhausted Not So Innocent Virgin returned with a shovel over her shoulder and men nipping at her heels. A messenger ran into the hall.
"My Lords! Urgent news from New Durquba. A massive Legionaire force of multiple thousands has been spotted on the approach. They intend to take the city!"
Device immediately looked at Tristan with a face of contempt. "Let me guess, you have some damn fool notion that we should ride to Durquba and stand with them on the ramparts."
Tristan said nothing.
"You want to drink up all the glory of some magnificent battle against a superior force, and you want to drag me down South with you in your crusade of stupidity."
Device's rambling was met with more silence.
Device gave a long sigh, then said "Well, I suppose we'll have to ride down and kill them then. Never let it be said Device of House Stark has the courage of a Squid."
And that was that. With barely an afternoon of rest after the siege of New Ahmerrad, the two packed up their gear and rode to the Southeast, where the weather was hotter and the Legionaires were ripe for the slaying.
So a couple of things for this spoiler.
First, I'd condemn Mind_Calamari for glitching himself out on a ladder to kill people off at the end of the most recent Durquba Siege, but I can't really say I expected better of him. He should definitely add himself to his "Top Scumbags of cRPG" list though.
Second, this shit with the third siege against Durquba is not okay. You want to take Durquba down through attrition, I get it, that's cool. What isn't cool is sieging 3 days in a row at progressively later times. 11:30 PM on a Sunday night is a terrible time for me. I wake up at 6:30, or 7 if I'm feeling ballsy, for Monday classes. When you factor in that plenty of other people either have to also deal with class or deal with work, and that some of these people are probably East Coasters dealing with a 2:30 AM siege, scheduling just gets ridiculous.
If you can't take Durquba by force, you should learn when you're beaten and just piss off. Don't try to dick people over through both attrition and bad time scheduling.
