By the Lust of Men - M&B Warband AAR (Chapter 11 Posted)

Unfortunate those who have seen it all; poverty, illness, sadness, death - war. Calradia was a well oiled war machine where friends and enemies were ambiguous concepts, today you could fight at the side of your friends but tomorrow, you would never know. These were the wars of Calradia, but Alissa had her own.

Marnid spent long hours learning from the other traders in the marketplaces of several towns. He took notes in a piece of paper, filled with drawings, lines, names, places - it was his treasure and his secret. "Marnid, we have spent days without earning a single denar and that haven't stopped you from eating like a king. I can't afford spending more time like this, we will move out soon" - Alissa said with great concern - "Oh boss! You see this?" - Marnid said while showing his notes in a piece of paper - "Yes. A bunch of lines and half-written words... most impressive" - she said - "It may seem just like that, but this is our treasure. We will earn our monthly livelihood in only one trip, and if we keep doing it we will have enough money to buy all the food we want!" - Marnid said enthusiastically - "Or we could spend it in better equipment. And when do you think we will be ready to start with your 'master plan'?" - Alissa asked sarcastically, to what Marnid replied - "Just a minute" - and after writting the last word he stood up, broke the paper into a dozen pieces and added - "Now it is all here" - while pointing his head with a finger - "I hope you are better in memorizing than in combat" - Alissa said mockingly after Marnid's performance in the last tournament. 

Alissa spent all of her money in a careful selection of goods as indicated by Marnid and our heroes travelled north, crossing the Swadian fields. It was a beautiful evening of may - the stars shined in the sky and our heroes were greeted by the sea breeze as they arrived to Thir. Here they sold some goods with great profit, as predicted by Marnid.



They travelled troughout the Nordic lands, following a well planned route written in Marnid's memories. Even when they were a great source of income, our heroes learned fast that Nords were savage people. Alissa had to deal with the annoying and lusty drunk men multiple times, who were impressed by the beauty of a women without a mustache, which was typical of the locals - but they were just Nords being Nords after all.



Finally, after selling all of their goods and making a great profit, Alissa decided to go back to Swadian territory. Forest Bandits tried to rob our heroes' fortune more than once, but our young lady led them to victory each time. This time around things were starting to work - Alissa made the fighting and Marnid made the numbers. 



"What are you doing?" - Alissa asked while Marnid bound the wounded enemies together, after fighting a group of Forest Bandits on the way back to Swadia - "Money, my lady. I am making money" - "I'm very sorry my dear friend, but I do not support slavery and neither should you" - she said, but Marnid replied immediately - "Well I guess it would be best if we just let them go away to keep killing travellers for a couple denars like they did to me" - and he added - "My lady, sometimes there is no white or black, but only something in between" - and after thinking for a moment Alissa said - "You have proved yourself trustworthy, I will trust your judgement".

Even when they were a bunch of brigands and her enemies, Alissa gave enough food to her prisioners and treated them with dignity. But she had to keep an eye on Marnid, who was still filled with hatred against banditry for what they once did to him.

After days of travel, they stopped at the first town belonging to the Kingdom of Swadia to rest. Alissa entered the tavern to arrange the stay of the whole group with the tavern keeper when Marnid interrupted - "Ha! I told you we would make good denars with those bastards!" - he added - "Come, I've found a man willing to pay for the human scum we took for prisioners".

"I broker ransoms for the poor wretches  who are captured in these endless wars. And you look like the type who might have a prisioner to sell" - the stranger said - "Maybe. How much are these men worth to you?" -Alissa asked - "Well, they look like they have been fed lately, which will save me some money during the coming days. I would say around 75 denars per head" - Alissa turned to Marnid and said - "I can't believe we are doing this. Please close the deal, I am not comfortable doing this" - "Of course, my lady" - Marnid said while she took a step back. 

Marnid received the money and handed the prisioners to the ransom broker while the brigands begged - "Please, my lady! We will be slaved for the rest of our lives and we will never go back to our families. I beg you!" - but Alissa turned her back on them and returned to the tavern.

Ooh, this is dark. I like it, nice writing.

I should like to ease Alissa's feelings a bit.  Ransom brokers do make an effort to return the prisoners to their families (theoretically).  Only if their families can't pay do they sell them as slaves.  Only Ramun, the slave trader in Tihr, sells them as galley slaves.
But still, nice chapter.

I hope their families pay and they return to the field... so I can loot them and sell them again 

You've got a nice story there, Alissa seems truly "human", and even tought she's a warrior, we still find in her a true women. As for the lustfull men... I can't help but understand their lustfull tought when seeing such a beauty 

Thanks for the positive comments  I'm glad you are enjoying the story.

I'm having some techincal problems (CTD's and stability issues). It is weird, since I had no problems in the past. However, in the last few days I have been getting CTD's constantly 

This will delay a little the following chapters.

karviteri said:

I'm having some techincal problems (CTD's and stability issues). It is weird, since I had no problems in the past. However, in the last few days I have been getting CTD's constantly 

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...did you recently add the horse "Black Charger" to Alissa or one of her companions? It's bugged at present (see the Floris FAQ - Crashes). I'd wager you did, so be rid of it and play on I say!

Caba`drin said:

...did you recently add the horse "Black Charger" to Alissa or one of her companions? It's bugged at present (see the Floris FAQ - Crashes). I'd wager you did, so be rid of it and play on I say!

Click to expand...

Hehe... I did. I have removed it an bought a new horse, I will test and hope this solves the problem. If this doesn't fix it, I migth follow the recommendations in the Floris Mod Pack FAQ, like lowering battle size or graphics (right now I am with full graphics).

Thanks Caba! 

Caba`drin said:

...did you recently add the horse "Black Charger" to Alissa or one of her companions? It's bugged at present (see the Floris FAQ - Crashes). I'd wager you did, so be rid of it and play on I say!

Click to expand...

*scowls* So, that's the problem I've been having: my awesome horse is pure evil.

Edit: for those of you wishing to see the awesome evil horse, it's in my avatar.

Hope you can start again soon...

Chappiest said:

Hope you can start again soon...

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Where have I heard these words before?  Was it Sellus something, can't quite remember.  Maybe Anthony?

It seems the issue is fixed now

Removing the evil black horse did help a lot (thanks again Caba). However, after some deeper testing I found out that my system still crashed from time to time while participating in heavy big battles (specially when reinforcements arrived), and that is why I didn't notice the issue before (since I was not getting involved in any big battle in the beginning of the game). Therefore my believe was that it could be a memory/performance issue - running out of memory or something like that.

To identify if it was that or not I lowered resolution down to 640X480, but launched it in windowed mode still with full graphics (so that it was not all pixeled by running it in full screen). This made my computer run the game at light speed but I found it a little difficult to concentrate in such a small window while playing. I had the idea to maximize the window and expandig it to almost full screen (except for the upper menu bar, since I hid the lower windows menu bar ) - somehow it is not pixeled and it looks like if I were running it in full screen with my screen's native resolution (1366x76 but with no FPS hit (and thus not crashing anymore). I played like this for around 2:15 hours without a single crash.

I don't understand why running it at low resolution in windowed mode but with the window expanded to almost "full screen" has not FPS hit and resolution looks as high as running it in high resolution/full screen. But whatever, it worked (any technichal info regarding this would be an interesting input)!

I have compared the screenshots I took in full screen with the "windowed mode" ones and you can't tell the difference, so you guys won't notice it when I upload them in the coming chapters

I'll keep the chapters coming.

Wow, very nice AAR! Keep it up, it's something non-male-dominated for once XD

Despite being afternoon, Calradia was as dark as any night. Black clouds made of smoke covered the skies where the crows patiently waited for a fresh meal cooked by war. Sultan Hakim tricked Swadians and Vaegirs into fighting his own war by the use of strategic Alliances, and the Nords and Khergit were having the worst of it.

It was May 20th, only 2 months after Alissa's first arrival to Praven, but Calradia was already in a completely different stage.



Their lords' banners were raised with pride just to be replaced by a different one once the town fell into their enemies' hands every few days. All this fighting and all this blood impoverished the Swadian Towns, whose King held two fronts simultaneously.

"People in these towns can't afford the price of our goods and if we sell at the market price we will lose much money" - Marnid commented - "I know Marnid, I know. We will run out of food in a few days and we do not have enough money to buy any at the moment. I'll have to take the loss of selling our goods in Praven, so we can buy some food anywhere around here" - Alissa said with concern and, after thinking for a minute or two, Marnid replied - "Well, we could make good profit if we risk travelling across the mountains. Yes, Rhodoks. They are not at war and currently have a strong economy. If we can make it to Veluca we will be able to earn a decent profit. However it is a path full of war and  bandits, and our worst enemy will be time. We will have to hurry if we want to get there before we run out of food, my lady" - he said while pointing the montains in the landscape with his finger. Alissa followed Marnid's advice and ordered her men to get their gear ready.

Travelling from Praven to Veluca takes 2 or 3 days normally and that was the amount of food our heroes had in their reserves for the trip. However, after 3 days of travel our heroes were still one day away from Veluca. All nearby villages were abandoned because of looting, food started to run low and Marnid had to reduce the rations. But luckily Alissa's men understood the situation and supported such action.

As they crossed through the burned village of Nomar, Alissa saw a group of bandits who followed them for the last days and that started to get closer and closer. After a couple hours the group of bandits reached our heroes. Alissa tried to break contact with the enemy - her main objective was getting to Veluca and not defeating the bandits - but she was outnumbered and her men were fatigued, and quickly they started to fall.

"Take the wounded and the bodies of our fallen men, and fall back!" - Alissa ordered as she stayed in the front with Marnid to cover the retreat. At least 10 enemies fell by the deadly shots of Alissa's crossbow, until she felt a warm feeling in her crotch - it was her blood coming out of a severe injury in the zone. "Marnid! I'm hit!" - Alissa warned her friend in the heat of battle - "My God! I am no doctor, but it seems the arrow went through your leg artery" - Marnid said terrified by the bloody scene as a volley of arrows landed around them. With his limited first aid skills, Marnid applied a field bandage to stop the bleeding. "I can't walk anymore and they are almost here. Go!" - Alissa ordered, but Marnid disobeyed - "I am truly sorry, my lady, but paying your ransom is not good for business" - he said while taking her in his arms and running where the rest of the caravan was retreating. Marnid was just steps behind them when a deadly arrow struck his neck. He fell immediatly and dropped Alissa to the ground, but luckily, Alissa's men were able to take both of them and put them in the caravan to fall back to a safe zone.

At that point everything started to turn blurry for our young lady because of the blood loss and the last thing she remembers before losing consciousness is her fellow men applying pressure in Marnids neck to stop the bleeding.



Unfotunately 6 of her men died and 4 more including Alissa were wounded that day. But if these 6 men would not have died, they would had never made it to Veluca due to the lack of food.

With haste Alissa's men searched for a doctor in town. "What is the problem young man?" - a man in his middle fifties asked to a young recruit looking for help at the tavern - "We were raided by bandits on the road and 4 of our companions were severly wounded!" - he said in despair - "Bring them here. I might be able to help" - the stranger replied with a calmed voice.

"This will be easy" - the stranger said while looking at 2 of the wounded - "But this won't be" - he added when he saw Marnid and Alissa, who were still uncounscious. Marnid received treatment first, since he was still alive by miracle and the most urgent.

Marnid was sent to a room in the tavern to rest and recover once he received treatment and Alissa was received by the stranger in his room to heal her injury. Due to the location of the wound, he had to remove her underwear to operate. Any man and any doctor would have fallen by the lust of men to Alissa's naked body, but not him. He was the most professional doctor in Calradia and our lady was blessed by crossing his way.

When she regained consciousness she asked to greet the doctor who, along with Marnid and her men, saved her life. "There are no words to thank you for your help, but please accept my gratitude" - Alissa said while offering a bag containing thousands of denars, earned by the sold goods they protected with their life all the way to Veluca - "I can not accept it, my lady. It is my duty as a doctor to help the wounded" - "Then please let me be of help in anything you need. It will be an honor, Mr..." - Alissa said when the man interrupted "Jeremus. Call me Jeremus. Well pherhaps you can help me" - "And how is that?" - Alissa asked - "I shall tell you. I was hired by a merchant of this city to cure his son. I succesffully treppaned the patient's skull to reduce the cranial swelling, but the family ignored my advise to treat him with a tincture of willow bark, and the boy died. The father charged me with sorcery and the lord of this castle is reluctant to place me under arrest, but I am anxious to move on elsewhere"  - the man replied - "Well, you could travel with us, but you'd have to be able to fight in our battle line" - "I can get my hands dirty" - the doctor said as he accepted our lady's offer - "Welcome on board!" - she said - "But don't expect us to move soon, we still have to recover from our wounds"  - "I know, and I will do anything I can to ensure you guys have a pleasant recovery".



Alissa spent the following days in Veluca until they all recovered from their injuries. Little by little Alissa learned to love the Rhodok ways, their land and their people, who received her when she most needed it. In exchange she showed her gratitude to such nice people by helping them with bandits, trade and all kind of tasks during her stay.

She was back on business thanks to the help of his loyal friend Marnid, who risked his life with the rest of the group to take her to safety, and to Jeremus the kind doctor who now was her brother in arms.



Finally they went their way back to Swadia, but they would one day come back.

Very nice. You're really starting to get the hang of this.

This AAR is quite impressive I must say, I'm really excited to see whats to come.

damnimbored25 said:

This AAR is quite impressive I must say, I'm really excited to see whats to come.

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Nice signeture  Bob`s marley is god

I like this karviteri it`s very Good well done 

- Regards bohlen

Karviteri ¿where are you? we need your AAR