By the m, a few informatios came ied to the troops that we had sent out as a distra. While they successfully drew away eroops, it also resulted iy bad losses due the sheer size of the enemy armies and the ck of a signifit amount of already prepared traps. A little over one huroops were killed on our side. After that, a few dark elves were sent out to deliver a letter to the eo schedule a meetup to discuss prisoner exge demands. We really want these iations to gh, otherwise we'll soon be res to hiding in our buo wait out our enemies.

  Two days ter the time for the meeting arrived. Myself and one of the dwarf anders were the representatives for our side, along with ae of thirty soldiers. The enemy's representative was, in fact, Darius, The Baron of pfur. He was apanied by his own group of thirty soldiers. The meeting location was in the ruins of the vilge that was destroyed during the dwarven invasion years ago. Although the area was in disrepair and rown, some of the buildings were still intact.

  The iating parties and a small number of soldiers from each side entered one of the most intact buildings in the rundown town to begin the iations. The Baron started the versation before we could, and surprisingly he spoke in the demon nguage. Something no one from our side was expeg.

  "Alright, lets get these iations over with, so we both leave with what we want," he said. Wheranstot ready to trahe Baron shook his head to stop. "I'd rather this versation not be overheard by aentially listening in from my own side, so I'd prefer if we kept this to the demon tongue." He pauses then speaks in Dwarvish, "I apologize if this is inve, but I hope you trust your patriot to keep you informed afterward, I'd rather this versation only be heard between me and him."

  The dwarven ander sighs and sits ba his chair, "Alright, but we obviously reserve the right to start talking about anything on the spot if we feel it's necessary."

  The Baron replies in Dwarvish again, "Of course, that's fair enough, though I'd ask your transtor also leave the room. You summon him back at any time you want." He pauses again and waits for the dwarven ao relieve the transtor temporarily, and then he resumes talking in the demon nguage now, "So, as I was saying before, lets keep these iations brief, and we both leave with what we want."

  I eye him up suspiciously, "Five me if I'm not necessarily willing to keep this particurly brief. There are many questions that have e up retly, and you speaking demon isn't particurly f reted to that information. Normally, in a situation like this, we'd ask for reparations for the damages doo the isnd, but I'm not foolish enough to think we win if your try truly wao wipe us out. Instead, we'll settle for a full withdrawal from our isnd, and a formal verbal procmation that ynize our snty."

  He lets out a long sigh, "Well, those are some demands. Lets discuss what I want, and then see if we meet somewhere in the middle."

  "I imagine you want us to release your King and the four anders tured. They're all alive, in case you were w."

  "Yes, well, that is probably what you'd think. Really though, capturing our King at this stage has put me in quite the predit. Yes, I suppose I would want you to release our King and ao our custody. However, I want it done in a particur way. See, I'd much rather the King perish. You think on that information on your own time. It's unfortunate he didn't perish iher of your initial attacks, either the sinking of our dreadnaught, or in your iing surprise at the beach fort. Had he died then, I could have signaled a general retreat, and we'd be doh it."

  "Hold up, why do you want the King dead? I mean, I imagine reasons, but it makes it hard to trust someone who says they pn on itting regicide to hold their promise of retreat. If you tell me why though, then I hold on to that secret as a guarantee of security."

  "Clever, I'll give you a deeper secret than that as a guarahat should satisfy you. Well, it's been a long pn, oing back to Besmond I, the current King's grandfather. Nearly twenty years ago, Rathnd was a small nation ruled by an old King. Eventually a demon invasion came, and thanks to our skilled soldiers, Rathnd was left retively unharmed while our neighbors suffered heavily. Besmond II and myself were close friends and I vinced him that, for the security of all the neighb tries, they should exist under our leadership, rather than their own leaders, who had lead them to such devastation. Besmond I disagreed, and believed we should simply send aid to our neighbors.

  "So Besmond II itted regicide and, not long after, many neighb nations fell. I found myself in the position of cellor. Besmond II was frequently otlefield, but entrusted his heir and only son, Besmond III to me for his courtly training. Besmond II eventually grew tent after having captured the most mismanaged of our neighbors, aurned after ten some years at war. By then, Besmond III had bee a man. I raised him on more ambitious ideals than his father. Further quest was the goal.

  "Soon, the father was once again killed by the son, and Besmond III lead the armies of Rathnd further, expanding our territory to new heights. Still retaining my position as cellor, I pyed both sides. The anti-war nobles found me verbally supp them but their pns would never quite materialize thanks to the strong military tral powers of Rathnd's , all the while I enced Besmond III to go further. Ultimately, Besmond III has no heirs, having spent most of his time otlefield, and having only sired three daughters. I have, i years, gotten somewhat desperate as Besmond III has somehow mao survive wild war after wild war. Should he die, I have more than enough support to cim trol of Rathnd for myself, along with a few thousand fully loyal troops of my own here with me on this isnd.

  "We have an iing opportunity preseo us, you and I. You see, on the way here, well over a dozen ships were pletely wiped out by Leviathans. So I propose that we send most of our side's troops home, along with all four of the anders you have captured, save for the king. Myself and ohousand men will remain for ara two weeks, at such point you will release the king to us. Siwo weeks is the transit time back to the mainnd, surely you're probably aware istics have been quite severely hampered by your efforts, so simply keeping our troops at sea for two weeks to ambush you again would mean they'd likely have to starve themselves to pull it off.

  "Then, I'll ahe few remaining ships such that the king's loyalists will all be on his ship with him. At sea we'll sink the King's ship, then cim a Leviathan sunk his ship, and that your side was honorable iurning him. We'll remain for a few days in the area to make sure him and his crew are dead, g we were searg for the king wheurn.

  "Before you get ahead of yourself and think about immediately bckmailih the secret I've given you, know that no soldier here will care. The troops I've brought with me are loyalists. The reason for speaking in demon isn't for my troops, but to keep the dwarves and any potential dark elves from the direformation. After the King's unfortunate death, though, then your story would probably hold some water. Before it, however, only Besmond III himself would potentially believe you, but he's currently a captive and not in charge of the military.

  "If you release the four aomorrow, then I'll have the vast majority of our troops retreat, and the rest of us will relocate back to the inal nding beabsp; At that point, the majority of the troops remaining will be my own loyalists, and Besmond III knowing anything wouldn't matter much, other than us having to kill him on your territory, and leaving you to up that mess after we tell our popution that you killed him rather thaurning him to us. If you don't release the four anders by tomorrow though, then we'll begin burning all the forests and attempting to flush you out properly.

  "I'll send loyalist troops up the mountain to the scouting fort that the dark elves were using to pick the anders up. If they're spouting any nonsense about how I'm a traitor, or the King is there, or any other oddities happen, then we'll simply kill them directly and cim you did it. A demon's wainst my own, I wonder who's would win..."

  As the Baron speaks, his physical performance doesn't actually match what he's saying, and I realize after a short while it's so that no one else in the room would realize anything other than an animated iation was currently happening.

  "I see, so we've all just been dang on the palm of your hand. I take it you've always known that we weren't the pirates too?"

  "Holy, it took a lot of effort to keep Besmond III himself from realizing it, though I did raise him to be quite prideful, so it wasn't that hard to vince him that you were all just mad demons and your illogical a was just like a starving animal biting someoempting to feed it.

  "The steam ons were quite ingenious, though. I hope you appreciated our own version. I had our head alchemical researcher study the design, and they came up with their own design utilizing the blood ores, a creature that breathes fire that our try takes it's name from, to allow for rapid firing through mana i. Of course, now that design sits at the bottom of your own bay..."

  "Well, I suppose we don't have that much of a choice, sidering how forceful you are in your demands, but I do have two additional demands. The allegations that we were the pirates has done quite a bit of damage to our reputation, as I imagine you are aware. I'd also like for you to make a publiouhat after your invasion, you found no evidehat we were behind the pirabsp; To quote yourself as to why, 'A demon's wainst my own, I wonder who's would win...'. Sed, although reparations to us would likely be unpatable, especially after the King perishes in transit, both the dwarves and us will need some degree of repense for our losses. Especially after you publicly state that we weren't the pirates. I believe that is the current justification for the war, after all."

  The Baros out a chuckle, "Fine, I'll do that as well as part of our formal reition of your snty. Though don't expect it to be a rge sum, and it'll probably take years before we actually pay you, as I'll o solidify my power in Rathnd first. Any pints?"

  I think on it for a while and reach out to shake hands, "No, if everything goes as you pn, then I suppose we agree on those terms."

  The Baron shakes my hand, "Pleasure doing business with you." He turns to the dwarf ander with me and says something in Dwarvish befiving a brief bow and leaving.

  After the humans leave, I talk with the dwarf ahrough our transtor. I leave out the actual details of the iation, but tell him the agreed upon terms, and what our demands are. When I make it back up to our fort, I'll want to inform both Zeb and Zaka about the full details though, in case I'm killed in some kind of betrayal, then we'll at least still have the bckmail bargaining chip.