Neighbors is a battle in Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales.
Dialogue[]
"Your Majesty, th' townsfolk've gone right mad! Herded all th' elves and dwarves to t' market square! 'Tis a slaughter!" The queen knew well that if she failed to intervene, the town's streets would flow with nonhuman blood. Just as she knew her meager force might not subdue an enraged crowd.
- Intervene and defend the nonhumans: "What is your command, Your Grace?" Reynard's question pierced the silence. "What can it be, dear friend?" answered the queen, the spurred her mount and rode off towards the town. Her troops followed, running as fast as their legs would carry them.
- When they passed inside the town gate, they saw corpses lining the gutters. Meve realized she had arrived too late to prevent a tragedy. The crowd was drunk on blood. Its rage would need to be quelled with an iron fist.
- Move on without entering Wetterton: After some deliberation, the queen turned to her force.
- "Cities and towns I've fought in. Narrow alleys I've seen more difficult to overrun than many a castle. For a handful of arbalists in high windows can wreak great carnage - losses of a magnitude we cannot now abide."
- Meve's footmen dropped their gazes. They knew the decision their queen had reached. Quickly they prepared to march.
After the battle[]
Happily, Meve restored order without suffering any losses. Reynard then learned that a nobleman's ire had triggered the violence, ire at having discovered a theft...
"Suspicion fell on the nonhumans he employed. He accused them, they protested, and the row soon engulfed the town... But there's something else, Your Grace."
Reynard gestured toward an aged man who stood grieving, his face in his hands.
"I've witnesses who claim the Strays of Spalla are the thieves."
Though the tragedy seemed the result of a misunderstanding, justice would have to be served, those responsible for the slaughter would need to be punished. The question was, how severely.
- Have the instigators hanged: "Your excuses I cannot accept," said the queen. "The vipers who called for the slaughter - they will hang. The rest--"
- "Majesty!" a townswoman fell to Meve's feet.
- "Mercy, please! 'Twere words taken wrong, a misunderstandin'!"
- "A misunderstanding? To don another's cape, pay out insufficient change - these are misunderstandings. What happened here was criminal. And you'll be punished as criminals."
- Order your men to whip the guilty parties: "You are guilty - that can't be denied," said the queen, turning towards the bloody rioting's instigators. "A false rumor you took and turned into a cruel lynch. Thus punishment is your lot - a public lashing, fines, imprisonment. But you shall keep your lives, for enough blood has been spilt here this day."
Entry[]
Unfortunately, this was not Lyria's first pogrom... nor its last. Although the wars between humans and the Elder Races had ended decades past, elves and dwarves were still painfully aware how quickly rumour can turn to hatred. It does not take long before pitchforks and flails are taken to the streets - and the cobblestones are stained crimson with blood...
Have the instigators hanged: The condemned were hanged at once, without regard to the protests of kith and kin. Those nonhumans who had managed to hide and survive made a most generous donation in gold to bolster the queen's force.
I'd like to say Wetterton's small melting pot of races lived on in harmony. Yet, alas, I'm not in the habit of propagating untruths.
Move without entering Wettington: That evening, as Reynard drilled the troops, he found more than a dozen missing. They were the nonhumans supporting Meve's company - dwarven craftsman, elven scouts and guides - who had disappeared quietly. It was clear to all they would not serve a monarch who held the lives of friends and kin in such low regard.
Order your men to whip the guilty parties: Wetterton's inhabitants breath a sigh of relief, but the nonhuman survivors took offence at the lenient sentence. Soon after, the Lyrian army's elves and dwarves quietly disappeared, deserted. Few doubted the reason - they would not risk their necks for a queen who held their lives in such low regard.
Enemy's deck[]
- 6x Angry Mob
Gallery[]
