The Spring of 502
After the poor harvest of 501 and the multiple tithes, people across the land hoped and prayed for a better year in 502. However, the Spring of 502 began disastrously, as the planting season across the continent was ruined by the sudden appearance of a new crop blight, worse than any disease - vast swarms of insects began to appear, descending on newly seeded fields and stripping them bare. Some parts of Ardans and Dalmira had already begun to starve - if crop failure continued through 502, there was little doubt of what fate awaited the national population. Between the appearance of a dragon in Sevala, looming mass starvation, and the plague of insects, people began to speak of the end times - perhaps the blood of humanity had finally become well and truly corrupted past the point of redemption, and Namid was bringing forth apocalypse...
Hendal
In Hendal, the new regime under the new queen was quick to silence any opposition, with any and all outspoken critics of Queen Marie being rounded up and sent to the stockades (or worse). For the moment, no one dared speak against the crown - which is just how it had been in the time of Marie's father.
Prince Henry set sail for Meddeland with a grand fleet but only just reached the eastern harbors by the end of the season - so far, not a single pirate had been sighted. As he was sailing, no news of requests for information about the dragon statue reached his ears.
Baldwin Montague would continue to encirclement tactics against the Tavan Morin - this worked as well as could be expected, but he would not make any eastward progress this month, as the appearance of a large Tavan Morin warband would keep him close to Sanapiro for the month... (see below)
Hendal loses about 3,000 soldiers in the Spring to the Tavan Morin; the brunt of those losses are born by the Iron Hands, who fight heavily on the front line.
Dalmira
In Dalmira, the efforts of the King and the King's chancellor had long run in opposite directions - the King had practiced nepotism and cronyism, hauling in distant relatives and courtiers to positions they did not deserve or belong, while his long-suffering servant, Vasa, had tried to force them back out again. The Spring of 502 would see a victory for Vasa as he managed to convince the King to allow him to dislodge the most troublesome individuals. For the moment, at least, Dalmiran corruption seemed to be falling.
Armand Vasa also declares the ruins fully excavated after efforts in the Spring of 502, with the entire network of unearthed buildings now fully explored. They have yet to decipher the recovered scrolls, however...
Similarly, Vasa might be many things but he is not a miracle worker. His attempts to find farming "experts" were lackluster to begin with, since there were only ever farmers and more farmers, not experts and amateurs, but by the end of the season it becomes obvious that even the greatest experts in the land could not have stopped the plague of insects. Fortunately, the effort is not terribly costly - but the food situation is starting to look very, very bad for Halbstadht and Dalmira beyond.
King Magnus once again raised his peasant levies for the year - it does not escape his notice that only 48,000 - fewer than last year - answer his call. They are joined by a thousand-some-odd nobles, who have answered the King's call to war with noticeably lukewarm attitudes. The King tries to raise morale on their eastward march and is generally successful, but he does not march at speed. The raising itself takes more than a month. By the end of the season he has barely passed into the territory of Victorsburg.
Duke Wesley Krasnickas continued to focus Erdheim-Rortzen's efforts on the construction of stone roads. He made considerable progress in the Spring, with the project now appearing very close to done. Another season of effort should (assuming no great setbacks) complete the great road system and give Erdheim-Rortzen the best infrastructure in Makria.
Duke Dal'Athgar an Odal'in Uthbar of Gottor-Tydreach would be infuriated by the end of the spring, as all his scholars and wise men had failed to find a way to control the Void Demon. He made many trips down the bestiary, where he stared at the creature in its magical confines. It continued to stare back at him with dead, empty eyes. The Duke tried to repurpose his scholars in the wake of this failure, offering a lavish reward of 5 ducats for any new "better way of doing things" in Gottor-Tydreach that they might discover. It perhaps did not occur to him that many of the men he had drawn to Gottor-Tydreach were mystics and students of magic; they initially focused their efforts on the plague of insects that afflicted the duchy and began to distribute amulets, charms, and other items to the populace (and advise them in similar practices), supposedly to ward off the pestilence. Uthbar was not quite credulous enough to pay most of them for this, as the insects did not go away. Fortunately for him, the church did not protest at this upswell of mysticism depite the inquisition in the Duchy.
Maximillian Wiegraf's efforts to conduct a census begin with a faltering start, but it is ultimately conducted by his team of bureaucrats by the end of the season, and in good order. Though it is little more than a register of all the people in his duchy - and has not been disseminated for any additional purpose - it is completed nonetheless and compiled quickly due to its lack of complexity. It also finds something chilling - the population of the duchy has dropped in the last two years. The Duke's efforts to draft more regulars into the army go extremely well, with him hitting his target of 10,000 soldiers in Spring. They may be green and many of them are conscripts, but there are 10,000 of them.
Meddeland
The Spring of 502 brought Meddeland little rain, a plague of locusts, and worse - a Great Fire. A tremendous fire broke out in the Meddish city of Neverreach, sweeping through the streets at tremendous speed and killing many, burning buildings and property to a crisp. Publicly the wizard-arsonist Kishburne was blamed, but he was known to have exited Meddeland for Ardans recently; in all likelihood, the fire was simply an unfortunate accident, aggravated by circumstance and high winds. North Meddeland was starting to seem very barren indeed.
In Meddeland, Alfons Windfell busied himself implementing the recommendations of the Farm Book in the high hopes that it would improve the prospects of Meddeland's embattled farmers. The crown funded changes to the nation's irrigation systems, which were eagerly implemented by many farmers - however, in the face of a plague of ravenous crop-eating insects, it was no longer certain that salination and irrigation were primary problems for the kingdom. Costs came in dramatically below expectations, however, as most farmers proved willing to do the work themselves if it meant improved crop yields.
Attempts at implementing hydraulic mining practices in the gold mines also went surprisingly well, though they proved fairly costly in the relative scheme of things. Still, by the end of the season, enough gold was flowing out of the mines that it covered the cost of the project.
The King also focuses on the mines in the Spring of 502 - perhaps with the harvest failing, the mines are a better investment... Between the King's efforts and Windfell's, the gold mine is perhaps not fully exploited by the end of the season but producing adequately, as is the iron mine.
Ardans
As he wintered in Desrois, the Marcher came to know a self-proclaimed mercenary who had stationed himself there, the two becoming fast friends. If this has any implication for the war, it remains to be seen...
Michel Szabolcsi, perhaps Ardans' finest administrator, traveled to Moraille to begin rooting out corruption and decadent practices there that had supposedly begun in the Marcher's absence. He immediately began a ferocious regime to enforce austerity, morality, and a spirit of national duty in the populace there, which was largely wildly successful. By the end of it, no one could complain that Moraille was becoming decadent any longer. Szabolcsi also had become more credulous of the possibility of magical powers in the ring in the vaults; he took it out and studied it but did not find anything. Lastly, he began a resettlement program (though the bureaucrats were not particularly happy with the suggestion that they had been idle, as most of them were collecting taxes and enforcing laws). This proved to be relatively successful, though tens of thousands of Sevala refugees remained camped outside the walls of Desrois.
Ishwari Kishburne marched into North Ardans and began to burn everything he could find. Though he could not cross the Citrine mountains into Cirtirus, he found plenty of outlying communities to attack east of the mountains. Militia groups instantly formed and started to hunt him - they curbed his efforts somewhat, but failed to find the wizard, just as the Meddish lynch mobs and soldiers had failed before them.
Jacques Armand dan Bresson spends several months painting an epic battle scene to show the victory of the Ardans over the evil heretics; it comes out well and those who see it are much inspired - and there is no doubt remaining of Bresson's artist ability by the Spring's end.
In Spring, the Ardans army hangs a Hendal spy, sent to infiltrate their ranks. Though the incident is publicized, no one is sure what can be done about it - Hendal is faraway and Ardans has other problems.
Tavan Morin
In the relative lawlessness that followed the Tavan Morin capture of much of North Hendal, a number of ex-Hendal armories were raided by what remained of the local populations - who were now afraid of both the Tavan Morin and each other.
Doba Morin Kh'azaro Octarz rides for Sanapiro in the Spring of 502 with the intention of taking the city by hook or by crook; all does not end well for him as his attempts to maneuver around the Hendal army in the craggy terrain fails; he instead finds himself outmaneuvered and his smaller warband surrounded by dramatically superior Hendal forces. His entire warband is wiped out after a day of fierce fighting; the Hendal lose only 3,000 soldiers versus the loss of Octarz's entire company. Octarz himself is killed. The loss presents a terrible setback for the Tavan Morin.
The Dagch Morin was not in time to save his son, but his wrath in retaliation for the defeat was terrible, as he ferociously sacked what little of North Hendal remained outside of the Sanapiran walls. Every trace of Hendal he could find was destroyed with fire and sword. New prisoners were taken to replace the escaped old ones - though his attempts to build a new prison were met with abject failure.
The new Duke of Stolgen-Arevmarch had a grim surprise awaiting him - Jo'chi Hasar began raiding into the duchy of Arevmarch from the North. His raiders did inflict much damage on the sparsely populated Arevmarch countryside at first, but they did catch the Arevmarch guard totally by surprise, as they had been watching the Hendal border.
Other
The Superius goes to attempt to talk to the Dragon in person. It neither kills him nor responds to his entreaties, instead ignoring him. The journey to Sevala, however, consumes most of the season for him and he does not have time to go motivate workers by the new city - they make little progress in his absence.
Dwaler breaks from the Meddish forces and mounts several raids into the Ardans; these have mixed effectiveness, as much of the Ardans land he raids into has already been deserted for fear of the dragon or destroyed by the insects descending o'er the land.
((end of update. Next update is next Saturday, as usual. The City of Leganum is still open.))
Hint: There are vacant leadership positions open.
