Leon's banner doctrine

Leon Yaegar laid it out in the hours after the company came back to him with the news that Orsugo’s gnolls had organized and were working with wyverns. He offered first that Orsugo might yet turn out to be little more than stories, an easy pushover who would crack once pressed the right way. Somebody said one could hope. Leon said hope was not needed, and set out what was.

What the problem takes is not a small force, and the nearest thing to a force within reach is the horse lords of Veren, who are probably feeling Orsugo’s pressure themselves. It would not take much ringing of bells to get them to come. What they will not do is come without a banner to fall in behind.

Haudh-Gwenn cannot be it. Whatever has been cleared out of the city, its name will take years to clear, if the city even wants it cleared, and Leon declined to hold an opinion on whether it does. Harad is too small. Forven is too removed. Loshev is too hoity. That leaves Veren itself as the banner, and the company has an in there through Hanza and a few contacts besides.

The complication is at the other end of the same road, and Leon was not the one who raised it. Veren as a town does not make the trek to trade with Haudh-Gwenn, and does not need to. It trades with Peredhel and with the thorps nearby, and the reason for it is history.

He was tired by then of working through councils to get anything done, having stood trial before one in Haudh-Gwenn. He had pictured his own retirement as a small town, an estate built in it and perhaps a family, and he set that aside the same evening. Settling down was not wise with this much outstanding, and he would not have been able to give a family his attention.