“The trick when dealing with mercenaries is not to appeal to them by way of morales of justifications. None of them give a damn about those, and all that would achieve is to waste time, both yours and theirs. No, to get mercenaries to fight willingly and properly on your behalf you only need to do one thing. Namely, to make it *worth* their while.” - Sandoval Utghwes, Duke of Dvergarder, circa 5 FP.

“Greetings, ladies and gentlemen,” said Duke Sandoval Utghwes to the gathered group. They were meeting at a large room in the Ducal manor, one typically used for the purpose of monthly meetings and official briefings for the Duke and his officials. “A pleasure to see that you had all managed to make time for today.”

Gathered that day, however, were not the Duke’s officials. Other than a couple generals and knight-captains serving under the Duke, no other local official was present, and the rest of the crows was a gathering of Captains and various officers from five different mercenary companies, which filled the relatively large room to the brim.

Reinhardt and several members of the Free Lances were naturally there. Other than his own people, there was an old dwarf he was all too familiar with, since he was an old friend of Reinhardt’s late aunt. Stefan Horst was the Captain-Commander of the Horst’s Hellraisers, formerly a combat engineer for Knallzog, and one of the few known mercenary archmages around.

The other three mercenary Captains and Commanders around, from the Silver Eagles, Spears of Ostvin, and Jaime’s Janissaries were ones Reinhardt only had a more passing acquaintance with. They had mostly met in the line of work, and had even lightly clashed on occasion since they all worked the trade in the same general area. The relationship between them and the Free Lances were mostly neutral and professional.

Duke Utghwes had hired mercenaries who pried their trade in multiple nations, partly because the vast majority of the local bands - who were more often than not little better than slightly more organized bandit bands, and acted as such in their downtimes - were scooped up by the Central Duchies. Another reason the Duke hired foreigners under strict and foolproof contracts was because the missions he assigned were mostly defensive in nature.

While the Kingdom of Posuin had technically fallen into a many-sided civil war for a good seven years now, the border Duchies of Algenverr, Jonkver, and Dvergarder had remained neutral in the conflict, their intention mostly to ride out the turmoil while keeping themselves safe. Despite the solid alliance between the border duchies, and their strong military force - as befit those stationed at the borders of the realm - they lacked the ambition to claim and conquer.

The other factions had not seen things that way.

Seven years ago, the Kingdom had gathered an expeditionary force - most of which were from forces under Duke Emil Bostvan, the main proponent of the expedition - to strike at the newly established city of Paradise to their east. That was an expedition that never came to be in the end.

The Duke had hoped to net in more troops and support from the border duchies to the east but had failed to convince them, and while they were arguing, news of a different expedition from the Holy Kingdom attacking Paradise reached them, shortly followed by their decimation.

Duke Bostvan had lost his courage when he saw the reports. The expedition from the Holy Kingdom was just as large as his current expedition forces, but with many more mages, and yet they were decimated to a man regardless. Yet he had staked his pride and reputation on the line with this gambit of an expedition, hoping to accrue riches and fame through it.

Nobody knew what went through the Duke’s mind at the time, but what everyone knew later was that the expedition forces had discreetly went back to the Royal Capital and fought a battle there that resulted in the Royal Palace burning, with the King dead and the status of his heirs unknown.

The Duke had decried his fellow Dukes of the Central Duchies as traitors to the crown who had used the king as a puppet and called for a revolution under the Royal Family’s last heirs’ names. The Central Duchies in turn called Duke Bostvan a traitor and a cur, one who had slain their own liege lord, and called for his head on a pike.

Which party said the truth - if any - was unknown.

While eastern Posuin was mostly held firmly under the grip of the three border duchies, the rest of the kingdom was a mess. The area to the north, surrounding the royal capital of Oleynuos, was mostly held by a coalition of four of the most powerful duchies in the nation, who had claimed that they were “punishing rebels to the realm”.

On the contrary, south-western Posuin was firmly held by the forces loyal to Duke Bostvan, who had the support of the gathered expedition force that rebelled seven years ago and sparked the civil war, which placed them on equal grounds with the central duchies when it comes to military forces. They in turn claimed to have sheltered the last heirs to the Royal family and called for the others to fall into their banner.

Around half a dozen smaller counties and baronies had also proclaimed their independence during the mess, mostly in the southern regions of the nation, which formed a convenient buffer between Dvergarder and the forces of both the Central and the Bostvan factions. Their allies in Jonkver and Algenverr were not as fortunate, however, and often had to face those factions more directly. It was one such situation that caused the meeting of that day.

“I had asked you all to gather today because I wish to offer a separate, one-off mission from the contracts we have signed,” said the Duke after he seated himself. “I know we had only agreed on defensive and raiding missions when we signed the contracts with your Companies, however, situations changed.”

“Our allies in the Duchy of Jonkver are under heavy pressure from Duke Bostvan’s forces as we speak, and called for assistance,” he explained with a solemn, dignified voice. “And I would like to discuss the possibilities of hiring some of your companies for this mission.”