Charles of Tours

Because the adventure hasn't really taken off the ground, I'll continue to accept new characters until further notice! Hopefully we get some old faces back into the action as well. :)

Your challenge for this week: Complete the map Detchu River by @Lord Vetka in the shortest possible time! Useful Resources http://www.stronghold-nation.com/downloads/file/365-detchu-river/ Please save as close to the end as possible, and upload your saved game in your .zip file here. Note: Your entry must be attached to this topic by Midnight on Saturday to be counted in this challenge (30/7/16 23:59). If no entry is attached (via .zip) then your entry will not be counted! The results will be revealed on Sunday. Good luck everyone! P.S. - Chris is away, and since the normal time he usually posts the challenges is an hour where everyone in my timezone is asleep, I figured I'd give you all a little bit of a head start.

Pretty sure a day vanished before my very eyes ... the Adventure is open!

It has been nearly a year since the clattering of steel has been heard in Riverbourne, and the Duke's brave adventurers have settled into their new positions and the comfort of their awards from their last quest - knighthood, a purse of coins, and 120 acres of good farmland each. The knights have been reduced to running minor errands for the Duke, as there has been a steady peace, and no leads on Glynn or any of the other traitors within the realm. It is almost as if Duke Christopher's enemies have returned to their scheming in the shadows after the defeat of their armies. Some word of excitement has once again perked the ears of the adventurers of Riverbourne. The Duke calls all of his friends and all other noble persons in the land to gather at his castle. Rumors have been circling throughout the villages that the Duke intends to cement his dynasty's claim to these lands, as his father did for him, by finding a suitable bride who will become the Duchess of Riverbourne. It is no secret in the Duke's court that he has corresponded many times by letter to the King of Aragon, in the southern lands of Hispania, and that King Alfonso's third daughter Francesca is of wedding age, and very beautiful - and, more importantly, set to inherit the County of Navarre upon her father's death. The adventurer's arrive in the Duke's hall at the arranged time, and kneel before him as he sits in his ducal throne. "Welcome again to my home, friends and peers of the realm. I have asked you to come here for what may be little more than a boring security operation. However, it is a very important one. His majesty, the King of Aragon, with full permission from our own monarch, is set to arrive in Riverbourne within the coming month, should the tides carry his ship gently. With him, his daughter Francesca and some other members of the Aragonese royal family will be my guests, and if it all goes smoothly then a wedding shall be held. "I ask you to assist, in keeping out anyone that may wish harm upon myself or Aragon, especially because it has only been a year since the duchy was last thrown into peril. Though I doubt anything eventful will occur, it is better to err on the side of caution. "Now, if you will excuse me, I must make arrangements. My gates will remain open to you, and my guards will let you go where you wish - just find out if there is anything to this ..." He hands Brother Goodman an opened letter before bidding you all stand, when he leaves to find a scribe to send out invitations. Goodman clears his throat and reads for the whole company: "My Lord, You would best be advised to keep an eye open in your sleep. This marriage shall not take place. I have my own plans for the county of Navarre. - S"

Everyone who hasn't made a character yet - please feel free to. :D All characters that didn't have a chance to take part in the last Adventure may do so in this new one that I've posted about.

I've typed up the opening post -no spoilers here- and sent it to Chris. You all should expect to see it fairly soon. To keep the excitement high, I'll give you all a hint: It might sound like it's from the Lord of the Rings, but it exists in the real world ... :P

After collaborating with @Lord_Chris we agreed that the first Adventure was a success. So, on that note: Applications for this adventure due by Thursday, 14 July 2016 - Adventure begins Friday, 15 July 2016! All characters previously approved may participate in this Adventure. I will type up the opening post to the adventure some time before it begins, but posting will be opened on 15 July. Think about what your characters have been doing since the last adventure. They have probably all healed their wounds and have been doing minor errands for the Duke since there has been no signs of serious trouble in the realm ... until now ... This time, your skills with the sword and the bow will not be enough to achieve victory. More than ever before, you will have to use your wits to overcome your foes, if you are to successfully prevent a war between two kingdoms from breaking out.

Nice. I'm looking forward to the new Italian plane tree coming out. Also saw rumors that they were going to add tanks for the existing factions that don't have them, as well as ships in the coming months. :)

The US is framed to look like a horrible place because of its fairly open gun laws, compared to much of the rest of the world. However, we could look at Switzerland, which is a much smaller country, but the gun-to-person ratio there is very high - yet you see no mass shootings. California is a very far-left state in the Union, and they had a gun turn-in day a while back, which resulted in an increase in criminal activity. I live in Massachusetts which is also a very "progressive" state. I can't say much about other states, but as a man who is certified to hunt and use firearms by the Commonwealth's Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, and by a State Police firearms instructor, I feel I can offer some insight about gun laws in my state. In Mass. you need to take a course from a certified instructor in firearms operation, one specifically for handgun and pistol safety if you intend to carry a concealed firearm (no open carry in this state). You need to be 18+ to apply for your FID (Firearms Identification) card which allows you to buy, sell (with limits), transport (i.e. to a gun show or to a hunting destination), and legally use rifles, shotguns, and "long guns". You need to be 21+ to apply for your LTC-A (License to Carry [firearms]) which applies to buying, selling (with limits), using, and carrying pistols and handguns. You no longer need a permit to use pepperspray / Mace but using it counts as "discharging ammunition" which can land you at the mercy of the judge if you don't have your FID card. I've been to a gun show, and let me tell you: there is no "gun show loophole" when it comes to buying guns. You need your FID or LTC-A (depending on what you want to buy) and it needs to be valid. Besides the courses (none of which are free, that I know of, and run into $100+), the police conduct extensive background checks and there's a bit of a waiting period to make sure you don't break any laws in the mean time. It's supposed to take 2-3 weeks but it took about 5-6 months, probably because I have no record (besides being a member of the Republican Party :P). Not to mention, it can be a pane in the glass (Stronghold reference ;)) if the local police chief or politicians in charge like to apply their own interpretation to laws and how long waiting periods should be. It's very painful seeing the neglect towards treatment of legal (and would-be) firearm owners, because they usually want to own for reasons of their own protection, and the safety of their family. In addition, *any* violation of the laws on the books can land you into hot water. Like, having your firearm not "concealed enough" could result in a permanent loss to your LTC-A if the judge finds it appropriate with police suggestion. The hunting laws are also very strictly enforced. If only the drug laws were carried out with equal dedication ... As for use, unless you're hunting, the only place you can use your firearm against another living being (essentially) is inside your own house. Not even on other parts of your property. Even then, all firearms used will be confiscated as police evidence, and your license to purchase may be frozen, which basically puts you at risk (especially if you live in a high-risk neighborhood for crime). When it comes to gun crime ... the whole "if you couldn't use guns you'd use X" is both true and wrong. I imagine it's easier to buy illegally than legally in this state because of all the criminal activity, although I never have. But this is also the state where the Boston bombings happened, any they used pressure cookers - we can't make those illegal, can we? It's not a gun problem, it's a problem with people not respecting other people and their lives. We could get down to the reasons why, but that's a whole other topic. :)

Politics on a gaming forum? My first thought was: "And it isn't a flame war? Quick, call the media, they'll call it GamerGate!" And my second thought was: "Nobody invited me ..." :P I posted something on my Facebook wall the day after #Brexit. I thought I'd share it here, because people from both sides of the political "fence" seemed to agree with me. Just to preface this, I am a proud Donald Trump supporter, and I'm not pointing fingers for fun - if you follow the money, you can almost always smell the Clinton family or Soros behind it, pulling strings. Since then I've heard that elections will be held "soon" in the UK. Having studied the Westminster model, I think it's fair to say Cameron is going to stretch this out for as long as possible until he runs out of his tax-paid salary from buying too many organic smoothies, or whatever he does. :)

I have one, but it's very old. In fact it's linked to my Yahoo email from way back when Google let you hook your YMail account into all of its features. As a result I can't comment on anything without Google+ but I can still upload, even though I haven't in ages. If anyone wants to hear my beautiful voice (:P) or see me play videogames with varying degrees of success, have at it: https://www.youtube.com/user/CharlesOfTours

Looks great! Keep up the good work. :)

I took some violin lessons as a kid, but my instructor became pregnant so they stopped. Since then, I've dabbled with the keyboard / piano (and still do once a blue moon), and I keep a guitar in my closet. :P I can sing quite well, and up until last year or so I was in a show choir. Had to stop because I wasn't fond of all the pomp and theatre-people drama, plus how much it chewed out of my schedule.

Hope it's not too late, but I hope everything turns out well. :)

War Thunder is a great game. Haven't played in a while, but mostly do Realistic (sometimes Arcade with friends). I usually go for the Fw 190 (A-1 and A-4) but can also fly with the Bf 109 tree. I agree with the environment being beautiful, you can run the game with a potato of a computer and horrible internet, and it still looks decent (plus all the optimization cuts down on lag). +1 Rep @Strife. :)

I have non-Steam versions of SHL and SH2 and when I run them through Steam I can use the overlay. You can turn this off with any game that has the overlay by right clicking the game's name in the Steam Library, click Properties, go to the General tab, and uncheck "Enable the Steam overlay while in-game."

Would be interesting to see if having more peasants, troops, and animals on the map cuts down on how many trees and weeds are shown. Could be a built-in GPU saving feature meant for computers around the time that SH2 came out. I know other older games have this, while more recent games have better graphics options (including how much "clutter" or "fluff" is on screen).

Makes me shudder a bit to see those two franchises in the same sentence. xD Good luck, and don't be afraid to ask me about Tolkien stuff. Also, this site, Tolkien Gateway is a good reference - for you, @Crusader1307, or anyone else.

Looking forward to seeing the results on this one! If anyone needs help with Tolkien lore for this, don't be afraid to PM me. :)

Don't worry! I'm sure you can get in some good before-action roleplay time as Goodman during the early stages of the next adventure, while he is healing. In fact that would be a good idea for people to post some "calm" scenes when the next adventure opens up, before the [gong farmer's produce] hits the [medieval equivalent of a fan]. ;)

Glad you liked it @Nigel. And yeah, that line was cool. :P Don't worry, I'm sure you'll find Glynn again. I have plans (mwahaha). ;)

The first adventure is over. Feel free to discuss here, while I write up a new one! Good job everyone! :)

Meanwhile, in the forest near Riverbourne ... Duke Christopher looks the adventurers up and down, seeing the questioning looks on their faces. "My friends, I'm afraid we've all been betrayed. But it is not by Lord Richard. He has been an incredible asset these past weeks. As soon as he knew the 'merchants' camped outside the castle were actually mercenaries hired by an enemy, he advised that we summon all loyal adventurers available in the realm, you all, and take action immediately. "When we all met and rallied the army, I made sure some knights stayed behind. They inspired the villagers and, without a single man killed, were able to chase those mercenaries out. Meanwhile, when you all were captured by Lord Richard's forces, Richard had already informed me of a spy working in our ranks, that man named Glynn. Apparently he was leading some rogue rangers and clearing the roads of bandits who rose up when it seemed the castle was about to be taken by the mercenaries. "I lead a division of my own to probe for enemy forces, but after we were ambushed I immediately fled with my remaining forces to this cave. The wounded knight you found volunteered to serve as a distraction, to mislead anyone that might pass by, claiming that I had been captured. I sent a messenger to tell Lord Richard of the treachery that I learned of when I realized it wasn't just bandits, but professional soldiers we were fighting. By then it was too late, as Glynn had escaped, but somehow he was able to tell his allies all of our positions. I assumed that since Glynn knew that we thought the castle was in peril, he thought I would march with my remaining forces to the castle. "But, it is good that you all were able to fend off the rest of that invasion force with Lord Richard. Glynn's riders found our cave and harassed us with arrows, driving us deep within. It is true that my leg was injured in the fighting, but only at the skirmish in front of the cave. Lord Richard told me via messengers that he was distrustful of you all, and that is why he did not give away my position. That was to test your loyalty, which has by now been proven many times over. "I am glad to know that you all are loyal to my cause, because trying times are ahead. Glynn must be found, and from there we can find this master he has talked about. We must put an end to these warmongers, and deliver them to the king so justice may be enacted on them! "But first let us go back to the castle. After such strain we all need much resting, and a little feasting ..." *** "Master, I beg to report ..." "What is it you knave? What news do you bring? Where is the Duke - you promised he would be in my prison cell by yesterday." "These adventurers of the Duke's were to clever for our plans. They have rescued the Duke and defeated the Imperial Wolverine guardsmen you called in to support me." "Hmph. Can you not succeed at anything?!" Glynn shook, looking at his master with fear. "How much do they know?" "Little my lord. They only know of my allegiance now, but they do not know your name." "Excellent. But I cannot have them learn my name, can I?" "No my lord." "In that case you serve no other purpose. I have plenty other agents of equal skill. Guards-!" "No, please wait sire-" "Take this man to the dankest dungeon cell and dispose of the key." "No....!" TO BE CONTINUED

[OOC]: Chris, let's plan a crafty response. ;) [back to the Game] Somewhere, many miles away in the north of England ... "Have you succeeded in bringing Duke Christopher to his knees?" "Yes, of course. My agent has caused enough chaos for our plans to soon be under way." "Excellent. Our ally has sent word that the king will soon be taken care of. At this rate, we will be in London by the end of the year, and all who have opposed us will suffer!" "Ah, yes, of course, my friend. Surely you will not forget those who have helped y-" "I will not. You will get your pay ... all in due time ..."

The adventurers see flashes of light come from within the cave. Expecting trouble after several exhausting battles, they draw their weapons. The light nears, and an armored man leading a retinue of ill-armed peasants comes towards the entrance. He removes his helmet, revealing - The Duke! "Hello my friends. Thank you for coming to get me. My leg is feeling much better now ..."