Nigel

Meanwhile a few miles away, unaware of the carnage, Sir Charles Loring was enjoying his dinner. Yes, he was actually enjoying it. Against his own expectations it did not consist only of old bread and water. Instead it was pretty decent: a few slices of freshly baked bread, a slab of butter, some cheese and even a bit of pork sausage. And a big mug of beer to go with it. Whatever the reason, his captor must have decided there was no gain in treating him badly. Perhaps Duke Renault wanted to keep the door open to have Sir Loring swear fealty to him on the day of his success. Whatever his plans were, he would need loyal retainers to govern his estates for him. Or - perhaps more likely - Duke Renault had no idea whatsoever who he was. He may not believe the Merchant story, but he probably figured that it would cost him next to nothing to treat his prisoner well, while that would make his position much easier, should a situation arise where he would have to apologize to his unknown captive. Be it as it may, the food and drink were good and Sir Loring enjoyed them. While he drank, he wondered where his companions were and especially Lord Christopher. Then another idea came to his mind. Some time ago, on a cosy evening at Riverbourne Castle with lots of food and good ale, the night had been long and his friends had started singing an old drinking song. Singing at first, then they got creative and started to compose a few new verses for it. It was nothing more than a joke and a pleasant memory on the next morning. They had laughed about it and not talked about it anymore. But now, no one other than his friends, Duke Christopher included, would know the extra verses. Chales Loring took another big swig from the beer (he always needed to drink up some courage before raising his voice to song) and then started. Humming at first, then singing quietly, then louder and louder. Eventually the guard poked his head through the door. "Sorry master - oops. I guess it was a bit much beer on an almost empty stomach. Next time you better bring me only half a pint." The guard grinned, then took away the dishes and the mug and when he saw his charge slumb back on the rack, he closed the door behind him without further ado. But after a while, very quietly, Sir Loring heard the drinking song again - including the verses that only a few people knew. Duke Christopher was here. Wherever "here" was.

Meanwhile at the camp of Duke Renault's men, Charles Loring was still very much alive, albeit somewhat immobilized. "Well", he thought to himself, "I guess my hands are tied - and quite literally so". He looked down at the heavy chains that bound his hands together and then wound around a big tree. "There is no way I can escape - but maybe there is something else I can do." "Hello soldier", he shouted over to one of the guards. "Don't be a mean man. You have tied me here to this tree. But I am right in the thick of these thorns and thistles. If you leave me ere, I won't be able to get a single hour of sleep this night. Why don't you move me over to that tree over there. And don't worry, I will not do anything stupid. I just want to get a bit more comfortable." The soldier did not seem to be a bad man, even if we worked fro the wrong lord. He moved Sir Loring over to the new place, taking good care that his hands remained chained and there was no opportunity to escape. Then he made sure that his captive was securely tied to the new tree. The one thing he had not payed attention to, was the fact that this new position was right behind the commander's tent. Charles Loring made himself comfortable on the ground, bringing his head close to the think canvas. "With some luck, I may be able to overhear the commanders conversation and learn something useful", he thought.

Sounds good. I can see a new series of SH2 maps coming :)

Suddenly Charles Loring remembered that they were supposed to dress up as merchants "Ok, well, we can still get that story right. You men, load up this pack horse with these furs and dried meat. We are hunters in the hope to turn our furs into silver coins and we are accompanying "Merchant Goodman" to the market - whatever it is that he is trying to sell :D"

Charles Loring smiled inwardly. If there was something you could relay on, it was that Brother Goodman would always choose a path that involved going forward rather than going around a problem. The years of battle must have tought him that it was always an advantage to be the one who has the initiative of attack. He went to his tent and changed the expensive nobelman's tunic for the brown woollen shirt of a simple huntsman. After a few more changes to his outfit concerning boots, pants and headwear he now fullly looked the part. He was wondering what "costume" his friend would choose.

I would love to see you join, Matthew. Regardless of wether it is with your old character, or with a new one. We are travelling along a road with a big host of soldiers. So there should be lots of opportunities for a new hero to either step forward from the ranks or be met on the street.

Sir Loring turned to Brother Goodman: "This outpost must have been manned withing the last few hours, otherwise my scouts would have reported this obstacle. There is certainly a lot of new activity form our enemies along this road - and there must be a reason for it. But for now, I think our best option is indeed to make the detour to Barnemouth. What do you think, Brother Goodman? Shall we give the signal to move in that new direction?"

Goodman and his commanders now entered the tent to discuss their strategy in more detail. After a while, the flap of the tent opened and a rather wild looking man entered. He wore an old leather tunic, had a big sword and a long knife tucked in his belt and a heavy leather sack in his hand. But most remakedly, whith a fur hat on his head, bronze coloured skin and slightly slit eyes he looked like a warrior from the army of Ghengis Khan. The knights reached for their swords, but Charles Loring stood up and calmed them down. "No worries my friends. This is Kobla Cha, one of my rangers. He may look like a Mongol warrior, and in fact he was born as such, but he has lived more than 20 years in the service of my family and knows the English forests like no other man. What news do you bring, Kobla?" The man responded with a short bow, polite but not submissive. "Lordship, we have scouted the path to Duke Renault's keep. Like any prudent lord, Duke Renault has his own network of scouts around his castle. The weakest spot of this network is on the West side. That area is guarded by only 3 scouts - or rather - was guarded". With an evil grin, the scout dropped the leather bag and three heads rolled onto the floor. "Forgive my man's manners" Sir Loring said with a slight grin. "After all those years at our court, he still maintains some of his original customs." To his great satisfaction he had noticed that, while several men had gasped at the sight of the gory heads, the King's son had not blinked an eye. It seemed that the young leader of the Santiago Knights had enough backbone for the job. "Gentlemen, if my reckoning does not decieve me, we have about 8 hours before Duke Renault becomes aware of his missing scouts and we need 6 hours to march our army to the West side of his castle. That would give us about 2 hours of time to take up our position unnoticed and perhaps perform some surprise action. Let's go, we have no time to waste."

Charles Loring looked a bit sheepish at his friend. "Well, I am a knight on my estate, as you know. And of course it is my duty to maintain a force for my lands protection. But to be honest, I have been neglecting this duty somewhat. With the ongoing peace, I found hunting, feasting and educating the young citizens more interesting than raising troops and training soldiers. I could probably put together one mixed platon of 20 swordmen and 30 archers. That would raise our numbers to 600 men. I can add the service of my rangers, though. 4 of my best foresters are already on their way to us and their skill in tracking and scouting should prove valuable to allow our army to move quickly through the terrain and spot our enemies before they spot us."

The King of Aragon was an experienced ruler and he knew only too well that if someone politely told him that ?We have a?.problem?, then the situation was very serious indeed. When Sir Loring saw him straighten his back and tense his muscles, he quickly took up the speach: "Your Highness, first of all things let me tell you that your daughter is safe and not in any danger." That information seemed to relax the king and now he leaned back in his seat and turned to the two knight: "So what is it? Speak." Now brother Goodman and Sir Loring took turns to explain to him what had happened. Finally they concluded: "Now, Your Highness, will you grant us the support of your royal knights? And do you have any orders on how to proceed in this matter? Or on whom do you want to bestow the responsibility and authority to act in the rescue of our Duke?" They bowed and waited in anticipation on what help or guidance the King of Aragon may give them in their new adventure.

Looking more closely at his friend, Charles Loring noticed a fur of concern about his brow and immediately guessed what what on his mind. "Brother Goodman, if you are worried about your meeting with the King of Aragon and your duty of telling him about the disappearance of his future son in law, I will be happy to go with you and we can speak to the king together - if you want. What do you say?"

[OOC] Glad that we are reviving this adventure. Count me in. On his way to the King's quarters, Goodman came across his friend Loring and briefly shared his new knowledge. The young knight gave a sigh, "This is the second time our Lordship is getting himself kidnapped. One of us should have a word with this bodyguards at some point in time." He was glad, tough, that he had earlier sent a servant to call for a group of huntsmen from his own forest estate to join their party. They had been intended for the King's sporting entertainment, but they were strong men, good with a bow and experts at moving silently through the woods. They should make a valuable addition to their company when they arrive.

Good to know, EaglePrince. I have read somewhere that Windows 10 is incompatible with some of the older SH games and that is exactly the reason why I am still holding off on upgrading my system. Do you know how it works with the other games? SH2 and SHL?

There are a few more in our download section. Check out the ones made by Lord Vekta. They are really good and some of them made especially for power-players. :)

Hehe, I can feel your pain :) Perhaps you can post some teaser screenshots - just to show a few beautiful aspects without giving away the main surprise? Dunno if that would be possible for the map you have in mind, but it is just a thought

Congratulations to both of you :) Crusader, a well deserved promotion. Keep those stories coming and all the best in your new role as global moderator. Mezzy, I am downloading your series of maps right now. Looking forward to play them :)

You can attach files to your post. What you do is that you write the text and supmit your post. Then you hit the Edit button (bottom right). You should then be able to edit the message text, but also get the option to attach files to the post (below the message editing area). It is best to place the savegame in a .zip file, but I think you can also post it without zipping it, if the filesize is not too big. If this does not work, let Lord_Chris know. He may have to set up your account to be able to do it.

Keep trying. I am sure there will be a way to beat this mission. I just checked and I too have version 1.2. I wonder if you can upload a savegame to this thread and if we can still play that mission from your savegame or if we will get a version conflict message.

Congratulations, Matthew. Like Chris said, a whole new world is waiting for you. When I passed mine, my instructor gave me a good piece of advice: Having your driving licenese does not mean that you are able drive now. It only means that you are good enough to continue practicing on your own. I kept remembering it and it has saved me from a few awkward situations in my first year of driving :)

It may be that FireFly has rebalanced this particular mission, after the video was made. The do sometims rebalance missions when they feel they are either too easy or too hard. I know this will not help you, but perhaps explains the discrepancy you are experiencing. Any chance you can compare your game version with the version that was used for the video?

It is not so much that (I seem to get ideas quickly), but rather the time it takes me to make a map. I seem to take forever with finetuning the details of a map and the landscaping is a big portion of it. If that can be taken away by using an already existing landscape, the task is far less daunting to me. I still have an "almost ready" version for a second map of the Escania series sitting on my PC. :P

Sounds good, Andreas. I could probably make a map like this. But, yes, if we want to have 7 maps, we may need more mapmakers. By the way: some time ago we figured out how we can unlock the FireFly maps that come with the game. http://forums.stronghold-nation.com/topic/679-locking-and-unlocking-crusader-2-maps/ We could also use those and modify them for the purpose of the trial. What do you think? It would certainly make life easier for people like me, who are not so skilled at landscape design.

Nice idea, Andreas. Count me in. I may not be the worlds biggest map maker but I should be able to contribute something - a small map, ideas and discussion, playtesting etc. I look forward to it.

Thanks to the Stronghold Nation staff and FireFly for this nice contest. And congratulations Floki for a well deserved 1st place. :) It was great fun. Even if we only did some of the missions that were offered, there was always the feeling that something is going on. And everyone could pick and choose the missions that he liked best. Speaking for myself, I can say that I really enjoyed those missions that I did take on. GG and Happy New Year to everyone

Nice to see all the good wishes for Christmas and the New Year. I am especially happy to see you, Lord Vetka, come and post again :) Between the Christmas days and the end of the year I will be traveling a lot to see my family. But I look forward to see you all again in 2017.