Aznavor is back!
Victor was a vinter, well that’s what he told the Teheridonese women he met in taverns, a very important royally appointed vinter whose job it was to identify wines and plots of land with the suitable
terroir for Aznavori merchants. Only half of the statement was true, he was royally appointed but he was not a vinter. Oftentime he would chuckle to himself knowing that most of the women he met would probably believe exactly the opposite, that he was a rich vinter who made bold claims of royal Aznavori patronage in order to gain access to their sheets. Victor knew little about growing grapes and less about running a business but this had never stopped him from keeping up the allusion that he was a successful man. In reality he had come to Teheridon some ten years earlier, when the borders were still shut to most foreigners, claiming that he wished only to find peace in the country and would not seek to ever leave. The world was a less suspicious place back then and he had been allowed to enter and every year he made sure to send a cask of wine to the customs officer who had granted him entry. Now, ten years later, he had delegated the running of his business to his eldest son who was in charge of collecting 15 barrels of wine a month from a clipper that made its way from Aznavor to Black beach every month then selling these wines to the burghers and merchants of this rich country which had few wine growers of its own. In theory he had all he needed to manage a successful business, a niche market, no competition and royal patronage although he never appeared to sell enough wine to maintain the quality of life he enjoyed. Victor did have royal patronage because he had become a spy an informant and an agent provocateur. For a year now he and his youngest son had been making contacts within the infrastructure of the country. After trading in grapes, soil and shipping for forgery, blackmail and bribery victor had developed quite a network of spies in Black beach. One of the most useful links of his chain of informers was Marlon a post official who owed him vast sums of money and wished to keep the secret that the was a catamite and had a lover at work. Twice a month Marlon was invited to dine at Victors house and the two men pretended to their wives and most of their children that they were best of friends and shared business interests together. In reality after the women left, Marlon, Victor and his son would go on evening walks into the countryside and Marlon would hand over interesting letters from military and political officials which Victor would copy and hand back to his guests during the next post-dinner walk. Port officials had been bribed to never pay too much attention to Victors cargo. Whilst his network expanded he also listened to rumours in taverns and spoke to disgruntled serfs who had come to voice their complaints to city officials but were always refused and held in contempt. After buying them a few drinks he would often and expressing sympathy to their cause and mention that he had heard that the Dontian people had overthrown their own oppressors and were now ruling themselves. Using his friend in the post office and forged letters Victor would at a later date have a nameless employee show the serfs fake letters detailing hugely increased requisition orders and heavy wartime taxes. The more village elders or headmen he spoke to the more the idea of armed insurrection spread across the countryside. It was common knowledge that the royal army was fighting far away in Bennipolis and to the north and would not be able to put down an armed serf movement. In the past few weeks words of hope had turned to actions as secret caches of weapons were being found near villages where Victor had noticed the dissatisfaction to be at its most severe. These weapons did not come from Teheridon, much to his regret Victor had no contacts in the royal armoury yet and had come in specially made wine barrels from Aznavor. The very same that were never inspected by port officials. The best part of this conspiracy was that his son who collected the barrels had no idea of their existence and thus could not accidently talk of them. The weapons were originally sent on ships from Oceansrock and carried weapons to be sold to Teheridon as part of their trade agreement but halfway through the journey were the weapons ship would meet up with the wine ship and the weapons would be put into one in every 15 barrels. When King Dearhear wrote to King Philip Duloire complaining about not enough weapons arriving in Teheridon the latter would regretfully assume that his ships had been boarded by many of the increasing numbers of pirates that roamed the seas or that summer storms had affected his ships causing much cargo to be lost to the sea floor. The letter would finish off with King Philips most heartfelt consolences. So now every month weapons would find their way off ships into his warehouse where they would be stored for less than a day before being carted off in non-identifiable boxes to angry serf communities. The soldiers were away and the angry serfs were being armed. The spark was lit.
Shipskeep, Aznavor Today was a joyous occasion, Aznavor’s friends to the East had finally utterly triumphed against their oppressors, Bennipolis had fought back against their invaders and Aznavor’s southern allies had also joined the fight against Teheridon. Perhaps it was time Aznavor got involved. Perhaps. Perhaps not.
In any case King Duloire had decided to make the most of this conflict which had brought war to the continent to send off a second small floittla of colonists to Aventia. This time they would be better equipped, in larger numbers and would have two brigs and 500 regulars sent with them in case aggressive natives existed beyond the reach of the friendly Empire of Khan. These colonists were sent far to the south, to a slightly more equatorial climate where fruit was rumoured to be more plentiful and where winter would be but a distant memory. In any case the settlers were more prepared this time around and had brought more tools, medicines, supplies and medicine. The Kign hoped this colony would grow faster than the northern one and would bring back exotic trade substances to the nations of Edoniras.
Perhaps it was time to act after all. King Phillip had ordered the remainder of the fleet which had been sitting mobilised in harbour for two weeks now, the men were ready, the ships had been well supplied and could count of friendly harbours all along the way south. Their objective was simple hug the coastline until they reached Teheridon when they would then join up with the Bennipolitain Navy. Under no circumstances were they to fire a shot on the Teheridonese, the fleet were supposedly strictly observers and their job was to protect the ships carrying weapons to Teherdion and protect them from any pirates.
TLDR:
Teheridon Serfs are incited to rebel and equipped with weapons that should be going into the royal armory. To cover this up the King of Aznavor is blaming pirates and the royal fleet has moved in to secure trade lanes.
A new southern colonial expedition is sent south of Imperial lands.
Current fleet (I don't know if my fleet under construction is built yet)minus two brigs ( colonial escort) sent into Teheridonan waters to meet up with Bennipolitan Navy. Their orders are not to attack but to defen themselves in case of attack. Their objective is to use their new age sea technology to establish distance and then rake potential attackers with chain shot paralysing them, raking their crews with grape-shot and then boarding to secure the prize.
Agents are at work doing as much as they can to destabilise the Kingdom.