Transcript: The War Council (Unfinished)

Lewis: Each of you, over the course of the day, are approached by a guard. Gathered up and found and brought to Mason Whitehall's tent. Varris is also inside. Mason Whitehall is in front of a small table with white sand on it, which, as you are arriving in the tent, you each see is simulating different battles, and he keeps telling different pieces to move elsewhere, like a giant chess board.

Floki: (I go right up to him and I'm like) Listen: me and Tripp aren't gonna fight this battle with you unless we're given something that will help.

Cireen: You're just gonna leave us? Seriously, Floki?

Floki: Considering that this might be the last battle of the Rebellion...

Cireen: I should've expected as much.

Tripp: Look, this is not my fucking battle. This is your problem. I am not a good samaratan, and you cannot possibly convince me to go up against two Generals with a bunch of greenhorns who don't know their ass from their spear.

Mason: Talos is the only General that might show up. Krieger won't risk it. The Generals don't risk joining in on other battles, in case both die. Null is the only time they would risk more.

Tripp: You willing to bet your life on that?

Mason: I AM betting my life on it, boy.

Floki: Exactly, and considering all of your battles so far, maybe you should listen to us for once.

Cireen: (At mason's statement, Cireen looks a little guilty, because she knows what Mason thinks will happen.)

Tripp: (I'm gonna point at his sand) There's not many things standing. That's not a good bet.

Mason: If we take the city, we have the men inside who are already trying to rebel, but they have not the force nor the numbers to assist us. They might be, depending on what goes on, but it is unlikely until after. Death int he field is death in the field, sadly.

Floki: Exactly. And this is one of the most fortified cities in the continent. Three-hundred people could hold this, but we're not going up against three-hundred. We're going up against a ridiculous number.

Mason: Two-hundred can hold it with a Rite. They don't have the Rite. We do.

Tripp: (I'm going to point at the sand again and say) I do not see two-hundred standing.

Mason: I'm taking into account that there are men in the city that will take up arms once we are there. They will follow their Lord.

Lewis: At this, Varris looks massively uncomfortable at that statement, but otherwise seems fine.

Floki: We want to help and we want to win but me and Tripp are not in this unless... how about this: I will fight with you if I get studded armour for my bear.

Mason: You mean the bear armour that is being made for you. The armour that will increase your bear's protection and the helmet that will aid it. It's being made by your friend. I've just supplied the resources.

Floki: (Looks embarrassed because he didn't actually know the armour was being made.)

Mason: I can spare little. I have three-hundred men to arm and train enough so they won't just instantly be killed and be of no use. I don't like sacrificing men for nothing.

Tripp: What's your plan? What's your game plan, here?

Mason: My plan is simple: we take the field. We stay back. We don't move to them. We keep the hill, we keep the swamp. They will be caught in the bog. They won't be able to use their horses due to the swamps, so we have no fear of cavalry.

Floki: With all respect, why would they risk coming out?

Mason: For a very simple reason: the Inquisition think they're untouchable. They will see our numbers-

Floki: For a simple reason that is WRONG-

Cireen: But AREN'T they untouchable?

Tripp: So they're just gonna file out in a double line like ants, marching towards us as we murder them until all two-thousand of them are gone? Really?

Floki: You're under the assumption that they won't have reinforcements. They could wait us out and simply pincer maneuver. Instead, here's the plan that I am thinking, and obviously this is to your digression: we send a small task force into the city at the dead of night to capture the gatehouse. At that point, the rest of the army moves slowly towards the walls-

Tripp: In the cover of darkness.

Floki: -In the cover of darkness in order to not be spotted so quickly. At this point, as soon as the signal's given by a flaming arrow, you will charge into the gatehouse, giving us a foothold into the city.

Mason: In streets that we do not know? We fight in streets where they have the greater number?

Floki: But it's possible that we could simply lead them in and surround their greater numbers in those smaller streets.

Cireen: That means less casualties!

Floki: Exactly!

Tripp: Cut off the head of the snake.

Mason: Your plan requires a group to enter the city. How do you expect us to do that with them, first, not knowing what is happening, and secondly, unprepared for it all.

Tripp: (I mimic his voice) I am never "unprepared for it all".

Tobias: (starts laughing)

Mason: You think your group, who have died once, and the death still lingers on you-

Floki: It doesn't linger on me.

Mason: (Glares and continues) Can-

Floki: No, I believe we should bring a larger group - not too large, maybe thirty or forty men - into the city and climb the walls secretly or go up and sneak through the water ducts to then take the gatehouse. Why would they expect such a small task force, which would basically be a suicide mission, to go in and do this? They wouldn't! They would expect a large army to stand in the field, with cock in hand, to force them to come out.

Tripp: You said yourself they're arrogant and they think themselves unbeatable.

Mason: The Inquisition does, Doran doesn't. Doran will know that the gatehouse is the weakness. He will have given it more men.

Floki: But the gatehouse is covered by a mechanism that has a counterweight. As soon as you break the counterweight, the gate will fly up. So, we simply need to break it and you run in. This is a quick and precise method. Sure, you can reinforce it, but reinforce it with how many? There's only so many people you can put in the gatehouse, and they don't know what day we are going to attack.

Mason: (Is silent and breathes deeply)

Floki: You know I'm right!

Mason: Your problem is with getting into the city. You want to attempt to climb sixty-foot walls, or swim through the water ducts.

Tripp: I can get into anywhere.

Floki: Trust us. We've thought about how to get in, we just need your agreement. We WANT to win this fight; we don't want to lose it. I am with you one-hundred-percent of the way because you are giving me the resources to fight this battle.

Lewis: At this point, Varris speaks up for the first time.

Varris: Um, well, there's issues with the sewers and the walls... they were always the weakness when we held the city before. So we improved them after each use. The sewers are lined with traps and beasts of burden that we could place down there that we didn't need to take care of that often. The walls themselves, the moment you are spotted, they will activate the traps on the walls, and I don't know about you, but I don't fancy spikes through my head and my stomach.

Cireen: So there's no way into the city is what you're saying.

Floki: No, hang on! You've just given us the best idea!

Tripp: What he's saying is that the sewers are not guarded or patrolled at all.

Floki: But you've also said that the walls are lined with traps. Why don't we set off the traps off the wall, and then every man that they have guarding the wall will die.

Varris: The traps are manually activated and are only on this side of the wall. They are built into the wall itself, so that when they spot someone climbing, they activate the traps, and spikes burst from it, killing any man trying to climb it. I grew up in it: that city is a stronghold. The only reason we lost it in the first place is because of Gaunt.

Tripp: Draw me a map of it.

Cireen: It's like we've got every piece that we need to do this, but we're missing one. Just one that is so crucial.

(Varris draws a map)

Tripp: Where is the sewer entrance and exit?