Hex Crawl 23 #219: Sun's Greeting Castle

Four hexes southwest, six northwest of Alakran.

 

The mighty Sun's Greeting Castle is the command post of the eastern armies of Wahattu and their governor, Bukhabar Shum. Its foundations surmount a beetling hill with a view of Gesshed, Sutekh's Knee, and all the lands beyond. It takes a chain of three men to scale its outer walls, and its inner walls are twice as high; there are eight watchtowers without, and four within, and their parapets are proving grounds for all manner of siege engine devised by his engineers.

Shum is tall and powerfully built, with crinkled eyes the only marks of his years. He is the consummate military man and loves the sound of drums, the ring of bronze, and the shouts of disiplined men more than anything else. He handles the intrigues and jealousies around him with good humor, for his castle is staffed by delegations from all the companies under his command, and he must show favor to none. Only his company of engineers, the World-Bearing Ants with Stingers of Fire, and his quartermaster corps are stationes exclusively here.

The companies under his command are listed below.

1. The Obliterating Company of the Leaden Fist (heavy infantry)
   
2. The Never-Retreating Hunting Company of the Spearpoints of Dawn (axebeak cavalry)
3. The Immoveable Shoulders of the Wall of Garam (heavy infantry)
   
4. The Cloud-Skimming Company of the Crescent  (heavy infantry)
5. The Earth-Cleaving Company of the Crescent  (heavy infantry)
6. The Skin-Flaying Screen of Hail and Dust (skirmish slingers)
7. The Infiltrating Mists of the Darkest Hour (spies and skirmish javelineers)
8. The Avalanche of Rounded Granites (heavy eland chariot, patrolling the road Nama'a to the west)
9. The Wheels of Peku Which Roll to the Horizon (gnu-wagon mobile crossbowmen)

There are also military attachés from the military governor of Pnokath to the north, and separately from the Prince and his Black Gazelles of Gilded Horn chariot company. As well, there is a liaison from the regular army -- yes, Wahattu has a regular army, providing spear and bow troops -- who answers directly to the King.

For official business or situations where his authority needs to be exercised, Bukhabar Shum prefers to receive people in his Great Hall of the inner keep, surrounded by honor guards and emissaries of his companies. For more private matters, he receives in his audience hall in Gesshed, or even more intimately, in the dusty courtyard of that palace where he is wont to do morning exercises.