Before the defense of Demontrei began, the Northern Council sent a high-profile mission.
They brought vast amounts of gold, silver, and weapons, not only to congratulate the tribe on the victory at the Sacred Grove but also to goad them into action.
Now that the Greenskin main force was moving north, their mission was the same as the Vanguard Legion's original goal:
March out of the forest and reclaim the fallen southern territories through harassment.
Al's response was essentially: "You're right, but..."
[Al's Life Simulation] (also known as "Days in Warhammer") is an open-world simulation strategy/galgame developed by the Everchosen Warband under the guidance of the Four Mothers...
(Al thought to himself, treating it like a game logic).
He accepted the goods but put on a face of deep sorrow when talking about deploying troops.
"The previous siege was incredibly tragic. My tribe put everyone from eighty-year-olds to fourteen-year-old boys on the battlefield. The losses were heavy, blah blah blah..."
"Every house is in mourning; there is great resentment among the people. In this state, we cannot deploy troops, or it would trigger a civil war like your North-South conflict..."
"The tribe is currently a decaying building; a single kick from the outside would cause it to collapse..."
"Why else do you think the Greenskins are ignoring the forest? We won, but it was a Pyrrhic victory! The Warlord is certain the tribe can no longer threaten them, so he feels safe going north! The tribe's blood was spilled for the Estalians! If the Orcs had taken the forest and flanked Bilbali, the entire North would be in ruins!"
"I still have to host over a hundred funeral rituals a day! The bodies of the warriors who fell at the Sacred Grove haven't even all been buried! Do you want me to take you to see them? Our heroes' corpses and the enemies' are piled like mountains, and the rivers are red with blood..."
In short: Give us the money, yes; send troops, no.
The first envoy departed with regret, leaving behind dozens of wagons of supplies.
One had to admit the Estalians were rich—profits from New World colonies, massive trade volume, and various crafts from trading with Elves, Dwarfs, and even the Tomb Kings.
With their geographic advantage and trade tradition, they had accumulated immense wealth.
Unfortunately, they focused little on technical innovation.
Instead of turning their warehouses of gold and silver into factories and shipyards, they spent it on trade and private luxury.
In Marienburg, Estalian elites were symbols of the "nouveau riche," using their family wealth to splurge in the Empire to boost their prestige.
This reminded Al of "oil sheiks" or the Spanish after discovering the New World.
To the Estalians, gold and silver were not rare.
They delivered twenty crates of wealth to the tribe at once. Half was a gift, and the other half was intended as military pay for Al's deployment.
But clearly, the Estalians were used to throwing money at problems. Whether in war or luxury, they just tried to "buy" the win.
They completely ignored the fact that Al's tribe was a group of Beastmen in a forest.
The South was fallen, and the North was about to explode into war—where were they supposed to spend this money?
Trade with the Greenskins?
Or use the gold coins as marbles?
However, Al considered that money would be useful eventually. It was useless to the Beastmen—they didn't need maintenance pay since they fought for the Four Mothers and their "Little Papa" Al for free. Al only had to worry about food and supplies.
But for Estalians, wealth was status, the symbol of everything.
Though the WAAAAAGH! proved that money couldn't always outrun a Greenskin blade, having it was better than not.
Money could hire mercenaries, buy a spot on a ship to flee, or even build a teleportation circle to escape. It increased the chance of survival.
The remaining military equipment was mostly just blades, helmets, and leather armor—not high-quality stuff.
The Estalians kept the good gear for themselves; this was mostly pulled from their reserves.
Still, it was better than nothing. Even with the boost of faith, a steel sword is better than a wooden spear.
The Northern envoy did not stay long.
Since the Council had not yet found a solution for the two hundred thousand refugees who had committed the "treason" of converting to the Four Mothers, the envoy wisely stayed away from the refugee areas.
They acted as if those people didn't exist, only meeting with a few elite refugee representatives controlled by Al.
They toured the main camp, seeing poles with black cloth outside half the Beastman homes.
They were told this was a tribal tradition: if someone died, you hung a cloth to mourn, and neighbors would come to comfort you.
The atmosphere of the entire tribe, especially the Beastman families, was gloomy. Few cubs were seen playing outside.
They conducted visits from morning to night and found that the number of adult male Beastmen was indeed much lower than that of females and cubs.
They roughly believed the tribe's story.
The Beastmen had indeed suffered heavy losses. According to the Vanguard and the tribe, the Greenskin vanguard was sixty thousand strong and was nearly annihilated.
This was a brilliant feat; in the Battle of the Guadaz River, the Greenskins had less than one hundred thousand against the majority of the Northern Army.
The envoy estimated the Beastman casualties were at least a third or half of their strength.
In this situation, they couldn't push for deployment without risking making an enemy of them.
You don't ambush someone's house, ask them to help find your daughter, get their leader to fight personally, and then blame them for not doing enough after they get screwed over, right?
Right, Tyrion?