That's exactly what should happen. The logic of the situation -- given the nature of the Ralkin, the speed with which their strength is increasing, and the competence of the Eisenfaust -- requires it.Graybeard wrote:The problem is that the Eisenfaust is big. Their members certainly number in the dozens, and probably hundreds. Played anything near straight, the outbreak of full-blown gang warfare, which is what we're starting to see here, would involve getting nearly that whole membership mobilized, with all of the -- considerable -- magical resources they can bring to bear. They would not be screwing around with party-scale skirmishes. They would be at war, and their priority would be to [/i]win[/i] the friggin' thing.
The Ralkin are also big. They sent, what was it, about sixty top-quality mercenaries with two strong mages under Captain Averis for their Southern Continent expedition, and I don't think they were sending everything they had by a long shot. Jack's posts indicate that they have been hiring mercenaries and recruiting at breakneck speed (thanks to Logan's massive financial assets), and it looks as if their weaponry (thanks to Jade) is about to take a quantum leap of quality. And they're running some kind of training base out of town to help swell their numbers of trained men. They're up in the scores and possibly in the low hundreds by now.
The thing is, though, just because there's a full-blown gang war, nothing requires you, me, or any of us to write the whole thing in detail. It should be epic - this is wrapping up a long plot after all - but most of it can, and should, take place off panel. (Just as the Ralkin buildup has been shown with a few illustrative posts by Jack, plus people talking about what's been happening.) Apocalypse Now didn't have to show the entire Vietnam War - just the parts the main character had to see to carry out his mission.
Would they? Consider - you've got an enemy force in town. You've been guessing, and now you know, that they are an enormous threat and need to be taken down ASAP (because their power and popularity are growing at an alarming rate). You now know that their top men are powerful mages. And the people who've brought you the information...have also brought two elves, as well as some other people who have the right kind of skills for a magic fight. Even if you know nothing else, you know elves are powerful.Graybeard wrote:The more so since the Eisenfaust brain trust would certainly not trust Udo, Drusia, etc., and would insist on fighting their own battles.
So what would a rational Eisenfaust do? Like good opportunists, I think they'd want to take advantage of these powerful (and inexpensive! and expendable!) assets -- by letting them take part in the most dangerous part of the battle, the raid on Aleron's HQ. And if they didn't "trust" them to be strong enough to do it, perhaps they'd find a way to test them first...
And provide them with some assistance in getting to the fight, and a limited amount of help in the fight, and maybe some backup in case they got the worst of it. But why risk your best mages against Aleron and Eli if a group of