"When the walls are safe, the fields must follow."
—Jag, First Edict of the Stormwatch Reclamation
+2 Days After the Ashen Vault Defense
Stormwatch no longer trembled beneath siege.
The towers had stopped burning. The walls were rebuilt in ironstone, streaked with glowing veins of mana-rich alloy. The corpses of machines were cleared from the field, salvaged and sorted into supply crates. Quiet had returned to the mountains.
But Jag knew it was not peace. It was the silence before a different kind of war.
He stood upon the northern parapet, overseeing the valley beyond. Below him, engineers reactivated dormant runic roads. Scouts patrolled the ridgelines with new eyes. And banners flew again: deep blue with a silver gauntlet clenched around a bolt of stormlight.
Stormwatch was alive.
And now, it needed land.
[System Notice: New Arc Initiated - "Perimeter Protocol"]
Region Expansion Enabled
Territory Type: Mountain Valleys, Ruins, Forgotten Outposts
Objectives:
• Secure 3 new outer zones
• Establish 1 secondary stronghold
• Engage with 2 local factions (neutral or hostile)
Strategic Resource: 520 Gold, 2 Tokens
Unlocked Feature: Territory Governance
Command Tent - Inner Fortress
Branwyn hammered her gauntlet onto the table. "There are still broken mines up in Frosttrail Ridge. Unclaimed. Unwatched. We leave them alone, bandits move in. And if they move in, they get iron. If they get iron, they get weapons."
Ashra, seated at the map's edge, twirled a dagger between fingers. "Frosttrail's cursed. Not superstitiously. Strategically. High cliffs, low visibility, no clean supply trail."
Jag crossed his arms. "We don't need to hold the ridge. We need to seal it. One outpost. Defensive only. Enough to monitor movement and deny control."
Rialt nodded from the side. "There's also word of a neutral settlement east—Stonebarrow. Mercenary-governed. If we trade intel, they might back our claim."
[Strategic Option Selected: Frosttrail Outpost - 180 Gold]
[Optional Objective Added: Contact Stonebarrow Mercenaries - Diplomatic Chance: 62%]
Jag closed his fist. "Then we move. One unit to Frosttrail. One envoy east. The rest stays to reinforce the Vault and prepare Tower Delta."
Later That Evening - Armory Balcony
Ashra joined Jag in silence. The moon hung silver above Stormwatch, and the wind carried no scent of fire.
"We're expanding too fast," she said. "You feel it too."
Jag looked down at the flickering lamps of the refugee tents below. The people who had nowhere to run when the machines came. Now they had a place to call shelter. Maybe even home.
"Fast isn't always wrong," he replied. "Sometimes you run not to escape—but to build momentum."
Ashra smirked. "Then let's hope momentum doesn't build our graves too early."