"Why not simply send the mercenaries first?" you ask. You certainly would prefer to see thine countrymen, commoners as they may be, to live over the soldiers of fortune. "Condottieri such are these are all too likely to break out into looting sprees if not carefully watched. It would be unwise to send them in first." your liege answers.

"I see, then-" but before you are able to ask your question, you are interrupted by some loud shouting outside. You turn your head to see the source, hearing what appears to be some arguing from the guards, before the source of the sound is let in. A weary messenger stumbles in, face clearly caught in shock.

"My lords! We have most urgent news. One of the traders reports, that as he had been passing through the coast up east...he had seen an army.

The temperature in the room seems to drop, though none comment. Don Carles, however, simply raises his hand to his chin, and begins to scratch it.

"Tell me all that this trader hath said."

And so, the man does. According to the messenger, one of the many traders who had come to sell their wares to the camping army - a Silenian, you believe - had been sailing some distance form the coast during the night when he saw a great smoke rising from the coast. The source was soon visible even to him: campfires, hundreds of them, burning out through the night. That there is but one reason for such a large "caravan" to be moving westwards comes to you without say.

The Fortelli are making their move.

Perhaps they had dealt with their immediate northerly threads. Perhaps they had beat off the force in Avonna, or perhaps some other event which you did not know of had driven them to believe themselves safe, safe enough to ride out to strike down your siege. If what the giant hath said about them to be true, this was no meager force, either...giants, mercenaries, and even the Famiglia, those dread horsemen whom you had heard so threateningly about.

The messenger is soon sent away, but the mood of the meeting has turned entirely. Your situation has changed from that of impending success to one of approaching doom.

"Well, that certainly complicates this matter, does it not?" comments Don Fadrique, his voice lacking his usually jovial tone.

"It does not." comments Salazar, the old veteran. "It simply assures us that we must take the city ever more rapidly. Pay the sappers twice, thrice if it is able to drive them to work to bring those walls sooner."

"It will not be fast enough, Baron." comments Octavi. You hear some tension in how he speaks. "You had heard the reports. They had already passed the Spiaggia pass. It will be little more than a week before they arrive at the Carsa river! There is not enough time to reform our men after the siege. We shall be weakened by the assault, and they shall use the very same breaches we made to take us."