Austable glared at the surveyor as she pointed out the new hillock on his map of the battlefield. What he once thought would be a skirmish against provincial upstarts had turned into a multiple-day duel against a competent rival cartomancer.
"--and fourteen stadi in height, with a grade of four per cent on the all sides but the south, which is eight per cent," finished the surveyor. She sprinted from the command tent, clutching her sextant. Austable set pen to paper and began to ink the hill in the green color he had selected to represent his foe. Nearby on the map was a wood block carved into a rank of infantrymen - no doubt about to take position on the high ground.
Across the command tent, the Baron took a report and strode over to the drafting table. A small gaggle of lieutenants followed, but the Baron held up his palm to still them until his Master Cartomancer finished.
"Have the armies' positions changed?" Austable asked.
The Baron gestured, and one of his lieutenants moved forward to rearrange the wooden models arrayed across the battle map. "My left flank is weakening," the Baron said. "This company has been holding a stand of trees all day, under repeated sallies from the enemy. I had other uses in mind for my reserves. Can you give them a more defensible position?"
The cartomancer's brow furrowed. "It would be a small matter to add a tributary to this stream, here. A waterway could impede the enemy while providing some relief for our troops between enemy attacks."
The general burst into the command tent, her eyes wild, shouting for the Baron. "Do it," the Baron ordered, turning away. His lieutenants followed.
Austable inked his pen, and carefully drew a watercourse into the woods on the left flank. The ink danced between the trees, sinuous, always flowing downhill - just as a real woodland stream might. Austable joined it up with the nearby river. With a flourish, he began adding cartomantic cartouches around his alteration of the map. A small border, to limit the scope of his magic - a windrose, to invoke water and air--
And now it was real. Out on the battlefield, a streamlet had burst forth from the ground and carved its way through the forest in an instant. The Baron's troops had water and a barrier to defend.
Austable as he leaned back with satisfaction. The general frowned at him. "Would that you could draw enemy soldiers out of existence," she said, terse.
"You know the limits of my magic as well as I. I can affect nothing human."
A scout surveyor ducked into the tent, interrupting them. The surveyor charged over to the map, grabbed a free marker, and placed it on the parchment near a block representing a battalion of enemy soldiers. "New thicket here," the surveyor gasped, out of breath, then sped away.
"Extent?" Austable bellowed after him. "Thickness?
Height? I need data!
You know this!"
The surveyor sped away, nearly barreling into another surveyor coming in to report a change. A small cliff now protected the enemy siege engines.
"Does shouting at apprentices assist in your art?" queried the Baron, arching his eyebrow. "Nearly every physical magician I have known does the same."
Austable growled. "You should hear the diviners. Anyway, it makes me feel better." He inked his pen again.
The thicket would have to wait for a better report. Austable had barely started to draft the cliff on his map, when yet another of his scouts came to report that the opposing cartomancer had created a sinkhole. Austable took his arm to prevent him from running off. Suspicious, the Master Cartomancer asked, "how complex is the new physical feature?"
"Basic," recalled the surveyor. "Steep sides, squarish."
"That means it's not going to last," mused Austable.
The scout nodded. "The sides are already crumbling into a slope. It may be a few hours."
"Something happening?" The Baron's general approached the table.
"I think I know the enemy cartomancer's strategy," Austable suggested. He pointed out the temporary markers indicating new features on the map. "The effectiveness of my magic depends on this map being accurate. That means I have to incorporate the enemy's changes in order to make my own."
The Baron nodded. "Otherwise, even with all the right sigils, nothing happens."
"Correct." The cartomancer spied his chief surveyor over the general's shoulder, and waved her over. "Another change?"
"Stand of trees," she replied, placing two fingers on the map. "Straight line east to west. Pine. Sixty stadi across, not five deep, two tall." She vanished into the battlefield again.
The general made a noise, and the Baron turned to her. "Pine," she mused, then looked to Austable. "Easy to draw?"
The Cartomancer nodded. "I believe my opponent has set his apprentices to try to make as many changes as possible. They are not very skillful, and perhaps not of great combat utility, but it renders me useless until I can render all the changes properly."
"What do you need?" asked the Baron.
"Perhaps I could have my own apprentice help me to draft all the changes. It will be a challenge for my surveyors, though. And at this rate, it will take me well into the night to catch up."
"Better approach this fight assuming I don't have magic on my side," the general stated, and marched off to issue her orders.
"The night is perfect for a cartomantic surprise," warned the Baron. "I need another option."
"I wonder if...you!" Austable seized one of the nearby surveyors, and pointed out the tent opening to a scaffold. "Take your glass. Climb that observation platform. Find all the cartomantic changes you can. Tell me if any of them are outside the active battlefield."
The surveyor rushed off.
"I hate cartomancers' duels," muttered Austable, but the Baron was taking a report and did not hear. Austable was too tired for this blitz. But, he reminded himself, if his foe was trying to outsmart him, brute strength would not work as a counter. He and the Baron would have to be cleverer than the enemy.
Breathless, the surveyor returned. "Well?" Austable demanded, while the boy heaved himself against the drafting table.
"No," he told Austable. "Just in here." A hand circled a quarter of the map. "Nothing outside."
The Baron's attention was on the cartomancer again. "What does this give you?"
Austable's lip curled upward. "The accuracy of my map is compromised.
On the battlefield." He pointed. "This orchard, here - If you were the enemy army, you would plan to raid that for dinner. I can make it vanish." His hand shifted. "This river supplies water to the adversary. I can add a boulder field, limiting access."
The Baron touched the parchment with his finger. "The left flank. The enemy knows it is weakening. If we pull it back, and deploy the reserves to the right, the entire battlefield shifts.... You could place high ground here for us to claim."
"And a cliff wall here, to pin the enemy against," finished Austable. "This will take my concentrated efforts. How long can you give me?"
"The armies will be here into tomorrow," said the Baron. "We can move at first light. Change the orchard and the river first, to make certain our enemy is hungry and thirsty by then."
Austable was already sketching. "I suppose the cartomantic surprise tonight will be ours."
Originally Posted by jshoer
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