"Accept the trade," Klargus commanded. "And send a to King Harlaus. Tell him if he feasts one more time while our villages are raided by forest bandits, I’ll use my 'Persuasion' skill to convince the other lords to start a faction for a new claimant."

As the messenger scrambled away, Klargus realized that while the steel of a sword was sharp, a well-placed letter could bleed a kingdom dry without losing a single knight. He sat back down, picked up his quill, and began drafting a marriage proposal to a lady with a very large dowry and even larger land holdings.

Klargus sighed. In the old days, Sanjar Khan would have simply ridden over the hills with five hundred horse archers. Now, the Khan was sending polite letters. Klargus looked at his treasury report. His had been busy; taxes were being collected efficiently, and the local peasants actually liked him for once because he’d lowered the duty on grain.