James,
The fact that a standing militia exists could actually be a boon to your efforts if your truly looking to help. The resources they have are limited to what they have been able to raise on their own with a few donations here and there from myself and some of the others in town and their organization is still shaping up and at this stage is mostly held in clusters of farmsteads and smaller villages. In my work the last year and a half, i have worked with the militia to keep them aware of threats and try to build safety plans and fallback positions should we ever fail to contain an incursion. The militias other primary goal is to give advance warning of any threats.
Simply put, I haven't made updates because I don't think its my place to speak for them or to lead them. I know McGregor also has worked with them on his own from time to time. They worked with me to coordinate then Commander, now Baron, Iden's troops withdraw from the area and the resulting recursion by the corrupt in the spring and by all accounts did quite well for themselves in minimizing casualties until the Guardians and adventurers returned to take up the brunt of the fighting once more. I will give them information and support on demand or in case of emergency and as I know quite a few personally. I'm sure a bit of training couldn't hurt them and many would most likely volunteer if the training was available, free, and easy to access.
These are not professional soldiers but many have served their time of service to the crown and already know some basic weapon skills and in some cases effective small unit tactics applicable for fending off small corrupt scout groups but not sufficient for major action. I stress to you most strongly, these people are farmers, shopkeepers, and tradespeople not soldiers and not adventurers. They make a living by working hard everyday and don't have a lot of spare time to spend traveling to schools, learning magics, or advanced weapon skills. If they choose to do so it is in their already limited leisure time that they are volunteering to protect theirs and their neighbors families not for use in full scale battle. I can hardly think we will train an effective army able to hold off any serious incursion where the King's men can only manage the task with the grand fortress at the anvil. This is not to serve as an attack on them but to try to stay in the realm of reality, they can could man fixed positions, possibly manage egress and cover the civilian retreat. Point of fact, in my opinion they will fight to on to a spirit if they think their families and homes are threatened but only in that case.
In my opinion your best bet is to work on a system by which adventurers can have advance warning of incursions and everyone in the area has a bolt hole should things get bad. Light houses or more cheaply signal fires and a few towers can take care of the advance warning, safe houses is a harder point to contend with and is why Guardian Mcgregor has stressed the importance of building a wall around the main village in the area. I think properly supplied with arrows and stones the militia could hold the wall for a while. Hopefully we can contain whatever threatens them and beat back the assault. It does put our eggs in one basket but needs must when the storm drives the sails. This does not address the problem of the more far flung farmsteads but thats a problem best taken up later because its a long discussion.
As for the Baron's not having a full awareness of the region, cut the man some slack, he just came back from months long excursions looking for Prince Talen and has just arrived here. He might not have been aware of all the details at the time and while he's granted you permission, the expense may not be worth the effort without the support of the already standing militia. The idea of this outpost is a good one but to truly make a large impact it needs replication several time over to be more geographically accessible to all the folks in Hopes Reach. For now though your likely to draw several people during slow season to work with if you can offer free training and that can't hurt.
I can put you in touch with some of them if you like or likely they may contact you of their own volition since you've publicly stated a desire to help them. The people of hopes reach are the hardy ones, the ones who didn't run and chose to make a go of it with us. My advice, keep it simple because they have lives to lead outside these plans, keep them in mind and seek their consensus because they are volunteers and likely to ignore you entirely if you don't.
Fern Woods
Sheriff of Hopes Reach
