The party returns from the goblin cave, delivers Gronk to the Company surgeon, reports in, rests, and resupplies. They attend at gathering of The Society at Everwatch and get their first glimpse of High-Guard Fortress. Kironius Mengst gives a speech to the assembled soldiers, transcript below.
MENGST:
Okay, listen up. We’ve got some new faces here – the entire Op 3 squad is coming up after the ambush last month, and I know Sergeant bin Warri has some new blood as well. Welcome to the Company.
It’s also become clear that Lieutenant Melvar isn’t going to be coming back to us – the unit I sent into the South a year ago hasn’t been able to turn him up. With that in mind, I’m hereby granting Sergeant Major Stein the rank of Lieutenant and promoting him to Company XO.
Now, if it were up to me, I’d just keep the Kisharans bottled up in the South forever, but it’s just not going to happen. As you can see, they’ve made considerable improvements in the range of those damnable guns in the year we’ve been here. All they have to do is push us far enough down the back side of this ridge – they’ll bring Stonehand’s army through the gates under cover of cannon fire, and they’ll take back the North. Make no mistake, we will lose the waiting game, not them.
We have to take this fortification.
So let’s see what we’re up against. For those of you who haven’t met him, Smoot is the Company Chief Engineer. I know a lot of you have some right terrible thoughts about gnomes, and I can’t blame you for it, but Smoot fought alongside the Emperor against the Kisharans at Aidan’s Crossing thirty years ago when they first came through the gate, and he’s been fighting them ever since. Chief?
SMOOT:
Right, this here is the Bubblesneezer Anti-Infantry Scattershot Cannon – named for their inventor Vernon Bubblesneezer, now the Dean at the University of Invention in Penshin, and, I hear, very fondly regarded by the Lady Cyan Marinetta – and who can blame her – he gave the Southlanders the most terrifying weapon that the world has ever seen.
What you’ve got is a cart-portable long-bore gun that uses a specialized chamber to fire self-contained powder and ordinance cartridges. It can be loaded, and loaded fast, with a variety of munitions – including exploding slugs for indirect fire and a loose shot for shredding infantry formations.
The real bitch about the things is that we still don’t know how they work. The bastards have them AND the cartridges rigged with some kind of booby-trap that spites the guns, and not only makes them useless, but somehow completely destroys a component that must be vital in their operation. I shit you not, boys and girls, these things make no damn bit of sense with those parts missing. And whatever the rigging is, it’s easy to set off, and the gun crews will die making sure it happens. In the eight years since their push into the Northlands we have yet to get hold of a single one of these guns in a functional state, and believe we, we’ve tried. Better men than the lot of us will ever be – beggin yer pardon Cap’n – have died trying or, at best, come back with busted guns.
MENGST:
And the news gets worse. We’re received reliable intelligence that Bubblesneezer is about to unveil the next generation of the gun. This one has a special barrel which will increase its range by several hundred yards, and…an auto-loading mechanism. Allowing the gun to fire many, many times in a single minute. One of these guns with an infantry formation, or on a ship, could completely dominate the battlefield. Our time…is up. These weapons aren’t in production yet, but word has it that Bubblesneezer is hard at work perfecting the design. We can likely expect to see them by the spring.
Now, you may think, given our particular circumstance, that those guns being easy to disable is a good thing, but you’d be wrong, because unless some other miracle happens, there’s an army much bigger than ours right on the other side of those gates, and they’re itching for a fight. Even if we take the fortress, they’ll blow the walls to hell with cannon from the ground and be over them before we can fortify the place.
Somehow…some…how…we need to infiltrate the fortress, bar the south gate, open the north gate, capture and turn the guns on the Kisharans and make them pull back out of range. Oh…and let’s not forget the ten-thousand-year-old geomancer with a direct line to a dark goddess…he’s in there too…and he did that… [points to the statues]
I’ve got no problem admitting to you lot that I have no idea how we can accomplish this. That’s where you come in. Discover the things I don’t know, discover that which is hidden, discover that which will give us a chance. This is The Society’s imperative. This is our mission.
Lieutenant, you have your orders.
Drawing found in the dirt inside a tent
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc188/Mayvik/DirtSketch3.jpg
Alton jurnel daeye wun:
Ai aem lurneng haow tu reede end writ frome mai mein seow ai chen leurn end writ reapourts seow ai aem maekeng theis jurnel tu peractus teuday wee gaut bach frume ouer mishin tu de gohbluns. Grounck gaut heeld end wee wur sendt tu lishun tu a speek bye menksdt eat wus gued thiss writeng is hared
Poppy’s soliloquy of laments…witnessed by Gronk, snoring on a nearby cot
I still have…
The blanket
The weapons…I need a better crossbow. I have too many targets
Dinner stuff…plus a few spices
My clothing… counting the stained cloak
Gold!…I finally got paid!
A Moriel…who told me to go home.
I could have told her my home is cinder, smoke, and ashes, but even that wouldn’t be true because the cinders and smoke are all gone. You figure the elves, being wise and all would know that dead ash isn’t home. But, no, she sees a bunch of stone soldiers and tells me to go home! Maybe she thinks ash is better than stone? I’d rather be a stone statue than something flighty and forgettable like ash. At times I’m not sure where her mind is! She’s an elf who needs to learn that ashes can’t be anything, especially a home. She is my home.
Now to focus on making history! The archery contest is the road to glory and bright-sunflower, satin shoes! Maybe a new cloak…I wonder if Itchy can get me some pink fur trim.
*Poppy takes a moment to study an unsuspecting, slumbering Gronk*
I wonder what Gronk would think about helping me with my target practice a bit while we travel.
Poppy lays back on her cot, her ponderings eventually turn into dreams of apple-juggling dwarves, the victory march of Poppy the Halfling Queen of Archers, and ashes. Gronk continues to loudly snore the night away.
Against her will, Moriel realised she was starting to, well, _like_ was too strong a word, but at least the dwarf seemed like a decent person. He kept encouraging Poppy, and even threatened one of the humans when he was getting a little bit too uppity. Not that Poppy was unable to take care of that herself, but she appreciated the effort anyway.
The trip back to Hillcrest went without problems, Gronk riding on Moriel’s horse. She headed for the infirmary, the dwarf sleeping on the back of her mount.
As they arrived, one of the humans woke the medic at the infirmary. He took one look at the dwarf, then telling them they should go to Everwatch. Even at this time of the night, getting a cart was not exactly hard; they quickly found a cart with a driver, loaded Gronk and Poppy into it, and drove off, Moriel riding after them, taking care to look as if she was rested and alert.
As soon as they were out of sight, she stopped the cart for a few moments, tying her horse to the back of it, and told the driver she would ride in the cart, to spare her horse. He looked as if he had no idea what to think of her, nor her request, he just nodded, looking at her with wide eyes as she got into the wagon and settled down beside Poppy to get some rest.
The elf awoke with a start at the sound of thunder. Or at least it sounded like thunder. She quickly realised they were cannons, though. She grabbed her bow, and got on her horse, half expecting to arrive in the middle of a battle. The driver did not look too worried, though, so she assumed this was usual.
As they arrived at the encampment, they were met by the surgeon and a couple of assistants, who led Gronk to a nearby building. She and Poppy watched for a while, then decided that Gronk was in good hands, and they left.
Poppy spent the next hours, as expected, running around looking at everything, with Moriel following. And before she really knew how it happened, the two of them were standing on the hill above Everwatch, face to face with Mengst.
As usual, Poppy chattered on, but at least Mengst did not seem to take any offense. When the halfling mentioned the dwarf being hurt, though, he did look worried. So before Poppy could confuse him further, Moriel told him that the dwarf would live. The relief on his face was obvious, and she wondered why the dwarf was so important.
After Poppy had asked a couple of questions, they left, and spent some time wandering around the encampment, waiting for the others to arrive, and for the briefing to begin.
**
Listening to the words of Mengst, Moriel, for the first time, started to realise why her people had chosen not to fight. Had their numbers been greater, it would have been different, perhaps. At least they might have been able to do something about the sorcerer. Or maybe not, there was a cruelty and a will to sacrifice others in what he had done, and she was not sure if any of her people could match that.
And a dark godess on his side? She was not sure what to think of that. It might be rumours, superstition, but then again, it might be true.
Suddenly, she longed for the forest, wanted to smell the damp earth and the sweet smell of grass again. Not the rank smell of unwashed humans and death that surrounded this place.
She turned to look west, towards the forest. She could not see it, but she felt it, keenly. It called to her, pulling at her, summoning her.
She spent the rest of the day fighting the urge to take Poppy and her horse and ride back to her forest.