Dekar 3rd Cash, 858 C.U.
At last, after months of following leads, living on the trail, and having the stuffing beaten out of them, The Heroes reluctantly and nervously approach the Seed Fort, nestled in the center of the star-shaped valley. A greeter welcomes the Gang from G‘Meth into the fort and shows them to their barracks. She is quite surprised to see how few there are; Bruno explains that they were ambushed on the way in, killing almost all of the force.
The long suffering heroes settle into the barracks in the Seed Fort, and quickly locate the baths. Most jump at the opportunity to cleanse themselves of the mudbaths they have recently taken and head to the showers, then back to the barracks for a comfortable (last?) night’s sleep.
The Seed Fort looks strange in 2nd sight. There is a weird resonance, falling inward feeling. There is a sense of reality being twisted 90 degrees out of true. The Seed Fort has six lobes: one for each of the usual elements, and two more for Void and Time. The elements are not pure: there is something tainted about them.
A woman who introduces herself as Cora brings food. She also is surprised at how small the group is. Those present introduce themselves: Cadmium, Zane, Esteya. Cadmus, er, Cadmium tells the harrowing tale of how the dwarves attacked the group on the road to an unimpressed Cora. Bruno asks about duty at the fort, and Cora says that that will be soon enough, but any sorcerers will be called on sooner. Esteya and Cadmus begin hatching a plan for him to be a “sorcerer” so that she won’t have to go in alone. Besides, Cadmus is sooo much better at finding ways to disrupt things…
In order for Cadmus to be believable as a sorcerer, they plan to summon a seasonal defender spawn to make his armor look less “metallic.” Using the Quick Summon feature, Esteya hops to and summons the spawn, only to get knocked out. The others follow suit…but was it the rite, or the sandwiches?
Cut to Bhames, Super Spy:
Bhames has spent the last few weeks frantically trying to catch up with the Heroes, narrowly missing them at several points. He was ambushed by a fairly large group of Hai. Bhames had them surrounded, really, but conveniently the same group of Harmonizers that the Heroes have had several dealings with turned up and help Bhames put the Hai to flight. Even though Bhames is in one of his clever disguises, they recognize him right away.
After that they traveled together, both heading north. They were investigating a sense of disharmony in the area. They parted ways when Bhames found the Heroes’ back trail, until he was deterred by a huge landslide. Reunited with the Harmonizers, they enter the Star Valley together and make camp.
While wandering around, a huge horse-sized wolf leaps over some brush and pounces on Bhames, licking his face. A scrawly young man pokes his head over the bushes and calls the wolf off. The group makes the man welcome, and he warns that the MoFoni are looking for MoFoni that aren’t MoFoni (that’s how the Zanklerites arrived in the valley and did not attract too much interest). He is a cook for at the fort, and was out hunting. He works for someone named P’Tang. The group is suspicious, but decides to keep an eye on the boy and his dog.
Bhames starts to scout, and soon a bush accosts him, saying that Captain Rann is interested in the reason for his presence in this remote but crowded locale. Even though Bhames is in one of his clever disguises, the bush ranger recognizes him right away. He is escorted in to meet with Captain Rann, and learns about the Serpentine Cohort that has the fort and valley surrounded. Bhames says that he is there to met with the Heroes, and the Captain says that they spied a group matching that description being carried into the fort on stretchers.
Bhames takes his leave to rescue his comrades, and the Captain gives Bhames a device that can summon help in event of an emergency. The ranger accompanies Bhames back to the Zanklerite camp. On the way there, Bhames finds a bat in his belfry. In spite of Bhames’ clever disguise, the bat immediately recognizes him, and announces in his squeaky voice that his master wishes to speak with Bhames on a matter of extreme importance. Bhames follows the bat down into a gulley where he meets a dwarf in the colors of Hyung’s pioneers.
The officer explains that the pioneers were hired to construct an elaborate fort and citadel out in the middle of the Pale, and were paid an enormous amount to HellWalk to this location , with promises of even greater rewards upon completion of the project. However the pioneers were immediately suspicious and created a secret passage into the middle of the fort. The officer gives Bhames a key, and instructions on how to disarm the many booby traps that line the passage. In further conversation he also explains to Bhames that the pioneers have had to swear certain oaths which prevent them from acting against the leader of the group, an individual identified as a woman named P’Tang (causing Bhames’ ears to prick up). They can, however , hold off the MoFoni.
Bhames and the ranger return to the Zanklerites’ camp. They agree to help Bhames rescue his friends. Bhames asks the ranger if any of the serpentine cohort can assist. The ranger goes off and two others return, saying that they are the only ones free to help right away. The cohort is scattered all over the valley, and to round more up would take over an hour.
The seven Harmonizers, two rangers, Bhames and the Boy, Rafzakael ,and his wolf, Rhedd, proceed to the well-concealed entrance to the tunnel. They manage to avoid the traps, and surface behind a stove in a store room. They see two guards, and several bound and hooded figures.
One of the rangers opens the secret door, Bhames shoots one of the guards in the head with a well-placed arrow, and a Zanklerite harmoniously disembowels the second with a sword. The third guard, previously unseen, starts to sound the alarm, and the other ranger silences him with a dart.
The Heroes all wake up with hellaciously bad headaches that don’t go away. Their mouths feel dry and it’s very dark. As heads clear they recognize that something has been stuffed in their mouths, and they have chainmail hoods over their heads. As Bruno wriggles, someone kicks him in the ribs and tells him to cut it out.
Cadmus stretches to pop his bindings. He is rewarded with a whap upside the head with a horseman’s mace. Grumbling, the whomper asks if he can kill the captives, but the response is that P’Tang will give them the same chance to live as everyone else, unless they make trouble.
Bruno gets a weird sense…doesn’t feel as nervous as he should. He hears a familiar strain of music in his head…familiar from long ago. He is strangely OK with being KO’ed and tied up: “Someone could have been hurt if we resisted…it is a good thing we were out cold when they came for us!”
The trussed Heroes hear a large noise: a hole punch going through a ‘57 Studebaker (twice). There is a schwit and a gurgle, then schwing, then things get quiet. Bhames approaches the Bruno sized bundle and unbundles him. They quickly unbind the rest while the Zanklerites keep watch. The Heroes are disheartened to realize that all their gear is gone. Pim gets upset because her sword is gone, and she starts to sniff around and ask spiders for help.
Bhames asks Bruno and Cadmus, “Do you want to do the smart thing or the dumb thing…go down the tunnel and escape, or go wreak revenge on the fort?”
Bhames quickly recounts his adventures and details the situation outside the fort. He tells the assembled that P’Tang is a TyrNai fem with gold hair and amethyst eyes. Hmmm…then not Gwen…
A voice pipes out from the tunnel, “I’m Rafzakael, and I’ve been with these people. I supposedly work for the P’Tang people, but I don’t like them.” He is outfitted like an RA auxiliary, but is a (small) step up from street urchin. The Harmonizers enter, followed by a huge wolf—it’s not small…for a horse!
There are supplies in the room including some liters of soulflower potion, kegs of beer and three sets of not-so-gently-used armor.. Raf takes the brig pants, boots, and chainmail hauberk, Cadmus takes the brig armor and open helm. Zatchel takes the third set while Bhames dons the tabard and gives Cadmus and Bruno swords Fishstick and Desire Left Unsatisfied.
“We’ll sit here and deal with this beer problem” says a happy Conrad, who immediately draws himself a liter or three. Zatchel, Cadmus, Esteya and Bhames (the latter 2 invisible) step out into the dim antechamber. Chandra, HerrHjeen, Pim, Blix, Doddie go out the tunnel to persuade the MoFoni to join the Right cause.
After some reconnoitering, they find that they are in a storeroom, in between two other storerooms at the end of one of the Seed Fort’s six lobes. There are heavy doors in front of them and they hear the faint sounds of chanting and feel the crackle of massive amounts of loose mana. The room to the right has many complex wardings, probably demonic in nature. The room to the right has a simple screamer ward, which is quickly untangled and the padlock picked. Most of the Heroes’ gear is piled in that room, except for Chandra’s bow and Cadmus’ best swords.
Blix’ belongings are carefully stacked on one side by themselves, and on the other side of the room are a box with arcane symbols on it, and a saucer shaped object with writing on the edges. The Heroes grab their gear and get dressed up for a soiree.
Peeking through the cracks in the doors at the end of the antechamber, they see a large room with a warded circle with sorcerers inside. There are guards standing watch between the warding and the walls of the room. The ceremony probably has been going on for days. It’s vaguely elementalish, but not of a particular element. Seven sorcerers and three bouncers are inside the warding: six sorcerers standing at points of a six-sided star, with a tall curtain shimmering along the boundary of the star. A seventh sorcerer stands in the middle —Mitzi!
The Heroes decide that there is not enough time to rely on help from the Serpentine Cohort: the ceremony is too far along. They choose to be stupid and fight the overwhelming odds.
A plan is formed: Esteya will create an illusion that makes the doors appear to be closed and locked. After casting Invisibility on herself, she will ease into the ceremony and begin to draw off energy to enable the others to take potshots at the sorcerers without the risk of creating a crater. The Harmonizers, in synch with Esteya, will help channel the mana safely away. With the illusion of the closed door in place, the others can fire off missile weapons to pick off the guards. The group will get a signal when it’s safe to target the sorcerers, although Cadmus will keep track in second sight in case Esteya can’t signal. Bruno hands Esteya a bottle of the contact poison/flamer potion.
The sense of doom permeates the Heroes’ psyches. None expects to survive, given the huge numbers present in the chamber, and the huge amount of mana being loosed. IF they can draw off enough mana to avoid leaving a Lake Merrell size crater, and IF they can defeat the overwhelming numbers of fighters, they might just live to cause trouble another day…
After the Harmonizers and Esteya ritually prepare, the spells are cast and Bhames and Esteya go out into the central chamber. Bruno uses the “Eeeek” wire to summon the Serpentine Cohort to save their collective tushes while Esteya slides through the butcher-than-anticipated warding. There is an element to “keep things in” and another to “keep things out” and she must watch for a lull between the two before easing in without breaking the connectivity of the circle.
An invisible Bhames sneaks around to the left to another entryway, and enters a corridor with two doors leading to rooms with waiting guards. He bars the door so that a roomful of guards can’t come out to play, and then tosses some incendiary concoctions to keep another roomful of guards at bay. He drops caltrops at the entrance of the first door.
Bruno, preparing for battle, asks Conrad, “How many beers have you had?” “I dunno…how many are there in the storeroom?” “A barrel.” Conrad happily toasts Omak, gaining His blessing before going into battle.
Cadmus makes his second sight roll, and sees the mana getting drawn off . He sees tendrils of something big trying to emerge …tendrils descending from nothingness below the ceiling…..something powerful and wrong…. After 2 min of invisibility Esteya appears and Cadmus springs into action, tossing 2 francescas. One hits the guy in front of him, but the other gets tangled in his gear, forcing him to spend time getting his gear in gear. Zatchel tries to help, after shaking his head and chuckling. Bruno shoots at Mitzi with his spawn arrow. The arrow enters the circle but is refracted at the boundary. It is deflected downward and hits Mitzi in the toe…got her in the sole…just not the right one! It stops before it goes into her leg. Projectile dysfunction!
A guard sounds a horn to summon others, and the Heroes begin to panic after looking at the numbers already present. The guards near Bhames work on breaking down the door. Raf slings a rock, but it falls harmlessly at edge of the warding circle. His next shot hits Cadmus in the back of the head. Fortunately Cadmus is still hoodwinked by his gear to recognize it as friendly fire.
The plan is working: mana is flowing off, being dispersed by the Harmonizers. But Esteya has attracted the interest of the Stone Dwarf inside the circle. He swings his axe and carves a notch in her leg. She prays fervently to Ardenalah and sees (and feels) giant hands fore and aft that support her and help her drain more mana from the circle. The Harmonizers’ song gets stronger.
Bhames takes his time focusing on his Hail Mary spawn arrow, willing it to skewer Mitzi’s red-coiffed head. Mary smiles and nods…. Thirty two points of spawn goodness hit and pop Mitzi’s head like a zit. She sprawls. The tendrils pause as Esteya opens up the conduits to counteract the imbalance. Fighting to redirect the flow and back pressure building up, she forgets about the Stone dwarf, who cuts another notch in her arm.
Cadmus hears the Green March in his head and he starts singing along (Oh, yeah, eh, says Bruno…that’s the song I was hearing earlier!). There is a high keening sort of wail from inside the warding circle. and demons appears outside the circle.
Two demons appear: a yellow baby-faced imp appears behind some guards on the right, and a giant purple imp with a long serpentine neck appears in front of Bhames. The guards that have escaped the waiting room (and stepped on the caltrops) see Bhames’ tabard and pause to help him fight the demon. Bhames yelps, “Help me soldiers of P’Tang!”
Zatchel goes through the Illusionary door and approaches a guard. He takes a solid hit in the chest and collapses. He’s badly wounded, and tries to heal himself. Cadmus leaps over him to wade into the fray.
Esteya jumps through the curtain toward Mitzi’s body (and away from the dwarf), and sees a tendril reaching for Mitzi. She maneuvers herself so that the Hand touches the tendril and begins drawing mana at a faster pace. The TyrNai bouncer snaps a pole flail at her and leaves a head-sized divot in the stone floor. She yells for help.
Conrad goes after the bouncers inside the warding circle. As he passes through the wards his armor crackles and sparks at the pointy bits, he is replaced momentarily by a backlit x-ray image, and is wounded. Heedless, Conrad attacks the Stone dwarf. In return the dwarf’s axe mangles Conrad’s shield. Conrad’s next swing puts a big notch in the dwarf’s axe.
Cadmus chomps at two badguys, and the rangers toss them the rest of the way. Two down…many, many hands to go…He then heads over to help Conrad with the Stone Dwarf (wow! Cadmus is dust-free!) and makes a critical hit—the biggest dwarf he’s ever seen and he saved up for it! Right in the brisket! The dwarf parries, and Cadmus gouges the axe and the dwarf’s side, but doesn’t do much damage. Cadmus jumps out of the way, and leaves Conrad in control for a nice hit.
Bruno attacks the guards on the outside of the circle while Esteya (praying fervently for help from Ardenalah) tosses a lightning bolt at the TyrNai flailboy. It doesn’t slow him down—he advances through the curtain. She tries to Blarney her way to persuade him not to swing at her again since it will destabilize the circle and cause them all to splode, to no effect. Instead she attracts the interest of archers, and her arm sprouts an arrow as flailboy misses another shot, taking another chunk out of the floor.
The wolf pads into the melee and forces a badguy to jump back into the baby-faced demon. The demon smacks out, and squishes the head of the badguy. Rhedd runs by, going after archers. He leaps, pounces, and gets tangled up in the guard’s gorget when he goes for the jugular.
Bhames’ parries stylishly in his Demon Dance, but Fishstick is filleted as the demon misses its mark. So does the badguy that was trying to help Bhames. A ranger levels a stubby stick at the other demon (a sawed off wand) and a jedda flame erupts. The imp has a rumbly in its tummy, and with a loud whine, he shudders, smokes and begins to warp. The ranger steps back toward the wall and then disappears.
Inside the circle, Esteya runs back toward Conrad, and the undeterred Tyr follows. The dwarf sends a bolt of red fire out at Conrad, but it slides past, doing a lot of damage to the wall behind Conrad. Cadmus parries a shot that would have decapitated him. But then the other bouncer removes Cadmus’ leg for him. Good thing we have a spare utility limb! Cadmus finds is Healing 6 potion and goes about reattaching the only limb that had never been cut off.
Bruno steps in to engage flail dude. But it’s Conrad that does a fantastic shield parry, with the remaining splinter of wood that almost resembles a shield. The flail skitters harmlessly off the shield.
The whistle in the middle of the circle grows, and our friend Mitzi splodes, covering those inside the circle with gory mage bits. Flail boy is close enough to actually take damage from the splosion, but the others are just slimed with gore and an inconvenient tooth.
P’Tang appears on the right side and tells her guard to stop attacking the demon. They comply, leaving Bhames attempting to show that he’s being attacked by mistake. In P’Tang’s retinue is a demon Chihuahua (aren’t they all?) and a very large snake demon, and several guards that form up around her. A shimmer appears around them, probably some sort of shielding.
Raf slings a rock at the Chihuahua, and it flies 12 meters across the room at him. Zatchel parries the dog-missile and flings it into a wall. It bounces and flies at him again. With an expando-mouth it latches onto Raf’s arm and stays there, gnawing away. He makes his way over to the Harmonizers, and the TyrNai Mal removes Raf’s growth with his sword.
A tug-of-war develops between P’Tang and Esteya over the flow of manna. Esteya anchors herself between the God Hands and digs in, winning for now, but certainly distracting P’Tang from wreaking more damage to the others.
Conrad fumbles a shield parry against flailboy, but the straps break on both the shield and the spauldron. And as if that was not bad enough, the flail whips under and slices across his abdomen, cutting him clean in half. Several attempts of Divine Intervention fail, but Zatchel pulls strings with Korak to bring Conrad into the fold. There is the sound of a large blade being drawn and his body disappears from the circle. Zatchel slumps after his sacrifice to save a fellow armsman.
Bhames fumbles also, with his wounded Fishstick flying out of his hand and landing on the ground. He whips out Desire Left Unsatisfied with a flourish and hits the demon, and it turns inside out and it crumbles. Strangely satisfying. He hears, “Bhames, catch!” as a white cloud appears in the corridor, and a bottle is tossed to him. The door slams shut. Bhames quaffs the antidote as the guards choke and cough.
One of the rangers drops the lesser axe bouncer, the goes over to finish off the Stone dwarf. No axe of mercy here…
Bruno hits the flailboy but it’s parried. Bruno, being a wily guy, manages to evade most of the flail’s crush. They continue to dance for a while: Flailboy parries or has enough armor to avoid damage, and Bruno is difficult to hit. At least they keep each other occupied for a while…Raf keeps trying to score with sling stones, but the only time he gets through armor is when he casts multimissile. He focuses his attacks on those less-armored guards, especially the archers.
P’Tang’s snake leaps over and wraps around both the wolf and the badguy he’s been gnawing on. The wolf wriggles free and runs away, leaving the snake wrapped around a badguy. Rhedd finds another guard to leap at, this time nearer to P’Tang’s troopies.
“If they were fighting on a cactus we’d have a new flag!”
A dark shape floats out from the center of the maelstrom, eyes flashing red, bat winged and glowing black aura, with a beer in one hand. Conrad announces himself, saying “Turn, flailboy!”
Cadmus turns and bashes a sorcerer inside the circle. With a sputter, the mage goes through a flash-burn and is instantly incinerated. The mana flow inside the wards becomes more unstable, but enough has been drawn off by this time that it does not cause catastrophic failure. He turns to swing at flailboy, but overbalances and his helm twists, obscuring his vision.
Conrad decides the better target is P’Tang and pushes against an invisible wall to gain access to her. He flies through on his bat wings and manages to hit the evil mastermind.
Cadmus, while trying to straighten his helm, takes the bottle of contact poison from Esteya, hoping to toss it at P’Tang. It goes a bit long and hits the wall, with shards of glass and powder floating down (did it miss the invisible ranger?). After a few minutes of allowing the poison part to take effect, he casts Ignite at it. With such a large room, it only slows the guards down.
P’Tang goes for the c-section, opening the portal to allow the Godling through. Esteya tries to counter with the biggest TrueSign she’s ever played with. She takes mana from the circle, channeling it into the star-bright TrueSign glyph. The ceiling starts to smoke.
Conrad swings but doesn’t connect. The badguy’s hit does likewise. The wolf pounces at P’Tang and bites her leg. He draws blood then gets a nasty almost electric shock, losing a third of his hit points. He jumps backward.
Conrad flies over and does a Plummet of Death at P’Tang, descending on her and overcoming her shield. He smashes through to wound her abdomen, forcing her concentration to waver.
Another mage overloads and short-circuits, spontaneously combusting. The ceiling starts to crumble in the shape of the TrueSign glyph. P’Tang strengthens her attack, and the TrueSign wavers. A crinkly green tentacle descends from the ceiling along with an overwhelming stench of rotting vegetation. The invisible ranger fooms P’Tang with a bang stick to the back, then finishes her off. The other world aperture starts to close but there’s still tendrils on this side.
The cavalry begins to arrive, just in time to save the limping Heroes from certain doom. SVG’s, rangers and other assorted spooky guys, elements of the Serpentine Cohort, come streaming in to through the tunnel.
In the meantime, Bruno is still dancing with flailboy, each not able to land a hit on the other. The balance shifts when the flail catches Bruno’s sword and sends it flying. Bruno swings but flailboy’s weapon entangles Bruno’s sword and sends it flying. Then the flail snaps out and whacks through the shield, wounding Bruno’s arm. Bhames, coming to the rescue, finally manages to get an arrow through flailboy’s armor, and he drops. Bruno and Esteya breath deep sighs of relief!
With P’Tang out of the picture, the circle begins to erupt in flames and explosions. The TrueSign burns deeply into the ceiling, and just as the ceiling gives way, Bruno pulls a dazed and unsteady Esteya back to the storeroom area.
Outside, the Serpentine Cohort and Hyung’s Pioneers are cleaning up the messes outside, chasing down the MoFoni. Reports from Captain Rann say that one of the wyverns got away with two riders—Cora Beastmaster and Perfect Akra--and his people are tracking them.
Conrad enjoys flitting around on bat wings, but around midnight his wings disappear. Esteya is suffering from a mighty case of mana flux burn and many deep wounds, but will not allow anyone but HerrHjeen to touch her, even (especially)to heal her with magics.
The mop up begins, and Bhames sneaks out to roll P’Tang’s room before the RA can get there. He installs Esteya in Mitzi’s room, both to help isolate Esteya, and to prevent thorough pilfering until he can look things over. The Heroes look forward to hanging out in relative luxury fro a few weeks, while they tend to their wounds, and make repairs to equipment.
Chandra’s bow turns up, but the Heroes suspect that the lion’s share of their missing gear is hiding in the room guarded by the demon. And that will need to wait until Esteya is well enough to mana-wrangle again.
Later the evening after the battle, a debriefing begins. The king had sent in the units to support the Heroes/contain the damage since the heroes seem to stir things up wherever they roam. He had been hearing reports of nastiness, and moved the staff of the 12th, but kept the forces deployed in the area. In an act of magical subterfuge, he Twelfth moved its staff headquarters (along with its less mobile and less elite troops) and gave the seeming of relocating the Legion Westward, while adding elements of the 2nd ("MageHunters" or "Thunderbolts"), the 3rd ("Nightstalkers" or "Catseyes"), Legions and two hands of Kings Free Rangers, while activating the “Serpentine Cohort” in secret.
The next morning Cadmus gets a summons from the general, which he ignores several times. Eventually a uniformed senior non-comm knocks. Ermy Li (who will be interviewing all the Heroes individually) enters. Cadmus resists standing up, and offers a seat. He reminds the top sarge that he is no longer in the RA, to which the sarge remarks that he knows the situation.
His Majesty is concerned about the Heroes, wandering around in the wilderness by themselves. The king has to be careful about how he shows his interests since he has some enemies hiding among his high level subjects. So, he put together the serpentine cohort plan, with Strathjos Arick Hofer Apf Pahk in charge. The sarge feels that there will be political fallout when this is all revealed.
P’Tang…is…Petra Tora Doh Ang of House Ang, an old and powerful house. Cadmus briefly met her in the Krawshi war—she was a captain. The Angs are one of several houses that have shown to be traitorous, and may soon be cleansed.
Cadmus is irritated that rangers were here before the heroes, and did not jump in before the ceremony began. As it happens, they could not get through the maze through which the Heroes were escorted. Bhames joins the conversation, asking about the huge amounts of silver that the Heroes had been tracking. The silver was built into the fort to make it a stronger focus for the ritual.
Bhames suggests that perhaps Auntie and the Marshal move at cross purposes, and that the Heroes are being used for some duplicitous reason. Cadmus thinks it’s an act to fool the fools and send inconvenient people out of the way. Perhaps it’s time to find some nice places to settle down, perhaps to fill the reeve positions that were vacated by traitors. Or perhaps a transfer to the Royal Mapping Corp. He asks that Esteya get a full pardon since she has almost died for the cause too many times.
The sergeant says that something has been stirring in the east and that the rangers can’t take care of it. Cadmus reminds that someone has been collecting the great treasures, and P’Tang had the bridle, Pim’s sword has now been taken, and the Cauldron is somewhere out there. The five treasures are important, but why and to whom?
Bhames asks what it would take for Cadmus to stay. Cadmus demands that Esteya be granted a full pardon, Bruno recognized as more than Isuelte’s man, and House Belatuan be taken care of financially. Bhames adds that the Zanklerites deserve some recognition also (give them a home in the desert…?) .
He argues that the Heroes cause as many problems as they resolve, and perhaps it would be better if they operated inside the kingdom. He asks that the king or auntie should tell them why they are so expendable or inconvenient, or if they really are worth something to the powers that be.
Sarge says that he is selling himself short—that his skills at handling the barbs, his ties with Sowethin, and his RA experience, etc, are extremely valuable. There is a reason why the Heroes are persona non-grata inside the Kingdom, but it’s not something he can go into. People back home are worried. The rumblings in the east have not really been taken care, and he’ll find someone to explain. Cadmus seems resigned that he’ll be conscripted, especially since he has already given an arm and a leg…and an arm..and an arm…and a leg…and his other leg…
Cadmus tries to negotiate how he can “stay out of the Kingdom” while still leading a less stressful life, such as with the pioneers. Bhames points out that tools can decide to not be used, unless they get more information.
Bhames makes clear that his price is money, but also said that loyalty to his friends, and hopes that an eventual commission to establish a large and profitable tavern in Tara might come his way, keeps him a member of the group.
The sarge says that he’ll present this to his superiors after collecting more information, and he will find someone who can discuss more of these matters.
It's Dekar 3rd Void, five days before Year's End.
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