May 17, 2023
30 Khordrak
Calloway’s army
The army turned northeast.
In the late morning, the army halted for a few minutes. As it resumed marching, it passed a saurian family, drawn up onto the shoulder of the road, with a few ragged possessions in a handcart.
The Cavedwellers stopped to speak with them. The father was squatting down with their egg on his feet, the grandfather sleeping propped up in the cart, and an uncle was watching the three children, who themselves were watching the army pass with wide eyes.
The mother of the family spoke to them. She told them that the family was seeking the shelter of a walled city. An army had plundered their village, killing many and driving the survivors into the fields. When they returned, almost nothing had been left of the settlement.
Annais offered for the family to join Calloway’s train, as the army had been regularly stopping at walled cities for the night.
The Cavedwellers took the news to Calloway, at the front of the march. She told them to gather a few volunteers and horses to investigate the village. If they could not rejoin the army before dark, she told them to catch up at Silberhafen; this was the first time she had entrusted them with the army’s marching orders.
The Pink Unicorn Four recruited some of the other Cavedwellers, including Clara, and enough soldiers to bring their number to 20.
Klalyx, the uncle of the family, led them back to the village.
They slowly approached the ruin, Aida scouting ahead. The village had been built around a stone granary, which now had great rents in its sides and signs of fire damage. The wooden buildings had been scorched or simply smashed. Bodies were scattered through the streets.
Two looters were picking over the ruins, and a third was on watch in a tree. The rest of the party came up and scared them off. The looters appeared to be peasants from another village. One dropped the sack he was carrying. It held a couple of unbroken pots and salvaged bits of iron: arrowheads, hinges, even nails.
The party had Clara read the tracks, and she estimated that the attackers had numbered 70 and disappeared along the west road. The Cavedwellers guessed that an army that size must be a deserter group turned to brigandage.
The tracks also showed that several other survivors had returned to the village, grabbed a few necessities, and left.
Night was falling, and the party could already see darker shapes as of men within the long shadows. They dismantled much of the village to build a pyre, which Oskraks ignited with his fire breath. As the bodies burned, the shades faded away.
31 Khordrak
The riders rejoined Calloway at Silberhafen. Her army was drawn up outside the walls, across the road from the fine camp of the White Pillar mercenary company. The Pillar’s men were neat, their armor polished, their banners of real gold thread, and their tents of silk. Morale in Calloway’s camp was depressed by mere comparison.
They entered the city and gossipped about the White Pillar. Rumor had it that the Pillar was recruiting for an anticipated conflict while remaining carefully neutral.
They also heard that the city was expecting a rumble that night. Tensions had been growing between the supporters of Griseke Arnoltz and those of the Supreme Legionary Command. It was the night before Endweek, when many people would begin drinking early; and it was a hot day, so many would be drinking outside, bringing the two factions into contact.
The Four checked the local Golden Talon guildhouse. Many members were signing up as private security for businesses that feared rampant looting. The Pink Unicorn crew got jobs guarding a bank that overlooked a cramped plaza.
As the evening came on, it began. The brawl spilled out of the main road and into the plaza. The supporters of Legionary Command had their backs to the bank, and were slowly driven back to the base of the steps; Annais took some delight in forcing them back into the fray.
But as the evening wore on, the less experienced fighters began to tire and go home, leaving the Legionary-supporters’ core of hardened combatants with a significant advantage.
Now a column of Legionary-supporters came up the road and hit the Arnoltz-supporters from behind. They spread out as the first group pushed into the Arnotz-supporters from the front, pinning them in a crush.
Aida tried to appeal to the brawler’s better nature, asking them if they would be able to spend the rest of their lives with the guilt of killing their neighbors in one hour of passion.
A veteran Legionary-supporter turned from the line and leered at her, saying, “We’ve been waiting years for this chance.”
But the crushed opponents behind him lunged at his back and ruptured the line. In a panic, they surged through, pushing Legionary-supporters to the ground and trampling them. Some of these, in response, drew their daggers, and the plaza was bathed in blood.
The fleeing Arnoltz-supporters passed into the two narrow alleys behind the bank. Many died in the crush there, and the bank’s normal security panicked and fired into the crowd.
A handful of Legionary-supporters mounted the steps to the bank, and Annais cut them down. Others facing her fled, stopping the momentum of the Legionary-supporters. They retreated back along the main road, leaving the plaza choked with bodies.
32 Khordrak
As the sun rose, the party heard news of the brawl in the other corners of the city. It was a stalemate. Nothing had been resolved; the mayor arrested a handful of people from each side, still refusing to take a side.
Calloway had to be talked out of storming the city and establishing martial law. Not without their own misgivings, the Cavedwellers added their voices to the advisors telling her that to do so would effectively be to immediately declare war on the Kaiser.
