Perience slammed the paper onto the desk, letting it unfurl across the darkened wood. Careful lines detailed the major geographical landmarks of the area around the city, stretching to the wintry forests of the north and nearly reaching the tall mountain peaks that the enemy called home. Small markings dictated distances and approximate locations of possible campsites for the enemy.

“Let’s begin this meeting with a roll call. Pion?”

“Present and at attention.”

“Okay. Mister mage person? Mr. Missileer?”

The aging man did not come in person, choosing to use a multi-faceted crystal sphere made of many faces to project his body where he would normally be sitting.

“Salutations. I am accounted for.”

“By the way, why did you offer to take part in this operation? I thought you had better and more important things to spend your time on.”

“I was a little peeved at not being able to showcase my immense power properly in the battle earlier, so I thought I’d help out in your little scheme that Vetrean has assigned to you. It’s quite a difficult mission, or so I heard. And the pay is… lucrative, to say the least.”

“I’ll do my best to fit you in the plan I have in mind. Next is the Crown Infiltrators, who I am told have been dispatched to hasten the war’s end. Is that right?”

A hooded man in softly glowing leather armor nodded at the other end of the table, habitually fidgeting with his dagger. His eyes constantly flicked around the room, committing to memory many little details, like the titles of some bookshelves or the racks lined across the walls. Many different items rested here, stored for a rainy day. Weapons of all kinds, glaives and blades and bows and blunt surfaces.

Here was an array of weaponry good enough to snuff out the lives of many. So they rested, waiting patiently for someone to use them. And now they would finally get their chance. Other members of the Crown group perused what was provided on the shelves to augment the sparing tools they had brought with them. It was vitally important for an infiltrator to travel light, as to be fast and not alert the enemy with clinking metal or excessive cloth rubbing together.

“We will remain here only until the threat is eliminated. There are much more important tasks for us to complete to ensure the safety of our great nation. I request you keep this meeting brief. We’ve got business here to attend to before the assault tomorrow night.”

Perience realized the depth of what he was attempting, leading a group of different individualistic parties who all likely had their own agendas to a common goal. It was likely that he was out of his element, but he wasn’t no quitter. Years of hard work and determination taught him any situation could be solved, any dilemma conquerable. Taking a deep breath, he checked his briefing sheet for more names.

“Next is the Golden Arrow adventurer’s team I’ve hired for the job. Gold ranks you lot, if I remember correctly?”

Their spokesperson, a middle-aged woman with light leather armor and laden with arrows in quivers, leaned back in her chair apprehensively. A pair of loaded crossbows hung from a belt, longbow strung over her back.

“That’s us, yeah. It’s just me here today though. The rest are on a short break while I get everything together for this next mission. Speaking of which, how difficult is this assignment? I have been told only that the compensation will match the contribution my team provides.”

“I’ll tell you all about it once I’ve confirmed everyone is here. There’s one more name here on my list. Emis.”

Looking around the room, it was clear he was not here. As a professional alchemist, his time was consumed by more important matters, such as R&D for the state. Next on his list was something to boost the efficacy of their elite guard, or champions. Empowering the strong would be the only way to fight against the cream of the Hammer Tribe’s crop when it came to the battlefield. Perience wasn’t the least bit surprised. Emis did not have a good track record of showing up on time.

“Well. It looks like he isn’t here. I guess we’ll just have to start without him.”

On cue, the door slammed open with incredible speed, startling everyone except Pion, who could hear the pounding of his feet on the pavement outside long before he opened the door. Many potions clinked together as he panted, gasping for breath in the doorway.

“I’m- here now. Did I miss, like, anything?”

“Oh no, actually, we were just about to get started. Take a seat.”

His knees buckled as he dropped into a chair, sweating buckets. Retrieving a brew from one of his pouches and slugging it down, color saturated his features as he recovered from his heavy sprint in seconds. Second Wind was what he called it, an apt name for its effects. Test trials deemed it safe for consumption, and soldiers that tried it described it as a blissful rejuvenation of the soul and body, instilling in them the urge to fight. Higher ups really liked the added sense of duty and fulfillment too. Very useful for rallying the army and maintaining morale.

Perience ruffled through the documents that had been provided, scanning them again for anything he might have missed. Deeming everything in order, he took a deep breath and put together a short speech in his head.

“Once again, hello everyone and welcome. You’ve all found out about this quest, created by the city strategist himself. Most of you haven’t been briefed on what we’re going to be doing, so I’ll just be honest with you all. We’re scouting the Hammer Army. Alone.”

Pion figured as much. Perience had told her in no uncertain terms beforehand, and she had agreed, if only to curry favor with powerful figures. If reputation and being well-known was important, she could surely obtain it under the guise of helping the city with their war. With renown came authority, and then it would be simple to ask for more knowledge regarding everything.

The woman representing the Golden Arrow team raised a hand in mild concern.

“If the job is just scouting, why do we have so many people here? There’s a lot of weaponry we don’t need if we’re just going in and out, quickly and stealthily.”

“We’re not going to be just scouting actually. The plan is to perform a deep strike on them, while they’re unaware. Succeeding would be a great boon for the city if we can cripple vital infrastructure.”

“Like what, specifically? It’s just an encampment. I doubt they have any farms to raid or officers we can easily kill.”

Perience aimed carefully, eyeing his target, before throwing a small dagger at the desk, stabbing a specific spot on the map.

“Nice. Took a while to learn how to do that. Anyway, that spot is where their food storage is suspected to be. Keeping their provisions directly in the base was the obvious choice for keeping their supplies safe from us, which means they probably would try to fake us out by keeping it a short distance away, probably under a mile. There are some other places they could be hiding, so we’ll have to canvas the general area.”

“Do we really need this much manpower to destroy some food stores? One or two people should be sufficient to set fire to a couple of buildings.”

“That brings me to our secondary goal: the destruction of their armory. This will unquestionably be heavily guarded, as most weaponry will be stored there when not being actively used or maintained. This will be much harder, as damaging every weapon they own to the point of uselessness will require time to chip every blade and crack every hammer, which is why its only secondary.”

“But that is all very difficult. Why should my team attempt these extra challenges when we could just do our job normally? I’m not a fan of unnecessary risk.”

A large bag of gold was hefted upon the table, clinking coins spilling out from the canvas sack. Pion did not care too much, since she already had many coins in the vault of the dungeon she had repurposed, as well as the shimmering palladium blade she had no particular use for yet. In the future it might be a useful trade chip, or subject to new tests she would devise. The Crown Infiltrators were likewise uninterested, being sponsored by the kingdom’s coffers.

But the Missileer, the Golden Arrow rep, and Emis were all very interested seeing how much they could be earning.

“This is without the extra credit contributions, by the way. Those will probably be worth another bag.”

And they turned to look at Perience, and the Missileer shook his hand.

“Just call me Martin. When do we start?”

Eventually they disbanded, going their own ways to make their own preparations. All of them had their own ideas for how to best compose their individual plans. Pion followed everyone else outside of the room while dedicating most of her processing power to remotely observing all the recording devices she had planted, filing information, and running battle simulations to calculate the least energy intensive method of wiping out the whole enemy encampment.

Each individual combat model only had so much energy, for all its immense firepower. Extended usage would result in low batteries and letting some escape. With active thought processes temporarily disabled, her body mechanically followed Perience automatically like a bot. This was how she was led to the Adventurer’s Guild armory, where he planned to rent a weapon for the upcoming mission. A steel sword was good and reliable, but this quest would likely require a bit of… extra firepower.

“Hello, Cep. Could I check into the in-house arsenal? I’ve got a dangerous request comin’ up, and I’d like to have a better weapon at my side for the time being.”

“A dangerous mission? Why would you do something like that? Putting yourself at risk for money isn’t worth it.”

“I’m doing it for the city’s defense. I can’t go into the details, but it’s important. Not something for the untrustworthy to do.”

She sighed and leaned on the desk out of frustration, watching the man who helped her risk his life to help more people. Yes, it was commendable, but she was scared that one day he would no longer walk through the guild’s double doors. That we would be reported missing, or dead.

“Okay. If you’re really committed to it. But at least visit once before you go. You haven’t come over for a while and I’ve been a little worried about you.”

“Alright. You still live in the same little apartment?”

“The guild doesn’t pay me enough for something better.”

Pion abruptly interjected, her business done for the time being. All was in order, and her grand design proceeded nicely.

“You don’t have to rent a sword. I possess a sword. I think it is enchanted. You may make use of it.”

Perience was surprised. Her, who fought barehanded, having a sword?

“Where did you get the blade?”

“I found it in the dungeon. I have stored it in a safe place. It will be delivered to you tomorrow.”

“Thanks. That’s money I can save for some good consumables for the trip. Snacks are always underrated.”

They stopped in front of a shabby building of brick and mortar, one of the wooden doors marked with Cep’s name on it. Stepping inside revealed a messy, scrambled room, with clothes on the floor and papers on the desk. The bed was scruffy and unmade, and her personal effects were scattered throughout the space in equal intervals.

“Oh yeah. I forgot to clean everything up.”

And of course Perience helped, because he was a good person and could not bear to say no. Plus the mess was a sight for his sore eyes. Pion just picked up a little cloth beanie, filled with feathers and squishy to the touch. Squeezing it experimentally, she tossed it onto the bed and then sat down on a chair, watching the two clean and memorizing their methods for dusting and sweeping everything.

Just another day in Bulwark for these three.