= ( ALCADAR – BRAZOS’ CREW ) =

Brazos was enjoying the quiet before dawn. He didn’t allow the sounds of his team waking to distract him from his watch. Their camp in the small clearing they had located near the low cliffs was surprisingly comfortable and neat.

“Morning boss,” said Natercia. “Got a message, Bast shared a dream, the king, Dee’s brother wants his sister back regardless of what happened. We’re to make our way to the nearest Mage or Adventurer’s Guild office for a gate.”

“What about the prince?” asked Gussy.

Natercia flicked an ear. “The king’s setting up a new quest. I got the impression the party selected for that task will use our gate to return here.”

Brazos glanced at Dee, “Will we have problems in any of the local realms due to Dee’s misfortune?”

“I suspect you’d better avoid the Theocratic Empire of Tall Trees. They tend to look down on non elves, I don’t think they would stand for a gorgon,” explained Gussy.

“You’d? Are you planning not to accompany us?” asked Brazos of Gussy.

“I have to find Sar,” explained Gussy. “Alive or dead, I have to know. I’ll accompany you to whatever town we decide is best. I feel the need to help protect my goddaughter. Then I’ll go looking for the prince.”

Brazos nodded thoughtfully. Then he turned to his friend, “Oliveira, can you find our maps of Alcadar? Let’s see what’s the closest town.”

Oliveira spread out the relevant map on their folding table, “I was told that this is a tad dated, it probably isn’t very accurate,” he explained. Those present gathered around the table and quickly located themselves on the map. They easily located the nearest town. Castle Redstone was located about three days march to their northwest. It was the southernmost town of the small kingdom of Domeras.

“I suspect that the town of Castle Redstone was originally founded to cover any threat from the Haunted Forest,” said Gussy.

“Do you foresee any problems should we go there,” enquired Brazos.

“I doubt it, the forest,” Gussy gestured to the trees that surrounded them, “doesn’t appear to be as dangerous as it was in times of yore.”

= = O = =

The sun was close setting when they finally emerged from the forest. They could see the village Gussy had told them about in the distance. From the thin trail of smoke rising into the sky someone had returned to it.

As they made their way towards the village, while maintaining their usual loose skirmish line, Dee continued darting here and there, her enthusiasm and energy seemingly endless.

Gussy tutted in exasperation, “Dee, please stay with us. People might misunderstand.”

Dee spun round and let out a peal of laughter, “What about you Gussy? Are they going to understand?”

Brazos’ crew spotted a flash of light near the edge of the village. Using this clue they made out an individual clutching a spear. He looked to be wearing some kind of breastplate and helmet. The man shouted something and hurried back into the village.

Brazos’ crew went prone and ordered Gussy and Dee to withdraw slightly.

Their caution proved to have been unneeded as shortly after the man withdrew into the village he and another soldier galloped out of the village heading north as if their tails were on fire.

Oliveira and Duke wormed their way cautiously into the village while their comrades covered them. Soon after Oliveira gestured them that it was safe to approach. Brazos looked at the rabbit roasting over the small fire, and then he glanced at Gussy. “Seems that they are well spooked, just what did you do here?”

Gussy managed to look embarrassed, “I killed the man who was planning to kill me, and threw a fright into the villagers, um.”

Brazos looked pointedly at the two goats and the floating cradle that were still playing heel with Gussy, “Frightened, yeah right! So much so that some mother abandoned her baby.”

“Well, I might have gone a bit overboard. But I didn’t hurt any of them. Apart from their prophet.”

Brazos sighed in resignation, “Might as well take the rabbit, but we won’t spend the night here as we were planning. We’ll head west and camp in the forest.”

Natercia swished her tail slowly from side to side, “And tomorrow?” she asked.

“We keep going west, past the north road, then on the day after tomorrow we make our way north to Castle Redstone. That is if we don’t find hunting parties looking for Gussy, and us.”

= ( ALCADAR – LADY FIRDANNA ) =

Lady Firdanna scowled at the huddled mass of villagers that had all but taken over her frontier post. The superstitious idiots had managed to scare her command, consisting as they did of ill trained peasant militia.

She watched from the watchtower of Fort Remembrance as the two scouts she had sent out to inspect the village returned from the north. She wondered sourly why they hadn’t returned along the west road, the shortest rout to the village.

As they got closed she started fuming, their horses were ruined. Those two idiots looked to have ridden them to death. She determined to take the cost of the horses out of their stipends. Once again she cursed the orders that didn’t allow her to leave the fort.

Lady Firdanna grabbed the ladder and started to climb down from the tower.

Meanwhile the two scouts beat her to the gate. They entered the fort and corporal Histan shouted, “The demon overlord has recruited a gorgon! He has a large warband, his scouts fade into the land.”

Not to be beaten in delivering alarming news his fellow scout added, “And there were lots of others hiding in the forest. I could see the shrubbery rustling suspiciously for hundreds of paces on either side of the demon overlord.”

“Their red eyes were gleaming like coals,” collaborated Histan.

Several of the refugee village women screamed and fainted. Gaffer Gootman shouted excitedly, “That demon had been captured by the great prophet, but he was more powerful than the prophet, he killed our prophet and he emerged from the prophets house wreathed in flames, he was three meters tall and terrible to look at.”

“S’true,” agreed one of his cronies. “And he tore poor Asara’s son to bots and ate him.”

Asara shrieked, “S’true, we all saw it,” she agreed, then started sobbing loudly and wailing.

Firdanna tried to calm everyone down, but she was too late. She cursed sulphurously as she watched most of the villagers disappear across the border into Hasvettia. She wouldn’t have minded if her cowardly militia hadn’t accompanied them.