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ToastyPigeon

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SpringDragon

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"There will be other missions, I promise you. We will prove ourselves so well on this one, that they will have no choice but to send us out on a regular basis. However, your orders are clear in this matter, you are to remain here with Captain Pollo."

"B…yes sir."

Just before Gerald goes into the captain's office, you whisper into his ear.

"Accidents happen."

He's a little puzzled by this comment, but you and the rest of your team proceed to your assignment and nobody says anything more about it.

When you finally get to the town, it's a sorry sight. A lot of the buildings are damaged and the streets are filled with debris. There are a few people attempting to clean up the place, but it's clear that they're all very demoralized.

'Oh, I see the Empire has finally decided to help us; well you're too late! The kobolds raided this town last night and as you can see completely trashed the place!" says a disheveled man.

"The Empire has many places it has to protect citizen. It is regrettable that your town was attacked, but we are here now to eliminate the problem."

"You're here now? Where the fuck were you last night when my wife was killed by those ugly little bastards?" the man says getting in your face.

"Calm yourself citizen, this will not help your situation."

"My situation? I just said my wife is fucking DEAD! I don't give a shit about my situation anymore you fucking Empire dickhead! Fuck you and your fucking Emperor!"

It is at this point the man unwisely pushes your chest with his hand and you instantly grab it and break his whole arm. He predictably crumples in excruciating pain, screaming as the bone juts out of the skin and blood runs out of his body into the mud. All the other towns people who have seen this back off or hide, as they are rightfully worried about what you're going to do next.

"Now listen up citizens of Dalt! I understand that you've all been through a lot, but that is not a reason to give in to insolence! You are all Empire subjects and you will show proper respect or what's left of this town will suffer in such a manner that you'll think what the kobolds did was a birthday party."

The man whose arm you broke begins to scream more obscenities at you in between his regular howls of pain. You look at Kane and nod. Kane finishes the man off by quickly decapitating him. You take his head and throw it before one of the crowd of peasants who look on in horror.

"Remember this." You say.

You remain in the town of Dalt for the night and get rooms from an overly cooperative innkeeper. He also tells you a little information about the kobolds such what direction they came from, what sort of equipment they were using and how many there were during the attack. Before getting some rest you spend a little of the time discussing strategy with your team. You all don't show it too much, but you are all a little excited about tomorrow.

The next day you set off towards the wooded hills, it doesn't take long before you see a kobold patrol wandering around. They look exactly like how you've seen them in books, sort of like scaly goblins, but from what you've heard, a lot more cunning.

Your team attempts to be stealthy, but perhaps it's due to the excitement of this first "real" battle. Edgar isn't as silent as he should be and clumsily steps on a few twigs alerting the patrols.

The kobold patrol sees all of you, yell excitedly in their language and run away. Edgar is about to chase them, but you knock him to the ground.

"What the hell?" he says wondering why you stopped him.

"Trap, Edgar. Look." You say and point to a tripwire that would've triggered a spiked log that he almost stepped on.

"Oh." He says.

"You were trained better than that Edgar and we went over this last night! This area is probably going to be filled with traps. Now come on, we don't have the luxury of a surprise attack any more."

The remainder of this attack is a tedious exercise in cautiousness broken up by quick battles. The kobolds really have set up traps everywhere and take full advantage of your team's slow movement to launch periodic ambushes themselves. Fortunately they are very poor warriors even in large numbers and you easily dispatch them. All your fighting eventually leads to a cave, which you sort of figured it would. You warn your team that this place is probably going to be a maze and heavily trapped as well.

"Should we split up so we can cover more ground?" Brenda asks.

"No, we're going to be neck deep in them when we go into that cave. They may be poor warriors, but even enough of them could overwhelm one or two of us. If we stick together we'll be fine. Besides, we're going to be here awhile anyway."

There "awhile" isn't an exaggeration. You spend the remainder of the day and night killing kobolds. Your team seems to enjoy it, but you eventually start to get bored of the monotony. You don't even bat an eye when you come across what seems to be a breeding chamber and you exterminate all the female kobolds and their young. Eventually you reach a large cave clearing where you meet the leader.

"Sssss! Defilersss! Murderersss!" a slightly larger kobold hisses at you from some sort of primitive throne and then orders his guards to attack. It's rather pathetic, as they fare no better than the rest. A few quick sword and axe blows and this kobold chieftain is alone.

While the rest of your team is eager to kill him like the rest, you have a slightly better idea for him. You engage him in singles combat, which is over pretty quickly. You then subdue him with some rope you have in your pack.

"Why are we taking him as prisoner? We're Eternals! We don't take prisoners!" Edgar shouts.

"Yeah, we also aren't supposed to miss obviously placed traps either, so there's a first time for everything. Besides I've got a good idea for this one."

You drag the kobold leader back to town who curses you the whole time in a mixture of his language and yours. When you arrive it is now dawn and the townspeople are surprised to see you back, let alone with a kobold in tow.

You tie the kobold leader to a tree near the center of the town and address everyone.

"Citizens of Dalt! The kobold nest has been completely destroyed. This…thing was the leader of this particular nest and most likely orchestrated the raid; do with him as you will. There of course are other kobold nests in this province, but the Eternals will be taking care of this long overdue problem. All the Empire needs in this matter is your continued obedience and loyalty."

After giving this speech you and your team take your leave and hear the screams of the kobold leader as the villagers torture and rip him apart.

When you arrive back at Fort Glory, other soldiers are surprised to see all of you back alive. It was assumed that at best, half of you would be dead. There is a possible thought of whether you actually succeeded and didn't just come back in failure, but given that Kane took it upon himself to take "trophies" his gruesome necklace of kobold ears makes it pretty clear that the job was done.

When you report however, it seems the fort has undergone a change in leadership

"I'm Lieutenant Anu and now in charge of Fort Glory until further notice. First things first, did you accomplish your mission?

"Mission accomplished, we killed them all lieutenant. All of their warriors, all of their women, all of their babies, pets, their leader, all of them."

"Well always helps to be sure. Which brings me to the next point. Your man Gerald is currently in the stockade. In fact he may be facing execution."

"Might I inquire why, sir?"

"I'd say you'd probably know as much about it as I do, but if I had to guess? Captain pervert put the moves on him and your man took exception to it and killed him. He claims it was an accident, but there's no way the captain twisted his own head ALL THE WAY AROUND just by tripping and falling over."

"If Gerald says it was an accident, then I believe him sir."

"Okay look, I'm not going to sit here and say that the captain wasn't complete scum. I should know I had to serve along side him for the past five years. I saw how he'd have teenage boys brought to his office. Now I know you guys are these Eternals that we've all heard about, but dammit man, we can't just have murders within the ranks, we have to respect some sort of order here!"

"We're all about respecting order sir…I suppose if it is absolutely necessary to execute Gerald, then that will be regrettable. I would however say that Gerald's actions actually contributed to more order here and will better for the Empire in general."

"How so?"

"The removal of captain Pollo, has allowed you to move up in rank and judging by your feelings on this matter you are a person who respects military decorum. I have no doubt, the fort will be run more efficiently now."

Lieutenant Anu chuckles a bit. "I'd almost think you were trying to butter me up to save your guy, but I already know you genuinely believe what you're saying and you're right anyway. (Sigh) Well…I suppose accidents do happen. Nobody here is going to miss Pollo, so I'll have Gerald released and write up a report."

"Sir, can I make a request?"

"Don't you think you're pushing your luck?"

"Not my intention sir, but I was going to ask if there's anything my group could do here that's a little more challenging than killing kobolds?"

"Hmm, yes I imagine you would feel that way...well on the furthest southern edge of the province there have been bands of nomadic raiders and there have been rumors of them organizing under some sort of shaman. Dunno if it's true or not. Of course we could also transfer you someplace where the battle is a little more suited to your violence level."

> You request transfer

You don't see much point in staying in this place anymore, you would most likely serve the Empire better elsewhere. Captain Anu grants the request, though he mentions he knows that a Mr. Mol is taking interest in your progress here, so it'll have to go through him first.

A couple days pass and it is all straightened out. Mr. Mol approves, but he goes with his original plan of separating you all. Brenda and Gerald remain in the Nalin province, Roldan and Warrick go to the Felkan border. You, Kane and Edgar all wind up at the Rask frontier, specifically Fort Defiance. The split is a little odd for all of you, considering you've all been together so long.

You say your goodbyes to Brenda and Gerald first when the caravan comes for you. Next you say your goodbyes to Warrick and Roldan when they make their stop. The remainder of the trip is in relative silence, though sometimes Edgar remarks about how he can't wait to display his true combat skills against better challenges.

Eventually you arrive at the Rask frontier and make your stop at Fort Defiance. You haven't gotten off the caravan five minutes when a man wearing battle armor approaches you.

"Hey are you the Eternals?"

"Yes we are."

"I'm Captain Ian, I've heard about you and while you don't look like much, we'll take anyone at this point. Though I would've preferred more battle mages or even orcs at this point.

Captain Ian begins to give you a run down on the entire area. He mentions that the mortality rate here is high so morale isn't the best. He goes on to mention that Shadow Guard detachments have been assigned here to help out, but between the ogres and the giants there's only so much that even they can do. He mentions since you three have already worked together he's just going to leave you together, but will be assigning you to a new unit where you will have others to command as well.

With the caravan leaving, the three of you head to your new unit. When you see them, quite a few of them are predictably much older than you, but surprisingly you see that half of them are around your age.

"So, you're those Eternals huh?" one the older soldiers says almost dismissively.

"Yes? Did you need something corporal?" you say sensing the hostility.

"Nothing, sergeant. I just wondered if you were." He says backing down from confrontation.