Soldiers: bah, humbug

Collected lots of loot, took the good news back to Stonyvale, made our way to the fortress that plugs Condor Pass, called The Aerie. Okay, everyone up-to-date???

In case people get confused, let me just say it up front—fortresses are not my idea of fun.

There was a shanty town outside the walls, which doesn’t surprise me with all the chaos in the Free Kingdoms. We had the crap taxed out of us as we entered the fortress, and I was tempted to start a “no taxation without representation” campaign, but the only thing worse than being in a fortress full of military types is having them all watching my every move.

We were able to do some trade but it was about as much fun as anything else in the fortress, which is to say not much at all.

I suspect the Northrog have been up to their old tricks as a village in Deverania had recently been razed, guards from the fortress have been blamed, and the fortress was waiting for a Deveranian army to descend. The talents of The Aerie’s defenders leave us in the dust, and when the Deveranians appeared they had similar muscle.

Despite this, the others seem to think we should stay here and aid in the fight. I don’t know what they’re thinking because we’d be squished like scrog larvae beneath a flagstone.

I managed to convince them we should at least get one of the Wardens to trip us out to the razed village for a look around. For all the devastation we found only one corpse. Malakar was able to magically summon the spirit back to answer some questions but it only confirmed the story that the attackers looked like guards from the fortress. We know a bunch of guards have gone missing in recent months so it’s quite conceivable someone has been collecting uniforms.

It sounds so much like the whole Ghostwood thing but I’m struggling to think where we’ll find the proof we need to avoid a bloodbath.

The others insisted we return to the fortress. I would have been happy to continue on to the dwarven mining town. They kept going on about how “we” had made a promise, but I don’t recall having said anything of the sort.

Malakar sought guidance from his god and got the extremely helpful hint to “seek the eye”. Or maybe “seek the I”. Either way it’s about as helpful as an Upworlder in a cave.

But I’m telling you now—when the fighting breaks out in earnest, I’m heading outta here by any means possible.