Runner
Camp for the Order of the Golden Warriors
The entire camp was in a state of tension for the next couple of days. Security became tighter than ever, meaning Runner had made little progress in her espionage. What was weird was that no one in the camp knew who this "Bonesy" was. No one. Not a single person could remember someone like that coming to or from the camp. Not the gate guards, not the cooks, not even those on latrine duty. For a camp as rigid and secure as this one, it set a lot of the soldiers on edge.
There were a few people who saw him, of course. Them. Just the five of them. Perhaps Melia, but there was little way of knowing that now that the priestess had left for Lordidan several days prior. So damn. They had yet another intense meeting about this character that really didn't go anywhere. Just a whole bunch of "What did he look like?" and "Do you know his origins?" questions that they answered to the best of their abilities. Aside from his appearance and general demeanor, they had no real answers either.
It figured thought. No one in their right mind would think that that man was a competent medic. The man was clearly drunk off his ass when they met. It gave Runner the shivers thinking of how much damage he could do if he did try to operate on them while in such a state. No, thank you!
The alarmed state of the camp calmed down after a while, but the damage was done. People were jumpy. Yikes. Again, not great for her. But hey, at least they were making headway on their debt!
The gnolls they had slaughtered up to the freaky one were small chips in the wall of debt they owed. Quite large chips when everything is said and done, but still chips nonetheless. A pleasant surprise was Eldrig being true to his word about getting a better reward for the ball of mush. Mutated gnolls and magical ones were worth more because of how much more dangerous they were to the average person.
A sizeable chunk, then. They would need quite a few more lucky trips into the hills before they could say they had made serious progress, but any progress was good. It was weird though. The bounties they were turning in were weird. Runner knew that the Order had promised them a quick way to work their debt off, but still… weird.
If it were up to Runner, she would have slapped an interest rate onto their debt and suddenly she would have some folk at her beck and call to do all the odd little jobs she needed. A couple of mercenaries in her pocket would be nice, especially if there was definite proof that they owed her a small fortune.
Of course… they wouldn't like her that much.
It reeked of someone's scheming. "Who?" was the question. From all of her eavesdropping and meandering around the camp, she could tell that they weren't exactly welcome here. These people were all connected through the military or through being hired on as support staff. Runner and the others were random mercenaries. Most of the soldiers were standoffish and the staff were very professional whenever they came around.
Lieutenant Isomeren had been openly opposed to their revival. He objected to giving them their debt, only by virtue of objecting to wasting the materials that caused the debt on them. Mivera was also a dead end, simply by the statements and questions she had made in their one and only meeting.
It all tied back to this "Lord Commander". He was the one pulling the strings. He was the one who saddled them with a big as-hells debt. He was the one who wanted them revived and put to work. But why? She wondered. What did he get out of it? They were doing the same thing as many of the soldiers. Honestly, they were likely doing it worse than the soldiers. Slower. Less efficient. And yet they were getting "paid" so much more.
It just doesn't add up.
There has to be something going on, Runner mused while listening in on a group of swordsmen going through their drills in the training area. Her little group had one thing that these soldiers didn't have. Ties. The only thing keeping them there was the promise of a quick way to pay off their debt. Well, perhaps Selm would still be here anyway. Regardless, they were unaffiliated with the Order. They had no real loyalties to them nor were they known to operate under their banner. They were essentially just bought hands.
Shifty.
Someone who already has manpower out the ass, loyal manpower, and yet still acquires more? That is shifty without a doubt. They were likely going to be used as expendable pawns. For what is still unclear to her. All her gut is telling her is that it will be for something she won't like all that much. Great. That is just great.
At least all her meandering around camp wasn't for naught. She had made some headway on getting somewhere. A good majority of the camp was humans. There were a few other races here and there, of course. The occasional elves, dwarves, gnomes, and a dragonborn here and there. But mostly humans. If she knew anything, it was that humans were not the best at seeing in the dark. Most humans, anyway. She was somehow an exception. Over their duties, she has noted that sometimes the night guard is mostly humans carrying torches for light. Perhaps… perhaps she could exploit that in some way and sneak in somewhere she wasn't supposed to be. Perhaps…
But that would require some luck and another few days in the camp. More accurately: a few nights. And there were plenty of targets for investigation. That big tent where the map was, the supply depot, the important people's rest tents… choices choices. If she had to hedge her bets… the map tent would be the most important. There, then, first. Tonight she-
"Miss R-Runner!" Runner turned to look at the approaching leonin. Eldrig, the big lad, was coming up to her. "T-there you a-are. I ha-have been looking a-all over f-for you. W-we have n-new orders."
Runner narrowed her eyes suspiciously. That was convenient. Way too fucking convenient, she thought. Someone here must be reading her mind. It is the only way that this all made sense. Or she is getting paranoid. Probably the former. Definitely.
"Yeah? Let me guess. More gnolls?"
He nodded hesitantly. She rolled her eyes. Gods, he needed to grow a spine. It seemed the other soldiers around agreed. She had seen the way they mocked him behind his back. The way their greetings never really were the absolute friendliest when talking to him. He never spoke up about it to her, but she could tell he wasn't oblivious to it. "W-we a-are heading o-out in a ho-hour," He stuttered. Wonderful.
"Sure. Everyone else ready to go?" Another nod. "Great. I'll meet you by the gates. Western gates, right?" There were only two entrances to the camp, the eastern and western gates. Not hard to guess where they'd be going considering they have been only using the Western gate recently. She received yet another nod before he gave her a small smile and turned to go prepare.
She really didn't have much to prepare. Its not like she was setting her weapons down at any given moment and her new armor, which fit way better than that old useless junk, was basically a second skin now. She usually mooched supplies, but she would swing by the group's tent and grab her pack just in case.
~~~
Of course only took fourwhole days for them to finish hunting down the next two camps of gnolls. They had been sent rather far from the base camp this time. They had needed the majority of the day just to get near the damned gnolls, not to mention a day to get back. These ones were meatier than all of the previous ones before, requiring them to change their tactics slightly. Runner's skills for sneaking around proved incredibly useful for baiting gnolls into their own pitfall traps and ambushing them from ridgelines. They did not get by completely unscathed, but fortunately, everything was still within expectations for battle. Baz's arm nearly was broken by a frothing berserker and Ina almost stepped into yet another pitfall trap.
Fortunately for them, there were no more of those weird magic circles and ominous flesh balls. Unfortunately, there was a gnoll shaman in the last village. Selm had managed to get it to pause just long enough for Eldrig to run it through, but not before the shaman had gotten both Runner and Yule hurling their guts through extreme bouts of nausea. Not fun! It had felt like she was on a ship in a whirlpool that was upside down all while she was dancing with four left feet. It was bad.
But hey: magic casters were worth more in the eyes of their captors. A win is a win. Runner was looking forward to being able to get a good rest and to be able to skulk around the camp looking for more answers.
Not like that would be happening with her luck.
The first thing they could see when they got back was that the camp was up in arms. No bells were ringing in an emergency, but everyone's attention was split between their duties and the Eastern gate. They were on the tail-end of some sort of alarm. Perhaps another caravan was meandering by on the road. It wasn't something that happened often, especially on the lesser-used road that the camp was near, but it did happen. While Eldig had gone to report our successes and do whatever else he had to do, they went Eastward through the camp to figure out the commotion.
As it turns out, the commotion was refugees.
Lots of refugees.
A whole village worth.
The Eastern gates had been opened fully as the medical staff, led by Father Yieros came and went to tend to the wounded. There were a lot of wounded. Most of them were covered in burns and some had nasty wounds that had been hastily bandaged in torn shirts and pants.
There were at least forty of them, of all ages. A few children clung to their mothers or fathers, dirty and exhausted. Not many of them were crying, too tired to even do that. Lieutenant Isomeren was talking with an old human man with soot smeared across his brow. By the way the old man was trembling, he was recounting something terrible for the important tiefling.
The soldiers had surrounded the people but had deemed them of little to no threat. She overheard from one of the soldiers nearby that these people were just normal villagers. They were from a nearby village, one so small that it wasn't even on the main road and was mostly self-sufficient. The camp had moved on from their alert state, the one that they missed while traveling back to it, to one of receiving people in need and helping keep them safe. Runner wasn't sure that was a good idea.
What set Runner on edge was the fact that they stunk. Normally Runner didn't smell the best herself. Not many opportunities for a bath when you are running from the law. She was no stranger to the smells from the road and from destitute situations. But these people didn't just stink of sweat and blood.
They smelled like smoke.
Sulfuric smoke.
They all smelt it. Each one of them had stiffened at the memory of that smell. How couldn't they? When someone goes through something that traumatic, certain details are engrained in their mind. Certain details were filled with certain emotions. Fear, anger, confusion, frustration, desperation. All muddled together into one shared memory. That nasty, nasty memory. Ina stumbled back, her hands trembling. Baz let out a low growl in his throat. Selm's eyes were as wide as saucers. Yule's brow furrowed. Runner's hands itched. Eshah.
It was the same fucking smell.