Unfortunately Pollo is right, the only decision that makes sense is to leave Gerald behind.

Still, you aren't fond of the idea though not necessarily for the moral reasons that most would be. This is an unproductive use of your team's talents and pointless in the scheme of things. You can't believe the Empire would allow such a petty man to be in charge of the safety of a province and why isn't the Emperor aware of such inefficiency?

"Very well."
"I knew you'd see things my way. Have fun playing with the kobolds. You're dismissed."

You leave Pollo's office where your team is still waiting for you.

"Gerald, I regret that you will not be coming with us on this mission. The Captain wants you to stay with him." You say.
"What?! But I'm ready to fight!" he protests.
"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 face the raiders

You decide that it might be wise to maintain a presence here, after all there is still work to be done and you're confident that things will be better at the fort now. Lieutenant Anu nods and says you can set out in a couple days to the town of Jekka. He mentions that the nomads have never been a problem like the kobold are, but lately they have been reaching that level. He also says they aren't native to Nalin, but rather the desert land south of it.

You spend the next couple of days at the fort are spent honing your weapon skills and telling your team to do likewise. Gerald joins you after being released from the stockade. He looks a little embarrassed and you reprimand him for his lack of finesse, but welcome him back.

Eventually you set off for the southern Nalin border. The journey isn't as uneventful as the first mission and you encounter a few kobolds attacking travelers along the roads. You easily dispatch them of course.

The town of Jekka is in much better shape than Dalt, but its obvious the people here have been suffering from attacks.

"Empire soldiers? Here? I thought you lot were chasing down kobolds to waste time with the likes of us." A man says to you. He looks to be some sort of town sheriff.
"All Empire towns are under our protection citizen. We have heard this one is suffering heavy raids from the desert nomads."
" Well, we've been doing okay so far, but a few of the other border villages have gotten it pretty bad. One of them was totally destroyed. Those lizard riders have never been this bad or numerous before. The weird thing is, they just destroy and kill, they don't actually do any proper raiding or looting, not that it really matters. but for the past few months."
"We heard rumors of a shaman uniting them."
"Yeah that's the rumor, but really nobody knows what's going on with them. They make quick attacks and then run back to their accursed desert. So when are more Empire soldiers coming?"
"They aren't."
"What?! We've been holding out for months with no hope in sight and now that you give us a little bit, you take it away again?"
"Citizen, I advise you to calm yourself." You warn, wondering if you're going to have to make another point like you did in Dalt. You don't since thought since the sheriff has more sense.
"Alright, alright, but I'm telling you there are a lot of those lizard riders! I hope you're more than just regular Empire soldiers. You guys Shadow Guard or something?"
"We're Eternals."

You set up your staging point in Jekka. The desert raiders will probably attack this town again as usual, so you might as well take advantage of the fact. The waiting is tedious, but eventually after few days it pays off.

Several of the raiders appear in the distance and make no hesitation in their attack. The raiders are trying to rely on intimidation, because they sure aren't relying on strategy and only attack the town from one direction. The lizard creatures that the raiders ride might be intimidating to the average citizen, but you've fought bigger creatures during training. They're rather clumsy beasts actually and when you and your team begin to use your own hit and run tactics, they start to collide into each other causing problems for the raiders.

As for the raiders themselves, they prove to be barely better fighters than the kobolds after dismounting several of them. Underneath the desert protection gear they wear, they don't appear to be human or any other race you're familiar with, but they bleed just like all them and that's the important thing.

As many battles often go, this one is over quicker than it felt. The remaining raiders run off and you order your people to mount up and chase them down which is fairly easy to do.

Jekka suffered some damage and a few dead, but overall the townspeople couldn't be happier with the outcome and most shower you with praise. However, you get the impression that you're going to be facing more of these raiders in the near future and you're right.

A couple days pass and another raid on the town of Jekka occurs in the same exact manner, then again a few days after that. A week passes and there are no more raids, but that doesn't mean they've stopped. You already know they've been attacking several settlements, so you tell Warrick and Roldan to scout out the closest ones to see what their situation is while you try to build some proper defenses for Jekka.

A week passes and you learn more about your foes from a villager who survived the destruction of his home. The desert raiders (or the Usksha as you've come to find out their proper name) have indeed been united under one banner by a shaman of some sort. The villager says he saw this being with his own eyes and was spared for the sole purpose to warn all that the Usksha will no longer tolerate a foreign presence encroaching on their desert. This shaman said he has been chosen personally by their god Usk to destroy all those that do and that the town of Jekka will not be able to resist the inevitable destiny that it will fall.

"So, he's coming here then? Good, saves us the trouble of hunting him down." You reply.
"Combined with this information and based on what Warrick and I have scouted out, it sounds like there will be even more of them. Possibly a full blown army. We might need reinforcements from Fort Glory." Roldan says.
"Reinforcements? Hah! We've beaten them several times with ease!"
"Would they even get here in time? We don't exactly know when the attack will come." Brenda asks.
"They might or they might not, still we should try. Find out who the best runner is in this town and have them travel to Fort Glory with this news. We can continue to prepare in the meantime." You say.

The next morning several Uskshas appear in the distance like the other times you fought them. Then more show up, then even more. The town sheriff completely panics and says he's never seen this many before. This of course causes most of the other townies to panic as well. You slap him and tell him if he and anyone else aren't going to be helpful then they need to stay out of the way and find someplace to hide.

They come at you screaming and yelling in their barbarian language and suddenly a huge worm thing comes out of the ground in the center of town.

"Ha ha! At last a real fight!" Edgar yells and runs at it immediately as it destroys the nearby tavern. You order Kane to come with you to help Edgar while the rest try to delay the rest of the usksha. You just hope the barricades hold up long enough for them to greatly whittle the numbers down.

You, Edgar and Kane approach the great worm, which bashes its great body into the side of another building, killing many townspeople hiding inside.

"YOU! You think you can destroy me? I am an avatar of Usk! How can you destroy a god when you are, but a mere child of a corrupt empire?" you suddenly hear in your mind.

It takes a split moment, but you realize that this beast is the shaman. He has used magic of some kind to transform himself into this thing. It doesn't matter how much favor he has from his god though, he isn't one and will die like the rest.

Using his daggers like climbing gear, Kane jumps as high as he can and sink them into the shaman, while you and Edgar attempt to chop at his body like it was a tree. The shaman roars and attempts to smash you with his body, but you pull Edgar out of the way and Kane jumps off before being crushed. The shaman burrows back into the hole he came from and a few moments later he breaks through in another area of the town and begins destroying the barricades. You reach the shaman just in time for him to sink back into his hole again, while usksha pour in through the broken wall.

"Shit!" Edgar shouts in exasperation.
"Plug up that opening with their dead bodies!" you shout as you chop off the head of one their lizards before doing the same to the fallen rider.

Holding the back the tide of usksha isn't exactly what you want to be doing though, you want to take down that shaman, do that and this battle is over.

When you hear him break through the ground again elsewhere in town, you tell Kane and Edgar to hold the line here, while you go see if you can get him.

You see him near the center of town again trying to finish destroying the buildings there. You chop down a few usksha near him and resume attempting to bring him down. He uses his crushing attack like last time, but this time you anticipate and not only dodge, but you manage to run your sword into his eye when his head is at your level. He bellows in pain and attempts to escape again, but you won't let go of your sword and pull it towards you as he pulls backwards. You fall to the ground as the sword finishes slicing through the shaman's flesh leaving a gapping wound where his eye and part of his "face" would be.

You then see the worm collapse to the ground and begin to glow. Some of the others nearby, human and usksha alike stop fighting to stand and watch in wonder. The shaman transforms back into his natural form, his head and body displaying heavy wounds.

"No…can't…you…why…we hate you…you aren't…wanted…your empire will die…we will reclaim what is oursss…" are the scattered words you hear in your head as you approach the shaman's broken body.
"Stop talking." You say and run your sword through his other eye.

It is at this point you hear the howls of several usksha as their mental link with their leader has been severed. You, your team and even a few vengeful townspeople butcher the remaining usksha that don't get away while attempting to retreat.

Jekka is half in ruins and many are dead, but the battle has been won.

The following day a detachment of troops arrive from Fort Glory. They look at the carnage and the platoon leader reports to you.

"I'm Corporal Delan and I'm here to help you with…shit, what the hell happened here?"
"Victory, corporal. Victory." You say.
"So…the threat is gone?"
"I wouldn't say it's gone, but it won't be rearing its head for a long time."
"I say we should march into that desert and wipe them out permanently, then we'd never have to worry about them ever again!" Edgar says.
"Well, if you decide to do that, we'll help. I know you've been busy down here so I don't know if you've heard, but we've made great strides in eliminating the kobolds, so Captian Anu told us to help you with this problem as much as we can.

You march into the desert

The usksha are broken and on the run, the opportunity to eliminate them as a future threat is certainly there, along with extending the Empire's influence south of the Nalin province. Your recent victories have filled you with confidence and you agree you should mount an attack on the usksha.

"You can't be serious! Look I know you guys are Eternals, and I won't deny that you're the best warriors I've ever seen, but even you won't be able to conquer the usksha in their desert! They've lived there for centuries, even before the Empire existed! They know it like nobody else, you'll be outnumbered and fighting the elements themselves!" the Jekka sheriff exclaims. Somehow he survived the battle by hiding no doubt.

Perhaps he is content on being a coward all his life, but you were meant for much more! You are an Eternal and the Emperor himself will reward you himself when you make the first steps in civilizing the desert. You slap him again and tell him that you'll need as much water as everyone can carry.

After a period of rest, you, your team and Delan's men set off for the desert. You figure the best way to approach this is to follow the usksha's tracks. This works out well at first as the lizard mounts are heavy footed creatures that leave deep prints, so you come across several small bands of fleeing usksha.

When you begin to leave the Nalin province and enter the desert, the prints get harder to track. You follow tracks for two days before you find more usksha. Still, you aren't finding any large settlements.

By day four and Delan's men are starting to complain. He tries to maintain order, but it's obvious they can't take the heat of the day and cold of the night. Your own team is fairing better, but even a couple of them are starting to make comments.

On the seventh night, you're ambushed by several usksha who spring up from the sands itself; they manage to kill several of Delan's men before you dispatch them.

"Sergeant, I think we need to get the hell out of this desert. There's nothing here, but sand and death!"
"Then leave weakling! We're more than able to carry out this mission ourselves! We don't need anybody! We're Eternals!" Edgar shouts.
"I don't doubt our abilities sir, but I'm beginning to wonder if this isn't a waste of time. We've defeated the usksha and chased them deep into their own land. Maybe we've made our point." Roldan says.
"I'm finding myself agreeing sir, we could better serve the Empire elsewhere." Gerald adds.

"Duly noted. We're sticking with the original plan and as for you Delan, you're under my command too, so you aren't going anywhere either, now I advise you to find your guts and keep what men you have left in line, before I take away what little authority you still have left."

Corporal Delan obeys and silently slinks back to his men. Your own people obey as well, but you know that the voices of dissent are already there. Still, you're convinced that you'll find something of importance out here along with wiping out usksha.

On day ten, a strange reptilian creature attacks you. The first instinct is to defend yourself of course, but when it turns Warrick and Gerald to stone instantly, even you find yourself worried.

"Don't look at it! It's got some sort of magic attack!" you shout and put your shield to cover yourself.

Delan and his couple remaining men don't even stick around they turn and run completely. Edgar closes his eyes and swings wildly at the beast, but only manages to get himself mauled by the creature's sharp teeth and claws. The distraction is enough for Brenda to shoot several arrows in the beast while its back is to her. The beast gives a final bellow and dies.

You survey the damage and it's pretty bad. You've lost two men, and looking at Edgar on the ground it'll soon be three. He can't even form any words, he just looks up at the sky gurgling and spitting up blood and trying to clutch at an arm which is no longer there.

"I told you! I told you we should've gone back!" Roldan screams.
"Silence! I'm in charge here and you won't speak to me like that again!" you say.
"Somebody needs to tell you something, because…"

You lose your patience from a combination of the disrespect, the loss, the failure, the heat, all of it. You punch Roldan causing him to fall to the ground. He looks up in disbelief at first, but then begins to laugh.

"Ha ha…ha ha ha ha ha! We…ha ha ha! Found more usksha!" he laughs and points. You all turn to see a sizable group of mounted usksha in the distance. They don't move in either, instead they shoot at you with their bows.

Brenda catches an arrow to her leg before you can sound a retreat. You and Kane run, but Roldan just sits there still laughing, the next time you turn your head to look back, he's no longer sitting up. Brenda tries to keep up, but the arrow in her leg slows her down and eventually she catches two more arrows in her back, killing her much in the same way she killed that strange beast.

Eventually you and Kane get away, but in all the excitement you don't know where you are and you don't even have the tracks you were following to go back to. Under better and less stressful conditions you might get your bearings again, but you never do.

Your next few days involve wandering the desert being continually worn down by usksha ambushes and the sun. You leave Kane's dehydrated body and continue alone, but not for long as you eventually also succumb to the heat.

As you lay dying your thoughts of glory are gone and though dehydrated, you manage to shed a single tear for your failure to serve the Emperor.