Year 30

"This place won't be the same without you sir. I don't know how I'll be able to run this place as well as you." Lieutenant Verant says as you finish packing your things.
"You'll do fine lieutenant, or should I say captain. You'll probably get an official promotion soon. Just remember, when the citizens protest I've found that flogging one family with children at random keeps the rest in line. Can't really afford to execute them like we did in the old days, too many ogre attacks already doing a good job of that. Well at least you don't need to worry about the giants as much anymore."
"You always did know best sir."
"Well, I tried to do what I could up here. I don't know why I'm being stationed to Delerg Province. It's one of the more peaceful places of the Empire next to the Nalin province. I would prefer to be here or on the Felkan frontlines where I could do more to serve, but I suppose the Emperor knows best where my skills will be used."
"Oh well I've heard the war with the Felkans is coming to an end soon."
"Yes, I've heard that as well…and it concerns me the things that I've heard why it's ending. Mass riots in the major cities of the Empire, soldier shortages, even heard about some of those traitorous shadow criminals carrying out terrorist tactics. And because of these problems what do we do with the Felkans? Another non-aggression pact! We should be butchering them and burning down their cities, not making peace with them again. If all of the Emperor's enemies had one neck, I would sever it with one sword swipe."

Verant says nothing after your rant. Indeed over the past few years he's heard you rant about the troubles of the Empire a lot more and knows to keep quiet. But if you're making more outbursts than usual, it's only because the Empire has more problems than usual.

Lately you've been questioning how "great" the Empire is supposed to be. This is not the place you heard about when you were being trained by Mistress or Captain Gruz. In fact, during your first assignment in the Nalin province you encountered decadent officers and disobedient citizens even then.

This questioning of the Empire then makes you question the Emperor which causes you great concern for that it treasonous thinking. But still…how is it he has allowed this to happen to his land? He is supposed to be all wise and all-powerful, but you've not seen much evidence of either. Never mind the fact that you've never seen him at all.

It's a rare thought, but there have been even a few times where you wondered what would've happened if you had joined Kane when he asked.

You leave Fort Destiny without another word and board the carriage to the Delerg province.

A few days later you arrive and Delerg is everything you've heard about, very swampy. The town you're scheduled to arrive in looks like it's sinking into marsh, which might explain why it's even called Sinkhole.

While you don't know why you're here, you do know you're supposed to meet with a contact here, though you don't know who that is or where you're supposed to meet.

As you take in the sights of this dismal town, the villagers look like they can barely contain their fear of you. You aren't sure if it's because they've heard of your reputation, or if it's due to their natural suspicious nature. The swamp folk have always been known to be that way. They were one of the few people that didn't resist Empire dominion at all when they first came to this land, but despite this submissiveness the swamp folk still maintained their wary ways.

"Well if isn't the Bane of Rask! It's been a long time!" a voice calls out to you. You turn around and see not one, but two familiar faces.
"Roldan? Gerald?" you say seeing how much older they've gotten. It makes you realize just how much time has passed.
"Of course it's us!" Roldan says.
"Yeah, we didn't know you'd be the contact." Gerald adds.
"Contact? I'm not anyone's contact. I'm supposed to meet someone here, you guys aren't it?" you say.
"Erm, no. In fact when Gerald arrived I thought he was the contact and vice versa. Well this is odd. I wonder who we're supposed to be meeting?"

You reply that you don't know and then begin to feel slightly uneasy. With all your past experiences, you start to feel like this might be a trap, then another carriage comes into the town. When the passenger steps out, it's an old, but still tough looking orc in battle armor. It's Captain Gruz! He sees all three of you milling about in the open and shuffles over to you.

"What in blazes are you lot doing out in the open like this? Any potential assassin could strike you down! I thought I taught you better than that! Come on let's get into the tavern, we can talk there." He scolds and then heads towards the tavern, you, Gerald and Roldan follow.

The tavern is dark and nearly empty. The patrons inside see you four sit at a table and then move as far away as possible.

"You thirsty? I sure am. Four ales!" Captain Gruz says.
"I'm not thirsty captain." You say.
"They're not for you, they're for me! You guys order your own drinks! Anyway I imagine you're all wondering what this small reunion is all about. Well let's just say the Empire finally saw fit to take me off the sidelines and place me in charge of something worthwhile for a change. I'll get right to the point and tell you, the Shadow Guard is here, or at least what's left of them. For awhile we thought that they might be working with the Felkans, but they're just taking advantage of the war."

This news causes you to sit forward and then look around.

"Oh don't worry, they're not right HERE, lad. They're in this province though; and you might be interested that Cyrus is the one leading this miserable little band of shadows. I imagine you and he got some unfinished business. In fact that's why you're here, since you've had a lot of experience in dealing with this situation before. As for you two, your own records are excellent and you're Eternals. The only ones that are going to be skilled enough to handle this situation I think are Eternals."
"How come Edgar isn't here? He also had experience with the Shadow Guard and was with me during the Fort Defiance incident."
"Eh, Edgar's skills are best served on the Felkan frontlines right now. I know the war might be coming to an end, but there's still quite a bit of fighting going on. Besides best not to have all you guys in one place."
"That's a different perception than I remember you having when you were arguing with Mr. Mol fourteen years ago." You say.
"Heh, remembered that did you? Well, as I'm sure you know things change, ideas change. You get older and see things differently. Wouldn't you agree?"

You pause before answering, which causes Gruz to study you for a moment.

"Yes, I suppose so." You reluctantly reply.
"Of course you do, lad. You'd be a bleeding idiot if you didn't." Gruz says taking a drink of one of his ales.
"So, where are these Shadow Guard fanatics anyway?" Gerald asks.
"An old temple deep in the swamps. Used to be their old place of worship back before their Empire days apparently. Looks like Cyrus really bought into that dead religion, though it's also arrogant of him to try to hide right underneath our noses. Hell, who knows? Maybe he knew he'd get discovered eventually and was just itching for a fight. Anyway, we'll have some extra help when we arrive there. Trust me, I've got it set up."

The remainder of the time is playing a little catch up with your former team members while Captain Gruz enjoys his ale. It's interesting to see how vastly different their experiences have been.

Gerald says his time was initially boring until the war broke out. From then on he and Warrick were constantly paired up to perform commando mission deep into Felkan territory. Dangerous work, but he says they were treated pretty well by everyone and held in high regard among their fellow soldiers. Even the citizens were less troublesome in the Arat province and the local women threw themselves at him and Warrick every night he laughs.

Roldan mentions his time was mostly spent cleaning up the rest of the kobolds in the Nalin province, breaking small bandit rings, and ultimately trying to keep the peasants in line. No problems from the usksha again though. When Captain Anu was promoted and sent to the Felkan frontlines, Brenda got promoted to command Fort Glory. The most surprising thing though, he and Brenda apparently married. Wasn't anything fancy and there was paperwork that had to be filled out (A lot of it) but it was completely approved of by the Empire.

Your own tales sound remarkably grim when compared to theirs.

The strangest thing about all this is how they've all had contact with each other either directly or through messages. Gerald and Roldan even mention how they got letters from Kane years ago before his actions at Fort Defiance. They both confirm how the letters sounded very longing of the "old days" and referring to them as "brother." Warrick and Brenda apparently got similar ones too.

You ask Gerald if he met Edgar when he was transferred there. He replies that he did, but said that he was mostly sent to fight Felkan armies directly right along side most of the orcish detachments.

"Sheesh. He's gotta love that considering his experiences with orcs at Fort Defiance." You say.
"Edgar's an idiot. Always has been. I saw that even when I was training you guys. He's a good warrior, but lacks vision. Surprised he's lasted this long." Captain Gruz suddenly replies.
"Well, I agree he's always had a tendency to act without thinking, but after my last dealings with him, I think he's improved a bit. Changed his outlook. You know, got older and sees things differently now." You reply.
"Hmm. Maybe, but as far as I'm concerned being a meat shield is about the best thing he's ever been good for, just like all the rest of dumb fuckers on the Felkan frontlines."
"Hey, I'm on the Felkan frontlines!" Gerald protests.
"Yeah, and you're not marching straight into those Felkan shooty weapons either. You're being a lot more than just a meat shield like the rest of those stupid ass orcs."
"Rest of those orcs? Not to point out the obvious, but you're an orc, I mean aren't those your people?" Roldan asks.
"Yeah and? Does that make us all relatives or some shit? Fuck my people! I got no patience for any of them anymore…" Captain Gruz begins to get loud and cause a scene.

"Okay captain I think you've had enough. I think I saw an inn across the way, let's get some rooms there and make plans to deal with the shadows tomorrow." You suggest.
"Grrm, maybe you're right…" Captain Gruz replies and then promptly falls to the floor. Gerald tries to pick him up.

"Somebody go get the rooms and the other person help me carry the captain." Gerald says.

You old Comrades (Catching up)

"…and so that's what Warrick and I have been up to. Just making things difficult as best we can for the Felkan Kingdom." Gerald says.
"I'm just surprised that put you on these sneaky commando raids, Warrick I can understand, he's always been a stealthy individual, but you were usually rushing into battle like the rest of us." You reply.
"Hey, I've changed a bit since you last saw me. Besides, it's not all sneaking around. Some of it requires just enough to get in and then we can raise as much havoc as we need to. Still, if it's a mission that requires a lot of covert operations, then Warrick goes in by himself. I'd go to, but I'm too damn tall and stick out like a sore thumb sometimes."
"Heh, maybe they should put Edgar on your missions, he's short enough." Roldan laughs.
"Yeah right, he'd go charging in screaming at the top of his lungs for the entire Felkan Kingdom to attack him."
"Oh I don't know about that, he's changed as well last time I saw him. He's a lot better disciplined now. Speaking change, how the hell did YOU get married?" You ask Roldan.
"Well you see, when a man and a woman love each other…"

This causes a bit of laughing from Gerald and Roldan, but you're as serious as ever.

"You know what I mean, Roldan."
"Yes, I know what you mean, sheesh. I see some things haven't changed. Well it's rather simple. Brenda and I spent so much time together and our thoughts, our actions, and just I dunno everything about us seemed to be in relative harmony. It only seemed natural that we end up together. It was like…what other people call love I guess? Hard to know for certain, I mean I think we all know that wasn't something we were trained to for. Anyway we just ended up taking the next logical step, but we were pretty worried that the Empire would frown upon it and possibly even split us up. Turned out of course they just made us fill out a bunch of annoying paperwork. I don't even think whatever pencil pusher was in charge even realized we were Eternals. Just bureaucracy as usual."
"Bah, you just got lucky you had no real competition. Had I still been stationed there, things would've been a lot different!" Gerald remarks.

While Roldan gives Gerald a light punch to his arm, you're about to ask further questions about Roldan's marriage when Gruz suddenly asks you a strange question.

"Tell me Eternal, what are you going to do when you get old?"
"Huh? Get old?"
"Yes, when you get old, you do realize it will happen right?"
"Well…uh yeah."
"Okay then, what are you going to do?"
"I guess I never thought about it."
"Hm. Sounds about right. Most young people don't." he replies and goes back to his ale.

This odd interlude is interrupted once again by Gerald and Roldan who were so preoccupied with their little playful banter that they didn't even hear Gruz's remarks.

"So… big bad Bane of Rask! Heh." Gerald says and does a little drumming motion on the table. "Heard a lot of stories about some of stuff you've done. Maybe you can clear up some of the rumors and truths."
"You mean like Kane?" you bluntly say.
"Er…well actually I got some of that story about that from Edgar last time I saw him. I was certainly surprised how bad it was when he told me directly, but after one of the letters I got from Kane months before, it did have an odd tone to it…"
"Wait a minute. Hold on. Kane sent you a letter?"
"Yeah, I assumed he sent one to all of us. Warrick got one the same time I did."
"Brenda and I received letters as well. Very odd. Kept referring to us as his brother and sister throughout the thing." Roldan adds.

You're at a loss that you didn't receive one considering when Kane first met you he was very eager to have you on his side. You initially chalk it up to Cyrus' meddling, but then Gerald asks another question.

"You know speaking of letters, how come you never answered any of mine? I had a few sent to Rask a few months after we all got split up, but never got a reply. I was sort of worried you were dead for a while until deeds of your exploits started popping up."
"Letters? I never got any letters. Never got any letters from anyone." You say.
"Well that would explain your surprise at Brenda and I getting married because we made sure to send one to everyone on the team. Hell, even Edgar wrote back to congratulate us."

Gerald makes a remark to Roldan that maybe Rask has shitty mail service, and then Gruz pipes up again while they're talking with each other.

"Don't worry about it lad. Isolation makes one stronger anyway."
"What?"
"Teamwork, cooperation, greater good, its all bullshit. In the end it's just about survival and who crosses that finish line between life and death last is the winner. Just sucks about those last laps though when you're practically crawling towards it just to get the shit over with." Gruz says taking another drink.

You aren't exactly sure what Gruz is going on about, but you're getting the impression that he's had more than enough to drink. You decide that you all need to start wrapping up this little get together soon so you can concentrate better at the true task at hand.