Redeployment

	Linus set his hands down on the wooden table in the room he had rented semi-permanently in the Northlodge Inn, and he looked at the map before him with total disgust.  “Filthy creatures,” he muttered to himself.  “They have risen above their station, if they think they can intimidate the House of Duty.”

	The note that the town courier, Collie, had delivered with the map, rustled under his hand.  He brushed it aside and glared holes in the paper.  “They move in groups,” he mused aloud.  “Some Jackalweres don’t, but these sorts seem organized.”  He scoffed and looked over the note again.  The hand was steady, but the content was dire.


	Knight Paladin Vorth,

The House of Duty, our home and headquarters in the city of Landwels, has come under attack.  Armies of Jackalweres, led by a great, mutant behemoth of their own kind, lay siege to us.  The siege ebbs and rises in tune with some pattern we cannot detect.  Their numbers seem great, but constrained.  At any time, parties of their number retreat to find food.
This is not in the nature of such things.  Jackalweres rarely attempt such large-scale actions, and rarely do they confront our number so openly.  The Proctor and Abbot agree that this is surely an effort on their part to send a message, or loot the city of something valuable we may be protecting.  What that is, we do not know.
We beseech you, Knight Vorth, to gather your party of adventurers who triumphed over Tiamat.  Bring them to our aid, for all our sakes, before the beasts overrun us.
Deacon Mordican
Landwells

	Linus folded up the letter and tucked it back under the map.  The city was a small one, barely four thousand souls, but still a city, and if the House of Duty needed him, it would have him.  His party was a different matter.  Insofar as he knew, they were all gone.  Barnswallow had left for parts unknown years ago.  Anders and Eve had disappeared.  Willem and Grim were off doing Gods-know-what in another part of the continent.  He was the only member of their band still active, as far as he knew, and he had no means of contacting the others.

	He peered at the map.  Landwells stood stretched over the top of a plateau at the north end of the Anauroch desert.  Its very existence was something of a miracle.  The sheer volume of water the great well at the heart of the city produced had no equal in the great desert.  Linus traced the edge of the city with his eyes, looking for any obvious defensive strongpoint.  He saw none.  There were no walls, there was no castle.

	“Not a fortress, exactly,” he muttered.  “I wonder…”

	He reached into a bag on the table and pulled out a list.  He glanced it over.  “Hmm… no, Landwells isn’t a member of the Lords’ Alliance.  Shame.”  He set the list down again and looked out the window.  The trees were waving their crowns east.  “If I leave now, I could make good time… hell of it.  I should get this over with,” he sighed to himself.

	He rolled the papers back up and slid them into their tubes.  He quickly stripped down his temporary abode and walked out, leaving nothing behind, like the seasoned campaigner he was.

	Downstairs, Chrissy heard him approach.  “Hello, Linus,” she said brightly.  Her smile sagged when she saw him carrying his things.  “Oh… are you leaving us?”

	“For now, yes, and I’m closing out my room,” Linus said.  He set his key on the counter as he walked by.  “I need to assist a Temple elsewhere in the North.”

	“Oh, do be careful,” Chrissy said.  She wasn’t sure they were friends, at least, but she did rather like him.

	He smiled gamely.  “I shall.  Goodbye.”


	The wind tugged at his dreadlocks as he soared over the Dessarin Valley atop his Celestial Pegasus.  Linus shielded his eyes from the glare and watched the hills and woods go by.  “Making good time, my friend,” he said to Noble.  “Give it another two days, and we’ll be there.”  He patted Noble’s neck with his other hand.  “Let’s land and have some water, eh?”

	Noble tossed his head, and began to descend.


	Linus kicked his feet up on a log beside the creek.  Noble was gulping down water still, Linus had fed them both.  He had elected not to put his armor on until he got closer to the city, which was still a few days away.  His mind wandered as he rested.  He wondered about Kyria, and where she may have been on her journey to the north.  He wondered about the Flock, and he wondered whatever had happened to Capricorn.

	He blew out a long breath and rose to his feet.  “Time to go, buddy,” he said to Noble.  “We’ve got to keep the pace.”


	Viri rose with the other fauns of the flock, after the few minutes of sleep she needed every night.  The satyrs were still snoozing after all their exertions, so the glade was quiet.  A few of the elder fauns were still at it, snacking after their evening hunts.  Viri ambled up to the edge of their clearing and looked south, over the River of Fancies.

	The portal hung there still, oscilating with bright lights and strange shadows.  She shielded her eyes and sighed.  What did the world want from them?  What did they have to do to get rid of it?  They were but simple forest folk, not masters of magic and divinity.  A hole in the world was beyond them.  She watched the lights the orb cast on the ground for a while, and then wandered off.  Perhaps a dance would make her feel better.


	Linus stared at the carnage in the streets below with a cold feeling in his stomach.  There was barely a town left.  Landwells Plateau was a wasteland.  Here and there, he saw torches and cooking fires burning, but the majority of the the town was rubble.

	“Why would jackalweres even bother with this?” he asked the air.  After a moment’s airborne appraisal, he patted Noble’s flank, and his friend dove down towards the House of Duty.

	He took heart at the sight.  The wall of thick stone that ringed the House had originally been mere decoration, but now it was their only significant defense from a monstrous invasion.  He saw a trio of archers at each of the cardinal points, watching the streets beyond.  They waved as he flew over the south wall and came to a halt in the square of the chapel.

	Four adults in copper-colored tabards and broad white hats rushed out to meet him.  “Oh, Paladin Vorth, your timing couldn’t be better!” one of them called as soon as Linus came within hearing range.

	Linus dismounted and looked them over quickly.  He only knew one, the half-elf man in front.  “Deacon Mordican, I’m glad to be of service.  What about my timing?”

	“Your arrival is auspicious, sir, because now you can coordinate our reinforcements,” Mordican panted.  “Quickly, sir, quickly!  We will have time for introductions later, please come with us!”