The Shield of the North [IC]

[TriciaOso]

He inclines his head. "Of course."

He cross the courtyard and brings you to the small group. "Beatrice. This is the Lady Lune Nyx, of Kingseat, of whom we've spoken. Lune, this is Vicomte Beatrice Prochaine, Captain of the militia, and the unit of experienced heroes of which she has the charge."

He bows slightly.

"Lune, I leave you in very good hands. There are new adventurers waiting for me. Good luck to all of you, and may we all survive to feel the sun's embrace once more." The sun, right now, is a dim and dirty coin half-hidden by clouds, doing its feeble best to warm you and melt the snow on the rooftops. Winter in Coldwater makes it easy to see how the Sun King has not prospered here.

Beatrice nods to him, and to her new charge. She clears her throat. "Right. You folks have the day to get acquainted. Since you each hold a steel coin, you'll be on the second shift tonight, from midnight to dawn. If the new folk fail, you may be called on sooner. You have no relief -- you hold until dawn, or there is no special squad on assignment. Don't let that make you foolhardy; when your resources are exhausted, you have to call it, and damn your pride."

"Damn few people return for a second year, and those who do tend to return for a third, and a fourth. If they don't get themselves killed. So don't be foolish."

"When you are called, you will make your way to the southern wall, between the Porte Fleche and the Porte Cadette. Don't get distracted by anything else going on in the city... everyone is fighting their own war, and you must fight yours."

"Now, it's hard for dead forces to get there, that far south, and hard for them to hold it. They besiege it anyway, to force us to spread ourselves thin. Most of the forces there will be mindless and weak, easy prey for the ordinary militia."

"Typically, our biggest concern down there is the handful of more powerful and intelligent dead who will have founding hiding spots in the neighborhood outside the walls, the Arrowhead. That warren gives them shelter and cover, and those who survive sometimes hole up there. Mostly they lie in wait for the days after Wintertide. The strategic value is questionable... they just love to kill. But unlike the other settlements beyond the walls, the Arrowhead is large enough for them to possibly be up to some greater mischief -- summoning fiends, or opening gateways to suddenly put a powerful foe where we least expect it. It's happened before, and so it can't be left until morning like the other banlieue."

"So if the night has gone well, you'll be going door to door, clearing the Arrowhead for the citizens who live there and will return tomorrow. If the night hasn't gone well... there will be plenty to do."