The City Of Tuledare.
Both Maiya Garney the lead scout and sergeant Blufont are yawning as they make their way through the streets of the city of Tuledare early in the morning, well before dawn on what's another cold autumn day.
The two of them are heading to The Traveler's Comfort inn, where the elven spy Dalinvardèl Tanith is based.
As they head from the east side of the city, heading towards the main thoroughfare that comes up from the south gates of Tuledare.
They see that the streets, even for this time of the morning, well before dawn, are extremely quiet. Especially in comparison to how they normally are.
Where you usually see street hawkers, and stall holders setting up before the crack of dawn. Or wagon and cart drivers, moving goods about.
This morning before dawn, there's hardly any of them out and about on the streets of the capital of the city-state of Tuledare.
"Guess most are keeping indoors after what happened yesterday" quietly says Maiya Garney the lead scout as they cross an empty square in the city center.
"They're scared shitless" quietly says sergeant Blufont, who like the lead scout is speaking in elven.
Maiya Garney who hails from the southwest of the Lands Farque, and is in command of their infiltration squad, yawns again. Causing the company sergeant to yawn as well.
The experienced sergeant sourly grunts as he looks sideways at the young woman in her early twenties, who is the squad commander.
"Do you mind" mutters sergeant Blufont, which causes the lead scout to grin, then quietly say "Just getting it in before you do".
Maiya Garney pauses for a moment as they walk across a street, then she continues with "Besides you sound like a creaky old barn door when you yawn".
The company sergeant just grunts in reply to that, then he does exactly what the lead scout described, he yawns, loudly.
Much to the disgust of the scout Garney, who can't help it, and yawns as well, even though she tries not to.
They briefly pause, as one of the few wagons they've encountered before dawn, cuts across in front of them.
They continue on, and turn onto another street, looking up as they do, for they hear the screeching call of a wyvern passing overhead somewhere.
"That definitely sounds like it hasn't got a rider" quietly says sergeant Blufont as they enter a lane between two rows of buildings.
Maiya Garney nods in agreement with the company sergeant, then says "Probably broke out of its mews" followed by "I guess a lot of the riders here in the city were killed yesterday when the barracks were hit".
Sergeant Blufont nods in agreement as they exit the lane, then turn right onto another cobblestone street, just to the west of the city center.
As they approach the side street where the Traveler's Comfort inn is located, the two of them share a look.
They both hear the chatter of people talking quietly, near or close to the inn they're making their way to.
When so far this morning, in the near darkness before dawn, they've hardly heard any people talking as they've made their way from the east side of the capital city of Tuledare.
They round the corner, and make their way onto the side street where the Traveler's Comfort inn is.
They quickly glance at one another again, for they see a number of people milling around outside the front of the inn.
As they get closer, they see it's people the two of them recognize. Soldiers from the other infiltration squads. Like the two of them, the squad commander and their second in command.
With them are others that the lead scout and the company sergeant recognize. Members of the senior staff of the field commander, Tamric Drubine.
All of whom, fall silent as the two of them approach in the darkness before dawn. They start quietly chatting again when they recognize Maiya Garney and sergeant Blufont.
Both the lead scout and the experienced sergeant quietly greet those outside the front of the large inn.
The two of them as they walk up to the front door of the Traveler's Comfort notice that more than a few of those outside of the inn, are either grinning or trying to suppress grins.
Then as sergeant Blufont opens the front door, the scout Garney stops and has a brief word with another lead scout from one of the other infiltration squads.
The company sergeant enters the Traveler's Comfort, takes a couple of steps into the common room, promptly says "Fuck that!" which everyone outside can hear.
Then quickly turns around and exits the inn, while those fellow Farqian soldiers who were outside, burst out laughing.
"What is it?" asks Maiya Garney in surprise after sergeant Blufont quickly closes the door behind him.
"You don't want to know" sourly says the experienced sergeant, who then scowls at the others, most of whom are still chuckling.
"Can't be that bad" mutters the scout Garney who moves to open the door, even though sergeant Blufont shakes his head no, for he has absolutely no intention of going back in there.
The lead scout in one of the infiltration squads, opens the door, and enters The Traveler's Comfort inn, she takes a couple of steps into the common room, then comes to a sudden stop.
Maiya Garney gags, to be fair she almost vomits, and not just from what she sees, but more importantly what she smells.
Covering her mouth and nose with the inside of her right forearm, the scout Garney by the light of the fire that's burning in the fireplace, looks at the mess in the common room of the inn.
Most of which is the large, half naked ork snoring loudly in the middle of the common room, amongst the ruins of broken tables, chairs, barrels and bottles.
The lead scout in the second division of the Fifth Army of Farque, sees scraps of food scattered everywhere.
And she's pretty sure she sees half a human arm amongst the scraps, half an arm, missing most of the hand and forearm. But the most repugnant smell comes from a pile of what's obviously ork shit near the fireplace.
The scout Garney frowns as she looks that way, then blinks in surprise as amongst the large mound of crap, is a body.
Well most of a body, a dwarf by the looks of it. Who obviously came to a rather horrific end at the hands of Dorc da Orc who is fast asleep in the middle of the common room.
Maiya Garney after shaking her head in disgust, then quickly taking her forearm away from her face, calls out "Blufont get in here!".
The lead scout ignores the "Fucking hell" she can hear from the company sergeant, and instead waits for him to make his way inside the inn.
The experienced sergeant who has a corner of his cloak covering the lower half of his face, grimaces as he stands beside the young woman who commands their squad.
"Come on, we've got to make our report" says Maiya Garney whose voice is muffled as she has her forearm covering her mouth and nose again.
The two of them hurry across to the left side of the common room, keeping as much distance between themselves and the sleeping ork general.
They make their way into the hallway that way, then quickly head up the stairs. It's not until they get to the landing of the third floor, before they finally uncover their faces.
The lead scout and the company sergeant share a look, as they realize they have to go back down through there when they leave the inn, definitely something they're not looking forward to.
The two of them nod to the pair of officers in the alcove opposite the room used by Dalinvardèl Tanith the elven spy.
And though those officers are members of field commander Drubine's personal staff. They know that they're also personal guards to the young noble originally from the feudal kingdom of Sarcrin who commands the Fifth Army of Farque.
Maiya Garney knocks on the door, and after a moment, the voice of Dalinvardèl Tanith the elven spy can be heard from inside saying "Enter".
The lead scout opens the door, and she and the company sergeant make their way into the large room, the spy Tanith has been using whilst here in the city of Tuledare.
Inside the room is the aforementioned Dalinvardèl Tanith, along with Tamric Drubine the field commander, Saanea the witch, as well as Beldane the cleric, who by the looks of things, has just woken up.
"Reporting commander" says Maiya Garney to the spy Tanith, after she and sergeant Blufont salute field commander Drubine.
"Something wrong?" asks Dalinvardèl Tanith after the lead scout clears her throat, and almost snorts a couple of times, trying to get the stink from downstairs out of her nose.
"Ah no commander" says the scout Garney, who then quickly follows up with "Had to get through that mess down in the common room".
"Oh what mess?" asks the spy who originally hails from the elven principality of Alínlae, where he previously served in one of the more prominent noble houses of that particular nation.
Out of the corner of her eye, Maiya Garney sees Beldane the cleric, who has just sat down, roll his eyes.
"You don't want to know" says Beldane the cleric before the lead scout can answer the elven spy who has been overseeing the infiltration squads, here in the city of Tuledare.
"Oh?" says Tamric Drubine the field commander, who along with Dalinvardèl Tanith look at the fighting cleric who is a member of the church of Glaine.
"Dorc" dryly says the cleric who is a powerful spellcaster, who continues with "There's a dwarf who's staying here".
The cleric who is originally from the kingdom of Nastell, pauses for a moment or two, before dryly adding "Well, he was staying here".
"Oh hell" sourly says the young field commander who leads the Fifth Army of Farque, and who is in command of the attack upon the city-state of Tuledare, on behalf of the city-state of Phamal.
After Dalinvardèl Tanith or Dalin as he's more commonly called by those who know him well, rolls his eyes.
And field commander Drubine holds up a hand, and says to Beldane the cleric who is about to explain everything "I don't want to know" followed by "Just have someone clean up the mess".
"Will do" says the powerful cleric in the church of Glaine, who feels sorry for whoever has to clean up the mess down in the common room caused by Dorc da Orc.
Then the field commander nods for the spy Tanith to continue, and Dalin says to the scout Garney "Your report lead scout".
Maiya Garney, with sergeant Blufont standing beside her, then explains what occurred yesterday during the attack, in the part of the city that she and her squad were assigned.
She follows that with what happened during the aftermath, explaining who if anyone, showed up at the targets that were destroyed by the Krean warships.
While Dalinvardèl Tanith the elven spy, field commander Tamric Drubine, Beldane the cleric and Saanea the witch listen in silence to her . . . . . .
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