After their encounter with the group from the Prime Order the remaining group of 5 head to the camp, where they deliver the weapons after which Gwynn presents herself as the Queen and tells the recruits that they are going to declare war against the Prime Order, in order to free their land.
While this is happening Talon and Janzo meet with the Colipsum Supplier, discovering that they are greyskins, but they make the trade anyways.
The next day Janzo and Talon start to head back to the Outpost after making the exchange. While the two are heading back, in the Outpost the corpse of Gwynn's handmaiden is found buried in a field and Gwynn sentences Garret's father to work in the mines amongst the criminals, convinced that he killed her.
Across the country Everit Dred with a large troupe of men prepares to head to the Outpost upon getting word that The Bones are all dead with Black blood found by their corpses. He also sends out Essa Khan, a mercenary for hire to find and destroy the book of names.
During the same night Garret, who is staying at the camp with the recruits gets stung by an Plagueling while protecting the camp. He heads back to the Outpost the same night and turns to the one person he trusts to make the right call, Xu.
|the next day|
"Captain, the princess is searching the Outpost high and low to find you, don't you think we should tell her?" Xu asks, bringing the captain, who chained himself up in Janzo's lab/ brewery some food.
"No, I don't want her to see me like this. She couldn't handle this, not now. Not when we're about to go to war against the order. Let's wait for Janzo and hear what he thinks." Garret replies.
"Let me see again." Xu says, nodding at the captains leg.
Garret rolls up his pants' leg, showing Xu where he's been stung with the skin around it turning an angry red.
"Doesn't seem that bad." Xu says, looking at the wound.
"It never does up until a worm crawls out of my mouth and I try to infect you too." Garret replies, taking another swig from a bottle of booze.
"Drinking won't stop it." Xu reminds the captain.
"But it helps keep away the worries." Garret snickers in a drunken voice.
"Have it your way, I should get back to my post. I'll bring Janzo by when I see him." Xu tells the captain, leaving him alone in the Inn's basement.
A couple hours later Talon and Janzo arrive at the Inn, carrying in the two heavy barrels filled with Colipsum.
"Oh, you're back. Mom wants to see you." Munt tells Janzo, waking up at the loud bang they make putting down the barrels.
"Can you get us something to drink Janzo?" Talon asks, sitting down at the counter with Janzo fetching two mugs.
"We're a a bit dried out from the travel so mom will have to wait." Janzo tells his adoptive brother.
"He's back!" Munt shouts, alerting his mother to Janzo's arrival, who then shouts for him repeatedly.
Janzo goes to his mother's room and informs her of what happened and when he thinks she would be proud of him she talks down to him again and he leaves annoyed.
"Hello? Is somebody there?" Janzo asks, hearing something tip over as he looks around his brewery.
"Garret, what are you doing here?" Janzo asks, when Garret grabs onto his arm from his chained up spot.
"I need you to tell me if I'm going to turn." Garret tells him.
"What?" Janzo asks confused.
"Didn't Xu tell you? I've ben stung." Garret informs the brewer, sitting down on his table.
"What do you want me to do here?" Janzo asks.
"Kill me. I don't want to turn into one of those things." Garret tells him.
"Janzo! We had an agreement. You read the books so we can find the book before the Drachman." Talon tells Janzo, walking down into his brewery.
"What's going on here?" She asks, seeing Garret with one hand chained to a pillar sitting on the table with a mug in his hand.
"He's been infected by a plagueling." Janzo tells Talon.
"How are you feeling? Excessive sweating? Racing of the heart?" Janzo asks the captain.
"I don't know, you tell me." Garret chuckles drunkenly.
"He's definitely sweating." Talon remarks, seeing his drenched clothing.
"Well your heart is racing too, but that might be because you're scared." Janzo tells him, feeling his pulse.
"Are you drunken?" Talon asks Garret sternly.
"Are you? Because I am and that's because I'm only sitting around here and you brew a very fine beer Janzo." Garret replies.
"Aren't you against Beer and Colipsum?" Talon questions.
"That changes quick when you're about to die. It's remarkable." Garret slurs.
Janzo then performs a couple tests, explaining to the two that Garret will turn tomorrow the soonest, since everyone turned between the third and sixth day of being stung.
"But not everyone turns right?" Garret asks.
"Maybe one in thirteen doesn't, so you have a slim chance." Janzo remarks.
"Fine then. Go and tell Xu to fetch Gwynn." Garret tells Janzo.
"Why should I? Talon can go." Janzo protests.
"Just go." Garret tells him and Janzo leaves reluctantly.
"Talon, you and Xu. You're the only ones I trust to kill me." Garret tells her, pulling on her arm so she's sitting beside him on the table.
"No, Janzo will find a way." Talon replies.
"Maybe, but just in case. One of you two needs to kill me if I turn. Promise me. Xu already gave me his word, now I need yours." Garret tells her.
"Alright, I promise but only if there is no other way." Talon replies.
Half an hour later Xu and Janzo are waiting in front of Gwynn's chambers.
"You are the barkeeper, right?" Gwynn asks Janzo, glancing at Xu.
"brewer, my lady. I have a message for you. A private message." Janzo tells her.
"It's about Garret." Xu adds.
"What did he say, where is he? Is he well?" Gwynn asks, dragging the two in her room quickly.
"I'm afraid not. He's infected by the plaguelings. He wanted me to bring you to him." Xu tells her.
"then bring me. Now!" Gwynn says freaking out.
Soon after back in the brewery.
"My beloved." Gwynn says, rushing over to Garret, who's still sitting on the table with Talon.
"Don't get too close." Talon remarks, holding the princes back from throwing herself at the captain.
"Can't any of you heal him?" Gwynn asks desperately, looking around the three others in the room.
"There is no cure, from what is known there is a parasite growing inside him, growing in his throat until it gets tentacles which reach into his brain." Janzo explains.
"Can't you just kill it while it's growing?" Gwynn asks tearing up at seeing Garret so disheveled.
"I don't know. I never had someone infected who was still himself. Maybe we could make him drink acid, wait no that would kill him." Janzo says.
"If he dies, you die." Gwynn tells him harshly.
"He is basically already dead." Janzo remarks.
"She doesn't want to hear that." Xu tells him.
"I can't change the facts however and I can't work on him with the lady threatening my life." Janzo tells Gwynn pissed off.
"He's right, you should go." Garret says.
"But you send for me." Gwynn replies.
"I just wanted to say goodbye while I'm still me." Garret tells her softly.
"Gwynn I can't risk you endangering yourself and I don't want you to remember me in this state, so please go." Garret says.
"No I won't go. Garret I love you." She tells him while crying.
"I love you too but you have to go. Please. Xu, Talon." Garret says, getting his two comrades to bring Gwynn away.
|Gwynn's chamber|
"For years now I've been scared I could lose Garret. He's always been a soldier but over time I imagined him to be unbeatable." Gwynn says staring at her table while Talon is standing in front of her fireplace with Xu leaning next to the door.
"Don't give up hope yet. If someone can save him, it's Janzo." Talon tells the princess.
"It's weird you know, how similar we are." Gwynn says, joining Talon at the fireplace.
"We aren't that similar." Talon replies.
"Yes we are, we're both women in an outpost full of men, both our families have been murdered by the prime order and we both have power we wish we didn't. Both of our fates will most likely lead to our death. And both of us have feelings for Garret." Gwynn tells her.
"What? I don't." Talon tells her shocked.
"Losing him would hurt you almost as much as me." Gwynn replies.
"Because he's a friend. I'm with Xu now and we should go." Talon informs Gwynn.
"No Talon wait I'm sorry for assuming. I am very thankful that you're here and are consoling me. I'm serious with wanting us to be friends whatever may happen." Gwynn tells her, pulling her into a hug.
"We should get back to Janzo." Xu reminds Talon after a while of the two hugging each other.
"Yes, you should. And you treat Talon right or I'll have your head." Gwynn tells Xu.
"No worries there, I'm usually the one getting mistreated." Xu chuckles, giving Talon a wink.
"Come on." Talon tells him laughing while shaking her head.
Back at the brewery Talon and Xu sit down at one of Janzo's tables, looking through some of the smith's books while Garret lies on another one knocked out by Janzo feeding him rat poison.
"Hey Talon, Janzo? could that mean anything?" Xu asks the two, showing them a picture in the book he was looking through which pictures a book surrounded by writing, lying on an Altar.
"The Vex Rexicon, that's it." Janzo tells them excitedly.
"What does it say?" Talon asks, handing Janzo the book.
"It says where it's kept. It's in some kind of Temple, the shrine mernoc." Janzo translates.
"Where is that?" Xu asks, never having heard of it.
"I read it somewhere, wait a second." Janzo tells them, going to a wall with scrolls, looking through them until he finds the one he's looking for which has some kind of map on it.
"What kind of map is that? I don't recognize anything." Talon asks, looking at the scroll.
"Neither do I." Janzo says.
"Wait, couldn't that be… where we met?" Xu asks, looking at Talon while pointing at a spot on the map.
"You're right. This S like path between the two mountains, it's the Kadrian's pass." Talon agrees.
"This map must be ancient, the streets are different now." Talon adds.
"If that's true, then the temple is in…" Janzo says.
"Greyskin territory." Talon finishes with a nod.
"Which is terrible news." Janzo says dreadfully.
"Not really. The greyskins won't be interested in the book so it should still be there. I'm going to go look for it." Talon says decidedly.
"Alright, count me in." Xu tells her.
"I'm coming too." Garret tells them sounding exhausted.
"You're awake, how are you doing?" Janzo asks, going over to check on the captain.
"I've been better." Garret groans sitting up.
"Janzo is there anyway you can treat me?" Garret asks.
"No, not really." Janzo replies.
"Then I'm going with Talon." Garret says.
"So you can infect us, no thanks." Talon says, grabbing Xu's hand and starting to lead him out of the room.
"Wait. You want to find the book so you can help our fight against the prime order and I have at least 2 days remaining. Let me do something meaningful with them." Garret tells them.
"Then I'm coming too." Janzo chimes in.
"No." Garret tells him.
"We might need Janzo, none of us can read the language. How would we know that we've found the right book." Xu tells Talon.
"Alright, if you two want to come, then come." Talon agrees with a sigh.
"When are we heading out?" Xu asks Talon.
"Now, the longer I'm with you the further we'll get." Garret answers.
"I doubt that but OK." Xu says shaking his head at his captains view of things.
|half an hour later- wall leading to Greyskin territory|
"I don't get why we can't go through the gate and walk around the wall?" Janzo asks, looking down the steep drop from the giant wall.
"Because the outpost is blocking any way into our territory, which means we can't get to the greyskins by usual methods either." Garret informs him.
"Come on let's go." Xu says, grabbing Janzo around his waist and jumping down the wall while holding onto a rope with his other hand, landing about halfway down the wall before kicking off and descending the rest of the way with Janzo praying to the gods loudly.
"Garret, Garret. Why are you going too? We should spend the remaining time together." Gwynn asks running up to him before he goes over the wall.
"I'm doing this for you. If we find the book Talon can help in your war against the order." Garret informs her.
"It's our war. So come back to me." Gwynn tells him, kissing him passionately.
"I have to go." Garret says, breaking the kiss and stepping onto the ledge on the other side of the wall, going down the wall and joining the other three.
So Janzo, since you're here too, lead the way." Xu tells the brewer, lightly throwing him his bag which he dropped during their descend.
"We have to chain up Garret. He could turn any moment." Janzo tells them, getting out some shackles.
"Alright if you say so." Xu says shrugging and puts the cuffs around his captain.
"Just don't slow us down will ya?" Xu tells him with a smirk.
When they are gone Gwynn sends for Danno and brings him on her side, reminding him of the common enemy they share, the prime order who burned Danno's throat and turned him into a mute.
After a days journey the groups water supply is low and they come across a shed with some barrels near it.
"What's that?" Janzo asks with Talon who's leading the charge stopping them.
"An old look-out. Maybe from a long time ago during the border wars." Garret says.
"I've seen one before, with greyskins in them." Talon tells the group.
"What could those barrels be?" Talon asks, looking at the three barrels in front of the look-out.
"Maybe it's beer or water? What do greyskins drink?" Janzo suggests.
"They drink water. But something doesn't feel right here." Xu informs them.
"I don't care I could drink anything and it looks abandoned." Garret says dropping his bag.
"I'm going ahead." Talon tells him, stopping Garret from walking ahead without a weapon.
"Wait here you two." Xu tells the others, going after Talon, his axe resting on his shoulder.
Talon reaches the opening to the small hut and looks inside, seeing only a few animal skins and a lot of cobwebs when 4 greyskins come out of the woods around them, charging at the group, three heading to Talon and Xu with one going for Garret and Janzo, who is panicking and hides behind Garret, who takes his sword from Janzo's bagpack.
Talon faces one of the greyskins, leaning back and dodging under the opponents staff swing, before sliding to her right side, dodging a downward swing from the giant and she gets out her sword, slashing the greyskin at his leg before dodign another two wild swings from the beast and steps around it, stabbing it in its back with a dagger before getting flung away by a backhand slap from the beast.
Xu charged at the other two greyskins head on, swinging his axe in a wide arc and smashes the staffs they were carrying, the two beasts throw the remainders aside and run to him, intending to rip him apart barehanded.
Xu however jumps and kicks off from one of the two greyskin, sending it tumbling back a step with Xu putting some distance between them. He grabs his axe by the back of its blade and runs towards the other greyskin who was still going for him, when he reaches the creature he stabs the blade into its stomach and ducks under a swing, grabbing onto his axe's handle, ripping it out of the beast, slashing it in half and spraying the greyskin behind it with blood. It gets scared of Xu and tries to run away only for Xu to hurl his axe, splitting the beasts head in two.
Seeing Talon get knocked down he hurries over to her, helping her up before she gets hit by the third greyskins staff and blocks another hit with his gauntlets, raising them up at the horizontal swing, getting flung into the look-out.
Talon then jumps onto the greyskins leg and stabs it in its neck, killing it. She rolls when she falls to the ground and heads over to Garret and Janzo to help them. Garret in the meantime blocked a few hits from the greyskin with his sword before it gets knocked out of his hand.
When Talon reaches the group, she throws her dagger at it, enraging it and making it focus on her. The Greyskin runs at Talon, intending to crush her beneath itself but when its within arms reach of Talon Xu jumps on its back, pulling up under its head with his hands when the two fall to the ground in front of his girlfriend.
Talon quickly stabs the creature in the face while Xu held it in place.
"I told you something didn't feel right." Xu says getting off the corpse and rolling it over, collecting Talons dagger and handing it back to her before fetching his axe from the other greyskin corpse.
"Did we at least find water?" Garret asks, rushing over to the barrels and opening one with his sword only for the barrel to be filled with dirt.
"Great, not even that." Garret sighs.
"Come on we shouldn't waste time here. It's better if we get to higher ground to rest." Xu advises and the group continues on their way until they reach a suitable place to rest for the night.
"Man it's freezing." Garret says leaning against a rock near their campfire.
"As hot as it gets during the day it gets just as cold during the night. Here take some blankets, if this is your last night you should at least be comfortable." Janzo explains, handing him some blankets.
"Here Janzo, you can have mine, I'm just going to join Xu." Talon tells the brewer, handing him her blanket before walking over to Xu, shoving him in the middle of his blanket so she can lie down in front of him.
"You could've asked you know." Xu says with a chuckle, putting an arm around the girls waist while they are spooning.
"I'm sorry did I miss something?" Garret asks, looking at them surprised.
"Xu and I are a couple." Talon tells the captain, leaning over to give Xu a kiss.
"Oh." Garret says, having thought he could have a shot with Talon if things with Gwynn wouldn't work out.