Gaston and his battered forces accompanied by his Ghurish truffle hounds, returned from their expedition in the wilds, in ill shape and stripped of their pride. Gaston naturally was the most humiliated of them all.
“Fools we were to hope in knights of the accursed fae!” he said when he returned to his quarters in the city. The defeated Ghouls-at-Arms were then dedicated to garrison duty as Gaston licked his wounds and planned his next actions….
One night there broke out a riot in one of the parts of the city and Gaston was determined to put it to rest.
The ghouls would march out to one of the ports that was being held by an angry mob of citizens of Khardihr.
“You all, what is the meaning of this?” snapped the ghoul to the mob.
“Those bickering buffoons on the Council haven’t done a thing for us on the streets of this city!” cried one of the protesters.
“The raiders are emboldened!” shouted another one. “There’s word that we’re all just pawns to the Seraphon and now there’s orruks threatening the city!” a sailor would say. “The price of food has been running us dry!” a middle aged woman would growl, and last but not least was the concern of “And now these fae threaten to chew the whole city up with us in it!”.
Gaston, although sleep deprived, sore and not having trimmed his mustache in a long while, would just nod understandingly to the concerns of the people. He would then stand atop a large crate devoid of goods.
“Citizens of this troubled city, I know your anger against your seemingly inept council members is just,” Gaston would shout aloud, surprising the crowds with his honesty. “but this act of choking this port will not aid your pilgrimage to safer skies! I know that it feels as if the very earth of the realm wants you and all you hold dear to perish, but we must still fight!”
The mob of disgruntled workers and rebellious guards alike would lower their few weapons to hear the gray skinned archer. “You all have something precious in these lands; each other. You all are mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, masters, servants, tradesmen and artisans! You all are here working together to survive and live! The Council may have powerful generals and beasts in its hollow thrones, but you all are what keeps this city alive!”
With that, the crowd would be satiated, at least for now, as they dispersed.
Gaston peered at the night sky, the stars of Azyr shining even in this corner of Ghur. He would breathe the humid air and sigh, his forces still standing guard due to the lack of orders from their Courtier. “Noble ghouls of mine, what would you say to one more expedition?”
His meager forces weren’t sure how to respond. On one hand, they were always up for a good chivalrous battle, but they knew that the Furyoth Dell was perilous. But under the Ghurish moonlight, Gaston’s Ghouls-at-Arms swore an oath.
“By our Lord and Lady, we will get Khardhir back in the sky, and inflict retribution upon the fae!”
