Attention σ cadets: The game

Frug kneels next to Q and puts his fingers over the bite marks, hoping to stop the bleeding. He says, "Does anyone know how to heal people?"

Tears start to stream down his face, and he is out of his depth in this setting. He didn’t join this academy to watch his friends die.

in the dream there is light. It seems to be coming from a furnace at the end of a dark corridor. In tbe dream Q walks towards it….

Johnny takes one long stride and knees next to Q, he pulls out his healing potion but looks at Touch first before using it.

... Shouldn't the fire be getting warmer? It seems as if Q's mind now hovers above and slightly behind his body. For a moment, a shape appears in the flames - it looks like the head of a mighty bull. The image fades. Q's body strolls on.....

… Q’s body stops in front of the flames that have become a coruscating white. Still no heat or warmth which Q’s mind finds curious. Q’s body pushes a hand into the brilliant white. There is no sensation. But, wait. Yes, there is a sensation. Melting? Q’s body starts as Q’s mind sees an absence in the overwhelming blanket of light. It is the shape of the bull once more. A saviour? Or perhaps a devourer?….

Shit! Q! Torch drops to his knees by Q and casts Healing Word a second time.

…. the absence pushes the light away, which forms a corona around it. Q’s mind sinks into Q’s body. Something else flows into Q’s body. Life? Yes, life. Q’s eyes open. The corona of light becomes the eye of his saviour, Torch


Q sucks for air to fill his lungs. "Torch!". The artificer tries to sit up but pain shoots through his body and he lies flat once more trying to assess the situation. "Torch, thank you, did we kill the….", glancing to his side, Q’s eyes answer the partly formed question. "Damn, please help me up so we can despatch these hellish brutes to pit they crawled from"

Acaelia steps forward, feeling disgusted by all the gross bugs and slightly guilty that she missed all the fighting and wasn't of amy use at all.

Her uniform covered in blood and poison. Her tidy hair a mess.

"Yes, Torch. Thank you ever so much," she acknowledges the healing gratefully.

Torch takes in their bloodied group, and the wreckage of bug and crate. Angered at the near loss of life, and still wound tight from the fight, fire fills their palm. "Easy enough to incinerate the corpses."

They glance at Acaelia, then at Q. "I'm just glad to see you both breathing."

Torch looks around the room for the old captain as questions begin to build in their mind. Like: Who sent them? Why to the old Wolf? Did they know he would be sleeping off the busy night? Keeping it close to the vest, waiting to hear what the captain would say first, Torch instead asks "Anyone else need medical attention? I need rest to work the spells again, but I have a healer's kit."

Frug says, "Well, thank the Maker that I didn't get bitten, but I am hurt from earlier."

Torch pats their pockets, and realizes they must have left their kit in the bunks. They take a look at Frug's injuries anyway, to see how bad they are.

Johnny gives himself a quick field check, finding no injuries he smiles. "None of the little beasties managed to sink ye teeth in me, though me sabre is drippy’ with goo."

Frug asks the old man who was the target of this assassination attempt, "Old fat human man, who do you think wants you dead in this way?"

The sound of battle in Mirt’s quarters alerts the guards just as the fight is winding down. As the last hatchlings expire, you hear alarms sounding throughout the Bridge Quarters, followed by the thunder of booted feet as security forces converge on Mirt’s room.

Mirt is furious! Who dares to try to have him killed? His day is ruined! He swears that heads will roll once he’s found out who’s behind this outrage. As Mirt is blowing off steam, Mister Blip appears at the door:

It’s difficult to tell, but the autognome looks worried. His bronze mustache hangs lower than usual, and his mechanical eyes have sunken in their sockets.

With regret, Master Mirt, this attack was merely a diversion. BLIP! While our forces were being drawn here, more burglaries were reported across the academy. BLIP! Our thief has struck again!

Confounded! Mirt bellows as he begines to pace back and forth. After a short while he takes a deep breath and turns to you. Thank you cadets... He digs out a handful of golden ingots from a nearby backpack. He tosses an ingot (worht 50gp) to each of you. I would be much obliged if you would keep my actions in the fight out of your reports. To anyone.

Acaelia spends a moment to try to make herself look presentable again.

She wanted to comment to Mirt and ask him what actions in the fight he was actually refering too. But she reconsidered as she hadn't been the most useful herself either.

"Burglaries? Has anything been stolen mr Blip?"

Mister Blip looks Acaelia and nods, but offers no other comments on the matter.

Your security helmets are collected and you are all ushered to your cadets' quarters. It has been a long and tiresome day. Tomorrow your studies really start.

End of chapter 1

Frug has had an emotional and exerting day at the academy.

He sleeps decently, up until a nightmare surfaces about almost losing his people, his compatriots.

He wakes up with tears in his eyes, and a determination to be a smarter tactician, to help his allies use their skills and abilities as optimally in battle as possible.

He lies awake, thinking through what it takes to command effectively, and starts to lean towards leading from the front, and what that would look like.

As he puts these thoughts together to his satisfaction, sleep overtakes him, and he falls asleep again, this time much more soundly than before.