Clean up post.
Nate stalks out side and through thee town. He ignores questions as to where he is going or what he is doing. He moves through the frightened people that crowd the streets. It does not take him long to find the house of the old Gump.
Hewik and Craddoc follow Nate.
The is no answer at the door. Nate forces it open and heads inside. Hewik and Craddoc hover uncertainly outside the door. Then they hear shouting. They arrive just in time to see the old Gump unleasing vitriolic violet bolts of light at Nate.
The two side hunt each other through the house. Finally the old Gump is cornered in the attic. He unleases fire magic, or perhaps some form of trap was sprung. But regardless, the house begins to burn. Nate, Craddoc and Hewik make it outside. Of the old Gump no sign is found later.
The inquiry is held quickly and behind closed doors. Under the Justicar directed Zone of Truth, Nate insists that the Old Gump admitted to being involved. But he refuses to say more. Hewik and Craddoc can add nothing to that - they were not there at the time. But they testify that Nate didn't have his mace drawn when the Old Gump cast his first spell.
Nate, Hewik and Craddoc are found guilty of several infingements of military law. They have the book thrown at them - failure to report their findings and actions to a superior, willfully endangering themselves, etc, etc. But for the most part is just show. The current crisis is cited. Sentences are withheld til a more appropriate date.
The Seventh is reassembled. Craddoc is assigned to it, along with another. Now it is six - Cromwell, Nate, Hewik, Oscar, Craddoc and Fredar. They are told to speak of the mornings killings to no one. They are assigned to different units to help around town for the rest of the afternoon. They are told to be ready to march for Killingtom in the morning.
*Insert* It back breaking and heartbreaking work pulling the remains of people lives from the broken buildings that they once called home. The people work mechanically, and there is little chatter. Only the small children seem unaffected, scambling around and making castles out of the furniture stacked in the streets. Twice during the afternoon Cromwell blacks out without a sound. The priest can find nothing wrong with him, but mutters about a darkness on his soul, the stain of his parentage. It takes three men to haul the snarling Cromwell of the bloodied and bruised priest. From that moment Cromwell says not another world and his expression is unreadable as he is locked away. *End Insert*
During the night, Oscar's dreams turn sour. He thrashes and screams. His body is cold and clammy, seeming to barely contain any of the spark of life. His old wounds open. His healed wounds. Blood soaks and splatters the bed and walls before the priest arrives. A sedated Oscar is taken away.
*Insert* It a grey faced Captain that assigns two more men, Gwender and Hadarook to the Seventh. If it even can be called that any more. It clear that he sees the Seventh as some form of nightmare that just keeps getting worse. And that all he wants to do is be done with it. Corporal Gwender is given command.
So dawn sees the rump of the Seventh plus two new faces - Nate, Hewik, Craddoc, Fredar, Gwender and Hadarook - passing out of the gates of Trolluc and heading north towards Killingtom. *End Insert*
END OF PART II
