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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Leif" data-source="post: 3923170" data-attributes="member: 48762">Darius Watson, a member of the Alpha Division of the Special Squad of the Constabulary of the 14th Ward, was just outside I. Ironshirt's office, helping himself to a cheese danish and a piping hot cup of coffee, while Ignatious Ironshirt was ranting to Elke.  Darius couldn't help but think to himself, "I'm glad I'm not one of the regular constables he's talking about!  It's bad enough that we Alphas have to listen to 95% of his griping, but if he started telling us what we could and couldn't eat, and how many push-ups we needed to do, I'd be on my way back to the City of Silvertree with a quickness!"You see, gentle reader, the city of Lauralie Summerhome is located in a very inacccessible, supremely mountainous border region of the Kingdom of Silvertree, whose capital city is also named Silvertree.  In fact, Lauralie Summerhome is really so far removed from the rest of the Kingdom of Silvertree that it is, for all  practical purposes, a law unto itself.  The vast mountainous region in which it is located is mostly very uncivilized.  Lauralie Summerhome is the one shining jewel of urban civilization in the midst of a vast mountainous wilderness that extends for a great distance in most directions.  (Except to the west:  that is the most direct route to the remainder of Silvertree, after you cross Cul Erythrea, which is the elvish name for Dimshade Lake, the large lake immediately adjacent to Lauralie Summerhome.  (No one has yet bothered to investigate the meaning of the elvish name "Cul Erythrea," which is probably for the best, I suppose.)But this scene with Darius overhearing the minor rant of Ignatious Ironshirt to Elke Weiss is just a historical footnote provided to give some perspective regarding the nature of business that goes on in the 14th Ward.  That actually happened long ago, and Darius, along with the rest of the Alpha Division of the Special Squad of Constables, has been away on a mission for some time now (beneath, possibly even outside, the City even, if you can imagine), and it feels like it's already been years and years since they left on their present errand, but I know that this feeling is just time-dilation caused by the anxiety of Ignatious Ironshirt.  Yes, for all his gruff, surly, blowhard nature, old Iggy really does have a soft spot in his grizzled heart for his precious Bronze Badges, as he calls his Alphas.Since this post was originally made, the Alphas have completed the errand that they were on, returned to the city, leveled-up, found yet MORE mischief to investigate, and left Laualie Summerhome to do just that.  On an earlier part of this same errand, Constable Ederaul 'Raul' Mameir was slain by an insidious scything blade trap.  Luckily, his 'insurance premiums' were all paid up with the Temple of Meda, and so he was entitled to be Raised.  Now the Special Squad has gathered in Mattie Bulgar's "Polished Staff" with their newest members, Tau the Illumian and Braz the Dwarf.  Soon enough, they'll be headed back out to Harcourt's Mill to finish their work there....</blockquote>

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