The company command post was situated in the ruins of what had once been a great building. In these fallen days it was little more than a collection of half collapsed columns and partial walls which had been picked over by the locals for building material. The locals refered to the ruin as The Temple, though to which God or Goddess it had been dedicated even they had forgotten. It had been vacant when the company arrived and was close to the top of the acropolis not far from where the cities four major thougrough fares intersected. The Captain had ordered the drunks and homeless to be rousted and the place made suitable for their occupation. The Company had slung sheets of tarpaulin over ropes to create canvas awnings against the hot southern sun. Hammocks and pallets were slung close to the surviving walls where it was cool, serving as barracks and infirmary, though most of company were spread out in smaller billets around the town. A few sentries were lounging about, effecting indifference despite their no doubt keen interest in the command conference that was starting, or had started.

Nambi and Bianca pushed their way into the post, heading for the large map covered table where the captain stood with the other officers. She was clearly the last to arrive. Cadger Ironhal, their dwarven engineering expert, sat on a barrel of pickled fish, leaning back against a wall and puffing at his church warden pipe. He smirked when he saw her, though only someone as familiar with dwarves as Bianca was could have deciphered the look from a grimace. Aeon, the big black Losotan commander of infantry stood beside him leaning on his assegai, imperturbable as always. Torm Draufkrieg, the cavalry commander in his heavy armor and ridiculous tabard, was pointing at something on the map, though the conversation ceased when she entered. There were occasional rumblings that Torm should replace the Captain, though he himself was quick to put a stop to such rumblings. Bianca couldn't imagine the knight leading the company, like as not his brain had been rattled to mush in all the steel he wore.

"I'm glad you could join us Scouts," the Captain said in his strange accent. For the hundreth time she wondered where he was from. Rumors put him at all corners of the map or, in one case, off the edge of it in the sun drenched lands south of the Great Jungle. It was useless to speculate.

"I was on the wall watching the sap," she said, liberally interpreting the truth. The puff from Cadger's pipe didn't quite cover his snort. The Captain's level gaze suggested he wasn't quite buying it.

"And what have you to report?" he asked, evidently deciding chiding her wasn't an efficient use of time.

"They can fire their first gun as early as tonight," she told him. Cadger snorted.

"Bah... Grimgi will wait till sunrise, no point wasting time and powder firing in the dark," he opined. The dwarven folk were a clannish lot and it wouldn't have surprised Bianca to learn that Cadger was speaking from personal experience with the enemy captain.

"Regardless, we can expect the seige to offically begin by tomorrow," the Captain said. "Which raises the question, what should our course be?" The question was clearly rhetorical because rather than pausing for opinions he turned to an evil looking man whose face was difigured by a pair of long slager scars.

"Ryann, can we expect the League to relieve us? the Captain asked. Black Ryann was the other wizard in the company, though his magic was as different from Nambi's as night was from day. He also served as the companies spy master.

"Given the whipping they took at Parda, and given the fact that Palona is a minor member, I think its unlikely before the autumn," Black Ryann said, his voice breathy and sibilant as though he had smoked a pipe every day for thirty years.

"And how about the enemy seige breaking up?" the Captain asked. Ryann shrugged his boney shoulders.

"Some shortages, mostly meat. The fanatics prefer to live off the land, but the mercenaries out there will have stores and sources of supply. They can caravan it up from Dolche and Eloma. Might cause some friction once the local food is exhausted, but I'd guess that  is a couple of months away at least," Black Ryann reported. The Captain nodded along.

"Our contract requires us to defend Palona 'as long as defense is reasonabley possible'," the Captain mused. "What is your opinion Torm?"