[Center][H1]·:*¨❆༺ ❅ 𝔄 𝔅𝔞𝔰𝔱𝔦𝔬𝔫 𝔬𝔣 𝔈𝔫𝔳𝔶 ❅ ༻❆¨*:·[/H1][/Center]



[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/YknDZdc.png[/img][/center]


The courtyard was alive with motion — boots crunching, voices echoing, breath steaming in the bitter air. The newly arrived travelers stood in a crooked line beneath the shadow of the wall, a strange assortment of frostbitten limbs and stubborn hearts.

The guards watched them like wolves watching other wolves. Suspicion, not hostility. In Rotia, both were often the same thing.

The guards all chuckled lightly at the banter between the strangers. But it was quickly silenced at the sharp sound of their young lords voice. 

[color=#5c7085]“You’ve the look of those who’ve walked too far for comfort,”[/color]Said  Lord Roderic, voice carrying across the courtyard. [color=#5c7085]“You’ll find no tavern warmth here, not for free. Still—”[/color] He paused for a moment, letting his icy gaze flick across those gathered. 

[color=#5c7085]“—a fire and a meal can be earned, if you’re willing to work for the Bastion.”[/color]

His gaze lingered on Bromann’s grin. A faint, reluctant smile ghosted across his own lips — there and gone again.

[color=#5c7085]“That one at least still remembers how to laugh. Hold onto that. You’ll need it before long.”[/color]

He turned to Andrea next, nodding slightly.

[color=#5c7085]“Your friend speaks true enough. The cold dulls manners faster than fear. You’ve my pardon, all of you — for now.”[/color]

He studied the rest — the scholar’s faint tremor, the mercenary’s greedy eyes, the mage’s serene detachment. Every one of them a gamble. But then, everything in Rotia was.

Roderic motioned to the gate captain.

[color=#5c7085]“See them quartered in the lower barracks. Feed them, warm them, and find out if their hands are steady enough to hold a spear. We’ll need every arm we can get before the next moon.”[/color]

The captain hesitated. “Before the next moon, my lord?”

[color=#5c7085]“You’ve not seen the sea,”[/color] Roderic murmured, eyes drifting past the wall. [color=#5c7085]“The ice is forming already.”[/color]

That drew silence. Even the guards looked away, as though afraid the very mention of it might summon what waited beyond the horizon.

As the travelers were ushered toward the barracks, the faint clang of a distant bell broke through the morning air — once, then twice. A warning from the western watchtower. Too soon for an alarm, too deliberate for routine.

A runner came stumbling across the yard, breath fogging violently as he bowed low before Roderic.

“My lord—! The scouts from the western ridge… they haven’t returned.”

The young noble’s jaw tightened.

[color=#5c7085]“How long?”[/color]

“Three days past when they were due, sir. We sent a search party yesterday. They’ve not come back either.”

The wind moaned low against the walls. Somewhere beyond the city, a flock of black birds rose suddenly from the treeline, circling once before vanishing into the gray sky.

[color=#5c7085]“Bring the council to the upper hall,”[/color] Roderic said at last. [color=#5c7085]“And double the watch on the west. If the ice is forming this early, we may have visitors sooner than we’d hoped.”[/color]

[Hider=Ooc]Use this round to assume you all go inside the medieval fantasy western european fortress building. To talk and eat and sleep. Enjoy some social interaction before we start into the fighting. The next post I make will end the night and begin the morning. You may post more than once, so long as it is not back to back. Meaning let someone else post after you post. As long as you don't get too specific with any npcs your character interacts with you can say they get food and find lodging and so on. If by chance one of the characters is interested in listening in/trying to get information from the young lords discussion he walked away for, that is also available. OR whatever you want. I can improvise. That is the point here. [/hider]