Downtown Druid

It was early morning when the cannonfire began. It could be heard all across the city like a distant thunderclap. Those closer to the walls in Midtown could see flashes of blue light where the cannonballs and their enchantments struck against the invisible walls maintained by those few mages that the city had left. Several of the cannonballs broke through, crashing into homes, and businesses and obliterating any flesh they came across. When one cannonball made it through, the mages would make changes to their shield to adjust for whatever new enchantments the enemy had placed on their artillery, and once their cannonfire stopped working, the enemy’s mages would make their own adjustments to compensate. The early part of the battle was tense, but aside from those few cannonballs nothing else had made it through. The main problem now was that Viscent’s ships had almost reached Rendhold. Rendhold’s own navy had limped back to the docks, and now their cannons and equipment were being turned to defense.

All of this meant a lot to the people of Rendhold, but not the other things that lived there. To the vermin, the ruins of a city weren’t so different from a bustling one. Jacopo yawned as he listened to the war committee continue prattling on. The ruling they’d made to allow the recruitment of criminals had gone through, but they’d only just started the process of actually bringing them to the surface, focusing on mages and former guards as their primary recruitment targets, though in the case of former guards, not many had survived their time in the Pit or were well enough to actually fight and so were denied release.

Unlike previous meetings, Argenta was attending this one in her council seat. None of the others were there as they were too directly involved in the city’s defense, aside from Kline who may or may not have even been alive at that point.

Jacopo stood up, interrupting the ongoing conversation with a complete lack of shame. “I have heard of a man with particular talents in the Pit who should be recruited as a priority.”

The older orc man, whose name Jacopo never bothered to learn, gave him a withering look. “I let you make a suggestion without waiting your turn in the past because I knew you were new to the city and felt sympathy for your inopportune timing. At this point though, I think you know well that you’re breaking decorum.”

“I don’t care. The city’s about to get destroyed. This man, Dantes, I’ve heard possesses magelike abilities that could help in the city’s defense and already commands the loyalty of hundreds within the Pit.”

The younger dwarven woman next to him spoke up. “The gangster? I thought his powers were a myth? What man can see everything in the city at once, teleport, fly…” She shook her head. “It makes no sense.”

Vampa sighed and nudged Desha.

She sighed and stood up.