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Episode: No Solace

Posted by Story on 03/02/17
The crime wave that started with the treason by Lord Commander Everard Telmar finally draws to a close. Lord Commander Silas Mercier, assisted by many of the noble houses have money, resources, house soldiers, and a great deal of community outreach into the Lower Boroughs to ease the tensions. As they did, the Upper Boroughs saw an uptick in criminal activity in response, though as that was responded to, the prominent Lower Boroughs family helped to start to restore order into the Lower Boroughs with the standing for the traditional big three (Culler, Grayhope, Ulbran) all increasing, and now joined by an up-and-coming family, the Thatchers. A recruiting drive has started to bolster the Iron Guard, after it was seriously depleted with Everard's treachery, and the response is extremely encouraging, with possibly enough raw numbers to be extremely significant against the eventual siege the city of Arx might face- if the Iron Guard receives the financial support to hire, train, feed and equip the many potential bodies they can put in uniform.

The Light of Arx, with the lighting of Lagoma's Lanterns, was a touching success, and even the vandalism and some small fires as a result could not undermine that. Similar medical outreach by Sophie's Mercies of Lagoma, Lady Eirene, and charitable works by Princess Lark, Lady Juliet, and many others help defuse the tensions and any possibility of riotings- before a likely siege, at least. But it's not without setbacks. An arson attack killed Mathias Coaldust's family. A Mercier warehouse was burglarized. And one horrifying and shocking event no one can explain:

Roughly a hundred Knights of Solace were patrolling the Lower Boroughs under the direction of Legate Orazio and the knights Felix and Cassius. One night, during a meeting between Orazio, Felix and Cassius, they receive word that knights aren't reporting in. Each and every single knight patrolling in the Lower Boroughs vanished. Missing from street corners. Vanishing down alleys. Turning corners and just not being there. No one has any idea what happened to any of them, there's no bodies, there's nothing. They are just... gone. No witnesses have come forward at all, and thus far, there's no explanation.

They are just gone.