The rain had started again, tapping soft fingers against the battered canvas of Uno’s tent. Inside, the air was thick with the smell of damp leather, steel polish, and a week's worth of grimy resolve. Uno sat hunched over a battered table, a half-sharpened dagger in one hand and a scrap of parchment in the other, though he hadn’t written a word.
“Too damn loud,” he muttered, not for the first time.
Not the rain. The world.
Trollocs howled at the borders. Orders barked from every side. Heroes flung themselves into battle hoping for songs. But Uno knew — some things didn’t need songs. They needed silence. Precision. People who could step where no boot echoed and leave behind more than footprints.
He stood, stretched his aching back, and shoved the tent flap aside. The campfires were low now, shadows flickering across mud and canvas. He didn’t speak loudly, didn’t need to.
He just waited.
Eventually, someone would hear the rumor. That Uno was looking. That the Light had a job — the kind that required disappearing acts, steady hands, and a conscience that bent but didn’t break.
Not for gold. Not for glory. Just because it needed doing.
“Let the hammer-swingers have their charges,” he grumbled to himself. “This one’s for the quiet ones.”
And with that, he vanished back into the tent, leaving the flap half-open and the night to carry the message where it needed to go.
----
Hieronymus led the assassin and protected him outside of the Keep. They were sent to spot out the dreadguards before the siege. Or whatever it was that Uno was planning.
Matheus ran around in the Keep, flaying his hands, looking for the dreadguards.
Once spotted the skinny man sulked his way inside and quietly made work of the dreadguards.
Their group rode south to reconvene and put together the second part of the plan.
~~
They arrived with banners half-folded and boots muddied from a thousand-mile march. Matheus. Un. Bernheim. Mykael. Kathos. Rhys. Maynard. Hathoc. Tyrfing. Gohon. Jafra. Badd. Hieronymus. Fine soldiers. Brave, certainly. Subtle? Not remotely.
Chloro Sedai joined them — quiet, collected. She tried to offer some semblance of structure, weaving air to reinforce corridors and keep the catwalks from falling too soon.
Uno handed out the satchels.
“Place them carefully,” he said. “Near the instruments. Don’t double up. Don’t ignite them. Just plant.”
He might as well have been talking to a herd of oxen.
Maynard tried to wedge a satchel under a collapsed beam and set off a chain of falling rocks that nearly crushed Gohon. Bernheim placed two charges on the same support column, smiled proudly, and saluted. Jafra asked if it was too late to use a hammer instead.
And Matheus — bloody Matheus — gods preserve him — found the wagon. The one Uno had stashed away. Packed with spare charges, detonators, and two extra kegs of “don’t even breathe near it” powder.
“What's this for?” Matheus had asked.
“Storage,” Uno growled. “Leave it.”
Matheus threw a torch in the wagon.
Moments later, a column of fire shot thirty feet into the air. The wagon evaporated. Chloro Sedai raised a single eyebrow.
Uno roared for two solid minutes and then muttered twelve curses in four languages he didn’t actually speak.
Still, the work got done. One by one, the ruined keep was seeded with enough boom to make the Dark One wince. And when the final charge was placed -- Uno gave the order.
The ruined keep was ruined again.
“Well,” said Hieronymus, brushing ash off his shoulders,
“We may not have followed instructions... but it worked.”
Uno stared at the smoking crater where the wagon used to be.
“Light help me,” he muttered. “I’m surrounded by flaming lunatics.”
And then, to no one in particular:
“Next time I need something done quiet, I’ll just send a goat.”
~~
Changes to Keep:
1. Maze has been closed (but no changes made to the rooms as they stand to not mess with fade tables).
2. Rear entrance is moved from the back of Maze to 2n of Saddy (warrior practice).
3. Door 1w 2n of Saddy is removed.
4. Route from well area to saddy is all rideable. Thief practice, Butcher, hunter practice, and rent are not rideable and good flees for DS.
5. Dreadguards are set as sentinel and should not chase (I CANNOT PROMISE THIS IS TRUE, LET ME KNOW.)
6. Dreadguards is stationed at Lord's Office (2n rent).
7. Northern Gatekeep and Southern Gatekeep are still indoors and cannot be ridden through.
8. You can ride onto the Castle Wall and if you jump at the very large X (1u 1n of northern gatekeep), you can jump out of Keep WITH YOUR HORSE. If you have a low quality horse, it will probably take too much damage and die.
9. The second jump, 1s 1u, still works but you will not bring your horse (it is higher).
10. A new patrol, equivalent of Kno pat gap will roam in Keep.
Saddy and Bullbomination are still strongest patrols in the city.
Thanks to everyone for participating--was a lot of healthy chaos.