Sergeant Heardt was just entering the town of Gloverlita when he suddenly saw a vision of a man sitting in a church. The man was wearing simple clothing and didn’t appear to be anyone special. The voice that accompanied the image was filled with power though. It was a beautiful voice, filled with love and a tinge of fear, it simply said, “He is here.”

Sergeant Heardt knew where ‘here’ was located. He’d been in the same spot before. Immediately he looked to the others, it seemed they got the same vision. Quickly he turned the caravan around and started heading back the way they came.

If the one they were looking for was already in St. Gloria, he must have gone through Hell Gap just after they had left. He swore to himself. If he had only listened to his gut, he would have been there when they attempted to go through. No way! Had he been watching them? This was embarrassing. He had to get back to St. Gloria as soon as possible, but he knew at this distance, it would take him two months at the least. If he pushed the horses every day, there was the chance that the horses could collapse, and that would lower his speed significantly.

They pushed themselves until nightfall and found a place just off the road to camp. They set up a watch for themselves and had a fitful rest. During the night, Sergeant Heardt was awoken by the watch on guard and brought out to see something strange. Running down the road in large group was a large number of puppets. They were running in the same direction he was, back towards St. Gloria, and that made him wonder if this situation was worse than he had initially assumed it to be.

Upon arrival at the Hasfil Path a week and a half later, he met up with Captain Cornec again and they talked for a moment before Sergeant Heardt had moved on again. Captain Cornec’s puppets had also run off on the day of the vision and he decided to stay at this location for Sergeant Heardt’s arrival to speak with him prior to his own departure. None of the puppets would listen to Captain Cornec, or his subordinate’s commands. Captain Cornec left a day behind Sergeant Heardt and was traveling at a slower pace because of the lack of horses. His entire unit had been reduced down to the twenty soldiers that he had who weren’t puppets.

Two weeks later Sergeant Heardt met Captain Drezen who had been posted at the Rimder slopes. He had experienced the same thing but noticed something different. When his group of puppets had run off, he ordered his men to pull camp and follow after them. He got to the cross roads but had lost track of them and was unsure which way they had gone. He suspected they had gone to St. Gloria because of the vision.

While he was at the intersection of roads, he noticed a large group of puppets approaching. He ordered them to stop, but they ignored his commands. Since it was evening, his team had set up camp and were preparing to set a watch. The puppets did something strange when the sun fell. They all separated and ran off in different directions. When they returned, they all had caught something like a rabbit or a pheasant. They roasted their food over a fire and ate it until full. Then they ran off again into the night as a group.

Captain Drezen believed they were running without rest, and only stopping to eat on the way. As the three of them discussed these strange events, another larger group of puppets came running from the direction of Rimder Slopes. They passed through the two groups without stopping and turned an immediate left at the intersection, continuing on towards St. Gloria. The number of puppets coming was considerably large and Captain Cornec suggested that they were probably from the towns of Arcadia and Dubhan.

“What about the group from Sanddale?” Captain Cornec asked.

Captain Drezen shook his head, “Unless they got through here before us, there’s been nobody else through here.”

Captain Cornec said, “There’s still Tornillo and Marlwick behind us if they got summoned too, which I think they have.”

Captain Drezen looked at Sergeant Heardt and asked, “What do you plan to do Sergeant?”

Sergeant Heardt took a deep breath and said, “Well, my mission is probably that guy, so I’m heading back to St. Gloria.”

Captain Drezen nodded and said, “That’s probably something we should all do. We can only hope Captain Galand got back to St. Gloria already.”

The three of them gathered up their soldiers and started heading back to St. Gloria again.

On the docks of Dhalmer’s harbor, hundreds of puppets stood waiting for a boat to arrive. Three boats full of puppets had already come and gone from the harbor. Strangely enough, the puppets on the ships were still working and following orders for the most part, but when it came to excess cargo, they left it on the docks, and instead used that space for puppets. The entire population of Dhalmer and Wrand had already departed, and the puppets from St. Brassel were the only ones remaining on the docks.

The dockmaster knew where the puppets on the Aernide continent were located and calculated in his head of how long it would take to get to Dhalmer if they were going to head there. Hatminster was between Dhalmer and Dorby, and could go either way, the same could be said for Yarmere, being between Dhalmer and Smithsville. The farthest town would be the southern town of Darset, that’d be a four-month travel by road. He wondered if the puppets on the ships would wait that long for them to arrive.

He didn’t know what was going on, but he was glad the puppets were leaving. The town of Dhalmer had freed itself of the holy state’s reign after they could no longer control the puppets. He’d heard the same from a merchant coming from St. Brassel. It seemed after the governor and the guard commander had been killed, the replacements were struggling to maintain control of the city, and when the puppets suddenly left, they lost all control. Many of the guards had run off into the forests, and others had been killed by a rebellion that seemed to be waiting for this exact moment.

At the beginning of it all, in St. Gloria, Evren had finished getting himself equipped in his armor, and Walter was being helped by Fletcher and Harley. Karina had returned from the tavern and switched to her gear as well. Once everyone was equipped, they ran out the front door, following Evren to the cathedral gate. Upon arrival, they had found the guard force there with Guard Commander Doyle. There were no puppets to be found on site. As soon as Evren arrived, and Commander Doyle saw him, he said, “You!”

Evren shrugged and pulled out his sword. When Commander Doyle saw the blue sword, he realized that Evren was also wearing armor made of the same metal. He looked to the companions and found them all equally equipped in fantastical gear. He took a step forward and motioned for his men to stay.

“What’s your business here?” he asked

Evren raised an eyebrow and said, “Uh, we’re here to take down the church and free all the puppets.”

Commander Doyle stared at Evren with an appraising eye without saying a word. He then gestured with his head to the right and said, “They’re all in the cathedral. I suspect they’re going to block you from doing just that.”

Evren turned to look at the cathedral, then back to Commander Doyle, then behind Commander Doyle to the palace behind him. “Did they leave the people in the palace behind?”

Commander Doyle turned his head to the left, looking over his shoulder and shrugged, “If they did, they didn’t come through here.”

Evren turned his eyes back to him and said, “What’s your plan, Commander?”

Commander Doyle stared off in the distance behind Evren and said, “I guess I feel like retiring. Do look me up if you ever need a guard.”

From the guards behind him, words like, “Traitor!” were said, but also some other guards stepped forward to stand behind Commander Doyle.

Evren looked at the guards that had put their weapons away, then to the guards who still stood by the gate. He then asked Commander Doyle, “Commander, do you think you could keep the city’s people safe? I’m not sure what’s going to happen, and I don’t want them to get hurt.”

He smiled and walked past Evren, “It’s just Doyle now. I guess I’ve got some work to do.”

The guards who were standing with him followed him off. Several guards who hadn’t moved at first put their weapons away and ran after him. The ones who remained, fiercely stood their ground.

“I’ve got this Mr. Evren.” Harley said and took a step forward. She cast ‘blaze’ and a field of fire slowly spread out in front of her. It moved like water across the surface of the ground, burning patches of grass and weeds before it. It slowly made its way over to the gate, where the guards were backing away slowly. They were frightened and saying things like, “It’s a witch!” “She’ll burn us all!”

Once they all started running away, the flame sputtered and went out. She turned back to Evren and smiled. Evren returned the smile and said, “Good work, Harley.” She laughed a quick laugh and stepped back to where she was.

Evren and the others headed towards the cathedral. They stopped in front of it and Evren could tell with his sensory field that there were several people inside bocking a door at the back of the cathedral. Evren walked up to the door and stopped before it. He said, “There’s fifteen inside, plus twelve in the hallway beyond.” He turned to the others and said, “Cripple them if you can. We may be able to heal them later. Use ‘phantasm’ on as many as you can, that should buy us thirty minutes.”

He continued with, “Ellis, you start on the left, Karina on the right. Harley, you start in the middle. If any come from the hallway, I’ll get those.” He turned to Fletcher, “You may need to go hands on for this.” Fletcher nodded. He then turned to Isobel and stared at her for a minute, “You know what to do.” Finally, he looked to Walter, “Ready?”

Walter said, “Let’s do this.”

Evren opened the door and moved through it smoothly, as he ran down the row of pews. He looked to the door and saw one of the puppets standing next to it ready to open the door. He chanted ‘phantasm’ and caused the mind of the puppet to go into a daze, having a dream only the puppet could have. He then hopped the rail into the sanctuary and began fighting the puppets. Walter charged through the small gate in the railing and took up a spot next to Evren.

One by one, the puppets eventually began to stand in a daze with their arms at the side. Within five minutes, they were all captivated. Evren walked over to the door and gently moved the puppet to the side. He asked, “How’s everyone doing on magic?”

Ellis said, “I’ve got a little bit of a headache, but otherwise fine.”

Karina nodded and said, “Same.”

Harley just said, “I’m good.” And added a smile.

Evren nodded, “Ok, I’ll take over for a bit, you two rest. Walter, you go in first, take the right side. I’ll go left. Harley, you get the ones on the right.”

The two of them nodded and Evren opened the door. Walter moved in and hooked to the right and began fighting the puppets there. Evren moved to the left and cast ‘wall’ in front of him, then followed up with as many ‘phantasms’ as he could get in five seconds before the ‘wall’ collapsed. He started from the back and got three before the front ones were able to move forward. He cast ‘wall’ again and got three more before he had to use his shield to start blocking attacks. He blocked one and pushed them back with his shield and cast ‘phantasm’ on it. The last one got dazed by Harley who had finished up on the right side.

Evren looked around for a second and turned to the right. Ahead at the corner of the hallway a door stood. Heading towards the door he opened it and started going downstairs. “How’s your head Harley?” he asked as he wound his way down the circular stairway.

“A little bit of a headache Mr. Evren, but I’m good for a couple more.” Harley responded.

Evren nodded and asked Ellis, “I’ll pass on this group, Evren.”

“I’ll help out this time Evren,” Karina said.

Evren paused at the door and had his head down. He looked back up at the others and said, “There’s twenty of them between us and the depository. Same with the summoning chamber.”

Walter asked, “What’s the plan?”

Evren looked at Walter and said, “I guess I’ll take one for the team.”

Walter asked, “What do you mean by that?”

Evren didn’t respond and only opened the door. Straight ahead, he cast ‘explosion’ and then he turned to the left and cast ‘djinn.’ He commanded the ‘djinn’ to hold everyone back and ran towards the area where he set off the explosion. Half of the twenty were still functional. Evren ran forward ready to finish the rest off.