[IRP] Vanguard Rising

[Alusq]

The Ostian army. Not the Imperial army. He's older than I took him for, Nichol mused. "I joined up with the Imperial Guard a few years ago," he replied. "Figured it would be better than the peasant life. Ended up stuck in a garrison, of course. Felt like I was rotting there for an age and a half. Then they started sending my unit on suicide missions— best I can figure, some idiot corporal had a grudge. I took the hint and deserted." As he paused to take a drink, Nichol remembered the old fortress where he'd once been stationed, completely cut off from the outside world. It was probably still manned; he couldn't imagine the Guard being willing to mothball even a single outpost any farther than spitting distance from the Lycian heartland.

"Anyway, this..." Nichol thought of the events that had brought him to this place. He very well could have become a bandit, living off of plunder, but he had seized upon a lead as soon as he'd found one. Striking back against the regime was a more noble labour than banditry on the surface, but it was just as subversive. "... Stirring up trouble. Still sounds better than the peasant life, all things considered."