A grim faced man trudges through the streets of Port Nebel. He wears a faded tunic of faded orange calico over a dingy silk shirt, that may have once been white, but now bore a dingy yellowish color and a fair number of blood stains. An empty scabbard hangs at his side and his left arm is still wrapped in bandages. His slow trudging steps are more fitting of a man past his prime then a noble of 29. The merchants notice his fierce scowl immediately and give him a wide birth.
How swiftly fortunes change. Barely a month earlier Barrett was on top of the world. He'd seized 56,516 gold in a single raid on Paisly. He had his own region and his own military force, the Royal Fleet.
The clerk at the recruitment gave Barrett a puzzled look, his beard, overgrown and caked with salt, made him difficult to recognize, then the clerk gasped.
"Lord Barrett!" he cried, "What's happened."
"It's not lord anymore, not even sir at this point," Barrett retorted, "Or didn't you hear that Mattan Dews was overrun in my absense? Stars can't this realm hold itself together for a few days without me?"
"H-have a seat," the clerk stutters, pulling up a chair. He puts a cup down in front of Barrett and pours some cheap wine from a skin. Barrett downs it in a single gulp.
"It was my fault," Barrett admits, "I was too impatient and I went too far from shore, it seems like every Monster in the southern territories. We fled across the wilds dogging them at every turn. First they captured my knight, and then they surrounded my marines. They remained steal hearted till the end. They'd faced death so many times. I really think each one of them thought they were invincible, but the monsters proved them wrong..."
The clerk gulped. A question nagged at his mind but he was afraid to ask.
"Jason's gone," Barrett announced, "A monster mauled me, gnawed my legs pretty bad and nearly ripped my arm off. Jason dragged me from the field, stopped the bleeding and, tucked me away in a sea cave... He said 'I owe this to your grandfather, I wont desert another Erickson'. Then he ran back into the field to draw the beasts away from me."
Barrett grits his teeth and a tear trickles down his face.
"What will you do now?" the clerk asked.
"The only thing I'm good at," Barrett replied, "get me the craziest band of cut-throats the Dragon Isles have to offer."
