As an early evening sun slowly descends on the Glacial Peaks, leaving shining flares on the marble towers of the town walls of Uxol, the citizens are harder at work than ever. Uxol is hardly a large settlement, with a few thousand Pargons and a handful of mercenaries living off the land mining minerals and hunting. Pargon hunters are quickly riding out of the front gate with their chariots, while Captain Reelox, a sturdy commander with short spikey white hair, inspects his defensive equipment, together with his assistant Gul, an older bald man wearing studded leather armour with a calm demeanour.
"The Lady has given us an estimate of two days. If our mercenary scouts are right, then we have two days to get all our defences at the ready, to respond to an infantry attack.", the Captain proclaims.
"I still don't quite understand why Drennon would send infantry up the mountain to attack us. Surely they know that Uxol is heavily fortified, and nigh impenetrable. Moreover, they can only attack us from one side, so any siege would be completely ineffective."
"You are nominally right, Gul. Our walls will protect us from any major assault, and the Glacial Mountains block them from approaching us from the north without severe losses. But nevertheless their army is marching, and I doubt Drennon would send his troops to certain doom. So there must be a leak somewhere, a caveat or some crucial element that we are not aware of."
Gul stops to think for a moment, then picks up again: "It is early rain season, our food resources are low, so one would say it's the ideal time for them to lay a siege. Perhaps he has found a way to make his troops travel through the mountains?"
"That is very well possible. Perhaps we need to scout out even more, to see if we can find any advance troops that they may have deployed. Please send out five squads, two into the mines, one into the low-town and two to inspect the mountain perimeters on the outside. If any of them don't return within twenty four hours, then we at least have a hint as to where they may be attacking from. And if they do return, then we'll find out even more."