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Summer of Victory: Interlude #22
Changes Are Coming Deep in the Stark Mounds, he hears the pounding on his chambers and turns as the door bursts open. "You knew I was coming, and yet you remain. You are, perhaps, not as smart as I was led to believe." "I knew this day would come, that I would be challenged. I just hadn't thought it would be you." "You have been long from the halls of worship... It has been far too long that my people have forgotten my presence. And you in particular seek to supplant me in their minds." In a swift flash of spell, counter spell, summoning charm and illusion, smoke fills the chambers. When it clears, only the Golden Gnome is left standing.
Field Marshall Mathilda Cobblemill sat reviewing the reports from her office, deep in the Stark Mounds. Report after report seemed to be saying the same, or at least similar things, and what they were saying was NOT what she wanted to hear. Pulling a lever to the right of her desk, a ratchet clicked 4 times, causing gears to turn and springs to tighten as sprockets spun causing a chain reaction moving from her desk, through the walls and out in to the greater living areas under the Stark Mounds. And she waited. And waited. No reply came. With a look of concern on her face, she reached to the left of her desk and pulled a lever three clicks through the ratchet, and the whirring of gears interlocking and sprockets turning ran out of her office and down a different direction. Down to the crew quarters.
Seeger Consum had finished brushing down his mount and was heading for chow when the announcement came. "Will Captain Seeger Consum of The Wolf Riders report at his earliest convenience to the Field Marshall's office. Repeating. Will Captain Seeger Consum of The Wolf Riders report at his earliest convenience to the Field Marshall's office." The announcements always came in that same pleasantly mechanized voice that just set his teeth on edge. Sighing heavily, Seeger muttered under his breath, "After supper." "Now!" firmly replied the pleasantly mechanized voice. "Alright, alright. I don't know what the hullabaloo is all about. I don't even report to her."
PFFFFFFFFFFFfffffffffffffffffffffftttttttttttttttttttt! The Field Marshall's head whipped up from her intent gaze on the recent reports to see Seeger sitting in one of the overstuffed chairs. Seeger smiled and said, "You really ought to take the foof cushions out. No place for such frivolity in these times. Would you like to tell me why you've called me here, diverted me from my dinner?" "Captain Consum. Seeger - " "Mathilda, don't. It didn't become you in school, it doesn't now." "Seeger. We have a problem - " "No Mathilda. You have a problem. I don't report to you. I report directly to King Garnet. I do not report to you!" Raising a finger to her lips, in a silent entreaty to keep his voice down, Mathilda whispered, "That's what I've been trying to tell you. Something is... well... wrong with the King." "There's nothing wrong with the King." Seeger insisted, perhaps a bit too vehemently. "Seeger... I pulled the left lever today." "You know that's only for emergencies, Mathilda! That's downright irresponsible! Do you have any idea what kind of -" Cutting him off, Mathilda explained, "Seeger, I got no response. None. Not even his out of the office raspberry..." With a knowing look, Seeger merely cursed under his breath, "Farkwinkle!" "Seeger. I suspect there are only a few of us who know. You. Me. The council." "The council! How do you know that they know?!?" She held out a scroll to him. Without waiting for him to take it, she explained, "It's your new orders. From the Council. You report to me now, until further notice." "Bah. What do they know? Bunch of parchment pushers, the lot of them." "Seeger, please keep it down. We're in this together, you and I. You know the council never leaves the Mounds. They don't know what's going on out there!" she said, gesturing to the side of the tunnel that leads to the outside world. "And you do?" queried Seeger, a wry smile on his lips. "Yes. I get out more often than you know. I've seen what's going on," replied Mathilda, with a tinge of resignation. "And it's up to you and I to deal with, since the council has chosen to bury their collective heads in the sand." Drawing herself up to her full 3 foot 8 inches, she straightened her jacket and shook loose the tangle of epaulette's on her left shoulder. With a fistful of reports in her right hand, looking Seeger straight in the eye, she whispered, "It's as we feared. These reports lead to no other conclusion. We must defend ourselves. The giants are regrouping." 
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