Just outside of the large wall along the outside of the desert capital, Kayde begins to fire at the distortions with his rifle, while Alcaeus notices Drakthar go through the cart he went to a great effort to keep when the city of Melusarej was destroyed, overrun by the same creatures made of distorted fire that they are fighting now.

“Time to see what is so important to the grumbling beast,” Alcaeus comments as he watches Drakthar.

“Power armor,” Drakthar responds to Alcaeus’s japes at his expense as he starts to put it on.

Once it’s completely on, Drakthar confidently walks into the large group of distortions gathered near their section of the wall, every part of his bulky armor looking like it is weighing him down so he shouldn’t be able to move.

Drakthar takes out one after another, with each slash from his dragon bone battle-axe another distortion seems to disappear. But despite the effort, the number of distortions coming towards the city does not seem to decrease. In fact, the number Drakthar expected to deal with is much lower than what is actually around him.

“Hey, Drakthar, can ya withstand one of my fireballs?” Jorge calls out to him, seeing the difficult situation his new comrade has found himself in.

“Of course,” Drakthar calls back completely fine with the idea of being used as bait, knowing his power armor will shield him from the fireball’s blast.

Jorge begins to summon a fireball, five or six times larger than the one he threw earlier. Xander and Alcaeus hold back the distortions that try to get to Jorge while he is conjuring it. Once it is finished Jorge throws it directly at Drakthar.

It explodes on impact causing the ground from under it to turn into a crater, the sand that didn’t immediately burn away flying into the air mixing in with the steam from the blast. They watch as the smoke clears and Drakthar stands alone, black ash covering his power armor. He lets out a scream in exhilaration while running toward the last group of distortions in sight. Before he can get to them, they begin to merge creating a huge blob of distorted fire.

“Come on, we need to go help him,” Xander tells Alcaeus, seeing the others all focusing on the newly created distortion.

“I’m good here… uh... you go ahead,” Alcaeus responds in fear, trembling at the sight of the giant menacing foe that just merged in front of them.

Xander doesn’t have time to argue with Alcaeus, running to join Drakthar in his fight with the large distortion. Kayde and Jorge continue to fire bullets and hurl fireballs towards it while Drakthar goes head to head with the creature.

When Xander finally reaches Drakthar he witnesses the distortion touch Drakthar causing him to scream out in pain.

“Drakthar! Hey, are you okay?” Xander asks concerned for his friend.

It takes a few seconds before Drakthar stops screaming, “Yes. I’m fine”.

“Doesn’t seem like it but I guess I’ll have to take your word for it,” Xander comments as he just dodges the distortion.

“This thing is fast for being so large,” Drakthar points out as he just misses it.

“I know I can only focus on dodging it. I can’t land a hit,” Xander agrees while dodging another attack. Drakthar doesn’t focus on dodging at all like Xander is. He trusts his power armor will protect him while he goes on offense. He swings his axe one last time with all he has, it rips through the distortion causing it to disappear.

“Hell Yeah! Ya lads are awesome! Especially you Drakthar!” Jorge calls out in elation from their victory.

“You're very strong yourself, those fireballs of yours took out most of them. We would be in real trouble if you weren’t here with us,” Drakthar compliments him back, genuinely impressed.

“Yeah, you are the strongest priest of Gwyn I’ve ever seen,” Kayde also showers him with accolades.

“I’m not a priest any longer though lads. Left that behind because I couldn’t give up the booze or women,” Jorge corrects him, knowing it would be wrong to claim he still is one despite still having their abilities.

“My kind of man,” Alcaeus comments, sympathizing with Jorge’s desires.

“Anyway lads follow me back to the citadel I need to tell the general about this,” Jorge tells them, leading them back to where they first met him.

They reach the citadel and Jorge walks straight up to the commander, “These men are some of the strongest I have ever seen, especially this one”. Jorge smacks Drakthar on the back.

“That’s good to hear. Glad they found their way to us. Hope we can have your help moving forward,” the General comments.

“Actually, I might have a job that you can help me with. A group of refugees is setting out tomorrow morning to Aconblasam, the only problem is they lack protection. Job is escorting all of them there safe and sound. Gotta protect them from raiders if they show up,” the General offers them a job.

“Sure thing, my subordinates and I can handle that,” Kayde responds with a smile.

“Tomorrow morning meet North of the city,” the General informs them where to go. He thanks them one last time before they leave.

“For the record, I’m not your subordinate,” Alcaeus makes it clear.

Kayde explains, “Hey man, I was just trying to say something believable, I speak these people’s language if you know what I mean”.

“No, I don’t,” Alcaeus retorts defiantly, not willing to act as someone’s lackey.

“I mean, obviously you don’t know because you were kicked out of this place,” Kayde quickly fires back.

“Whatever, I'm just glad we are getting out of this place tomorrow,” Alcaeus gives up.

“I want Jorge to come with us. He is strong,” Drakthar speaks up, wanting another reliable fighter in the group.

“We could go back and ask him,” Xander suggests, not seeing why they shouldn’t ask the fire mage along.

“No, it’s fine, guys like that will definitely be at the tavern later,” Alcaeus points out confident in his read of Jorge as someone similar to himself.

They go their separate ways until later that night when they meet up at the tavern.

“Welcome to O’Malley’s Tavern,” the barkeep greets them when he sees them enter.

“Your name is O’Malley too?” Xander asks, seeing as how the tavern in Melusarej was O’Malley’s as well.

“Yes lad, all of us barkeeps are called O'Malley. We go to a certain school that trains us,” O’Malley explains.

“Okay…” Xander trails off not quite sure what to think of that.

“Hey, there he is,” Kayde points at Jorge in the corner at a table by himself.

Jorge sees them approach, “Aye my friends. O’Malley, get them all a round on me”.

“So what brings ya lads here? Fancy a drink?” Jorge asks them as they sit down.

“We wanted to talk to you, Jorge. The General wants us to escort that group of refugees to Aconblasam tomorrow and since we worked together so well during the attack on the city earlier we want you to join us,” Kayde explains.

“I don’t know lads… The women here treat me well. I don’t think I have a reason to go,” Jorge tells them frankly.

“It would be an honor to have you with us, I wish to fight alongside you again,” Drakthar lets Jorge know, hoping the sentiment will help sway him.

“I would as well, but not without reason to,” Jorge is still not convinced, not seeing fighting alongside them again as a reason worth going.

Kayde decides to try one last tactic, “You know Jorge, there are sure to be many beautiful women among the refugees, I bet they will be very thankful towards the big strong fire mage that helped them across the desert”.

“Ya have a point there lad... and I would be able to fight with my man Drakthar again… Alright, lads, I’ll go with ya,” Jorge agrees, having finally found his reason.

They all smash their glasses together, celebrating Jorge’s decision to come along, some of the beer spills out of Xander’s glass onto the table because his was still full. After many more rounds of drinks, mostly on Jorge, they go their separate ways for the night.

The next morning, they all meet up to the North of the city. They find the same Lieutenant from Melusarej giving out orders.

“You guys again, the General of this city told me you would be here. Let me explain how things are going to work; we'll all be traveling in groups. You five will be in charge of guarding one hundred refugees to Aconblasam,” the Lieutenant points to the group nearest them.

They take a second to pack up their things before heading out towards Aconblasam.

“Seems like a lot of people for just the five of us to look after,” Alcaeus comments while noticing a large number of refugees they are escorting.

“I get the sense that they don’t have many people that were willing to guard them,” Kayde points out, knowing most don’t prefer to roam the desert if they don’t have to.

They travel a full day without incident.

“Hey Jorge, did you find any women that catch your eye?” Kayde asks, trying to keep him interested so he doesn’t regret his decision to accompany them.

“I have, there was this one blonde, in particular, long hair and crystal blue eyes. She’s probably the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever seen,” Jorge recalls fondly.

“Why don’t you talk to her then,” Kayde encourages him, glad he found someone he is so infatuated with.

“No lad, even I know when a woman is out of my league. I know how old and worn out I look. Best leave her alone,” Jorge reasons, not wishing to waste her time or make a fool out of himself.

“Besides, I have my bag of holding full of booze. I'll be fine,” Jorge holds up his bag.

“Bag of holding eh, aren’t those the magic bags that never fill up no matter how much you put in them?” Kayde recognizes the item.

“Not quite, it does have a limit, but it’s hard to hit,” Jorge corrects him before taking a swig of whiskey.

Jorge and Kayde stop in their tracks as they see sand starting to kick up around them.

“SANDSTORM!” They hear one of the refugees yell.

“Calm down everyone, stop moving and be ready!” Drakthar calls out, trying to stop the refugees from freaking out.

“Cover your eyes so the sand doesn’t get in them,” Xander tells the refugees as well.

While those two are trying to keep the refugees safe, Kayde opens up a tent he recently bought in the capital.

“You want to chill in my tent?” He offers Jorge.

“Sure lad, I can keep drinking that way,” Jorge agrees, climbing in and settling down with his bottle.

They wait out the sandstorm, once the sand settles they see their numbers have been significantly reduced.

“Where did everyone go?” Alcaeus asks, seeing only half of the refugees in front of him.

“They didn’t listen,” Drakthar gets angry, knowing if they all settled down and followed his orders this wouldn’t have happened.

“Everyone listen up, from now on listen to every word we say. We are here to protect you. I don’t want any of you to get lost,” he tells the rest of the refugees to avoid something like this moving forward.

They continue on with their reduced numbers. For three days they travel towards Aconblasam. The day just before they are set to reach the city, their journey is interrupted by the sound of gunshots.

“Everyone, huddle in a group. We are going to protect you,” Drakthar reassures the refugees, grabbing the battle-axe attached to his back.

Sand raiders appear over a dune, some wielding rifles, others swords. Kayde and Jorge start to fire at them from a distance. Drakthar runs forward to combat them, leaving Xander and Alcaeus to guard the refugees.

Despite Drakthar, Jorge, and Kayde’s efforts some of the sand raiders make their way to the caravan, too many for Xander and Alcaeus to deal with. Xander can do nothing while he watches one of them run by him and kill a young man. He cuts off the arm of the one he was dueling before, turning around to deal with the one that got through. Xander stabs him in the back just as the raider wounds an older lady.

Xander turns around to get back to protecting the refugees, just to see a sand raider’s knife getting close to his heart. He has no time to dodge having just turned around. Just as he is about to switch the knife with a bell, an arrow flies out of nowhere, traveling through the raider’s head right between his eyes. Blood trickles down the raider’s nose as his lifeless body collapses on top of Xander, who pushes the raider off him and sees that they have won; all the sand raiders have been slain.

Xander spots a rifle on the corpse of the sand raider that just attacked him. He has had problems fighting up close lately so he goes to grab the rifle so he can fight at a distance like Kayde and Jorge.

Alcaeus goes to grab the same rifle, scavenging everything as usual.

“Give it to me kid, all the loot is mine,” Alcaeus tugs on the rifle, too greedy to give up anything to anyone else. Xander doesn’t want to argue with Alcaeus so he switches the rifle with a bell in his other hand, gaining the rifle for himself.

“Fine, I guess you can have that one kid,” Alcaeus gives in reluctantly knowing he is outmatched.

“Who shot that arrow?” Drakthar asks the refugees, having witnessed the end of the fight.

"I did." Came a woman's voice from somewhere behind them. Xander turns to find himself facing a tall beauty with piercing blue eyes, her long blonde hair sticking to the back of her neck in the arid heat. She carries the hardened expression of a desert wanderer but Xander couldn't help but note the soft curves hidden underneath her loose-fitting clothing.

“Thank you for your help, we might have had more casualties if you didn’t intervene. May I ask your name?” Drakthar asks her, appreciative of what she did.

“My name is Gwendolyn. You have proven yourself very capable, someone all of those within the group can look up to. However I cannot say the same about your friends here, who are too focused on looting rather than helping the injured,” she responds, aggravated by Xander and Alcaeus’s conduct. Xander, realizing how badly he has messed up, quickly goes to help the injured woman, hanging his head the whole time he does so.

“Hey, who are you anyway? And why are you so good with a bow? Shouldn’t you be fighting with us instead of blending in with common refugees?” Alcaeus questions Gwendolyn, deciding to argue with her instead of letting her comment about him slide.

She responds even more annoyed, “Well, I wanted to keep my presence here a secret, but you all were too inept to get the job done by yourselves so I had to act”. Xander overhears the inept comment and agrees, thinking about how he could have saved the young man that died. He finishes patching up the older woman and the group continues on.

That night the group gathers around just as the refugees are getting ready to go to sleep.

“That archer was a bitch, but she was fine as hell though,” Alcaeus makes small talk.

“She was the one I was talking about earlier,” Jorge let’s Kayde know.

“I understand what you meant the other day,” Kayde starts to nod, having noticed her beauty as well.

“She was acting appropriately in my opinion. You were being foolish by scavenging the corpses so shamelessly,” Drakthar takes Gwendolyn’s side.

“Whatever man, you probably just are being mystified by her tits, what do you think kid?” Alcaeus looks to where he thinks Xander is sitting.

“Wait... where is he?” Alcaeus asks as he sees that Xander isn’t there.