Chapter 3
"A Fly on the Windscreen"
page 13 - 'The Way of the Land; the way of a lost heart'

After getting invited to meet Vichorn at Port Drake the party was about ready to leave when Clive came into town riding his horse very hard with Elly sitting behind him. Clive told them that he was traveling very hard and fast and needed them to protect Elly while he rode on. They agreed and told Clive that they would be at Port Drake. The party then left Brandywine. Only a few hours outside of town they saw a hitch-hicker, wearing a grey cloak, on the side of the rode. Dio, who was that man, was curious why the party left Brandywine without him. By the end of the first day the party was surprised to see two small Airships passing them by heading towards Port Drake.

By next midday they got ambushed by some Bandits who were looking to get some money from them. The battle was overwhelming with dogs being released to take them down. But, with their leader getting pierced by many arrows and being taken down almost immediately the rest of them fell soon after.
Elly explained, "That there are many small groups and roaming bandits have been apearing around the lands because after the Mage War many people lost their lives and their lands as well as hope and people without hope have no dreams and loose their way. Many people then attach themselves to the first person that will give them even one shread of hope. Many people follow strong bully types like these bandits leader other people follow groups like the Crimson Knights who give them structure and a home."
Dio made an offhand comment, "Humans so easliy will change their beliefs to whomever promises them the best furture, that's why they are so weak they'll believe in anything. But Unlike them I don't believe, I know."

After a rest at the Duke's bridge outpost the party continued on and arived at Port Drake about three days later. Not knowing what kind of welcome to get from Vichorn they rented their own rooms and tried to gather some information around town. Later on in the evening they felt prepared and got welcomed at the Duke's Towers, which where three towers which where connected by many interlacing bridges near the top. A Servant Maid name Mai greeted them at the front doors and offered to show them to their rooms, since they were welcomed guests they were being offered guest quarters. She lead them up a few flights of stairs and onto a small balcony then she steped onto a floating 3' thick 10' wide disk. As the disk leviated them up the dozens of floors to the bridges Mai explained that this was one of the more helpful things that Vichorn added to the duke's castle. The disked finished its trip by hovering slightly over one of the bridges and Mai continuted to lead the party into the left tower and through some hall to their sleeping quarters. She told them that Vichorn would like to have an early dinner with them tomorrow and offered to retrive them later for dinner.

On the walk to dinner Violet bumped into Enutrof appologizing Cade recognized her and said hello. Violet pulled Cade aside and thanked him again for saving her and told him that there was a group of Crimson Knights that she was with who were in the center tower. Also Myr spotted the red robbed figure amonst a group of Crimson Knights walking back to the center tower, the same robbed figure they saw back in Pax Tharkas. The next day the party went to the center tower to look in upon the Crimson Knights. After talking with Kevrin Songblade they found out he and this small group of Crimson Knights came here to pre-empt the arrival of their leader at Port Drake. Kevrin also told them that the red robbed man was basically his superior who talked directly to their Leader, and his name was Alminster. Leaving Kevrin they found Celine back at where the Crimson Knights were staying. She was very excited to be here and under Kevrins wing and was working very hard with the Crimson Knights saying that she didn't need her Holy Symbol anymore because she had something new and real to believe in. She told them that she couldn't wait to see the Crimson Knights leader who was a very charismatic man with "beautiful blond locks of hair". Cade then remembered to introduce the rest of the group to Violet who had a lab and a room down on the lower floors of the Crimson Knights area. She was happy to see Cade again and was also pleased to meet everyone else but the meeting had to go short since they had to prepare to meet Vichorn for an early dinner.

Mai lead them to the special dinning room which had three balconies that overlooked three different areas around the city. Vichorn entered ten minutes after the party and sat down offering everyone a seat. He started off the conversation thanking them for helping Shageon out at Brandywine then asking of their deeds at Croc's Crossing and Pax Tharkas. He then thanked them for taking care of Innster and Krass but then Cade presented one of the scrolls with Vichorn's signature on it. He explained that was because he knew them and that it was unfortunite that they went crazy but he was glad the party was able to stop them before they caused any real harm. Vichorn told them that he was experimenting with this Automail to replace parts of a body that have been damaged like Shageons arms, which were ripped off by a psudeo-dragon, or half of his body which was also damaged by a similar monster. "Innster and Krass accepted the risks that were involved and they were perfectly normal up until the few months prior. Krass was even able to run to city of Pax Tharkas like clockwork after the governor was assisinated, if he didn't then the city could have easily plunged into chaos and revolt." "I'm against all of these monsters and magic and the fact that i have to use magic is a necessary evil, because some have to fall to protect everyone else. that's what my teacher taught me." Giving evasive answers to everything else the dinner ended late.

"I don't trust him, because I don't like how he affects the flow of magic. He is disrupting it; poluting it; he is corupting it, I do not like this feeling I am getting from him. If I can find out how he does this my sister might forgive and reward me," is all that Dio could say after Cade pulled him aside since all Dio could do during dinner was to stand in a corner and give a dark stare at Vichorn.

Elly, Enutrof, and Cade went to where the Crimson Knights were to see Celine agianst and ask a few more questions to her about her motives for joining the Knights. Myr became cautious about their posible future escape from the towers, but in the end everyone came back to their rooms. Even Dio who seemed very intent on 'asking' someone who knew something about Vichorns secret, but found no one.

The only reason for the party being her at Port Drake and in these towers seemed to be the fact that Vichorn saw them as Heros who were able to fix some of his mistakes. Vichorn gave poor or evasive answers for all of his reasonings; unless he was actually sincerely happy that the party were Heros and were 'just' protecting the land. But the next morning the Duke will be making a speach about the Leader of the Crimson Knights comming to Port Drake later on that day. There seemed to be a lot of important people comming to Port Drake and something must be about to happen.
"All of the important people seem to be comming here [Port Drake] so why wouldn't you expect us [the party] to be here," Myr.