"All right." Temmit said, sighing as he leaned backwards over the back of his chair. He stared at the ceiling through closed eyes.
“In 846 ESH, a pretty significant effort was made to bring eight individuals together who could explore the Outlands in covert missions. These men were selected after a presumably thorough round of testing, and presumably having been deemed to be the best. There was presumably additional training, equipment, and all that goes with such a dangerous appointment.”
He pursed his lips a bit in thought. “Seven years of these missions continued then. There were plenty of men who died. We don’t know how many, I’m assuming, but the sad fact is that it doesn’t matter. The Patrol had the support of the government, and they kept going into what was a noble charter: finding other survivors, and penetrating the Karh’Thul presence.”
“So one day, they find themselves with the ability to press into the Outlands, effectively at will, and effectively as far as they want to go. They use magic to get there, but the point is that they get there, and achieve their goals.”
“They come back and report to the government…the church…whomever. The report leaves out the facts of the magic, but instead presents a laudable method by which we can now safely get through to the Outlands. Not only that, but they have apparently found a way to get past the Karh’Thul entirely. There’s a cluster at our borders, but not the sea of them that we’re led to believe would be there.”
“This news should be met with excitement, one would think. It should allow us to completely escape from the demons and be free forever, one would think.”
“BUT, instead, when this news reaches the ruling class, what we get is a disbanded Patrol, and soon thereafter dead patrolmen.”
“Makes one wonder what they found there, and why the government doesn’t want it known?”
“And if it was truly a case where the rulers didn’t want us to get away from the Karh’Thul, then they must have been working with the Karh’Thul to keep us here for some reason. This collaboration must go all the way back to the beginning. It’s not just Fresenius.” Smokey whispered.
“Indeed.”
“It also suggests that the government never expected the Patrol to succeed.” He continued. “They were perfectly happy throwing the best soldiers into the Karh’Thul lines to die. And the only benefit that they thought that they would get from that is the appearance of trying to act in the interests of humanity.”
“Not only that, but it served the dual purpose of taking the most dangerous of our soldiers and killing them very effectively. Details, boy.”
“Indeed.”
