Triumph of the Vanguard

Arkadius’ return journey back to Port Ffirst from Daring Heights started much later than he had originally intended it to. He'd spent time with a friend, having an overdue catch-up. Regardless, eventually he would have to set off and return back to his two companies… But this is not the story of the catch-up, this is the story of afterwards.
 
”How was that, Ida? How did I handle it, do you think?” he asked, under his breath, stepping out through the door of The Four Fair Winds.
You were admirable, in my opinion. You didn’t ask the question you wanted to ask straight away, and you shared information. You were relaxed, and, well… you even accepted her apology. I didn’t think you’d come this far in your… thoughts.
 
”I didn’t expect to see her in person, so I had to… consider my position carefully. Besides, I didn’t want to lose another bottle of ink.”
 
Arkadius was now on the road between Daring Heights and Port Ffirst. He had made arrangements for Menace to return in the horse and carriage alone, when they returned through the portal from K’ul Goran. A few people walking past stared at him, talking to himself under his breath, and he just gave one of them a friendly grin. They just walked away faster, shaking their head, as Arkadius chuckled to himself.
 
You’re making jokes about the bottle now? My my, Arky, you have grown up all of a sudden. And… everything you said about your home, and your travelling partner. It made me think-
It made me think too, dear Ida. I think, one day soon, I need to go back to Fallford. I should try to make amends.
 
...Who are you, and what have you done with Arkadius?
 

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Journal entry dated 7 Tarsahk, 1497
 
Yesterday was a good day. All things considered, I’m really glad things happened. I mean, I’m not really glad that Girelle was captured and tortured by the Vanguard, and that a demon was hired to impersonate him to lead us into a trap. And I’m not really glad that a few memories surfaced that I haven’t faced for a long while. It’s been a number of years, and I haven’t really thought about him in all this time. I feel so selfish. I made promises, and I failed to keep them. I failed, all but one. I’m still here, and I haven’t forgotten him. And I will see him again one day, when I finally fall. But I am glad that I reunited with Sheryl, and I’m really glad that we’re still friends, and she’s still here.
 
I suppose I shouldn’t fill this journal with details about my previous escapades, it’s purpose isn’t really for me writing about how I made myself sad, it’s so that I remember what has actually happened recently. So, let’s actually talk about my day. The day started off fine. Woke up (...well, more accurately I climbed out of bed. Thanks to magical powers I don’t actually need to sleep), attended to breakfast, then attended to the horses. With the assistance of the staff, I loaded up the parcels onto the carriage (with Menace by my side, I don’t count him as a parcel, and set off for Daring Heights. Did the drop-off with Wendy as scheduled, and gave the driver a gold piece as a bonus. He drove quite well on the journey to the city, I shall have to remember that. Told him he’d be waiting around for a little while, so to enjoy his time in the city (but not to spend his bonus in the bars).
 
He dropped us off at Portal Plaza, and Mace remarked at how comfortable the carriage journey was. This made me happy, but I was distracted by something in the distance.
 
Sheryl.
 
My good friend approached me immediately, hugging me tightly. I’d missed her, but I didn’t greet her with the utmost warm regards she deserved, it was more of an accusation of misdemeanours. I do heartily regret this, but I think it didn’t hurt our amazing friendship whatsoever.
 
Me, Sheryl, Menace, Lillith and Varis were to head over to K’ul Goran for some more Vanguardy nonsense. Sergeant Grimes joined us at the very last minute too! I’d only met him once before, but as always I was happy to see hard-working people join us. We portalled across, were greeted as always and led to Girelle’s meeting chambers. A Kundarian Kobold dignitary had been captured by the Vanguard, and was being held. Was the rubbish story we were fed, I won’t bother retelling that, it was as garbage as anything. Girelle was out of sorts, and it didn’t take long before it was figured out, Varis showed himself as extremely capable by doing something, and told us something was wrong. I persuaded the Minotaur guards to give us the room, and Varis told us: Girelle was not Girelle, or Girelle was a fiend. Either way, something was very wrong. We heard fast footsteps outside, and we gave chase on one of the two Minotaur guards who decided to hightail it away to give us up. Not on our watch, thanks to fast magical efforts of our troupe he fell over laughing.
 
One Zone of Truth combined with Detect Thoughts interrogation later, and we were able to confirm that the other guard (Alexa) was not Vanguard, and the one we caught was. We were also able to confirm that someone had been hired to impersonate Girelle to lead us into a trap, and garner as much knowledge as possible. The Vanguard are certainly taking a dislike to us Kantas adventurers meddling with their affairs.
 
We proceeded to find the imposter in the room, to accost them and set them right. Sheryl did some amazingly charming stuff, and was able to defuse the situation easily, while getting them to be spectacularly chatty. It was a demon, a concubus. How curious. We (Sheryl) plumped them for as much information as possible, what were they doing, who summoned them, what did they know, etc. And at the end of it, Sheryl smiled at me and asked me to do my thing. I obliged, and said “Consider your employment contract… ended,” and cast a Banishing spell. The concubus seemed to react rather nicely, and went back to its home quickly and stayed there. I was quietly proud of myself.
 
We proceeded to the original target location, a “wine cellar turned prison” under a house, where the Vanguard were holding their “kobold prisoner” (actually Girelle). We had to rescue him, after all the work he’d done and we’d done for him. We travelled through the rooms, through rooms seemingly laid out to confuse, delay and endanger us. There was a large room with two cages, each with an owlbear inside. Sheryl took care of the runes on one cage, while I messed up dealing with the other cage’s runes. We proceeded to stealthily hide behind the next door, listening to what Mace was getting up to pretending to be a Vanguard agent in there. I recognised the voice… BABIS BLOODY FARSTEP. I’d witnessed him performing summoning rituals before, of course it was him again.
 
He suspected something, but instead of enacting his rather cunning trap, he threw a fireball at the door past Mace. I was, of course, fine. Not only did I dodge it, but… fire. Tiefling. Enough said.
 
Battle ensued, and Varis chopped his head clean off.
 
The Minotaurs in cages in the room were… adequately frightened of Varis, they didn’t pose any threat to us.
 
We saved Girelle.
 
Stuff is kicking off.
 
And... I miss him, terribly. For the first time in a long time I thought about him, and our connection. And what happened. I need to make amends, I can’t lose someone else like that.