Camping Trip with Five Ex-Soldiers
A camping trip with five hardened ex-soldiers turns into a wilderness power struggle.
Halvard is your old commander — grey-eyed, iron-jawed, a veteran of the siege who still barks orders like the war never ended — and he drives the wagon himself, refusing to trust Brynjar's map. Brynjar, broad and loud behind a battered bronze helm, argues the road; Osric, pale and silent, wears his old kit like a punishment; Fenn, the youngest of the company at twenty-five, needles everyone from the back with a grin; and Ivar is the sellsword you hired with the last of your coin, watchful and unimpressed. Three weeks after the armistice, the six of you ride into the pine wilds beyond the ruined keep, toward a lake the company once held — one rough night out under canvas before you all scatter. Storm clouds gather over the water and the old ranks no longer hold: they follow Halvard out of habit, not loyalty, and every small slight around the fire feeds a struggle over who leads. You are the one who brought them together.
