As the sun began to set over the valley horizon and our heroine rode to confront fate, the town of Onryx was abuzz with activity. Civilians were scrambling back and forth between last minute preparations and securing their cellars, basements, bunkers, whatever places they could safely hide away from the coming incursion. Monster's Night may have been yearly disaster, but its inconsistent nature always threw people for a loop in terms of prepartions. The binders on the other hand, had very different preparations in mind.
While the Empire provided a small contingency of binders to defend the frontier town, Lavian had still hired a bevy of binders to help supplement the Imperial forces. Of the twenty odd binders hired to defend Onryx, only five were Imperial binders while the rest were hired hands. On top of that, due to the quirk of Equinox Valley having seasons out of sync, the company of binders had to split to either end of town to defend it from both sides from very different monster hordes.
Some of the binders appeared tense, like soldiers getting ready for war; others seemed more relax, like it was just another job to do; others still seemed excited for the upcoming horde, wanting to bind a new monster or sharpen their skills; while a few were preparing for every contingency-,
"Get that last pitfall set and get your ass back behind that barricade, NOW".
"Paaaaoooo"!
"Sir yes sir"!
,- and were very loud about it.
The owners of those voices belonged to one Sir Agiros, a Knight class binder that is both an Onryx native and Imperial trained, and his partner, a Wooly Rammoth named Skullcrusher.
Sir Agrios could best be described with the term, "tenacious". Standing at 6 feet tall, the rough looking barrel-chested man's muscular body was covered head to toe in scars that he earned from fighting and binding all sorts of majimonsters in service of the Empire. Acid burns from Ergworm attacks, frostbite scars from Ragerteeth, puncture scars from Pocrupault assaults and sword wounds from Wombatants, Sportans and everything in-between.The four other Imperial binders that were under his command were convinced that even if a Myriadra blasted him with a Tetrapocalypse Blast, he would still be standing with an even grumpier look on his face.
Skullcrusher, Agiros' partner, was equally tenacious thanks in part to its species and a special trait. The Wooly Rammoth is an Ice/Fury monster that resembled a hairy elephant with a pair of massive horns that are spiraled like a mountain ram but point outwards like elephant tusks. There is however a debate among Scholars about whether or not the spiral protrusions are actually tusks, no one knows for sure due to the thick fur making it impossible for people to parse through and confirm it once and for all. While not the most nimble or magically-inclined monsters, Wooly Rammoths more than make up for it with a strong vitality and the ability to bring the hurt in a physical melee. This tough physique combined with its eerie trait [Deathproof], which allows it to prevent aethering, made Skullcrusher just as tough as his binder, if not more so.
As of this moment, the two of them were coordinating the other binders into preparing defenses on the winter side of town, having finished the spring side earlier that day. The defenses were rather rudimentary in nature such as pitfalls, snares, net traps and tar pits. These traps wouldn't be able to do any actual harm to the monsters due to their magical nature, but it would still slow them down long enough for the defenders to swoop in and take them out or bind them.
The duo have had a lifetime of adventure all over the Wildlands in service of the Emperor, but have since "retired" to their hometown of Onryx starting a year prior. Unusually, he and Silvia never met despite living in the same town for about a year. This lack of contact could be attributed to their differing schedules, the fact that they lived on different sides of town or just fate being odd. Regardless of why they never met before, the two were now set to collide on this night most foul and strange.
Why does this meeting matter you may ask? I cannot say for sure, but it may involve a certain ghost...