The Lost Sons

The last fifty-odd years have been fraught with both triumph and despair for the company. There are few alive still who remember the service to the Sorcerer Kingdoms of Tikar, but the company served well. It was up to the moment when the contract holder had victory in his grasp when he turned on the company. He slaughtered the baggage train, where the families of company soldiers stood helpless to defend themselves while the company itself was caught in a vice. The company escaped with enough warriors to exact their revenge. The contract void, the sorcerer and his whole retinue were beheaded down to the last man. What was left of the company moved on, across the sea.   Still mourning the loss of their families and brothers in arms, the company took up a contract in the Kamari islands. There they settled in to defend one of the city-states from its greedy neighbors and pirates. It was a mostly comfortable service and the company stayed on with this contract for many years. It wasn't too long before people started really settling in, making homes and families to fill the void of those killed before. Once soldiers became so comfortable they started shirking their duties, the leaders of the company decided it was time to move on. The primary enemies of their contract holders had long been defeated and pirates avoided the Kamari waters as much as they could so the contract was marked as fulfilled. The company parted on good terms, many leaving with new families in tow.   The company slowly drifted east, working various short-term contracts with different free states until misfortune struck again. A plague hit the company, ravaging their ranks. Young and old alike succumbed to the sickness as the physicians struggled to find treatments. They were approached by a mystic who happened to be traveling by the camp.

He offered them balms and tinctures which helped to temper the worst of the symptoms. After nearly losing half their number, the rest of the company pulled through and survived the plague. As payment for his help, the mystic demanded a contract. So the company signed on to protect the camps and roads of a Sitaarian Slave Lord.   It was not a pleasant contract and several members of the company treated their duty with open disdain. Yet they had a contract to uphold and an oath to keep them until they had paid off their debt of life. After a while, the company learned of a caravan that had been attacked on their territory so they moved in to dispatch the bandits. They were surprised to find that the caravan was not, in fact, a simple merchant but the Crown Prince of Sitaar himself. He was so grateful to the company and impressed by their skill and reputation that he bought out their remaining contract.   The company spent several years under the command of the prince, fighting his rivals, his brothers, and securing his position as the sole ruler of Sitaar. Until the Twin Empress arrived.   The Twin Empress was, so she claimed, the rightful ruler of Gehnnia, the long-standing rival of Sitaar. But her throne had been usurped, she claimed, by her sister. She wooed the prince with power, gold, and sorcery to launch an attack on Gehnnia. She had the proof of her birthright and the ability to part the mists that enshrouded the treacherous passes into the country. So the prince swore himself, the Lost Sons, and other mercenary companies to the purpose of invading Gehnnia and installing the Twin Empress on the throne.