The Blue Sword Company (Petrichor 365)

Beyond individual mercenaries, there are also mercenary companies that provide various services, mostly guarding settlers and merchant caravans serving those same settlers.  It is not a big market and does not support large groups of mercenaries, the island has not become so settled that needs, or could support, armies.

The Blue Sword Company is one such group that is trying to work in this niche.  They only have thirty-five members, more or less, as members are recruited, drop out or die, the numbers often change.

The members of the Blue Sword Company are expected to be proficient in a missile weapon and a melee weapon, learn the basic battle code and swear an oath of loyalty to the Company and its contracts (they use the Oath Stone as it is convenient).  Their livery, such as it is, incorporates a prominent blue sword.

Their Captain is Dame Arisa Yraska, once of the Carnaki Principalities, now a political exile.  She is in her early fifties but still in good health though her hair has gone grey and she lost her right eye.  She is almost always found in her mail armor, her early experiences having left her wary.  Yraska‘s ancestral sword is a cavalry sabre with a deep blue metal blade and it has become the symbol of her company.  She is well-educated, well-read, and seeks to build something good with the remaining years of her life.  The Blue Sword Company has become the tool for that, which means it often works on minimal margins and often loses soldiers between employments that do not share the Captain’s vision.

Most of the current members of the Blue Sword Company are lost souls similar to the Captain, seeking to do something good with their lives.  These are often the ones who leave after a mission to settle in a new village and help keep it safe.  Though a few of them have such dark pasts that they know that their only redemption will come in death.

The Company is usually parceled out in groups of ten to twelve soldiers in service as guards and guardians.  Her two Lieutenants are:

“Rowdy” Rodson, a younger man, a former squire dismissed for . . . well, reasons he does not talk about.  But a natural scrapper and leader (from the front).  His red hair is worn short and he is usually clean-shaven or near to it, his blue eyes are full of humor.

Solent Steelhand, an older mercenary who has seen more combat than most, his right hand was lost in a fight years ago and has been replaced with an enchanted steel one, thus his name.  He shaves his head and his mustache is a greying black, his grey eyes are weary.  Solent is quiet and competent, waiting for that final battle to redeem himself in, but he will keep doing his job until that time comes.

Notes: More mercenaries but of a different stripe this time.  Potential allies for our heroes or people who may ask venturers for help.

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Image from clipartkey and is in the Public Domain.