[IRP] Dread Star's Zenith

[Alusq]

Nichol nodded firmly until he heard "May Elimine bless your bow" and realised that it seemed he had been ignored in favour of the more colourful strangers volunteering to investigate. "I'm not about to turn down help," he retorted to Donovan, who was mumbling some sort of objection to civilians getting mixed up in this business, "especially when we don't know how long it will be until our comrades arrive." Donovan looked back to the victim of sorcery in fearful acquiescence.
"I arrived here from Ostia yesterday," Nichol said as his attention turned back towards Yuri. "How long have these occultists been at large? Do you know?"

"Make way!" A bearded man in hastily thrown-on brown coats waddled his way through the crowd, Jerome at his side. "The mayor," Nichol's ally, a surly man of few words, informed him. It was difficult for Nichol not to be fascinated by how similar mayors looked across Lycian towns: although this one wasn't as stereotypically portly as usual, it was clear he was better off than most of his subjects.
"Are you the commander?" the mayor asked Nichol. "Thank goodness! Where's the rest of the legion?!"
"Legion...?" Nichol murmured. "It's only the three of us guardsmen here, mayor. We were sent from Ostia to rendezvous with another party, but I'm afraid they haven't yet arrived. Where's the local militia?"
"Militia?!" The mayor accidentally slapped a passerby as he spread his arms wide in exasperation. "Does this place look like it has a militia to you, Commander... Master Lieutenant Corporal?!"
"Unit Captain, mayor," Nichol softly corrected the mayor. "It's not an official rank, but—"
"Thank goodness! An inquisitor!" The mayor noticed Yuri and his spear as he made his way to the front of the crowd. "Brother... er, Father—  Uncle? No matter! It's madness, I tell you! All these witches and wizards and—" The mayor's speech was interrupted by a cascade of vomit as soon as he laid eyes on the corpse around which the crowd had gathered.

"Citizens!" Nichol turned to address the crowd, deciding to make himself useful while Yuri worked things out with the mayor. "I would not normally ask this, but extraordinary situations call for extraordinary measures. In lieu of a full investigating party—" Nichol took care to break the accidental eye contact he had made with Lennox, who had reached the front of the crowd, "the Imperial Guard asks that all who are able and willing lend their strength to this township's protection."
"C— Civilian conscription?" Donovan mumbled. "But that's..." Jerome, having caught on to the fact that Nichol's lack of authority meant as little here as any actual authority he had, simply frowned. Whether or not Nichol had the sufficient rank to help in the recruitment of volunteers meant nothing when they would all likely soon be fighting for their lives against dark mages... and if the town didn't set up a guard of some sort, it would be without warning.
The crowd's murmuring changed its timbre after Nichol made his request. "... Protection? I'm no soldier..." "... But what about the vegetables?" "Are we gonna die?..." The mist danced on Nichol's breath as he sighed.