Skyguard: Anders Loss
Skyguard: an expendable diversion
Dreamweaver assembled the conspirators in the Master’s absence and explained the purpose of their next attack. They were a diversion, buying him time. Only two ships were docked at the Hoverbase; the rest were on patrol. The attackers needed to draw its residents away so he could reach the materials he required.
According to Dreamweaver, the Master’s power and circumstances gave him access that his followers could not duplicate. Many of them would fall, and she accepted that cost without hesitation: their lives were expendable, while hers and the Master’s were not. She had safety measures of her own, then wished her followers luck with an affectionate-sounding cackle. Before the encounter in town, she adopted the brown and grey garb of Granny V, concealing her role behind an old woman’s plea for help.
Skyguard: Granny V at Anders’ Loss
At Anders’ Loss, Granny V greeted the Hero with apparent relief. The townspeople were hiding from an invasion, and the aero-soldiers overhead were a welcome sight. She claimed not to know how Sky Pirates had joined forces with the Badland Bandits and urged the Hero to save the town.
The Hero fought through seven bandits and eight pirates, cutting down a substantial part of the main invasion. Granny warned that enemies were still arriving from both directions. Beating the attackers already in the streets would not be enough; the town needed barriers to contain the rest.
Skyguard: a burning barricade
Granny directed the Hero to recover stolen loot and pile junk at both ends of Main Street, hoping to gather the attackers where they could be finished off. When the Hero apparently questioned the pirates’ strange behavior, she brushed the concern aside: they were pirates, and the Hero should concentrate on the task. She admired the completed barricade but said it still needed improvement.
Her improvement was fire. Claiming the lizard-men could not stand the heat, Granny told the Hero to take the bandits’ fire-starting equipment and ignite the barriers. She justified the theft by saying the bandits would otherwise use the gear to burn the town. Once the work was done, her language grew more revealing: bandits were useful to better villains, and she despised a villain who failed to make proper use of minions.
Skyguard: Granny’s final request
Granny sent the Hero after the Bandit Boss, promising to remain until the fight was over. After his defeat, she praised the Hero’s martial skill and suggested that such a strong arm and quick wit might serve her in the future. She even encouraged the Hero to stay and clean up more of the town, offering rewards for proof of further victories.
With the invasion broken, Granny thanked both the Hero and the captain who had flown the Hero there. The town was in tatters, she said, and they should speak somewhere more secure; perhaps the alley offered an escape route. Stratos meanwhile called for the Hero to hurry, announcing that the pirates and bandits were on the run.
Skyguard: the woman who was waiting
The Hero found the old woman and asked why she had been alone during the invasion. She dismissed the danger, claiming no bandit would harm someone as worthless as her. The Hero rejected that description and praised her courage. She admitted she was stronger than she looked, but when the Hero offered to find her family, she claimed to have no relatives and said she had been waiting for someone.
Stratos arrived, and the woman identified him as the kind of person she had been waiting for. He was eager to return to the clouds: the ships were circling, ready to head back to Base. When he asked whether she was a survivor, the Hero called her a thriver, unhurt and entirely unfazed. She replied that anyone who had seen as much as she had would find life equally unimpressive.
Skyguard: an old woman’s gift
The woman offered to reward them for driving the attackers out. Stratos refused gold, saying High Command would punish him for accepting payment for a rescue. She laughed at the suggestion that they had saved her, then proposed a gift instead: she could interpret their past through dreams and thereby clarify their future. Addressing the captain directly, she remarked that revisiting the past often brought clarity.
Her promise became a threat. She warned that their dreams might be far less pleasant when they were living inside them. Stratos answered with a cry of recognition and horror: not this day. The danger had shifted from the defeated attackers to the past that the old woman intended them to confront.