DO NOT CHALLENGE “LEMON”. We clearly earned a nickname for doing something dumb last night, AND we’re late. Safer to embrace it in good humor (and try very hard to remember last night).

Imaria

You rack your brain, desperately trying to recall the events of last night, but everything is shrouded in a grape-coloured fog. You decide not to press the “Lemon” issue. Wouldn’t want things to turn sour.

Val offers their flask, and you reach to take it.

“Val. Don’t encourage him.”

It’s the mouse with the oversized sword. You recognise her as Rosaline, a knight three days your younger, but three ranks your senior.

“Listen, Lemon. You made a fool of yourself last night, and today you missed the morning roll call. Alex will be looking for any excuse to discipline you. So don’t drink. Don’t play any games. Follow the Blademaster’s orders to the letter, and maybe, maybe, you’ll get through the day with nothing worse than a slap on the wrist.”

“Ah well,” says Val. “More for me.”

They take a hearty swig, and you catch a whiff of the flask’s contents. It’s disgustingly acrid. If that’s wine, then it has been fortified beyond recognition.

What’s todays agenda?

SirPawsies

You ask Val and Rosaline what kind of mission you’ll be on today.

“If you’re lucky, city patrols,” says Rosaline. “Making sure Murida’s streets are clean.”

“And if you’re unlucky, making sure the Labyrinth pipes are clean,” says Val. “That fat and filth won’t unclog itself.”

Street patrols and sanitation work weren’t really what you had in mind when you signed up to the valiant Thimble Guard, “the braves in blue”, the noble protectors of Rodentia with a three hundred year legacy.

Propose a better mission.