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Shortly after Toustain’s eighteenth birthday, a large Tilean mercenary force camped just outside Verezzo, and several of its company commanders came into the town to organise supplies, fresh horses and, as luck would have it, gather new recruits. And so it was that Toustain, Eude and Gui decided to join the ranks of the Tilean mercenaries; attracted by the promise of a decent wage and good provisioning, the rich spoils of war, and adventure and battles in exotic places.
A year or so later, Toustain and his two companions found themselves fighting as hired mercenaries down in the Southlands. By now, Toustain was proficient in fighting with a variety of hand weapons, shooting a crossbow and handling a pike. He bore a few scars from having to learn the hard way how to fight with these weapons, but nonetheless he was a force to be reckoned with, and Eude and Gui watched him with an almost fatherly pride when he fought alongside them.
Several months after the start of the campaign in which they all fought, Toustain and his two companions were engaged in a battle near a desert fortress, when he caught sight of a contingent from Bretonnia in the distance. A large formation of knights, supported by men-at-arms and bowmen, were charging at full gallop into the foe. However, Toustain soon lost sight of them again when their own mercenary company was called upon to provide a protective wall of pikes against a sudden enemy counter-attack.
Later after the battle was over, and the victorious survivors were setting up camp among the ruins of the conquered fortress, Toustain caught sight of the Bretonnians not too far from where he and the rest of his company were located. He decided to visit the Bretonnians, and along with Gui and Eude for company, he made his way towards them. As they neared the Bretonnian bivouac, Gui and Eude both suddenly noticed that several of the men-at-arms wore the livery and badges of their own lord, Etienne de Briècque. Although their surcoats were tattered, dirty and faded from the effects of prolonged exposure to the strong desert sun and battle, Etienne’s crest was still visible on the badges. Both men also recognised one or two faces among these men-at-arms as members of the contingent that had ridden with Etienne and allegedly died at the siege of Ker Al-Kabir.
After re-uniting with some of their old comrades from among the Donjon Briècque’s garrison, Gui and Eude introduced Toustain to them and then exchanged news and experiences, eventually settling down to discuss what had happened since learning of Etienne’s death. It was soon recounted, and verified, by several of the men who had been with Etienne at the time of his death, that he had been stabbed from behind while he was fighting, and had died from a deep wound to one of his kidneys. The person who was standing nearest Etienne at the time of his stabbing was none other than his friend, Baron Pétois. It was Pétois who insisted that Etienne should be carried back to the Baron’s pavilion by four of his personal bodyguards, to receive attention. It was there that Etienne died. The raconteur of this story added that it was no more than a few days after Etienne’s death when Baron Pétois and his company withdrew from the campaign and returned to Bretonnia; the Baron making the excuse that he had solemnly promised Etienne, as he lay dying, to bear the sad tidings in person to his widow and son. At the conclusion of the man’s story, Toustain bowed his head and wept, both in grief and in fury at what had really happened. From that moment, he swore to avenge the death of both his parents and reclaim his ancestral home from Baron Pétois.
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