EVERMORE PLOT: AUGIS 1022 A.ORDER - Milton Krape

Milton Krape LOCATION: Cross Tower Keep, Holt Landhold SUMMARY: Krape asserts his authority over the troops at Cross Tower Keep. The whip cracked on flesh and the man tied to the cross screamed as his shredded back ran red with blood. The whip cracked again. The assembled troops shifted nervously as the following scream echoed in the walls of Cross Tower Keep. On the seventh lashes the troops began to grumble that their new leader was being too harsh. On the tenth and last lash the man sagged sobbing in his bounds. Someone grumbled, “No loyal man of Eldin should suffer ten lashes.”

Milton Krape, their new leader, did not want to whip the man, but garrison had become too lax. Order needed to be maintained. The law needed to be upheld. He stepped forward, looking into their sullen eyes. He pointed to the bleeding soldier.

“This man vas entrusted with out supply depot,” Krape said firmly in his accented voice. “He sold a catapult from our inventory for personal gain. In doing so, he stole from the army. He stole from our nation. He stole from Eldin. I have spent my life as a sheriff. I vill not tolerate the breaking of the law. Ve will have order and ve vill have discipline. Is that understood?”

The troops responded with a half-hearted, “Yes, Sir.”

Krape did not push the issue. He knew there was something deeper going on here. The woman who purchased the catapult wore a hood and a mask. The supply sergeant hanging on the post did not know why she was buying the catapult. But Krape knew that people who purchased catapults usually bought them for killing. The serious whipping was for the man’s disregard of life, not just the theft.