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The Red Exemplars never visited Nazada after the white plague spread through the land, so Pelmarco will be the first of them to see the results of the battles fought down here long ago. However, the Red Exemplars do conduct training expeditions into cold, icy places. Pelmarco said they mostly find the cold places on mountains and glaciers, although they once briefly traveled through the cold region south of Mazin many years back while he was still with the unit.

During that time, the Red Exemplars spent a few days on the ice south of Mazin. When they decided to return, they stripped off all their clothes and hid them among their supplies. When the Red Exemplars, wearing only their armor, told the people of Mazin that they lost their clothes somewhere on the ice, a number of the inhabitants actually went looking to see if they could find the lost clothing. Obviously, no one found anything worth taking, and the people of Mazin soon returned to their village. They were not happy to return and find fifty Red Exemplars all dressed and laughing at the returning villagers.

Pelmarco believes that prank is why Mazin is not very welcoming of outsiders. The villagers had their quirks before, but the prank greatly affected their willingness to cooperate with strangers. Since then, the Red Exemplars have avoided Mazin, choosing to do their ice training farther east.

Niahla’Sen said it was probably the sight of fifty naked Red Exemplars that upset the villagers, not a desire to find the loot. In addition, any person wearing only armor in such a frigid land would no doubt freeze to death in hours. Personally, I’m going to choose to ignore the inconsistencies in Pelmarco’s tale. I’ve heard enough tall tales that ended up being true that now I’m hesitant to believe or disbelieve things. If nothing else, at least the story was entertaining.