A few more hours of driving, annoyingly, and Adam finally arrived at his destination. Camelot.
Adam stepped out of the APC and then let Pearl out of the back before looking at the building. He had never been here before so he had no idea what to expect but this was somehow both within line with what he imagined and even more outrageous than he thought.
It was a hotel. That much was clear. Or at least it used to be a hotel. However the hotel was clearly themed like a medieval castle, with buttresses and stone towers and grand windows and the like. Some of it was just faux building, he was sure, but it was the renovations that had been done that was impressive. The entire structure was revamped and set up with battlements, ramparts, even two ballistae on the roof. In addition the front parking lot had been turned into a training ground with a number of men currently running laps around the broken pavement with a drill instructor yelling at them to keep going. It reminded him of his days in boot camp. And then, surrounding everything, from the building and its support structures to the parking lot itself was a large stone wall. It was clearly made with the intention of simply looking period accurate but it had since been heavily reinforced and touched up to work as an actual fort wall. Even if the only man-able structures on the wall were the towers since the wall itself was too thin to walk on. So they had built wooden platforms to stand on so they could use the wall to its fullest if needed.
"Is that Adam Baxter?" A man in armor said as they noticed him from afar, his helmet was on so Adam didn't recognize him, mostly because the armor all looked the same. He did realize that the symbols on the shields were all different but he didn't have them memorized after only two meetings.
"Yes, it is." Adam said with a friendly smile to the man approaching. He took off his helmet and Adam recognized him as Percival, the knight of the round he had met for the first time with Salvatore.
"Glad tidings to thee, what brings you to Camelot this day?" He asked with a friendly smile, his hand outstretched for a handshake. Adam accepted the offer and shook his hand.
"Bad news, I'm afraid." He said with a frown now.
"Oh? I am sorry to hear that. Pray tell."
"Famine. It's on the move. A wall of ferals are about to invade the heart of Chicago and unless they are stopped everyone is about to be killed." Percival stopped when he heard Adam say this and frowned himself.
"You speak the truth?"
"Yes, me and my partner confirmed it." Adam replied. Percival looked off to the side for a moment and then motioned for Adam to follow.
"Come, I must speak with the round table, this is indeed a threat most dire." He said as he turned to head inside the building. Seeing as he was invited inside he followed.
Inside was a healthy mix of medieval theming and more practical room design layout. It did not feel like a castle but instead it felt like a hotel that had been co-opted by the military, which in a way it had. There were stone pillars, sconces with torches, and gargoyles, all of which were there to enhance the medieval theming, however all of it was clearly there from pre-war. Everything else, all the new renovations, were done with practicality in mind, it seemed that while they did roleplay knights, they were not above making changes that were not in line with the theme.
He was led all the way through various hallways, some that were clearly bedrooms or bunks, some that were turned into offices, some that were used for storage, and one that had spare parts for the ballistae he saw on the roof. Eventually Percival stopped in front of a conference room labeled 'Aurthur's court' and was led inside.
In the room there were several people sitting at a large round table. There were enough seats for every senior knight, all 12, and a large zwihander that was implanted into the table in the center.
Currently the room had only 5 people in it, only one was in armor, the rest were ranging from a state of half-readiness to complete casual wear. Whatever they were talking about stopped abruptly when Percival entered the room with Adam in tow.
"I bring grave news friends." Percival said as he stepped aside to let Adam enter. "We have a threat that might destroy this city that we love." He said as he motioned for Adam to explain.
Adam went through the full explanation for them, from the description of what Salvatore saw, to the deadline, to even the meeting point, and how he was planning on creating an army to stop this problem.
"These are indeed dire times." One of the other knights said solemnly. "But we shall not balk from this fight, noble Adam, you can count on the full might of the Knights of the Round to come to your aid in this hour. We shall deploy with the utmost speed to your battle." He said confidently, however one of the other knights then spoke up.
"I do agree, but practical matters come first." He held up a few sheets of paper and put on reading glasses. "We are spread too thin at this moment, we may not be able to mobilize in a week, in addition such a force will require extreme planning. We alone will not be enough. Even if Adam here can summon forces from all over Chicago there will still be numerous challenges. And that is to say nothing of the challenges of maintaining cohesion of such a large and diverse force." He said with a diligent tone. Percival slammed his fist on the table.
"What matters is we have the heart to be in the fight! Sir Gawain, you can let your mind only focus on logistics, but as Lancelot said, we must gather what we can and fight." The man named Gawain pushed up his glasses and sighed.
"I simply object to a full mobilization, we have other obligations and there are too many squires in training, are you suggesting we send the younglings to die in battle?" Percival leaned back.
"No…" He said, disarming a bit.
"All I want to do is make sure we have sufficient forces here in case something happens." He then turned to Adam. "I apologize, my compatriots have the hearts of a lion but sometimes they speak before they think. I promise you, as the logistician of the Knights of the Round, we shall deploy to help you. Give us some time, the timetable is short and we will have a lot to prepare." He said with a polite nod to Adam. "If you will excuse us, I believe we have a lot of work to do.
Adam nodded to him and then left the room, as he walked away he could hear an intense argument starting. Adam was not very worried about convincing the knights and getting their help but he just hoped they could sort out their problems in time for the fight.
The next group he wanted to contact was a shot in the dark. It was a group he had little contact with and he had no idea how they would react. War.