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Many men fell in this fight…
With little time to spare, the Company seizes a wagon from one of the villagers and quickly piles it full of detritus that is intended to foul any footing. They then liberally douse the entire thing with readily combustible lamp oil before dragging the wagon to the bridge where they position it on the enemy’s side while still being on the bridge. But even then, they are not completely done: using ingenuity and sheer luck, they quickly arrange a trap underneath the wagon that, once triggered, will flip the entire thing over upon the enemy. Satisfied that they have prepared as best as they can manage, most of the Company hunker down, opting for cover but not concealment. Due to the terrain, they all think it unlucky that they will be unseen so instead they are taking refuge in audacity. The mission that the Lord-Vicar of Churchbury gave them was simple: prevent the enemy from flanking his main force via the bridge and they mean to do so in this manner.
Lëodan however stealths forward, crossing the bridge and hiding amongst the trees where he intends to wreak havoc upon the enemy at the most opportune moment. He does not have to wait long as a troop of Antagonese mercenaries march into view.
At the sight of the barricaded bridge, the captain of these soldiers orders a halt and evaluates their options, none of which are good. Taking the fortified bridge will not be easy for them as they must first get past the wagon, a feat that will require physical effort and will leave them in a somewhat vulnerable position. After some consideration, he issues orders and the troop begins advancing, which they will soon regret.
With the formation of halberdiers at the forefront so they may began attack the barricade, while the pavisers surround the crossbowmen, the Antagonese approach and begin their efforts to break free. Now that their foe are in position, the Company triggers the trap, flipping the wagon onto the whole of the mercenary formation. Two of the enemy are unable to scramble out of the way in time and their screams of pain ring out alongside the distinct crunching of bone. At this, Murdok fires his crossbow at a halberdier, though it is not a killing wound. To add insult to injury, a burning lamp is tossed onto the oil-drenched wagon and fire erupts.
Seeing that this is an even worse position than he originally thought, the Antagonese captain orders a retreat and the mercenaries begin backpedalling. Perceiving this as his signal, Lëodan engages, intentionally targeting the captain – he falls to a well-placed arrow to his vitals. He rapidly takes advantage of his superior night vision and excellent vantage point to drop four more of the enemy, crossbowmen all, and seeing their fellows fall to an unseen but dangerously accurate archer, the Antagonese begin retreating in full. Lëodan, however, flanks wide around them, continuing to loose bodkin point arrows at their formation whenever they seem to be hesitant about whether to continuing fleeing the battle. His continued assault and their inability to find him eventually convinces them that flight is wiser.
Once the Company is thoroughly satisfied that the Antagonese have fled the field, Ser Kenrick sends Aidin the Heal-Sick back to the village to report their success and to seek additional orders while Brother Getwelle does what he can to save the lives of the enemy Lëodan felled. When Aidin returns, he reports that the enemy are in full-scale retreat. Since he does not return with actual orders, Ser Kenrick whistles for Ser Magnus and rides into to Gentleham to seek out the lord-vicar for further instructions where he learns that yes, the Company is relieved. Prisoners are herded into that same barn which, by now is getting quite full.
Following the battle, the Company learn that there were few losses on the side of the villagers; Old Man Bones was found dead but appears to have died simply of advanced age, not injuries. The pacifist patron, it is learned, found himself cornered during the fight by a mercenary and accidentally killed the man; to no one’s surprise, he is taking this poorly. More notable at the moment is that the reeve’s cowardice overtook him during the battle and the entire village saw him flee to hide. No one is happy with him. At all.
The lord-vicar is pleased with the results of the battle though he wishes he could pursue them over the border and would, if doing so would not be an act of war. Ser Kenrick mentions that he is still concerned about the missing retinue from the arl and volunteers the Company to investigate upon the morrow if they have not arrived in that time. The lord-vicar agrees to this and then implies that, if the Company just happened to cross the border and scout out the enemy, well, he would never actually ask them to do so! Lëodan, ever the loner, retrieves what arrows he can find and then heads out ahead of everyone else to pre-scout the route with a promise to be back before dawn. Rayna finds herself as the target of the lord-vicar’s lecherous advances but manages to diplomatically brush him off; she retreats as quickly as she can lest she lose her temper at his antics.
Some time after night has fallen, the village council assembles once more; curious, Ser Kenrick and Brother Getwelle invite themselves to it and no one complains. This meeting is mostly a gripe session centered around the reeve’s cowardice, though they do discuss maintaining a regular watch for several days to prevent a repeat of this as well as talking about rebuilding. It is decided that the slain mercenaries will be buried in the village cemetery.
Following the meeting, the council disperses to their own matters. As Ser Kenrick is leaving, he is cornered by Brother Rikall, the monk accompanying the lord-vicar; the monk believes he has met the knight before some years earlier at Hunterhall. The two reminisce about this, unaware that Rayna has overheard it and vaguely recalls visiting there when she was about three or four.
Night has fallen completely when the armcry is once again raised: someone approaches from the south! Some of the lord-vicar’s men rush out to escort this man into Gentleham. He is one of the arl’s men who was part of the retinue marching north and they were set upon by Antagonese mercenaries! This man was knocked unconscious and left behind when all of those marching north were taken captive.
Including Marthyn the Swift.
Player Notes:
- This session turned out to not be what the GM intended thanks to PC shenanigans. To paraphrase him, the Players “had Plan A and Plan B prior to game-time, and then during the session, opted to go for Plan C.” He’s gone into much more detail on his blog as to ‘what went wrong.’ Ironically, I had a similar failure in my F2F game which he plays in the week earlier.
- Evidently, the Kenrick-Rikall discussion is due to Kernick’s father’s secret popping. I think we’ve had one session where a Secret didn’t pop…
- Looks like next week will be the conclusion of this run.
- We livestream our games every Saturdays at 6:00PM Eastern; the live stream can be found at Ronnke’s Twitch channel. He’s also setup a YouTube Channel.
See the Daniverse Blog for the GM’s post-game debrief.
