~~Prologue: Road to Kesselring~~Sarius, leader of Sarius' Wolves, a mercenary band from Mercia, has been found dead, but his young accomplices continue on their journey to fulfill a contract from a Menelean countess.
Adrien (
Taricus), Ami Storm (
scapheap), Daniel (
Emral282), Derick (
Furtuka), Henry (
criptfeind) and Sterling (
Darvi) find themselves arguing on the road in Kesselring Forest before a unit of strange looking soldiers approach.
It is led by Arinne (pic related), who introduces herself as captain of Kesselring militia and takes the suspicious mercenaries toward the Fortress.
Then Arinne and her troops attack the mercenaries, and she reintroduces herself as 'Arinne Gloomblade', leader of local bandits. Unfortunately for her, her bandits are completely inept at fighting even trainee swordsmen and magicians, not to mention that the group was reinforced by arrival of the forest girl Charlotte Braxis (
freeformschooler) and one of real Kesselring soldiers, Gregor von Hexham (
Sirus).
A commotion to the east makes Arinne flee, while she sics her henchman, Koch (pic related) onto the mercenaries. However, they get rid of him as well with some neat stabbings and fireballs.
After Prologue battle:
Kesselring Cavalry arrives, under command of Captain Torres (pic). The two remaining bandits, archers by trade with armor impenetrable for mercs' weapons, surrender and Torres takes the mercenaries to Kesselring Fortress.
Countess Prixima Kesselring (1st pic) is the employer of the mercenaries, and quickly shows to be impatient, arrogant and quite distrustful of the mercenaries, until the intervention of Captain Aaron (2nd pic), who explains that the mercenaries could train with Kesselring trainers for a while to build up some theoretical experience and body strength.
All three of Kesselring Captains: Torres, Marpa, Aaron (pics in respective order) lend their time and resources to train the mercenaries into better soldiers. After a long week, they are to visit Prixima again.
But Lady Prixima still doesn't believe that the mercenaries are up to the task written in the contract, but then she decides to strike a deal with Sterling - she will believe in the mercenaries' strength if they will bring her the head of Arinne, the very same bandit leader who assaulted the mercenaries in Kesselring Forest.
Captain Aaron takes a brief moment to supply several of the mercenaries with iron weapons, while Charlotte and Gregor decide to go along with the group as well. After few hours of walking, they arrive at the old manor that's the hideout of Arinne and her bandits.
~~Chapter 1: Proof of Courage~~The group tries to sneak into the manor, but after opening the front door they get spotted by the group of bandits hanging out there.
Arinne (1st pic), after receiving news of attack, tells her henchman, a shaman named Bores (2nd pic), to prepare for combat. The mercenaries quickly get overwhelmed by the bandits due to the bottleneck entrance and Sterling's Miserable Tactical Planning. Fortunately, with lots of lucky rolls and 1st Occurrence of Vulnerary Group Dance, they pull it off while few other mercs break through a wall into small storeroom.
Meanwhile, with a cheap, lame excuse that actually works, Bores escapes the mansion, quite possibly sealing Arinne's fate.
The mercenaries slowly grind at the bandit forces, and break into the manor proper. Most of the group goes after Arinne while Charlotte and Daniel search another part of the manor for extra loot, but soon they start getting chopped by the loot's guards.
After more fighting, Arinne gets startled and rushes the mercenaries with her thugs. The combat takes a grim turn, with Adrien on verge of death, yet ultimately, the mercenaries prevail, with Henry rolling a crit on 1% chance and turning Arinne into a crisp.
After Chapter 1 battle:The group barricades itself in the manor for a while to rest and recuperate. It starts to rain while a rider, carrying a hooded person, arrives at the manor. These two are mercenary cavalier Olison Eul (
CrimsonEon) and one of Prixima's "diplomats", Christopher Shields (
SeriousConcentrate). They check on Arinne body and after some consideration, they decide to take mercenaries back to Lady Prixima. During return, Henry collapses at the bridge and is taken to a bedroom (criptfeind went MIA). The players rejoice as their Trainees promote into First Classes.
Lady Prixima finally acknowledges the prowess of the mercenaries and describes the real deal to Adrien, who became a new leader of the group given that Sterling went missing (Darvi simply dropped out, that dastard). Eor Kesselring, cousin of Prixima, have been politically wrestling with her over
Lapis Lazuli, Kesselring gemstone (Dragonstone) dating back to the times of Dragons and Demon Gor-Tah. Obviously, having lost her patience, Prixima sent for Sarius to fix this dispute once and for all using less legal and more morally dubious means. She already sent one of her pegasus riders, Seyena Ikane (
Gamerboy4life) along with one other "diplomat", Taki Greenstone (
Dwarmin) so they could hire some help in dealing with Eor.
~~Chapter 2: In Search of Lapis Lazuli~~The group heads west, toward Eor's village, and they get to the city of Vilino where they could resupply. Unfortunately, Vilino is locked down because of a plague outbreak. Nonetheless, the group manages to get some weapons from a weapons merchant that decided to put a tent near the city gates.
After the brief stay, the group continues their trip and ultimately reaches Eor's village. At the inn, Taki and Seyena welcome the mercenaries, and introduce two newly hired mercenaries: the shaman Tantallos Forsaken (
Praefectus Screptum) and the mercenary Valor Inara (
BladeMasterModel42). Taki briefs the group on the whereabouts of Eor. The mercenaries, now numbering over ten people, head to the old, ruined windmill.
When they get there, Eor Kesselring (pic) shows up there and taunts the mercenaries before starting a fight between them and his militia, and the rain becomes a common occurrence now.
Unfortunately for the mercenaries, Eor's aide, Adarlan (pic) rushed from the east with his rather large and deadly cavalry unit. Whilst most of the people are holed in the windmill, crunching on the waves of militia, Valor, Christopher, Seyena and Taki decide to take their chances and pin Adarlan's troops at the bridge.
Things turn worse as some militia break into the windmill and Adarlan's troops curbstomp any resistance at the bridge, so Seyena has to flee with KO'd Valor, while Taki and Chris try to run away, but don't get far.
Death counters bleep madly and some more miraculous Vulnerary Group Dance occurs to keep everyone alive.
In the land of LVL UPs, SC scores a perfect LVL UP for Christopher.
After several long turns of gruesome fighting, Adarlan succumbs to the mercenaries. Seeing this, Eor leaves his safe hill and rushes toward the mercenaries. He proves to be a deadly combatant, but RNG god is smiling on Adrien's group and Eor finally succumbs to crit rolls. In his last words, he tells the mercs that they won't be getting
Lapis Lazuli from him.
After Chapter 2 Battle: After murderizing Eor (pic related) and cutting his body open, Adrien (
Taricus) then took leave of absence whilst the rest of the group investigated fire in the village were Eor had his manor.
That was Eor's manor burning.
The village was kept in check by Captain Aaron's (pic related) soldiers. Lapis Lazuli wasn't anywhere around so the group decided to go back to Prixima and report their lack of progress.
On the way there they spent some time at Vilino to get some supplies with their meagre gold pile, and a few people had their fortune told, which of course was shrouded in the ominous words and mysterious remarks of the fortune teller.
The next night had minor repercussions throughout the party. Adrien set up the camp nearby the Kesselring forest because his paranoid mind suspected ambush from someone even I don't know, or something. They have posted sentries and indeed they noticed a single rider coursing between Kesselring and Vilino at top speed.
Together with Chris (
SeriousConcentrate), Adrien jumped toward the rider knocking him down to the ground in such unfortunate way that the rider broke his neck upon impact. There was a lot of breaking in the rider's satchel and the party quickly determined that the satchel had several bottles of medicine possibly for Vilino.
In the meanwhile Gregor (
Sirus) identified the dead rider as Roy, red-haired messenger boy from Kesselring and nephew of Captain Torres (pic).
The group have split by then - Seyena (
Gamerboy4life) took Valor (
BladeMasterModel42) and the remaining dribble of the cure to Vilino while the rest went toward Kesselring and Adrien went missing again.
On the way to Vilino, Seyena and Valor had a chat with charismatic Larion Rosecross (pic), leader of a small cavalry unit who was on his way to join Captain Aaron and the mercs.
With Seyena and Valor absent, the rest of the group arrived at Kesselring Fortress.
Surprisingly, Prixima (pic) wasn't all that angry about the mishap because she assumed Eor was crafty. Suddenly she was wracked by an allergy fit because Christopher brought some flowers to her room and she had an allergic reaction to anything else than graveblooms (flowers growing on cemeteries).
And then something terrible happened.
~~Chapter 2x: Trial by Combat~~
After the report to Prixima, the group was approached by Captain Aaron, and he said that Captain Torres (pics, respectively) demands Trial by Combat with Adrien for the death of his nephew, Roy.
Thusly Adrien and Torres had a duel with lots of low-grade taunts included. Whilst there was tiny margin of success for Adrien, he got impaled on Torres' spear and promptly died. Thus FEF got it's first player character corpse.
After Chapter 2x Battle:In the meanwhile, Olison (
CrimsonEon) and Christopher visited the Kesselring armory and snatched several extra weapons (javelins, sword, crossbow and longbow), whilst Ami (
scapheap) got Adrien's iron axe. Gregor became the new semi-official leader of the mercenaries, with Olison and Chris keeping some kind of advisory watch over his back. Seyena returned with Valor safely.
After that, Prixima recalled the mercs to her office. She have decided to follow assumptions and clues if they were to find Lapis Lazuli in reasonable amount of time. That's why the mercenary group was going north, to the city of Fezzan - Eor once a guard at Temple of Scriptures there, and it was as good place to start as any other.
Prixima arranged for Captain Marpa (pic) - to fetch the mercenaries to Fezzan as said Captain had her own mission in the city. She was reluctant but Captain Aaron - her husband - ultimately persuaded her to that, and even send one of his knights, Alexander Jorinn (
Powder Miner) with the mercenaries. Without moment to rest, the group went to Fezzan with Marpa and her riders.
~~Chapter 3: The Border City of Fezzan~~The border city is living it's own life besides the fact it's right at the border of two warring nations. Captain Marpa goes with her riders on her own business and Seyena, who seemingly was here, lead them to Temple of Scriptures, while the group could notice lots of hooded people on the streets this particular day.
The caretakers of the Temple of Scriptures, Magister Tiron and Bishop Grigorij (pics, respectively) had no real problem with the group searching through the Eor's old chambers...
Suddenly, explosions were happening in the city and hooded people dropped their disguises; they were Berebian soldiers, trying to take over the city in surprise attack. The district in which Temple of Scriptures were was left for Morko (pic) and his troops to take over.
Two of the Temple's guests, Riven (
IronyOwl) and Raquel Torriani (
Culise) decided to lend a hand and thusly the group grew in numbers.
The battle was quickly joined by local militia under the command of Captain Leon and Captain Syrea (1st and 2nd pics, respectively), and a little while later, a band of thugs decided to use the chaos and try to plunder some houses with Erkand (3rd pic) being the thug's boss.
The battle was fierce but thanks to the militia, Syrea's healing and Derick's (
Furtuka) murder-spree, the mercenaries quickly crushed the Berebians to dust, with Christopher finally crit-stabbing Morko to death, thusly ending the siege of this district. News soon arrived that rest of the city was gradually secured as well. The mercs also grabbed few items from visitable houses during the battle.
After Chapter 3 Battle:Now that it was peaceful again, the group returned to the Temple of Scriptures, where Bishop Grigorij led Charlotte (
freeformschooler) and Christopher to Eor's old quarters. They've flipped the place upside-down before, at last, finding
Lapis Lazuli in a box of candy that looked like tiny Lapises themselves.
Th evening of the same day the mercenaries spent on resupplying and partying at the inn. Riven decide to stick to the group while Raquel went away (
Culise had to drop for reasons). Tantallos (
Praefectus Screptum) decided to ditch newly-acquired Nosferatu tome for Worm tome and extra gold, whilst some old weapons and piled gold were exchanged for vulneraries and heal staff.
Captain Leon showed up (pic) with an investigator, and a small reward for the mercs. Much joy was had.
Unfortunately, the very next morning the mercenary group learned that Captain Marpa (pic) is down with fever and infection from combat and her troop is staying in the city for few days. Group was advised to get back to Kesselring anyway, so they needed transportation.
Lo and behold, like blessing from the heavens, came Anja (NPC, pic), a traveling gypsy, merchant, dancer, mercenary and traveller with large wagon. She is quite nosy and has penchant for 'feeling' incoming problems related to her... you can see where this is going.
~~Chapter 3x: Dissappointed Customers~~The group, thanks to Anja's wagon, was moving smoothly south, toward Kesselring. Unfortunately, when they were approximately in the middle of the trip, Anja began to feel anxiety and stopped her wagon. The group quickly found out what's wrong: bandits.
But not ordinary bandits, no! Dora&Cilia (pic), two bandit female twins showed up, claiming right of vengeance against Anja and her faulty merchandise; the duo was keen on speaking in faux Shakespearean. The also had one-shot magical branch that put Anja to sleep, leaving her extremely vulnerable.
The battle looked grim, but thanks to tactical positioning and terrain bonuses it wasn't that bad, and the shamans - Riven and Tantallos - brought Cilia down.
RICKROLL HAPPENED, AHAHAHA.
Shortly afterwards, the group killed Dora as well and the rest of bandits fled - Anja woke up from magical slumber in the same time.
After Chapter 3x Battle:Nothing much there to see, really.
~~Chapter 4: The Shadows of War~~The group at last got to the Kesselring Forest, and whilst in there, they were almost trampled by lone rider bearing grave news:
Kesselring was under siege by Berebian army, brought from the skies by pegasi and wyverns. The fortress was caught by surprise, as it seems that no one was posted on the walls by that time.
The group advanced toward the Kesselring, only to find it's main gate closed and enemy soldiers posted on the walls, manning few ballistas as well. Keen eyes of Olison noticed that some soldiers wore the armor of Rosecross knights. Charlotte decided to leave for a while to check on Tiger's Eye in a shrine located in the forest.
Christopher took some people via secret backdoor, whilst the rest, under command of Gregor, decided to jump into the moat and get through a sewer grate smashed open by a dead wyvern. This almost turned into lemming suicide; Olison got knocked down whilst Seyena turned into a pincushion. Valor somehow appeased the RNG gods and went through unscratched. Gregor had minor morale drop.
In the meanwhile, Chris' group snuck into a storeroom via backdoor and engaged Berebian forces.
In a cutscene, so-far-unidentified mage spoke with a General (1st and 2nd pic respectively), chatting on the current situation and a bit about Prixima herself (3rd pic), until a soldier reports that top floors are now accessibly thanks to efforts of Larion Rosecross (4th pic). The unidentified mage left for there whilst General, "Goering the Mountain" promised to not let anyone through.
Whilst Chris' group began to take heavy damage, Gregor and his companions arrived from other side of the hallway, trapping the fighting Berebians in pincer attack and bringing hope to Chris and his party.
The battle, however, still turned out to be rather bloody, albeit after some time the mercenaries turned their adversaries into dust.
In the meanwhile, pair of looters (and also siblings) showed up: Robert (1st pic), and Aulia (2nd pic).
The group healed, repelled an attack from Berebian Pegasus and Wyvern riders, healed up, and even slowly managed to deal with the two thieves as well - firstly, they killed young Aulia, and then finished off her brother. Daniel in the meanwhile busied himself with three chests, getting two weapons for his comrades and large sum of gold.
And just as the mercenaries were preparing for gruesome and possibly hopeless combat, at Turn 15, two of Prixima's spies took off their disguises, pacified the ballista tower, sending the Berebian forces into rage mode.
Unfortunately, the spies were met by mostly lance-wielding units. The weapon triangle disadvantage proved fatal to them, but they managed to distract and crush down some of the Berebians.
After few more turns of bloody fighting, the mercenaries ganged upon the now-alone General Goering and they brought him down - with the final blow being struck by Valor and his armorslayer.
After Chapter 4 Battle:The group trudged through corpse-filled inner keep, all the way upstairs, to the top floors.
~~Chapter 5: Song of Blood and Victory~~Upon having two different ways to enter the top floor, the group decides to stick together and go only via the main route - through hallways.
Unfortunately for them, the Berebian leader, Vagor Tunhausen, took one other route and was dangerously close to Prixima.
The mercenaries, however, had different problem on their hands - Larion Rosecross and mixed Menelean/Berebian troops stood in the mercs' way, and after brief talk from Larion, the battle have begun. Unfortunately for Larion himself, Gregor rushed ath im with a Killer Lance and one-shot'd the Rosecross leader.
Shortly after the Rosecross soldiers entered real fight with the mercenaries, wyvern rider Salvatore Vaughan (
Xanmyral) landed on the nearby balcony, with Charlotte Braxis with him.
Whilst the mercenaries were busy grinding through the leftover Rosecross-Berebian troops, Vagor Tunhausen got into Prixima's study. By the will of the gods above and below, he got slowly and painfully burnt by Prixima into a crisp.
Chris looted few chests worthy of magical items, before Aaron (pic) and Menelean defenders showed up. The siege came to an end, at last.
After Chapter 5 Battle:The mercenaries then went to Prixima's study, for a lengthy talk about
Lapis Lazuli, the Berebian attack, morality and Prixima's motives behind all that occured, showing that she is one cruel, greedy woman. Then, they've handed the Dragonstone to its rightful owner.
The people involved with Kesselring castle decided, for various reasons, to get away from the blood-soaked keep and its cruel mistress.
The very next day, twelve mercenaries gathered at inn in Vilino to discuss the future paths they will take. Gregor, Charlotte and Alexander (along with Anja the Gypsy) decided to head to Garnes. Derick decided to find the murderer of Sarius, whilst all others went with Tantallos Forsaken to the east, to battle undead plaguing his lands.
~~Intermission: Change of Plans~~After nearly four months of traveling and doing oddjobs, Gregor and his companions arrived at small farming town of Tigue. They've rested at the inn, drinking and jollying about their latest reward, even if it was a meager one compared to previous missions.
Dag, a traveling mage (pic related), began creepily looking at Gregor. He soon explained his behavior and handed Gregor and his companions few 'Wanted' posters; including one for himself, and one other that was promising few thousands gold for each of Gregor's current, and most of his previous, companions that worked for Prixima. Dag then explained his plan - he is going for Berebia, and wouldn't mind a company during the last leg of the trip.
~~Chapter 6: At the Border of Freedom~~The group gets to the border river and are ready to enter Berebia, but moments later the bridge is destroyed by magical meteors.
The bridge was destroyed by mages under command of Wodan Barbarossa (pic), leader of the army responsible for this border crossing. After short interview, Wodan recognized the mercenaries and ordered his troops to attack.
During the onslaught of the border forces against the escaping group, Alexander put down his weapon and used his shield and his body to protect his companions. This resulted in most of pain and damage going into him. Ultimately, the group prevailed and Berebian forces rushed to the scene from the north.
After Chapter 6 battle:
The Berebian troops, mostly horse archers and pegasi riders, where under command of Captain Danya (pic related), who took Gregor and his friends captive for the time being, and then fetched them all the way to the Tunhausen Keep where her forces were stationed.
Right after they got to the keep, everyone except Gregor were jailed.
Gregor in the meanwhile found himself being interrogated by Mannan Tunhausen (pic), son of Vagor, the very man who led the failed attack against Kesselring Fortress. Mannan easily saw through Gregor's lame disguise and talked with him about Prixima and her strange goal of gathering Dragonstones. After some consideration, Gregor and his friends decided to work with Mannan for the time being, at least to discover Prixima's intentions and, if needed, to kill her.
Mannan quickly decided to bring Gregor and his companions along to Blackmoore, an abbey where a group of mages and scholars were going to meet. It is there where Mannan was going to find answers about Dragonstones and what they can do.
At the morning, just before the whole group moved to Blackmoore, Mannan introduce a traveling mage, Edwin Westbringer (
Zako) to the group.
~~Chapter 7: Blackmoore~~
The group led by Mannan Tunhausen (pic) arrived at Blackmoore abbey, and a soldier went to inform the rest of scholars of their arrival.
Unfortunately, Bores, a druid, have took control of Blackmoore after slaughtering most of the attending scholars. Shortly afterwards, the order was given and Mannan's group found themselves being attacked.
Gregor's group fought a hopeless battle against the powerful adversaries whilst Tantallos' group - Tantallos, Valor, Seyena, Olison, Chris, Ami and Riven - broke in via backdoor. They swiftly crushed any and all opposition and rejoin with Gregor whilst Chris is busy with plundering chests, and Salvatore, who escaped briefly from the tower only to get back, preached HELL AND BRIMSTONE.
Just as the group converged to attack the enemies guarding main chamber, the enemy Sage used Berserk staff at Seyena, making her knock out Mannan and then turn her lance at Charlotte, almost KO'ing her as well.
The Sage managed to berserk Olison as well, before Seyena neutralized the powerful mage with her glaive. After that, the leftover forces in the hallway were quickly killed.
After getting into the inner chamber, Gregor learns, from the Kesselring Officer who was with Bores, that most of his family was branded traitors by Prixima, and sumarrily executed.
The Kesselring Officer soon impales Gregor on his sword. After quick retreat&heal, the gang finished the Officer, the mages inside, and Bores himself, but not before the old druid makes the door turn into the wall and the walls of his chambers begin to rush at the heroes to crush them. All of this is a mere illusion, and soon Gregor and mercenaries are safe again.
After Chapter 7 battle:
After the metaphorical dust settles, a group of soldiers led by Minister Rozard of Deynastia (1st pic) approaches Mannan Tunhausen (2nd pic) and the player characters. Both sides exchange information on their battles and slowly, it dawns upon the gathered people that Prixima yet again tried to kill Gregor and rest of the mercenaries who seemingly stay in her way to a higher goal.
Minister Rozard however isn't keen on helping, and Mannan is devastated. With nothing else on mind and no ideas against Prixima's strange quest, the group returns to Tunhausen.
~~Intermission B: The White Towers of Tunhausen~~After several days of heavy blizzard, the surroundings of Tunhausen are more accessible, and who knows what next hours might bring!
During the first day of no-blizzard and the last day before the mercenaries would return to the work of stopping Prixima, nay things happened. Christopher managed to catch a serial killer but because of his own past, he was almost jailed. Most of the mercenaries managed to buy extra equipment or exchange the one they have for some special weapons and items.
Gregor got Charlotte a special ring whilst Chris and Ami went onto a shopping spree, with most of their gold spent frivolously.
Later at night, the most of the group went camping in the nearby woods, whilst Mannan and Olison had a little talk.
~~Chapter 8: Mysteries of the Tomb~~
At the morning, Mannan (1st pic) woke up the mercenaries and told them to gather at the main courtyard of the keep. When they got there, Manna explained their mission: to intercept a group of mercenaries that were employed by Prixima and were heading to ancient tomb of a Crusader, which means that there might be a Dragonstone there. The bishop couldn't help the mercenaries this time but have sent his trusted captain, Danya (2nd pic) with them.
The group got to the hill on which the tomb stood, and in front of them, an entire mercenary troop stood ready to repel them.
Turns out that the other mercenaries, under leadership of Matilda (pic), were still excavating the 'item' from the tomb. Along with Matilda, there was also Derick (
Furtuka) and Raquel Torriani (
Culise), a former companion of Gregor's and the traveling magician girl who briefly joined the group in Fezzan several months ago.
Zos, more often called Joz (pic), the actual leader of the group exited the tomb, showing to his companions how old he became because of one of the triggered curses. He did recover the 'item', a ornate silver box, which he then handed to Matilda. The mage knight lady then went east with her knights, whilst Zos sent Derick, Raquel and three powerful sages to intercept Gregor and his friends, who have just engaged the mercenaries at the base of the hill.
Unfortunately, player characters proved to be too powerful and after suffering more losses, Joz recalled his mercenaries back toward the tomb.
After long trudge through the snow up the hill, and exchanging some long range magics, Gregor and his group arrived at the top, only to be immediatelly recognized by Derick and Raquel. For interests of both parties, the mercenary swordmaster Joz agreed to talk with Gregor.
After Chapter 8:A truce have been reached; there will be no further bloodshed amongst the two mercenary groups, and Gregor's unit learned lots of valuable information. For that, Joz and his group was allowed to leave for Fierre, a village where the silvery box was taken.
The group then tried to expore the ancient cursed tomb of dark illusions and spiders, whilst some began to ponder what to do next.
They've decided to try and get the box instead of returning to Mannan and despite the promise given to Joz about not following his guys.
~~Chapter 9B: The Box of Silver~~The march toward Fierre, a village on the border, took the group two days, as they followed the tracks of the mercenary group led by Joz. Near Fierre, they found snow piles that were covering many corpses of, as Derick found out soon, were Joz's mercenaries.
Alexander, who went ahead, found badly wounded Joz (pic) under a tree. Without much time and life left, Joz told Derick and others that the employer who sent them about box turned on them, captured Matilda and the box, and slaughtered the mercenaries. Before he passed away, Joz gave Derick a magical ring.
The group moved toward Fierre, only to see that the village was taken over by Meneleans, and in a middle of plundering.
The man in the charge of Menelean invaders was Arvis (1st pic), who was warned about the mercenaries' approach and called Ernest (2nd pic) out of the inn where the latter was interrogating a 'woman'. The two bickered one at another, Arvis being a loudmouth and Ernest being a stoic prick.
Then, Ernest decided to depart with the box whilst leaving the defense/plundering of the village to Arvis and his lackeys.
Shortly into the fight, first batch of reinforcements arrived under command of Wodan Barbarossa (pic), the very same Wodan that tried to stop Gregor and his friends from escaping into Berebia. Wodan have sworn to personally kill Gregor as it seems that by failing to capture the soldier, he lost his rank and position, not to mention his HONOUR.
In the very same moment, Matilda, locked in the inn, managed to undo the rope tied aroudn her wrists.
Forces of Gregor and Arvis clashed at the entry gate to the village. The result was immersely bloody; several of the Menelean soldiers died from critical hits or double magic strikes; in return, the Meneleans struck down Derick, Tantallos and few others.
Even more reinforcements arrived in next turn, as the bloody clash at the gate continued to be unresolved.
After few turns, just as the last batch of Menelean soldiers arrived at the 'battlefield', Matilda (pic), using her cunning and sultry voice, managed to free herself from the locked-up inn, killing the guard in the same time. Meanwhile, the Menelean Wyvern Riders began to carry the footsoldiers over the wall, flanking Gregor's already strained troops.
The blood orgy at the gate continued for several turns, during which many of the player characters were at the brink of death. With miraculous system-abuse and group triple-Vulnerary dances, the party managed to maintain it's current roster. The first major casualty at the enemies' side was Wodan, the crazy knight.
Unfortunately, as the group was locked at the gate, the bandits ravaged and destroyed all visitable buildings, denying the players' loot and shop services.
After few more times, the enemies were ground to dust, Matilda was rescued and Arvis died thanks to Derick and his blade which found its way right into the chest of the bastard crossbowman.
After Chapter 9B:After the victory against the Meneleans, Gregor&co got coded papers which belonged to Ernest and which Matilda got from the inn before it was burned down. The evening that followed was filled with much support and backstory shaping.
Per the deciphered text, the party then went deeper into Menelea, trying to catch Ernest and the box before he gets to Count Grummel who lives somewhere west of Fezzan.
The group decided to make a major stop at the border city they once visited; whilst there, they've thrown themselves into much needed and long overdue shopping spree, which included both items mundane and powerful. After that, they've finally embarked toward the Grummel County.
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Topic: Fire Emblem on Forums (FEF), IC/Game Thread (Read 422627 times)