126: Sacked

Well, mum, it was lucky we did set a watch, because we were interrupted in the middle of the night. Guido took the middle watch, and I think he just ended up praying to Myrmidia, because watches are very boring and you have to find something to do. And he probably wanted some help with Hildegund because we were planning to talk to her about Brantner, and we didn’t want any hassle back from her.

While he was praying he heard the guards outside the front of our storehouse talking, and then he heard some people approaching and whispering. So he grabbed his dagger and gave Fred a nudge on his way to the door, and signalled to him that we had company.

And then four soldiers burst through the door, and hit Guido around the head with heavy sacks. We didn’t know what was in the sacks, mum, but by the end of the fight, we managed to deduce that it was potatoes. So, I don’t think the soldiers wanted to kill us, they just wanted to smash us around a bit. I know you’ll be as appalled as I am, mum, about the waste of food.

Anyway, the blow to Guido’s head hurt quite a lot despite it only being potatoes. Guido tried to strike back with his dagger, but he made a hash of it, and the soldier fended his blow away with the sack.

Fred got up and tried to fight them, too, but his punch was also deflected away. The soldiers were well trained and drilled, so they were probably very used to fighting in a tight formation with massed sacks of potatoes.

With all the noise, Blume woke up and grabbed her pistol. Luckily she doesn’t sleep with a loaded gun, but that meant she had to load it although she was tired from having just woken up. But she says she can load a gun in her sleep, anyway.

Remember, mum, Erina had been the worse for wear after drinking with the Ungols, and so she was having trouble stirring. And I was asleep, and I get so little sleep these days, it was quite annoying to be woken up, so I just turned over, put my blanket over my head, and tried to get back to sleep.

Then the rest of the soldiers piled in and started swinging their sacks around. Guido and Fred managed to dodge the blows, but Fred was fighting back just with his fists, because the soldiers weren’t using weapons against us, but Guido was using his dagger. I’m not sure what Myrmidia has to say about using blades against potatoes, but it is probably pretty boring.

And one of the soldiers noticed Blume loading her pistol so he went after her and he smacked her round the head with his sack. Meanwhile, Erina had come to her senses, although I think she had a headache, and she managed to throw a bit of magic at the soldiers. Then Blume fired her pistol at them and got a good hit on one.

So that was that, I knew I wouldn’t be getting any more sleep. It made my blood boil, so I got up and ran at one of the soldiers and jumped onto his back and I managed to restrain him, at least for a bit, and I thought it might pave the way for someone else to attack him.

By now, I think our opponents’ weapons were becoming increasingly soft as their contents were getting mashed. My hold on the soldier was a bit half baked and he managed to struggle free of my grip. So I had another go at him, and managed to get a grip round his neck, and began strangling him. Guido and Fred got good hits on their opponents and Erina cast another spell at them.

One of the soldiers got a hit on Blume and she fell unconscious. This drove a wedge between us, and despite the enemy only having bags of potatoes they seemed to be close to overpowering us. Perhaps Guido had been right to commit fully and draw his blade.

Fred tried to curry favour with the soldiers. He demanded that they stand down in the name of Ulric. And one of them hesitated and made to leave, but the rest of them kept on. Erina began to channel more magic and a soldier attacked her, and hit her hard but she was able to keep control of the magic that she had summoned.

We fought for a bit longer and it was lucky that the soldiers were only wielding potatoes because they were well trained and he were hard pressed. We were nearly fried, but in the end, Fred managed to punch one of them unconscious, and Erina cast a spell that engulfed the final two, roasting both their skins, and they had had their chips.

Erina went straight back to sleep, and I suddenly realised I had been naked for the entire fight (don’t tell the girls, mum), and I grabbed a jacket. I went to check outside, and none of the guards were there, so these soldiers had obviously ordered them, or convinced them, to desert their posts.

We slapped the surviving soldier awake, and then wondered what to do with him. Handing him over to Brantner seemed a bit pointless, especially as we suspected he may have had something to do with this.

Guido asked Fred for permission to question him more closely, which I think meant torturing him, mum, and Fred said that would be alright, but I think he just said it to scare the soldier, and didn’t expect Guido to actually do anything too nasty.

And the soldier admitted that Brantner had paid them to come round and spud us up, because they were worried we were going to get them replaced. We told him that we had no intention, or power, to get them replaced, but the soldier seemed to think that that was the whole reason we had come to the picket.

We were supposedly going to send a report back to the graf to say that the picket was being run badly, and then the graf would send the Kaerzburdgers home and bring a new noble family in. And the soldier seemed to be pretty sincere. Of course, we decided that just because that was the story Brantner had told the soldiers, didn’t mean that that was what Brantner actually believed. It could have just been waffle.

And so here we are mum, in the middle of a military camp with all the soldiers disliking us and with at least one officer having it in for us. We are not sure what to do next and we don’t know who to trust.

We don’t know whether to bring this to Hildegund, or even Emmiline. Brantner might be working directly for them. We have technically carried out our orders, so we might just go straight home. But I think we would also want a closer look at Brass Keep, and we also want to find some evidence that the rat men do have an interest here.