139: A Diversion

So, some knights had been drawn away from the camp, and we realised there were more Sons of Ulric entering the camp. Blume took cover and began to load a pistol, while Fred defended Erina from the Ulrican attacking her.

I hurried back into the camp. It had become clear now, that the initial fracas had been a ploy to lead some of the camp’s defenders into the woods, and a good number of knights had fallen for it. And I could also see that some knights had been drawn away from the shrine where Ar-Ulric and the Grand Theogonist were, but it was still defended.

Erina stepped back from the melee and began to channel her magic, but something went wrong, and a blast of bright light erupted in her hands, which made her stagger backwards.

Greta drew her sword and went to fight alongside Fred, she charged in and struck one of the Sons of Ulric, and he, having been disarmed already by Erina, attacked Erina madly with his bare hands and followed through against Greta who dodged out of his way.

As Blume was reloading, a knight of the fiery heart dropped dead in front of her, and she shot the Son of Ulric who had killed him, but he was still alive.

I charged into the fray, but couldn’t hit anyone. And I had to dodge Erina who was flailing around blindly waving her staff but unable to focus on the world, or on her magic.

One of the Sons of Ulric grabbed Blume and slammed her to the ground and she could do little more than to call to the Baron for help, but I think he was too busy to notice. And Greta was hit again. another knight fell next to Blume, and Fred was attacked and hit and his assailant began frothing at the mouth, like a rabid wolf, perhaps. And the fight did not seem to be going our way.

Blume managed to stab her attacker with her dagger, and she looked surprisingly good at close combat. And then Erina’s vision returned and she channelled her magic again, but it went wrong again, and she was visited by disturbing dreams of death.

Greta got a good hit on her opponent, and his stomach was ripped open and he fell to the ground bleeding to death. My opponent managed to get a good hit on me.

Blume got another hit on her opponent, making this fighting thing look a lot easier than it was. And then another Son of Ulric charged into me and hit me, and with his battle lust, whatever they were doing to stir themselves up into such a rage, hit me again. No wonder their god has a reputation for fierceness and mindless violence.

Fred was able to join me and he stepped in against my opponent and got a good him on him. And I acknowledged my gratitude to him with a curt nod. And we were able to fight back together and I got a hit on the enemy, too.

Erina tried to channel but failed again. Perhaps it was something about the shining rock that made magic difficult. But she wasn’t even able to enunciate her words correctly, now. I doubted she would be able to produce any useful magic at all while we were near the rock.

Greta could see that the baron had a number of the Sons of Ulric around him, and charged in to help. The one on me attacked Again, and injured me again and, to my shame, I was getting hurt, while finding it difficult to land a blow on him.

While Fred and Greta were managing to keep their opponents at bay, one got a good hit on Blume and then a second one charged in against her, hit her, and in an uncontrolled frenzy, hit her again, but surprisingly to me, Blume stood up to him, and she fought back with her flimsy dagger and stabbed him in the leg.

Then Fred went against the one that was attacking me and killed him. I went for the next one, but lost my grip on my axe. Meanwhile. Despite her visions and her blindness and her distorted tongue Erina finally managed to gather up some magical energy.

Greta was fighting desperately with her opponent, and they both fell to the ground, both badly injured, but her opponent bled to death as Greta managed to crawl out from under him and find somewhere to heal herself.

And the two ganging up on Blume both got hits on her and she fell, too. For a moment it looked like she might be dead, but fatefully she survived the terrible blow. Another Son of Ulric charged into Erina but she managed to fend him off with her staff. And we were looking very hard-pressed in deed.

Meanwhile the baron was fighting hard, chopping one of his opponents in half and the rest of his entourage were standing strong. And Fred spotted the Knight of the White Wolf who he had earlier overheard saying he would leave the camp. He had obviously returned on the side of the Sons of Ulric, so it made us wonder how many of our supposed allies within the Ulrican faction were secretly supporters of the Sons of the Ulric. Fred shouted ‘Traitor!’ and charged him and landed a good blow on him. The traitor attacked Fred but he dodged out the way and hit him back. I eventually picked up my axe and tried to attack, but was not much use.

Erina was still having trouble with her magic but finally managed to fire a spell at one one the Sons of Ulric but it did not effect him much. And the baron killed his last opponent with his maniacal sword, and the Graf was fighting valiantly with his runefang flashing in the darkness. And it now looked like the Todbringers were in a lot less danger.

And Greta having healed herself was up and back in the fight. Fred, conscious that the baron was now watching him, managed to finish off the traitor. And Erina threw another of her magical darts.

I noticed that there were two Sons of Ulric attacking Erina and so ran over to help her and I managed to kill one of her assailants, and I wounded the second.

And just when it looked like the fight was over and we were in no more danger, we heard the sound of war cries coming from the other side of the camp near the shrine, and we saw a large band of Sons of Ulric come swarming into the camp, and they were heading towards the shrine. And they were led by the white haired woman we had seen rabble rousing on the Square of Martials in Middenheim.

And as she ran towards the shrine she cried, ‘Ar-Ulric! The blood of the god of battle runs in my veins, does his spirit so much as stir within your heart?’ And there was little to stand in their way save a few Knights of the White Wolf, and some Knights of the Fiery Heart standing guard outside the shrine. And she addressed the Knights of the Fiery Heart, and yelled, ‘Daemon worshippers!’ And she turned to the Knights of the White Wolf and cried, ‘Cur! Traitor!’