154: Heidheinheim

Confronted with the rampaging bandits in Heidheinheim Willow said hello and asked them to stop pillaging, but they just laughed at her. We could see one of the raiders was carrying the golden lion banner of Nuln. Their leader shouted, ‘For the Grand Countess!’ and shot her bow, hitting one of our marines in the face.

Fred, Bauermann, and the marines advanced on the raiders, with Fred familiar enough with their drills to stay in formation with them. I channelled some fire magic, and Blume fired her pistol, hitting one of them, and got hit by a shot in return. Willow went into her bag and made a paste of something or other and smeared it onto Fred’s blade.

The raider leader then nocked another arrow and shouted to her men that we were false flag and that we were dressed as Altdorfers, which was sort of true, but a bit confusing. And then she shot at Blume, wounding her.

Then I unleashed the powerful spell I had been learning on the journey, and blasted their leader, hitting her squarely, and engulfing several of her men in the flames.

Willow found an injured local and began healing her. Blume reloaded her pistol and shouted that Countess Emma and her were good mates and that she had sent her here, and so they should be on the same side. But the leader simply ignored her, and roused her troops to fight on, despite still being engulfed in my magical flames.

Fred and the marines joined the fight and went hand to hand with the Nulners, pushing them back. I channelled more magic, but was targeted by enemy bow shots. Keeping control of my magic while faced with enemy attacks can be difficult, and I lost control of my magic, and found myself suspended a few yards above the village on a magical vortex, and there was nothing I could do about it.

Willow was seeing to the enemy wounded, and spotted that some of them had blue and white uniforms hidden under their black ones, and some had buff uniforms. So perhaps the enemy leader was right about the false flag after all.

And from my vantage point above the battlefield I could see a band of raiders making their way around the side of the village trying to outflank us. So I shouted down to let Fred know.

Meanwhile, Willow was trying to lasso me, and she managed to get a rope around me and began to pull me away from the fight. But I had the idea that floating above the battlefield might be advantageous and so I told Willow to let me go, and I tried to pretend I had meant to do the levitating all along.

Fred and the marines were doing well against their opponents, and Fred got a good hit on his man, but they were clearly experienced and resilient fighters. Their leader shot at me, and hit me again, and she managed to get away from the fires I had cast, but some of her men were not so lucky and they burned to death around her.

So as the battle continued Fred and the marines continued to push their opponents back, but Blume had to flee from the out-flankers, one of them managed to reach her, however, and cut her down. And the next one got a good hit on her foot, leaving a bloody mess behind. I cast another spell, and managed to kill the leader. Then I was hit by an arrow, and fell unconscious, and I was left hanging above the village until the magical vortex dissipated.

I think Blume was close to death, and would have simply died there and then except she said a desperate prayer to Harry’s uncle Isaak, and he heard her prayer and helped staunch the bleeding. But she had lost three of her toes.

Willow lassoed me again, and then rushed to help Blume, and fumbled about for her needle and thread. The two raiders were still around Blume, and Willow had to bribe them with a bottle of gut-rot, for them to leave her alone, and she promised to see to their wounded, as well, once the fight was over.

Willow worked on Blume’s wounds but could not sow the toes back on, and put them in her pocket in case she needed them later. But she saw to the bleeding and saw to it that Blume would be able to walk again. And Blume grabbed a stick to use as a walking stick, and thanked Willow. Then Willow began seeing to the enemy wounded, as promised.

Fred and the marines won their battle and the raiders fled or surrendered. Some of them made off in our jolly boat. Then they pulled me down from my floating position, and Willow saw to my wounds.

The prisoners pleaded with us to spare them and said that the Countess Emmanuelle would pay their ransom. I think we all knew by now that they weren’t really her soldiers, but I wondered whether they knew that.

We had a look at their uniforms and some had the sun symbol on their buff uniforms, band these were old and well-made, and some had blue and white uniforms with goat sigils abut these were new and poorly made. It was all a bit of a conundrum. In the end they admitted they didn’t care who they were fighting for as they were mercenaries, but their captain, now deceased, had told them they were fighting for Nuln.

We wondered what to do with the prisoners, and decided that it was our duty to keep them, and to hand them over to local authorities when we could, so that they would face justice.

Willow handed out medical supplies to the surviving villagers, and they begged her to stay as their healer was dead. So Willow pointed out a village girl, who she had just healed, and nominated her to be the new village healer. To be honest, I’m not sure it works like that.