Five Leagues 2 & 3 - Too Late to Turn Back

With most able bodied man in the town either working to till the now safer fields, or guarding the pilgrims and merchants passing through, it would be slim pickings for the party to recruit [village event: “Not even the Dregs”, the party can’t recruit hangers on], although having all escaped their first encounter unscathed, this didn’t look like a problem.

Robert, frustrated at failing to even best some common brigand, went to work practising his sword skills again in the Inn’s yard [William gained +1XP, enough to raise his Combat Skill by +1]. The rest spent time seeking information from the villagers but, other than a polite conversation with a Pilgrim [Town Action: “Interact”], all was quiet, even when they ventured out in the countryside around the town.

Bored, Robert sought out the a card game, winning against a wandering player [Village Event: “Wandering Card Player”] and gaining 3 Marks. Meanwhile a conversation with one of the peasant’s that Geoffrey had helped on their first day, hinted at suspicions about a nearby hamlet that something was ‘not quite right’. Whether this was a sign of some vile corruption, or just the natural rivalry of rural folk, the party set out to investigate.

After a brief, polite encounter with a travelling entertainer, the party reached the small hamlet of Westerham. A collection of barely half a dozen buildings and fields, all was unnaturally quiet. Occasionally a face would peer from a window, only to pull back out of sight when noticed.

“Not the friendliest of places is it?” observed Will.

“People of Westerham!” Geoffrey boomed, “We have come to help, come forth from your homes!”

If anything, the silence deepened.

“Damn this for a waste of time” cursed William, “If they don’t want our help, we should head back”. Turning on his heel, the knight started to stride back along the track towards Winterbourne.

A robed figure stepped out, blocking their path, a huge two handed hammer held aloft. “Halt strangers! You dare to defile the land of the Lady with your presence, the holy scriptures decree that you must be punished for your insolence in treading on her holy soil!”. Half a dozen other dishevelled figures in ragged white robes, armed with assorted axes, clubs and flails rushed to take position either side of their spokesman.

"You shall not pass!"

“I don’t think they like us”, Will muttered.

“This is the only way back to Winterbourne before nightfall” observed Thomas.

“Such Heresy cannot go unanswered” said Geoffrey.

As the ragged cultists let out blood curdling screams and surged forwards, William drew his long sword from its scabbard, “It seems we’re settled then. We must go through them.”

[The party rolled up a ‘Dark Secrets’ encounter, with them being attacked by 8 cultists led by a ‘sergeant’ (+1 toughness), starting 12” apart. I rolled up ‘village outskirts’ as the location and ‘Bitter Fight’ as the conditions. This is where the rules threw up one of those odd circumstances I really like in Ivan’s games, with two of the cultists rolling ‘Wimp’ and ‘Cautious’ as traits. This might look at odds with ‘bitter fight’, but I rather liked the idea that some of the cultists might be less ‘enthusiastic’ than their comrades, present under pressure rather than conviction].

William led the counter charge against the wild villagers, while Will and Jocelyn shot arrows into them from behind the shelter of a dry stone wall. The cult leader’s massive hammer, no doubt a fine ritual object and wonderful for intimidating villagers, proved an unwieldy liability against a real swordsman, and Robert cut him down with a single blow, just as Geoffrey laid another cultist low with his own, more practical weapon. 

Robert and Geoffery push through the cultists

Making the most of their momentum, Robert and Geoffrey pushed forward, another ragged worshipper falling to the monk’s hammer as Robert drove another pair back, one of whom then refused to re-engage [that was the one with the ‘cautious trait’, who would not fight anyone with a higher combat skill’]. The party’s followers now joined the fray, at first making little headway until Guy cut another cultist down.

Guy takes another one down

At that, the tide turned definitively against the cultists, as first Will put an arrow through one, then Robert effortlessly felled another that had the temerity to counterattack. Thomas finished the last one, although not before he had overcome Finan.

Finan is down, but Thomas gets vengeance

Robert surrounded by the fallen

Surveying the carnage around them, the party found 3 Marks and some medicinal herbs on the corpses. Thomas checked on Finan, finding that he was out cold, but otherwise unharmed. Slowly, the villagers emerged from their homes, some came up to the party, expressing their gratitude, while others wept over the bodies of husbands and brothers.

“Sort of takes the fun out of it doesn’t it” said Will.

Thomas looked pitying at the weeping villagers, “They made their choice Will. If only they had given more thought to the consequences, but that’s how evil works once it has its claws into you”.

On returning to Winterbourne, it turned out that there had been a Bounty of 4 Marks on the head of the Cult leader. The Dark Shadows Threat level dropped by 1.
All the heroes gained an extra experience point [Bitter Fight], resulting in Geoffrey gaining +1 Will, Thomas +1 Combat Skill, and Will +1 Agility. In addition, Jocelyn gained the ‘Scrounging’ skill (hanging around Will too much…) and Oswald the ‘Scouting’ skill.