Five Leagues Blightburners - While the Trail Is Warm

 If you missed them, the previous turns  are linked here -The Blightburner's Story  

Turn 12 – The Road Home

They made camp on the far side of the burned ruins. Smoke still clung to the trees. Garric’s wounds from the yard went hot and wrong by dark. The skin around the cuts blackened at the edges. He stopped answering when Sigrid called his name.

Grimwald worked by the fire. Scholar’s hands. Old knowledge. He cleaned what he could, packed the rest, and did not stop until the fever broke. Garric lived. He would walk in the morning.

Sigrid paid the Hard Times out of her own kit. Two gold marks. No one argued. No one thanked her.
Finn sat up before first light. The silvertree leaf had done its work. Garric rose slower. Both of them were whole enough to hold a weapon.

Dust trained while the others broke camp. Footwork and the small bow. When the sun cleared the ridge he moved cleaner and meaner. The level stuck.

Vaelith took the north road alone. Bird Maille silent in the black trees. She came back before the meal was cold. The path was clear. No tracks that did not belong. No eyes in the undergrowth. She said nothing else.

Grimwald turned the camp papers and the old writings one more time. Nothing new answered.

They walked north. Torren between them. The Cloister packet still in Rose’s hand. Blackthorn Manor rose on the ridge by dusk, blackthorn hedges thick and watching. Smoke from the hearths. A village now, because a Blackthorn had come home and stayed.

They were back.

At the Blackthorn Inn

Turn 13 Prep – Blackthorn and the Word from Harrowfen

Torren walked through the manor gate under his own power. Elara met him in the yard. No speeches. She put a hand on his shoulder and took him inside. The Cloister packet went to Brother Cald’s contact without ceremony. One gold for the delivery. Another for the speed. Cald’s name was good at the gate. The contract closed.

The manor yard had turned loud by dusk. Dice on every barrel. Cards on every bench. Men who had not held coin a week ago were betting the next week’s wages. The craze sat on the place like smoke.

Sigrid paid Hard Times again. Two more marks from her kit. No one asked where it came from.

Rose took the training yard at first light. Rapier work against the old manor posts. When the sun climbed she moved faster and struck cleaner. The level stuck.

Vaelith sat at a table by the wall and put coin down. No smile. No talk. She won four marks and left the table before anyone could call her back. Sigrid watched from the doorway. The smirk stayed on her mouth.

“More to you than the cold,” she said. Vaelith did not answer.

Sigrid spent the rest in the market. An icon that sat heavy in the hand and gave her another notch of devotion. A dose of silvertree leaf. A dose of tonic. She kept both.

Grimwald turned the papers and the old writings once more. Nothing answered.

Two refugees found them at the gate after dark. Thin. Mud to the knees. They had walked from a forgotten hamlet south of the manor, past the last blackthorn hedges where a few families still tried to live outside the villages. They called it Harrowfen. Cold-hearted poachers had hit it hard. An outlaw knight at the head. They had taken what they could carry and run. The rest of the families were still there. The refugees gave directions. They gave prayers. They did not ask for coin.

Sigrid gathered the warband in the yard.

“Outlaws south,” she said. “Harrowfen. We hit them while the trail is warm. Then we finish the road to the sunken chapel and take what is buried there.”

No one argued. They sharpened what needed sharpening and pointed south.

Turn 13 Battle – Harrowfen 

Table setup- 

The road south was quiet. Too quiet. They knew the way. Sigrid spent the Story Point before the first step into the square and the Battlewise held. They took the edges and the stone without a word.

They seized the initiative. Dust’s first arrow crossed the courtyard and put an archer down hard. Stunned. Wounded. Vaelith’s shot came a breath later. The man never heard it, never heard anything ever again. Finn’s arrow hit the big poacher by the stables and left him staggering.  The rest of the group moved up at the ready.

Seize the Initiative

Round one-

Dust finished his archer before the man could stand. Finn’s bowstring snapped on the draw. He spent the round swearing and restringing. A poacher came at Sigrid hard. Steel rang. Both of them were still on their feet when it stopped. Sigrid’s mouth went thin.

Grimwald stepped out and put Weaken on the knight’s armor as the man cleared the homestead door. Garric met him. The exchange was ugly and even. The knight stepped back. Rose came in on the same line. The knight staggered, stunned. Venom Fang did not take.

Sigrid pressed the poacher again. Still no blood. The man was tougher than he looked. Vaelith put an arrow into another poacher closing on Sigrid from the flank. He dropped before he reached the melee.

Round two -

Dust’s next shot staggered a poacher already moving on Sigrid. Sigrid was done waiting. Battering Storm took the man in a pair of blows that did not leave him standing. Garric charged the first knight. When the exchange ended the knight was bleeding out at his feet. Garric smiled. Rose winked, “Well look at you.”

She intercepted the next poacher. The first pass was a draw. He came back at her. Venom Fang bit. He went down writhing. Three more poachers charged Garric and never quite closed. Vaelith dropped one of them with a clean shot.

Finn finished the bowstring.

A second outlaw knight stepped out of a house on the far side. No one had said there were two.

 

Round three -

Garric went in again and cut down one of the remaining poachers. Sigrid walked over the bodies and met the second knight. Battering Storm boomed once. The blade vibrated. She cleaved him in two. Rose smirked.

“Show off.”

She glided past the bodies and ran the last poacher through without slowing.

The square was quiet again. They checked the houses.

The cellar under the stone building was locked from the outside. Garric kicked the door. Three rooms off a short passage. Women bound in the first. Children in the second. Men beaten bloody and tied in the third. Rope on the wrists. Blood on the floor. The women looked up when the light hit them. One of them had already started to shake.
Sigrid cut the ropes. Rose stood in the doorway with Venom Fang still wet and did not speak. Dust stayed on the stairs. No one asked what had been about to happen. They had arrived in time. That was enough.

Post Battle -  

They made camp in the square. Fire in the open. No one went inside the houses.

The women came up first. They cut the rest of the ropes themselves and went for the children. The men stayed down longer. One of them walked the bodies to the edge of the yard with Garric and stacked them by the well. No one spoke over them. Sigrid put the torch in before full dark. The smoke went south with the wind. The people of Harrowfen stayed close to the fire and did not look at the flames.

They left at first light. The square was empty again except for the ash.

The Outlaw Bands threat was done. One Adventure Point. Spice jars worth three marks. Jewelry worth four. 

Everyone took something from the fight in the square square. Finn had spent he evening in the yard practicing and took the level anyway. Combat. He had fixed a bowstring and little else. No one said it out loud.

They left Harrowfen behind them. South of the last hedges they met a band of pilgrims on the road, a caravan bound for the Ashen Cloister. The bells and the springs could wait. The sunken chapel was still ahead.

Harrowfen