24th Day of Palesun, 1293
We were once again patrolling the outskirts of the city. Some of the local farmers had reported to the town watch that their livestock were acting scared of something, so we went to investigate.
The first few farms we visited, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. But then we heard cries of distress in the distance. We approached as quickly as we could while still trying to be cautious, and found a farmer, wounded and under attack from dusklings!
(Out of character: Please excuse the shoddy quality of the farmer mini. It is a prepaint, and not my fault.)
We quickly dismounted and prepared for battle.
The dusklings, however, raced forward with unexpected speed. It was clear we needed to move more quickly or the enemy would finish off the wounded farmer.
With only three enemies visible, we got overconfident. But then Eleseth walked right into an ambush of five more dusklings!
From there, things got chaotic. I went to try to rescue the farmer, while the rest of the warband attempted to deal with the newly arrived enemies. After a long back-and-forth fight over a wall, I finally took out the first of the enemies, though I didn't come out of it unscathed.
Things rapidly went downhill from there. My companions starting going down one after the other. Wilfred healed my wound, and I immediately took another. I made it to the farmer and bandaged myself, but then more dusklings came after me. It was a close thing, but I was in the end victorious and opened a path to escort the farmer off the battlefield.
Dobbin attempted to provide covering fire, which allowed Wilfred to escape. In the end, though, Dobbin's arrows couldn't stop so many foes, and he was overwhelmed.
Fortunately, we had defeated enough of the dusklings that they too were more interested in escaping than pursuing us. Once they had left the area, we provided first aid to our fallen companions and managed to get them back to town. Their injuries were extensive, though, and Dobbin wouldn't have made it without giving him some of our precious store of silverleaf.
30th day of Highsun, 1293
I haven't been able to keep up with this journal, because with half the company out of action, the rest of us have been worked hard to earn our keep. We did hear rumors of dusklings taking prisoners, which possibly explains their attack on the farm. I hope to go and mount a rescue expedition there soon, but Dobbin is still recovering.
With everyone else back to fighting-shape, though, we plan to check out the abandoned mines that are nearby. Foolish? Perhaps. But lately, the town guard has been mocking us... Sometimes behind our backs, but sometimes right to our faces. "What kind of adventuring company leeches off the town guard for months at a time?" I feel we must do something to prove ourselves to them, and our shepherd friend Samuel apparently lost a few sheep in that area. Hopefully we can do him a favor, and raise our esteem at the same time.
