Re: Oakwood's Ordeal
Wulfe, regrettably, has few details to share.
At lunch you learn that Brance had the larger force, swelled by gathering up the peasants. The forces of Caithness used what you learned and several mages from the Magical academy to dispel illusions as quickly as Brance's mages could produce them; this calmed the soldiers on our side and confused those on Brance's side. The Men of The Stone slid around the sides and ran offor killed those keeping the peasants in line, allowing them to desert in large numbers, which they did ... he Brance had his knights, the heavy cavalry of the Hospitallers and a few Templars and several masses of Mercenaries. At that point Caithness had the larger forces and applied it to the flanks while holding the heavy mounted force in check with spears, stakes and crossbowmen.
The Mercenaries did not stand up well to our trained footmen and started giving ground, further compressing the mounted force in the middle ... Brance tried to extricate it and use it elsewhere, but when the mercenaries saw them heading to the rear, they broke and ran ... Our horse, excepting he Men of the Stone were fresh and pursued vigorously, scattering their Army.
The Knights, Brance , the mages and the Hospitallers headed for this castle, only to find that it too had been seized... at that point Brance fled east with his knights, the Hospitallers also headed east while the Mercenaries scattered and likely became bandits, as already we have heard of villages being razed. We have sent forces out to stop that and prosecute the pursuit.
The Templars however seem to have lingered, we have a scout who claims one of them changed into a raven and flew toward the castle... the rest of them stood on guard and also grabbed a coupe of horses from passing mounted men... perhaps an hour or more later, The Raven returned and turned in a man again. Then a large square thing floated in with two men and a woman all tied up. She appeared to be with child, but they stopped her fighting with a spell he thinks, put everyone on a horse and rode East. we doubted his report but a check found a carpet likely from the castle and the prints of many horses that did ride east. Various guards and others have corroborated portions of his story and we now think it real and true.
This means Megalos was involved, at least their Knightly orders were. Lady Chloe is most assuredly abducted by the Knights Templar, which is ominous, as they are known to use magic freely to achieve their ends. We can only imagine what horrors they may use to gain what she knows. Obviously any force sent intoM would mean war, which would defeat most of our recent gains. However the King and Queen are both mortified by this turn and would seek volunteers to try and win her back to safety. Who ever goes may not bear any sign of our kingdom and acts wholly as an individual or private group. We can facilitate supply and such a foray, but anything with a royal cipher must be left behind.