With seventy-four members of our Company captured or killed plus the eleven of us, there remained a further fourteen unaccounted for and when we arrived back at our camp we expected to find at least one of them, hopefully, the lieutenant awaiting us besides the four that were more or less permanently stationed there.
What actually awaited us were two of our missing comrades, Privates Jack Winner and James Stockman as well as Samuel Hutter the camp clerk plus Jason Button and David Warner two middle-aged former members who guarded the camp in our absence.
Two days before our return Gerald Flick the company’s Assistant Quartermaster had received word of the death of his father who had lived a few days away and not expecting us to return long before he would have headed to the funeral.
An hour after our return to camp Sergeant Winter had us all gather at our parade ground to make an announcement.
“Alright everyone it’s clear to me that we’re currently in a bit of a spot with no clear way out of it, hopefully, one of our two lieutenants is still alive and can take over from the captain. But even then a third of the company has perished in a single action and until we build the company back up to its former size the types of contracts we can hope to compete for are greatly reduced. There are very trying days, weeks and months ahead of us but I am sure in the end we will prevail.
In the meantime if Lieutenant Barnes is still alive and at large we can expect him to return in the next day or two and either way representatives from the Bloody Clock Mercenary Company and their current employer will no doubt arrive within the week to negotiate the return of our captured comrades.
Until either of these events occur there isn’t much that we can do so as the senior member of the company present I am granting each of you two days' leave to do with as you wish. I expect you back bright and early two mornings hence, well rested and ready for anything”
I usually wasn’t one for drinking but a lot had happened in the past three weeks and I needed to relax for a while but after I finished getting ready for a night at a nearby inn and before actually heading out I first had a look at my Status Screen.
STATUS SCREEN
Name: Niel Ryder
Age: 24
Race: Human
Level: 14 (91%)
Active Class: Warrior
Class Rank: 10 (19%)
Profession: Mercenary (E Rank)
Professional Level: 6 (99%)
Factions: Brothers n Arms Mercenary Company
Health Points: 323/340
Stamina Points: 289/340
Magic Points: N/A
Stats:
Agility 17
Charisma 12
Constitution 17
Dexterity 18
Endurance 17
Intelligence 13
Luck 11
Perception 15
Strength 16
Wisdom 13
Free Points 0
Titles:
Child Prodigy, Horse Lord, Traveler (Second Generation)
Free Skills:
Carpentry (Basic 53%), Climbing (Basic 95%), Cooking (Journeyman 28%), Farming (Basic 67%), Firestarter (Apprentice 54%), First-Aid (Apprentice 52%), Shelter (Apprentice 35%), Swimming (Apprentice 65%)
Skills: (16/16)
Animal Care (Journeyman 89%), Black Smithing (Basic 63%), Cold Resistance (Apprentice 90%), Crafting (Basic 97%), Dancing (Journeyman 23%), Haggling (Apprentice 57%), Heat Resistance (Basic 68%), Herbalist (Basic 79%), Horse Riding (Master 27%), Hunting (Apprentice 73%), Identify (Journeyman 3%), Pain Tolerance (Basic 56%), Scribe (Basic 90%), Stealth (Apprentice 19%), Trapping (Apprentice 40%), Unarmed Combat ( Journeyman 3%)
Class Skills: (20/20)
Archery (Apprentice 95%), Axe Throwing (Apprentice 9%), Balance (Journeyman 26%), Block (Apprentice 99%), Daze (Apprentice 46%), Double Handed (Basic 89%), Feint (Apprentice 51%), Knife Fighting (Apprentice 81%), Light Armour (Apprentice 98%), Mounted Archery (Apprentice 26%), Mounted Combat (Apprentice 52%), Muscle Memory (18% Basic), One-handed Weapons (Apprentice 13%), Parrying (Apprentice 53%), Shield Work (Apprentice 29%), Stick Fighting (Apprentice 12%), Lance Mastery (Apprentice 49%), Sword Mastery (Journeyman 39%), Two-handed Weapons (Apprentice 43%), Unseat Rider (Basic 69%)
Professional Skills: (14/14)
Battle Instincts (Apprentice 23%), Drill (Apprentice 80%), Fatigue Duty (Apprentice 9%), Map Reading (Apprentice 32%), Melee Fighting (Apprentice 38%), Night Vision (Apprentice 25%), Patrolling (Apprentice 48%), Sentry Keeping (Apprentice 57%), Shock Tactics (Apprentice 8%), Siegecraft (Basic 78%), Roll Call (Journeyman 25%), Scouting (Apprentice 49%), Screening (Basic 43%), Tracking (Apprentice 34%)
A great night was had by all and while even I didn’t remain sober for long it never got out of hand, well not while I was there at least. Though for some a full night of it wasn’t enough and I heard that a fight broke out the following night that result in the destruction of half the furniture in the inn, one or two windows and serious injuries but luckily enough no deaths.
I spent the second night in the barracks with Richard Barncastle and a few of the other lads playing poker and other card games and I even managed to end the night ahead for once.
We were all present on the parade grounds the next morning though some of us were up in a better condition than others. Four of our other comrades had turned up in the meantime, one of them in the middle of the night but of Lieutenant Barnes there was no sign and so we all presumed he had been captured.
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“Alright, men I hope you all enjoyed your break but other than the four recent arrivals who I have granted their own two-day leaves we have work to do. As you all know our last contract went to shit and there’s no reason why the same can’t happen to the next, so we have to be better prepared for it and the best way to do that is to train for the worst scenario imaginable.
To that end, I have drawn up a comprehensive training regime that we will follow to the letter until such time as one of our remaining officers arrives to relieve me. By the end of the first day of training you will be cursing my name using the vilest swear word ever to come out of your mouth and from there, it will I assure you only get much worse.”
He kept to his word and the next three days were hell on Telondia and curse him we did, every chance we got whether we had the extra energy to do so or not. I of course had a wider range of words to use, my father, having taught me a few from his homeworld. We trained from sunrise to dinner time, on foot and mounted, individually and in groups. By lights out we had barely recovered enough to get in our beds and by the morning after a thankfully restful sleep, we were just about ready to face another day of it.
Class skill: Block (Apprentice) => Block (Journeyman )
Costs: 50 Stamina
Mitigates 30% damage from enemy attacks
By the fourth morning, a further three of us had made it back to camp, the seven who remained unaccounted for probably having to make their way on foot or in no fit condition to travel. The Assistant Quartermaster hadn’t returned from the funeral yet but he was expected any day now. The fourth day of training was thankfully cut short less than halfway through with the arrival of three representatives from the Bloody Clock Mercenary Company and Sir Walter Babbingcock of Stevenage Grange who had come to negotiate the return of the forty-one members of our company who had been taken prisoner by them.
The three of them introduced themselves as Lieutenant Kevin Harris, company clerk Teddy Smith and Martin Blott Sir Walter Babbingcock‘s Herald.
“Is your lieutenant Barnes not around or was he simply not willing to meet us and sent a lackey in his place.”
“He has not yet returned to camp I’m afraid we had thought him amongst your prisoners but from your words, this is not so, I wonder what has become of him?”
“Telondian knows but I fear it does not bode well for our negotiations, in that case, I think it best to leave you a list of our prisoners plus as much of your dead as could be identified and we will return on the morrow after you have time to investigate this matter further.”
“Yes that does sound reasonable I too fear the worst but if it is so then we all have ransom policies with the mercenary Guild to pay for situations such as this so I think we can quickly negotiate for the return of our comrades tomorrow.”
“Perhaps, time will tell.”
With that, they handed several documents to the sergeant and then promptly left. Once they were out of sight he ordered us to continue with our training while he had a talk with Samuel Hutter to see if his worst fears had any basis in fact.
Just after we had dinner in the mess the Sergeant ordered us all to attend a meeting concerning what he had discovered in the meantime. Our training after the departure of our three visitors had been at best half-arsed as we were all worried about what was in store for our company and ourselves.
“Alright everyone I will get straight to the point, things are not looking good, the Assistant Quartermaster has scarpered but not before getting his hands on as much of the company fund as he could. Whatever money you had lodged with the company is gone and he only paid in the money to the Guild for the ransom policies of half our members.
The only good news is that he couldn’t touch any money you had directly lodged with the Guild, he even managed to sell this very camp from under us, the new owners will be here within a fortnight and I fear there is nothing we can do about it. While I cannot prove it I fear Lieutenant Barnes was involved in it up to his eyeballs. Our only hope is that we can track down either of them and recover the money but I am told by the Guild this will not be easy as they have had a good week's head start.
They recommended that we hire someone to track them down but we don’t have any money to pay them and they are unlikely to work on commission.
I have contacted our brethren in the D Rank Company but I fear that even if they were willing they would be unable to help as from what I heard from the late captain after a few disastrous contracts this season and last they aren’t in much better financial shape than we are.
What this means for us and our comrades is pretty clear, the company is done for and we either together or separately must look to join another company if any will have us. Twenty-six of our forty-one members currently in captivity have active policies that will pay for their release.
We will either have to somehow find the funds to release the remaining fifteen which include two corporals and thirteen privates or leave them to their fates and hope their families are willing and able to ransom them in our stead.”
“How much will that cost us?”, enquired a number of us.
“Well unfortunately two of the remaining privates are in no fit state to ever fight again and several others won’t recover before the next campaign season so we won’t have to pay as much for them as the others but depending on how the negotiations go it should be between one hundred and two hundred golds if not slightly more.”
“And are there any company funds remaining to pay for them?”
“Well, Gerald Flick wasn’t able to get his hands on all the funds so there are still about twenty or so gold plus the down payment for the Gray Haven Manor contract which is a further thirty gold and I know for a fact that the late captain left the company ten or so in his will.
With the company no longer a viable entity we will be able to sell the company’s license for a platinum coin. All in all that adds up to one hundred and sixty. Anything after that we’ll have to come up with ourselves but I’m sure if you have it you’ll all be willing to contribute funds for that eventually.”