Quoted By:
<span class="mu-s"><span class="mu-r">31 for General Combat</span></span>
Barking your orders to your men-at-arms attracts unwanted attention. Two more of the twisted, necrotic hobgoblins charge towards the pulpit with weapons of crude iron in hand. Two more piles of ash scatter upon the floor as the Light of the Lord cleanses them from this world.
On the southern wall, Boric leads well his fellow men at arms. They moved like well oiled clockwork, first anointing the spears of the back row, applying the holy water like oil in swift and efficient motions with a soaked cloth. As thrusts from the second line return the slain orcs and goblins to dust, the spears of the front row are anointed in turn.
The blessing from such an anointment is temporary and weak compared to the blessings held by a blade like your Tephres, but it does its job in ensuring that the darkspawn cannot get back up.
Yet though they now put down even orc and goblin for good, the scales do not tip as they should. Ground they lost gets regained just barely, with every orc and goblin they slay getting replaced by another that crawls up from the pews. Is there a hole there, leading to some breeding pit or a catacomb filled with the Dark One's get?
The stragglers from the main force that foolishly charge you and the children die swiftly upon your lance. Yet even they are swiftly replaced, turning this battle into a game of numbers. Will your men-at-arms run out of stamina before the darkspawn run out of bodies?
That is a question which you would rather not find the answer to.
The calculus runs swiftly in your head and you come to a realization with a grimace. The priest and the hostages may have been a trap. Your men can hold a position and defend against even powerful monsters quite well, but the tactics in which they've been need a hammer for their anvil. In larger engagements, that would be an allied force specializing in offensive tactics.
In smaller engagements, in situations like this, <span class="mu-i">you</span> would play the role of the hammer. Yet here you are locked down in a role that your men would be more suited towards: protecting the huddled and shivering mass of children that the Black Priest intended as a sacrifice.
You cannot allow them to come to harm. The Light demands the protection of children, for they are innocent and carry with them the promise of the next generation. Yet you find yourself caught in a paradox, guarding them in a way that will inevitably result in your failure to guard them. The seemingly inexhaustible supply of orcs and goblins... even if they do not overwhelm your men, one of them might get past your guard through sheer bad luck.
The next goblin who leaps from the fray is not so lucky. He quickly find your lance to piercing through its neck. The children shy away from the ash that falls, tucking themselves into the far corner. Shrinking up against the wall, away from the fighting...
That gives you an idea.
