Editing WS:Chapter Two (section)

=====Constantia Falls=====

There was little difficulty for our little group to enter and walk through the camp.  Morale was clearly low, and there were the bodies of men and gargoyles everywhere.

In the habits of insufficiently paranoid leaders the world over, Constantia actually resided in the most visible and rich tent in the entire camp.  Outside stood a group of some dozen guards, odds on, her dark elves.

The Baron tried to overawe the guards, to force our passage with his very will.  He failed.  After some bluster and noise, the flaps of the tent flew wide and Alden was raised on high and carried into the tent.  Thinking quickly, the three others of us slipped through the spaces left between guards and followed him inside.

Other than the Baron struggling in the grasp of something invisible in the corner, the tent held only the evil elf and two of her people.  Thodric, as ever the thought and deed indivisible, strode directly forward, hoping to challenge the three.  He was basically batted aside.  As I moved forward to assist him, there was a noise from outside, and a huge man in ridiculously ornate and heavy armour strode, essentially unchallenged into the tent, trailing behind him the Baron's two young page boys.

While he stood a little surprised at the scene unfolding before him, Constantia helped our cause by crying out to him, ordering this fellow to attack those who threatened her.  Unfortunately, as any human would do, he assumed the dark elves near her were the threat and attacked them.

Combat ensued:
*Constantia summoned a second air elemental to assist her
*I attacked her, discovering her force field far to powerful to breach
*Constantia mind-controlled me, ordering me to attack Aeskil
*A. freed the Baron in time for him to weaken the force field and allow me to injure her
*Thodric beheaded guards as they attempted to enter the tent
*Realising her defences were weaking, she fled, as did her guards
*The body of the one unconscious guard was loaded about with Fire Blooms and sent home to explode within the dark elf citadel

Assumption of authority over the army proceeds smoothly, with many happy to follow men who provide clear orders, and don't waste troops in pointless and fatal scouting manouvers.

A. assists me in providing space for Mi Shang and for myself, both of us requiring a certain degree of privacy.  A. and I check, but there is little to be saved from our camp in the forest, now burning.  The Baron's silly little army is no more.

We pause, and consider.