Out Of The Frying Pan

Catherine Emberton had instinctively reached for the kitchen knife when she heard the approaching men's voices - being a Catholic and having a husband away fighting for the King gave plenty of people around here two good reasons to wish her harm.
She opened the door of her remote cottage with the improvised weapon concealed behind her back, and was somewhat relieved to see the red sash worn by Lieutenant Hargreaves which marked him, and presumably his party, as Royalists. It was immediately obvious that the group of men had been in some sort of fight and one in particular was bleeding badly from a wound in his side, so Catherine ushered them straight into the kitchen and set a pan of water to boil.
Dr Hugo instructed Lieutenant Hargreaves and John Hart (the uninjured musketeer) to clear the kitchen table and lay the injured man upon it, and after binding two stout pieces of kindling to his own injured leg, he set about examining Jeremiah Wright's wound.
Catherine fussed around the cottage, doing what she could for the men, but turning a deaf ear to their jabbering about "witches" and "demons", presuming it to be some form of hysteria induced by the horrors of battle - all the same, she wished they wouldn't keep uttering such things under her roof!

Things did not look good for poor Jeremiah - he had been mauled by one of the barghests and had lost a lot of blood. Hogo cleaned the gaping wound as best he could before covering it with the linen cloth offered by goodwife Emberton before turning to the Lieutenant to suggest sending for a barber-surgeon.

Unknown to the refugees in the cottage, the witches had searched the battlefield looking for the bodies of those responsible killing Old Mother Bankes pet hellhound, "Josh" (an action which is recounted here for those who need to catch up: The Attack On Arithdale ), to make sure their revenge was complete.
Old Mother Bankes recognised the gruesome remains of Captain Jessop, who had led the attack, but there was no sign of the apothecary who had accompanied him - and she had definitely seen him present on Skag Moor, leading the village idiots from All Hallows!
Determined to make sure no-one had got away unpunished, the witch set her remaining pet "Rogue" on the scent as she and Aggie Stone walked from the village outskirts back to the moor, and sure enough, he picked up a blood trail!!

Following the scent, Rogue led the witches (and three nocterlinger Aggie had instructed to follow them) to the cottage.
Aggie Stone took one of the nocterlinger  towards the rear of the building, while Old Mother Bankes ordered the remaining pair and Rogue to attack to front door.

Fortunately, Lieutenant Hargreaves raised the alarm when he espied their approach,

John Hart, his musket already primed, quickly lit his match in the kitchen fire and stepped outside, taking a quick shot at the slavering beast.

John just had time to see his shot miss the mark before the hellhound was upon him and he was knocked to the ground with his throat torn open.
Hugo fired his pistol through the front window and took down one of the nocterlinger, and Hargreaves fired through the side window towards Aggie and the other fiend but missed.

Rogue bounded through the open door and into the cottage, biting and tearing in a killing rage as Old Mother Bankes urged him on to avenge his "brother". The interior of the cottage resounded with the shouts of desperation, the screams of terror and finally, the silence of death.

The witches searched the cottage and confirmed that the plague doctor was dead and were now happy that Josh was avenged. The soldiers had obviously helped him to escape from the moor and had thus sealed their fate. As for the woman they found in the bedroom who had died clutching her previously oh-so-carefully hidden rosary, Aggie and Old Mother Bankes merely assumed that she was the owner of the cottage and probably related to one of the soldiers and therefore deserved her fate.
The bodies of the dead musketeer and nocterlinger were bundled into the building before it was set ablaze and the witches made their return to Ladygate, to rejoin the rest of the coven - just in time for their Litha celebrations.

A bit of a short, sharp, bloody action I'm afraid - the identity of  Catherine Emberton was decided by drawing up a list of ten possibilities and rolling a d10, the witches had a percentage chance of realising Doctor Hugo was missing from the moor and then a further percentage chance of tracking him. The actual skirmish was fought using Ganesha Games "Fear and Faith" rules.
Many thanks for reading, and as always your comments and questions are very welcome - I hope you have an enjoyable Summer Solstice, and don't get caught up in any of the mischief if you're in the vicinity of Ladygate!! 

After The Battle

The Vampyre ordered the persuit of the fleeing All Hallows survivors, instructing Delcroix to "harvest as many 'suitable' men as possible to replace the lost Nocterlinger" and then "infest" the village. Mikhail had been injured in the battle, and returned immediately to Fernbeck House to tend his wounds.
As evening set in, the Trayned Band and militia were no more - either dead or in chains being delivered to a fate worse than death at the hands of Doktor Nevrinkhoff

and as the unheard screams started in the dungeon below Fernbeck House, the plague rats were released in the streets of All Hallows. By morning, any remaining villagers will have succumbed to the zombie virus.

But wait!
Did I imply there were NO survivors?
When the route began, Lieutenant Hargreaves and one of his musketeers were helping a wounded colleague off the moor. They would certainly have been caught if it were not for Dr Hugo, who himself had sustained a leg injury and had taken up a position of hiding. Hugo called them over and the four of them hid as the persuit passed them by on its way to All Hallows.
Much later in the day, the small group emerged from their hiding place in an overgrown ditch, and knowing it would be unwise to return to the village, they set off towards the neighboring village of Harthill.

As they made slow progress along the road, it was a huge relief when they spotted a small cottage up ahead. Lt Hargreaves couldn't believe their luck when the door was opened by a goodwife -

they had found safety for the moment............. or had they????

To be continued.

When I posted the progress reports of Brad and his group in the zombie apocalypse along with the goings-on with Captain Jessop and the Trayned Band, I chose to follow up with the "Battle Of Skag Moor" because I thought it would be a simple encounter which would allow me to close that chapter of 'England Upturned' with a single AAR and move swiftly on to the zompocalypse.   Oops!
These things do have a habit of taking on a life of their own don't they?!
It was when I was considering the casualties from the battle (for campaign purposes, a mini removed from play isn't necessarily "dead" - he may simply be too injured to continue fighting) that I ended up with this little group of survivors, so of course, I just HAD to find out what happens to them!

Thanks for visiting, and if you're patiently waiting for news of Brad, Hannah and the rest of the group, I promise they'll be appearing here again soon.