Sneak Peek: Battle of the Obertamb (Patreon)

It seemed that all hope was now well and truly lost. The final bastion of our beleaguered kingdom was besieged and beset on all sides. No help was forthcoming... for none could help. The Occult had planned this for centuries, and struck with a precise malevolence that crippled every part of the nation. It was every man for himself.

Day and night, the relentless snorting, baying, and screeching of our enemy tormented us from outside our weakening walls. We threw them back, day after day, then week after week, and it seemed our numbers only continued to dwindle and despair, while no matter how many of them we cut down, the enemy's ranks seemed to swell with every passing moment.

Then, as their war horns blared, and they surged forth and scaled the walls, and we despaired of our impending doom... In the distance, a single clarion call sounded out. Three short bursts, followed by a single long burst. And on that final burst, they appeared. Cresting the horizon, their steel glinting in the sun, the famed black-and-silver eagle banner of the Marcherlands unfurling before the foe stoically. But though a valiant picture they struck, these knights of the March were far too few. There were barely a thousand Marcher riders at best, while the Swine alone numbered in the tens of thousands.

Confident in their victory, the enemy broke off part of their siege lines, formed up in front of the River Obertamb that separated our city from our would-be rescuers, and started to cross in great numbers. The knights merely watched, taking no action until the enemy was knee-deep in the water, half their number struggling to ford, the other half jostling for space...

... At this very moment, there was a great cry of "Mein kerls! Angriff!", and the knights of the Marcherlands thundered down the hill in all their glory, roaring for blood as they crashed into the Swine before they even knew what hit them!

The foe was caught between the Marcher knights before them riding down everything in sight and their own ranks in the back! Those in the rear ranks of the enemy still tried to cross, unable to see what was happening in front, while those in the front ranks disintegrated under a storm of hammers and hooves-!

And so it was that against all odds, at the Battle of the Obertamb, a thousand knights routed the entire Swine horde and broke the siege of the city...!

And now for something spectacular! A sneak peek of a SFW/full illustration, to be used as part of the Main/Claire's Questline upon her return to the Continent, by the amazingly talented Sommelier!