From a players' report

August 5th-6th 1642

Participating:

Patrol: Captain Beren Gerhardt, `Sergeant' Luther Brock, Karl Pfifer, Fritz Schwartz

Auxilliaries: Elijah Richter, Ragnar Fisher

On the evening of Tuesday August 5th Captain Gerhardt called personally on you all, in town clothing rather than his normal affectation of wearing armour at all times, his reason being concealment of his movements lest agents if the damned should spy his movements and contact their masters to the potential disadvantage of the forthcoming venture. He asks for the Patrol to meet him at the North Gate an hour after dawn of the 6th ready for an expedition into the northern forest, but ahorse so that minimal time be lost between gate and forest. The hunter/scouts are requested to be at the forest edge waiting the patrol at this time.

The purpose of the patrol is to investigate some claims of the persons lately executed as witches, who were in league with those abominations known popularly as "Green Meanies'', the witches having in their posessions tokens made of the golden metal closely associated with these creatures. They had told during their questioning of a meeting place deep in the forest where they had been induced to their conspiracy against the town by a man masked, and dressed in black who associated with the Meanies, and who conducted prayers and spoke psalms in their presence to reassure the conspiritors that they were not in league with diabolical forces. This Masked Man was unknown tothem, but spoke in the accents of New Jerusalem, and seemed familiar with recent events in town, and particularly interested in (and hostile to) the reformed Church and the Council.

Captain Gerhardt's plan is to march into the forest, north past the alledged location of the meeting place, and then to swing about to come on it from behind as it were. The Patrol are present to give heavy fire support to the hunters, whose duty it will be to scout the enemy's position and report. To this end they will only need their normal non-powder weapons and light armour as they would normally employ in hunting.

These latter, being unarmoured, had slipped unremarked from town earlier. The six disappeared into the forest on foot, horses left in the care of servants. Gerhardt's refusal earlier to countenance any such venture and Councillor Volger's departure southwest were thus revealed as a stratagem to allay fears amongst any with cause to worry about the Patrol's investigation of the secret sites of the forest. Surely enough the six staggered out of the forest, pausing to discharge their weapons at their enemy, who remained unseen in the depths of the wood. Weary from hard marching and hard fighting - Gehardt with his left arm bound up in bloodstained rags, Fritz Schwartz limping, assisted by his fellows - all with blood, powder stains and fresh dents on their armour. Exhausted, they declined to enlighten those about them as to the events that left them in this state, though when told of the drumbeat of the afternoon the Captain snapped that it was a damn sight worse next to it, and on meeting the Master Gunner nods significantly to his enquiring "Well?''

The Patrol Reports

The Captain reported to the council however and soon the news of his discoveries is common knowledge. In the deep forest the Patrol sought the meeting place of the devil's servants so lately discovered. Often their path crossed the tracks of the legions of hell-born green and gold warriors often warned of by Councillor Volger which, while Captain Gerhardt had expected such a presence, the numbers sorely troubled them. By the skill and woodcraft of the scouts the patrol avoided confrontation, in the knowledge that the long- term struggle against evil incarnate required knowledge of evil's heart rather than the severing of a few digits. Once they won to the proximity of the Dark Temple the scouts went forward using the utmost of their skills to win close and closely examine the secret place, despite the presence on all sides of patrols of the enemy.

A Dark Place Discovered

What was seen was a great and golden Temple, where a masked man, ashamed to show his face to Heaven above him, preached a sermon to massed fiends of the golden legions. Fortunately for the scouting pair, Richter and Fischer, they could not hear the blasphemies spoken for no doubt their souls would have been seared by horror. Instead they retreated to join their heavily armed fellows. It was at this point that Satan guided the footsteps of his minions that warning of the presence of the avenging soldiers of the Lord was given. A party of the demons marched directly to the hiding place of the patrol, alarm being given to the host of the Damned in the intense burst of fire that this misfortune occasioned. The patrol then withdrew with all speed under pursuit when heaven and earth seemed to them to split and all were confused and cast down by the crafts of the enemy. Repeated attacks on the souls of the patrol (that were heard as drumbeats even in New Jerusalem) nearly delivered them unto the talons of the enemy until Elijah Richter, known somewhat as a preacher, led them in prayer and the singing of psalms as they fought their way free, being pursued even to the very edge of the forest, as has been reported.