CYOA - Seasons of Sorrow

"Send Fumiko, Harrow, and Praven.  And tell everyone I said hello."

"Will do," Wendy answers, already turning to leave.

As the three head out yet again, you turn to the group that's already crossed.  "Alright, we've got some reinforcements, but that doesn't really help us over here just yet.  Keep a sharp eye out."  You keep waiting for a shape to appear in the fog, for an enemy guard to call out an alarm, but nothing happens until you finally here the flap of wings approaching again.  The first to appear is again Wendy.  Praven wordlessly dismounts Wendy's manticore, thanking it with a polite bow.  He's may be the first person besides Wendy that's not to scared of that thing.  A pegasus landing near you snaps you out of your thoughts.  Even in the fog, you can tell who it is instantly.  "Rain!" you call out.

She flaps for a second, disoriented and scanning your group.  She sweeps past you, then realizes her mistake and snaps back.  "June?  Is that you?  I didn't recognize you in that... um... is that a wedding dress?"

"Long story short, I picked up some magic flowers," you explain.

"Oh, so you didn't run off and...  nevermind.  I see we have some new faces?" Rain asks.

"Are you planning to introduce us?" Holland asks.  You were so excited to see Rain again, you didn't notice him riding behind her.

"Right, sorry.  Rain, Holland, this is Sherry and Zephyr."  You guide the two in front of you as the wyverns make their landing.  Sherry gives a polite wave while Zephyr grins.  "Sherry's from Tartan's guard, and Zephyr here... well, you can see he's a taguel.  It's a bit of a long story."

"Pleased to meet you!" Rain says with a smile.  "I'm Rain, Holy Knight captain.  This is Holland, my husband, and over there is Master Praven of Terranus."

Praven waves her off.  "No need for such formalities on the battlefield."

Harrow springs off Dan's pegasus.  "I believe you met Harrow briefly," Rain begins.  If you hadn't pulled him in front of you, you may have missed Zephyr's ears twitching and his slight backstep.  He's so focused on Harrow, he doesn't notice Fumiko dismounting until Rain introduces her.  "And this is Fumiko."

Zephyr snaps his head towards Fumiko, then lets out a small squeal, jumping behind Sherry.  "T-there's more of you...!?" he asks, clearly panicked.

Fumiko stops mid-stride, confused.  "Ah...?  Oh!  Taguel?"  Zephyr nods slightly.  "I haven't seen one of your kind in ages!  Don't worry, deary, I don't much care for rabbit meat."

"Rabbit meat...?" you hear Harrow mutter.  Her tail wags slightly.

Rain clears her throat loudly.  "Yes, well, no one's going to eat anyone, I assure you.  Let's get back to the task at hand."

Sherry laughs a bit as she frees herself from Zephyr's grip.  "They're going to eat me..." you hear Zephyr muttering under his breath.  You step around the pair to Rain's side.

"Right.  How much do you know about the situation?" you ask.

"Paen filled us in as best he could.  Doran's made a few changes to your plan.  The fog's starting to lift, and he doesn't want to risk losing the element of surprise."  You glance over at the enemy camp.  The light-grey smears have become darker grey blobs - you hadn't noticed, but the fog does seem to be getting thinner.  "We could keep ferrying people over, but he's worried that might take too much time.  Every trip's going to increase the odds we're discovered," Rain explains.

"So, he wants to attack from both sides?" you venture.

Holland picks up where Rain left off.  "Basically.  He's got a surprise ready that should get the enemy's attention - that's our cue to attack.  When we hit them in the side, they'll start crossing the bridge.  If everything goes according to plan, they'll be reinforcing us just as the enemy's recovering from our charge, and we'll hit them from both sides."

"I see...  It's a bit risky.  The bridge has some barricades and booby-traps," you answer, hesitantly.

"That surprise I told you about?  Doran plans to set the bridge... well, on fire, more or less.  That should clear it up a bit," Rain answers, smiling mischievously.

"On fire?" you ask, surprised.

"On fire," Rain states matter-of-factly.  "Doran's going to wait a few minutes, in case you object to the plan - plenty of time for me to get back and stop him.  Otherwise, everything is ready to go."

(A) Agree with the plan
(B) Agree, but bring in one more load of people (choose 4)
(C) Continue ferrying the whole group over (I'll pick people at random so we aren't here all day)
(D) Custom plan

The oil only covered a part of the bridge.  Enough to split your team in half and do a lot of damage if you'd charged blindly over it - and don't worry about structural damage.  The middle third of the bridge is clear.  The first third still has a few barricades, and a disarmed tripwire.  The far third has some more barricades, but hasn't been closely investigated.

Then A.

And doran saves everyone's asses with his plan. Thank god for Anna. A please.

A.

He would probably chase us down of we picked B, so A

C

A

"Go!  I've got him!"

Zephyr, Fumiko, Alyssa, and Harrow race past you.  The enemy commander starts to bring his horse around to follow them, but stops short as your hatchet clangs off his helmet.  The blow doesn't penetrate the armor, but it still forces him to turn back and face you.  Your hatchet reappears in your hand.  His armor's tough, you think to yourself.  You decide it's time to stop saving your trump card.  Wordlessly, you let your hatchet fall from your hand.  Instead, you reach for the handle of the massive battleaxe slung across your back.  As you touch it, you feel a wave of heat surge from your hand through your entire body.

The mountain knight doesn't wait for you to finish.  His horse rears, and he points his sword to the sky.  With a flourish, he swings it around.  "HA!"  In one motion, his horse lunges past you and his blade finds your side.  The force of the blow sends you to one knee.

You look down, expecting to find a mortal wound.  Instead, you find the slash hasn't even pierced your dress, and you aren't bleeding - it only knocked the wind out of you.  Looking up, you allow yourself a quick glance at the battlefield before you turn to face the commander.

A few of the snipers forced their way through the wall of marshals and onto the bridge, preferring to face your charging reinforcements than your laguz.  Fumiko is locked in a duel with one of the sages, the pair trading fireballs.  Harrow sidesteps one sniper's arrow while sinking her fangs into another sniper's arm.  Zephyr kicks off one archer, launching himself at another.  You can't find Alyssa until one of the sages falls over, dead.  Rain, Dan, Claudia, and Wendy are swooping in to join the fight and you can see Doran's team approaching the halfway point on the bridge.  As you turn to face the commander, Sherry, Jessup, and Charon pass by on their way to the melee.

The commander is visibly shocked to see you standing.  He stares at your side, where you both expected to find a large wound.  Not giving him time to recover, you finish pulling the axe from your back.  Holding Armads in both hands, the heat intensifies.  It's heavier than any axe you've ever held, but you hold it with ease.  You realize, despite the blow you just took, you're smiling.  You take a step forward, hesitantly, and then another.  Then you break into a run, swinging Armads over your head.  The commander tries to dodge, leaning to the side as you swing.  Your blow barely strikes his upper arm, but it bites clean through his armor.  He yells in pain barely managing to keep in the saddle.  He swings his sword in a counterattack, but you let your momentum carry you clear.  You lash out again, grazing his armor and leaving a large scratch along the leg.  He chops, and you catch his sword with Armads, shoving against his blow.

As he turns around to face you again, you swing around with a fierce horizontal cut.  It catches him in the chest, knocking him backwards from his mount.  The horse takes off running.  You ignore it, expecting the commander to pick himself up.  Instead, blood begins spilling from a massive gash in his armor.  He coughs, weakly raises a hand, then it falls limp.  You wait a second, in case he starts moving again.  When he stays still, you return Armads to its sling, grab your hatchet, and rejoin the fight.

The few archers that didn't escape are all but gone, their longbows serving poorly in close combat.  The sages had driven your laguz back with their fire magic, until Harrow resumed human form to start healing.  With the arrival of the rest of your team, the tide had shifted firmly in your favor.  Now, Fumiko, Jessup, and Rain barrage the marshals with their magic while the rest of your team harries them.  The marshals can't break formation to counterattack for fear of losing their last few archers, so they settle for a few poorly-placed spear throws.  One almost his Sherry, but Zephyr, true to his word, is there to yank her out of the way.  By the time you rejoin the fight, you find more use pulling out your heal staff and working on Harrow's wounds.  You know it's not as clean a job as others could have done, but it stops the bleeding.

A pair of marshals fall as the front-runners of Doran's team are getting close.  The snipers continue firing as fast as they can.  Their shots earlier had been wild as they fired into the mist.  Now that your allies are close enough to be visible, with just the last fourth of the bridge to go, the arrows start landing much closer.  Ferris is on point, weaving between shots.  Walt simply raises his shield every time one comes close.  Bud tries to make his large frame as small as possible, running half-ducked.  You see Mary duck one arrow, while a ghostly woman running next to her swats another from the sky with an axe...  Charlotte?  No, that's impossible...

Fumiko yelps in pain, and you force yourself not to think about it.  A javelin is stuck in Fumiko's thigh, and you help Jessup pull it free.  Instead of tending it, he waves his staff in the air.  A familiar rescue rune appears as Praven pulls her from the front line.  Jessup redoubles his attack, as if to make up for her absence.

You hear a loud splash in the river below, and you look over to the bridge.  Mary dangles helplessly, halfway through a large hole in the bridge.  Before anyone can react, the ground gives way below Charlotte's ghostly look-alike, though she manages to leap clear, though loses her balances.  The enemy archers split their aim between the two targets.  The ghost-woman is able to sidestep in time, but Mary is still focused on pulling herself up, leaving her top half completely exposed.  Walt leaps in the way, bringing his shield up.  Two arrows embed themselves in the shield - one looks like it may have hit his arm, but you aren't sure - while the rest bounce off harmlessly.  Walt holds his position, deflecting another wave of arrows until Mary manages to lift herself.

"Pitfalls!" Bud calls back.  "Watch out!"  The next few people charging the bridge slow considerably.

Another marshal falls.  The five survivors struggle to block the entirety of the bridge, with large gaps between them.  The ten surviving snipers focus their fire on Doran's team, taking advantage of their slower pace.

(A) Rush the snipers, shove past the marshals
(B) Focus on the marshals first
(C) Send your fliers after the snipers, let your ground troops handle the marshals