More than Nothing: Crusaders

[Part of the Party Time journal]

Ughhh's direct approach to the rescue attempt leads to a brief melee which involves Jerghon G pole vaulting over Walram's guards to hold the Lord at sword point, but the skirmish is interupted by the arrival of of a massive army of crusaders led by Yuno Imzoro and his nephew, the famously best swordsman in Aeternia who wields the magical coin-sword - Ino Imzoro.

By decree of the new Papa Smorfonof (aka Papa Smurf) all Aeternians from the lowest slaves to highest lords must join the holy crusade against the worm worshipers of El Kanadar to the East. Lord Teck tries to talk his way out of it and by doing so is found guilty of heresy and put to the stake (he is impaled upon it and set alight). No one else questions the order after that and our teenage heroes and their friends join as camp followers, doing menial tasks of cooking and cleaning while also receiving basic training as the massive host easily makes ground into heretic lands.

Only upon reaching the natural bottleneck between Aeternia and El Kanadar, the foolishly abandoned stone ruins of Skydagger fortress in a narrow mountain pass, do they receive their crusader mantle and are sent to into missions, the first being an easy one where Ughhh critically succeeds in convincing a village converted into a field hospital to basically convert religion and aid them.

Their next task is liberating the mining town of Karel where Jerghon G and Raah-Min sneak upon the fortress past inattentive guards and jam their gate, letting the others easily free the enslaved miners in the work site outside and with bolstered numbers the fortress soldiers surrender on the spot.

Finally they reach El Kanadar's Capital of Rakash where they are hand picked by Yuno Imzoro to join him in a heroic charge - just the five of them against the full enemy line - to prove the might of Numero Uno. It doesn't go well as their horses are brought low by enemy archers mere meters away from the enemy infantry and leaving them very far from support. Yuno is hurt severely but Ughhh goes out of his way to defend the man while Moomba takes out the enemy worm caster leader. 

They manage to hold until Ino brings up the infantry who then win the day with heavy losses, a result he squarely blames the party on. As such he stations them and a small squad at the seemingly insignificant hamlet with of Hazelbrook while he continues  the crusade to the East, but that location will soon prove to be more than nothing. 

[Inspiration from Darklands and  Lost Eidolons]