“The force that arrives on the battlefield first has the advantage, as they get more time to learn and where possible, abuse the terrain to their advantage. As such, striving to reach a battlefield ahead of the enemy is a worthwhile endeavor.” - Liang Shi-Zu, famed strategist from the Huan Confederation.

“While this has been a hard ride, captain, I am most impressed by your company’s haste,” admitted councilor Bernd Adenauer, former Viscount of Aldenburg when they saw the lights of Aldenstadt in the evening of the third day since their departure from Levain. The Free Lances had pushed hard to reach the former Viscounty capital city in three days of travel, and had delivered on their promise.

The former noble had looked in some wonderment how the mercenaries went about their days in their wagons, some at times taking naps despite the rough jostling of the uneven road. They slept only a few hours every night, stopping late in the night to rest and continuing the journey once more at the crack of dawn itself.

Aldenstadt was a city located at the top of a small hill, with only two roads leading to it, one from the west and one from the east side. The convoy of wagons naturally took the western road up towards the city, the councilor leading the way as it was his hometown after all. As they approached the city proper, they saw that a small group of people had gathered to welcome their arrival.

“My Liege,” said a middle-aged half-orcish woman in armor with a bow as Bernd Adenauer rode into town. The way the woman looked paired together with her unusually broad build reminded Reinhardt immediately of Grünhildr, and sure enough, shortly after the councilor returned the greeting in a friendly manner and rode off, Grünhildr leapt off the wagon she was on and embraced the woman warmly.

“My little Grün, you’re back at last!” exclaimed the woman with obvious joy even as she returned the embrace with one that looked like it could break bones if applied to a less sturdy person. Not that Grünhildr’s embrace was a soft one either, to be fair. The pair of mother and daughter took some time to themselves to celebrate the reunion after a long absence, before later on Grünhildr led her mother to the city hall where Reinhardt held a meeting with the councilor and some of the locals.

“Captain, may I present madam Daleeni Sigvaldi, head of my home guard,” said Bernd Adenauer as Grünhildr and her mother walked in. The pair exchanged a nod before they left for their respective seats. Grünhildr needed to be present as Reinhardt had every platoon leader he brought present as well, while her mother was there as representative of the locals.

“Nice to meet you, madam,” said Reinhardt politely with a nod to the middle-aged woman, who returned his nod approvingly. One glance at the older woman’s musculature was enough to tell that she had not become the head of the guards through improper means. “Hannah just returned a while ago with a report that the enemies are still around two days away. That gives us options.”

“We are not as familiar with the local terrain as much as you people are, so I would like to ask you if there are any places of notable military value we should keep note of in the vicinity? As far as our intelligence indicated, the enemy seemed to be around five thousand strong, and headed straight towards Aldenstadt. They tried to pillage the villages on their way but most of the villagers had evacuated safely thanks to our early warning, thankfully.”

“We’re talking a full invasion force, right?” asked Daleeni with a thoughtful expression. “Aldenstadt’s never been really geared for full-fledged war. The walls around our place’s just there to keep vermin out at best, and while I’d pit my boys and girls against most, I don’t think they can carry the day against five times as many,” noted the woman. “We got maybe two thousand, give or take a few hundred, that we can muster out of the populace I’d say, but their skills would be suspect.”

“We were informed of that by councilor Adenauer along the way,” said Reinhardt with a nod as he matched the information together. “We plan to attempt to minimize the impact of the fighting to the city itself, but in the worst case, I would like to ask the citizens to evacuate the areas near the eastern road, as that’s where we will likely have to engage the enemies.”

“I’ll have some of mine arrange for that, sure,” nodded the half-orcish woman firmly. Since their enemies were invading from the east it was a given that the eastern side of the city was the area most likely to be attacked first. “So what’s the plan? Do we just hunker down until reinforcements come from Levain? This place isn’t that well suited for that, I think.”

“We’d only have to wait a day or two for those reinforcements, but I concur. This town isn’t the most suitable for prolonged defense, other than its physical location. Still, that gives us some options…” noted Reinhardt. “Are there any areas to the east of the city where up to a hundred or so people could hide unnoticed?”

“The woods on the sides of the road are thick enough for that, I’d wager,” replied the woman with a nod. “It just happens that we haven’t done the yearly trimming to keep the road clear yet, so there ought to be room to hide over there…” she added while she thought some more. “Other than that… there’s the old iron mines, they’re around half a day east of town, and the tunnel complex has many entrances, spanning a good area.”

“That’s something to start with. Can you point out the locations of the mine entrances here on this map?” Reinhardt asked as he unfurled a large map of Aldenstadt and its vicinity. “I do believe I might have some ideas that would let us do quite a bit more than just defend and wait for the enemies to come to our doorsteps…”