Nediar 4

Nediar: The scouts return with a few frightened souls, who have tales of woe, their villages burnt and their people captured. What little they had in the way of supplies they brought, and some few who could hunt did so to feed your growing army. As Dikephoros learned combat every night, her body was not getting much rest, and her exhaustion and the ill temper that resulted from it began to concern her followers. The results of her dreaming could not be argued however, as she very quickly out-stripped even the few seasoned warriors in the army. The results were compelling, she seemed to have a prescient ability to foresee attacks and parries, and an almost supernatural grace and speed in avoiding them. She began to teach her followers (those who chose the sword) the battle-meditation that she learnt at Nediars' knee, and as they improved, they too began to see the tiny twitches of muscle groups that gave away an opponents' moves well before the swing or stab actually occurred. With every training session, in keeping with your directives, they spill a few drops of their own blood whenever they draw their blade, and most are now capable enough to spar with 'live' weapons. [training weapons are blunted, live weapons are not]

Some of the women took the leather and bronze that had been salvaged from looted villages, and began to make simple tunics, using awls to punch holes in the bronze disks and attaching them as scales to the leather to form rudimentary armour. Others who preferred peacefully following the way of their god foraged for any roots or edible matter for the cook-pots. Occasionally they would come across domesticated cattle, or donkeys, and sometimes mules, who had escaped the invaders, and these were captured and put to carrying the burdens of a travelling city.

By now their march had led them past Smyrna, a port city that had somehow escaped the same fate as doomed Sardis, and around the mountain of Sipylus, to the banks of the Hermos river. The trail ended here, and Dikephoros sent scouts across the ford to try to pick up the trail again. When they returned, it was with bad news. It appeared that the army that had ravaged Sardis had used the river to continue their travel, and the scouts had not had the time or supplies to extend themselves too far in seeking their prey. With a howl of rage, Dikephoros called on her god to report her failure. She calmed herself enough to order another group of scouts to be well supplied for their journey, and sent them off to find where the raiders had gone. It would have taken as many as 3 ships of men to subdue the small city they had destroyed, and while it appeared that they had come from the East, they had obviously had help from somewhere on the Aegean sea to have escaped so quickly and thoroughly.

Followers: 280

New Miracles: Same as before, your followers are also now learning the state of battle meditation which allows them to slow their perception down to a crawl and react with much greater speed to threats. Your prophet is growing irritable and short of sleep from her intense training every night, and is close to collapse from exhaustion. The righteous anger of your converts has given you the ability to appear before them regardless of whether their blade is blooded.