Ah. There's the trap. Abramo thought this was somewhat too easy. And yes, he's aware of the irony of saying so when they've used up all their potions, most of their channels, and many of their spells.

Staunton is not particularly enjoying his vengeance.

Regill is not given to vulgarities, but will observe that it is suboptimal to be unskilled.

Or "sucks to suck"?

That would appear to be the idiomatic mongrel rendition of the substance of Regill's remark, yes. 

Staunton was redeemed once; he can be redeemed again. And wasn't Regill the one who suggested that the crusaders weren't really using every means to win? Well then, how about making powerful fighters switch sides, is that a weapon we might make use of?

Regill was not commenting on his suitability for redemption, only on the apparent mismatch between his actions and his judgement of their consequences. If Staunton did not want vengeance on the crusaders, why defect? He should improve his predictions of what outcomes he will endorse in retrospect. Or as a mongrel might say, 'git gud'.

This is reminding Staunton of why he hates crusaders. And demons and Minagho and himself and Pharasma. Kill them all and let him be done.

"Of course, sweetie! Anything for you!"

Minagho waves a hand languidly at her latest minion, the ghoul-demon Nulkineth. Minagho is not going anywhere near that mythic power if she can possibly avoid it.

Mass Hold Person is always a fun start to a battle!

A tactic that relies on having suboptimal opponents who fail important saving throws. Regill hasn't been so unprofessional since he was a first-level Armiger. On the other hand, how does Nulkineth feel about this rather excellent +2 axiomatic gnome hooked hammer we found on the ghoul cleric outside?

Pretty much okay, actually! That's what DR 10/Good or Cold Iron is for!

Regill, being a Hellknight, can use the truth to mislead. Seelah is a paladin, and feels obliged to point out that the whole truth is that that hammer has also had Holy Weapon cast on it. That's in addition to Regill's Smite Chaos and Aura of the Godclaw.

It hurts and stings!

You don't say.

Hasted Prayered Unrelenting Full-Attack Smite Evil.

Mythic level-up all around!

Improved Abundant Casting isn't quite as much a no-brainer as Abundant Casting was, because the highest circle we've got access to is 4th; so with some difficulty:

Abramo: Mythic Potion Brewing (potions are hard to come by outside of Kenabres)
Lann: Mythic Deadly Aim (every bit of extra damage-dealing helps)
Seelah: Perfect Cavalry (yay charging through trashmobs to get the casters!)
Nenio: Improved Abundant Casting (still a no-brainer for a wizard)
Sosiel: Boundless Healing
Regill: Mythic Weapon Focus (Gnome Hooked Hammer)
Daeran: Boundless Healing
Ember: Witch Wandering Hex
Camellia: Second Spirit (Nature) (seems cool, comes with beast shape)

Woljif is among the missing-in-action after the night raid - one among many, and that matters for morale and the army's strength; but the only one Abramo knows by name and face and cynical sense of humour, which matters to Abramo even if it shouldn't. He is not quite sure whether to hope it is still "knows" rather than "knew". He has two reports of Woljif running away, and presumably deserting. He also has a strong sense of how much these people distrust tieflings, how much they're willing to interpret their actions in the worst light. After all, many people "ran" on the night of the raid, himself included; ran for cover, ran to find a weapon, ran to break contact and regroup and regain the initiative. Being seen running is not, in itself, particularly strong evidence of - anything. Failing to reappear in the morning is - rather worse; but not decisive. Perhaps he was captured, and was less lucky than the other companions about the escape. Perhaps he ran into a demon he couldn't handle by himself - perhaps parts of him are contributing to the stench that forces them to move the camp, even in this winter weather - perhaps some undisciplined demon took him somewhere other than the Lost Chapel and is even now eating his liver. Perhaps, perhaps. Why are the crusaders so quick to rush to judgement? Abramo's remains suspended. If Woljif shows up again, he'll get a chance to tell his side of it, and it may be perfectly reasonable. And if he doesn't turn up - well, he's hardly the only one.

That said, Abramo has, actually, been remiss. If Woljif did desert, he did so in defiance of an extremely informal agreement: Release from prison in exchange for enlistment - and not even in the crusade, which wasn't declared at the time, but in something on the order of "the armed retinue of Abramo Aiello, gentleman without visible means of support". It just happened that every warm body in Kenabres who could hold a spear was perforce conscripted into the fight, from the noblemen's retinues down to the street-thief gangs; and then Abramo's personal gang were smoothly folded into the staff of the Knight-Commander of the Fifth Crusade - and none of this is in any sense a contract or a code of military law, from which one could read off whether Woljif was in breach and liable to penalties. Abramo didn't even specify a fixed period of service in exchange for that release, and this only a few pages days after he'd explicitly thought "it's not good to sign contracts with open-ended obligations"! Arguably Woljif was only bound for the duration of the emergency in Kenabres, and has been marching through the Worldwound since then out of sheer personal loyalty to Abramo.

...and, of course, none of that will hold so much as a drop of water with the army, if Woljif should turn up again without a good story, and Abramo takes him back into the staff. They will see the Commander's friend given special consideration, favors handed out, corruption of the ordinary un-Abyssal sort that kills armies much more insidiously than what happened to Lann's people. And they might well be right.

He can't repair that mistake as to Woljif; but he can avoid making it going forward. He'll have a code of military law drawn up for the Fifth Crusade, with fixed terms of enlistment - he can hardly make it "for the duration" in a war that has already lasted a century! - and well-defined elements of the crimes desertion, cowardice in the face of the enemy, treason, conduct unbecoming a crusader... he had better not try to write this from memory. Besides, what worked for the Milice di Venezia in the context of a global war of steel-and-petroleum industrial Great Powers who had centuries of diplomatic history, is not necessarily suitable for a horses-and-swords crusade against literal demons with mind-control powers and no evident ability to even understand what keeping their word means. He will take a look at the local military codes.

The Order of the Godclaw has one! So do the other Hellknight orders, if he wants some differing emphases to compare and contrast.

That looks very suitable for a military order which can get arbitrary numbers of expendable gallows-bait to join, and cares very little about the percentage of them that survive to become formidable knights as long as a few do. Abramo, however, has limited numbers of both volunteers and healers, and cannot well flog to the point of infection risk for trivial infractions. 

Mendev also has a code of military justice!

Yes, and it appears to assume that every soldier is a member of the fighting-tail of some officer with a specific vassal-relationship with the monarch, and that officers, being nobles, are effectively undisciplinable except by being sent home to their estates. With their troops, presumably. It won't do. 

Lastwall, then?

Mmf. It does assume conscription, which Abramo both despises and, more practically, cannot currently enforce. And it seems to take Iomedae as commander-in-chief, which Abramo cannot well rely on...

...wait Iomedae was once mortal?

Well, yes? Iomedae is pretty sure she did make that clear in the Acts.