("I've got three drops!" calls Grec.)

"If I haven't what?" says Commander Artigas.

She supposes the incredulity is rather reasonable, all things considered, but... "It might work, I can explain why I think so but it would take time, people are dying and I'm out of song, I can't do more than hold a wound closed -" she's trying to keep the emotion from leaking too much into her voice, she knows it makes Chelish people uncomfortable, but it's hard.

Lady of Chrysanthemums, please - this man has done Evil and has spent much of his life in the service of Hell, but holding the Worldwound has been the work of his life, regardless of how he got here. You have always taught us that nobody is beyond redemption, that it is worth reaching out - please, help Iomedae see him, hear him,

Okay fine he feels stupid but that doesn't fucking matter.

The bard thinks he can reach Iomedae and she's right that it's hardly time to explain how in the world she came by that idea. This is not literally metaphysically impossible. He's probably Evil but you can, you are allowed by the laws of Creation, to switch in an instant, if it's the right instant. Going from Good to Evil is simpler but not necessarily faster than the reverse, and he doesn't in fact need to go that far, just to be on the right side of the board, the side with fucking healing, he won't have Stabilize and they'll still lose at least a hundred men here today but even with his two channels a day they can hold it down to that.

He's got a knife on his belt. If it doesn't work he can swipe somebody's sword but he thinks the question here is not about the quality of his sharp object. He unsheathes it and -

Well, how did he do this last time. I will serve.

This does not work instantly but he can go on feeling stupid for a moment longer in case there is a configuration that does. Perhaps Iomedae has higher standards than desperate underslept supplication. Or this just won't work because he's fucking Evil, but -

Asmodeus lost, lost something even if He's not outright dead, and Blai has not been turned white from black and placed on the board on the other side, but he could be, he's standing ready. He has nothing tethering him to the service of Hell any more. He is not attached to lying or whoring or torturing and he has no personal ambition and no pride and no contract granting any devil title to his soul but he is pretty committed to the Wound and She does that too and he can stand on Her side and he will serve -

"IF YOU'RE UP, GRAB SOMEONE DOWNED BUT BREATHING AND GET IN RADIUS," he shouts. Let them think the bard has another song, it's quicker than explaining. He starts dragging fallen men into closer proximity.

THANK YOU SHELYN, THANK YOU IOMEDAE

She scrambles to her feet and starts trying to pull someone into range. She's too weak to move a body on her own, but she can help someone else,

Probably the bard got stronger. Grec drags a dying man by the ankles, joins the group converging on her.

When the radius is full a couple of moments later he climbs up on a dead demon's carapace so he can see everyone and holds his knife up and channels.

WHAT

- she knew Artigas wouldn't have had them drag people together for a channeling if he didn't have them, but there's a world of difference between knowing it and feeling the wave of healing energy close up the worst of her wounds and bring fifty men from the brink of death to their feet. 

...She catches the shock on as many as several faces - the theologically complexities will need navigating, of course - "Praise the Gods!" she shouts, because that's a pretty straightforwardly safe thing to say in this situation.

Actually from the look on everyone's faces that's not idiomatic in Chelish at all.

"I have one more! If you're up find someone breathing!"

Well, no, it wouldn't be, but it's better than Praise Iomedae and - not important right now.

Venn runs to look for survivors, she's no good at carrying them but she can check quickly and call them out to others as she keeps moving, and it's important to be visibly helping.

Txell can't drag a person by herself either but she can split one with Venn, if they call for a porter on a guy and nobody shows up promptly enough.

Sure, she'll carry this guy with Txell.

He's still heavy and she's still bleeding - she grunts in pain at her wounds, but doesn't stop. 

(Howwww does Txell seem to be holding together? The last few minutes have been, uh, a lot.)

Grim-faced but doing her job, which at the moment consists of getting this downed swordsman into the channel radius.

Part of being good at talking to people is knowing when to not to talk - this is one of those times.

When they get the man into range, they set him down gently, and go to grab another.

And presently they are healed.

She breathes a sigh of relief at the number of men who get back on their feet. (It's - still a horrible tragedy, of course, but it could have been so much worse...) 

Select Artigas allocates the three drops of devil's blood that Grec has.

Everybody starts dragging themselves inside. The bodies are going to have to wait a little bit.

Venn sings a soft song about victory in the face of defeat, about holding the line for another day, about bravery and grief and loss. It's not one she's sung at Fort #11, before.

"I thought you were going to pull out another round of healing," Txell says as they head in.

She nods. "That certainly would have been less surprising, though... a lot less effective, too. My healing just isn't that much, next to a channel." She glances down at the visible gaps in her chain shirt where her now-healed wounds were.

"It'd stabilize people. ...maybe not enough to get them all indoors and they'd freeze overnight, but maybe enough that the next fort could've used their Sending and not biffed it."