I hoped to hear good news from Bloodimina in a couple of weeks. I *expected* to hear good news from Bloodimina in a month.
I got neither. It was bad news all the way around, and they came both after two weeks, and after four.
Although the initial defeat of their armies broke the spirit of Vardish soldiers along with their backs, those who survived kept stubbornly resisting Gresch's and Bloodimina's advancement.
Worse, they adapted to our tactics. The Vardish soldiers began wearing helmets (often hastily self-made ones) that had visors to protect their eyes from fire and stingers. They also now often carried around hand grenades. They were primitive things, just clay shells filled with gunpowder—but if one exploded in a swarm of bees, it could kill them all at once.
