| Fight the Real Enemy! | |
| Escape? |
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Meanwhile, Rhune has managed to locate the tube and pocket it. She falls into the crowd alongside Silus, Teague, Sam, and Krige, followed by Matteo and Urak-gor, Ullar and Mareka. Kenishiro is at this point pulling Guiseppi along, having some difficulty despite the massive size difference. The old man is cagey. Asif looks to his left and right, a sense of great dismay on his face at the sudden robotic mindless actions of the people around him. Finding some spark of common sense in the confusion, he struggles, but finds an adequate phrase in this cursed foreign tongue to question the stubborn old man refusing to get to his feet. Slapping him on the back he yells in italian. "Efendi, what by the prophet is going on here? Why all these people come, then leave so quick? Why flea bitten scavenger of the desert, invited to speak in the company of men, then be killed? Scavengers should not allowed to cross doorway if so unwelcome" Kenishiro listened to Asif, concentrating on the words. He didn't catch too much of it, though. He did, however, catch the questioning tone of voice and looked from Asif to Guiseppe to the door. Slowly a feeling crept into his head, a feeling not often felt, yet offensively familiar. Fear. He looked at the weapon-wielding men, the fried elf and the old man. A fight was bound to break out. He tapped Asif on the shoulder. "Domo.... I think fight.. soon. We... purotectu," The word came out twisted " hibasan, hai?" He pointed at Guiseppi and then to the armed men, looking at Asif, hoping he'd understand. Asif looks to Kenishiro, and nods slowly in a quiet voice he says with passion. "The most wise prophet Imran Khan says if fate throws a knive at you, there are two ways of catching it by the blade or by the handle. Of like minds are we, it seems. May the great Aten and his Djinn grant us his protection in the coming hours" Asif looks around the room, his hands twitching to reach for the twin sciminatars on his back. The two linguistically challenged foreigners begin pulling the old man with them toward the door, protective glances toward the situation erupting there. Suddenly, they hear a voice "No need to fight, fools! You'll just have the Cross laid upon you again and this time my spell won't protect you." Seeing the stupefied expression of all three, he insists "Are any looking backward? You are here alone. I can get you out, since because of my spell you are now in rather great danger. Leave the others. The big-nosed fellow is done for, and the others will soon join him. Come with me and live or stay and die!" Kenishiro turned around to look at the origins of the voice. He understood a bit of the last part of the sentence. And since fighting to death was something that had been carefully pounded out of his system since the he had started his training, he decided to live. Motioning Guiseppe and Asif to come with him, he walked towards the other end of the room where the voice came from. Asif notices Kenishiro's gesture and the mystery voice behind him. With little other option left open to him he turns and follows the two strangers in the direction of the voice, his senses on full alert. "When all is dark, look to the light of ATEN and all shall be given, strength in there darkest hour. Our fate beckons in that direction, Efendi!" Kenishiro, not getting any of the man's sentence but trying to catch the emotion rather than the meaning, smiled. "Hai, Kuroi-san." With that, he walked on. The old man whose spell protected you all appears in front of you by magic. "It appears there is some sort of magical force field around this building. I attempted to magic my way out and was deflected. However, there is another way. My charm protection spell is still active, and if you three stand near me, I can turn us all invisible and we can walk out of here with noone the wiser. What say you? Time is short." Seeing that all three have some sort of problem hearing or understanding him, he sighs exasperatedly, "Come close!" When the three comply, he waves his hands a bit and speaks some babble. Suddenly, all four become invisible. The unseen voice begins, "Now slowly walk toward the door. Link your hands so that you do not leave the area of the spell." Then, after a bit of delay, "Grab hands! Walk!" Then the man positions Kenishiro and Asif to either front flank, with Guiseppi behind. He will link their hands together himself if they fail to understand, then push Kenishiro from behind in the direction of the exit. The communication handicapped, clumsy mob moves forward slowly, waiting until all the others have moved through the doors. Outside.... Silus steps forward, spouting his priestly hooha. However, this serves the opposite effect, as it seems to draw the attention of the functionary, who clutches his chest and stares directly at Silus' eyes. "Fascinating." He casually raises his other hand and those of you in the front (Silus, Teague, Rhune, and Sam) see that the Swiss pikemen have taken up positions directly on either side of the doors, two on either side. They jab casually at Silus as one of the black-cloaked men approaches. You notice that his expression is not the same as the others, nor is that of the functionary, though the Swiss pikemen and the African door wards seem to be enthralled. At least four of the Genoese crossbowmen are targeted at the front door. The door wards have casually lowered their scimitars in front of Teague and the others. There are also over a dozen of the black-cloaked men in the clearing, the only exit of which is on the other side. Rhune sucks her breath in as the crossbowmen take their spots. She can see the many black robed men the courtyard. They would have to have the luck of Erevan to cross that space without getting killed. Though she can only hope that they don't detect anything wrong with Silus. She waits trying to be as alert as possible without appearing to be anything other than a bemused person. She likes Silus however, and will not see him taken away. Her right hand inches imperceptably toward her sword. Then a bright idea comes to her. She keeps her hand near her sword but if it looks like they are going to take Silus away, she will sway against the guards and utter in a tire voice, 'food. not eaten all day.' hopefully that will cause some confusion so that they will let them leave. If that fails then there is only one other alternative -- fight. She waits to see what happens first. Just maybe. .. . .. . When the purple robed guy raises his hand against Silus in the same way as he did with the Spaniard, Ullar starts a 'little' fight in the row. "Now don't you EVER step on my toes, you little one!" shouts the large warrior against the closest person near who was NOT sitting on our bench. Only two stragglers are back far enough for Ullar to do this with, one a great fat fellow in blue-grey robes and the other a scribe of some sort, apparently. Ullar picks on the scribe. "Don't you know who you are dealing with? What?! And insulting me too? Do you want to die or something" the warrior shouts with a grim look on his face, redirecting his left hand to the sword strapped on his back. The Africans withdraw their tulwars a bit and look inside, but appear confused as to what to do. The Swiss pikemen, who Ullar is too far back to see but the front group can, look even more confused. It does not appear that the enthrallment permits terribly much other brain activity unless focused. The functionary's look of interest at Silus fades into some dismay, and he looks up toward the skywalk. OOC: An important note is that Matteo, Urak-gor, Marika, and Ullar are just a bit behind the group of Silus, Rhune, Teague, Sam, and Krige, with the two mentioned NPCs in front of them. Matteo watches carefully from the back of the line now forming to get OUT of the building, his mind too occupied with worry to note the humor involved in the complete reversal from waiting to get IN to the building. He motions to Urak to slow and waited to see what happens with the black robed one and the functionary. "If trouble happens, brother, have you any way to stop the black robed man? I can take care of the other, and that Ullar looks like he shouldn't have too much trouble with the guards at the door. As long as we keep a crowd between us and the archers, we should make this." Matteo waits for Urak's response, taking a moment to study the reactions of the newly charmed crowd to the blocking of the doorway. Smiling blankly at his newfound friend, Urak casually switches his quarterstaff with his polished, intricately carved short bow. Nodding emptily, he carries the bow in his right hand, in much the same way one would carry a walking stick, leaning slightly on it for added verisimilitude. Marika shuffles to a stop along with the rest of the line. Her face shows only placid, bemused patience, but her knuckles whiten momentarily on her staff as she waits to see how Silus fares with the functionary. She slowly slips her left hand into a fold of her robe and then lowers it to her side again, fist closed around something. Then she tries to quiet her mind in preparation for her own exit interview, should those ahead of her be allowed to pass. She tries to center on the rhythm of her own breathing, but finds the focus strangely elusive...after a moment's confusion, she realizes that this is because she has been holding her breath since Silus was stopped. She resumes breathing and examines the faces of the two African guards barring the door. If their minds are free, then we can reason with them, she thinks, remembering that they share a language with the tall outlander named Asif...but from their expressions, she guesses that they too have fallen under the spell of that thrice-damned bishop. She doesn't dare to glance up at Ullar right now, but hopes he's ready to run. Ullar does not appear to be ready to run. Rather, he is busy causing a stir. Krige stopped and begun look on incident. "I will fight if they will hit first"-he decided. So If someone will attack anyone of our group, Krige takes his longbow and begins to shoot at attackers. If enemy gets closer he takes his longsword and begins hand to hand fighting. While the group is white-knucking in anticipation of battle, things begin. The black-cloaked man approaching Silus pulls a wicked knife from his belt and slashes at Silus, who narrowly dodges the blow, which catches just hint of his armor. Silus stops spouting his mumbo-jumbo immediately that the guard withdraws his dagger and tries to slash at him. The glazed expression and his obviously highly unsuccessful attempts to mimic the actions of those whom have been charmed is dropped in a flash as a look of total fear and horror washes over the cleric's face. Apparently a lover, not a fighter, he sees the fellow extended and runs past him, directly toward the other dozen black cloaked men. Meanwhile, two of the Genoese coolly aim their crossbows at Silus, one bolt thudding into the packed earth of the clearing some distance ahead of him and to the right, the other hitting him directly on the right foot, piercing it and stapling it to the dirt. As the crossbow bolt impacts into his right foot, Silus screams out with agony, and it is only the adrenalin that is pulsing through his system that stops him from falling as a result of the wound. Silus cries out in bitter pain, though fear for his life enables him to wrench foot and bolt both up and stumble toward the clearing exit and the waiting black robed men. The other two crossbowmen target Ullar, and both seem to be excellent marksmen. One bolt hits him in the right thigh, skating past, and the other hits him directly in the chest, smashing one of the larger rings in his armor into his ribs and taking his breath away. Neither is a grievious injury, though, and Ullar appears to have taken worse in his day. Marika slaps Ullar on the back and yells "Go!" Unfortunately, Ullar is slowed down somewhat when the bolt impacts his chest, and does not immediately respond to the urging. Some surprising things happen after that. The black-cloaked men in the clearing, faced with the unlikely threat of a stumbling Silus, look at each other in panic and run away! Fortune continues, as the Swiss pikemen, apparently having been told to pursue any who run, begin chasing after them! The whole lot quickly run past Silus and out of the clearing while the others gape in amazement. The man who attacked Silus appears quite unhappy with the whole state of affairs, his compatriots vanished, and orders the Africans to attack the nonbelievers, pointing at you all. The Africans stare blankly at him, apparently not recognizing his authority or not speaking his language, you are not sure which. The Genoese yell for reinforcements from the building across the skyway, and one clearly yells for the Bishop. Meanwhile, they quickly reload their crossbows. Silus looks around him and sees the other guards heading towards him and knows that he is moments away from death. Then, he sees, to his amazement, that his god must be watching over him as the guards suddenly turn and run in panic. Rhune draws her sword as the bolts go. She quickly runs past the Africans and the functionary toward Silus. The Africans continue to stare on in confusion. The functionary looks amazed that everything has gone in the dumper, and he looks vainly up toward the skywalk for help. Seeing his chance, Silus grabs Rhune by the arm and starts hobbling towards the doorway as fast as he possibly can. Rhune gets to Silus just as he grabs her arm. She heads with him out of the clearing. Four more of the Genoese crossbowmen aim out of the windows in the accompanying house, targetting the fleeing Silus and Rhune. One shot bounces off one of the stiff plates on Silus' shoulder without damage. The other pierces his right leg, with the head of the bolt protruding on the other side. This basically handicaps the priest, who falls to the ground in pain. Meanwhile, the aim of the crossbowmen proves deadly to Rhune as well, with one bolt slamming into her right shoulder and the other hitting her in her left buttock. The shock of both blows spins her around and she falls to the ground very near to Silus. While Silus wails in agony, Rhune appears to be unconscious. Teague watches carefully. {{Fine muddle this is.}} she grins to herself. Seeing that the best course of action seems to be to run, she does so. As she makes it out of the door, she waits for the rest to exit. Sam sticks close to her, though both are in a bad position regarding the crossbowmen on the skywalk, who have finished unloading. If Teague wishes to wait for everyone to exit, she now cannot see the gigantic foreigner, the colorfully dressed Arab, or the crusty old Italian. She does wait for the others of the group to move through, leaving them open to quarrels from above this round. When crossbowmens beguns to reload their crossbows, Krige decided to strike. As fast as he could Krige got off his longbow from the shoulder, then he took arrow from quiver. "Oh....Rest in peace..." - he whispered. Then he aimed at nearest crossbowmen's head and released the string... Krige's shot is online, but low, and it sails past the skywalk. He only has enough time for one shot as he drew the bow off his shoulder this round. Then he run after Silius and Rhune, slinging the longbow over his shoulder and taking the longsword out of scabbard. Heading past Teague and Sam, Krige runs toward the center of the clearing, where Silus and Rhune have fallen. The four crossbowmen see him as the preferred target as he shot at them, and all four turn their aim on him. One lands near his right leg in the packed earth, while a second impacts his leather armor and bounces off, leaving him sore but uninjured. The third skates along his leather and penetrates, slashing his ribcage and tearing a rent in the armor along the right side. The other slashes his ear, missing his head by inches. Though neither injury is serious, Krige is now bleeding from both and in some amount of pain. Urak-gor snaps completely out of his already disturbed meditative trance. Mournfully wondering if his journey is fated to end here in this marble chamber, he offers a quick, but heartfelt, prayer to the Five Protectors. Switching his bow to his right hand (in case this did not take place earlier), he snags an arrow from his quiver and quickly examines the scene. Offering a brief mental sneer for mechanincal bows with their long loading times, he growls softly at the people nearest him. Urak does not have time to loose an arrow and move forward, shouting commands, so he does the latter while gathering up his bow. He is unhappy to see that the crowd, however, seems to have lost it's incentive. With all the mayhem going on, the crowd simply continues to head for the exit of the clearing, ignoring those running past them, the bolts flying down, and everything. |
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This page was last updated on 20 January 2001 |