Fight the Real Enemy!
	Nine Go, and Two Stay

The water is fairly shallow, and the larger of you could wade out to about twenty yards. For the time of night, the water is also surprisingly warm. Two definite problems exist. Noone could make it to the boat with mettalic armor or even very heavy weapons, and Kenishiro surely won't have the strength to make the swim. Asif looks back and sees that one of the horsemen has now climbed the rocks to get a better view of his surroundings, and only the fact that the group is presently behind a small stand of trees is keeping them from being seen. If the group doesn't make it's move now, they will have to run across some twenty yards of clearing before reaching the denser trees north of the merc camp. Asif informs you that they would surely be seen doing so. Krige further comments that they must be an ignorant bunch to not have picked up on the obvious footprints the group left at the sight. If they begin down alongside the hill, they will certainly pick them up. Ullar curses. "F*CK!" he exclaims. Although the warrior can swim, it is his sense of honour that leaving his companions alone here is just not done so he starts to speak on a low tone: "Ok.. I see two options" he says. "A. We call out to the one on the boat to move a little more to the coast, for we can pay him dearly for a lift to the other side of the river." "Or B. We could try to run through the open here, and get north of the Merc-camp, but I think that's kinda dangerous." "I'll vote for A. Perhaps, if I tie my rope to this spear and throw it to/in the Galley, we can get it to the shore more easily, and we've something to hold on to, while wading (sp?) towards it." "Anyone with better ideas?" the warrior ends, with a concerned look upon his face..... Realizing he used up all his rope tying the gnomes that were subsequently barbequed, Ullar humbly speaks again, "Ehm.. sorry.. I used my rope for the Gnomes. Does anyone have a rope to use for this?" Krige speaks up "Don't worry. I have 45ft of silk rope." As Ullar suddenly remembers that he has no rope to use, Rhune quickly removes her backpack and kneeling down goest through it. She takes out a small bundle and hands it to him. What he takes from her is 50' of tightly coiled and bound silk rope. "There hopefully that should help some. I can also swim, I could probably help Sam but not the others. And if we have to pay we can. There was this dead guard that didn't seem to need his pouch anymore." She smiles up him as she touches a small pouch on her belt that Ullar could have sworn was not there earlier. "If you want I could also try swimming out there and talking to the captain if you want. Perhaps I can I could persuade him to come ashore. In fact why don't I do that now. The river is moving fast and even though the boat is moving kind of slow it will be gone soon." she looks around at the people and begins removing various items: her cloak (which would weigh her down), he boots, her brace of daggers, sword and sword belt, the waterskin and her own pouches. The pouch with the blue tube she hands to Marika, "This contains the blue tube. Hold it for me." all of these she puts into her cloak and makes it a tight bundler and then making sure that the pouch that contains the money is secure she starts to the shoreline. Before she is gone a few steps she stops and comes back kneeling down she quickly removes her pouch and take out all but the Italian gold coins and puts them in her small pouch. The Italian gold coins she keeps. Now making sure the pouch is secure she heads down to the shore line and wades into the warm water and then strikes out for the boat. The young Asif looks upon Rhune as she prepares for her swim to the boat. Inspired most likely by the dire situation, the following nearly clear sentence tumbles from his lips."By the light of great Aten, does great shame come to me. Never did I take to the holy waters of the Nile. For if I did, would I not now stand here totally useless as ignorant slave. . The debt I and the others who stand here now, shall not be forgotten efendi. Go now and may the strength of the goddess Hapi take you safely to the boat" Asif bows humbly before Rhune, his eyes flashing in the dim light. With a swift glance over his shoulder, Urak takes in the flowing waters and the injured party members and comes up with a hastily improvised plan. "Listen," he says softly but urgently, trying to get the attention of the other party members, "Among the Urk-ste-khalid-kor, sometimes we have to ferry injured people across the water. If the water is wide, or swift moving, this is what we do. "First, we need two segments of rope. One person who can swim goes all the way to the boat carrying one end, and ties it to the boat. The second person, again a swimmer, and preferably someone strong, has the other end of the first rope, and one end of the second. He goes as far out as possible, and braces himself. A third person waits on the shore with the second end of the second rope. It is important that there is enough slack in each of the ropes to account for the motion of the boat and the current, but not too much slack, or the rope will be worthless." "The party leaves their heavy gear behind, probably dumping it into the water, and makes their way using the rope as a guide across the water to the boat." "I am willing to go last, and, since I too can swim, I will try to keep Kenshiro afloat long enough to reach the second person, who can help me get Kenshiro onto the boat." "But we must act quickly! The horsemen will surely be upon us soon." "We could also dump our gear, and take our chances swimming out. If each swimmer can keep one non-swimmer afloat, then at least six people would make it, more if there are other swimmers among us, or if there is time for multiple trips..." Unfortunately, the group has already begun with Ullar's plan, and by the time that Urak-gor is done with his, it is already in progress. Rhune responds, shaking her head, "I for one can not leave my gear here. We may need it, especially the blue tube. I can take the rope and get to the boat and while you guys can try to hold onto the boat, though with the rowers I am not sure if that will help. Perhaps it will slow them down just a little further and help in getting the boat to shore, if the captain will take us aboard." she quickly ties the rope around her waist and heads off. Jacobus listens to the groups debating, watching the small ship continue down the river. "Listen, I suggest that we use the spear and rope idea. If you can embed the spear into the ships' hull I'll be happy to climb up using the rope and get the captain to move to the bank." Jacobus looks down at his body, "as you can all see, I don't have anything to leave behind." he adds conspiratorily "I've had a bit of experience in this type of thing. Leave it to me, I'll persuade the Captain to pull ashore." Jacobus grins, again his teeth are the only thing visible in the moonlight. "I'm sure one of you mighty warrior's could hit the mark ?" Jacobus begins to tie the rope around his waist. "I'd say I've had quite a day today" he mumbles to himself. "Religion, Religion, religion !! Who needs it ??" he suddenly remembers where he is, his eyes going wide "that wasn't a prompt for a religious debate my friend" he says looking at Matteo. As the group draws together, they hastily converse about what they need to do. Seeing the time running out where they will be able to do this without being noticed, Ullar calls for rope, which Rhune and Krige immediately pull forth and hand over. After speaking his piece, Urak also produces some. As Krige ties the rope together, Ullar quickly looks at the target. He realizes that there is no way he could strike the boat with the point at this range, but is prepared to test his range anyway. In order to cover your bases, Rhune dives into the water. She finds it warm and quite pleasant, also quite shallow. Figuring that even if Ullar misses the boat, she can grab the rope and swim it out to the boat, carrying on with Urak's plan, she quickly makes her way out. Urak also can swim, but he holds his ground, hoping to help Kenishiro cross the river. Ullar runs toward the river, several feet into the actual water, which is relatively shallow, and lets fly. His throw is truly impressive, arcing toward the cabin and then clattering onto it's roof. He pulls it back slowly, and it drops down below the bow. Somewhat discouraged, Ullar continues to pull it back, but finds that it has caught somewhere. It is impossible to see where, but as the slack is only about fifteen feet at this point, he realizes this is the best opportunity. He yanks hard on it, but it does not give. He quickly motions toward the others to grab ahold of the rope. The whole group realizes that you are not going to have time to begin moving across the river, as it is going to take long enough to simply grab the rope and tie Kenishiro on. Each of you that wishes to also has the option of tying on, but the further up you are, the less likely that you will be able to move forward if you do, as you will be dragging the weight of all those behind you as well. It's quite a humorous sight, as the rope is pulled forward and the party with it. As you see the clearing off to your right, you all realize that the only way to avoid detection is to jump into the river holding onto the rope and hope the current doesn't drag you away. Ullar, who is already missing his two-handed Bastard sword and his 50 ft rope, wonders if he should take of his ringmail while swimming to the galleon. Just to be sure, he removes his brown hooded cloak, stuffs it as fast as he can in the large sack he carries and dumps his ringmail to the ground. Next, he ties his backpack and the sack to each other with the straps attached to it, and swings this over his neck. Wading/swimming through the water he makes it to the galleon and climbs up. Seeing that this is not as easy as it seemed, he drops his sack and backpack on the boat and helps anyone in need climbing it. Marika shrugs her satchel off her shoulders, and hastily peels off the tattered remains of her outer cloak, which she tosses into the river. The contents of her satchel she dumps in the river as well, except for the oilskin box which some of her fellow travellers have already seen to contain books. "Rhune," she whispers, "want me to take the tube?" She opens the water-resistant box and offers to let Rhune stow the blue scroll tube in it. Whatever the elfmaid decides, Marika then closes the box as tightly as she can and replaces it in her satchel, which she slings securely over both shoulders. Rhune had taken off her leather armor, cloak and boots and brace of daggers and longsword, and her backpack. She had put all this in her cloak and tied it securely in a large bundle that could have a rope placed throught it which she will do with 3' of rope this she have someone loop onto the larger rope. After considering it she keeps the blue tube with her and her pouch of money and securely ties them to her pants belt before heading out to the boat. Due to the no less than six pouches that Urak carries on his belt, he is forced to leave his backpack, containing his spare clothing and rations, winter blankets, and whetstone. If he had only been pulling himself along, he might have been able to carry this, but supporting Kenishiro he can't hold that. On a positive note, he does not have time to unlash his armor and tie Kenishiro on at the same time, so he manages with the armor, which does not sink him. Asif briefly looks dispairingly at the remmanents of his once fine robes. Seeing little hope for their recovery and concerned at the need to jettison what he can before jumping in the water, he begins to disrobe. He first unbuckles his scimitar harness and then starts on the burnt and shredded robes beneath. He dumps the metal plates which protected the vulnerable parts of his torso, and the robe which once concealed them. He takes of his expensive riding boots and strings them together and puts them around his neck. He ties a scrap of his robe around the most damaged of his two scabbards and then rebuckles the scimitar harness upon now naked upper torso and with a quick prayer to Aten grabs the rope and lowers himself into the water. Asif is able to pull himself along, suitably attired for swimming but not much else. Sam is able to pull along all the items he carries, as he wears no armor of any type and is lightly equipped. Ullar, though carrying quite a bit of equipment, is able to make it along by only discarding his heavy ring mail. He is able to keep his buckler (B) and his backpack due to his swimming ability and great strength. Matteo, unable to swim, is forced to discard much of his inventory, losing his chainmail, his backpack, and even the larger pouches at his belt, leaving virtually all his common items behind. Krige, a strong swimmer who wears leather armor, only has to discard his shield to make the swim. Jacobus begins pulling himself quickly forward along the rope toward the boat. Figuring he will be able to talk his way aboard, he makes pretty decent progress, reaching the bow slightly before Rhune does swimming. Both hop onboard and see that the spear is very tenuously lodged between the bow and the cabin wall. As it stands, Kenishiro is tied onto the end with Urak treading water alongside him one hand grasping the rope, still in the shallow water, and the others are somewhere in between them and the boat. Noone from the boat has noticed the visitors yet. It appears that the group will be able to pace themselves across the rope, which has been drawn tight by the current of the river. Marika then wades into the current, hoping fervently that Neptune and Minerva have forgotten their ancient emnity over horses and olives... The priestess has never learned to swim, although she has forded a stream or two in her travels. When the water level is up to her chest, she grabs the rope and lets her feet lift away from the riverbed. The tug of the trawler stronger than she anticipated, and an instant later she resurfaces, choking and sputtering as she attempts to hold her head above the water. After a bit of experimentation, she realizes that she can turn the boat's forward motion to her advantages, planing with her shoulders to avoid sinking while she pulls herself forward along the rope, struggling also to keep the precious contents of her satchel above the water. The oilskin box is made to keep water out, but she doubts it can withstand total submersion. Seeing that this is their best opportunity, the group begins slowly making it's way up the rope. Seeing that none of you has the strength to pull themselves along with any of the others against the strong current, each of you struggles your way up the rope. Urak immediately sees that he will not be able to drag Kenishiro's bulk with him up the rope, but he hangs onto him and the end of the rope, waiting for the others to reach the bow and pull them upward. The others have some trouble but manage it. Once Ullar reaches the bow, he begins pulling upon the rope, and the others lend a hand, being as quiet as possible, while Jacobus makes his way to the prow to speak with whoever he can to arrange for transportation. Rhune, whose help would make very little difference in pulling the rope, accompanies him to provide a little grease for the palms, hoisting her recently acquired bag of coins. After what seems an eternity of inching forward, Marika realizes that the rope ahead of her is more vertical than horizontal, and looks up to see several of her companions beckoning from the trawler's deck. With the final dregs of strength in her burning arms and shoulders, she hauls herself out of the water and up the last few feet of rope. Strong arms grab hers and help her aboard -- she can't see whose, because her vision is swimming with black and red splotches now -- and she collapses half-conscious on the deck. As Ullar and the rest of the group tug on the rope, Urak is alarmed to see the knot on the third section of rope begin to unravel. As the other have already dragged themselves aboard, there is little they can do, other than begin pulling harder. With horror, still some ten feet from the knot, it totally unravels, and Kenishiro and Urak drop back into the water. Kenishiro does not even have the strength to move forward, and having now swimming skills, begins to dip down into the water. Urak hangs onto the rope and tries to pull Kenishiro forward, but the man's bulk combined with the pace of the river is too strong. He looks at the boat as it begins to pick up the pace, reaching a more open area of the river. Seeing his options fairly limited, he pulls hard on the rope toward the beach until he reaches the shallow area where Kenishiro is able to stand up. From where he is, he can hear the rising activity of the merc camp immediately to the south. At least some of the noise is growing louder, indicating they are getting closer. Urak realizes that he can do nothing by staying, but is torn by his loyalty to this large, quiet man. Looking at the boat and his comrades, he realizes he still has time to catch up to it with a strong swim, but that will only be the case for a brief moment before it pulls out into a deeper part of the water and moves away too fast to catch. Uttering a sound that is half ,moan, half growl, Urak rests both hands on Kenshiro's shoulders and bows his head for a moment. To abandon a comrade to the machinations of the Bishop's mindwalkers was an abomination. The silent man had the same cause the party did, perhaps even a people and a family that depended on his success. The good-natured way Kenshiro had struggled with the language and customs of the others reminded Urak vividly of his own situation. How could the young apprentice abandon such a man? But how could he not? He had sworn a duty to the People. Sworn in front of the elders and his father. If he could not help stop this darkness that was engulfing Italy, then he will have failed. If he walks away from his duty he will have failed. Failed the People in a way to horrendous to describe. "Forgive me, Kenshiro, but I must not abandon my duty," Urak growled softly, seeking absolution in the confused man's eyes, "Vrock-za-rit remember you to your ancestors, and may your descendant comfort your spirit with songs." Understanding little of European speech, the addition of Urkish phrases into it does not help. However, Kenishiro appears to understand something of the situation. He nods his head and turns toward the camp, appearing to ready himself for defense. You know that he certainly would not last long if he fought, but that appears his plan. Wrenching himself away, Urak dives into the swift waters, powerful arms stroking for the boat. Unable to help himself, he glances backwards, the image of a dazed Kenshiro standing in the shallow waters as the horsemen close in burned into his brain. What have I done? What does survival mean, if we abandon the way of the path? Though his mind screams at him to turn back, the voices of the Urkish elders drive him forward. "I will not abandon Vorka's pledge, nor will I abandon the path," the sure tones of Chieftan reminded him. "I believe in you," his father's steady voice prompted him. "I pronounce you fit to take your place among the People," Speaker's voice declared, daring the apprentice to contradict the silent tone of his mentor. "Go," the Headwife commanded, her relentless gaze piercing through the young Urk's spirit. "Go." Choking back a sob, the apprentice redoubled his efforts to reach the tenuous safety of the boat. Urak quickly passes out of sight of the shallow water Kenishiro stands unsteadily in. As he swims out into the river, he sees that his moment of doubt has put him too far behind the boat to catch it, as it has begun to up the pace of the oarsmen and even with his best effort, Urak is only able to draw within about fifty feet of the tail end, and begins losing ground as the boat speeds up. Ullar sees to his astonishment that the the knots in the rope unravel, leaving Urak and Kenishiro on shore. After a few moments of doubt, Ullar sees Urak abandon Kenishiro and sighs. He sits down, shaking his head in disbelief, eyes facing the deck of the ship. "Why, oh why are we forced in such circumstances?" he mumbles to himself. "If there is a God, it must be a cruel one, for Kenishiro did not deserve to die, nor did Silus or that strange old fellow.. Dax." The warrior closes his eyes and sighs deeply. Marika's not sure if minutes pass, or only seconds, before she regains her senses enough to remember that others are still in the water. There's not much she can do for them in her current state, but perhaps they need moral support, she thinks with a slight grin. The smile vanishes immediately when her eyes focus on the scene on the shore. The knots securing Kenishiro to the line have come loose, and Urak is struggling to keep the dazed giant from drowning. He succeeds, but there is no hope now for Kenishiro to reach the trawler, and Urak's own chances are fading by the second. The Urk hesitates, his inner agony palpable even from this distance, and then strikes out after the boat, swimming with all his strength to catch up. For a few frantic moments, there is no time to mourn, as the group works frantically to get a line to Urak and haul him aboard. Then he is aboard, and silence descends, all eyes on the dwindling figure of Kenishiro, standing confused and abandoned in the shallow water at the river's edge. However, Ullar tosses the rope down and it tails it's way to Urak, who grabs it and between them they manage to drag him up onto the bow. It is a somber moment, as the group quietly looks backward at the beach the massive Oriental is now left upon, and thinks also of the sacrifice of the old man who healed Rhune, who the party did not even get the chance to meet. You can only hope for the best, that they will merely be captured and questioned, and not subjected to the Bishop's foul hand, which Krige and Ullar can testify would not be good for their health.

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	Benjamin Lomax

This page was last updated on 20 January 2001