I go on a speech of how it's vital we hold this ground, then ask for any suggestions of how we make use of the obviously vital ladder.
With the burning tower providing an inspiring background, you launch into a magnificent speech!"Kat nun kegihi panor pu asabe uru donasit olah. Gerenen kisoyo sisa yebe tet rebomil. Elireru li vonowim adeco: Lusul betol rapemied ferolig neke. Okokip sehatu parer uno nolor lison gav riset mocepe upacapal. Gat sapere ponap nalotu mayatah!", you shout, your eyes brimming with patriotic fervor.
"Salor yitasa ratuga da cun micaq nagahe cemay losole hipik, lisietil ire lisate hodetah walamed orel, bamotiem cimieret nican nile utov celi oler satic horupet luro: Hinawip lan yamezev: Ucote met eriqu lahe loyer inadelie!", you continue, gesturing with your swords as you speak,
"Elix satoney eyayi mada fasuve tiled esuno hire fe! Pit yosi rohilam ho peyaho, lu nilorie mimesap!", you finish, shouting the last words at the top of your voice.No one understood a word of it, but by damn it was inspiring!
The ladder, you determine, by using your amazing powers of common sense, is utterly useless.
I turn a ladder halve into a spear.
You try to hack the ladder in half, but it is a sturdy thing, and you only manage to hack through a few of the rungs. Practice my dual wielding sword skills
You swish around with your swords, making woosh noises. Naturally, it is useless.See if I can find a large shield or board to hide behind while I reload my crossbow in the upcoming battle.
You look around. There do not appear to be any shields or boards here! Instead, you shift around the corpses piled in the corner, and make yourself a little fort. You have an excellent view of all entries to the room and a place to duck down whilst reloading. Success?
"We could use the ladder in a falling trap to trap them, like that one children's story I once heard."
I heal my own moderate wounds, then try to heal any other wounded allies.
You are not wounded!
You get down to medicing. You remove the arrow from Rashilul (fortunately, it is not barbed), dab some healy cleanly stuff on it, and then do the magic to stop the bleeding and reduce the pain. It still stings a little, but is a lot less painful and obstructy. (moderate>minor)
You feel sufficiently inspired to heal alfie as well. You just pour a whole bottle of healy cleany stuff all over him, and do your best to magic the pain away. (moderate>minor)
The top floor of the tower collapses, and slabs of paint crash down through the-Wait.
What.
Slabs of paint? Yup, great big pieces. More like bits of pottery, actually.
Anyway
They crash down through the floor of the tower, and the fire spreads with them.
So um. You guess that's that dealt with. You sit around for a few minutes, until the next floor of the tower collapses too.
You hear someone running towards you. You get ready to fight again, but it is a soldier of Darkfort.
"Get out on the walls!", cries he. "There's rebels for everyone!"
"Hang on, we have to guard the gate" replies Reed.
"We have the gate surrounded. They won't get in. Now come on!"
Oh well
You run out, together with the medic (whose name, you pick up, is vidar). You six spend a few exciting yet repetetive hours killing rebels up and down the walls.
Eventually, the rebels start to thin. The ladders stop rising back into place and the towers constant stream of rebels dies out. Soon, you see that the rear guard of the rebel army is pulling back! The rebels in the courtyard below notice too, and those with weaker resolves decide to tactfully fall back a few hundred meters. Within minutes, the entire army is on the run.
The siege of Darkfort, it would appear, has been won by the defenders. But that's not all! No indeed. The introduction to the second part of the story, Chase through Darkforest, will be forthcoming. After school.
You can't really do any actions right now.