You brace yourself against the wall in the last moment and manage to keep your footing as the
Ill-Tempered Sow ploughs into the longship's broadside. Chunks of timber fly in all directions, but you avoid anything more than the smallest of splinters. The grappling hooks fly out, about half of them making contact, and teams of men start dragging one of the longships closer to starboard. Planks are rolled out and almost immediately enemy sailors start rushing up them or trying to jump across the gap. Many fall or are kicked away before they reach the deck, and fighting breaks out in small patches across the ship.
You hold tight with the rest of your band, fending off the occasional axe-wielding sailor with your spears. Most go for less prepared targets, but Karl and Brandon both take down sailors trying to approach your position. After a couple of minutes you hear a whistle from the poop deck and bands start rushing down the gangplanks onto the enemy ship. Captain Tovey gives the command and you have no choice but to follow. You stick close to your bandmates and try to protect them as best you can.
Luck goes against you in the crossing. You bring up the rear of your band, hustling along the plank after the rest, but an enemy fighter manages to knock the plank loose at the last moment. You slip and find yourself hurtling towards the water. Everything goes black.
You regain consciousness what must be a few seconds later, because you are still drowning rather than drowned. You have no idea what happened to your spear, but you kick and thrash in a desperate attempt to stay afloat, trapped between the hulls of the two ships. Battle sounds ring from above. Your armour is soaked and heavy, but not lethally so as metal might be. You struggle to one of the ships and manage to get your fingers into a gap between the boards, clinging on for dear life. You spot a loose bit of rigging hanging from the deck a few feet away and risk another plunge into the water to grab hold of it. You manage and drag yourself up to the fighting.
A few company members have fallen, nobody you know, so you scavenge the nearest spear you can find after dragging yourself out of the water and scan the deck for Tovey and the others. You spot them on the other side of the press of fighting, trapped against the edge of the deck by a gang of axemen. You spot a discarded handaxe nearby and hook it to your belt, just in case. You take a breath, steel your nerves, and plunge in.
The enemy are not expecting any resistance from behind and you take full advantage of the fact. You skewer two of the axemen before they can turn to face you, and you do a fair job of keeping them at bay with the spear's reach. Unfortunately your appearance distracts both friend and foe and one of the enemy proves regrettably quicker to react than Brandon, who takes an axeblade to the skull. Another couple of the band go down as the fighting resumes. You try to spear a third foe, but the spearhead catches in the axeman's boiled leather plate and the foe grabs your spear with both hands and drags it away from you. You draw the handaxe and lay into the more dangerous close melee, hacking wildly at anything you can reach. You feel cold and hot at your shoulders and get the feeling you may have been struck, but the battle frenzy takes over and your world consists solely of the axe you wield and the axes coming towards you.
A couple more of the axemen get into range with Tovey's band and lay in close enough that their spears prove an obstruction rather than an aid. Another couple of band-mates fall. You feel a heavy punching sensation at your leg and only when you look at it do you realise there is blood welling up through the leather and fur. You narrowly avoid a blow to your throat, blocking it with the haft of your axe, but out of the corner of your eye you see Karl go down to an axe-stroke. You force the foeman's axe away and bring your own round in a smooth arc, chopping him in the jaw. He goes down and you take the moment to stumble back away from the fight.
About half your band is down, but the enemy are faring worse. They turn and flee, a few getting cut down by other fighters and the rest jumping overboard in a bid to save their lives. A ragged cheer comes up from the fighters on the ship and you slump against the mast in shock, watching dully as men seize the catapults aboard the ship and start pelting pitchfire at the other longboats. The battle on the other ships seems to be going fairly, and within a couple minutes more the rest of the enemy fleet looks to be either on fire, captured or sunk.
Tovey comes over and claps you on the shoulder, a grim smile on his face. "Good work, lad," he says, "but you're better sticking with the spear for now. You live through this, I'll teach you how to use that properly." He hands you a spear and you hook the axe back at your belt, still feeling a bit numb. "Patch yourself up, lad, the fight's not done yet. Brecht seems to think we can still get paid on this one, so we're heading on to the town. Here, I'll show you what to do."
With a little help from Tovey you cut some rough bandaging from the clothing of the dead and bind up your leg and shoulders (in both cases the leather turned the blow aside, leaving you with a nasty cut instead of a severed limb). You do it a little too tight, so Tovey shows you how to loosen them so your arms don't drop off. You rejoin the remaining five members of your band, including a rather shell-shocked looking John, and prepare yourself to keep fighting.
You've a few minutes to breathe before you make landing. Time to make any plans or preparations, if you want.
Age: 15
Light Wounds
Fur Armour
Basic Iron Spear
Iron Handaxe
6 Wood-Tipped Javelins
Illiterate
Average Persuader
Novice Gambler
Novice Spearman
Novice Armour User
Novice Thrower
Novice Surgeon
Dabbling Axeman
Wages: Meagre
Purse: Pocket Change
Pack of Cards, Fair Dice
Debt: Serious (small basic debt, plus serious fine for evading debt collection)
Wanted for Debt Evasion.
Member of the Black Boars.
The Black Boars
Commander Brecht - Seen
Sea Captain Bors - Seen
Galen, Quartermaster - Neutral
Petras, Drillmaster - Hostile
Captain Tovey, your band captain - Respectful
Lieutenant Briggs, Tovey's Lieutenant - Amicable
John, your band-mate - Friend
Karl, your bandmate - Slain in the Battle of Dewden
Brandon, your bandmate - Slain in the Battle of Dewden
Author
Topic: Courtier: A Suggestion Game (Read 12058 times)