Tovey is caught for a moment in indecision, so you suggest the rooftop. He looks pointedly at your arm but you tell him that you can take it - better to be able to see where you're going. He agrees, so you strap your spear to your back with the javelins and climb the ladder with the help of Mord and John, emerging onto the slanted tiled roof above.
You find yourself immediately under fire from the half a dozen archers on the nearby rooftop that drove you into the house in the first place and throw yourselves to the roof immediately, scrambling for the cover provided by the roof's peak. Arrows clatter around you, and a sharp cry alerts you to the arrow sticking through John's shoulder - the head pierced clear through the flesh and out the other side.
You grit your teeth and unhook the firepot from your belt. Tovey tosses you a firestarter, but you can't seem to get the oil-soaked cloth to light. You swear profusely and hook the pot back onto your belt, drawing a javelin instead with your good arm. You peek over the lip of the roof, draw your arm back and hurl. Even using your good arm, the strain on your chest makes the arrow-wound scream with pain, but you fight through it. The shaft sails neatly through the air and into the leg of one of the archers, who loses his footing and clatters to the street below. You duck in time to avoid another smattering of arrows, unhook one of the axes from your belt and pop up and down again nearly immediately to throw it. The axe lands blade-first in the lead archer's collarbone and he goes down. The other archers scramble for cover themselves, so you take advantage of the lull and make a break for it.
While you were busy skirmishing, it seems Tovey already broke the arrow-shaft in John's shoulder and pushed it through. Blood is streamly freely from the wound, and Tovey had little time to do much for it beyond tying a handerchief around the hole. Mord helps him along as the four of you scramble from rooftop to rooftop, keeping out of the way of archer fire and making your way toward the castle in the hope of relief from the enemy attacks.
All seems to be going well until you try and leap between two buildings spaced just a little too far apart, miss, and catch the lip of the roof just in time to avoid hurtling down to the street. Your body slams hard against the masonry and your left arm screams with the effort of trying to keep hold of the thin lip. Mord and Tovey both made the jump ahead of you, so they reach down and drag you back up. John makes the jump as well, though he sways unsteadily, and the four of you continue onward, the pain and exhaustion causing you to trip several times on loose tiles as you go.
You scale up a building adjoining another, taller one with some difficulty and begin running through the taller part of the town, evading archers and other fire until you reach the mound and moat of Dewden and are able to survey the scene.
The siege is still in full progress. Scaling ladders are being thrown up against the walls, cast off and reset, rocks and oil dropped by the defenders, teams of enemy fighters trying to climb up and several even fighting on the walls. Hundreds of enemy soldiers huddle behind wooden covers and shields around the keep to avoid archer fire from the defenders and trebuchets continue to hurl rocks and firepots at the castle. There are a few fires on the battlements, but they are quickly put out. The walls still seem to be holding solid, but it is only a matter of time before the siege weapons make enough progress to force a breach.
There doesn't seem to be any way to get into the castle without being shot as an invader, at least while the siege is ongoing. You scan the battlefield for anything of use. There look to be about eight trebuchets still in operation, the nearest only about fifty feet away and perhaps fifteen feet from the house overlooking it. The engineers working the machines are lightly armoured in leather and don't seem to carry much in weapons beyond short-handled axes, though they have guards of about a dozen footmen each. You can also see a large tent about a hundred feet in the other direction, safely out of bowshot from the castle but still behind several wooden barriers. The tent has a few arrow holes in it and is well guarded, but lined with purple cloth. It is about thirty feet away from the nearest building. Finally you can see several mounted figures in heavier chain armour at points all around the field, commanding troops and giving orders.
Most importantly of all, none of them seem to have seen you. Where will you go from here?
Age: 15
Wounded
Fur Armour
Basic Iron Spear
Iron Handaxe
3 Iron Throwing Axes
4 Wood-Tipped Javelins
Firepot
Illiterate
Average Persuader
Novice Gambler
Novice Spearman
Novice Armour User
Novice Thrower
Novice Surgeon
Dabbling Axeman
Dabbling Shield-User
Dabbling Athlete
Dabbling Hero
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
Mord, your band-mate - Neutral
Karl, your bandmate - Slain in the Battle of Dewden
Brandon, your bandmate - Slain in the Battle of Dewden
I am fully prepared to kill Garntice in Month One if you roll badly enough or act inconsiderately enough. If you want to take risks for glory, my goodness are they going to be risks. Then again, my goodness will it be glorious if you win out.
Author
Topic: Courtier: A Suggestion Game (Read 12065 times)