Game Night Tales from around the gaming table

 

Continuing from the last episode:  Mages and Thieves 3.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daniel took the advice of the Cleric and spread the rest of the unguent over his entire damaged knee and went to bed.  They stayed in the village for 4 more days, until both he and Maldis healed from their wounds.  It took the entire time for Daniel's knee to heal.  Not only was he ravenously hungry the entire time, but he also suffered from the weird sensations of his torn muscles slithering together and then the excruciating pain of the bones twisting and setting correctly back into their proper place.

 

On the last day, after another large breakfast, they left the village and headed out with their cart full of supplies.

 

Due to the warnings that they received about the large Orcish tribes to the North, they headed East; planning to go around them and then head North.

 

The day went by uneventfully, but because of the two-wheeled cart they were pulling and pushing between them, they had only made it about 3 quarters the distance that they could manage walking without it.  Tired and exhausted, they made camp in the valley where they stopped, taking turns sleeping on the wagon.

 

 

Morning brought with it trouble in the form of mounted warriors.  With nowhere to hide -- they were camped in the middle of the valley floor -- they stood there and watched as two of the warrriors rode towards them.  They were rude and pushy, but the most frightening part was when they were accused of being spies for their enemies.  Large heavy crossbows were pointed at them and only through some fancy talking by Maldis did they convince them that they were not spies.

 

Now that they weren't spies, the warriors had other plans for them -- Conscription into their army.  The other warriors rode down and escorted them into the moving columns of their army.  They were quickly relieved of their wagon -- which was hooked up to a spare mule and added to the rest of the army's supplies -- and given over to a sergeant-at-arms and forced to march along.

 

For 3 days they marched.  They found that many others were conscripted as well, only the cavalry and about a third of the infantry were soldiers in the employ of the lord that headed this force.  Three times a day they were given short sword and shied to practice fighting with the other conscripts.  After the sparring, they worked by running up to trees with large ladder-like frames, positioning them and running up to the top and then rappelling off the end as quickly as possible.

 

Daniel asked around and found out that this lord was gathering an army to attack a robber baron that ruled from a large town.  He even cast a spell to detect if these people were evil or not -- a few were, but the lord and most of his men were not.  Slightly comforted by this and the generally good treatment that they were receiving they decided to stay with the army.

 

Hours before they normally stopped the lord call a halt to the march and gave the men leave for two hours.  After that they did a round of sparring and ladder jumping, but at the end of it they were left with the weapons.  The lord address everyone after that, telling them that they had reached the area of the town and would attack it early in the morning just after the waxing moon set.  After this they were all given the best meal of this entire trip and allowed to rest and sleep.

 

 

The time came quicker than expected and before they knew it the army around them was being mobilised.  Within the hour they had moved into position and the four groups of 12 that were to scale the town's walls were getting their final instructions, luck would have it that Daniel and Maldis were together on the second team.

 

The town was huge compared to the places they'd been to in Southern Durnite -- it was at least ten times larger than the village that they were last at -- and well fortified, there were guards walking the walls -- great big stone walls, 20 feet high and 10 feet thick with towers every 200 feet around.  Now all that ladder work made sense.

 

The signal was given and the 4 teams rushed down the hill towards the walls, their points of breach firmly in sight.  Their team made it almost all the way before being spotted; the alarm rang out as the lead member of their team was struck dead with a heavy crossbow bolt -- one of dozens fired.  Even with that their training held out and they got their ladder up with only 2 more killed.  Daniel was second up the ladder and it saved his life -- the man in front took an arrow and went right over the other side of the wall, taking 3 of the guards with him.  This gave the rest of the team enough room and time to ascend and start fighting towards the gate.  Daniel had dropped the sword and shield when he topped the wall, pulling out his morning stars, and made a good showing of himself.  Maldis and 3 others held the far end so that the rest could worry about cutting through to the gatehouse.  This was the target for all 4 teams.  Once the gates were opened the cavalry and the rest of the infantry could flood into the town and remove those currently ruling it.

 

The fight was taking a turn for the worse; Daniel was barely holding the line, the two with him fell and he could see that the defenders were readying another crossbow volley.  That was when the lord appeared.  Together, Daniel and the lord forced their way to the gatehouse.

 

With the gates opened, his men charged in and swept the defenders aside.  Within the hour, the town had fallen and as the sun finished rising, the robber baron was dead and with that, his men surrendered.