Uphill Battle

[Brian]

The musket is, unfortunately, not loaded.  In fact, it hasn't even been reset properly after its last firing.  And while there were bullets back at the house, all of the gunpowder was used to explodify said location anyway.

[Carthrat]

And, thusly, putting it away again, Tom takes up a more familiar weapon; the same cudgel he used to cave in Mr. Vladimere's face.

"If they fall into the traps, that's when we strike," he whispers to his comrades. "If not- when the cavalry are in view, we'll flank them quickly."

[Brian]

The tracker slows as he reaches the first of the traps, and hesitantly begins poking his way through, though as intent as he is on tracks, he walks between two of the stakes without noticing them.  The second of the men in plate stumbles into one, which punches through his armor with a very moist noise.

He screams in pain, and the tracker jerks upright, turning to look at the man in concern.  The other armored figure swears loudly, and tries to help him upright.  The stake went into the wounded man's thigh, and thick rivulets of blood flow from the wound.  "Creator-damned thralls shouldn't be this smart," he snarls, before he dissolves into quieter, incoherent rumbling.

"They've set traps," the questioner replies, kneeling to inspect the wound.

"We hadn't noticed," the uninjured knight says sourly.  "Looked like a bug-bite, eh, Garcia?"

"Kill every last creator-damned one of them," Garcia shoots back, giving the priest a dark glare.  "Should never have agreed to raise them out here.  Why here?  Why not Windhurst?  Vladimere was a nothing!  The church had no reason to-"

"If you want that wound healed, you'll mind your mouth," the priest says absently.  "It is the Church who decides what the Church's reasons are.  Not the Templar Guild."

Garcia visibly grinds his teeth, then slams his visor down as the Questioner begins chanting, and reddish light begins to emanate from the fingertips inspecting the wound.  "Better?" he asks after a moment.

Blood is still running from the wound, but far less, now.  "I can fight on it," Garcia agrees.  "Now lead the way, and not into traps, this time."

"I'm not the one who walked into a sharpened stick," the Questioner counters, turning to face the hill again.

Behind the three forward scouts, more troops begin to come into sight.  Four more priests, and six more knights -- all on horseback.  Three more horses are tethered in a chain behind the rearmost Questioner.

[Carthrat]

Restraining a heavy sigh- which may have been too loud, Tom waits for the moment when the questioners are aptly surrounded by his men...

...and lets loose a fierce war-cry, rocketing from his crouched position to storm towards the mounted knights! "You will fall this day, churchmen!" he snarls, loud enough to hear over what will surely be a wave of screaming men behind him- "Our shackles are broken now, for all time!"

OOC: I am putting 10 points into presence to make a presence attack with (PRE 15 when I make it) and putting the other 5 into martial strike, to hit someone with. After I've made the P-attack, I want to put the 10 points back into protecting *me* from presence attacks.

[Dracos]

OOC: Pulling 9 points from dex (bringing it to 14, OCV/DCV of 5) and 6 points into swordsmanship.
IC:

Dracos, not much for screaming in battle, particularly with not being a barbarian king, moved in a bit slower.  Primarily because he wanted to avoid being crushed by accident in the charging wrath of the nineteen former slaves.  Slipping in though towards the rearmost priest, he lashes out at the harness supports that run along the side of the horse, seeking send the man sprawling to the ground.  His goal at the moment was to try and take this one alive, if possible.

Dracos

[Brian]

The battle does not go quite as hoped.  The priests and knights were on their guard from the trap, so they're not quite encircled when the fight begins.  The Questioner in the rear manages to wheel his horse around and drive it out of reach before Phil can reaches it, though the rest of the Questioner's force is enclosed.

"Destroy the heretic!" the fleeing questioner screams as he gallops away.  Phil finds himself being targeted by three of the men on horseback, even as the thralls leap to tear the men from their saddles.

One sword slash from a heavy blade nicks Phil's upper arm deeply -- another scores him across the chest.  A third slash comes short, when Phil falls backwards over a tree stump, just before everything goes black.

Tom sees his friend fall, distracted just in time to catch a wildly swung sword to the jaw.  His skin isn't pierced, but that one felt like a tooth-loosener, and another, ineffectual blow lands on Tom's back immediately afterwards.

But that's the fight -- after that, the knights can't do enough damage to stop the freed thralls, and the questioners (except the one who fled) are all dead, except for two that were simply knocked out.

Phil regains his senses a few minutes later.  The wounds aren't lethal, but they are ugly.  By that time, the thralls have rounded up all but three of the horses (and the four that the fleeing Questioner took).

[Carthrat]

Tom is unable to entirely contain his disgust at the scene (that he's created), pointedly looking away from it all once he calms down from the inevitable battle-fury.

Still, he manages to keep it together.. until he sees Phil.

"Fuck! Fuck. I *knew* I should've got you to stay back before we did this stupid thing," swears Tom, kneeling beside the wounded man. "Are you alright? Do you think you can walk? Shit. Fuck."

[Dracos]

Dracos groaned, in more than a fair bit of pain as his hands began to glow, the wounds closing up as strange syllables he knew but did not know, left his lips, sounding as if a prayer in old latin.

"That...was not one of my smarter moves...  Did we get them all..." He winced. "And preferrably some alive?"

He stood shortly afterwards, wincing but clearly alive and able to move.

OOC:
Putting all 15 to borrowing healing.
<Drac-sick> roll 3d6 healing
<Hatbot>
ACTION --> "Drac-sick rolls 3d6 healing and gets 12." [3d6=5, 1, 6]
Going to assume since I was alive and i rolled my entire body and most my stun that I'm probably in pretty good shape now.

[Carthrat]

"Hell, I don't know. I think a couple were left unconscious, and the one you ran after got a- shit!

"I don't think I can catch up," he mutters, striding for one of the horses and roughly trying to gauge his odds.

[Brian]

The priest's got more horses, and the one Tom grabbed isn't winded, but is restless.  It's the kind of thing it's more effective to act on than think about, though.  Tom thinks it's reasonable to chase after the escaping priest, but he'd have to do it quickly.


Phil's wounds look messy, and were severe enough to take him down for a few seconds.  Shortly after that, he begins mumbling about gate access, and his hands glow.  Spinning wheels of blue light with oddly curved crossbars appear in each hand, with further red wheels inside them; around the outermost wheel appears the outline of a gate -- just like on the local bible.

The wounded and torn flesh weaves itself together, leaving thin scratches atop nasty bruises.

OOC: Dracos is down 6 body, before healing.  Three dice of healing is NORMAL, so three body are restored.

[Carthrat]

Well, no time to think, then- Tom jumps on and charges off after the priest, doing his damn best to avoid crashing into a tree (or falling down a pit).

[Brian]

The horse is very resistant at first; by the time Tom gets it sorted out, the chances of catching the fleeing Questioner are faint, at best.  He has to stop for sleep some time, but on a horse, he could probably reach a road long before that happens.  Most likely, while Tom could push on, the man is going to get away.  Aside from which, Phil is still wounded, or at least recovering, back at the camp with the other freed men.

[Carthrat]

Tom gives up, thusly; if it was just him, he'd probably do it, but there are others to take care of.

Heading back to the camp, he quickly dismounts and takes stock of how the numbered men are looking; any injuries? Or, for that matter, any signs of apprehension?

[Brian]

The freed thralls look nervous, but the worst they have is bruises -- less when Phil gets a chance to go over them.  He seems to have taken the time to fully mend his own wounds, as well.

[Carthrat]

Tom just shakes his head- what if these people got into the wrong hands?

Then he remembers that chances are, others like them *already have*.. never mind the obvious joke.

"Let's start stripping their supplies from them," he manages, giving Seven a brief nod and starting about the task himself. Never give an order you wouldn't do by yourself, and all that- he particularly keeps an eye out for gunpowder and shot.