POVERO Chapter Ten

[Adam]

Alfonse feels his bowels turn to water at the Houndmaster's cry.

[ewancummins]

THE KILLER WARHOUND leaps at Alfonse.

Fild slashes at the beast.
It lands between the gnome and the mage, howls,and snaps its great slobbering jaws an inch from Fild's nose.

Gertie scrambles away from the enraged mastiff, grabs hold of the nearby stone wall, and starts climbing.

Titus tries to knock down the lantern boy. But the lad jumps back, swinging his glowing lantern on its pole in a wide arc to ward off the cleric.

[ewancummins]

Tom at his hiding spot wonders why the others haven't joined him yet. So he decides to go back and look for them.

Tom hears a dog howl.

He did not bring Gem with him for this night of trespassing and burglary...

[VAN]

Tom returns to the others.

[ewancummins]

Tom returns to the others.

THE FIGHT IN THE OUTER GARDEN, VERY NEAR FOLBRE HOUSE

(TOM POV)

Tom returns to find Sixt and Titus struggling to keep a snarling, armored mastiff from mauling Alfonse.
Fild hops about with a bloody shortsword in his fist.
A stranger in studded leather hefts a sword and moves past the discharged marine and the augur, coming toward Alfonse the long way round on the side away from the masonry wall of the inner estate.
Casting about for Gertie, Tom spots her atop that inner wall just as she tosses something down past Sixt, a loose bundle that spills dust over the dog's head and neck.

A boy with a lantern on a pole kneels near some other dogs (Tom sees at least two, but his view is partly obscured...) , trying to get them up. Are they injured? Dead? Drugged? Enchanted? Tom does not know.

Trying to climb the wall to reach his sister, Tom slips, rubbing but not skinning his shins and palms.
He spots two other figures on the wall with Gertie. Could be others of his party...
One of the pair drops the edge of a rope down on the outer side of the wall.
The other seems to be tying a knot in another coil of rope.

[ewancummins]

The FIGHT, CONTINUED


Fild cuts down the mastiff.

The Hound Master, seeing Alfonse has withdrawn out of sword's reach, spins, lunging for the gnome.
"My dog! Die, runt!"

But Fild's armored coat turns the blade, so that the blow only knocks him back a few inches.

The lantern boy succeeds in rousing one of the sleeping mastiffs.
"Sic them, Fang!"

http://taxidermicowlbear.weebly.com/upl ... 2_orig.png

Fang leaps on Titus, knocking the augur to the ground. Titus rolls to his feet and lifts his shield, but the mastiff rams cleric again and knocks him back further. It pushes under the shield and bites Titus's leg.
"Ahh!" The man screams.
The dog moves like it may be groggy from the spell, but even slowed a bit, it attacks with bloodthirsty ferocity.
Titus whacks the beast with his heavy mace, but it keeps coming.
The priest backpedals toward the stone wall.

The lantern boy wakes another mastiff. The animal lifts its oversized head and yawns. And then it spots Fild-- it howls, rising to its four legs, and licks its black lips.
The mastiff starts toward the gnome...

Near the gnome, the Hound Master has turned to fight Sixt hand to hand. He stabs and slashes , fighting almost as a berserker.
Sixt parries and dodges like a skilled fencer, but the houndmaster's frenzied assault starts to wear down his defense. He takes a shallow cut to the right cheek.

Three ropes fall from the wall.
GERTIE calls down to her comrades,
"Hurry, get up here! More are coming from the outside."

[Adam]

Cormac turns and climbs the rope.

[ewancummins]

Cormac turns and climbs the rope.

ALFONSE


Alfonse drags himself up a few feet the wall.

RIIIIP!

Cloth tears. Something has snagged his robes. Now it pulls him down the rope, his heels skidding along the wall.
The mastiff has caught his garments.
He hears the clicking of the dog's nails on the masonry wall, the rumbling growl in its throat.
Then it yelps. The hold on Alfonse's clothes slackens.
Looking down a bare second, he sees the beast tumble sideways, Fild rising from under it, bloody shortsword coming en garde as the gnome turns to face the duel between Sixt and the Hound Master.

Then, up the rope Alfonse goes, pulling hard for safety...

[ewancummins]

Gertie, The Builder, and Damien try to haul Tom and Alfonse up the wall.
Alfonse and Tom grab at the ropes and haul up as hard as they can manage, kicking at the smooth masonry for what purchase they can gain.

Below, a dog whines in its sleep as the boy shakes it.

More grunting, ropes burning palms, Gertie cursing aloud-- and then the two men have mounted the top of the wall, nearly flopping over onto the far side.

The fight on the ground continues. Fild taunts the Hound Master, sending the man into an even more frenzied state. Now the animal trainer slobbers like one of his dogs as he slashes at Sixt and Fild both.

Those atop the twelve foot stone wall can see bright lanterns and smoking torches carried by dark forms moving through moonlit gardens and fields, the lights all coming closer and closer to the party's location.

Titus slings his shield, grabs a rope, and starts up with help from above.

[ewancummins]

Cont.




SIXT slashes his broadsword at the Houndmaster, driving the man back.
The veteran grabs a trailing rope with his free hand and tugs it.

DAMIEN and Gertie start hauling him up.
The Builder leans over and grabs the rope to help.
One mighty tug and Sixt comes scrambling up --Too fast and too hard! The armored warrior crashes into his helpers, nearly knocking them over the top of the wall.
The Builder lurches into Alfonse.

CRUNCH--THUMP!

The mage looks up, dazed but not badly hurt, from ground at the inner base of the wall. He's tumbled into the grounds of Folbre House.
Trees rise near him, and a row of buildings that runs along the perimeter wall.
Not far away, the great bulk of the manor house looms up, lights flaring in the upper windows.


Damien, Gertie, and the Builder slip down ropes to join him on the inner side of the wall.
Sixth lowers himself over the top, fingertips clutching the edge, and falls the rest of the way with knees flexed. Thud.
He lands on his booted feet.

THOM, still atop the wall, sees Fild standing alone near the lantern boy and the dogs.

The boy is kicking the dogs awake and swinging his lantern pole in the gnome's general direction.
"Get up, sic him, sic him!"

Panting, the Hound Master stalks toward Fild with his catgutter sword en garde.

Lights and noises in the outer garden grow brighter and louder.
Closer every second...

[ewancummins]

man


https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/23 ... 037144.jpg

map

http://pin.it/4cm0TNV

ALFONSE AND COMPANY ON HIS SIDE OF THE WALL ARE NEAR BOTTOM RIGHT OF THAT MAP.

[ewancummins]

FILD

raises his shield before him and jogs backward to the wall. Sheathing his sword, he seizes the free-hanging end of the last remaining rope.
Someone pulls him up a few inches.

One of the mastiffs rises and shakes its head, growling. It sniffs the air.
"Get him, sic him!" The boy thrusts his lantern pole forward to illuminate the dog's target--Fild.

The Hound Master stalks closer to the gnome, sweat dripping from his face, breathing hard.
"Gonna kill you!"

Fild hears a voice from atop or over the wall, but the clamor or the oncoming enemies both human and canine washes out the words.
And then the rope jerks and he really gets going, flying away from the ground like a sack of wheat yanked up by a mule-powered cargo crane.

Fild rattles over the top of the wall, his arquebus stock thumping the masonry, and drops through the air into the arms of Sixt and The Builder.
The two men set the gnome down.

The marine immediately begins coiling the rope he has just used to drag Fild over the top of the wall.

Looking about in the gloomy corner of the court, Fild sees his companions nearby.
Past them, looking about, he sees the manor house, trees, and smaller, boxier stone and wood structures further off in the large, walled space that forms the grounds of Folbre House.



OOC: LOOK AT MAP

[Adam]

"This is becoming truly moronic," Alfonse says, hunched down with the others. "It's going to take two seconds for the hound master to go fetch some guards and arrest us. I say we beat feet, put this stupid city behind us, and forget its politics forever..."

[ewancummins]

"This is becoming truly moronic," Alfonse says, hunched down with the others. "It's going to take two seconds for the hound master to go fetch some guards and arrest us. I say we beat feet, put this stupid city behind us, and forget its politics forever..."

Damien gets close to Alfonse.

"Yeah, I think you are right. Except about arrest. They will kill us, I think."

[ewancummins]

"This is becoming truly moronic," Alfonse says, hunched down with the others. "It's going to take two seconds for the hound master to go fetch some guards and arrest us. I say we beat feet, put this stupid city behind us, and forget its politics forever..."

Damien gets close to Alfonse.

"Yeah, I think you are right. Except about arrest. They will kill us, I think."

No sooner than Damien says this, a half dozen men come round the corner of the manor house, headed straight for the party.

They wear blue and white particolored gambesons and high-crested bronze helmets. Swords swing at their hips.
One carries a lantern in his left hand.
As the patrol hurries on, its members all draw swords.

Gertie and the other roguish types have just enough time to scuttle for hiding places.

Titus waves his mace toward oncoming patrol, then at the far end of the enclosed inner estate.
"Quick, they went that way! Assassins!"


CONTINUED


The patrolmen ignore the cleric's ruse and continue straight on at a run.

Sixt and Titus lift their shields and meet the rush.
The oncoming soldiers crash into the two adventurers, driving them back several feet. Titus spins so his back faces Sixt's back, and the two men fend off the circling patrol like that, turning and striking out from behind their shields.

Gertie cracks her whip at the backs of the enemy that surrounds her two companions.
Damien rushes by and slashes, but his sword clangs harmlessly off a bronze helmet.

One of the soldier gasps and falls face down, opening a gap in the ring around Sixt and Titus.
The Builder , bloody sword in hand, darts back from his victim.

Sixt cuts down another guard.

Fild and Alfonse join the fray. The mage knocks a man down with his staff, and the man does not rise again.


For now, at least, THOM remains unengaged...