Anshelm watched Tiberius and the troop move off between the houses and disappear. The cleric who healed him moves away, to tend some of the other injured or frightened people who have lately begun to take refuge in the little square. Udo slumps against the doorway of the Hostel, having been unable to get anyone to open the door for him.
Anshelm checks his weapons, finds nothing missing, and feels a little more hearty for having had some of his hit points restored. At present, the east gate is somewhere behind him and to his left. The green fire and the Kirche Platz are ahead and to the left, a quarter mile away, and ahead and to the right the giant is still tearing apart the tower.
Anshelm taps Udo on the shoulder.
ReplyDelete"There's no one in there that's going to help us, and I'm not eager to be impressed into service on behalf of this swill pit of a town. Let's find the gate and see if we can find my other companions."
He pulls at Udo's sleeve, urging him to come along.
Udo won't go.
ReplyDelete(I rolled a 5 for his morale, which definitely fails).
This is his last vestige; he hopes that the hostel will open its doors if things get worse. Plus he has nowhere to go outside the city walls, nor reason to think they would let him past the gate anyway.
Anshelm curses Udo.
ReplyDelete"Let the mage know where I've gone, then," he snarls, and sets off toward the town gate.
You're moving generally in the same direction as most of the crowd, which amounts to a very busy market day in terms of its thickness. It isn't hard to find your way to the gate, as that is where everyone is going.
ReplyDeleteCatching up to Tiberius' timeline, as the building falls over you reach the East Gate and find it wide open. The guards are hurrying the crowd through the gate, picking out those who might serve as fighters but sending through the weak, women with children, children without women or anyone who seems unable to cope with physical activity.
You are not right at the gate yet. Action?
Hey, this is great stuff! Glad I stumbled across it.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, your "about me" is my same exact, word for word early D&D experiences..
Anshelm is having some very difficult personal problems and will be up and running when he's able.
ReplyDeleteAnshelm - Got your last email. Can't answer in detail because I am here at work. Please take your time and don't feel you must get back on this train today.
(OOC: okay, I think I've got the majority of yesterday's workload clear... :) )
ReplyDeleteAnshelm will affect a hobbled walk, pulling himself into his cloak, attempting to get outside the gate in the middle of a crowd of old and infirm people.
As Anshelm has been wounded, looks like hell and possesses a 7 constitution (indicating that he is very frail appearing), he has no trouble whatsoever passing directly past the guards without being harrassed.
ReplyDelete(OOC: I'll bet that's the first time you've ever heard of a very low constitution being a survival mechanism, huh?)
(Great to have you back. I hope all is fine. To have my perspective, you might read this)
(OOC: I knew my special brand of "luck" would pay dividends one day... :)
ReplyDelete(...and thank you very much for the support. Mer has been hit with a long series of bad news over the past year, some of which I mentioned in my e-mail to you, and I don't think she was prepared to hear more. Thank you for the link; that was a beautiful tribute.)
Once outside the gate, Anshelm will make his way toward the wooded area and the cotters' houses, hoping to find Delfig and Kazimir.
(OOC - just wanted to say that was a very heartfelt post - really amazing story and something that is far bigger than simple words could describe.)
ReplyDeleteAnshelm,
ReplyDeleteThere are hundreds and hundreds of people who have withdrawn from the city and who are now scattered within half a mile of the walls. You pick your way past casualties of the slugs, many of them in the arms of their kin and appearing to suffer from the awful burns on their legs and bodies.
You will find the cotter's hamlet full of people--there are at least seventy people who have gathered there, who are being supported by the cleric, Jan. Emmanuel will recognize you, bring you to the cleric, and both will tell you what has happened to Delfig and Kazimir--at least up to the point where they left the hamlet, intending to break into the city.
Anshelm thanks Emmanuel and Jan for the information.
ReplyDelete"I feel like a dog chasing its tail. Do you know where they intended to make their break in?" he asks.
(OOC: would it be easy to get back in through the gate with the chaos happening all around?)
One of the cotters says that he watched them climb the tower west of the North Gate and disappear into the arrow slit 25' above the ground.
ReplyDeleteYes, it would be much easier to enter the North Gate at this point. You have one clue as to their location inside the city, and that would be that they had decided to seek out the paladin Hornung.
Anshelm nods at the cotters' words and sets off toward the North Gate as fast as he can.
ReplyDelete"Plans never survive reality," he mutters to himself.
Anshelm,
ReplyDeleteI would love to have you catch up with Delfig and Kazimir, but time wise that just doesn't work out. You are at present about fifteen minutes on the scale ahead of them...which means that they have another fifteen minutes of action to go before you even leave the cotter's hamlet.
Thus, like Tiberius, I'll probably leave off this thread for the day.
On the plus side, you can see the giant reaching the North Gate as you come out of the apple orchard. It seems taken with ripping the two towers on either side of the Gate apart, so you might not want to go that way.
Not a problem! In addition to catching up with yesterday's work, I'm playing defacto insurance manager today as my immediate supervisor is out.
ReplyDelete