Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
AGELESS Campaign Episode 2 - Temple of the Cat-Goddess
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 6851578" data-attributes="member: 8530"><p><strong>Chapter 82, “Hell Breaks Loose”, September 11, 1882, 1:00 P.M.</strong></p><p></p><p>For a weapon designed to accurately shoot up to a mile, a shot of little more than 100 yards from a skilled shooter is child's play. The shot is completely on target, striking the man's chest right at the heart. The German collapses to the ground as his wife screams.</p><p></p><p>The revolver the man was holding also strikes the ground and discharges. It apparently had some sort of magical ammunition inside as the bullet strikes one of the rebels that had been with the group, causing the man to spontaneously combust as he lets out a piercing scream which quickly ends as the body is immediately reduced to a pile of ashes. This draws the attention of everyone in the courtyard.</p><p></p><p>"IT IS THE VENGEANCE OF RA!" screams George inciting the crowd as he runs away wand stowed away in his robes. "ThankyouAphroditethankyou!" Ruby exclaims all in one breath as she quickly reloads the gun without taking her eyes off the action. "George RUN!!" "This just got serious. It looks like Abby is okay so far, I don't even see Larry, he's just blended in, I hope Nana is okay. Keep calm Ruby, it's going to be fine, we have the gods on our side, now don't we," she smiles, "We just have to after that."</p><p></p><p>No sooner had Abby stated “We will fight for the glory of Egypt!" when they are interrupted by the sound of gunfire and shouting from the adjacent group followed by a human inferno. Henry uses this distraction to take the wand, but the man must have felt something as he looks down at this belt where the wand had been seconds earlier.</p><p></p><p>"Too early? Too early to restore the honor of Egypt?" Abby screeched, trying to pull the man's attention back from his belt. "Ra is at his zenith, the height of his power, and he will share that power with us to restore our homeland! He will use the hands of this man," she shouted, placing her hand on the arm of the sheik's son. "Ra blesses us through him!" "Shut up you stupid cow!" the young Egyptian says as he slaps Abby across her face. Callum reacts to this by immediately drawing a concealed gun so quickly that even Hardin would have been impressed had he been watching, and then shoots the man in the face.</p><p></p><p>A short distance away Khalili draw his gun and begins shooting at George. The first shot misses. Meanwhile, Gerta rushes over to her fallen husband while simultaneously picking up the gun that he had dropped. "Oh no she doesn't, not with that gun!" Ruby takes a shot at the wife, not wanting to take any chances with that crazy magical ammunition. The shot is successful, killing the woman. Ruby then says, "Hey Corporeal, if you want me to stay up here nice and safe with this gun you ought to get over here and start helping me shoot things, now!"</p><p></p><p>Khalili's second shot at George is better than his first, the bullet hitting him in the leg and causing him to fall onto the ground. He is now 80 feet from the closest members of his group. Kahlili then orders his men "Go get that piece of excrement!" Ruby uses her second shot to shoot at Kahlili. "Bastard! You shot my man!"</p><p></p><p>Kahlili is moving around as he yells at his men, making himself a less stationary target. Ruby's shot therefore almost misses, just grazing him. Unfortunately one of Kahlili's followers also saw the bullet hit and points up to the roof where Ruby is at. George casts cure light wounds on himself to heal his leg as he stands and keeps running.</p><p></p><p>"Okay, time to fly. But, not before..." Ruby stays calm and reloads the gun, taking the brief moment to get it right. She stops and roots herself to ground and takes another shot at the Kahlili, hoping not to miss him again. She hits the man in the head and he falls. Several shots are fired up at the building, most striking the wall. Neither Ruby or the guard are hit.</p><p></p><p>For the briefest of seconds a look of absolute shock passed over Abby's face, not at the slap, but at the swift and cold violence that came from Cal. She pulled herself up deliberately, letting no shame show on her face from the slap. She held herself as if she was the most important prophet ever to walk Egypt. "Those who refuse the blessings of Ra shall suffer." She turned to Cal. "Foreigner, you have been an instrument of the great god today. Come with me." With that she turned and walked out of the crowd as if absolutely certain of her right to do so unmolested.</p><p></p><p>The men gathered in the group appear to be equally shocked by what has transpired. Abby and Cal are maybe fifteen feet away when one of the followers yells "Hey! He killed Ken-nate!" Another exclaims "Bastard! Let's get him!" "Time to run!" she said low. She turned back to the crowd and majestically raised her hands. The gesture was far more than was necessary, but every bit of theater here could help. At the conclusion of her spell-casting a concealing mist began to rise, and she turned to get out fast.</p><p></p><p>While the theatrics are impressive, it also makes her a second target as several of the men in that group fire their guns. One gun apparently has magical ammunition inside as the shot misses but causes an explosion in the dirt ahead of them when it strikes the ground.</p><p></p><p>The mist begins to rise as Abby sees a bullet strike Callum along his right side and his robe then begins to darken where the bullet struck. "Damn Cal, I told you to run," Abby said as she got herself up next to him to help him run. "Any secret healing up your sleeve?" He replies, "Fear not my dear, it is only water, they shot me in the canteen. We'd best hurry though, the next shot could be better for them."</p><p></p><p>Lawrence hears the gunshots from the courtyard. He mounts his horse and rides out to see if anyone needs rescuing. He quickly sees Abby and Cal dodge and weave until he gets hit. He spurs his horse towards them.</p><p></p><p>George is still a good 100 yards to cover when he hears a horse rapidly approaching from the side. He looks up to see John Wesley Hardin galloping towards him on the large black percheron stallion. George reaches up and grabs the back of the saddle and hauls himself up onto the back of the horse. "Good timing Hardin." says George as he takes out his gun and tries to clear out some followers "Looked like you needed it," the gunslinger turned lawyer replies.</p><p></p><p>Ruby sees Hardin rescuing George and Cal and Abby escaping. "I hope they are going to get out okay! Come on, let's get down, we've got a mob after us now too! I know they will be aimless without their leaders so we have an advantage." Ruby pulls up her hood over her red hair, tucking it inside the dark hood. They take the inside stairs and move quickly down, knowing the mob could not have made it to their building that quickly. Ruby stops to look and listen out the door before they go outside.</p><p></p><p>Ruby opens the door. The mob has not reached this section yet but there does appear to be a lot of commotion back in the courtyard. Ruby says to the soldier, "Come on, let's get back to the telegraph office, that is where we are meeting back up. I have to get back there and make sure George is okay. Stick close to me!" Ruby hangs close to the buildings to be safe and makes her way back to their temporary headquarters.</p><p></p><p>"Let's head over and gather up Ruby" says George pointing to the building she was on (not knowing that she left on the opposite side) as he picks off another rebel or two. The shots do not deter the men. Hardin quickly gets George over to the nearest cover, a street between two buildings. Glancing back to the courtyard he tells George, "Dismount, I need to go back for Abby and her friend." George deftly hops off and uses the corner of the building for cover as he aims more carefully and starting shooting the lead men.</p><p></p><p>Cal and Abby both then see Hardin on the large black horse charging in their direction and shooting his revolver at the men who had been firing on the two of them, his targets being their shoulders and gun arms. They then spot Lawrence also galloping towards them from the other side of the courtyard, both riders now 50 to 70 feet away as the wall of mist behind them becomes much thicker.</p><p></p><p>"Cal, run for Lawrence," she said As he nears Hardin puts his gun back into his belt and then leans over to scoop up Abby, planting her on the saddle behind him. He rides like the wind back towards where he had dropped off George., then took off in the direction of Harden. At least bullets weren't flying toward Lawrence yet. As he nears Hardin puts his gun back into his belt and then leans over to scoop up Abby, planting her on the saddle behind him. He rides like the wind back towards where he had dropped off George. Lawrence reaches down and grabs the younger man's hand. "Get on, Cal." He pulls him onto the horse and spurs them forward. "Hyaa!"</p><p></p><p>"Thanks for the rescue," Abby said to Hardin. She looked over her shoulder and saw Lawrence pick up Cal. With the fog she could only hope young Mr. Jones had made his way out of the crowd safely. Harden rode over to the alley where their horses were, and Abby jumped onto hers.</p><p></p><p>Instead of riding right back into the courtyard she went around and came back in a couple alleys down, then made for the telegraph office. Lawrence steers his horse through the bustling streets. Cal groans a bit as they ride. "Take a care, Lawrence. I think I got hurt back there." Lawrence looks over his shoulder. "I had no idea. Let's get you back to the telegraph office quickly, then." The pair makes it back without incident. "Abby should have some bandages."</p><p></p><p>Everybody now rescued, the party quickly trot and gallop through the streets the short distance back to the telegraph office. Ruby is the first to arrive at the telegraph office. "Where is everybody? I thought for sure Nana would at least be here! I'm going to have to go back out, George is hurt and maybe the others didn't make it out of the square. Are you coming Corporeal? I'm taking this," nods toward the gun, knowing it won't do much good up close. The guard nods reluctantly. "I'm giving them two minutes to get back, then I'll go after them."</p><p></p><p>Ruby is startled by the sudden arrival at the office of a black cat with one of the Fireball Wands held in her mouth. "What the...???" She leans over with a crooked grin and takes the wand from the cat, squinting her eyes to get a closer look. "What a clever kitty! Do we know each other?" she asks, petting the cat behind the ear. The cat rubs against Ruby's leg. Mina arrives back next.</p><p></p><p>"You just never know what you're gonna see..." she trails off as her somewhat disheveled grandmother enters the room. "NANA!!" She runs over to her grandmother and hugs her. "I was getting so worried about you!! I thought you should have been back by now and maybe you got into some trouble." Mina replies, "I did have trouble. The silence spell lasted shorter than I expected, as the head Priest was able to quickly dispel it. I had to resort to 'Plan B'."</p><p></p><p>Ruby continues, “A huge gunfight broke out in the main square. Well, we may have started it, but still, the others are out there! I've been trying to be patient and see if anyone would come back and well, here you are! But George got shot! Didn't look too bad from where I was, and Hardin rode in and scooped him up, which is why I was sure they'd be back... I am so glad you're okay. You ARE okay, right?"</p><p></p><p>Mina says, "I’m okay, I ripped my clothing in a few places and a few minor bruises, but otherwise fine. Thankfully I had both that Elixir of Arachnid Movement and a Magic Dagger with me. After I saw my spell was canceled I threw a second one, then I climbed up to the tower and cut the chime loose from its moorings. The guards shot at me, so I leaped head first from the tower, using the Arachnid ability to slow my descent near the bottom. It will probably take them a few hours to fix the damage I caused."</p><p></p><p>"Nana, you are one crazy lady!” Ruby exclaims. Mina smiles and replies, "I guess you come by it naturally then. We're two of a kind." “Thank goodness you are okay - and you had all that stuff with you, what you ended up doing really helped our cause. Without their signal they will have chaos." Ruby laughs, "Do you know what is up with this cat?"</p><p></p><p>Abby tied the horse up and ran inside. "The others should be here soon," she said when she saw Mina and Ruby inside. "All well here?" George and Lawrence arrive back to the telegraph office just moments behind Abby, Cal and Hardin. Ruby and Mina are already there, with the black cat Indy now rubbing her head against Mina's leg. At that moment George and Lawrence reenter the building. "GEORGE!" Ruby yells, running over to him. "How hurt are you? Where are you shot???" Ruby immediately starts searching him over, looking frantically for the bullet wound.</p><p></p><p>George smiles weakly at Ruby. "Not too bad my love." says George. "I was shot in the leg here. I cast a spell that stopped the bleeding and the pain. Let me get this bullet out." George pulls out a pocket knife and carefully digs into the wound in the back of his calf. He looses the bullet enough to pull it out with his fingers. He says a little prayer over the wound as it finishes sealing up. George stands up, his knife and fingers bloody. "Thank goodness for magic. I had to do that a few times before I learned magic. It took whiskey and a good bit of leather to bite down on." laughs George.</p><p></p><p>George says, "Ok, roll call. Where do we stand? I was able to garner a wand in exchange for the hole in my leg, anyone else?" Callum holds out a pair of wands and says, "These are the two that young Henry Jones was able to get. He gave these to me before I sent him off with a message to my two other colleagues about what had transpired." Abby says, "He made it out safely then. Good. I was worried."</p><p></p><p>"Great, now the German man whom Ruby shot mentioned that there was an activation word for this wand" says George producing his. "I think we may be able to assume the others do as well, perhaps we can get them to work. more importantly it shows that another foreign power is in play here adding weapons to the fire." Callum says, "But probably not the German Government, they are devoted followers of the Norse pantheon and shun the use of magic even more than the British and Americans. It does however make Abdullah out to be a hypocrite, given his anti-foreigner message to the masses."</p><p></p><p>George says, "Yes, but how do we then use that as leverage? The princes are already on board since they were receiving the wands. How do we reveal that hypocrisy to the masses to undercut his support?" Callum says, "Hmmm, that's a difficult one. Normally I would say to use the German himself to illustrate that point, but that might be rather difficult to do now, under the circumstances."</p><p></p><p>Ruby states, "Well, I wasn't about to let him kill my Georgie, that's for sure! Does anyone here speak German?" Ruby gives the wand in her hand a good looking over, looking for a secret, magically written word of any sort. Mina examines a wand and comments "No inscriptions or Norse runes, but if it was created by a German wizard the command word is probably in that language." Callum interjects, "Not necessarily, it they were made specifically for this Sheik, then they may have used a word in the local language instead. At any rate, it would probably take a much more powerful wizard than us to determine it."</p><p></p><p>Abby asks, "Are we planning on fighting in this battle then? I can't think of any other reason to try to get the activation words just now. We may be at that point though. Does anyone have an idea of any other steps we can take?" Lawrence produces the priest's staff from behind his back. "Oh, what do we do about this? Funny thing. This priest sort of gave it to me as a gift."</p><p></p><p>"Why Lawrence you sneaky little boy!" Ruby laughs, "Great job! I guess we won't know what this does either but at least it's out of their hands and they can't use it against us." Lawrence sketches a bow. "My pleasure, Ruby. I saw the opportunity and took it. This should throw a wrench into their plans."</p><p></p><p>Sahab, the Priestess of Bast, volunteers "I could probably figure out the staff as it was made for a priest in my pantheon." Ruby says, "I agree, Sahab, you check out that staff." Lawrence, presents the staff to the priestess. "Here you are, priestess. I hope you can figure out its secrets."</p><p></p><p>"Huh, I wonder where that priest picked it up from. In any case we have a nice collection of weapons safely out of the hands of the mob. But there are still quiet a few out there. Have we gotten any more telegraphs on where the army should arrive?" asks George. Meren says, "They're all here, they've surrounded this whole area, blocking off a four-block radius of the palace. The Lieutenant Colonel is just waiting for further direction from you to move in."</p><p></p><p>"All right, well seeing as we have all been seen I don't know if we can do much more without provoking an immediate retaliation from the leaders. We have done what we can to forestall the assault and save the lives of the rabble roped into this. I think it is time we lead the army in the scatter the remainder. I suggest we act as auxiliaries to capture as many leaders and neutralize their magic as we can." suggests George. Ruby shrugs. "Then I guess we let the army in. I don't know what else we can do. George is right, we scattered as many innocent as we could. Bring in the army!"</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Silver Moon, post: 6851578, member: 8530"] [B]Chapter 82, “Hell Breaks Loose”, September 11, 1882, 1:00 P.M.[/B] For a weapon designed to accurately shoot up to a mile, a shot of little more than 100 yards from a skilled shooter is child's play. The shot is completely on target, striking the man's chest right at the heart. The German collapses to the ground as his wife screams. The revolver the man was holding also strikes the ground and discharges. It apparently had some sort of magical ammunition inside as the bullet strikes one of the rebels that had been with the group, causing the man to spontaneously combust as he lets out a piercing scream which quickly ends as the body is immediately reduced to a pile of ashes. This draws the attention of everyone in the courtyard. "IT IS THE VENGEANCE OF RA!" screams George inciting the crowd as he runs away wand stowed away in his robes. "ThankyouAphroditethankyou!" Ruby exclaims all in one breath as she quickly reloads the gun without taking her eyes off the action. "George RUN!!" "This just got serious. It looks like Abby is okay so far, I don't even see Larry, he's just blended in, I hope Nana is okay. Keep calm Ruby, it's going to be fine, we have the gods on our side, now don't we," she smiles, "We just have to after that." No sooner had Abby stated “We will fight for the glory of Egypt!" when they are interrupted by the sound of gunfire and shouting from the adjacent group followed by a human inferno. Henry uses this distraction to take the wand, but the man must have felt something as he looks down at this belt where the wand had been seconds earlier. "Too early? Too early to restore the honor of Egypt?" Abby screeched, trying to pull the man's attention back from his belt. "Ra is at his zenith, the height of his power, and he will share that power with us to restore our homeland! He will use the hands of this man," she shouted, placing her hand on the arm of the sheik's son. "Ra blesses us through him!" "Shut up you stupid cow!" the young Egyptian says as he slaps Abby across her face. Callum reacts to this by immediately drawing a concealed gun so quickly that even Hardin would have been impressed had he been watching, and then shoots the man in the face. A short distance away Khalili draw his gun and begins shooting at George. The first shot misses. Meanwhile, Gerta rushes over to her fallen husband while simultaneously picking up the gun that he had dropped. "Oh no she doesn't, not with that gun!" Ruby takes a shot at the wife, not wanting to take any chances with that crazy magical ammunition. The shot is successful, killing the woman. Ruby then says, "Hey Corporeal, if you want me to stay up here nice and safe with this gun you ought to get over here and start helping me shoot things, now!" Khalili's second shot at George is better than his first, the bullet hitting him in the leg and causing him to fall onto the ground. He is now 80 feet from the closest members of his group. Kahlili then orders his men "Go get that piece of excrement!" Ruby uses her second shot to shoot at Kahlili. "Bastard! You shot my man!" Kahlili is moving around as he yells at his men, making himself a less stationary target. Ruby's shot therefore almost misses, just grazing him. Unfortunately one of Kahlili's followers also saw the bullet hit and points up to the roof where Ruby is at. George casts cure light wounds on himself to heal his leg as he stands and keeps running. "Okay, time to fly. But, not before..." Ruby stays calm and reloads the gun, taking the brief moment to get it right. She stops and roots herself to ground and takes another shot at the Kahlili, hoping not to miss him again. She hits the man in the head and he falls. Several shots are fired up at the building, most striking the wall. Neither Ruby or the guard are hit. For the briefest of seconds a look of absolute shock passed over Abby's face, not at the slap, but at the swift and cold violence that came from Cal. She pulled herself up deliberately, letting no shame show on her face from the slap. She held herself as if she was the most important prophet ever to walk Egypt. "Those who refuse the blessings of Ra shall suffer." She turned to Cal. "Foreigner, you have been an instrument of the great god today. Come with me." With that she turned and walked out of the crowd as if absolutely certain of her right to do so unmolested. The men gathered in the group appear to be equally shocked by what has transpired. Abby and Cal are maybe fifteen feet away when one of the followers yells "Hey! He killed Ken-nate!" Another exclaims "Bastard! Let's get him!" "Time to run!" she said low. She turned back to the crowd and majestically raised her hands. The gesture was far more than was necessary, but every bit of theater here could help. At the conclusion of her spell-casting a concealing mist began to rise, and she turned to get out fast. While the theatrics are impressive, it also makes her a second target as several of the men in that group fire their guns. One gun apparently has magical ammunition inside as the shot misses but causes an explosion in the dirt ahead of them when it strikes the ground. The mist begins to rise as Abby sees a bullet strike Callum along his right side and his robe then begins to darken where the bullet struck. "Damn Cal, I told you to run," Abby said as she got herself up next to him to help him run. "Any secret healing up your sleeve?" He replies, "Fear not my dear, it is only water, they shot me in the canteen. We'd best hurry though, the next shot could be better for them." Lawrence hears the gunshots from the courtyard. He mounts his horse and rides out to see if anyone needs rescuing. He quickly sees Abby and Cal dodge and weave until he gets hit. He spurs his horse towards them. George is still a good 100 yards to cover when he hears a horse rapidly approaching from the side. He looks up to see John Wesley Hardin galloping towards him on the large black percheron stallion. George reaches up and grabs the back of the saddle and hauls himself up onto the back of the horse. "Good timing Hardin." says George as he takes out his gun and tries to clear out some followers "Looked like you needed it," the gunslinger turned lawyer replies. Ruby sees Hardin rescuing George and Cal and Abby escaping. "I hope they are going to get out okay! Come on, let's get down, we've got a mob after us now too! I know they will be aimless without their leaders so we have an advantage." Ruby pulls up her hood over her red hair, tucking it inside the dark hood. They take the inside stairs and move quickly down, knowing the mob could not have made it to their building that quickly. Ruby stops to look and listen out the door before they go outside. Ruby opens the door. The mob has not reached this section yet but there does appear to be a lot of commotion back in the courtyard. Ruby says to the soldier, "Come on, let's get back to the telegraph office, that is where we are meeting back up. I have to get back there and make sure George is okay. Stick close to me!" Ruby hangs close to the buildings to be safe and makes her way back to their temporary headquarters. "Let's head over and gather up Ruby" says George pointing to the building she was on (not knowing that she left on the opposite side) as he picks off another rebel or two. The shots do not deter the men. Hardin quickly gets George over to the nearest cover, a street between two buildings. Glancing back to the courtyard he tells George, "Dismount, I need to go back for Abby and her friend." George deftly hops off and uses the corner of the building for cover as he aims more carefully and starting shooting the lead men. Cal and Abby both then see Hardin on the large black horse charging in their direction and shooting his revolver at the men who had been firing on the two of them, his targets being their shoulders and gun arms. They then spot Lawrence also galloping towards them from the other side of the courtyard, both riders now 50 to 70 feet away as the wall of mist behind them becomes much thicker. "Cal, run for Lawrence," she said As he nears Hardin puts his gun back into his belt and then leans over to scoop up Abby, planting her on the saddle behind him. He rides like the wind back towards where he had dropped off George., then took off in the direction of Harden. At least bullets weren't flying toward Lawrence yet. As he nears Hardin puts his gun back into his belt and then leans over to scoop up Abby, planting her on the saddle behind him. He rides like the wind back towards where he had dropped off George. Lawrence reaches down and grabs the younger man's hand. "Get on, Cal." He pulls him onto the horse and spurs them forward. "Hyaa!" "Thanks for the rescue," Abby said to Hardin. She looked over her shoulder and saw Lawrence pick up Cal. With the fog she could only hope young Mr. Jones had made his way out of the crowd safely. Harden rode over to the alley where their horses were, and Abby jumped onto hers. Instead of riding right back into the courtyard she went around and came back in a couple alleys down, then made for the telegraph office. Lawrence steers his horse through the bustling streets. Cal groans a bit as they ride. "Take a care, Lawrence. I think I got hurt back there." Lawrence looks over his shoulder. "I had no idea. Let's get you back to the telegraph office quickly, then." The pair makes it back without incident. "Abby should have some bandages." Everybody now rescued, the party quickly trot and gallop through the streets the short distance back to the telegraph office. Ruby is the first to arrive at the telegraph office. "Where is everybody? I thought for sure Nana would at least be here! I'm going to have to go back out, George is hurt and maybe the others didn't make it out of the square. Are you coming Corporeal? I'm taking this," nods toward the gun, knowing it won't do much good up close. The guard nods reluctantly. "I'm giving them two minutes to get back, then I'll go after them." Ruby is startled by the sudden arrival at the office of a black cat with one of the Fireball Wands held in her mouth. "What the...???" She leans over with a crooked grin and takes the wand from the cat, squinting her eyes to get a closer look. "What a clever kitty! Do we know each other?" she asks, petting the cat behind the ear. The cat rubs against Ruby's leg. Mina arrives back next. "You just never know what you're gonna see..." she trails off as her somewhat disheveled grandmother enters the room. "NANA!!" She runs over to her grandmother and hugs her. "I was getting so worried about you!! I thought you should have been back by now and maybe you got into some trouble." Mina replies, "I did have trouble. The silence spell lasted shorter than I expected, as the head Priest was able to quickly dispel it. I had to resort to 'Plan B'." Ruby continues, “A huge gunfight broke out in the main square. Well, we may have started it, but still, the others are out there! I've been trying to be patient and see if anyone would come back and well, here you are! But George got shot! Didn't look too bad from where I was, and Hardin rode in and scooped him up, which is why I was sure they'd be back... I am so glad you're okay. You ARE okay, right?" Mina says, "I’m okay, I ripped my clothing in a few places and a few minor bruises, but otherwise fine. Thankfully I had both that Elixir of Arachnid Movement and a Magic Dagger with me. After I saw my spell was canceled I threw a second one, then I climbed up to the tower and cut the chime loose from its moorings. The guards shot at me, so I leaped head first from the tower, using the Arachnid ability to slow my descent near the bottom. It will probably take them a few hours to fix the damage I caused." "Nana, you are one crazy lady!” Ruby exclaims. Mina smiles and replies, "I guess you come by it naturally then. We're two of a kind." “Thank goodness you are okay - and you had all that stuff with you, what you ended up doing really helped our cause. Without their signal they will have chaos." Ruby laughs, "Do you know what is up with this cat?" Abby tied the horse up and ran inside. "The others should be here soon," she said when she saw Mina and Ruby inside. "All well here?" George and Lawrence arrive back to the telegraph office just moments behind Abby, Cal and Hardin. Ruby and Mina are already there, with the black cat Indy now rubbing her head against Mina's leg. At that moment George and Lawrence reenter the building. "GEORGE!" Ruby yells, running over to him. "How hurt are you? Where are you shot???" Ruby immediately starts searching him over, looking frantically for the bullet wound. George smiles weakly at Ruby. "Not too bad my love." says George. "I was shot in the leg here. I cast a spell that stopped the bleeding and the pain. Let me get this bullet out." George pulls out a pocket knife and carefully digs into the wound in the back of his calf. He looses the bullet enough to pull it out with his fingers. He says a little prayer over the wound as it finishes sealing up. George stands up, his knife and fingers bloody. "Thank goodness for magic. I had to do that a few times before I learned magic. It took whiskey and a good bit of leather to bite down on." laughs George. George says, "Ok, roll call. Where do we stand? I was able to garner a wand in exchange for the hole in my leg, anyone else?" Callum holds out a pair of wands and says, "These are the two that young Henry Jones was able to get. He gave these to me before I sent him off with a message to my two other colleagues about what had transpired." Abby says, "He made it out safely then. Good. I was worried." "Great, now the German man whom Ruby shot mentioned that there was an activation word for this wand" says George producing his. "I think we may be able to assume the others do as well, perhaps we can get them to work. more importantly it shows that another foreign power is in play here adding weapons to the fire." Callum says, "But probably not the German Government, they are devoted followers of the Norse pantheon and shun the use of magic even more than the British and Americans. It does however make Abdullah out to be a hypocrite, given his anti-foreigner message to the masses." George says, "Yes, but how do we then use that as leverage? The princes are already on board since they were receiving the wands. How do we reveal that hypocrisy to the masses to undercut his support?" Callum says, "Hmmm, that's a difficult one. Normally I would say to use the German himself to illustrate that point, but that might be rather difficult to do now, under the circumstances." Ruby states, "Well, I wasn't about to let him kill my Georgie, that's for sure! Does anyone here speak German?" Ruby gives the wand in her hand a good looking over, looking for a secret, magically written word of any sort. Mina examines a wand and comments "No inscriptions or Norse runes, but if it was created by a German wizard the command word is probably in that language." Callum interjects, "Not necessarily, it they were made specifically for this Sheik, then they may have used a word in the local language instead. At any rate, it would probably take a much more powerful wizard than us to determine it." Abby asks, "Are we planning on fighting in this battle then? I can't think of any other reason to try to get the activation words just now. We may be at that point though. Does anyone have an idea of any other steps we can take?" Lawrence produces the priest's staff from behind his back. "Oh, what do we do about this? Funny thing. This priest sort of gave it to me as a gift." "Why Lawrence you sneaky little boy!" Ruby laughs, "Great job! I guess we won't know what this does either but at least it's out of their hands and they can't use it against us." Lawrence sketches a bow. "My pleasure, Ruby. I saw the opportunity and took it. This should throw a wrench into their plans." Sahab, the Priestess of Bast, volunteers "I could probably figure out the staff as it was made for a priest in my pantheon." Ruby says, "I agree, Sahab, you check out that staff." Lawrence, presents the staff to the priestess. "Here you are, priestess. I hope you can figure out its secrets." "Huh, I wonder where that priest picked it up from. In any case we have a nice collection of weapons safely out of the hands of the mob. But there are still quiet a few out there. Have we gotten any more telegraphs on where the army should arrive?" asks George. Meren says, "They're all here, they've surrounded this whole area, blocking off a four-block radius of the palace. The Lieutenant Colonel is just waiting for further direction from you to move in." "All right, well seeing as we have all been seen I don't know if we can do much more without provoking an immediate retaliation from the leaders. We have done what we can to forestall the assault and save the lives of the rabble roped into this. I think it is time we lead the army in the scatter the remainder. I suggest we act as auxiliaries to capture as many leaders and neutralize their magic as we can." suggests George. Ruby shrugs. "Then I guess we let the army in. I don't know what else we can do. George is right, we scattered as many innocent as we could. Bring in the army!" [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
AGELESS Campaign Episode 2 - Temple of the Cat-Goddess
Top