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AGELESS Campaign Episode 2 - Temple of the Cat-Goddess
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<blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 6858346" data-attributes="member: 8530"><p><strong>Chapter 83, “Have Fun Storming the Castle”, September 11, 1882, 1:30 P.M.</strong></p><p></p><p>George speculates dividing the Egyptian force into three parts, with 20% on the far right side of the square, in firing positions with the front rows kneeling. The officer in charge will blow his trumpet and call out for the surrender of the rebels. Simultaneous to that 40% of the forces will move in on the left, and the remaining 40% across the plaza. George says he expects the rebels to either scatter or charge the troops. The Egyptian troops will be in a position to flank the rebels at any case, cutting off a rebel retreat. Calllum reminds George of the rebels near the two rear palace entrances as well, which include some of the Sheik’s sons. George asks about the number of forces and Callum replies that each of these two groups by the rear entrances number 15 to 20.</p><p></p><p>Lieutenant Colonel Hassan informs George that most of the cavalry has now arrived, but that one cavalry battalion is not yet to Cairo. He therefore has at the immediate disposal approximately 3,000 infantry, 900 horse cavalry and 600 camel cavalry. Things move quickly for the next half-hour. Upon hearing George's suggestions for troop deployment the Lieutenant Colonel put them into action. The troops move in from all directions, with the mounted cavalry taking the center of the courtyard. A call for surrender of the 150-or-so rebels in the courtyards results in around one-third giving up. Once they are cleared a cavalry charge follows.</p><p></p><p>There is something very impressive about hundreds of horses moving from a walk, to a trot, to a canter with weapons extended. To the recipients, it is sheer terror, especially when there is nowhere to run. As thousands of pounds of equine barreled towards them a variety of emotions and reactions followed from the remaining hundred or so rebels. Many fired their weapons, but few hit, as fear prevented accurate aim. Others fell to the ground a prayed to their gods. Still others turned and fled behind them, a fatal mistake as that was the direction of the palace, where the guards who the rebels had been shooting at for the previous four hours were in position and now opened fire.</p><p></p><p>Abdullah and a dozen of his strongest followers stood their ground, managing to find enough cover to survive the cavalry change, but were hopelessly outnumbered as hundreds of infantry troops moved in from both flanks. As they fired into the approaching wall of soldiers the trumpets sounded double-time, and the swarm of soldiers soon overcame the remaining renegades.</p><p></p><p>The party had followed behind on their mounts, watching this transpire in the courtyard. Just when the last guns in the courtyard fell silent the unmistakable sound of fireballs exploding resound from the rear of the massive stone building. Galloping around the palace, they see that another last stand had occurred there, but with very different results.</p><p></p><p>The Lieutenant Colonel had been warned by the party of the remaining fireball wands, but discounted the threat, expecting to lose some troops to the magic while still overwhelming the small number of rebels by the superior force. Instead, the rebels turned their magic on the rear palace guards, blasting their way into the building. As the party looks on they see rear windows inside the massive stone structure explode outward in fire from both the first and second floors of the building. George swears in five languages.</p><p></p><p>Raising his gun above his head George rallies the party and Egyptian soldiers nearby with an Inspire Courage spell and orders them to follow and he charges on horseback into the Royal Palace after the rebels. Lawrence draws his revolver and tightens his grip on the reins of his horse with his other hand. Spurring his horse into action, he lets out a war whoop. "Let's go get 'em!"</p><p></p><p>Trotting under the doorway and into the wide rear hallway, they see several charred bodies of fireballed Egyptian guards. It is obvious which way the rebels went based upon the damage and distant explosions. Continuing down the hallway they reach a marble staircase up, with fireball sounds coming from above. There appears to still be rebels on this level as well due to gunshots from further down the hallway.</p><p></p><p>Lawrence dismounts and holds his index finger to his mouth. The rogue tries to sneak up the stairway, placing each foot carefully. Holding her rifle high Ruby yells, "Lawrence my love, this is not the time for sneaking! This is the time for riding up to our enemies and blasting them in the face! Come!"</p><p></p><p>Then, in a move that can only be considered pure Ruby, she begins singing. To her friends and allies her pure voice drowns out the sounds of the surrounding battle. "Come my friends and make history with me. Today we shall be heroes and set this city free!" Ruby spurs her horse up the stairs towards the rebels. Lawrence barks, "Tarnation, woman! You'll be the death of me yet." Shaking his head, he races back to his horse and follows her up the stairs. Abby raised one eyebrow and looked to Cal. "A little grandiose, but she's got the right idea." Her blade sang as she pulled it from its sheath and she urged her horse forward.</p><p></p><p>Ruby's horse reaches the top of the marble stairs first. The sound of fireballs exploding is coming from her left at the end of the long corridor. There are three windows on the south side of the corridor and pairs of wide double doors along the north end of the corridor at fifty-foot intervals. The middle pair, around 110 feet away, appear to currently be open.</p><p></p><p>Callum and Abigail reach the top of the staircase behind Ruby, who is already heading in the direction of the open doors. The trio soon reach the room. Ruby recognizes the room inside the doors as the large throne room of the King where she originally arrived at the Palace, although she had exited from doors on the opposite side. A major battle is taking place inside the room. At the far corner are dozens of servants and advisors to the King, cowering tightly together. A half-sphere shaped barrier surrounds them, apparently invisible but enough dust and debris has now settled upon it to show the outline.</p><p></p><p>A man and a young boy are near them, using the gold throne as partial cover. The man is throwing Magic Missile spells at his attackers. Ruby recognizes the boy as the one who had approached Abby and Callum back in the courtyard. Callum and Abby recognize them both as Callum’s allies Henry Jones and Maurice Beaujoulais.</p><p></p><p>The attackers are from the opposite side of the room and are led by the Sheik who had been supporting Abdullah. He has eight armed men with him, one of whom has a fireball wand in his hand. The other six men are firing the rifles at their opponents behind the throne and have not yet noticed the horses in the doorway. Also in the room is a dead or unconscious rhinoceros, that is on its side near a pile of six rebels, some of which are clearly dead others possibly unconscious.</p><p></p><p>In a sing song voice Ruby says to her friends, "Stay back but be ready, it our time to prove ourselves to the King!" She spurs her horse forward slightly into the room while simultaneously bring up the sniper rifle to her shoulder. "Traitors! You would kill your own king? Well guess what? Your French allies aren't the only ones to carry powerful weapons!" With that Ruby fires an unerring shot towards the head of the man with the fireball wand. George reigns up his horse as Ruby pulls out the magic boom-boom stick. From outside the doorway he aims his gun at the lead rifleman and fires off a shot of his own.</p><p></p><p>Ruby's bullet creates a third eye between the other two and he collapses to the floor. A the sight of yet another son dying before him the Sheik screams out in anguish, then throws his hands in Ruby's direction. A magical lightening bolt shoots forth, killing her mount Golden Eagle and inflicting moderate damage to Ruby as well. Despite the pain she manages to leap from the dying animal and lands on her feet, rifle still in hand. George's next shot misses as three of the men near the Sheik turn their guns in George's direction outside of the doorway.</p><p></p><p>Abby turned her horse to circle around the group of men and get some room. Once she has moved a bit to the side, she urged the horse forward, ready to slice into the first man she reaches. She takes care to stay to the side in order to stay out of the line of fire for the others.</p><p></p><p>Ruby lets out a scream of pain and falls behind the horse. Though she is hurt the adrenaline is coursing through her masking the majority of it. She puts her acting skills to use however and greatly exaggerates her injuries as she falls. She falls so that her position is such that the horse is blocking her mostly from her enemies but the barrel of the gun is still pointed directly at them. One peek over the horse, one calming breath just as Jake taught her and she aims for the Sheik who just blasted her and shoots the rifle.</p><p></p><p>Much to Ruby's surprise, her shot hits but then deflects off of his robes. The richochet does manage to strike one of his followers in the leg, causing the man to fall as he screams up in pain. The remaining men near the sheik now all turn their rifles and attention in the direction of Ruby and the fallen horse.</p><p></p><p>Mina, having just gotten to the doorway to see the Sheik hurt Ruby then see her granddaughter fall, immediately throws magical bolts from her fingertips at the Sheik that fly towards him at the same time Ruby's gunfire does. The missiles strike, as he turns his attention in Mina's direction. With his back now turned away from the throne, Maurice Beaujoulais quickly but quietly moves across the room towards his opponents (as his only remaining offensive spell requires touch).</p><p></p><p>George whirls his horse towards the soldiers who were following him on foot and have now reached the top of the stairs. He shouts in Arabic and calls out "For the King!" Holding his gun forward he leads the cavalry in a true dragoon charge, guns and swords slashing as the group charges through the doorway and down onto the riflemen. Once inside the room he see Ruby's horse lying dead on the floor, with her behind it. Abby, Callum and Mina are also in the room on horseback. The infantry men are hurrying down the hallway, still around 30 feet back. Lawrence rides down the past the infantry soldiers following George.</p><p></p><p>Abby rides forward and slices the shoulder of one of the men shooting at Ruby. His companion beside him drops his rifle and draws a scimitar to attack her. For the moment Abby stayed on the horse, leaning down to strike at the man's sword arm. Her eye is on the rifle, debating whether to slide down and grab it. Abby and the rebel exchange blows, their weapons striking together.</p><p></p><p>Ruby stays low and still, hidden behind the dead horse. With a quick look down to see that Ruby is Ok, George leads the soldiers straight into the mass of rebels, guns blazing, swords cutting and horses trampling. George covers half the distance to the men before his horse takes a bullet. It does not appear to be a mortal wound but the animal does scream out in pain and slows its trot to a walk.</p><p></p><p>Abby moves her sword in quick strikes meant to distract, then kicked the rebel in the back of the knee, hoping to send him to the floor and follow it up with a sword thrust. The kick is successful, knocking him back and into one of his companions. The companion charges forward and becomes the recipient of Abby's sword.</p><p></p><p>George urges the men onward as he takes a shot at the Sheik. From her hiding spot Ruby casts sleep at the group of men hoping to at least take a couple down for a few seconds. Ruby prepares to cast the spell just as she sees the man who had been back at the throne has successfully approached the sheik from behind. She realizes that making any of the men collapse right this second might cause the sheik to turn his head in that direction and possibly spot the man.</p><p></p><p>She holds off casting the spell, assuming the man (who only Callum and Abby have met thus far) is on their side having seen him sneak over from the opposite side of the room. She watches and waits instead not wanting to draw too much more attention to herself in her injured state. George's shot, like Ruby's deflects off of the robe. However, it has managed to hold the Sheik's full attention as the other man moves in behind him.</p><p></p><p>This man now simultaneously places his hands on the Sheik's neck as he casts a spell. Flames shoot forth from his fingertips onto the neck, with the palms then raised sending the flames upward and covering the man's head with fire and igniting his hair. The man screams and pulls up his robe in an attempt to cover his head and extinguish the flames. The man with the flaming hands points them down and then tries to ignite the man's feet and shoes. The sheik's screams momentarily distract the men with the rifles.</p><p></p><p>Seeing her opportunity, Ruby begins shooting at the men with the rifles, being careful to stay away from the Sheik or the party’s new unknown ally. Abby ripped her sword back out of the man, then kicked the man she tripped in the temple, hoping to keep him down. The man falls. Simultaneous to this, Ruby shoots another rifleman down. Maurice's spell ends just as Callum charges forward and scoops up his friend and ally.</p><p></p><p>Abby next attempted to take advantage of the spell being used by Maurice to skewer one of the riflemen. She hits the man, but only wounds him. However, she is now so close to him that he is unable to use his rifle to shoot her. Instead of using the blade again, Abby reached forward with her free hand and grabbed the rifle. She then pushed the rifle back, shoving the butt of the rifle into the man's should and then tried to twist it out of his hands. He releases the rifle, and grabbing onto her saddle, attempts to jump up onto the horse behind her.</p><p></p><p>Abby swung the rifle at the man like a baseball bat, hoping to send him back down to the floor. The man appears to have exceptional strength, as he manages to pull himself up onto the back of the saddle with one hand while holding up his and grabbing the rifle with the other, bringing it to a complete stop. He smiles and says to her in Arabic "Say please, and I might let you live."</p><p></p><p>While he is focused on Abby, Lawrence rides up a short distance behind the mounted man and fires his revolver at the rebel’s head. With excellent timing and even better aim, Lawrence dispatches the man. Lawrence looks down at the fallen man. "I don't know what you just said there. But a word of advice. Don't gloat until the deed is done."</p><p></p><p>Abby pulled in a deep breath and assisted her assailant with his fall to the floor. For the first time since they'd gotten to Egypt her voice rang with a full southern drawl as she said, "Why thank you Lawrence! I do believe that gentleman had less than honorable intentions." Before she even finished speaking she had shoved the rifle behind a saddlebag and was bringing the sword to bear on another foe. Lawrence waves his hand in a courtly gesture. "I do believe you are correct, my dear Abby. I would say he's learned his lesson."</p><p></p><p>Ruby waits patiently to have a safe shot then takes it, trying to shoot another rifleman. The remaining riflemen make what appears to be a fighting retreat towards the western end of the room, picking up the wounded Sheik in the process. Ruby takes a shot, but misses. Ruby notes that the western wall is the only one without exit doors, as the entire length of the room had been floor to ceiling windows, the room's primary source of natural light as well as affording an excellent view of the Great Pyramids at Gazah, eight miles to the west. Due to the battle and fireball debris, most of the windows are now broken and cracked, several missing entire sheets of glass.</p><p></p><p>"We can't let them get out the windows!" Ruby calls out to her friends. She takes a shot at the now injured Sheik hoping his enchantments have been broken. The shot also deflects off of his robe. Mina runs through the fray and throws herself to the floor, also using the horse as cover. "Ruby, Ruby are you alright? You're hurt!" Her grandmother begins looking her over for injuries.</p><p></p><p>Ruby says, "I've been better but I don't want to stop to think about it now Nana. Let's get these guys and we'll deal with it later." Mina answers, "Constance Grace, I am not putting your life in any more risk, if you can't go on you can't go on." Ruby raised an eyebrow at her grandmother.</p><p></p><p>Mina says, "Alright, you seem well enough for this moment. But I will absolutely put my foot down granddaughter. I am not going to lose you again." Ruby nods and gets her head back into the fight. She calls out, "I believe he's got a magical robe! Aim for his head." She uses the horse to steady her arm, aims very carefully for the Sheik's head and shoots.</p><p></p><p>She finds that she does not have a shot, as he is still using the robe to cover over his head burns. The only part of his body not covered by the robe are his feet and bottom of his legs, as the robe is hiked up higher-than-usual to cover the head. George leaps onto a passing soldier's horse behind the lead soldier as he and the group of soldiers charge forward and crash into the rebels, cutting and shooting the remaining riflemen.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Silver Moon, post: 6858346, member: 8530"] [B]Chapter 83, “Have Fun Storming the Castle”, September 11, 1882, 1:30 P.M.[/B] George speculates dividing the Egyptian force into three parts, with 20% on the far right side of the square, in firing positions with the front rows kneeling. The officer in charge will blow his trumpet and call out for the surrender of the rebels. Simultaneous to that 40% of the forces will move in on the left, and the remaining 40% across the plaza. George says he expects the rebels to either scatter or charge the troops. The Egyptian troops will be in a position to flank the rebels at any case, cutting off a rebel retreat. Calllum reminds George of the rebels near the two rear palace entrances as well, which include some of the Sheik’s sons. George asks about the number of forces and Callum replies that each of these two groups by the rear entrances number 15 to 20. Lieutenant Colonel Hassan informs George that most of the cavalry has now arrived, but that one cavalry battalion is not yet to Cairo. He therefore has at the immediate disposal approximately 3,000 infantry, 900 horse cavalry and 600 camel cavalry. Things move quickly for the next half-hour. Upon hearing George's suggestions for troop deployment the Lieutenant Colonel put them into action. The troops move in from all directions, with the mounted cavalry taking the center of the courtyard. A call for surrender of the 150-or-so rebels in the courtyards results in around one-third giving up. Once they are cleared a cavalry charge follows. There is something very impressive about hundreds of horses moving from a walk, to a trot, to a canter with weapons extended. To the recipients, it is sheer terror, especially when there is nowhere to run. As thousands of pounds of equine barreled towards them a variety of emotions and reactions followed from the remaining hundred or so rebels. Many fired their weapons, but few hit, as fear prevented accurate aim. Others fell to the ground a prayed to their gods. Still others turned and fled behind them, a fatal mistake as that was the direction of the palace, where the guards who the rebels had been shooting at for the previous four hours were in position and now opened fire. Abdullah and a dozen of his strongest followers stood their ground, managing to find enough cover to survive the cavalry change, but were hopelessly outnumbered as hundreds of infantry troops moved in from both flanks. As they fired into the approaching wall of soldiers the trumpets sounded double-time, and the swarm of soldiers soon overcame the remaining renegades. The party had followed behind on their mounts, watching this transpire in the courtyard. Just when the last guns in the courtyard fell silent the unmistakable sound of fireballs exploding resound from the rear of the massive stone building. Galloping around the palace, they see that another last stand had occurred there, but with very different results. The Lieutenant Colonel had been warned by the party of the remaining fireball wands, but discounted the threat, expecting to lose some troops to the magic while still overwhelming the small number of rebels by the superior force. Instead, the rebels turned their magic on the rear palace guards, blasting their way into the building. As the party looks on they see rear windows inside the massive stone structure explode outward in fire from both the first and second floors of the building. George swears in five languages. Raising his gun above his head George rallies the party and Egyptian soldiers nearby with an Inspire Courage spell and orders them to follow and he charges on horseback into the Royal Palace after the rebels. Lawrence draws his revolver and tightens his grip on the reins of his horse with his other hand. Spurring his horse into action, he lets out a war whoop. "Let's go get 'em!" Trotting under the doorway and into the wide rear hallway, they see several charred bodies of fireballed Egyptian guards. It is obvious which way the rebels went based upon the damage and distant explosions. Continuing down the hallway they reach a marble staircase up, with fireball sounds coming from above. There appears to still be rebels on this level as well due to gunshots from further down the hallway. Lawrence dismounts and holds his index finger to his mouth. The rogue tries to sneak up the stairway, placing each foot carefully. Holding her rifle high Ruby yells, "Lawrence my love, this is not the time for sneaking! This is the time for riding up to our enemies and blasting them in the face! Come!" Then, in a move that can only be considered pure Ruby, she begins singing. To her friends and allies her pure voice drowns out the sounds of the surrounding battle. "Come my friends and make history with me. Today we shall be heroes and set this city free!" Ruby spurs her horse up the stairs towards the rebels. Lawrence barks, "Tarnation, woman! You'll be the death of me yet." Shaking his head, he races back to his horse and follows her up the stairs. Abby raised one eyebrow and looked to Cal. "A little grandiose, but she's got the right idea." Her blade sang as she pulled it from its sheath and she urged her horse forward. Ruby's horse reaches the top of the marble stairs first. The sound of fireballs exploding is coming from her left at the end of the long corridor. There are three windows on the south side of the corridor and pairs of wide double doors along the north end of the corridor at fifty-foot intervals. The middle pair, around 110 feet away, appear to currently be open. Callum and Abigail reach the top of the staircase behind Ruby, who is already heading in the direction of the open doors. The trio soon reach the room. Ruby recognizes the room inside the doors as the large throne room of the King where she originally arrived at the Palace, although she had exited from doors on the opposite side. A major battle is taking place inside the room. At the far corner are dozens of servants and advisors to the King, cowering tightly together. A half-sphere shaped barrier surrounds them, apparently invisible but enough dust and debris has now settled upon it to show the outline. A man and a young boy are near them, using the gold throne as partial cover. The man is throwing Magic Missile spells at his attackers. Ruby recognizes the boy as the one who had approached Abby and Callum back in the courtyard. Callum and Abby recognize them both as Callum’s allies Henry Jones and Maurice Beaujoulais. The attackers are from the opposite side of the room and are led by the Sheik who had been supporting Abdullah. He has eight armed men with him, one of whom has a fireball wand in his hand. The other six men are firing the rifles at their opponents behind the throne and have not yet noticed the horses in the doorway. Also in the room is a dead or unconscious rhinoceros, that is on its side near a pile of six rebels, some of which are clearly dead others possibly unconscious. In a sing song voice Ruby says to her friends, "Stay back but be ready, it our time to prove ourselves to the King!" She spurs her horse forward slightly into the room while simultaneously bring up the sniper rifle to her shoulder. "Traitors! You would kill your own king? Well guess what? Your French allies aren't the only ones to carry powerful weapons!" With that Ruby fires an unerring shot towards the head of the man with the fireball wand. George reigns up his horse as Ruby pulls out the magic boom-boom stick. From outside the doorway he aims his gun at the lead rifleman and fires off a shot of his own. Ruby's bullet creates a third eye between the other two and he collapses to the floor. A the sight of yet another son dying before him the Sheik screams out in anguish, then throws his hands in Ruby's direction. A magical lightening bolt shoots forth, killing her mount Golden Eagle and inflicting moderate damage to Ruby as well. Despite the pain she manages to leap from the dying animal and lands on her feet, rifle still in hand. George's next shot misses as three of the men near the Sheik turn their guns in George's direction outside of the doorway. Abby turned her horse to circle around the group of men and get some room. Once she has moved a bit to the side, she urged the horse forward, ready to slice into the first man she reaches. She takes care to stay to the side in order to stay out of the line of fire for the others. Ruby lets out a scream of pain and falls behind the horse. Though she is hurt the adrenaline is coursing through her masking the majority of it. She puts her acting skills to use however and greatly exaggerates her injuries as she falls. She falls so that her position is such that the horse is blocking her mostly from her enemies but the barrel of the gun is still pointed directly at them. One peek over the horse, one calming breath just as Jake taught her and she aims for the Sheik who just blasted her and shoots the rifle. Much to Ruby's surprise, her shot hits but then deflects off of his robes. The richochet does manage to strike one of his followers in the leg, causing the man to fall as he screams up in pain. The remaining men near the sheik now all turn their rifles and attention in the direction of Ruby and the fallen horse. Mina, having just gotten to the doorway to see the Sheik hurt Ruby then see her granddaughter fall, immediately throws magical bolts from her fingertips at the Sheik that fly towards him at the same time Ruby's gunfire does. The missiles strike, as he turns his attention in Mina's direction. With his back now turned away from the throne, Maurice Beaujoulais quickly but quietly moves across the room towards his opponents (as his only remaining offensive spell requires touch). George whirls his horse towards the soldiers who were following him on foot and have now reached the top of the stairs. He shouts in Arabic and calls out "For the King!" Holding his gun forward he leads the cavalry in a true dragoon charge, guns and swords slashing as the group charges through the doorway and down onto the riflemen. Once inside the room he see Ruby's horse lying dead on the floor, with her behind it. Abby, Callum and Mina are also in the room on horseback. The infantry men are hurrying down the hallway, still around 30 feet back. Lawrence rides down the past the infantry soldiers following George. Abby rides forward and slices the shoulder of one of the men shooting at Ruby. His companion beside him drops his rifle and draws a scimitar to attack her. For the moment Abby stayed on the horse, leaning down to strike at the man's sword arm. Her eye is on the rifle, debating whether to slide down and grab it. Abby and the rebel exchange blows, their weapons striking together. Ruby stays low and still, hidden behind the dead horse. With a quick look down to see that Ruby is Ok, George leads the soldiers straight into the mass of rebels, guns blazing, swords cutting and horses trampling. George covers half the distance to the men before his horse takes a bullet. It does not appear to be a mortal wound but the animal does scream out in pain and slows its trot to a walk. Abby moves her sword in quick strikes meant to distract, then kicked the rebel in the back of the knee, hoping to send him to the floor and follow it up with a sword thrust. The kick is successful, knocking him back and into one of his companions. The companion charges forward and becomes the recipient of Abby's sword. George urges the men onward as he takes a shot at the Sheik. From her hiding spot Ruby casts sleep at the group of men hoping to at least take a couple down for a few seconds. Ruby prepares to cast the spell just as she sees the man who had been back at the throne has successfully approached the sheik from behind. She realizes that making any of the men collapse right this second might cause the sheik to turn his head in that direction and possibly spot the man. She holds off casting the spell, assuming the man (who only Callum and Abby have met thus far) is on their side having seen him sneak over from the opposite side of the room. She watches and waits instead not wanting to draw too much more attention to herself in her injured state. George's shot, like Ruby's deflects off of the robe. However, it has managed to hold the Sheik's full attention as the other man moves in behind him. This man now simultaneously places his hands on the Sheik's neck as he casts a spell. Flames shoot forth from his fingertips onto the neck, with the palms then raised sending the flames upward and covering the man's head with fire and igniting his hair. The man screams and pulls up his robe in an attempt to cover his head and extinguish the flames. The man with the flaming hands points them down and then tries to ignite the man's feet and shoes. The sheik's screams momentarily distract the men with the rifles. Seeing her opportunity, Ruby begins shooting at the men with the rifles, being careful to stay away from the Sheik or the party’s new unknown ally. Abby ripped her sword back out of the man, then kicked the man she tripped in the temple, hoping to keep him down. The man falls. Simultaneous to this, Ruby shoots another rifleman down. Maurice's spell ends just as Callum charges forward and scoops up his friend and ally. Abby next attempted to take advantage of the spell being used by Maurice to skewer one of the riflemen. She hits the man, but only wounds him. However, she is now so close to him that he is unable to use his rifle to shoot her. Instead of using the blade again, Abby reached forward with her free hand and grabbed the rifle. She then pushed the rifle back, shoving the butt of the rifle into the man's should and then tried to twist it out of his hands. He releases the rifle, and grabbing onto her saddle, attempts to jump up onto the horse behind her. Abby swung the rifle at the man like a baseball bat, hoping to send him back down to the floor. The man appears to have exceptional strength, as he manages to pull himself up onto the back of the saddle with one hand while holding up his and grabbing the rifle with the other, bringing it to a complete stop. He smiles and says to her in Arabic "Say please, and I might let you live." While he is focused on Abby, Lawrence rides up a short distance behind the mounted man and fires his revolver at the rebel’s head. With excellent timing and even better aim, Lawrence dispatches the man. Lawrence looks down at the fallen man. "I don't know what you just said there. But a word of advice. Don't gloat until the deed is done." Abby pulled in a deep breath and assisted her assailant with his fall to the floor. For the first time since they'd gotten to Egypt her voice rang with a full southern drawl as she said, "Why thank you Lawrence! I do believe that gentleman had less than honorable intentions." Before she even finished speaking she had shoved the rifle behind a saddlebag and was bringing the sword to bear on another foe. Lawrence waves his hand in a courtly gesture. "I do believe you are correct, my dear Abby. I would say he's learned his lesson." Ruby waits patiently to have a safe shot then takes it, trying to shoot another rifleman. The remaining riflemen make what appears to be a fighting retreat towards the western end of the room, picking up the wounded Sheik in the process. Ruby takes a shot, but misses. Ruby notes that the western wall is the only one without exit doors, as the entire length of the room had been floor to ceiling windows, the room's primary source of natural light as well as affording an excellent view of the Great Pyramids at Gazah, eight miles to the west. Due to the battle and fireball debris, most of the windows are now broken and cracked, several missing entire sheets of glass. "We can't let them get out the windows!" Ruby calls out to her friends. She takes a shot at the now injured Sheik hoping his enchantments have been broken. The shot also deflects off of his robe. Mina runs through the fray and throws herself to the floor, also using the horse as cover. "Ruby, Ruby are you alright? You're hurt!" Her grandmother begins looking her over for injuries. Ruby says, "I've been better but I don't want to stop to think about it now Nana. Let's get these guys and we'll deal with it later." Mina answers, "Constance Grace, I am not putting your life in any more risk, if you can't go on you can't go on." Ruby raised an eyebrow at her grandmother. Mina says, "Alright, you seem well enough for this moment. But I will absolutely put my foot down granddaughter. I am not going to lose you again." Ruby nods and gets her head back into the fight. She calls out, "I believe he's got a magical robe! Aim for his head." She uses the horse to steady her arm, aims very carefully for the Sheik's head and shoots. She finds that she does not have a shot, as he is still using the robe to cover over his head burns. The only part of his body not covered by the robe are his feet and bottom of his legs, as the robe is hiked up higher-than-usual to cover the head. George leaps onto a passing soldier's horse behind the lead soldier as he and the group of soldiers charge forward and crash into the rebels, cutting and shooting the remaining riflemen. [/QUOTE]
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AGELESS Campaign Episode 2 - Temple of the Cat-Goddess
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