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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Haraash Saan" data-source="post: 3163280" data-attributes="member: 46615">At this point I should note that weapons are not usually on show in most cities, well not weapons of significance like swords, and as I was expecting a night of passion, not violence, I had left my rapier back in my room.The pikeman readied for the lepers charge but they were overrun before they had had a chance to set themselves. It very quickly turned into an ugly hand-to-hand melee. The Duchess was trying to control her startled mare. With any luck she would succeed, turn, and flee to safety. She did not. I arrived and attempted to slap the horse on the rump with the intent of startling it into a run to break through the lepers. It reared as I swung and my hand made no contact. I swung again, and once again I missed. I noticed from the corner of my eye that Baastian had arrived on my left and hurled a dagger although I did not see the result of the throw. A pikeman on my right went down. I slapped again. Contact at last! I laid a telling blow on the horse’s rear. Startled it tried to burst through the lepers, but the stupid woman astride it managed to hold the animal back. Why she resisted I do not know, but the reasoning of the feebler sex is beyond me.“Unhand my horse, peasant!” she cried out to me. The lack of gratitude was incredible. I was aiding her, helping her and saving her life and what did I get? Unhand my horse? She must have been in a panic. She did not know what was good for her, and that would also explain her derogatory comment referring to my status. It was quite obvious to anyone who cared to look that nothing about me bore any resemblance to a peasant!A leper leapt high with club in hand and thumped the Duchess solidly. She was stunned but somehow managed to stay upon her horse.Morgan and Argonne now joined the fray. Morgan, like me, bore no weapons. Argonne introduced himself to a leper immediately, by forcing him to dodge a hastily swung blow from the staff. Stravarious appeared, whipping out his rapier and swinging wildly. The one glance I managed revealed that he had no skill with the blade.Beyond the lepers I heard glass break. The fighting reached its most frantic. The Duchess’s horse finally decided to take matters into its own hooves and bolted through a gap in the congestion. Argonne grasped for the reins wildly, but was kicked aside for his troubles. Suddenly I realised my precarious position, without a weapon in the middle of a brawl. This was no place for a gentleman. Especially an unarmed one. I grabbed the pike of a fallen guard and used its significant length to puncture a leper. I half expected puss and ooze to seep out of its body. But then, I had not noticed until that moment that we were not fighting lepers. They were normal, healthy men. My adversary turned his attention to me. He took a step forward, edging past the shaft of my pike and swung a violent blow at my head. I ducked easily.I glanced to my right to see if the Duchess was alright. Morgan had chased the horse down and was now struggling to control it, but they were clear of any immediate threat.This was not how I imagined my first combat, a gutter stoush, pike in hand facing a club wielding foe. That thought must have distracted me, for my next thrust did not even graze my opponent, though at least I did manage to redirect my assailants’ attack by half parrying it and pushing his club aside with the pike. There was a quick movement above the combat, and my instincts prepared me to leap aside. A crate that had still been attached to a crane had been loosened and tumbled down with an almighty crash. I saw that Moxadder had not been idle and had climbed the crane and untied the securing rope and dropped the crate. I could not tell if his plan had any success as a massive lump of wood once again tried to part my head from my neck. Again I dodged and this time responded in kind with another strike that found its target. Still my opponent stood. Blood stained his robes. I prepared myself for another attempt, praying to Laster that if I survived I would truly honour his most important day. My foe ran straight past me. I stabbed quickly but in my surprise failed to connect. Then I saw what it was that he and another leper had run for; the Duchess!Morgan had been leading the Duchess’s horse away, she still looked groggy, and our combatants had finally resumed there original intent. I sprinted off in pursuit. The two remaining pikeman, (another had fallen at some stage), as well as the rest of the leper colony,  beat me to it. The Duchess’ men thrust at the lepers with their pikes scoring at least one hit and downing a leper. I charged at the last robed figure, the very same one I had been fighting, and rammed my pike home. The force was such that his arms flew up and his club dropped from his hands, but the bastard refused to die. That is until a bolt from Mortec’s crossbow bolt flew true and thudded emphatically into his back. He slumped forward and slowly slid off the end of my pike. We had won the day and saved the Duchess. As is always the way with stories and tales of similar ilk, the pounding of hooves announced the arrival, when there was no one left to fight, of the brave and fearful Prince and his routine. The difference in this case was that Prince Brand was quite unconcerned.“What happened here!” he barked.“My lord, the Duchess was attacked,” I began.“And who the devil are you, peasant?” he turned to look down upon me from his horse.“My lord, I am Gerard de Mowbray, at your service.” I said with another doff of my hat and a much deeper bow than I had offered to Baastian.“Mowbray? I seem to recall some such peasant nobility somewhere about. And what proof do you have man?” he asked.I displayed my signet ring. His acknowledgment was a small grunt. “And?” he queried. The high and mighty of the nobility really do go above and beyond the call of arrogance sometimes. I am an intelligent man and accept that my place is above the peasants, however I do try not to treat them with the utter contempt Brand was displaying to me. “My lord. Several men posing as lepers,” Brand raised a suspicious eyebrow, almost questioning whether such a thing was possible, “drew clubs and beset the Duchess. We”, I gestured vaguely to Baastian’s company, “assisted the Duchess’s guards, who were severely outnumbered..” I sensed he was not a patient man, so I skipped the details.“Hmpf.” Another magnificent reply! Obviously the man was a scholar.  Prince Brand reached for his belt, grabbed a pouch and threw it to my feet. “There is your reward. Now leave! My men will handle this now.”“Thank you my lord.” yet another bow. This one was deep enough to scoop up the pouch and deftly secret into a pocket. “Guardsman, I do believe that this is yours?” I said as I handed the pike I had retrieved earlier to a guardsman. I then turned on my heel and headed back toward my comrades.</blockquote>

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