Silver Moon
Adventurer
Chapter 66, “The Prison Battle”, January 24th, 1882:
While Morgana attempted to negotiate with the prison guard her husband Arcade peered around the wall. He was careful to not lean far enough to be seen by the guard, watching the man’s hands on his shotgun rather than his face. When the guard began to take aim at Morgana Arcade reached out and grabbed the side of his wife’s dress. As the man’s finger began to depress on the trigger Arcade yanked her back towards him with full force. Thus, she was pulled out of the way just as the shot from the gun flew by, missing her by less than an inch.
Morgana became furious. Arcade wasn’t sure right away if the target of her anger was the guard who shot at her or him for interfering. He figures it is the guard she is mad at when she began the incantation of a Magic Missile spell and then charged back out from behind the wall. She sends a pair of missiles flying from her fingertips, striking the man. The man staggers back but regains his footing and then discharges the second barrel of his gun at her. She had begun retreating once the spell was cast, but is not quite fast enough to completely miss this blast, sustaining a minor injury in her arm.
Arcade yells to his wife, “That’s both barrels. He’s empty, let’s go.” The two of them charge around the bend and rush towards the man. The man drops his shotgun and starts an incantation. Arcade thinks, “Oh crap! I forgot that they also use magic here.” Three Magic Missile bolts shoot from the guard’s fingertips, two striking Arcade and one striking his wife.
Arcade draws his gun and fires back, causing a wound to the guard’s shoulder. The guard turns and runs, with Morgana’s tomahawk then landing in his back between the shoulder blades. The man staggers, giving Arcade time for another shot, a fatal hit to the head. The man falls dead at the intersection of the southern and eastern hallways.
Arcade and Morgana then make the serious error of assuming that he was the only guard near that intersection and stop to converse with the prisoner in the adjacent cell. They then hear the sound of another spell incantation back near the “T” intersection. They turn and are surprised when a pair of Chinese Orcs armed with axes and swords charge around the bend towards them. Arcade lets off a shot, which clips one but he continues to charge. More orcs follow the initial pair from behind the intersection.
Morgana deduces that they are hopelessly outnumbered and decides to play dead, falling to the ground alongside the wall. At this point a total of five orcs fill the hallway. No more appear to be coming, so Arcade casts a Heat Metal spell onto the armor and weapons of these foes. Morgana’s bluff pays off as the orcs charge by her towards Arcade, the lead one swinging his sword right at Arcade’s head. Arcade ducks, the sword knocking his hat off of his head. Arcade shoves his arm forwards, jabbing the barrel of his gun into this orc’s chest and fires. The orc drops but his sidekick is now upon Arcade and swings an axe down towards him, hitting the fighter/druid.
Back at the other hallway, Louie had been charging forward in the direction of the held guard, with Sam and Angus behind him. Their footsteps were silenced by the spell from the coin, which also prevented them from hearing the shotgun blasts. Two prisoners in cells a short distance behind the held man are yelled at them, but the silence also prevents these men from being heard. Just as Louie rushes towards the intersection Angus notices what the men were yelling about, as a rifle barrel is sticking out from behind the bend, aimed squarely at Louie’s chest.
Louie exits the range of the Silence spell and then hears the two prisoners yelling at him in French. Unfortunately he doesn’t know the language, but he then sees the rifle barrel just a few feet away from his chest. In a move that would make any baseball coach proud, Louie drops back and slides along the stone surface towards the man around the bend, temporarily delaying the shot. This guard however follows Louie’s movement with the rifle and once Louie comes to a halt fires point blank into Louie’s chest.
Louie is in anguish as the rifle bullet travels into his chest. It hurts like hell, but Louie soon notices that he is still alive so figures it wasn’t a mortal wound. He is actually correct, as the bullet miraculously missed all of his vital organs and bones, exiting from Louie’s lower back and stopping as it struck his armor pressed against the stone floor. Louie is still holding his revolver and fires a point blank shot back up at his assailant, breaking the bones and hitting a vein in the man’s shoulder.
However, the guard standing over Louie is also a ‘tough guy’. He ignores the pain and kicks the gun out of Louie’s hand simultaneous to shifting his rifle over to his other hand and shoulder for a second shot. Louie is lying helpless at this point and concludes that he is about to die. This would have been a correct assumption if not for Sureshot Sam rounding the bend right then. Sam lives up to his nickname by firing and placing the bullet right between the eyes of his opponent. Louie grabs up his gun as Sam helps him to his feet. They then notice a robed man further down at the other end of the eastern hallway.
Not far from the robed man, Arcade is still fighting with the orcs, all of whom are now taking damage from the Heat Metal spell. He fires into the one with the axe but misses. Morgana has pulled out Billy the Kid’s pearl-handled colt revolvers from the pockets of her shirt and fires, dropping the last orc in line. The next one turns towards Morgana and she fires two shots up at him, one connecting fatally. Arcade meanwhile shoots the one with the axe, dropping him. The sword of the remaining orc is now glowing red-hot from the Heat Metal and he drops it. Arcade and Morgana then successfully catch him in a crossfire.
The robed man now focuses his attention back down to the other end of the hallway and starts to cast a spell in the direction of Louie and Sam. Louie is holding his gun and his shot is faster than the spell, hitting and incapacitating the wizard’s right arm. “That should end spells,” Louie exclaims as he starts to charge down the hallway towards the wizard. The wizard counters with another incantation, falling back upon the only spell left in his repertoire that doesn’t require any arm gestures.
Louie is around fifteen feet away from the man when he becomes enshrouded in a field of magical darkness, which continues back to where Sam and Angus are also now standing. Louie decides to holster his gun and draw his sword. He then marches forward through the darkness, swinging the sword from wall to wall in the assumption that it will eventually connect with the wizard.
The wizard has backed up, stopping just shy of the intersection. He no longer hearing sounds from the summoned orcs in the southern hallway, but decides not to look that way as he hears the sound of Louie’s feet on the stone floor marching towards him. The wizard draws his gun with his good hand and then sees the front of Louie’s sword exiting the darkness. Using the sword movement to guess Louie’s location he fires. Unfortunately for him, this isn’t the hand he normally fires with so the shot is off target. The sound of his gun going off just a few feet away from her refocuses Morgana in that direction and she starts to crawl towards the intersection.
The wizard’s shot barely misses Louie and continues on through the darkness. Fate works against the party as the shot-in-the-dark strikes Sam right in the middle of his chest. Sam yells out and falls. They are still inside the Magical darkness but Angus has been through enough battles to deduce from the sounds what has just happened and quickly finds Sam’s fallen body. Angus casts a Cure spell to keep the boy from immediately dying. He decides that he needs to get them both out of the intersection before any more bullets come flying their way. He lifts up Sam and heads back the way they originally came. He is soon out of the darkness but in now inside the area of the silence spell, so has to carry the dying boy further the hallway before he do any more healing.
Louie has now charged out of the darkness and cuts the wizard down with a bludgeoning blow from the sword. Morgana reaches this point sees this, taking a few point blank shots into the wizard. Louie continues to hack the man as she fires again. Arcade comes around the bend and points out that the wizard is very much dead so they should probably stop attacking him.
While Morgana attempted to negotiate with the prison guard her husband Arcade peered around the wall. He was careful to not lean far enough to be seen by the guard, watching the man’s hands on his shotgun rather than his face. When the guard began to take aim at Morgana Arcade reached out and grabbed the side of his wife’s dress. As the man’s finger began to depress on the trigger Arcade yanked her back towards him with full force. Thus, she was pulled out of the way just as the shot from the gun flew by, missing her by less than an inch.
Morgana became furious. Arcade wasn’t sure right away if the target of her anger was the guard who shot at her or him for interfering. He figures it is the guard she is mad at when she began the incantation of a Magic Missile spell and then charged back out from behind the wall. She sends a pair of missiles flying from her fingertips, striking the man. The man staggers back but regains his footing and then discharges the second barrel of his gun at her. She had begun retreating once the spell was cast, but is not quite fast enough to completely miss this blast, sustaining a minor injury in her arm.
Arcade yells to his wife, “That’s both barrels. He’s empty, let’s go.” The two of them charge around the bend and rush towards the man. The man drops his shotgun and starts an incantation. Arcade thinks, “Oh crap! I forgot that they also use magic here.” Three Magic Missile bolts shoot from the guard’s fingertips, two striking Arcade and one striking his wife.
Arcade draws his gun and fires back, causing a wound to the guard’s shoulder. The guard turns and runs, with Morgana’s tomahawk then landing in his back between the shoulder blades. The man staggers, giving Arcade time for another shot, a fatal hit to the head. The man falls dead at the intersection of the southern and eastern hallways.
Arcade and Morgana then make the serious error of assuming that he was the only guard near that intersection and stop to converse with the prisoner in the adjacent cell. They then hear the sound of another spell incantation back near the “T” intersection. They turn and are surprised when a pair of Chinese Orcs armed with axes and swords charge around the bend towards them. Arcade lets off a shot, which clips one but he continues to charge. More orcs follow the initial pair from behind the intersection.
Morgana deduces that they are hopelessly outnumbered and decides to play dead, falling to the ground alongside the wall. At this point a total of five orcs fill the hallway. No more appear to be coming, so Arcade casts a Heat Metal spell onto the armor and weapons of these foes. Morgana’s bluff pays off as the orcs charge by her towards Arcade, the lead one swinging his sword right at Arcade’s head. Arcade ducks, the sword knocking his hat off of his head. Arcade shoves his arm forwards, jabbing the barrel of his gun into this orc’s chest and fires. The orc drops but his sidekick is now upon Arcade and swings an axe down towards him, hitting the fighter/druid.
Back at the other hallway, Louie had been charging forward in the direction of the held guard, with Sam and Angus behind him. Their footsteps were silenced by the spell from the coin, which also prevented them from hearing the shotgun blasts. Two prisoners in cells a short distance behind the held man are yelled at them, but the silence also prevents these men from being heard. Just as Louie rushes towards the intersection Angus notices what the men were yelling about, as a rifle barrel is sticking out from behind the bend, aimed squarely at Louie’s chest.
Louie exits the range of the Silence spell and then hears the two prisoners yelling at him in French. Unfortunately he doesn’t know the language, but he then sees the rifle barrel just a few feet away from his chest. In a move that would make any baseball coach proud, Louie drops back and slides along the stone surface towards the man around the bend, temporarily delaying the shot. This guard however follows Louie’s movement with the rifle and once Louie comes to a halt fires point blank into Louie’s chest.
Louie is in anguish as the rifle bullet travels into his chest. It hurts like hell, but Louie soon notices that he is still alive so figures it wasn’t a mortal wound. He is actually correct, as the bullet miraculously missed all of his vital organs and bones, exiting from Louie’s lower back and stopping as it struck his armor pressed against the stone floor. Louie is still holding his revolver and fires a point blank shot back up at his assailant, breaking the bones and hitting a vein in the man’s shoulder.
However, the guard standing over Louie is also a ‘tough guy’. He ignores the pain and kicks the gun out of Louie’s hand simultaneous to shifting his rifle over to his other hand and shoulder for a second shot. Louie is lying helpless at this point and concludes that he is about to die. This would have been a correct assumption if not for Sureshot Sam rounding the bend right then. Sam lives up to his nickname by firing and placing the bullet right between the eyes of his opponent. Louie grabs up his gun as Sam helps him to his feet. They then notice a robed man further down at the other end of the eastern hallway.
Not far from the robed man, Arcade is still fighting with the orcs, all of whom are now taking damage from the Heat Metal spell. He fires into the one with the axe but misses. Morgana has pulled out Billy the Kid’s pearl-handled colt revolvers from the pockets of her shirt and fires, dropping the last orc in line. The next one turns towards Morgana and she fires two shots up at him, one connecting fatally. Arcade meanwhile shoots the one with the axe, dropping him. The sword of the remaining orc is now glowing red-hot from the Heat Metal and he drops it. Arcade and Morgana then successfully catch him in a crossfire.
The robed man now focuses his attention back down to the other end of the hallway and starts to cast a spell in the direction of Louie and Sam. Louie is holding his gun and his shot is faster than the spell, hitting and incapacitating the wizard’s right arm. “That should end spells,” Louie exclaims as he starts to charge down the hallway towards the wizard. The wizard counters with another incantation, falling back upon the only spell left in his repertoire that doesn’t require any arm gestures.
Louie is around fifteen feet away from the man when he becomes enshrouded in a field of magical darkness, which continues back to where Sam and Angus are also now standing. Louie decides to holster his gun and draw his sword. He then marches forward through the darkness, swinging the sword from wall to wall in the assumption that it will eventually connect with the wizard.
The wizard has backed up, stopping just shy of the intersection. He no longer hearing sounds from the summoned orcs in the southern hallway, but decides not to look that way as he hears the sound of Louie’s feet on the stone floor marching towards him. The wizard draws his gun with his good hand and then sees the front of Louie’s sword exiting the darkness. Using the sword movement to guess Louie’s location he fires. Unfortunately for him, this isn’t the hand he normally fires with so the shot is off target. The sound of his gun going off just a few feet away from her refocuses Morgana in that direction and she starts to crawl towards the intersection.
The wizard’s shot barely misses Louie and continues on through the darkness. Fate works against the party as the shot-in-the-dark strikes Sam right in the middle of his chest. Sam yells out and falls. They are still inside the Magical darkness but Angus has been through enough battles to deduce from the sounds what has just happened and quickly finds Sam’s fallen body. Angus casts a Cure spell to keep the boy from immediately dying. He decides that he needs to get them both out of the intersection before any more bullets come flying their way. He lifts up Sam and heads back the way they originally came. He is soon out of the darkness but in now inside the area of the silence spell, so has to carry the dying boy further the hallway before he do any more healing.
Louie has now charged out of the darkness and cuts the wizard down with a bludgeoning blow from the sword. Morgana reaches this point sees this, taking a few point blank shots into the wizard. Louie continues to hack the man as she fires again. Arcade comes around the bend and points out that the wizard is very much dead so they should probably stop attacking him.
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