POVERO Chapter Ten

[Adam]

Alfonse quickly descends and prepares to leave the estate.

[ewancummins]

Alfonse quickly descends and prepares to leave the estate.

The Builder, Damien, Gertie, and Titus all join Alfonse in the underground canal.

[VAN]

Tom follows as well saying:

"I will take the lead if you want, I can see a bit in the dark."

[alhoon]

Fild chuckles. "And I am a gnome. I feel much more comfortable here than without a roof that I can see. I'll take the lead and Tom can hold up the rear."
Fild moves to the front of the line and as he starts his descent, he begins looking around for any critters he may ask for information.

[ewancummins]

Fild chuckles. "And I am a gnome. I feel much more comfortable here than without a roof that I can see. I'll take the lead and Tom can hold up the rear."
Fild moves to the front of the line and as he starts his descent, he begins looking around for any critters he may ask for information.

THE PARTY, ESCAPING DOWN AN UNDERGOUND CANAL



The party sloshes along in the damp, dark tunnel of dressed stone. Fild edges along the flooded ledge on the right side, his feet submerged, while the others wade in the deeper central flow.

The sluggish water makes a low hum all but swallowed by the noise of the moving adventurers.

The damp air down here smells of lime.



After walking and wading for several minutes, Tom notices heat coming up the rear. The haze of heat grows redder and brighter in the cool blue tunnel. He has time to warn his companions, though unless they hold their breath and go underwater, there's nowhere to hide in the straight tunnel and the entrance hatch lies some way off, back in the same direction the heat source glows.


Low voices, indistinct, echo down the gallery. And a scraping sound. Dull splashes.



Then the others see a glimmer of light. They don't need eleven sight or gnome eyes for that. It looks like a flickering torch.

The light moves closer and the prow of a gondola comes into view. A man with a lantern squats in the bow. Shadowy figures sit behind him.
The sides of the small, slim vessel scrape the tunnel side-ledges as a dim figure in the rear poles it forward.

[Adam]

Alfonse looks to the fighters in the group and whispers. "I'm not going to be much use down here. What should we do?"

[alhoon]

"Well, my suggestion is...
Parlay with the smugglers of course! We have several non-esteemed members of the society here, and they can talk thief-stuff with these fellows. Perhaps entice them to loot Aldron, now that his guards are away looking for us. That's info we could barter for. That there's -probably- a big reward for rescuing Richard Savelle, is also info they may be interested in.

Just in case, I suggest we have our weapons out so they will decide that we're not worth robbing but listening too. Alfonse, get whatever you have that looks magicky on display and move to the back. They don't have to know you're not able to turn them to frogs.
Oh, and if it comes to blows, let's overturn the gondola to even the ground."

And with that, Fild slushes to shield the group from the gondola-bearers.

[ewancummins]

The boat and its occupants draw nearer.

The party can see now that the man with the light wears a blue and white doublet.

One of the men behind the lantern-bearer in the bow rises to stare at the party.
In the yellow oil-light, his handsome features stand out clearly enough...

''Kill them all."
Aldron Folbre has given an order, and his men obey, four swordsmen scrambling over the prow of the rocking boat and splashing down into the water.

The four fighting-men hustle forward, two abreast, and engage the party's rearguard with shortswords.

In a flash of steel, Tom falls, splashing down in the water.
His blood flows downstream to wash over the pants of his companions.

Fild ducks a vicious thrust, bumping hard against the wall and bruising his back.

Gertie staggers forward and grabs Tom, pulling him through the water and away from the fray.

[Lord Skybolt]

Sixt will throw Darts at the guard that is not fighting Fild and draw his sword and move into melee with that guard .

Dart 1 to Hit

[dice]0[/dice] Damge for this hit is [dice]3[/dice] /2 +1 = 3 damage

Dart 2 to Hit

[dice]1[/dice]

Dart 3 to Hit

[dice]2[/dice]

[ewancummins]

SIXT joins the fight, hurling his darts and then drawing his sword to fight close-in.


Alfonse steps up, darts whizzing past his side, and jabs his quarterstaff at the man attacking Fild. The man staggers back, off balance, and then falls with a shriek as the gnome stabs him in the guts.

A guard backpedals before Sixt's onslaught, but not in time to escape the ex-marine's swift strike, sweeping from the scabbard. He falls face down in the water and sinks below the current.

[ewancummins]

SIXT joins the fight, hurling his darts and then drawing his sword to fight close-in.


Alfonse steps up, darts whizzing past his side, and jabs his quarterstaff at the man attacking Fild. The man staggers back, off balance, and then falls with a shriek as the gnome stabs him in the guts.

A guard backpedals before Sixt's onslaught, but not in time to escape the ex-marine's swift strike, sweeping from the scabbard. He falls face down in the water and sinks below the current.

The oil-lit battle pushes back and forth in the canal tunnel as blood stains the water and the slick stone walls.
Fild strikes another man down--but seconds later the gnome staggers under a downward chop to the head and falls in the stream.
Another Folbre man joins the fight, hopping down from the gondola, and Sixt falls back as three men assail him.
Gertie drags Fild free of the fight.
The Folbre guards drive Sixt back with furious blows, and one hacks off the tip of Alfonse's staff.

But when the enemy succeeds at driving the party's rearguard through its middle ranks, and creates a gap in the fight, it exposes itself to Thom's point-black bow-fire. The half-elf's arrows skitter all over the place, bouncing off bucklers and sticking in armor, causing more confusion than damage. But his haphazard archery keeps the enemy from pressing ahead just long for the others to rally. Titus, Sixt, Damien all lay on the Folbre swordsman in a last desperate attack.
Folbre's men scream and fall back--or just fall, dead in the water.

The rest of the withdrawing squad of enemy swordsmen fall to the party's hail of missiles, all but one injured man who splashes after the retreating gondola.
"Wait, Master!"

The whole party is breathing hard, soaked or damped, several members have been hurt, and Fild's knocked out but alive.

"Pole faster, damn you!"
Folbre's cry echoes down the tunnel. He hunkers down in the boat, obscuring himself behind the pole-man and some cargo.
He's already moved the boat--or rather, his hard-working gondolier has moved the boat-- a good distance up the subterranean canal, against the gentle current.

The gondola has slid far out of sword's reach, but not yet passed beyond the range of Thom's bow or Alfonse's sling.

[Adam]

The mage stands, giving his sling a quick whirl and sending a stone after the fleeing nobleman.

[VAN]

Tom tries his luck with the bow again, even if his previous tries weren't on spot.

[ewancummins]

Tom tries his luck with the bow again, even if his previous tries weren't on spot.

Tom tries his luck with the bow again, even if his previous tries weren't on spot.

observation NWP check for Tom

VIEW CONTENT:

One of Tom's arrows sails past the gondolier and catches Aldron's Folbre's feathered hat, tearing the headgear from the merchant-prince.

''Damn it, faster!''

The Gondolier reels on the prow of the boat, weaving and ducking to avoid Tom's hasty shots.

''Ahhh!" The man drops his pole in canal stream and clambers right over his master, splashing down in the water on the far side.

Aldron Folbre draws his sword and swipes at the disappearing boatman.
"Coward!"

No longer shoved along by the gondolier, and moving against the current, the vessel slows and then begins to drift back downstream toward the party.
Its sides scrape the stone ledges underwater, twenty yards distant but coming in closer.

Aldron Folbre ducks into the hold of the boat, and sits up again with another person positioned in front of him, held upright to block Tom's fire. Tom and his friends cannot make out fine details in the lamplight at this distance, but the man Aldron Folbre holds pinned in front of his body like a shield appears to be bound and gagged, and wears a blue tunic. He seems young, with dark hair.

"Stop shooting or you'll risk killing Richard Savelle. And if you don't kill him--I will. That is, I'll kill him if your gang rushes ahead tries to take me. A large body of my men will be coming down the passage behind me very soon. Whatever you've done that's delayed them entering the cellar passage cannot be enough to stop them. I've got a small army. So if you want to live, I suggest you run away and don't stop running till you are far from Povero. I'm not unreasonable. Leave now and I won't hire assassins to track you down and murder you all."

[Adam]

Alfonse spreads his hand wide. "If you think you're going to get away with this, you're wrong," he says, "Your men aren't here because the Savelles stormed the place behind us. We were going to try to get the young man first. If you leave Richard and go, maybe you can get away clean. If you stay, you're a dead man."