Hooves of Steel and Sword of Flame
Tenth Day of Elnu-Hamba (Elnu Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)
Chaos reigned, the cloak about the foeman like twisting shadows, leaping blinding, some new spell or devilry, but Antonio was keen of eye still and so he did not miss his mark, nor the dagger in their hand. Not a foe he could face sword against sword... though fortunately he had many others to the task. Calling out a rally as best he could he turned and dived under the belly of a familiar horse. Silver would not consent to be ridden by any save his dearest friend and on those times when she wished the girl Inge, but that did not mean Antonio could not make use of his bulk and might....The dagger found his back, of course it did. What curses passed his lips then he could not say, save only that if he did blaspheme it was in a tongue that no one else here could speak.
Antonio takes 4 Damage
By the time he managed to unstopper the vial and pour the potion in his mouth that barely soothed that wound and not the slash to his arm still bleeding into the dirt, but at least peeking from among the horses legs he could see more clearly the scene in the market. Chaos and confusion men and women screaming as both tried to pull their children to safety... and one black face among the crowd, one child that as not being kept safe but tossed...
Antonio heals 4 Damage
In the toothed wound where her neck aught to have been Antonio saw his death, but Silver saw it too and he was nothing if not a gallant soul shouldering his way into the crowd so that the thing's bleeding hand struck him and not Antonio before dealing two vicious strikes of his hooves sending the horror tumbling among the crowd.
Silver takes 24 damage
Pity the Norman folk seemed to be getting in each other's way trying to spear the assassin, only one struck and that one sparked off empty air though some devilry.
And that was how Antonio Giustiniani ended up on is belly under a talking horse trying to shoot a crossbow one and a half handed.
Be a hell of a tavern tale if I live, some irrepressible voice in his head noted. Luck was with him this time, or maybe it was just that the killer didn't have eyes on the back of his head and plenty of other foes to contend with, the bolt flew true with the familiar twang of fine craftsmanship that had been the bane of many an ill made knight or petty sellsword who thought the sailors of Genoa where easy for the picking.
Yet things were still dire as they came until without warning one shout rose from the din: "For the Maker! Flame Rises!" the paladin Ziku charged in from the south, men parting it seems at the very sight of his face and the sound of his tread. With sword like molten fire he fall on the fiend and smote it. In putrid arcs the blood flowed upon the stone as the warriors of the Fellowship rallied and Antonio took another swing of his healing elixir.
Antonio heals 8 Damage
As he watched the edge of the fiend's form blurred and shifted and he assassin tossed something Silver's way... an all too familiar weapon, vitriol that burned against his coat even as the foul magic would have done. Then as swiftly as it had started it was over. The southern warrior smashed aside the jagged blade in the hand of the false child and then in two swift blows left it in pieces on the cobbles.
Silver takes 6 Damage
The assassin again was gone, vanished into the shadows he had come from... and Antonio could only be left to wonder what he had wanted with him and when he would return. Still at least there was something in the way of spoils if one was minded to loot dead monsters. the blade certainly seemed of fine if uncanny make blue black as the murky depths of the sea. What worth he rags it wore might have Antonio did not know.
What do you do about the possessions of the daemon?
[] Claim then, they might be useful
[] Let Ziku burn them as his god prefers, goodwill is more precious than gold
OOC: No names for the men-at-arms in this one since Antonio is not the sorts to put names to faces when he is busy bleeding out.