For Hooves the Bell Tolls - Chapter Four

Guards & Thieves

Quthbert, Volmak, Marinus, Malbrix, & A.G.R.

653 Post Maelstrom

The party, finally reunited with their mounts, travel the rest of the way up the tunnel. Eventually they come out of the cave into a deep basement somewhere in Oldetown. The house appears to double as a thief's hideout, but it seems abandoned now. The basement of the house is designed like a small warehouse loaded with crates claiming to be from Precious Paticia's Perfect Porcelain - Shop. The upstairs rooms of the house are mostly personal rooms or bunkbeds to house dozens of people.
Volmak, Marinus, and Malbrix smashed up some of the crates finding what was indeed slime made porcelain inside. Meaning it all must have come from living creatures. The trio also broke off the side of one of the crates to take the logo with them.
Once sure that the house is clear the party looks through one of the windows out on the street only to find it quickly clearing out with a full strike force of guards headed directly for the hideout. AGR, with little hesitation, walks out into the street to parley with the guards. Followed closely by Volmak who rode out on the back of his donkey, Flintfeet.
AGR and Volmak tried desperately to convince the guards to stand down, but it quickly became clear to them that these guards knew exactly why they were there. It was all planned from the beginning, and this was just the cleanup crew.
The guards began circling around AGR and Volmak trying to box them in. Volmak began preparing a spell, but the guards' battlemage struck first with a massive fireball erupting from beneath the pair. AGR was thrown backwards by the force, but Flintfeet took the brunt of the damage. Volmak was thrown into the air as his long-trusted companion was torn apart by the force of the blast. Volmak dragged himself to his friend sobbing as the last breath of life left Flintfeet. The faithful donkey had wounds that nought but the most powerful of magics could heal. Volmaks friend was lost forever.
In the chaos Quthbert moves into one of the upper windows of the building stealthilly and is skillful enough to get a surprise attack on the battlemage before anyone notices he is there. Quthberts phantom blade flashed through the air taking the battlemage in the neck. As the woman collapsed with her hands to her throat, Marinus and Malbrix burst out of the building laying down cover fire and moving to aid AGR.
Volmak, in a daze from losing his friend, backs away from the fight. He slips into a side alley, falls against the wall, and sobs. The sound of the battle rages in the street, but Volmak cannot bring himself to rise.
AGR, Marinus, and Malbrix continue to fight the guards in the street while Quthbert dashes silently from window to window striking out at the archers to draw their focus. Marinus lashes out with their trident and dagger before recalling them again and again. Malbrix whips bolt after bolt of magically energy striking foes or using magical whips to pull targets off balance. AGR stands vigilant as always defending his companions, knocking attacks aside, and throwing guards to the ground. But still they come.
AGR reaches too far to knock protect Malbrix and is unable to stop the captain from approaching. The captain strikes while AGR is distracted, and he succumbs to a strike from the captain's axe. The captain rears up to cut the wounded AGR down like splitting a log. Just as the axe head is about to split AGRs faceplate and destroy his processor, Volmak dives into the fight narrowly deflecting the axe with the Slime Kings sword. In a fit of rage Volmak shouts “I am the Slime King” before beheading the captain with a single stroke of the massive sword.
Quthbert finished the remaining guards as they tried to run, striking them easily in the back as they turned. Then beginning with the battlemage that killed Flintfeet, Volmak went from body to body beheading them and he piled it up on the street, while the remaining party members watched in horror. Then Volmak took the logo from the porcelain crate and, dipping his hands in the blood, put a massive X over the logo leaving it leaning against the severed heads as a message.
Around this time alarm bells from around the city begin going off. Starting nearby quickly the alarms can be heard across the city. In moments everyone for miles can hear the clatter of hoofbeats on cobblestone.
The party scrambles onto their mounts, dragging them up the stairs of the house while the clatter of hoofbeats grows louder and louder. The party mounts as quickly as they are all able, with Volmak riding on AGRs clockwork horse ATU. In a furious panic the party begins galloping for the wall. They race down the main thoroughfare hoping the gates are still open only to see them closing as they approach. The party turns and gallops down a side street, leaping wagons, market stalls, and people clogging the side streets.
With the guards closing in around them Volmak realizes that behind them was a construction site where the wall is being rebuilt. The party dangerously maneuver their mounts through they crowed streets of terrified civilians backtracking past some of the guards. A guard with a halberd attempts to knock AGR off his horse, but Quthbert quickly takes him in the neck with a spectral blade. The party makes it into the construction site. The leap the low wall still under renovation and escape onto into the grassland outside the city.
A crossbow bolt from atop the wall comes dangerously close to Volmaks head. Volmak directs AGR to ride at the back of the group. Volmak turns sitting back-to-back with AGR, facing the crossbowman, and puts up a shield deflecting the incoming volley of bolts into the ground on either side of them. In a near miraculous feat Volmak holds concentration on the spell until the group reaches the tree line and is protected from the deadly rain.