Chapter Eight
According to plan, king Merlin and his three sons, Richard, Conrad and Alexander, arrived before the brigand stronghold and prepared for an assault. Prince Richard's footmen advanced with the belfry. The king's footmen demonstrated from the opposite side, using a wheeled mantlet for cover. The three princes and "the king" remained mounted throughout the short assault.
The "other Merlin".
As "the king" never got involved in combat, I assumed that he pulled a fast one, as eccentric potentates are wont to do in midlife crises: he put a substitute in his armor, and took upon himself the adventurous task of liberating his daughter-in-law's sister. The chosen "rescuer" could hardly argue with his sovereign and dutifully emerged from the tent wearing the royal armor without anyone the wiser. The king, cloaked and lightly armed (comparatively), went by circuitous byways around to the rear of the castle, keeping out of sight in the scrub and rocks.
Contact is made
Merlin arrives at the chosen place below the walls, on the back side of the castle, opposite the gate and its flanking towers. The renegade waves down to him.
The rope is dropped and the rescuing hero climbs to the battlements
The renegade and the king advance along the battlements
The tower containing the harem of the late and current chieftain of the brigands has a guard before the door.
The renegade's hurled javelin brings the man down almost without a sound
(lucky "boxcars!" a great way to start a venture) With a choked cry he topples from the parapet.
In a trice, the liberators penetrate the tower and bring the now-armed girl out
Away in the middling distance, the lower part of the castle is seen to be under attack. The whole garrison is distracted away to the threat. Shouting men and clashing weapons on both sides raise a din. The emir is seen on horseback in the bailey, directing the defense with sweeps of his lance. His back is to the harem tower and he has not noticed the theft of his unwilling "wife" (this is all a chancy thing, settled by percentage dice, i.e. there was a random chance of the emir noticing, or 1D6 of his men noticing, the rescue before it was completed).
Richard's men labor to bring the belfry into attack range
Flaming arrows strike into the wet hides sheathing the machine. One finds purchase and begins to burn sluggishly (one "hit", two more to go, to get the belfry to burn down).
The attacking archers target the brigands on the battlements
One brigand archer goes down to an arrow from the longbowman on the ground.
The belfry comes within javelin range
Like the arrows, flaming pitch coats the tips of the javelins. The emir is desperate to destroy the belfry and orders all missiles to target the machines, including the wheeled mantlet.
Return shot from the belfry drops a javelineer.
Prince Conrad leads his father's horsemen toward his brother's knights
Prince Richard is doing likewise, the two groups meet before the castle gate
The belfry is not stopped!
The drawbridge is lowered and the first two attackers advance toward the battlements. But a javelin brings the closest man down.
The knights meet
Prince Conrad joins himself to his brother Richard's conroi. He sends his father's knights to support the attack from the belfry.
Conrad's men dismount and ascend the belfry
The attack from the opposite side.
The wheeled mantlet is pushed by ladder carrying footmen. The crossbows look for targets through the arrow slits in the mantlet.
Prince Richard's knight commander of the footmen slays a swordsman.
The commander gains the battlements. But another javelin brings down his comrade.
The defending bandits are sorely beset
The commander of foot turns to attack through the tower door.
The two royal knights back up the assault of prince Richard's footmen.
The first casualty among the king's footmen
As the wheeled mantlet is advanced, the footmen behind attempt to move the ladders forward by a clever stratagem: one of them deduces that grasping a ladder in the middle and anchoring the forward end in the ground as they advance the mantlet will bring the ladder into a vertical posture, and then it is an easy matter to let the high end fall forward closer to the wall. By doing this several times, the ladders are brought within reach without fully exposing the bearers. Nevertheless, it is impossible to avoid exposure entirely, and a well placed shot from a Turcoman brings one of the assaulting party down.
The assault party reaches the foot of the wall
A second casualty is unavoidable. Nevertheless they have come within attack range with minimal losses.
Meanwhile, the attack from the belfry has entirely succeeded
The archers have climbed back up as well. The knight commander of footmen has cleared the tower. One of the royal knights is backing him up. The other has turned to attack a Turcoman already fighting with one of Richard's footmen.
The archers start shooting across the bailey at the opposite wall
The commander of foot meets the emir's standard bearer and kills him! The archers shoot down the swordsman guarding the gate!
The attack of the "Valkyrie"
The liberated and rearmed girl is too outraged to merely escape from her hellish prison. Without a word to either Merlin or the renegade, she charges along the parapet toward the fighting with the royal troops. At the last instant, in the bailey, the emir sees the approaching threesome and shouts a warning. The Turcoman already has an arrow fitted to the string of his composite bow. The enraged girl misses with her poleaxe as the archer manages to evade the blow.
The "Valkyrie" takes an arrow!
Down she goes an instant after her failed attack.
Merlin attacks the Turcoman
Behind his foe, the adventurous king sees arrows take down first one and then a second javelineer. The longbowmen from the belfry have scored keenly! (good dice are everything).
Sudanese return shot!
They score!
Up in the tower, all three brigand archers target the longbowmen and bring two of them down.
The ladders are placed and the escalade proceeds without resistance
The emir lowers the gate
He sees his mounted enemies waiting for this eventuality. They are already moving before the gate is fully down.
The gate is already opened
The commander of foot sees that his task of reaching and opening the gate is moot. The emir is already riding out, having opened it himself.
The emir trots out the gate and turns right
As he kicks his horse into a gallop his foes charge!
The emir is smitten against the wall!
Prince Conrad reaches the emir first, but ...
... his lance is deflected by the chieftain's own weapon and shield. Prince Alexander scores a fatal blow and their enemy's horse goes down. The emir hits the ground hard and does not rise. The crusaders ride over his body, finishing him off. (Earlier it had been decided that there would be no prisoners taken among the banditti combatants.)
Merlin vanquishes his foe
He plunges into the tower and confronts a bandit archer
Behind him, the parapet fills up with his men as they arrive at the top of the scaling ladders.
The renegade with the unneeded rope
Having accomplished his task in helping the "Valkyrie" escape, he has stayed back and made sure that none of his comrades mistake him for an enemy!
The bandit archer dies
The desperado backed into a corner where he held Merlin and a footman off for a brief moment before finally dying on the king's blade.
A footman went up the ladder and found himself facing three Sudanese bowmen
After a brief exchange with one of them, he backed down the ladder, and waited until the combat in the room below was finished. He described the situation on the rooftop. The king ordered his men out. A fire was kindled in the room below and the tower burnt up. The last three remaining banditti perished in the flames or leaped to their deaths.
"28" is three points from death!
The king and two of his victorious sons
The victorious crusaders went around the castle and cut throats, leaving no bandit infidels alive. Their own wounded were attended to. In taking the castle, Richard had lost two men dead -the first fighter across the belfry drawbridge who had taken a javelin in his throat and one archer. One of his footmen was severely wounded and one was seen already binding up his own hurt as the castle fell. The king's men who had been shot through their armor each bore wounds that were not life threatening. The "Valkyrie" was the most seriously hurt of all. So close to death did she come that her sister despaired of her life. But over long months the bellicose girl recovered fully, although she carried a terrible scar in her bosom as a reminder of her rashness in anger.