Jean whistles faintly and calls his horse to his side. When it arrives he begin to prepare it to travel.

Grinning back at A'kos from her horse, Jaleh follows his gaze to the other men. She quietly observed them a few moments before shrugging slightly to herself and moving her horse forward, chuckling softly over the shared joke.

With some relief, Loukas picks himself up and follows the others. Mounting his horse it is clear that while he is not quite the horseman Jean, A'kos, and Roderychus are, he is no less comfortable in the saddle... Though, as they get underway the glance he gives Zmija suggests that he wishes he could be as facile on foot as the priest is.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:24, Wed 30 Dec 2009.

"Fine, let us move." the young paladin says as he mounts his steed.

A'kos leads the way to the aqueduct followed closely by Jaleh on her fine Arabian.

When they get there is is as Loukas thought, the outer cement layer was missing and on the ground leaving only the fragile ceramic tube in place...at least for the 10 foot section of aqueduct before them. There looks to be some abandoned tools and other work items around as well giving the hint that perhaps this section was under repair when the alarm was raised by the attack on the city.

This section does not look hard to break at all if it comes to that.

Zmija scouts around the area as the others look to the works in front of them. A few moments later the monk returns with an urgent look on his face and he flashes the five fingers of his right hand three times and then quickly points south along the pipeline as he makes the motion for silence, a lone finger to his lips, with his left hand.

Jean schools his mount to silence and holds his spear ready in his right hand.

He will gesture for those less familiar with their horses to cover the animals eyes in order ro still them.

Loukas felt a certain amount of relief when they discovered the "hole" in the aqueduct. The discovery of the tools made it even better -- they would not have to damage their weapons, nor return to the fleet in search of something that would put a hole in cement.

When Zmija returns with his warning, the young Greek quickly looks for a good place to conceal himself and to thinks, Well, it is not as if you can expect everything to go your way for once..."

A'kos draws his sword, and tightens his grip on the reins of Storm's Wind as he awaits the approach of danger.

Jaleh, seeing the others begin preparing themselves, begins to do similarly and looks for a place to conceal herself and her horse, even if that meant laying it down in a gully. She wanted a place to effectively disappear. That was not so hard for her, but she had a horse...

Balthazar bids Michael watch as many of the party's horses as he can while he (Balthazar) finds a place to hide near or by the aqueduct.  He readies his longbow and nocks an arrow.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:47, Sun 03 Jan 2010.

All those who looked for a good place to conceal themselves do so without any trouble among the boulders and brush near the aqueduct. Michael does his best to keep the horses quiet and out of sight.

Only A'kos, Jean, Conn and Roderychus remain on the trail and can be seen by the approaching troupe. At first sight they are about 60 feet away and are completely taken by surprise by the sight of four horsemen in their path.

The party is all surprised by what they see, rather than a unit of Imperial soldiers they see a band of 15 mixed Pecheneg, Orc and half-orcs dressed in a mish-mash of tribal and Byzantine armor and weaponry. They are all armed with the short composite bow of the Turkish steppe dwellers and a curved saber and round shield.

Pechenegs are a Turkish tribe that in habit the area...in our game world, they are closely allied with Orcish tribes of the steppe and often serve an mercenaries in the area to  he highest bider and that usually is the Byzantine government.

Jean waits for a signal from Zmija to attack.

Once he sees it he will charge full tilt into them.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:33, Sun 03 Jan 2010.

Balthazar makes sure he fires his arrow (can he get both arrows off?) before Jean reaches them.

ROF is 2/1 for long bow so Balthazar should be good:)

A'kos glances at the approaching band, then looks to his companions.

"I'm ready when you are," he says.

"Forth then, before they alert any others!"

Once she was among the boulders, Jaleh secured the horses reigns under a smaller stone so that it would not wander off and give her away. She then readied her shortbow and shimmied up the side of a larger rock, where she leaned back, laying her body against the side of it to minimize her profile and remain unseen. With those prepartions done, Jaleh cautiously nocked an arrow and began to take aim at one of the important looking Orcs. Orcs were big and brutish, she reasoned, take down the biggest among them and the rest would likely flee, or at very least begin to lose hope.

She waited and held her time for a good time to strike and then let the arrow fly. At the worse possible moment her shot was foiled by a fly in her eye.

Today: Jaleh rolled 86 using 1d100 for assasination attempt (failed).
Today: Jaleh rolled 2 using 1d6 for bow damage.

Actually, before anybody starts firing arrows, Balthazar will cast sleep from his ring.  Only 60 feet away, should be no problem.  (Darn that's pretty close for an outdoor encounter).

Before anyone has a chance to act, Balthazar uses his ring to cast a spell of sleep over the approaching enemy. Once again his magic has a telling effect and 9 of the 15 riders drop to the ground..for some reason their horses seem unaffected by the spell.

Not only are the riders taken by surprise but they are in a state of panic/confusion making all attacks on them +1 this round.

Parties actions now...they are still 60 feet away, perfect for a charge on horseback but not on foot. If you have already rolled this rounds attack, I ask you do it again giving yourself +1 to hit.

Balthazar pumps his fist upon seeing the results.

Jean heeled his mount and the big warhorse exploded forward charging into the few remaining enemies like a thunderbolt.

Loukas grew impatient, so rather than waiting for the patrol riders to come to them, he drew back his short bow and fired at one of those unaffected by Balthazar's spell.

17:34, Today: A'kos, the Falcon rolled 10 using 1d8+5.
17:34, Today: A'kos, the Falcon rolled 13 using 1d20+6. to hit 2nd att.
17:33, Today: A'kos, the Falcon rolled 7 using 1d20+6. to hit 1st att.

As Jean charges A'kos rides hard on his heels, his sword in hand.  As he approaches he attempts an overhand chop (let's hope I didn't just kill Jean accidentally w/ that '1')...recovering his balance, he swiftly deals his target a telling blow.

Roderychus charges, trying to trample some of the enemies who are still standing while hitting one with his sword.

01:47, Today: Roderychus Venturos rolled 8 using 2d4+4 with rolls of 1,3. Roderychus sword damage.
01:45, Today: Roderychus Venturos rolled 17 using 1d20+4 with rolls of 13. Roderychus sword attack.
01:43, Today: Roderychus Venturos rolled 25 using 3d20 with rolls of 12,5,8. Bite, Hoof, Hoof.

Frustrated, Jaleh blew a strand of hair out of her face having shooed the fly away. She drew back her bow once more and took careful aim on one of the orcs again, then let the arrow fly.

oday: Jaleh rolled 50 using 1d100 for an assassination attempt. (succeeded)