Get the job done

Feigning a level of confidence that you do not really feel you approach the door to the tower as if you belong there. Another loud squawk from a Drake causes you to pause and look up just as a crossbow bolt shatters against the paving stone that you would have been standing on had you not paused. Acting on instincts you turn and head back up the street dogging and weaving in (you hope) an unpredictable pattern. All around you bolts and arrows are flying, a loud 'Bang' from behind you slows the number of missiles briefly, but in the three seconds it takes you to get back to the alley the arrows are flying again. Two of your men are advancing to meet you crouching low behind their large round shields, and you just reach them when a shaft hits you in the thick part of your thigh skewering your leg and appearing like a conjurer's trick from the front of your leg right above your knee. Stumbling forward behind the cover of the two large shields you let your men drag you back around the corner into relative safety.

You sit with a grunt against a stone wall panting with effort as two of your men kneel at your feet and start examining the arrow that is lodged in your thigh. While Antonios prods at the shaft Petros puts his hand on your shoulder to get your attention and gestures to the street littered with as many as one hundred shafts scattered on the street you just ran back on.

"They must have been waiting for you captain." Says Petros "Hermes himself couldn't have made it back here without being hit."

"Damn! Now how are we going to blow that fucking door open?" You ask in frustration, not expecting an answer from your men but hoping for an idea anyway.

"I say we forget about it and head back to that mansion we just left." Muttered a voice you couldn't quite identify. It is tempting, but as you lean your head back trying to ignore the pain in your leg you see a Rider circling high above you drop a lance that hits in the alley twenty yards from your location in front of an overturned wagon that has been abandoned by its owner.

"Damn them!" You grunt, "Go see what they want now." You tell no one in particular, but Leothos jogs up the alley and returns with the lance.

"This might hurt a bit Captain." Says Antonios, and before you realize what he means you feel a sharp pain shoot through your leg. You may have blacked out for a second, because next thing you see is Antonios examining the barbed arrowhead that he broke from the shaft.

"Looks OK Captain - nice and sharp, no rust or poison." He shows you the arrowhead but you trust his judgment more than yours. "Roll over Cap, we'll have you good as new in just a minute or two." All your men are smiling with confidence as they turn you onto your belly and you feel several more hands holding you steady but you have seen enough similar wounds to know that all sorts of things could still go wrong.

"AAAIghhh" You grunt again as someone pulls the shaft from your leg. As a bandage is wrapped tightly around your leg the pain subsides to a throbbing ache. "What does the Rider's message say?" You ask, more to keep your mind off your leg than because you really care.

Leothos hands you a rolled up parchment and steps back out of the light.

"Do the Job, we have two more Flash-Bangs to cover you with." You're not sure what a 'Flash-Bang' is, but you guess it might be what caused the archers to stop shooting at you when you should have been dead back in the street.

"What are we going to do Captain?"