War of thirteen : Ulric's Paw

[Pentagathus]

The City Guard vs The Paw

Hraen KettleHead, the eldest brother (and  the only one with a Norse name) re-strung his hunting bow as Hector and Sigefrid surveyed the Guard from a hilltop.
"Excelent, I wanted a chance to fight these ones one on one. I've heard Vimes is a clever man and a good tactician" Hraen wasn't looking but that was definitly Hector's accent.
"If he's as clever as you say and as dangerous as he looks this could be a rare fight. That one there, Marra, I've heard he's a tough one. We'll want to keep him occupied with Witnere I think" Sigefrid scrathced at his beard in the way he allways did before a fight.
"Aye" said Hector "we should send Witnere and the hounds around to harry their flank and keep them off that bridge. Grym will climb up onto that tower and cover us if he can, Fletch you take down anyone who gets on to high ground. The Kettle Heads take up postion there, between those two houses where you have a view of the bridge, under it and over it and that space between the bridge and that house. Douglass, take the Temple Guard and Berwulf around the other side of the bridge, the rest of us will take up positions on this side of the bridge. If they come under the bridge we'll crush them in the alley, if they don't we'll pepper them with arrows. Witnere, if you can keep some of them away from us and take down as many of their archers as you can."
Grym said something about Hraen being a bender before running off towards his tower.
Witnere simply nodded sharply and loped off with his pack trailing him, shuddering with excitement at the prospect of a hard fight.
Hraen led his brothers to their spot whith the others not far off from them to their left and Fletch whistling merrily to their right.
An arrow shot out from Fletch's position to sink into Marra's armour. It didn't penetrate far enough to take Marra down but it cetaintly cuased him some pain. The Kettleheads all shot arrows of their own, one of which hit but didn't penetrate Marra's armour. Marra and his three guards (all armed with bows like Hraen's) shot back at Fletch but none hit.
The rest of the guards were now out of sight, Grym was halfway up a ladder, Sigefrid's and Hector's goup had reached the back wall of the house in front of the bridge (Hraen had no idea why the bridge was even there) and the Temple Guard were in line with them, further to the left.
Suddenly Witnere and the pack burst from their cover behind a house and pelted towards Marra's group just as a crossbow weilding guardsman appeared ontop of the bridge to the Kettleheads' right. The pack stopped a safe distance away from the guardsmen but Witnere kept going and before Marra could react made a mighty leap towards them. Witnere's leap brought him too far, high over a startled Marra's head to land on an even more startled guardsman. Witnere took him down with ease.
Hraen tore his gaze away to shoot at the crossbowman on the bridge, his brothers following suite. None hit.
As he knocked another arrow Hraen glanced up at Witnere, to see the three remaining guardsmen and Marra charge Witnere, despite their certain fear of him. Witnere, intent on savaging his victim was taken down by the sargeant.
Most of the remaining guards were now in sight again, underneath the bridge and well covered by a lattice of metalwork that would make hitting them nigh impossible.
The crossbowman was no longer a threat as the Pack tore into him.
Witnere leapt up and away from his combatants, astonishing the guards surrounding him for he looked to be torn and wounded so badly as to not be able to move, let alone flee.
The crossbowman managed to hold his own, striking down one of the wolves with his dagger while keeping the other at bay with his sword. Another guardsman charged in and took on a wolf.
As this was happening the main bulk of the City Guard advanced into the alley. Capatin Vimes moved towards the Kettleheads, the rest filling the center of the alley.
The Temple Guard and Berwulf charged in, minus Aethulwulf who was filled by a terrible dread cast by the Guard's hired warlock and Sigefrid, quick to notice charged around the side of the building, his group following close behind.
Hraen led his brothers foward to shoot into the alley and peppered Vimes with shots. All of them hit (how could they miss at such close range?) and Vimes fell to the ground writhing in pain.
Now Hraen had a good view of the alley battle, Douglass and his remaining Temple Guard were laying into the Guardsmen's leige and Hectors own challenger to the throne.
Douglass smashed him down with ease and aimed a swipe at the man's head. Amazingly the fortunate man managed to dodge the blow and certain capture before scrambling away from the fight, dripping blood.
Sigefrid and Berwulf were attacking one of the Guardsmen's new recruits. He was no match for either of them and Sigefrid soon put him out of action before Berwulf could even get his great axe close to him.
The band quickly ran off, one recruit stepped into Douglass' path to stop him from capturing their enemy claimant. Douglass swatted him aside with ease but let him escape with the rest of the Guardsmen out of respect for his brave act.
The Paw did not persue as they wanted to secure their two captured enemies (Vimes had some fearsome injuries but they were non-fatal) and tend to their own wounded, although Fletch added another injury to the Guardsmen with his longbow and Grym tried to with his crossbow.
The band tended to Witnere's and the pack's wounds but one of the wolves could not be saved. Witnere survived but his wounds made him an even more fearsome sight.
The band found plenty of loot and ransomed the recruit for 15gc. The guardsmen did not have enough money to ransom Vimes so Sigefrid decided to keep him untill the Guardsmen had more funds.
Furthermore, Vimes agreed (swore a sollem oath) to fight for the band while he was in captivity, they were untrusting at first but Grym knew the man to be of stuanch honour. They took his nice equipment (bloody Berwulf got that suit of heavy armour) and left him with an axe and a bow (they did not want to lose their valuable hostage in combat and he proved himself to be a highly skilled shot.)
After paying for supplies and the hired men's wages Sigefrid had plenty of remaining loot to spend on equipment and generously pay a new hunstman's oath. The hunter had travelled to Altdorf with his loyal wolf after hearing of the Paw's exploits. He too was a man of Ulric and even if he had lost his bow on the way he and his wolf were a welcome addition to the band.

[Jubal]

Vimes + Norse for pwnage!