Chapter 45
Kestrel quietly crept up to the corner of the balcony overhang, hunching down low and into the shadows. The four Vipers had formed a half circle around Roughshod, eying him up and looking for an opening. Roughshod was an experienced brawler, however, and kept them from gaining ground and closing in around him by threatening the Vipers on the ends of the semicircle, keeping them back and giving himself room to work with. His attention, however, remained largely focused on the stallion with the knife, the obvious threat of the bunch. Tough as Roughshod was, eight inches of cold steel had a way of cutting a pony down to size.
That also made him the obvious target for Kestrel if she wanted to help. The knife-wielding Viper was also the closest to the saloon, and therefore the closest to her. Spreading her wings and coiling her legs, Kestrel sprung from the rooftop, hooves aimed squarely at the back of the stallion’s head.
Kestrel uses Muscle (4+2) to attack the knife-wielding stallion from above (Surprise Attack: +2): Fail
Before she could land the blow, however, the earth pony’s ear twitched, and he looked back just enough to see Kestrel’s brown body coming down on him in the moonlight. He managed to roll to the side, avoiding Kestrel’s hooves, and the mare cursed as she drove her shoes into the dusty ground and slid over to Roughshod’s side. Before either could take advantage of the opening, the knife-wielding Viper brought himself back to his hooves and sneered at her. “Dumb bitch!” he growled around the handle of his knife. “Who’re you? Stay outta this!”
Kestrel paid him no mind; she immediately went to Roughshod’s left, helping to ward off the two Vipers trying to close from that direction. “What the blazes did you do?” she grumbled at him.
“Them idiots didn’t take kindly to me askin’ after their boss,” Roughshod muttered back. “Figure I’ll beat it out of one of ‘em.”
“Good thing I was nearby,” Kestrel said. “You looked like you needed it.”
“Yeah, great entrance you made there…”
With the scale of the fight changed, the four Vipers began sizing Kestrel up, scrutinizing her to see how much of a threat she was. The mare pulled her hat back to make sure she could see what was happening around her clearly, and the moment she did that, the eyes on the pony with the knife widened.
Is Kestrel recognized by any of the Vipers? Critical Yes
“Shit, you’re that mare on the poster!” the stallion exclaimed, and the rest of his companions all glanced back at him. “You’re with that old pony’s crew! I should have known!”
Roughshod shot Kestrel a sideways glance. “I really hate you, Kestrel.”
“You got us into this shit,” Kestrel growled back. Her eyes shifted around the darkness; it suddenly felt like there were eyes everywhere.
The obvious leader of the gang of Vipers grinned and turned back toward the saloon, where several patrons had gathered to watch the continuation of the brawl outside. “This mare’s got five hundred bits on her head,” he said, pointing a hoof in Kestrel’s direction. “I bet her friend’s wanted too somewhere else. You want some cash? Let’s get ‘em!”
While his back was turned, however, Roughshod suddenly lunged forward. The other Vipers tried to warn their ringleader, but it was too late. By the time he turned around, Roughshod was on him, his hoof driving straight for the Viper’s muzzle. The other stallion barely had enough time for his eyes to widen before Roughshod’s hoof crunched his jaw inwards, and the pony viciously spun about with blood spraying from his broken nose before landing in a heap on the ground. He did not rise from that, and the rest of the ponies watching Roughshod took a step back in surprise.
Roughshod’s nostrils flared and he stared down the two Vipers on his right. “Well?” he spat at them. “You want some, too?”
Kestrel knew what the answer was going to be even before the other Vipers began to rush toward Roughshod, and she spread her wings on instinct to make herself light on her hooves. She darted forward to Roughshod’s left, trying to interrupt the pegasus closing in on his blind spot, but wasn’t fast enough to intercept. His punch caught Roughshod from behind and he staggered forward—right into the knife the second Viper had drawn from under his overcoat and jammed into his chest.
Roughshod uses Tough as Nails to avoid taking damage: Critical Fail
Roughshod is Critically Injured and suffers a -3 penalty to Healthiness until his wounds can be treated.
Roughshod’s eyes bulged out and he staggered backwards as the Viper pulled the blade out, the steel glistening red with blood. He coughed hard but managed to catch himself as the last Viper rushed at him, and he took a blow to the jaw that sent him reeling. And beyond the fight back at the saloon, two ponies that looked like two-bit bounty hunter wannabes had jumped down the stairs and were rushing toward the beleaguered stallion, ready to claim any bounties that might be on his head.
Kestrel launched herself at the pegasus who had punched Roughshod from behind, and the steel on her hooves slammed into his cheek and dropped him to the dusty ground. One more kick to his skull stopped his writhing, though Kestrel didn’t bother to look if he was just going to wake up with a bad headache in the morning or if he wasn’t going to wake up ever again. Roughshod, meanwhile, staggered forward, trying to land a hit on the stallion that had stabbed him…
Roughshod attacks the Viper who stabbed him: Critical Fail
…but ended up falling over when he swung his hoof out while his assailant easily danced around the blow. The Viper’s lips turned into a sick grin as he saw Roughshod lying on the ground in front of him, all but helpless from his injury, and blood dripped from the knife as he readied to strike once again.
Lady Luck (6) intervenes on Kestrel’s behalf: Success
Before he could, however, maroon magic smashed a brick against the stallion’s skull, and his eyes rolled back as he fell to the ground. A silver streak darted between Roughshod and the remaining Viper, and the last outlaw jumped backwards to avoid the flurry of hooves. When the streak finally came to a stop, Kestrel’s wings sagged with relief when she saw Silver standing by Roughshod, her mouth slightly open and wings quivering as she panted with excitement. One eye turned back toward Kestrel. “You need the cavalry?”
“Do we ever,” Kestrel said, a grin working its way across her face. Tumbleweed galloped over from further down the street and took up a position by Silver’s other side, and he could only shook his head at what he saw.
“I shoulda known you and Rough would get into some trouble,” he said, turning his attention back to the remaining three ponies in the brawl across from him. “Let’s send these vermin runnin’ with their tails ‘tween their legs!”
The remaining three ponies, one with vengeance on his mind and the other two with bits, rushed forward to attack despite being outnumbered. One ran straight for Kestrel, forcing her back with a light blow to the end of her muzzle that left her snorting and bleeding from her nose but nothing more. The last Viper attacked Silver, and the young mare cried out when his hoof caught her eye; she jumped back a few feet with a flutter of her wings until she could see clearly, then jumped back at him. The final pony tried to attack Tumbleweed, but the leader of the Gang turned him away with his magic before he could connect.
Kestrel attacks the pony that attacked her: Critical Success
Then it was Kestrel’s turn to rebound, and she wasted no time. Wings flapping, she launched herself at the bounty hunter and kicked him back with all four of her hooves. Still somewhat inebriated from drink, the stallion lost his balance immediately and topped into the last Viper, bringing them both to the ground. Silver responded by kicking each while they were down, putting them out of the fight, and Roughshod finished off the last bounty hunter by catching him in the temple with a heavy hoof while he tried to recover from Tumbleweed’s magic.
The group rolls Lady Luck (6) to avoid attracting the attention of the Law: Success
The rest of the patrons dispersed shortly after everything fell silent, leaving the four members of the Gang to stand in the street, dripping blood and panting from the fight. Only when it became abundantely clear nopony else was coming their way did Roughshod sink to his haunches and clutch the stab wound in his chest.
“F-Fuck,” the big earth pony coughed out. “Damn bastard…”
“What happened?” Tumbleweed asked Kestrel while Silver tried to get a good look at Roughshod’s wound.
“Rough started a fight,” Kestrel said, glancing back toward the saloon. “We found some things out, though. Wanderer talked with a blue unicorn named Adder in the general store, then they came over here ‘round dinner time. We was tryin’ to find Adder when this happened.” She gestured with her wings around her. “How ‘bout you?”
Did Tumbleweed and Silver find any information on their own? No
Tumbleweed shook his head. “You found more than us.” Then he nodded his head toward the saloon. “He still in there?”
“I reckon,” Kestrel said. “Unless all the fightin’ outside scared him off.”
“Might still be in the process of that.” Tumbleweed frowned at Roughshod, who brusquely pushed Silver away and tried to stand on his own despite the obvious pain he was in. “But do we got what it takes to stop him now? That ain’t a good wound to our heavy hitter.”
“I’m fine,” Roughshod growled, staggering forward on three hooves while the fourth tried to staunch the blood flowing down his chest. “Let’s… let’s get the bastard.”
“We need to get you to the doctor,” Silver protested. “You ain’t ready to go back into there!”
“Screw the doctor, I can fight. ‘Sides, we need to catch this pony.” He turned his gaze toward Kestrel. “Ain’t that right, Kessie?”
1. Try to catch Adder as a group. Rough’s tough, that’s evident enough. Knife wound like that’ll only slow him down, not stop him in his tracks, and we can use every bit of help we can get. Who knows what we’re goin’ up against?
2. Send Roughshod back to get treatment. Rough needs so help, or he ain’t makin’ it outta here alive. We can’t afford to send somepony back with him to make sure he gets to the doctor’s, though. We’re gonna have to trust he’ll do it himself. [CHANCE THAT ROUGHSHOD DOES NOT MAKE IT TO THE DOCTOR]
3. Send Roughshod back with Silver. Only way Rough’s actually gonna go to the doc is if we send somepony to chaperone him back. Tumbleweed and I are our most competent fighters right now, so it should be Silvie who helps him. [ROUGHSHOD AND SILVER WINGS WILL GO TO THE DOCTOR AND BE UNAVAILABLE FOR DEALING WITH ADDER]
4. Retreat and regroup. We’re too banged up to go chasin’ down Adder right now. Sorry, Wanderer, but you’re gonna have to sit tight until we’re in a better shape to find you… I just pray them Vipers don’t kill you first.
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3.
1.
I mean, if anyone's going to die it might as well be the asshole.
I think we should go 3. here. Too risky to send Roughshod alone, since at that point he’s more likely to just come back and get himself killed than get to the doctor.
I also think 1. is a viable option. It gives us the highest combat strength just in case Adder has friends with him. The problem with this option is that getting through the saloon with Roughshod being beat and stabbed might make others try their luck with a wounded group. It also runs the risk of Roughshod outright dying.
Dang it, I kinda have to say 3. Rough can't be trusted by himself. And Wanderer is in some trouble.
Oof, tough call. We almost paid for it with those rolls.
Much like everyone else I'm dancing between 1 and 3.
I'm more leaning towards 1. Staying with the group is safer, we don't also lose Silvie, and we can keep Roughshod from being an idiot (maybe).
(I'd do more detailed analysis but my phone is terrible to try and format off of.)
I'm thinking 1.
3
I'm thinking option 3 maybe. We need to get grandpa back but we can't bring Roughshod along with how hurt he is. Can't send him alone either and might as well send silver with him. Silvie isn't all that great in a melee anyways.
SIGH...I guess Roughshod is pretty fucked, so yeah, #3. Tumbleweed needs to make sure to bring his new recruit Mr. Brick along. Oh and Kessie should make sure to hop back up and check those last windows before anything else, even though the brawl might have alerted people... If Adder was too busy bangin' a whore or something, we might still have a chance to catch him unaware.
Wow, those rolls could almost have not gone worse. Well, I suppose maybe Kestrel could have stabbed herself on the dude's knife when she tried to surprise him.
That's better.
It always really amuses me for ponies to describes themselves as the cavalry arriving.
Send Roughshod and Silver back. He is just too injured, and bringing him with into the saloon or sending him back alone has just too high a chance of getting him killed while we are supposed to be saving Wanderer (who is probably a traitor anyway).
Option three. Roughshod is too messed up to fight. Plus, if he dies, morale is gonna tank.
3 I guess. Boy, that's not a good situation either way...
Option 3.