We open where we stopped last time with Sir Gideion the knight, Asher the human host to a powerful sprirt and Cossette the witch facing six men in mask, one a giant to rival the size of Sir Gideion wearing a goat's mask.
The cultist are alerted and the five step forward, two of them drawing well-crafted swords from under their robes, one pulling a club as the last two pull knives. The leader tells them in a resonant, deep voice that he has no quarrel with Sir Gideion or Ash who host the fallen, and that they may walk away if they leave the witch.
Asher is the first to shoot down that plan because she might be a witch, but she's there witch. Gideion just steps up and rolls intimidate by pointing at the man with the club and telling him that no matter what else happens if they don't stand down he's going to die screaming. Sucessful roll! Cosset ask why they want her as the party inches a little deeper into the room and closer to the captives.
The cult leader tells them that they serve Lucifer, the Morning Star, first among the Fallen, and that the pathetic schemes of Lilith cults will not be allowed to continue. Cosset tries to ask more, but the fight starts when the cultist attack Gideion when he leans down and pulls out the ring that holds the shackled woman kneeling on the floor. Being 4x stronger then a normal person is a slight help, and the woman has the presence of mind to brace herself and assist him, proving to be strong, despite the deprivations and abuse of her captivity.
“Enough of this clumsy exposition! Have at you!”.. Joke, joke.
GURPS combat proves as brutal as ever as the two sides lay into each other. Outnumbered 2 to 1 the PC's also face skilled fighters that make a real effort to flank them. Asher uses his ace in the hole, firing up his magic and using Blur to get his dodge up to 14, then it's a brawl.
Cosset gets shocked when she throws a fireball and the cult leader uses Deflect Energy to parry it, then drops a Pain spell on Ash. Gideon charges and shield bashes the cultist with a club and tells Cosset and Asher to get the girl off the alter. Cosset's player gets creative and uses Create Fire because it can't be deflected, dropping it next to Gideon to buy them a little space but using up a lot of her FP.
Pretty much everyone is getting low on FP at this point, it's been a long fight and Extra effort for defense uses up FP fast. Gideion's taken enough abuse to put a normal person in the hospital but he's fine and Ash has 2 HP left. The guy with the club is crippled and a few of the other cultist have been hurt badly, but it's not enough to stop them, especially when the cult leader steps up and heals one.
I'm proud of the players for realizing on their own that the situation wasn't really tenable and that they needed to get out. Gideon, with the help of Cossets fire, hold off the cultist for a moment while Asher cuts free the sacrifice on the alter after dropping a darkness spell on it to cover the work.
It's a clever plan and I'm sad when it goes so terribly wrong. A cultist stabs him and manages to get 3 IMP past his DR, taking him to -4.
Asher finishes freeing the sacrifice and staggers halfway back to the tunnel they entered by before he passes out. The now freed sacrificial victims drag him back into the tunnel as Gideon stays alive by retreating and stepping back in the direction of the tunnel, picking up 14 damage on the way and bringing him to -4 too, until he gets hit again and drops to -7, but still stayed up.
Cosset steps up to help cover the retreat back to the tunnel, getting between Ash and danger, getting tagged for 6 damage and yelled at by Gideon for getting into a sword fight with a dagger while the height of an average 9 year old and not wearing armor.
Gideon stays up for the retreat into the hallway where the group pretty much staggers back one step at a time. Cosset burns HP until she's down to 1 in order to cast Create Flame, blocking the doorway, then they stagger outside.
All in all, Gideon stays up 17 seconds at negative HP before he at last succumbs to his wounds. All three girls together, and a rope wrapped around him, let them drag him the rest of the way out of the catacombs where Cosset, as the only PC still ambulatory, makes the choice to hide them in the woods after getting their one horse loaded with the guys.
In the woods she provides first aid, then releases their horse to go back to the stable at the Southwark Piroiry and lead away any trackers before she calls out to the wolves they encountered before. Using Animal Empathy she wanted to try and convince the wolves to cover their escape. She doesn’t quite manage but dose get the alpha wolf to guard their territory in the woods and to tolerate her party.
While the cult tries to hunt them in the dark woods with wolves on the prowl she gets back enough FP to heal the others. Gideion's SM +1 annoyingly doubles the cost to heal him, but luckily his HP 20 also doubles the amount of HP he recovers from healing effects, so it more or less evens out. With him up and able to carry Asher they start moving again.
By morning they are back at the cathedral near the bridge, bloodied, dirty and tired but alive where they get greeted by Sir Macarius, returned from the Holy Land and a pilgrimage to recover the reliquaries of lost saints and ready to help them get settled in and bandaged.
With things more settled they are also able to introduce themselves to the women that the cult had captured, a pair of outlanders. Esmeralda is a gypsy and a tattoo artist, eager for revenge after the cult killed her family and able to identify the leader of the cult as the Baron of Knightsbridge, though that might be of limited use: her accusation will carry little weight with those in power.
The other woman is Freya and proves to be a northerner that left her home fjords and the religion of her ancestors after a religious vision following a talk with a priest. Her father was a blacksmith and her mother a shield-maiden, so she's just as eager as anyone else to get revenge on the men that ambushed and captured her.
Next time: No idea!.. Just don't tell my players yet. It really depends, but I enjoyed myself.