(I'm flexible on the date. Whenever fits the storyline best).
It's been a quiet night on the gate at Arans. Around midnight, a heavy rain sets in. The gate guards take shelter as best they can, and huddle around a warming brazier as the night wears on.
A couple of hours later, a very sharp eye would see a black-clad figure running, in a laboured way, cross-country towards the castle. In time, he limps rapidly up to the gate, and hammers on the woodwork as if his life depended on it. With his free hand, he seems to be clutching his side.
The man turns his face to the porthole; you can see from his eyes that he is near exhaustion, and filled with fear. He tries to speak to you, but seems to have some trouble getting the words out.
H... .... h... he... .... h... Help?
He seems to try to say more, but his voice dies in his throat.
This man is in bad shape, probably wounded. Bartomeu tries to determine if this is a ruse but decides that it does not look like one.
OPEN THE DOOR! he shouts.
He and one of the other guards move forward to catch the newcomer as he collapses. He is wounded right. Bartomeu makes the other men bring him up to one of the guard straw beds and rips open his clothes. He shots Joan to bring his medical equipment fast and for the others to bring a brazier. The youngster sprints across the courtyard towards the grog barracks.
Outside the rain continues falling, careless of what is happening in the gatehouse.
The young man gratefully accepts the helping arms that lay him in the gatehouse. He forces himself to look round at the gate, and makes sure the guards shut it tightly behind him; he forces out the words M... m... ... M... ... Men chasing. And... and ... an... and... ... D... d... D... dogs. And.... He shudders, and passes out.
It's clear, once you open his clothes, that his side has been torn open, probably by a crossbow bolt that thankfully missed any vital organs. He's plainly been bleeding for a couple of hours, and is weak.
After about half an hour, you hear the distant baying of dogs. Looking out, you can see a clump of torches in the direction the wounded man came from; in the darkness, you estimate about five men presumably attended by the dogs. They are heading for the gatehouse, and will arrive in approximately fifteen minutes.
Apparently someone assumed Fleur would be awake if not out of bed at this time of night, and she has come to see the patient, not bothering to get dressed first. She casts "Assurance of the eased recovery" (needs 30, has 22 with summer study plus aura and die roll of 2, she takes a fatigue), then directs the man be kept in the guardhouse until one of the senior magi says otherwise, and make sure the front gate is secured as it sounds like we are about to have unwelcome company.
Bartomeu looks impressed. He had managed to perform basic emergency healing on the newcomer, but the magical skill of the maga certainly surpasses his mundane talents.
Bartomeu is the senior grog in the gatehouse, but he does not like directing things himself. So Joan is sent again to fetch one of the sergeants of the covenant. He does not know Fleur much since she is stationed far away and hardly ever sees her, but he has seen magi be quite odd when dealing with peasants in the past, and prefers to have a more grounded figure of authority nearby. He also orders a pair of archers to be sent up the battlements and a pair of armored soldiers to come to the gatehouse, just in case. He is cautious if anything. He expects the pursuers to be invited into the covenant as well while it is sorted out who this fugitive is and why he is hunted, and he does not want any trouble arising. Better to make the odds heavily favourable to Andorra.
The young Joan runs like a chicken without a head all around the covenant performing the different chores he has been charged with.
Does someone else want to play the men-with-dogs? Full background is that they're pursuing Bernat because he was spotted overhearing an incriminating conversation between his employer (the Bishop of Urgell, who coincidentally appears to hold domain of sorts over the territory of Andorra) and a Faerie creature; exactly what the pursuers have been told may, of course, differ.
((Fleur also has the Gentle Gift, naturally, so is likely to be viewed in a more favorable light than other magi))
((as for the man with the dogs. How far behind are they?))
That miscreant has led us on a merry chase for several days now. But it ends here! Where are we anyway? Matters not.
((pounds on the gate shouting, three men and a dozen hounds.
Open up in the name of the Bishop of Urgel!!
A few Andorran soldiers gaze over the top of the wall down at him.
S'pose we should let him in, or just shoot him?
The new commotion at the gates brings the young man back to consciousness. He looks scared, and tries to back away from the door behind something - anything - that will hide him. He turns to the nearest man:
H... H.... Hi... H... Hide m..m..m..me! P... p... p... please! Th... th.. those men will k... k... k... kill m..m..me!
((Beginning to wonder if a stutter was such a good idea...))
The arrival of more people and the conflict it can bring, likely. Bartomeu would have a prestige Custos status at most, but is not a sergeant or official figure of authority. If he does not notify any high ranking he will at least inform Vicenç, the sergeant responsible for his combat group (veteran, one eyed, second sight, lame and gruff, in case anyone wants to take him as a character)
Nobody else apart from em and Asilando wants to contribute to this scene? There is plenty fo grogs and their officers available in Andorra just for that.
There is plenty fo grogs and their officers available in Andorra just for that. 