text: You grab your blade tightly and look around quickly before dashing over the lip of the crater and towards the blasted wall nearest your left side. Nearby an explosion spurts up chunks of earth and stone as well as the arm of a corpse, high into the air. You watch in horror as the appendage plops onto the sidewalk.
  
  From your left, three Turric warriors rush and assault an injured merchant, stabbing him repeatedly with their wickedly barbed scimitars before looting the man's corpse.
  
  To your right you see another building about twenty feet across some exposed ground.
  
  Do you:
  > run for the Next Building?
  You run for the next building, everything looks safe. No one passes by and the streets are filled with corpses. Perhaps the vanguard has passed by. Taking a breath, you peek out and sense no one.
  
  Slowly you rise and take some tentative steps towards the next building. Though you cross a twenty foot expanse, you safely make it to the next stop. Peeking around the corner, you see a pitiable sight, a small blonde boy is crying over the corpses of his parents in the rubble strewn debris that was once his building. The piercing scream of an incoming flaming boulder smashes into the cobblestones vaporizing everything in your vision and knocking you back.
  
  As you rise, you hear yet another burst far to the rear.
  
  After regaining your feet, you start after where the boy was. There is nothing left but a smoking crater surrounded by a ring of flames. Despite your normal stoic nature, tears threaten to slide down your cheek. Gripping your blade, you force yourself to trudge onwards.
  
  Three streets upward, you notice a firefight going on. Three Essitrean troops are hunkered behind a wall. Each has a crossbow and a fourth soldier lies dead with a bolt sticking out of his neck. You run in a crouch towards their position and fall to a knee beside the sergeant, "What's the situation Sergeant?" You ask.
  
  He turns and almost goes for his sword as he doesn't recognize you but he says, "Mercenary?"
  
  You nod and he grunts, "Figured you all had fled by now, hell if this wasn't my home I'd have fled long ago. Suppose I'll be dying within these old walls soon enough."
  
  A crossbow bolt smacking against the wall brings him back to the fight. "Well, we're trying to reach a defensive position North of here but the bloody Turrics got us cut off. Out of a platoon sized element, only we remain and we're cut off from Main Group. If you can fire a crossbow, your help would be welcome. Hell, even if you can't you can at least take potshots at the bastards."
  
  You nod taking up the Arbalest, a crossbow you are very skilled with and load the bolt. "Where are they located?" You ask.
  
  He darws a quick picture in the dirt with a bolt and says, "We're here, their behind that berm over there. I'm pretty sure there's a sniper a little to the west. Bad thing is, though we can't see him, he can sure as hell see us and he's a crack shot. Took out Ivey with one clean shot, got Spiner just over there." He points to a Essitrean corpse about fifteen feet away, a bolt planted in his back.
  
  Those idiots behind the berm are lousy but they've got us pinned with suppressive fire, can't raise my head without fear of taking bolts, the sniper though, he's the real challenge. We take him out and we can flank. Without him dead, we're stuck in a stalemate."
  
  Add ARBALEST (Crossbow) to your Inventory.
  
  You think over the options:
  
   
  > say "Cover me, I'll take the Sniper."
  You agree to stay but you have to figure out where the sniper is before you can take him out. "Hey Soldier, let me borrow that shield for a second." You grab his small metal shield and quickly raise it above the small wall you are all hunkered behind. Sure enough, the distraction brings a small hail of bolts from your front where the Turric Soldiers are entrenched, but they miss. However, from your right side a bolt slams the shield knocking it out of your hands and sends it rolling about ten feet to your left before the shield flops over.
  
  "Okay soldiers, I know where the sniper is. I'm going to be heading to that little brick wall by the rubble pile, when I say go, I want you to fire your crossbows at the Turric Bastards until I'm set."
  
  The men nod, they lock and load their crossbows and scrunch up preparing to fire.
  
  You count to three and then begin a full-out sprint towards the brick wall in a low crouch. Meanwhile the Essitreans fire all they have at the Turric soldiers who keep their heads don until the flurry is over. They then return fire on the Essitreans and you wheel to the right towards the wall. You realize that the next five feet will be critical.
  
  Test your luck:
  
   
  
   
  > if your name starts with B, E, F, J, P, or Y...
  You duck, dodge, and sprint and are scant seconds to making a dive for home when you take a bolt directly in the ribs. Crashing Uncontrollably into the bricks you injure yourself pretty badly but you skitter up behind the wall and lean against it.
  
  You now have a 2 ENDURANCE (out of 3) if your ENDURANCE lowers to 0 you are Dead.
  
  Breathing with difficulty, you crouch and load your crossbow, you're going to get that Son-of-a-bitch if it's the last thing that  you do. After saying a quick prayer, you turn out from the wall and scan the buildings in the direction of the shot, just as quickly you  turn back in too the safety of the wall. A millisecond later a bolt smashes into the rubble you were just perched on.
  
  You scoot over mentally aiming at the tall tower window on your upper right side. Then you skirt over to the small hole in the wall and aim. Inside you see movement in the wall and you draw a bead. Inhale. Exhale... Fire!
  
  The bolt soars through the air and you hear a slight gasping sound before a man topples out of the window and falls four stories to the cobblestones below. The soldiers cheer and you send them a quick thumbs up.
  
  Now to deal with the Turric Soldiers.
  
  You move along the wall to flank the Turric Crossbowmen being careful not to make noise or alert them to your position. Finally, you can go no further and you peek your head out to see where they are and how many. You notice five men, each loading their crossbows. Deciding to make it four, you fire at the most exposed soldier and duck back behind your wall. A scream rewards your efforts and shouts from the Turric soldiers show that they now have a sniper to deal with.
  
  You reload your Arbalest and ready yourself for another shot. Turn, aim, fire, and duck. A scream follows that action and you slide back down the wall to communicate with the sergeant. He is busy instructing his men to take careful aim but you catch his eye and motion for him to send another soldier across to your position.
  
  You slide back to your sniper's post and between you and the soldiers, lay down covering fire as one of the privates rushes to the wall you are hiding behind. You've now got the enemy flanked. He looks at you with the bolt sticking out of your ribs and exhales but you motion for him to move to the corner.
  
  He takes a quick look and  sees a Turric Medic tending for their two wounded men while two men provide fire at the Soldiers you left. You nod and roll over aiming at the Medic and taking him out with a bolt that shatters his skull. The soldier with you runs to the side to another wall to the rear of the beleagured Turric warriors and The sergeant and his soldier keep up firing from the front.
  
  Seconds later, you and your soldier pick off the last two Turric Crossbowmen. You wave your hand back and forth indicating a cease fire and you all rise from the rubble strewn battleground. The Sergeant and his men rush to congratulate you, "I don't know what we'd have done without your timely intervention. I'm Sergeant Reynall and these soldiers are Corvis and Leake. I'm guessing your that merc girl they call 'Silver'. I'd heard you were amazing but obviously the legends do you no justice."
  
  He looks at the bolt in your side and cringes, "Looks like you took one for the team, unfortunately our medic is lying over there with a bolt in him so I'll just bandage it up and keep it as sterile as possible. We're heading over to a defensive position where we think some friendly troops are stationed, your welcome to come along for the ride if you'd like. Four is a hell of a lot better than one I'd say."
  > say "Thanks for letting me tag along..."
  You and the troops move quickly and silently through the alleys, side streets, and main streets of the falling city. Several times you have to draw swords and fight enemy troops, run away from other Turric groups, or even loose undead creatures wandering the city, however, you all find a place to hole up before you make the final push towards safety. You decide to wait until nightfall before moving onwards.