Assembling The Allies

SATURDAY 23 DECEMBER 3460

ST. VACLAV'S EVE

The night was without incident and everyone slept well in the knowledge that it is unlikely that they will do so the following night. Yaz is, once again, the first to wake in order that he can perform his devotions. Although it has stopped snowing now, the temperature is still very cold and so he performs his devotions in the stables amongst the horses. He spends longer with his devotions than normal, asking Prirodna for the right blessings to help him in the day's task.

Once he has finished, he heads into the dining room where he finds the others are already in the middle of eating breakfast.

With everyone now assembled, Winnacer starts off the conversation regarding the plans for taking out the Nemotz priests at the Mortuary:

"We need to decide exactly when we are going to make the hit first of all," the young Lord starts. "Has any one any suggestions?"

"I reckon that we should hit the joint early, like pretty much immediately," Porter suggests. "At night, some of the priests and guards may be asleep, but they will all probably be there. In the morning, it is possible that some of the temple staff will be other places. Also, I'm uncomfortable waiting until the last minute, as the Nemotz may put their plans into motion before we get there. Just like in the rat lair, we'll nearly get ourselves killed for nothing."

Yaz shakes his head:

"The way I see it, we only got one chance whenever we decide to do it. If we try now and screw everything up, they'd know their plans had been busted and so go ahead and dump their shit in the well any case. We might as well wait a bit and get as much going for us as we can."

Winnacer ponders Yaz and Porter's suggestions:

"I'm worried that a daytime raid will call a bit too much attention to us. We will be in the middle of 'Crips' territory and it is certain we will be seen both coming and going during a daytime raid. This will put us and our allies in danger once the mission is completed."

"We have a good backup plan to protect against poisoning. We still should have the element of surprise, as the Nemotz have no good reason to know that we are coming for them. We only have one shot at this anyway. I'm with Yaz with this one, let's go with a night time raid."

Winnacer looks at Faewen'il:

"If we opt for a night time raid, it gives us a chance to scout out the place in the morning. Are you still willing to infiltrate the building for us Faewen'il?"

Faewen'il is quiet for a moment, but then sighs deeply and replies:

"I suppose that there be nae choice in tha matter," she replies with a scowl. "But I be havin some other plans for tha mornin. I should be finishin with it in tha middle o tha afternoon."

Winnacer nods:

"Thank you for that, Faewen'il," he replies. "As long as you are back by early evening, then it shouldn't matter how long it takes you."

The young Lord looks towards Porter and Yaz:

"So it looks as if the plan has been made. We go in later this evening."

Porter shakes his head and mutters:

"Freakin' waste of time. One thing I learned tracking men is that you can't sit around on your ass."

He sighs again, but realizes that he is in the minority when it comes to the timing of the mission. He looks over at Fae:

"Perhaps we can go and see your new friend at the 'Bald Eagle' and see if he has found out anything about the Beardy Boys?"

The Feisty One shakes her head, however:

"No, I nae be wantin company this morning."

With that, she gets up from the table and heads off out of the dining room before collecting some of her belongings and then she heads out into Tall Town.

Winnacer looks at Porter and Yaz:

"Well I have no specific plans for the morning. I need to purchase a large cloak and check over my weapons. I plan on doing a little training with Milan later as well. Both of you are welcome to join me if you please."

Yaz shakes his head:

"Naw," the druid replies. This shithole is getting me down. Cold or not, I'm going up the hill to spend some time away from this place. I'll be back this afternoon to hear what Maire's found out."

With that, Yaz takes his leave of the others and walks out of the inn.

Winnacer and Porter finish their meals and then head their separate ways. Winnacer walks to the stables and beckons Milan to finish up with the horses and to accompany him into the town. As the pair of them gets out into Tall Town they see that, despite the freezing cold weather, the place is teeming with life. They head towards the marketplace and see that this is where everyone else is going as well. It seems as if half of Opava is bustling around the place, frantically buying a large assortment of items. The merchants are doing incredible business on their cheaper wares and foodstuffs, pocketing coppers and silvers from the dwarves that are lining up to buy items. Winnacer soon discovers that the merchants will be closing down their stalls at noon for St. Vaclav's Day and will not reopen for the next three days. As a result, the citizens of Opava are in the middle of their last-minute shopping spree for gifts and food.

It doesn't take long for Winnacer to find a merchant selling clothes and textiles and he manages to find a cloak that takes his fancy. After waiting in line to pay the merchant the requested 15 pieces of silver, the young Lord decides that he has had enough of the bustle of the marketplace and heads back to the 'Boar's Head'.

Once he is back in the inn, he goes to his room to collect his equipment and then brings it down to the stable where he sits down with Milan. The young Lord then spends a couple of hours checking his equipment and sharpening it. He also cleans his armor, instructing Milan as to how to look after it as well. Winnacer then spends a while showing Milan how to load the caliver and also how to clean it, but neither of them fires the gunne for fear that the sound of gunfire might draw the attention of the Nyemetz garrison that is well within earshot of the inn.

After Milan has the rudiments of loading and cleaning the caliver down, it is still just a little after midday. The pair of them then spend another couple of hours sparring. Winnacer is pleased to note that Milan is definitely improving now and sees that the squire is easily as proficient with the sword as the young Lord himself was just a little over three eventful months ago.

The pair of them spar until they start to tire, taking the time up until 2.00. By this time they have worked up quite an appetite and so they head back into the dining room in order to take lunch. As they are eating, Porter shows up followed a little later by Yaz, who is looking cold as usual. The four of them spend a little under an hour eating and waiting for Faewen'il to return. As they are just finishing and starting to wonder whether she is going to turn up at all, the Feisty One appears. She doesn't look very happy at all. Her normally pale complexion is even more ashen than normal and she appears to be a lot more subdued than her normal self-assured persona.

Winnacer looks concerned:

"Are you all right, Faewen'il?" he asks. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

Faewen'il is silent for a moment and then replies:

"Ye nae be far wrong. For once," she replies. "But it were nae a ghost. It were a wraith."

Faewen'il's news sets alarm going through the others:

"Aye, a wraith, one o' the few thins tha can harm me while I be in ma wraithform."

She pauses for a moment:

"I had chance to see a lot o tha temple, but not all o it, as tha wraith could ha easily killed me an so I had to make a quick escape from tha place."

"Tha temple be on two levels," she starts to explain. "The two doors from tha back o tha temple leads into a corridor. There be one door off there that leads to an office where a priest be workin an another door that leads to a corridor that runs straight back into tha rock. There be three doors off either side o tha corridor. Most o tha rooms on tha upper floor be dormitories for tha priests, but one o them is a kitchen an another a bathroom."

"It be tha downstairs part that be really interestin though," she continues. "Tha door at the end o the corridor leads to a door. All o tha doors in tha temple be closed. I nae be knowin which be locked an iffin any be trapped because I cannae be touchin anythin while I'm in ma wraithform. Tha stairs be headin downwards to the lower level o tha temple."

"It be when I reached the bottom o tha stairs that I be knowin that all nae be right a tha temple, because there be a guardroom with some undead dwarves guardin tha entrance. They be tha same as some o tha creatures from Bosco's tower, ten ghouls an four ghasts I think they were."

"They were nae able to see me because o ma form an so I carried on into a short corridor wit two doors in tha east wall and one in the west wall. The door on the west wall went into a large office, which I think is where tha head priest was workin. There was another door from his office tha goes into his quarters. On tha opposite side were more dormitory areas. The first one belongs to four more priests, although only two were there when I saw them. In tha next room I found what we be lookin for, because I could tell by the smell that it belonged to the three Nemotz priests. I had a look at them and they were covered in sores an lesions. It were them all right. They did nae have the steel box o disease with them though. I went through the door at the south end of the corridor, which led into another corridor. It were here that I saw tha wraith an so had to get out o there quick an so I don't know what it were that tha wraith be protectin."

Winnacer is quiet for a moment and then starts to ask more questions:

"So how many priests do you think are in there?" he asks.

"I be thinkin that there be about thirty in all," she replies, "plus tha three Nemotz priests."

Winnacer asks for more specifics of the temple and Faewen'il draws a simple map showing all that she was able to discover.

"Shit," says Porter, "You guys certainly know how to get yourselves into a situation, don't you. Here's the main problem I see: from the map, it looks like we've got to fight more than a dozen undead to get into the lower level. I don't see how we're going to take them out silently, so that's going to attract a lot of attention. So, I think we need to come up with something that attracts even more attention. We need to set up a diversionary attack right in the main temple chamber. Something BIG. This should bring the majority of the priests running, maybe even the guys from the lower level. We tunnel in from the side, bar the doors from the backside, and head downstairs to take care of business."

The bounty hunter sighs:

"Personally, I wish I had an idea on how to get in and out without a word, but I don't see how to get past the undead, unless we can tunnel down, which I don't think we've got the time for, even if we could do it unnoticed."

Winnacer smiles at Porter:

"I warned you long ago that our missions tend not to be for the weak of heart. But I think we'll do all right here. We have two priests and a cartful of holy water. If the dwarven gods grant similar powers as Spravedelna grants, they will be able to hold the undead at bay. From a distance they will make great targets for holy water grenades, which should be more quiet than attacking them with bared steel. From my limited experience with these creatures, I would imagine that they are not quite smart enough to raise an alarm on their own. We may be able to preserve the element of surprise this way."

"As for the upper level, it may do just fine to come in from the back and bar the doors. If they have no alarm system up in the main room, we can prevent them from raising an alarm and keep ourselves from having to kill them right off. We could then clear out the rest of the priests in the upper level and make our way downstairs with only a small chance of suffering a rear attack. And if we make our move at night, some of these priests may have already gone to bed, leaving them more or less at our mercy."

"I think we may be able to start this thing off quietly, even to the point of the undead guards. It is this wraith thing that truly disturbs me. We should plan a way to dispose of it now before we head downstairs. We may not need that diversion if we pick off the Priests quietly."

"But it may be well and good to have a diversion planned nevertheless. Any ideas? Do you think it would be possible to convince the Bloods to start some trouble in the area shortly after we infiltrate?"

Porter shrugs:

"I don't have a lot of experience with undead, but if you think we can get past them without raising the alarm, it is worth trying, I suppose. However, I think we're going to have to create any diversion on our own. The Mortuary is in Crips territory, and asking the Bloods to come up here for a diversion would be a major favor. I think we've exhausted everything we're going to get our of Emsee and friends."

Winnacer thinks about it for a few seconds:

"Well, if we knew before, we could have enlisted the aid of the caster of illusions the Council mentioned. But that's too late now as well."

"If we move in quietly and neutralize most of the first level, we could split up to finish it off as well. It would be something to, say, bring the priests the body of the poor bard while our allies wait to spring on them from behind. That way we can get some semblance of surprise without a big diversion."

"But truthfully, I am counting on stone walls, thick doors, and sleepy clergy to help keep the element of surprise. As long as nobody is screaming, there should be little chance of our incidental sounds to arouse alarm."

Winnacer frowns:

"Or at least I can never hear anything through the walls of all the dungeons and towers I've been in. It's those thick wooden doors, they stop all sound."

"They were all iron doors," Faewen'il corrects him, "but ye be right in thinkin they be pretty thick. As long as we no be makin too much noise, then I be thinkin tha we shouldn't be needin to wake the whole place up."

"It may be smart to make a request early to our clerical friends for perhaps some silence ensorcellments," Winnacer finishes. "That's a sure way to keep our element of surprise."

Porter nods:

"Yes, I forgot about the power of magic oftentimes. If we can create silence in that chamber while fighting the undead, we would have a good chance. Also, if these priests are sleeping, I imagine I could handle a number of them quickly, with a little luck, which may not be forthcoming. Also, the idea of bringing the bard's body would get us in the door, but if we can bar the two main doors from the other side, we would eliminate a dozen of our adversaries with a fight. Perhaps we could secure some stout iron bars and spikes for such a task this afternoon?"

"Spikes I have covered," Winnacer replies. "I bet we can pick up the appropriate metal bars from the Temple of Zelezny. We are all meeting there anyway to solidify our plans, so we can get the parts right before we go for it. If we get there before the 7:00p.m. meeting time, it should not be a problem."

"So which side you think we should try to come in from Porter, the left or the right? Do you think you'll be able to get the doors open quietly?"

Porter answers:

"Well, that depends on whether we can take out the solitary guy in the office without alerting anyone. Seems to me he's gonna hear us tunneling into the room if we do that. Maybe I'm wrong, so we should ask the dwarves about that. If we can get into the office and take the guy out, then our entrance has a good chance of going undetected."

Porter continues:

"If we come in on the right side, it's less likely that we'll run into anyone - at first. However, it'll be hard to cover up our entrance, I imagine, so sooner rather than later, they'll know there's been a breach. Personally, I'd like to try to go in through the office. Maybe we can break through fast enough to take out the guy before he realizes what the hell is going on."

Porter then finishes:

"As far as the doors, we go two doors to get through. Considering there's going to be half-dozen of us, and some of you couldn't walk through a field of soft grass without making a racket, I say we use a silence spell before the first set of double doors, then go straight on through to the lower level. If we don't take too long to deal with the undead, then the spell might cover us through that battle."

Fae, still dressed from head to toe in her black pants and tunic from her 'spying' mission, continues to ignore Winnacer and Porter as they blather on about plans; instead, she seems to be looking at a couple of sheaves of paper and drumming her fingers upon her leg in thought.

There is a pause in the conversation and then Winnacer speaks:

"We now know what we have to face and so there are just the details to work upon. I think it's best if we meet up with the dwarves at the Cathedral of Zelezny and include them in our planning session, as they should give us a better idea as to what skills and magicks they can add to assist us with."

The others readily agree, having started to get bored of the planning session already:

"We should meet up again here in a couple of hours in order to make our way down to the Cathedral of Zelezny. I have some more preparations to make."

Winnacer leaves the others and heads up to his room. As soon as the LawBringer has gone, Porter turns to Yaz and speaks:

"I understand that you've got some of those poison globes that the ratmen used," he says. "Could I borrow a few of them for tonight? I know Winn's against using them, but if it's a choice between us or them, then these things could make all the difference."

Yaz exhales a mouthful of smoke:

"How many do you want?"

Porter shrugs:

"I guess a couple would be fine."

Yaz nods:

"Yeah - I guess that shouldn't be a problem. Don't tell Winn I gave them to you though."

Porter nods and then the pair of them head off to Yaz' room in order that Porter can get the globes.

Meanwhile, Winnacer calls for Milan and goes back to his room in order to tool up for the evening's assault. He goes through all of his possessions and digs out, from the bottom of his pack, the mace that was taken from Boscobelous Tower all those weeks ago. With Xavier taking possession of the mace for most of the time up until his death, Winnacer has never really taken the time to look at it in much detail. It is obviously a fine weapon, cast from a single piece of steel that has a bluish white coloration. The head of the mace is slightly hollow. Winnacer tries a few practice moves with the weapon and, as he wields it, he hears that the mace-head makes a slight whistling noise as the air passes through the head, similar to the howling of the wind on a cold winter's night.

Winnacer then proceeds to put on his platemail with Milan's assistance, an exercise that still takes the pair of them more than half an hour. Once the armor is secure, Winnacer proceeds to tool himself up ready for the task, hanging the mace, a dagger and Old Bohavia from his belt, slinging the caliver over his shoulder by means of the strap, placing the charges, shots and matches in his pouch and emptying the non-essential items from his backpack to leave space for the Greek fire and holy water to come.

Once Winnacer is fully tooled up, he heads back into the stable with Milan and the two of them begin to spar, with the young Lord using his mace. He spars with it with a look of displeasure ripe upon his face at how unwieldy his strokes are with the weapon. It is obvious that the LawBringer is well out of practice with the weapon, with Milan getting the better of him several times.

The pair of them spar for a little more than an hour until the pair of them are starting to tire a little and so they retire to the bar in order to quench their thirsts. As they are doing so, Porter, Yaz and finally Faewen'il all assemble in the bar, all of them kitted out in their own way for the forthcoming evening of action.

Winnacer knocks back the last of his drink and speaks to the others:

"Very well, I believe that it is time to head for the Cathedral of Zelezny in order to meet with our allies for the mission."

With that, Winnacer wraps the bulky cloak around him and then leads the others into the streets of Tall Town. It is dark outside now, not to mention that it is, once again, very cold. No doubt due to a combination of these factors, the streets outside are nearly empty now. The four of them head, once again, through the giant iron gates to the city. Once again, the cold seems to have scared off the goblin guards, which are nowhere to be seen.

They enter the city and head down to the nearest staircase and then walk across the level before getting to the Cathedral some ten minutes later, as they are beginning to find your way around the city a little now. Inside, things are relatively quiet at the moment and one of the priests soon sees them entering. Although the dwarf does not speak a word of Bohavian, he obviously knows who they are and what they are here for as he beckons them to follow him through to the back of the Cathedral. He leads them to the door of Artificer ArcWelder's office and knocks on the door. They hear the Artificer's voice from within and the dwarven priest opens the door so that they may enter.

They see that there are three other dwarfs inside the Artificer's office apart from Dranthor himself, all sat in the wrought iron chairs around the giant-sized anvil that is the Artificer's desk.

Artificer ArcWelder smiles as he sees them entering and walks over to greet them all:

"Right on time," he says, "now please come and join the rest of us."

He beckons for them to join the others around the table and so they all pull up chairs:

"So let us start off by making some introductions," the Artificer starts off.

Winnacer is the first to start and then Faewen'il, Porter, Yaz and Porter all introduce themselves. Then it is the dwarves' turn to introduce themselves.

It is obvious that the burly looking dwarf sat next to the Artificer is a member of the Church of Zelezny from the leather apron that he wears featuring the hammer and anvil symbol of the faith over mail and plate armor:

"MasterSmith Arakhan IronHammer of the Cathedral of Zelezny," the dwarf introduces himself gruffly. "At your service."

Next to him is a dwarven female, the stubble on her chin showing that she is in the first half of her life, wearing the brown robes of the Church of Zemnye:

"Bastioness Zorantha Gneissic of the Cathedral of Zemnye," she says politely. "I'm pleased to be working with you all."

The last of the threesome is a middle-aged dwarf that looks so mean that he makes all of them nervous just to look at him. His face is a mass of scars and he wears an eyepatch. They can see that he is just as tooled up as Winnacer is, dressed in half plate, with a double-headed axe at his side that would have sent Bennett slobbering with envy. He wears a black cloak over his back that seems to be hiding something.

He spits on the palm of his hand and then starts to shake them all with a vice-like grip:

"Gristan Worstholme," he grunts. "And I'm here to kick some ass."

The Artificer smiles politely once all of the introductions have been made:

"We also obtained the Greek fire and holy water that you requested. I have been able to obtain two vials of each substance for you. Sorry that it could not be more, but it was rather short notice."

"Is there anything else that you need?"

"We were wondering whether it might be possible to obtain some iron bars from you?" Winnacer replies.

"Certainly," the Artificer replies. "We always keep a few in stock; we'll go and find you some once we have finished here."

He pauses for a moment and then looks at each of them:

"So have you determined any more information since we last met?"

Winnacer nods:

"Yes, due to the efforts of Faewen'il, we have managed to find a great deal about what we are up against, both in terms of the layout of the building and also what we have to face inside."

Winnacer produces the map that Faewen'il made and proceeds to talk the dwarves through her findings. The MasterSmith and Bastioness both look slightly alarmed when they hear about the amount of priests and the undead contained within, but Gristan's eye sparkles a little and he grins revealing a mouth full of broken and missing teeth.

"I can't wait to get me a piece o' them undead bastards," he enthuses.

He then proceeds to start licking the blades of his axe, somewhat disturbingly.

The Artificer looks at him a little nervously and then looks at the rest of them:

"So have you decided upon your strategy yet?" he asks.

"Not completely," the young Lord replies. "We wanted to wait to see what our new allies could provide in terms of their priestly powers before we made the final plans."

The Artificer looks at the two priests to see what they have to say:

The Bastioness is the first to speak:

"CornerStone Rockrender informed me that my main task in the group will be to mold the rock in order to gain access to the inside of the temple," she says. "As a result, I have asked Zemnye to bless me with two spells that enable me to mold stone to His bidding. In addition, I have an array of healing spells, plus the abilities to detect magic and search for traps, to heat metal and order to render one person invisible to undead."

The Bastioness finishes and the MasterSmith takes over:

"I have a more varied selections of ensorcellments at my disposal," he says. "In addition to a couple of minor healing spells I have asked for several spells of protection. I have been blessed with the ability to cure disease, to dispel hostile magicks, to hold opponents immobile, two spells that will cause silence in a given area, the ability to remove fear, the ability to detect magic and also a spell that renders one invisible to undead."

Gristan stops licking his axe and grins maniacally:

"Well I ain't got no god blessin' me with shit, so I looks after myself. I got loads o' shit to cut them filthy bastards up with."

Winnacer smiles at the three dwarves:

"It looks as if we are ready. Let's do this thing smooth and by the numbers. We have stealth, preparedness, and Righteousness on our side. Let's be sure to use them to make these treacherous bags of filth pay."

"Axes and gunnes and knives too," Gristan adds, still grinning maniacally.

Porter speaks up:

"When you said 'tunneling' before, I hadn't thought that you'd be using magic to accomplish it. That will obviously be much faster and quieter than doing it the old-fashioned way."

"Oh yes," Bastioness Gneissic interjects. "It would take many hours for us to tunnel through a few feet of rock and we'd wake up half the city in the process. Using Zemnye's blessing is the only logical way of doing it."

"I think we should go into the office with the spell and take out the poor sap within it immediately," continues Porter. "Hopefully, we can then cover our entrance somehow and buy us more time to accomplish our goal undetected. If we gain entrance without a problem, then we should cast a spell of silence that moves with us and head straight for the second level."

Fae resists the urge to comment on just WHO the silence spell should be cast upon.

Winnacer interjects:

"I think that we'll be best served by a more methodical approach. If we are to clear out all opposition on the first floor piecemeal and quietly, we will not have to worry about a possible rear attack when we press on to the second floor. We can bar the doors to the main temple area and perhaps even dispel the magick that will bend the wall to cover our tracks. With the first floor mostly neutralized, we can move on downstairs to take out the ghouls and ghasts."

Bastioness Gneissic shakes her head:

"Once the ensorcellment has been cast and the stone moved, then dispelling it would not function, as the rock is no longer magickal once it has been formed into its new position. It would require another stone shaping spell to return the rock to its original form."

"What is most important is that we do not stir up too much noise or raise an alarm," the young Lord continues. "Unless that wraith was able to warn them of Faewen'il's intrusion, we should not be expected at all. With surprise, we should make quick work of these bastards."

Porter asks:

"If you bar the doors to the main temple, what happens when they find the doors are barred? They're going to break them down and find their comrades slaughtered. Then we'll have a dozen of them coming down after us. I'd rather take out the second level first if we can, and worry about the rest later, if we even have to. With a little luck, we can accomplish our goal and leave before the first floor has any clue."

"If the doors are thick steel, as Faewen'il mentioned before, they may have quite a difficult time breaking through," the LawBringer replies. "And hopefully we'll move quickly enough that they won't have time to notice. Considering we are hitting them at night, there should be many less Priests in the main chamber as well, as they will likely be in bed. If six were at rest during the day, then probably those six will be the only ones awake at night. If we hit the upper barracks first, where the bulk of the priests will be asleep, we could then just head into the main temple and slay the last six priests. We should be able to take down the bulk of the Smurtians without any resistance, especially if we employ one of these silence spells."

"It is not the upper level that I am concerned about," the young Lord finishes.

Porter snaps:

"You think you can just go room to room killing three or four men in each room without a hitch? Even if they're sleeping, it ain't going to be easy. All you need is one man to wake up and yell for his fellows. They may have some sort of alarm system we don't know. Taking out the one fellow in the office is enough of a concern for me. I think you highly overestimate your chances of killing some two dozen men without incident."

Fae couldn't help but smirk as Porter confronted Winnacer. Today would be amusing if nothing else.

Winnacer manages a slight smile in response to Porter:

"You are not working alone this time Porter. We have six of us well trained in the use of our weapons attacking with surprise. With a silence spell covering ourselves, the Smurtians will not even be able to scream. We've managed to dispose of many more men without incident before, and this time the cards are stacked in our favor. With luck, the execution will go smoothly."

"But, as we have seen before, we won't really know which option is best until we get there. But know this Porter, they all will pay for their crimes before the night is out."

"Well... donna go countin on me far any magic far taday," Fae says in her typical sour tones.

"Tha scoutin mission an me other business have fairly well used up what I had memorized far tha day."

A look of perturbment crosses Porter's face at Fae's announcement, but it quickly passes. The manhunter's professionalism keeps him from airing his grievance in front of their allies, but he'd give his opinion soon enough.

Winnacer, however, doesn't bat an eyelash.

"You've already done more than your share to get us this layout. And I wouldn't believe it for a second if you didn't have some trick or another up your sleeve."

Faewen'il's comment reminded Winnacer of something that was bothering him before. He fixes each of the assembled members with a serious look:

"Remember that we still don't know exactly where the plague vials are. We may need to take prisoners for rapid interrogation if we cannot find them ourselves. We can pass Judgement upon them after we have the information we need, but let's not slay the lot of them until we have all the answers we need."

Gristan chuckles to himself a little at this, but doesn't pass comment.

"....good luck..." Fae sarcastically mumbles to herself, though the rest of her thoughts she speaks outloud for the others to hear.

"Those tricks do be stayin up me sleeve far when yar asses need pulled out o tha fire..."

"...though interrogation do be the one thin tha I can still do," Fae says in an oddly cheerful tone, though the smile on her face is less than friendly.

"We should move out around 11-12p.m.," Winnacer suggests. "Agreed?"

Porter replies with only:

"Well, if that's the time YOU want to leave, I'll save my breath."

Porter's tone brings back bad memories in to Winnacer's head. He replies calmly:

"Now is not the time to bear anger against each other. Realize that all of the death priests shall meet their beloved Smurt tonight, as it has been ordained by Spravedelna Herself. I have been charged by Her to put Her will into action."

Winnacer's eyes start to glow like white embers with the mention of the Judgement.

"This is not just an infiltration. This is an execution. And if we ignore the priests on the way down, we are just going to have to slay them all before we leave."

Winnacer looks at each of the members assembled:

"Do any of you have a problem with this? The Mortuary of Smurt shall be no more after tonight, their sins against Opava and against the Natural Order shall be paid for in blood."

Porter responds:

"Yeah, I think it's unnecessarily putting our necks on the line. If we take out the Nemotz and a few odd priests in the process, that's one thing. If we wipe out an entire sect of Smurt, we'll have manhunters coming after us for sure. Not to mention, I'm not too keen on angering the god of death any more than necessary."

Porter finishes:

"You've now taken a mission to save Opava and turned into a crusade to wipe out all the Smurtians as evil collaborators or some shit. I didn't sign on for that work."

"If doing the work of Justice is not enough to convince you, then think about all the treasures that will be left in their wake for you to take," Winnacer replies. "Death is what they worship and it will be their reward for their betrayal."

Porter shakes his head:

"Oh, I'm sure the peons are going to have an assload of gold. The big score will be with the high priest on the lower level. Wasting time on the upper level for peanuts is dangerous."

"Maybe. But how do you plan on carrying it all out?" Winnacer replies. "Do you want to drag chests through the still-populated first level? Or perhaps be ambushed by the priests with your arms full of gold? All of my military training tells me to never let an enemy rest at my rear. So we should neutralize them while we have the advantage, rather than when something tougher below manages to raise an alarm, effectively cutting off our escape."

"It seems we do not agree here. So, if you wish we can compromise. You can go and scout below while a number of us will disable the rest of the Priests."

At the last remark, Porter gets up from the table, his patience exhausted. The sarcasm drips from his lips as he says:

"Yeah, that's one hell of a compromise."

And with that, he walks out of the room.

"Kill the lot o' them," interjects Gristan shaking his axe. "Then I'll 'elp yer carry all the loot out. Fair shares for all though."

"Or else there'll be trouble," he adds, menacingly.

Though their bickering amuses her greatly, Fae has business to attend to and is beginning to grow tired of listening to it.

"How about a better compromise. Why don't we assault tha damned place and go from thar. Iffen we can manage ta get by without slayin all tha priests on tha farst level, then we do so. Iffen not, then we kill them an move on."

"Ye all are makin black an white plans... an we all know how well THOSE go off," Fae says as she gives Winnacer a healthy glare.

Her hands are idly fiddling with the contents of a sack that the council had given her after receiving a list she had given them during their first meeting.

"So, let me ask again," Winnacer adds. "What time do you all think would be best to start our assault?"

At seeing the less than co-operative looks upon the party-members faces, MasterSmith IronHammer interjects:

"To go in between 11 and 12 o'clock makes perfect sense to me," he says. "We want to leave it as late as possible to make sure that the majority of the clergy will be sleeping, but we can't afford to wait too long either in case the Nemotz priests head off on the stroke of midnight."

Winnacer nods:

"We need to finalize our strategy now. So it seems as if going in through the wall into the office is the best way to make our entrance."

He turns to the MasterSmith:

"How long do your silencing enchantments last for?" he asks.

"A little more than ten minutes," the MasterSmith replies.

"But what are we going to do about those in the Temple proper?" asks the Bastioness. "We have a pretty good idea that some of the priests are going to be awake and active in the Temple, so I think that we need to decide what we are going to about them before we go too far."

Gristan spits on the floor:

"I ain't one for pussy-footin' around with all these spells and bollocks. I reckon we should just knock on the door and then burst in and hack the f***ers to pieces."

Yaz takes a deep drag on the slim remains of the fag, tobacco this time, which he holds carefully between thumb and fingertips, wincing as he attempts to keep the smoke in his lungs while talking.

"Shit, man," he begins, stabbing the butt into the table, "what the f*** are you guys thinking? You're gonna attack a temple in the middle of the city? Just walk in and kill everybody, huh? F***! You can't f***in' do that!"

Yaz raises his arms in the air and gestures vigorously with them as he continues:

"We're here to stop them from killing the city with disease, not to wipe out the whole f***in' religion. You may not like death, maybe it's not Just, or fair or anything like that, but f***, neither is life, man. Like I told you in Olmutz, Winn, the goddess of Life cares this much --"

He holds his hand in the shape of a 0.

"-- for Justice. Shit happens because it happens naturally like it's s'posed to, not because it's fair. And even death is like, part of life, totally part of the cycle. So we kill a temple full of death priests; what's next? We learn that the druids in Olmutz are gonna help pull down the city when the Slovenes attack, maybe we shoulda taken out the Prirodnans too?!"

He wipes his mouth, which had gotten a little frothy. He takes a breath:

"The death priests ain't got nothing to do with this, and so I'm not helping to kill them. We wanna stop the disease, so lets pick up the plague jars and get out of here."

"I can't help much with the ghouls and that, 'cept to hit them with this--"

He grabs his scimitar from the table and waves it around:

"'cuz Prirodna's not about that weird undeath shit that I don't understand. But I'll help us get to the lower level if we can. Looks from the map like the basement extends under this main floor. Maybe we can dig down into the wraith hallway or the Nemotz hotel room. How far down do you think it is, Maire'? Or maybe we can get into the water system or sewers or something and access the place from there. Me and Gertrude can scout it out, see if it'll work.

"Or if that won't go, maybe someone can do a disguise thing and get some of us down there. Or can we pull some stunt like Winnacer suggested with notes and shit? We could be like, messengers from the big Nemotz boss guy or something. Urgent message for dude what's-his-name. Anything to get us down there. Once we're down, we can kill everything in sight, I got no problems with that. But we ain't taking out the whole bloody temple!"

Yaz's eyes are a little wider than normal, and he pants a little from his unnaturally long speech. He looks toward the door where Porter exited:

"If you guys attack the top level, I'll be back here with that Witchhunter guy," he mumbles, gesturing with his thumb:

"End of story."

Winnacer looks at the Druid curiously:

"The Smurtians are a part of this. The plague turns people into the living dead, so they stand to gain as much as the Nemotz. They are also the people making the undead creatures that are scattered throughout the Temple. They don't just worship death, they corrupt it. And if that doesn't bother you...well...I'm surprised."

Yaz looks to his feet, scratching his forehead through reddish curls, then looks up:

"You're right, I guess I should try to kill everything that bothers me."

He lights up another cigarette:

"No... no. Maybe it's this. Maybe you should stick to your own religion, as you clearly don't get mine. Y'see, everybody corrupts what he worships. It can't be helped. These Smurt guys corrupt death... That wacky druid chick turned Darius into a mutated freak by corrupting life... Even Winnacer the LawBringer believes that laws can be broken when they're not convenient. Yet we all continue to receive power from our gods, and only they know why."

Yaz's speech starts to improve as he becomes more thoughtful:

"My point is, Death is a necessary part of the Cycle, which is why Prirodna created Smurt when She created the natural world. Smurt's followers may be mostly 'evil' in the way you think of it, but that too is necessary for the Balance. I helped take out the temple near Bosco's place because the priests there had a stranglehold on the town, a complete imbalance, no competition. Here, the Smurt temple is part of the balance between all the temples in the city. Wiping it out would tip the scale. Ya the priests create unnatural undead things, but the simple fact that they CAN tells me that somehow it's part of the balance. I'll keep on killing shit like that whenever I can, but priests of Smurt have as much claim to existence as any of us do."

The druid regards his smoke critically:

"Not bad shit... but Prirodna Leaf is better," he determines.

He takes another long drag.

Winnacer appears deep in thought. He turns to everyone:

"Let us take just one step at a time," he says. "Even though Fae's reconnaissance has given us a great deal of information regarding the layout of the place and the numbers within, the fact that her reconnaissance was made during the daytime means that we have no way of knowing where the priests may be currently."

"So there is little point in planning too far in advance. In any case, time is pressing. Let us prepare for departure."

There are nods from the dwarves and they all start to get up and check over their equipment one more time. They head over to the equipment that the Artificer has assembled for them, with everyone taking a couple of vials of holy water and the same amount of Greek fire, adding it to the rest of their equipment.

As the party makes its last preparations before leaving, Winnacer takes to a knee, holding his gavel in his right hand. He speaks in a low voice to nobody in particular:

"My Lady, Spravedelna, I offer the body of evidence collected up for Your Judgement. A conspiracy to perform profound Injustice has been uncovered; the guilty and complicit parties have been identified. By the power invested in me, according to Your statutes, I declare the priests of Nemotz and Smurt to be guilty of conspiracy against the peoples of Opava."

Winnacer taps the silver gavel upon the floor:

"By the Book of Punishments, the condemned shall receive a timely execution. However, the criminals remain at large. Therefore, as is my right, I request the Exemption of the Executioner. May my soul be absolved from the impure acts required to mete Your punishments, as required by Your Law."

Winnacer's eyes glow bright for just a moment. He returns to his feet, his jaw fiercely set and his eyes the color of a stormy sky at sea. His voice is deep and clear.

"Now I am ready. Let us put an end to this Injustice."

The others stand by and watch as Winnacer performs his ritual. The Artificer, MasterSmith and Bastioness watch with heads bowed; Gristan spits on the floor again and sneers.

Winnacer gets up and looks to the Artificer:

"You said that you had some bars here that we might take?" he asks.

"Certainly," Dranthor replies. "Come with me."

The Artificer leads them all out of his office and down the stairs back into the nave of the Cathedral. They pass the altar-furnace and carry on to the other side. The Artificer unlocks the door there and lights a torch. They see that it is a storeroom, containing coal, ore and many different varieties of metals.

"Help yourselves," the Artificer says.

Winnacer walks into the storeroom and spends a while looking through the pieces of metal before he finds several bars of a suitable length. He picks them up and carries them with him and then heads back into the nave.

"So, is there anything else that I can help you with?" asks the Artificer.

"No, thank you, Artificer," the young Lord replies. "I think that is all that we need."

"Very well then," nods Dranthor. "In that case let me all just wish you the very best of luck with your mission."

He shakes Winnacer by the hand followed by Faewen'il, Yaz and then the three dwarves. The group them heads out of the Cathedral. They find Porter waiting outside. He scowls as he looks at Winnacer, but joins the others without saying a word.