Nativity In Bohavia

24 DECEMBER 3460

ST VACLAV'S DAY

The night was without incident once again and everyone finally manages to get up after 9.00, apart from Faewen'il and Yaz, who both have to attend to their studies. Faewen'il spends more than an hour memorizing the spells that she cast the previous night while Yaz decides to brave the elements once again in order to make his devotions outside. He arrives back at the 'One Elm' just after 10.00 to see that Winnacer, Porter and Faewen'il have all started on their breakfast.

Instead of joining them at the breakfast table, however, Yaz heads into reception and sits cross-legged on the ground before the tree and proceeds to chant. As he does so, he lights a candle that he places on the ground before him and produces a piece of dung and a drop of water from a sponge that he places at the base of the pot.

He continues to chant for ten minutes, during which time he receives some very strange looks indeed from the innkeeper and the other guests of the inn, who all look at him as if he is quite mad.

Once the spell is complete, Yaz starts to speak to the plant:

"Hi," he says a little sadly. "How are you feeling?"

The conifer replies in strangled tones:

"I-I'm dying," it says. "The bastards have murdered me."

Yaz shakes his head:

"That's terrible," he says. "How did it happen?"

"Some fleshies did it," the tree replies. "They came and hacked my feet off with an axe."

He pauses for a moment, groaning with the memory:

"I knew that my time was going to come sooner or later," it continues. "Every winter, the fleshies come up the hill and murder some more of us. I was just a sapling when they got Mum. I remember her; how beautiful she was, with her pinecones and a covering of snow in the wintertime; all green and luxuriant she was. But then they came and murdered her. Every year it's the same; my brothers and sisters have been slowly disappearing each year and the air is filled with the smell of sap and resin."

"It's too late for me now, I know, but I pray that the slaughter might be stopped. For the saplings' sake."

Just then, Milan comes through reception, looking rather alarmed. Ignoring the cross-legged druid in the reception area, the squire rushes up to Winnacer and speaks:

"Sir, sir," he starts all in a panic. "There's this fat woman in the stable with a bloke with a beard. She's screaming and moaning in horrible pain."

Winnacer leaps to his feet:

"No woman deserves such a fate at the hands of a bearded man. Let us tend to her."

Yaz too is distracted from his conversation by Milan's words:

"We gotta go help her!" he cries.

They all quickly get up from the breakfast table and dash off after Milan, heading for the stable. As they enter it, they can already hear the woman's cries of agony, which are panicking the animals within.

As they get inside the stable, they see that Milan's words are true. They see a woman lying in the hay, screaming in agony and thrashing around. Standing over her, holding her down, is a Bohavian with a beard.

Winnacer moves in quickly, fixing a fierce look at the bearded man:

"What's going on here?"

The bearded man looks round at them all. They can see from his expression that he is looking very worried:

"It's my wife, Maria," he replies. "She's heavy with child."

He looks at his wife and scowls a little:

"Quite whose child she's heavy with, it's best not to ask," he adds.

"But I think the child's coming now. She's due any minute."

He looks up at them all:

"Can you help me? I don't really know what to do."

Maria continues to writhe and groan in agony.

Winnacer looks at the woman then back at the bearded man, obviously clueless:

"You mean it doesn't just happen automatically?"

"I don't bleeding know, do I?" the bearded man replies. "I ain't no Lechitian, I'm a bleeding carpenter."

"If she was about to deliver a sideboard, then it wouldn't be a problem," he adds, "but a baby's out of my league."

He looks around at the others:

"Surely ONE of you knows what to do?"

Yaz steps forward, a little tentatively:

"I have some idea," he says. "Milan should go get a pot of water, and some clean blankets... and you, bounty hunter guy," he says, flailing his arm loosely in a vain attempt to remember Porter's name, "maybe you can start up a fire that won't burn the whole stable down..."

"Water and a fire?" the bearded man says incredulously. "There's no time to make yourself a cup of tea; my wife's about to give birth."

He looks at the bearded man:

"As for you, just make sure you tell her everything's taken care of, and not to worry, I'm a priest of the forest, and Prirodna's favorite. I've seen this a million times. It'll all be over soon..."

The bearded man screws up his nose:

"I've seen druids help to birth calves before."

He gulps:

"You're not going to put your hand inside her all the way up to your elbow are you?"

"Whaddaya call yourself, man?" Yaz asks the bearded guy.

"My names, Yosef," the bearded man replies, "Yosef Kristus of Brunn."

"What are you doing in a stable anyway?" Yaz asks. "Shit, what are you doing in Opava? Shouldn't you be, like, at home?"

"It's the bloody Nyemetz," Yosef replies. "We had a tax demand from them that had to be paid before the end of the year. My parents used to live in Tall Town. They used to pilot the barges from Opava to Olmutz because the dwarves never liked the water. When the iron ore ran out, the business went down the tubes and so we all moved to Brunn. The problem is that we're all still registered as living here, which is why we had to come all the way back here, even though Maria is heavy with child."

"We only got into Opava last night and we've tried every inn in Tall Town. I've heard what it's like in Opava itself. I'm sure that the thieving bastards would have nicked the baby from inside her already had we gone into the hole, so we had to stay here. All the inns are full, what with it being St Vaclav's Day and all. The innkeeper took pity on us and let us stay in the stable for the night. It's not much, but at least it's not too cold."

Winnacer shakes his head:

"Horrible state of affairs when a pregnant woman is forced to give birth in a stable. The three of you can take my room once all this is over, a stable is nowhere to keep a newborn."

As he's talking, Yaz takes a pinch of stuff from his pouch, places it in a Nemotz paper, and rolls a joint:

"Mind if I smoke?" he asks as an aside.

"'Course not," Yosef replies. "I've heard that it's good for you. I wouldn't mind a toke myself if you've got any spare. My nerves are shot to hell. I haven't been able to get a wink of sleep in months, what with the bloody visions all the time."

Yaz pulls on the doobie and passes it to Yosef of Brunn who takes it from him and takes a mighty drag:

"Funny that you can't sleep," the druid says. "Are they, like, your standard cellophane flowers and hookah-smoking caterpillars, or are you doing harsher shit?"

"Yes, visions?" Winnacer inquires, "visions of what?"

Yosef starts coughing:

"No, I don't do this shit normally. I'd never had any visions before Maria was taken with child."

He looks at the pair of them:

"No, these visions are of these women with wings and dressed in white robes what keep telling me that the kid is going to be some almighty lord or something. It doesn't make much sense."

He shakes his head again:

"I reckon they're evil, these women. I reckon that they must be a like a combination of a succubus and an incubus."

He nods his head:

"Yeah - I reckon that they're omnibuses, that's what they are."

He comes up to Yaz and whispers to him:

"I reckon that it must have been an evil warlock what did the dirty on Maria behind my back. He's sending me these visions to try and lull me into a false sense of security."

"But I ain't that stupid," he adds. "It was definitely SOME bloke what had himself a romp with her while I was out of town."

Maria lets out an almighty moan that startles the animals inside the stable.

"Quieten down a bit, could you, Maria," Yosef says to her, "you're setting the cattle lowing."

"It's coming," Maria moans. "I can feel it coming."

Just then, Milan arrives back carrying a bucket of water in one hand with blankets under his arm:

"I managed to get these for you, Mr. Yaz," Milan says, handing the items to the Druid.

Porter watches the whole scene with disbelief. The bit of gold they acquired from the Temple of Smurt had alleviated his immediate concerns, but helping with the birthing of a child? What were these people, "do-gooders 'r' us?" He could only manage to say to Yaz:

"Dude, pass that joint."

Yaz is a little too pre-occupied to deal with Porter at the moment.

"Is that fire going yet?" he asks. "Get that water heating!"

"That's OK, Mr. Porter," Milan says after dropping the clean blankets in the filthy hay, "I can make a fire. I'm good at that."

With that, Milan starts to pile up some of the straw to get a fire going.

Maria screams out again:

"It's definitely coming now," she cries, "I can feel the contractions."

Yaz kneels down next to her:

"Don't worry," he says in a comforting voice, blowing smoke into her face. "Trust me. I'm a druid. I know what I'm doing."

Yosef kneels down in the hay next to her and starts to mop his own brow with one of the blankets. Maria starts to cry out again as Yaz gets between her legs:

"I can see it coming now," he says. "Just push as hard as you can."

Yosef grabs Maria's shoulders and pushes her down into the hay.

Yaz sighs:

"Not you, you idiot," he shouts. "HER."

"Sorry," Yosef replies. "Like I said, this is all new to me."

Maria starts to push and Yaz starts to smile as he sees the baby's head starting to appear.

There is a mighty 'CRASH' from behind them and Yaz looks round to see that Milan has fainted as a result of seeing the sight, knocking over a cattle trough in the process.

Winnacer stumbles over to pick his squire off of the floor, looking over his shoulder at the birth the entire time.

Maria continues to push and, over the next five minutes, the baby slowly arrives. Yaz, his brow covered with sweat, finally triumphantly picks up the baby, covered in blood and placenta and attached by the umbilical cord and gives it an almighty smack, which starts the baby screaming its head off.

Yosef immediately gets up and punches Yaz in the face:

"What did you do that for?" he asks angrily. "Smacking our kid, indeed."

Yaz rubs his smarting jaw:

"I was just starting it breathing," he says. "That's what you're supposed to do."

"Oh," Yosef replies a little sheepishly. "Sorry about that, mate."

Yaz then returns his attention to the baby and shows it to its parents.

"It's a boy,' he says with a trademark cheesy grin.

Maria beams with delight and relief. Yosef doesn't look so sure:

"He's all covered in blood and snot and stuff," he says, cringing a little. "What happens next?"

Yaz gives a shrug:

"I dunno, I've only done animals before. Usually the mother eats all the stuff ... apart from the baby, of course, and then she licks it clean."

He shrugs again:

"I guess humans do the same thing."

He hands the baby to Yosef who takes the baby as if it was a sack of snakes. He quickly puts it down next to Maria:

"Better get licking him then, love. He looks horrible now."

Maria smiles at the baby next to her and holds it in her arms:

"Do I really have to lick him clean? Couldn't we just wash him instead?"

Yaz shrugs:

"I suppose so," he replies. "Perhaps that's what the hot water's for."

Highly relieved, Maria starts to clean the baby. As the blood and stuff is removed Yosef starts to smile a little:

"He's a fine lad," he says. "Shame he's not mine."

Yaz looks over at the pair of them:

"So what are you going to call him?" he asks.

The pair of them shrug:

"We haven't really given it a lot of thought," Yosef replies. "We thought we'd wait and see what it was first."

Maria looks up from the baby for a moment at Yaz:

"What's your name, kind Sir?"

"It's Yaz," the druid replies, "Yaz Charas."

Maria smiles:

"Yaz, what a lovely name."

She looks over at Yosef:

"How about we call him 'Yaz'?"

Yosef shrugs:

"Call him what you like," he replies sullenly. "It's not as if it's MY child, is it?"

Maria ignores him and continues to smile at the baby:

"Yes, 'Yaz Kristus', I like the sound of that," she nods. "Yaz Kristus it shall be."

Just then, they are all interrupted by the sound of baaing coming towards them. The doors to the stable opens and three dwarves walk in looking rather confused, guiding a flock of sheep with them.

Yosef sighs and gets up to see the visitors:

"Sorry mates, but I'm afraid this stable is occupied. You'll have to take your sheep some place else."

The first of the dwarves speaks to Yosef:

"Have you got a baby in here?"

Yosef looks rather taken aback:

"Well, yes, we have as a matter of fact. But what's it to you?"

The first dwarf looks round at his companions:

"Right, that's five coppers each you owe me," he grins. "I was right."

"Bollocks," says one of the other dwarves, opening his pouch.

"Toss," agrees the last of them, also getting his money out.

The first shepherd grins as he takes the money from his companions:

"Nice one," he says. "I thought what the bird in the white robes was saying might be true."

"Was she horny looking with wings and a gold ring over her head?" asks Yosef.

The first dwarf looks a little surprised:

"Yes, that's right. Have you seen her too?"

Yosef turns to Winnacer:

"It's that bleeding omnibus again. She's been bothering the shepherds as well by the look of things."

"Too bloody right," agrees the second dwarf. "Scared the crap out of me, she did."

Further conversation with the shepherds is interrupted by the sound of hooves galloping up to the stable. They hear the sound of three men dismounting and then the doors to the stable open to reveal three sinister looking characters dressed all in black.

Yosef is starting to get very annoyed now:

"Bleeding hell," he cries, "not more bleeding visitors. Who in Baby Yaz's name are you?"

The three men barge into the stable and the first one roughly pushes Yosef to the ground. The three of them pull light crossbows from beneath their cloaks and point them at Yosef's head:

"Now listen up you little cocksucker," the first man says evilly, "We're the Three Wise Guys and we demand some f***ing respect."

Yosef is paralyzed with fear:

"O-O-OK," Yosef replies, quaking in terror. "Just don't hurt me. I'm a father, you know? Well the husband of a mother, at least."

"Wh-wh-who are you?" he whimpers.

"Allow me to introduce myself," the first black-clad man says, "As I said, we're the Three Wise Guys. I'm Luigi Balthasar."

"This here is Franco Melchior," he adds pointing to the second figure.

"And this here is Vinny Caspar," he finishes nodding to the last of them.

"N-n-nice to meet you," Yosef stammers. "What can I do for you? I'll give you anything you want just don't hurt me. . ."

". . . or my wife, or the baby," he then remembers to add.

Balthasar lifts his crossbow and the other Wise Guys follow suit:

"We ain't come here to do over anyone," he smiles, "this time."

"We've been sent here by Il Padre. The word on the street is that there was a new star in the sky that would lead to the guy who's going to be King of Bohavia. Il Padre wants to keep in with him, and so he sent us Three Wise Guys to give him some gifts. We followed the star all across the Bohavia and it lead us to this stable."

Winnacer takes a deep breath and smiles:

"Well on behalf of all of us here I would like to thank Il Padre for his kind gifts to me, but I have not been fighting for Bohavia's freedom for any reward. Just the fact that Bohavia will be free once more is all the reward that I need. I'm really not one for titles, but ..."

As the young Lord is about to give a long speech, Balthasar looks at him as if he's mad:

"Who the hell's this f***ing schmuck?" he asks Yosef.

"I don't know," Yosef replies shaking his head. "He just came in here with the others."

Balthasar looks at Winnacer evilly:

"Look, asswipe, Il Padre said we'd find a f***ing baby here and that HE'D grow up to be the King of Bohavia."

Winnacer looks a little sheepish:

"Oh ... errm ... I just thought ..." the LawBringer mutters, his voice trailing off. "I would imagine that it's Baby Yaz that you're here to see, then."

The Three Wise Guys look around and see Maria nursing Baby Yaz:

"Yeah, I guess that must be him," says Balthasar.

"So which one of you pricks is the father then?" he adds looking around.

"Well, it's a long story, actually," Yosef starts.

"I haven't got time to f*** about with long stories," Balthasar replies impatiently. "Are you the f***ing father?"

"Errm ... yes," Yosef nods. "In a manner of speaking, yes."

"Well that's good enough for me," Balthasar replies.

He speaks to the others:

"Go get the f***ing gear."

Melchior and Caspar walk out to the horses and come back bearing three boxes:

"So here's some gold, courtesy of Il Padre," Balthasar says depositing the heavy box at Yosef's feet.

"Just don't ask where he got it from," he adds with a grin.

Yosef smiles:

"Well thank you very much," he replies. "That will come in very handy. Thank Il Padre for that, will you?"

Then Melchior comes forward:

"And the next gift we got for yous is some frankincense."

"Frankincense?" Yosef questions with some surprise. "What would I want with a monster with a bolt through its neck?"

Melchior looks pissed:

"I said FRANKINCENSE you dumb f***, not FRANKENSTEIN."

"In any case," interjects Caspar, "Frankenstein was the name of the monster's creator, not the monster itself."

"So what was the monster called?" asks Yosef.

"I don't f***ing know!" exclaims Caspar. "It was just called Frankenstein's f***ing monster. All right?"

"Errm ... OK," that's fine Yosef stammers. "So what's frankincense then?"

"It's aromatic shit," Melchior responds. "You burn it and it smells good. OK?"

"What the hell would a baby want with stuff that smells good when you burn it?" Yosef asks, confused.

Melchior grabs Yosef by the scruff of his collar and pulls him up until they are eyeball-to-eyeball:

"Look, f***wit, has no one ever told you that you shouldn't look a gift horse's head in the mouth?"

"O-OK," Yosef stammers. "Sorry. Thank Il Padre very much for the ... errm ... Frankenstein ... sorry ... frankincense."

Melchior smiles and drops Yosef back on the ground.

Caspar then comes forward:

"And the final gift that Il Padre has for the 'boy who will be king' is myrrh," he says.

"Mur?" Yosef says. "How do you spell that?"

"M-Y-R-R-H," replies Caspar.

"Go on," laughs Yosef, "you're having me on. You made this up didn't you? This is a wind up, isn't it?"

Caspar looks pissed:

"No, I'm not making this up. Myrrh is some kind of ointment that smells good."

"OK," Yosef says, "I believe you."

He pauses for a moment:

"Now the gold I can understand. But I can't see why Il Padre would send us gifts of stuff that smells good when you burn it and sweet-smelling ointment. Just seems like gifts that no one really wants."

"But this is St Vaclav's Day, remember," Balthasar replies. "It's traditional to give people shit that they don't really want."

"Oh yes," Yosef says. "I'd forgotten all about that."

"Besides that, Il Padre is the cosmetics kingpin of Bohavia," Balthasar continues. "This is the best shit that he's got."

"O-OK," Yosef replies. "Well it's very kind of him to give it to us. I guess."

While Yosef has been speaking with the Three Wise Guys, Faewen'il has been holding the amulet and scanning the Wise Guys' thoughts:

"They nae be telling tha truth," she whispers to the rest of them. "They nae be working for tha Cosmetics Crimelord. They be working for tha OverLord Protektor. He be planning on telling tha OverLord who tha babby is an where he can be found."

Porter continues looking at the entire scene with disbelief, then stalks off:

"This is crazy. I'm going to sleep," he says as he leaves the others in the stable.

Winnacer looks horrified at Faewen'il's words:

"That's monstrous. If the Nyemetz seek Baby Yaz, perhaps there is something to these visions. It may be best if we interfere with their plans, keeping the baby in hiding until we can move the family somewhere safe, like Olmutz."

Winnacer starts to use his detect lie ability to see for himself.

"Right," says Balthasar, "we've done all that needs to be done here, so we'll be off, now."

He looks to the baby and grins:

"On behalf of Il Padre, I'd like to wish the baby a very long life and the best of health."

As Balthasar says these words, Winnacer starts to feel a sharp stabbing pain in his forehead.

"Well thank you very much," Yosef smiles. "Thanks for the gold and ... errm ... all of the cosmetics too, I guess."

He and Maria wave goodbye to the Three Wise Guys as they head out of the stable.

Winnacer looks deeply at Baby Yaz, using Spravedelna's sight to assist him in understanding what is truly going on. As he does so, Winnacer gets the warmest feeling that he has ever felt. It feels as if he is being slowly submerged in a vat of warm chocolate as the wholesome goodness flows through his entire body, before finishing with an experience not unlike that of an orgasm.

Winnacer takes an awed step backwards, pushing his hair out of his eyes as the last throws pass through him.

The LawBringer places a gentle hand on Maria, and addresses both the new mother and well as the reluctant father:

"In the flurry of recent activity, we've never been able to properly introduce ourselves. You have met Yaz already, this here is Faewen'il and that gentleman over there is ... or rather, was ... Porter and I am Winnacer Duene Stradheim, LawBringer of Spravedelna."

"Pleased to meet you all," smiles Maria, holding Baby Yaz close to her.

"It seems that your child is one whose arrival has been prophesied," continues Winnacer. "What the significance of the prophecy may be is beyond my knowledge, but what is true is that those three fellows mean your child harm. Their words ring false and their thoughts reveal that they intend to notify the Nyemetz OverLord of your child's location."

Yosef is looking a little punch-drunk from the events of the past half-hour now. He looks at Winnacer a little weakly:

"What?" he says feebly. "What would the OverLord Protektor want with little Yaz? He's only a baby."

"Your baby is not ordinary in any way," the LawBringer replies. "This, Spravedelna Herself has just shown me. The potential for goodness within him may be boundless. That alone will make the Nyemetz act against Baby Yaz."

Yosef slumps to the ground and holds his head in his hands:

"What did I do to deserve this?" he cries. "I'm just a simple carpenter."

"Whatever fate may have been pre-ordained for your child, it will not do well to come under the scrutiny of the Nyemetz," the young Lord adds.

Winnacer looks at his companions' bored faces:

"I'd like to aid you in providing for your child's safety. And if you'll let me, I would like to place Spravedelna's birth blessing upon Baby Yaz."

Yosef is still shaking his head:

"Do what?" he asks in confusion.

"As long as it's got nothing to do with cosmetics," he says. "He's got enough of those already. And, son of mine or not, I'll not have him smelling like a poofter."

Winnacer smiles at Yosef:

"It's nothing like that. Just a little Holy Water and a quick blessing for Spravedelna to keep her eye over this Child of the St Vaclav's Star."

Yosef shrugs and turns to Maria:

"Well, I can't see the harm in that," he says. "What about you, love?"

Maria smiles in response:

"I think that we should take all the blessings we're offered. Life's difficult and anything that might help has to be worth considering."

"We have some friends in a town not too far from here," Winnacer continues. "They could provide you all sanctuary from the eyes of the Nyemetz until our business here is finished. Then we could arrange for your family to be moved to somewhere safe, where Baby Yaz would be well provided for and educated. A place where a good carpenter would be appreciated to boot."

"I know that this is happening so fast and everything is so strange. This is far from how I expected to spend my day as well. But it is not every day that you witness the birth of a prophecy. I know you know me not from a hole in the wall, but I ask you to trust me. I give you my word as a LawBringer and as a man that I will do my best to keep your son safe if you let me aid you. A better life awaits the three of you far away from this stable. Let me lead you to it."

Yaz answers Winnacer, scratching his head, however:

"I'm not great at this business," he starts, "but maybe us being with this little family is pretty much the worst thing for them, seeing as how we've got a nice little reputation by now, and they wanna stay hidden. I'm for doing up some disguises and giving them some of those shiny coins you guys have and sending them off. Whaddaya think, Yo?"

Winnacer looks at Yaz, his face dead serious:

"This baby will be sought out in a way we never were. Sending them off on their own will only leave them unprotected from the Porter types they'll hire to find this baby. Spravedelna has shown me that this child is in need of our help, which is why we were led to this stable. I am not about to turn my back on what I have witnessed. We have powerful friends who can see that the family stays well hidden from the prying eyes of the Nyemetz. When they see this child, they will help without reservation."

While Winnacer chats with Yosef and his family, Porter wasn't quite telling the truth when he said that he was going off to bed. As he leaves from door that goes into the hotel, he quickly starts running as soon as he is out of sight of the occupants of the stable. He runs through the reception area, around the front of the inn and round to the back, where he sees the Wise Guys' horses are tethered.

He quickly produces his knife and cuts the girth under each of the saddles. No sooner has he cut the last of them than he hears the Wise Guys starting to come out of the stable and he dashes towards the shadows.

Unfortunately, he is not quite quick enough and, as he disappears into the shadows, he hears Balthasar calling after him:

"Hey, jerk off," Balthasar shouts. "What the f*** you think you're doing?"

Porter silently curses to himself as he is spotted. He should have immediately taken steps as soon as the rogues entered, as they were clearly up to no good. Now he had been spotted, and he hated being spotted.

Porter takes off while getting his caliver out and lighting it.

"Get him," Balthasar shouts as Porter starts to make his escape. "He's probably looted our stuff from the saddlebags and no one f***s with the Wise Guys."

As Porter charges away as fast as he can, the Three Wise Guys shoot their crossbows at him. One of the quarrels strikes the snow a short distance behind him, but the other two hit him, with one getting him in the back and another in the buttocks. Although it hurt likes hell, the damage caused by the light weapons is not severe.

"Get to the horses," Balthasar orders and the three of them quickly make for their mounts. As Balthasar grabs his saddle in order to quickly clamber up onto the horse, the saddle comes away in his hands and slips to the ground. The other two do the same and they too find that their saddles have been destroyed.

Porter is pretty pissed now though. He quickly turns as he sees the Wise Guys trying to mount their horses and aims his caliver at Melchior.

The caliver shoots with a mighty roar and he looks on in delight as the shot takes a large chunk out of Melchior's leg, sending the Wise Guy screaming in agony.

"He's got a shooter," Caspar cries in alarm.

"That's gotta hurt," Porter grins as he hoists the caliver over his shoulder and heads off.

His smile quickly fades, however, as he looks to try and find an alley to duck down, but sees that the buildings are fairly open here and there are few places to hide.

"Get that f***," cries Balthasar and the Three Wise Guys head off in swift pursuit of the manhunter.

Back inside the stable, the conversation is interrupted by the sound of the commotion happening outside.

"Not even a minute's peace," Winnacer says to Yaz as he draws forth 'Old Bohavia' and heads towards the commotion.

"What tha hell now..." mutters Fae as she steps outside to see what's going on, her good mood for the day rapidly evaporating. She had a sneaky suspicion that Porter was involved and was of half a mind to let him suffer.

Porter sees that the Three Wise Guys are fast on their feet, even the injured Melchior, and are gaining on him fast. At seeing them coming closer to him all the time, he quickly reaches into his belt pouch and pulls out his familiar small iron ball. He tosses the ball at Balthasar as the man closes in on him, and it heads straight for him. However, showing an incredibly high degree of dexterity, Balthasar throws himself out of the way of the fast-approaching ball and it lands in the snow just behind him.

Porter sees that running from the Wise Guys would be futile now and he calls forth a net from his charm bracelet as the three Wise Guys launch themselves at the manhunter.

Balthasar pulls forth a longsword and a dagger and slashes at Porter with the pair of blades. Without the benefit of his bastard sword to parry the attacks, Porter cannot avoid getting hit from Balthasar's longsword, but luckily the wound is not too severe. The bounty hunter manages to duck just in time to avoid the Wise Guy's dagger, however.

Then Caspar lunges for Porter and the bounty hunter only misses getting hit by the weapon by a hair's breadth. Melchior then tries his luck, looking for some payback on his badly damaged leg. He manages to get a little revenge, as he cuts Porter slightly in the leg with his longsword.

Winnacer sees the combat in progress and immediately starts to run toward the melee, holding 'Old Bohavia' high.

Porter flings the net toward Balthasar with all of his might, yet his throw is off-target and Balthasar easily manages to avoid it before striking at Porter again. Once again, Porter is easy prey for the Wise Guy, who sinks his blade deeply into Porter's thigh, hurting him badly. The bounty hunter does manage to avoid Balthasar's dagger once again, however. Caspar lashes out as well and inflicts another terrible wound upon Porter. The bounty hunter knows that he is in serious trouble now and that one more blow will easily fell him. Melchior lashes out again, but his leg wound is causing him serious pain and he misses Porter by a wide margin, almost toppling over in the process.

As Winnacer rushes in, he sees that Porter is in a very bad way indeed. Faewen'il and Yaz are running right behind him.

"Damned bastard," the magess mutters. "Leave him alone far half a minute an he gets himself in a world o hurt. Ye would thin tha he would ha learned by now..."

She then began to cast a spell, uttering an incantation while gesturing at Balthasar.

The LawBringer realizes that he has to do something quick if he is to stop the Wise Guys from cutting Porter down. Immediately, his eyes begin to glow green with the Fury of Spravedelna:

"HEAR ME NOW, THOSE WHO ARE INJUST. YOUR WEB OF DECEIT CANNOT BE HIDDEN FROM THE EARS OF SPRAVEDELNA AND SHE KNOWS YOUR SINS. FLEE NOW LEST YOU FEEL THE MIGHT OF HER WRATH."

The effects of Winnacer's Fear are as effective as ever. There is just a moment of hesitation from the Three Wise Guys before they start to quake and soil themselves before they dash off away from the young Lord as fast as their legs will carry them.

Porter had started to draw his bastard sword for better defense, only to see that Winnacer was already sending them packing. He lashes out with it at the injured Melchior as he rushes past him, moaning in terror, determined to get a little payback by taking at least one of them down. He manages to cut the Wise Guy quite badly as he rushes past, but the blow is not quite sufficient to bring him down, although he shrieks in pain and stumbles away after the others.

As Porter lashes out at Melchior, three bolts of magickal energy fly from Faewen'il's fingers heading towards Balthasar. All three of the bolts hit the Wise Guy and he too shrieks out with the pain as they thud into his back. Although they must have caused him quite a bit of damage, there's still a lot of life left in the Wise Guy leader and his injuries just serves to send him running all the faster.

The three Wise Guys continue to run away from the stables. Balthasar and Caspar are running at a fast rate, although Melchior is quite a bit slower than the others, blood pouring from his terrible leg wound and leaving a trail in the churned up snow beneath him as he heads off after the other two.

Porter's relief only shows on his face for a moment before he yells:

"Get those f***ers!" Although badly hurt, the bounty hunter tries to run down the equally hurt Melchior, seeking to hack him to bits with his bastard sword, while leaving the other two to his comrades.

Faewen'il stands her ground. As the others head after the fleeing Wise Guys, she casually pulls forth her rod of amber and fur from her pouch and starts to rub them together while uttering an incantation.

Although Melchior is slowed by his wound, Porter too is suffering badly and is also leaving a trail of blood in the snow. Porter sees that Melchior is still moving faster than he is and that he is not going to be able to catch up with them at this rate, as Melchior already has a fair start on him.

Porter then sees that Yaz is sprinting after him, morphing into tiger form as he goes. As Yaz' flesh and possessions starts to turn into a dark orange colored fur and his jaw extends, Yaz goes from two feet to four as the transformation is completed and he dashes past the manhunter, leaving him behind in his trail.

Yaz dashes past the injured Melchior, heading after Balthasar and Caspar in the knowledge that Winnacer should easily be able to catch the Wise Guy.

Just then, there is an almighty CRASH of thunder and the dim streets of Tall Town light up as a forked bolt of lightning appears in front of Tiger-Yaz and blasts into the backs of Balthasar and Caspar.

The light blinds them all for a moment and so you have to look away. As the flashes before their eyes pass, they look back up to see that both Balthasar and Caspar are lying face down in the snow, both blackened and smoldering from the blast. There is no sign of movement from either of them.

At seeing that the pair of Wise Guys aren't going anywhere any more, Tiger-Yaz turns around to stand before the stumbling Melchior. Melchior stops in his tracks and turns around, only to see Porter and Winnacer coming up behind him fast.

Realizing that there is no chance of escape now, Melchior tosses his longsword aside and kneels in the snow, holding up his hands high in surrender.

They all stand still, panting from the exertion of the running. In the stillness of the snow, the sensitive ears of Tiger-Yaz start to pick up the sound of voices gabbling in the distance, being carried by the wind. He can tell that the voices are gabbling in Nyemetz and from the high-pitched sound of the voices, they appear to be goblins. They are a fair way off at the moment, but definitely heading in the party's direction.

Yaz quickly changes back into a druid:

"Nyemetz are coming, sounds like goblins. They must've heard the blasts..."

Catching up, Porter grabs Melchior by the collar, saying:

"You're a pro, I don't need to tell to behave."

"I'm no fool," Melchior replies, grimacing due to the pain of his wounds. "I'm not going to cause you any troubles."

To the others, Porter says:

"Grab up the bodies, the horses, and the saddles, and bring them into the stables."

He calls out to the stables:

"Milan, Yosef, we need your help. Hurry!"

Milan rushes out to see what's going on. Yosef pokes his head around the door and looks very nervous:

"What's going on?" he asks. "What was that shooting and lightning? Is it safe?"

As he quickly ties up Melchior, including gagging him and putting loose bonds upon his ankles to prevent him from running, he comments to Fae:

"That shit you got just gets cooler every time I see it. Of course, you've alerted the entire guard, but at least we stopped 'em."

Fae grumbles to herself:

"As if yar gunne did'na already make enough noise to wake tha whole damned town".

Fae then makes a run for the inn and her belongings.

As he starts to move Melchior back to the stables, Porter sees the blood he and the Wise Guys are dripping onto the ground. He shakes his head, saying:

"Shit."

He calls out again to Milan and Yosef:

"Get the horses and the saddles into the stable and then close the doors. Pay the innkeeper to keep his mouth shut."

"OK," Milan and Yosef reply in unison.

The horses are standing around quietly. The fact that they were not panicked by the sounds of the gunfire and lightning shows that they are well trained. Milan and Yosef grab the reins between them and then lead them into the stables.

Porter says to the others:

"I'm leaving a blood trail a freakin' goblin could follow. Don't track any of it back into the stables. I gotta get moving unless Yaz can get these wounds healed up."

Winnacer steps forward and says very calmly:

"Hold on and calm down. Yaz, is there any way you can hide the bodies and the blood trails without our touching anything, like the ensorcellment you cast outside the gates of Olmutz? There is no point is wasting our time trying to hide the evidence if it is just going to be in vain, and there is no way we are going to be able to hide all of these blood trails and footprints without the aid of magic."

"What we should do is skip town now. Send Yosef and Milan towards our friends in Litultovitze while the rest of us prepare to make a diversion. We can easily wipe clean the initial goblin resistance, then move quickly to distract them from Baby Yaz, our gunnes, and the chest of plague as they make a getaway. With the Nyemetz concerned about an armed threat patrolling Tall Town, they will be too focused on finding us rather than our supplies and Baby Yaz. With Faewen'il's talents for invisibility, we can at last disappear at the Opava gates, entering the city invisibly and throwing off the trail once and for all."

"Let's not waste our time clearing an unclearable scene. Let us prepare to make away. We'll question the Wise Guy later. Just make sure that he can't get free."

Porter responds to Winnacer:

"That mother and newborn baby aren't going to be able to go anywhere right now. Get Yosef and Milan to take the horses and the saddles into the stables and close the door. Tell Milan to search the saddlebags for anything of value or interest, and to tell the innkeeper he can have the horses if he keeps his mouth shut. We'll lead the Nyemetz away from here."

Porter then looks to Fae and Yaz, but sees that Fae has already headed off back to the inn:

"Can someone search the bastards Fae fried?"

"There's no time," Yaz replies. "We've gotta do something fast or else the greenskins are gonna be here."

"Yaz, if you can hide out tracks, I suggest you do it a short distance away from here," Porter continues. "The stupid Nyemetz will follow our trail for a while, then it will disappear. They'll have no idea what the hell is going on, and in the meantime, we can hole up or even send some of us back here. Okay?"

Winnacer sighs:

"It is not OK. It seems that your dealings with the Nyemetz must be rather limited. They send multiple squads, early response squads to deal with acute problems quickly reinforced by heavier troops that investigate further. If we run away, it is the reinforcements that are going to cause us the trouble, because they'll have the time to follow all the footprints back to the stables and inn. And we'll be too busy running to intervene with their more thorough investigation."

"We've dealt with the Nyemetz long before we met you. This is one you should trust me on. It will not be enough to distract the initial response team. If you wish to run distraction, then I will escort them to safety. But looking at you, it looks like you are in no condition to run."

Porter's ire overwhelms his professionalism for the moment as he growls at Winnacer:

"You condescending prick! I've spent more time tracking trails and erasing my own than you certainly have, and I've dealt with Nyemetz plenty. Hell, I've WORKED for the Nyemetz, and let me tell you, the Nyemetz in this town don't want to spend any more time out here freezing their green asses than they have to. Leave the crap here and I'll pull the Nyemetz far away from here with all the blood wise-boy and I are leaving all over the place."

Winnacer looks with disgust at Porter:

"I guess we know what kind of man you are now. You keep worrying about money, your own rear end and taking risks with lives that are not your own."

"It must be very lonely, caring for nothing other than yourself."

Winnacer spits onto the floor and turns his attention to the matter at hand.

Porter snaps back:

"Kept me alive this long, buddy."

Winnacer shakes his head as he looks at the tarry clots saturating the bounty hunter's clothes. He felt bad for Porter, living in denial, as he was wont to do. The man had the same propensity for injury as poor Jihan and would have died minutes ago if Winnacer hadn't interfered, yet he still tries to puff out his chest with pride despite his injuries. The sight was pathetic enough to diffuse Winnacer's anger:

"I guess that something you should be proud of."

With that Winnacer leaves to tend to more urgent matters.

"OK,' agrees Yaz. "Everyone stay close to the wounded guy."

To Porter, the druid adds:

"Where you go, we follow, big guy."

"This is not going to work," says Winnacer, shaking his head, "there are too many of us, we can't all up and leave. We cannot allow the plague chest or the child to fall into the Nyemetz' hands. I am going to stay behind to harass the Nyemetz bastards so that some of you can make a clean getaway. Who's staying with me?"

Winnacer thinks quickly:

"We haven't got much time, so we need to be quick," he starts. "Yaz, if you could take one of the horses with you, Porter and the Wise Guy, then you should be able to keep it within the area of your spell, hopefully. If you could lead them on a chase through the town to start with before activating the spell, then this should buy is some time."

"Once the spell is activated, then try and come around to the front of the inn. Milan and I will have the box of plague and the gunnes waiting in reception so that we can put them on the horse and get rid of the evidence. Then we shouldn't have anything to fear from the goblins."

"OK," says Yaz, "sounds good to me. Let's do it."

With that, Winnacer quickly heads back to the stables while Yaz supports Porter and Melchior and helps them move towards the stables also, still dripping blood as they go. As the threesome get in front of the stables, Winnacer comes out leading his horse with them.

As he hands Yaz the reins, the sound of babbling goblins can be heard from all:

"They are very close now," the young Lord says. "You need to make haste."

Yaz takes the reins to the horse and then heads off away from the inn, supporting Porter and Melchior as he does so. Winnacer watches them hurry away and then closes the stable doors behind him.

Yosef is looking very confused:

"Mr. Porter told me to go through the saddle bags and see what was in them," he says. "I found some money, 19 platinum pieces and 52 gold pieces, plus some blankets and stuff."

"Bring them with you," Winnacer says. "You and Maria need to get out of here fast. Come with me."

Maria is remaining calm throughout:

"Can you take Baby Yaz?" asks Maria. "I'm not sure that I can carry him."

Winnacer reaches down and takes Baby Yaz in his arms and then Yosef helps Maria to get to her feet. Maria grimaces as she gets up. It's obvious that she is feeling quite weak and is not capable of moving far.

Just then, Milan walks into the stable, looking quite pleased with himself:

"I had a word with the innkeeper, Lord Stradheim," the squire starts, "and he says that he hates them Nyemetz bastards and won't tell them nothing, not even if his very life depended on it."

Winnacer nods and looks relieved:

"Well that's good news," he replies. "Now take the Kristuses' gold, frankincense and myrrh as well as the Wise Guys' saddlebags and help Yosef escort Maria upstairs to my room."

They can now hear the babbling of the greenskins right outside the door to the stable. Winnacer puts a finger to his lips indicating that all should be quiet.

Milan takes the Kristuses' gifts and then they all quietly make their way out of the stable and into the inn. On the way to the stairs upwards, they see the innkeeper looking at them. He gives them a knowing wink.

They continue upstairs and Winnacer opens the door to his room. Milan and Yosef lay Maria gently down on the bed and then the young Lord carefully hands Baby Yaz back to her.

"We have to leave you for a while," Winnacer says to them, "but we shall be back later. Please make yourselves comfortable and act as if nothing has happened. You are no part of this and thus there is no reason for the Nyemetz to involve you."

Milan puts the gifts down next to the bed. Winnacer quickly throws the 'Fabio' armor to Milan, telling him to put it on quickly, and then puts on the back and breast plates from his plate mail and grabs his shield, not having the required half an hour in which to put on all of his plate.

The young Lord them looks at the plague box and the two ratmen gunnes and then at Milan:

"Milan, give me a hand at getting these down to reception," he asks.

Milan nods his head and then helps the LawBringer in taking the firearms and the box out of the room as well as the rest of his armor. They quickly head down to reception and await the arrival of Yaz, Porter and Melchior.

Meanwhile, Yaz, Porter and Melchior continued to stagger away from the stables of the 'Boar's Head' as fast as they can, with Yaz leading the horse as he goes. Melchior puts up no kind of resistance whatsoever. It appears that he is in no more of a hurry to meet up with the Nyemetz than Yaz or Porter are.

Porter talks Yaz through the best directions to take, seemingly heading through the streets at random in order to confuse the greenskins as much as possible. They can hear the Nyemetz behind them. Obviously their thoughts that the Nyemetz would firstly pursue the blood trail rather than searching the immediate area proved to be correct.

After stumbling through the snow for more then five minutes, Porter sees that they are fast running out of buildings to wind between as Tall Town does not cover a large area. Porter brings the group to a halt and speaks to Yaz:

"Time to do your stuff," he says. "This is as far as we can go."

Yaz nods and pulls forth a sprig of evergreen from his pouch and starts an incantation. As he utters the words, Yaz sets fire to the sprig and begins to scatter the ashes all around them.

It takes a full minute to complete the ritual, during which time Porter is obviously getting impatient as he can hear the goblins getting closer and closer.

"OK," says Yaz finally. "That should do it."

The three of them and the horse move onwards again and Porter sees, much to his relief, that they are not leaving any trail of blood any more, nor are they leaving tracks either.

Porter then begins to double back in the direction of the 'Boar' Head'. The bounty hunter keeps a good lookout and takes it slowly, as he knows that they are passing less than a block away from where the goblins have reached the end of the trail. Once they are passed the Nyemetz position, they speed up a little and head around to the front entrance of the 'Boar's Head'.