The Tables Turned

Only the CornerStone and the illusionist are unaffected by the goblins' spells. Winnacer, one of the dwarves and the priest of Ohen all stagger backwards out of the effects of the stinking cloud. As they do so, Rockrender takes advantage of the hiatus by coming over and attempting to heal the worst of the injuries. He starts off by casting a moderate healing spell on the weaker of the two dwarves.

A few sounds can be heard from outside. From the northern side of the warehouse, the sound of scuffling can be heard, as if some of the greenskins are trying to get on the roof of the building. There is also the sound of large quantities of earth being moved around.

The CornerStone ignores the sound and moves over to Rowan and lays his hands upon him, casting a light healing spell as he does so. The effects of the spell are strong and Rowan would feel a great deal better were he not held currently.

Still there is no sign of anything happening from outside apart from the sounds of the greenskins scrabbling on the rooftop and the sound of earth being moved. The CornerStone moves to Winnacer, who is still coughing his guts out and casts another light healing spell upon him. The effects of the spell are also fairly strong. The illusionist notices that Winnacer still has the broadsword stuck in him and tries to pull it out. He manages to do so, causing the LawBringer a slight amount of additional pain as he does so.

The Priest of Ohen finally stops spluttering from the effects of the stinking cloud and walks over to the others.

Everything outside the warehouse goes quiet. Whatever it is that the goblins are up to, they seem to have stopped it now. The CornerStone continues to attend to the wounded, going back to the weaker of the two dwarves and casting another light healing spell upon him. The effects are only moderate, but at least none of the fighters are in any danger of expiring any time soon.

The illusionist speaks to the priest of Ohen:

"We need to do something about the goblins caught in the web," he says. "It's not going to last forever."

The priest of Ohen is pretty pissed by all of the goings-on:

"Leave it to me," he says.

He strides over to the doorway to the hallway containing the eight goblins that are babbling away, trying unsuccessfully to extract themselves from the web. He raises his hands to the web and there is a huge 'BOOOMMMMM' as the web erupts in a ball of flame. Needless to say, all of the goblins are roasted immediately.

Still there are no more signs of activity from outside. Inside, the majority of the occupants of the stables finally recover from the effects of the goblins' spells as Faewen'il and one of the dwarves find that they are able to see again, while Winnacer and the other dwarven warrior stop coughing from the effects of the stinking cloud. Only Rowan remains out of action, still held by the spell.

Rockrender summons everyone together:

"So, it would appear that the goblins have no way of getting through rock, or else they prefer to wait for us to come out. Perhaps they plan to simply wait and starve us out, or are getting reinforcements."

He looks around:

"So has anyone any ideas for what we should do? Perhaps it might be a good idea for all of the spellcasters to reveal what spells they have left at their disposal."

The CornerStone then begins to list his remaining spells. Once he has finished, the priest of Ohen, the illusionist and Faewen'il add their remaining spells to the list.

Winnacer listens carefully as the spellcasters list the spells left at their disposal. Once they have finished, he makes some suggestions starting with the CornerStone:

"This fist of stone spell that you have," he starts. "What does that spell do?"

"It increases the strength of the one that it is cast on," the CornerStone replies. "If someone is going to make an assault, then it would be wise to use it on them. There just wasn't enough time to cast it earlier."

"You still have two healing spells left," Winnacer continues. "Perhaps it might be best to use it upon one of the injured now?"

"I think it is best to wait until an emergency," Rockrender replies. "No one is in danger of falling too soon and we have very little healing ability left. I would prefer to wait and see if it might stop one of us from falling later."

"You also said that you had the ability to heat metal," adds the LawBringer. "That could be useful against some of the goblins if you could get a glance at them."

The CornerStone nods:

"I agree with you there. I was waiting to try and get one of the leaders with the spell, but they are obviously not stupid and are keeping themselves well hidden. If I see one of them and they are armored, then I will definitely try and take one of them out."

The young Lord then turns to the priest of Ohen:

"It's good to hear that you still have a fireball left at your disposal. If they are grouped together, then that may be the key to evening the odds."

"That's right," the priest replies. "I noticed earlier that they were keeping well spaced out to avoid it though. If they've bunched up tightly though and I can get at them without them getting me first, then they're toast."

"How long does it take to summon the fire elemental?" Winnacer then asks.

The priest shakes his head:

"It doesn't take long at all," he replies. "That's not the problem. The problem is that it is very difficult to keep control of them. There is always a chance when summoning them that they will refuse to obey me and just go on the rampage."

"If our lives depended on it, then I would use it, but not until then. It's just too risky."

Winnacer then speaks with the illusionist:

"Your ability to change your form could be useful," Winnacer says. "It might be useful for you to change into a goblin."

"That would certainly be possible," the illusionist replies. "But there would need to be a purpose to changing and I would need to do it only when there are other goblins around to merge in with."

"The invisibility spells could be very useful, but I think we should wait to see what they're up to first of all," Winnacer says.

"I concur," the illusionist agrees. "Given the right circumstances, the invisibility spells could be our only chance of all getting out of here alive."

Finally Winnacer speaks with Fae:

"The web could be useful if they try and come in here," he says.

Faewen'il just nods:

"I thin they know that, which be why they nae be riskin it."

"The lightning bolt could be very useful too if you can get into the right position," the LawBringer adds.

"But iffen I be gettin into a good position to get them, then they also be in a good position to be gettin me."

Winnacer pauses for a moment and then speaks once more:

"We need to get an idea of what they are up to before we can plan a counteroffensive. Perhaps our illusionist friend can take the shape of a wraith and take a quick look beyond the walls."

"If they are out in the open, they are quite vulnerable to more attacks from the roof. If we can slay the shamans, we should be able to carry the day."

"In any case, we need to ready against an assault by them. Let us make sure that they pay for their charging this time."

Winnacer grabs some of the caltrops from his saddlebags, readying to use them as appropriate.

"OK, I'll do it," the illusionist replies. "It's not without risk, as they will be able to see my form unless I use the invisibility as well. And if they still have the ability to dispel magick, then I will be a sitting duck."

He sighs:

"But I can see that it is our only chance. I'll do it. I'm going to have to use the invisibility as well though. At least it will last for as long as necessary."

The illusionist pulls forth an eyelash encased in gum Arabic from his pouch and starts to make the familiar gestures and utterings that Faewen'il has made so many times before. After less than a minute, the form of the illusionist starts to shimmer and then disappears.

As soon as the first spell is cast, you hear the sound of the illusionist muttering once again. After a few seconds, the uttering stops and there is then only silence.

They wait for a few minutes, getting anxious the longer that there is no word from the illusionist. From outside they can hear nothing, as all is deadly quiet.

They then hear a groan from close by and look up to see that Rowan has become mobile once more. He moans about how stiff he feels and then walks over to join the others.

Another couple of minutes later and they hear the illusionist's voice from amongst them:

"OK, they didn't see me," he starts.

"So this is what we have left to face:"

"On top of the roof there are six archers along with one of the robed priests. About 20' to the west of the warehouse, there are six spearmen along with another robed priest. On the north and south side of the building there are seven spearmen on each side."

"They are all spread out thinly. I suppose that they realize the danger from spells."

"On the east side they have got really creative. Firstly they have burned away the trees and bushes to give them a good field of fire. Somehow, and don't ask me how they did it, they have managed to dig themselves a fortified position on the opposite side of the road. It's 50' long and 10' wide. You can just see their heads poking out over the earthworks. They are very well protected indeed."

"Inside the trench are five archers, seven goblins in half plate with broadswords and two of the enrobed goblins."

"So now you know," he finishes.

Taking advantage of the fact that the goblins seem to be content to wait for those temporarily entombed within the warehouse to make the next move, Winnacer and the dwarves discuss possible tactics, with the spellcasters explaining exactly what their spells can and cannot do and tossing suggestions to each other.

Unbeknownst to them all, Yaz has finally returned from his journey to summon assistance from the Cathedral of Zemnye in the undercity with the Bastioness who accompanied the party on their mission to locate the Nemotz priests in the temple of Smurt plus two more additional senior ranking members of the clergy.

After taking a few moments to see what they have to face, Yaz and the priestesses withdraw once more into the trees to the southeast of Zosia's warehouse, where they are hidden by the burning warehouse and trees.

The druid speaks to the three priests:

"Looks bad, but we should be able to take advantage of the fact that we've got surprise on our hands."

"If I can take care of the bastards on the roof, do you think that you can take care of the bastards in the trench?" he asks.

The Bastioness doesn't look too confident:

"I'm not sure that the three of us can take them all out, but we should be able to make things uncomfortable for them."

"That will have to do," Yaz replies. "First of all, let's conjure up a bit of assistance."

With that, Yaz starts to utter an incantation and, while he is doing so, he starts to turn around on the spot, slowly at first, but then faster and faster until he is whirling round and around. He continues to whirl around for a couple of minutes until he is making himself quite dizzy. As he utters the final word of the incantation, the air around him starts to spin too, before separating in order to form a miniature whirlwind.

Pleased that the whirlwind has been behaving itself, Yaz turns back to the priests:

"Now let's give you some of Prirodna's blessings to help you in the coming fight."

With that, Yaz takes some of his holy ganja and starts to chant once again while he is before the priestesses. For another minute, he continues to chant, bringing forth Prirodna's blessings upon the ladies.

Back inside the warehouse, the planning session is over. Winnacer looks at the others:

"So are we all happy with the plan and know what we're doing?"

The dwarves nod in agreement, although the others can tell from their expressions that they are not totally confident.

"Very well," Winnacer says. "Let's cast the spells that we need in order to get the plan into operation."

Firstly the CornerStone starts to chant upon the priest of Ohen while sprinkling him with powdered granite and diamond dust. At the same time, the illusionist is chanting at Faewen'il, holding an eyelash encased in gum Arabic as he does so. As he finishes the incantation, Faewen'il disappears along with the priest of Ohen who is standing next to her.

Back outside the warehouse, Yaz speaks to the priests once again:

"OK, let's get things going. You get yourselves into position and wait until I give the signal, then let those greenskins have it."

The priestesses head off across the road under the cover of darkness before coming around behind the trench, moving slowly and carefully through the bushes so that they are not seen by those in the trench.

As soon as they are gone, Yaz turns to the dust devil:

"Go get the priest on the roof," he says, pointing to the enrobed goblin accompanying the archers on the roof of the building.

The dust devil immediately takes to the air, heading for the roof.

Once the dust devil is away, Yaz starts to shrink in size while his body and clothes start to morph into small green scales. He continues shrinking and morphing until Yaz is transformed into a small lizard. He immediately starts scurrying through the churned up snow towards the warehouse.

As the dust devil dashes towards the warehouse, the archers see it immediately that it breaks from the cover of the bushes. On a hair trigger, the archers immediately send a volley towards the elemental. Luckily for the dust devil, the goblins aren't very good shots and only one of the goblins in the trench and one on the roof manage to hit it before it starts to swirl around the enrobed priest, making it impossible to fire any more at it without their risking accidentally hitting the goblins. One of the goblins on the roof manages to lose its balance while shooting and slides off the roof to its death 20' below.

Down below, everyone leaves the stables, heading through the burned out hallway to the kitchen where they find one of the petrified dwarves keeping guard on the wall. The illusionist produces a piece of fleece from his pouch and starts to chant, concentrating on forming an illusionary fog cloud on the other side of the wall. The illusionist is racked in concentration and so there is no way of knowing whether or not he has been successful in the task.

At the same time, the CornerStone produces a chip of granite and the hair of a giant and begins to cast upon Winnacer. As Rockrender finishes the spell, Winnacer feels additional strength flowing through him, reminding him of the time that he received the same blessing from Petr the Pompous of Pardubitze several weeks before.

After finishing the spell, Rockrender starts to mould a lump of clay in his hands.

Winnacer produces his two calivers and two shortbows from his horse and asks around to see who can use what. Both of the two warriors say that they can use the calivers, but no one is able to use a bow. A little peeved at not being able to use a caliver, Winnacer nevertheless passes the two guns to the dwarves and takes the shortbow. Rowan explains that he can't use any missile weapon.

Upon the roof, the dust devil whirls around attempting to knock the robed goblin off the roof. The robed goblin manages to avoid the whirlwind, however, and quickly draws its shortsword in order to try and dispatch the elemental. However, trying to stand on the slippery roof presents a problem for the goblin and it is unable to hit the whirlwind.

The five archers on the roof immediately sling their shortbows over their shoulders and draw their shortswords. As they are occupied with the dust devil, they don't notice the small lizard coming up behind them.

Back downstairs, the tired looking Rockrender continues to mold the clay in his hands while casting yet again. He continues to chant for a full minute before he has molded the clay into a pancake shape. Once he has finished, he slaps the pancake against the wall, standing back in case there is a hail of fire once the wall is opened up. However, as the wall comes back, they see that the robed goblin and the six spearmen with it are simply looking around themselves, obviously confused by the illusory fog.

Once he sees that the wall is now opened, Rockrender rushes back to the stables, where Faewen'il's rope is still leading up to the roof.

On the roof, the dust devil continues to try and knock the robed goblin off the roof. Once again, however, it manages to avoid the whirling mass. The robed goblin strikes back at the dust devil, but is unable to hit it with its shortsword.

The five remaining archers all try and help out their robed comrade by lashing out at it with their shortswords. Only one manages to hit the dust devil, however, and it continues to whirl away.

While they are doing so, Yaz morphs back into druid shape, standing right behind the goblins so as to avoid getting shot by the goblins in the trench.

As he returns to his regular shape, he shouts out to the priests below:

"It's now or never, ladies!"

Immediately, the priestesses start to cast. Quite what they cast is not immediately apparent, as it seems to have little effect upon the goblins initially, other than attracting their attention to Yaz on the roof.

One of the goblin shouts out toward the warehouse:

"Jump" it shouts.

Yaz considers it for a moment, but his sensible elven side decides that it probably wouldn't be a very clever thing to do and so he ignores the goblin's command.

Inside the warehouse, Faewen'il takes the hand of the equally invisible priest of Ohen and the pair of them scurry out of the hole as quietly as they can. They seem to manage it OK, as the goblins before them don't think anything of it. They silently pad through the snow, heading for the trench.

As soon as they are pretty sure that the two invisible spellcasters are out of the way, the two dwarves with their calivers and Winnacer all take aim at the robed goblin in the center of the goblins.

"Now" shouts Winnacer.

"BOOOOMMMM" the calivers go. The stronger of the two dwarves manages to miss, but the other one manages to shoot the goblin in its arm. Winnacer lets go of the bowstring and is delighted to see his arrow going straight into the goblin's gut. It's not enough to fell the priest, however and he quickly barks out a command, which sends all of the goblins scattering to the north and south of the warehouse. While the two dwarves start to reload, Winnacer quickly nocks another arrow and shoots once again at the robed goblin. This time he is not so lucky and his arrow flies over the goblin's head.

The goblins quickly disperse. There are now no more goblins in the allies' line of sight from inside the building.

The CornerStone climbs up Faewen'il's rope and crawls out onto the roof. The archers in the trench see him do so and unleash a quick volley at him. Just two of the arrows connect with him and these are negated by the stoneskin that the CornerStone always keeps on him.

Faewen'il and the priest of Ohen run past the goblins standing at the south side of the warehouse, heading for the south side of the trench. Covered by invisibility, they get ready to blast the occupants.

The goblins in the trench are starting to get very uncomfortable now. Several of the goblins have dropped their broadswords and are trying to remove their half plate, shrieking from pain as they do so. The two robed priests are also groaning, but are fighting off the pain as they look up with horror at the dwarf and the half elf on the roof of the warehouse.

Behind Yaz and the CornerStone, the dust devil continues to slug it out with the robed priest and the other five goblins. Once again, the dust devil cannot land a blow upon the robed goblin. The robed goblin finally manages to get a blow on the whirlwind, however, and it immediately dissipates. The goblins all look round, getting ready to attack Yaz and the CornerStone.

The CornerStone is not interested in them, however. He is concentrating upon the goblins in the trench. The CornerStone is starting to chant, bringing forth more clay and water as he gestures towards the trench.

While he is in the middle of it, one of the goblin barks out an order in Nyemetz. Immediately afterwards, the sky is lit up as one of the burning trees sends up a huge shower of glowing fireworks.

Disaster.

Yaz, the CornerStone and the priest of Ohen are all blinded by the pyrotechnics, as is one of the priestesses of Zemnye. The CornerStone's spell is spoiled.

Faewen'il is OK, however. Seeing that she is the only one around that can do anything, she immediately produces her rod of amber and starts to rub a piece of fur against it before aiming down the length of the trench.

In the narrow trench, the goblins are lined up perfectly for such a shot. A mighty thunderclap crashes through the sky and then a bright light flashes as a bolt of pure electricity flashes down the length of the trench.

All of the goblin archers and those with platemail are instantly vaporized by the bolt. As the ozone clears, however, Faewen'il sees that the two robed goblins in the trench managed to survive it, however. One is on death's door, however.

By casting the spell, Faewen'il became invisible. The one that just barely survived looks up at the magess with utter hatred in his eyes and starts to cast. He takes a sprinkle of multi-colored powders and tosses them at the magess while uttering an incantation. As it finishes, a fan shaped spray of colors flies towards her. Once again, however, the magess manages to blink just at the right time and avoids getting caught by the effects of the spell.

Inside the kitchen of the warehouse, all Winnacer, Rowan and the dwarves can hear is a number of bangs and flashes. Not having any opponents in sight, Winnacer leads them out into the illusory fog to see what's going on.

The two unblinded priestesses of Ohen also see what's going on and immediately draw their picks, coming to defend Faewen'il from the inevitable retaliation from the two remaining goblin bosses.

The most injured of the goblins hurries to get out of the trench in order to throw himself at Faewen'il. Both Faewen'il and the least injured of the goblin bosses reach for their pouch.

Everything goes in slow motion as the two spellcasters, just a dozen feet away from each other, start to chant, both knowing that whoever gets their spell off first is going to be the winner.

The goblin is the first to start casting while producing a piece of phosphorus. Faewen'il is a little later in pulling forth a piece of cobweb and chanting.

The gods are smiling on her, however, as Faewen'il finishes her spell first and another spider's web forms from nowhere, trapping the goblin in its sticky strands, spoiling his spell and sealing him within its strands.

The other priest just manages to crawl out. However, his chainmail is smoldering from the heat and, as he gets up to Faewen'il, he keels over and dies from his wounds.

As the goblins to the north and south of the warehouse and on top of it see the devastation caused by Faewen'il's spells, a cry of terror runs through their ranks and they all start to bolt away, with those on the roof clambering down as quickly as possible.

Back on Winnacer's side of the field...

Winnacer bellows "KILL THEM ALL!" as he leads a charge out to kill all those that remain in sight.

"We're not going to be able to get them all," one the dwarven warriors cries in response, "let's just make sure that we get all of the leaders. We'll take the one on the roof, you take the one running to the south."

"I'll stay here and make sure that no one tries and sneaks in while you're out," Rowan says.

The goblins that were to the north and south of the warehouse already have a fair start upon you, but the greenskins' little legs are no match for Winnacer's strides and he easily manages to gain upon the fleeing leader. The leader sees that the young Lord is gaining on him and stops for a moment before gesturing to him and shouting:

"STOP"

Winnacer decides that he really doesn't want to do this, however, and continues to run after the fleeing greenskin.

On the opposite side of the warehouse, as the robed goblin and the five archers scramble down the side of the building, the two dwarven warriors are waiting for it. With two mighty blows from his battleaxe, the stronger of the two dwarves easily manages to hack the leader to pieces. The other dwarf manages to stove in the skull of one of the archers as it attempts to run off. The remaining four archers are running like crazy, however, desperately trying to get away from the dwarves.

On the opposite side of the battlefield, Faewen'il and the two priestesses of Zemnye peer into the webbed trench and see that the remaining goblin is screaming in agony as its chainmail hisses from the heat that is coming from it.

Faewen'il turns to the priestesses:

"It be best if ye be stoppin ye spells now," she says. "He nae be goin nowhere an it be best if we keep him alive for questionin."

The priestesses agree and cancel the spell, stopping the heating. Upon the roof, Yaz opens his eyes once more and blinks, getting over the effects of the pyrotechnics.

The goblins continue to flee as fast as they can. The two dwarven warriors try and run after them to take a few more down but the greenskins' motivation to save themselves by getting away as fast as possible is higher than the dwarves' motivation to kill a few more of them and the goblins quickly managed to outdistance the dwarves. The pair of them give up and return back to the warehouse.

The race between Winnacer and the last fleeing leader is on, however. Winnacer soon manages to catch up with the goblin and lashes out at him with his mace, managing to smash him in the back with it. With the additional strength supplied by the CornerStone's spell, the damage that the LawBringer causes is severe, but not enough to drop the goblin.

The goblin cries out from the pain and turns to try and strike the young Lord. Winnacer's platemail easily saves him from any damage, however. Winnacer hefts the mace once again and brings in crashing down upon the goblin's skull with all his might. The goblin's head is crushed like a rotten apple, spattering the young Lord's armor with blood and gray matter.

Winnacer looks around to see if he can add more goblins to the tally, but the combat has given the others a chance to run off and the young Lord can see that he, in his platemail, has little chance of catching with them now. Wearily he makes his way back to the warehouse to see what is going on at the other side.

Yaz gets down from the roof, heading over to the burning trees. As he passes the CornerStone, he sees that the dwarf has now managed to come around from the effects of the pyrotechnics now. Down below, the priest of Ohen also comes around.

The priestess of Zemnye that was also effected by the pyrotechnics blinks and looks around her, the last one to get over the effects of the spell. She walks over to see what her two fellow priestesses and Faewen'il are looking at.

Winnacer wipes his brow as he surveys the whole of the field, letting a slight smile escape as he realizes that they have won the day with no loss of life. However, this respite is brief, as he straps his mace to his belt and walks over to where it seems the others are congregating around the pit containing the webbed goblin leader. Everyone else has the same idea. Yaz and the CornerStone get down off the roof and also head over to join the others. Zosia and Rowan, seeing that there is no more present danger also head over to join the others.

"Good work everybody," the young Lord says. "We have carried the day, but we have no time to loaf around. We are in no shape to handle any reinforcements they may be able to muster. So it seems we must choose somewhere to go to rest for the night. Anybody have suggestions?"

"I would imagine that the goblins are all running back to the entrance to the undercity," Rockrender replies. "The garrison is located just above the top level of the city, with its entrance just inside the gates. It would be suicide to try and get inside the city until the heat has died down."

"That could take quite a while," comments the priest of Ohen.

"Looks like we're pretty much restricted to Tall Town or the countryside," adds the illusionist.

"If you're thinking of leaving Tall Town then we'll have to be careful," Yaz adds. "They still have roadblocks on both of the roads in and out of the place."

"The 'Boar's Head' is probably not a good idea after your last stay there," comments Zosia. "There is one other inn, the 'Yellow Stone', but I would imagine that inns are the first places that they are going to check."

Zosia pauses for a moment and then has an idea:

"We could try and see whether Mrs Veverka would mind putting us up at her shop for the night," she suggests. "It's tiny and so it's not going to be very comfortable, but it's unlikely that the goblins would think of checking there."

"That sounds as if it may be alright, but with our large numbers, our tracks may give us away," Winnacer replies. "We may need more than one hidey hole for the night."

"I will say that leaving Tall Town is not particularly difficult if you stay off the road. Litultovitze is quite a walk, but is large enough to accommodate all of us long enough to lick our wounds and devise a new strategy."

"It might not be much of a journey for you with your horses and your long legs," the illusionist grumbles, "but walking through the snow in the night for miles is not something that I'm looking forward to."

"The Kristus family certainly cannot travel for with their child in this weather," Zosia says. "At least they should stay with Mrs Veverka this evening."

"It's lucky that we had the foresight of wearing masks to the meeting," one of the warriors says. "At least it means that none of the goblins saw us. I reckon that, as long as we stay out of trouble tonight, then we shouldn't have too much trouble getting through the gate in the morning."

He looks at the party members:

"Obviously it's different for you Bohavians. I can't imagine that it's going to be very easy for any Bohavians to move through the gate or around Tall Town from now on."

These words seem to strike a chord in Winnacer, as he starts to look towards the "dwarf" illusionist with an idea formulating in his mind:

"Well, let's just move on. Waiting here is the worst thing we can do."

Winnacer looks at all of the dwarves assembled:

"It looks like the opportunity to throw off the shackles of Nyemetz oppression has arisen despite ourselves. We need to start thinking about destroying the remnants of the Nyemetz and organizing the populace for the task of defending Opava."

The CornerStone nods:

"Perhaps, but were we to try, then we need to be careful not to weaken ourselves too badly. There would be little point in losing many lives to throw out the Nyemetz only to be overrun by the ratmen as soon as we accomplish the task."

"An open battle is, of course, out of the question," Winnacer replies. "But with the diverse number of skills displayed here tonight, we should be able to rid ourselves of the greenskins piecemeal with stealth. And it seems that we may have to, if we want to ever have free access through the gates of Opava again."

The CornerStone sighs:

"While I think it could be possible for us to lead the city in rebellion and overthrow the Nyemetz, it would only be a matter of time before others found out about it. We've discussed the matter a hundred times, I'm afraid. While simply closing the gates would stop any relief force from entering the city, there are no food stocks to feed the city. It would be just a matter of weeks before the Nyemetz could starve us into submission and the city would be theirs once more."

He shakes his head:

"And the repercussions would be too horrendous to imagine."

"If the Nyemetz were not so strapped for troops, perhaps," Winnacer replies. "The Eastern Front is already collapsing under Slovene pressure and the Nyemetz have resorted to rounding up Bohavians and impressing them into battle. But we'll talk about the Nyemetz' resources later, behind closed doors."

Winnacer points to the weapons and heavy armor strewn across the field:

"These items may come in handy with some reworking. We should make an effort to remove as much of these items from the field tonight."

Rockrender shakes his head:

"I don't think that we have time to go around collecting them. It's only five minutes to the barracks from here and so I'd imagine that the rest of the garrison is going to be swarming around here in a little over ten minutes. I think we should get out of here while we have the chance."

"In any case," he continues, "the city is not short of arms and armor - there are plenty of unemployed weaponsmiths and armorers in this city were they needed. However, as you have seen for yourselves, the city's little better than a battleground at the moment anyway and most of the citizens have their own arms and armor."

Winnacer blushes:

"Sorry, I guess it was force of habit. I'm too used to actually having to arm the citizenry so they can defend themselves. Having citizens familiar with arms is a true novelty."

The dwarf shakes his head:

"No, it's not arms and armor that we're lacking - it's the stout hearts and strong arms willing to wield them."

Just then the goblin trapped in the trench starts groaning loudly from his wounds, leading everyone to look at him.

Rockrender starts to laugh as he sees the badly fried and webbed goblin in the trench:

"Well, well, well," he chuckles. "We have got ourselves a prize. That's the Lord Protektor that we've caught us."

Winnacer smirks:

"It is shaping up to be an interesting night."

"We should take him with us and interrogate him when we get there," Winnacer says.

The priest of Ohen is tossing a ball of bat guano and sulphur from one hand to another. He turns to Faewen'il:

"You can remove the web now. If the little green bastard tries anything, I'll fry him."

Before Faewen'il can do anything, the goblin speaks. His croaky voice sounds remarkably calm for one in his predicament:

"No fry me you will. No interrogate me you will. Make deal with Porich you will."

Everyone is staring at the Lord Protektor now.

"Have I one friend of you, Bohavians," he continues. "In my jail he be. If Porich no return, then die he will."

"Only way you friend to live is that you hostage swap for me."

The goblin looks up at everyone:

"Is good deal, no?"

Immediately after getting down off the roof, Yaz is horrified to see the trees burning away. He quickly heads through the hole into the warehouse and through to the stables, coming back with a couple of horse blankets. He then rushes to the trees to attempt to save them.

Feeling the intense heat coming off the trees, he takes a strip of willow bark from his pouch and starts to utter an incantation that none have heard him speak before. After half a minute, the incantation is finished and the druid starts climbing trees for all he's worth.

"Who's the asshole who did this, anyway?" he demands to know as he starts flapping the blankets at the trees.

"It wasn't me, honest," the priest of Ohen replies defensively. "I admit that I burned down that warehouse over there, the hallway of Zosia's warehouse, the roof of that warehouse over there, those goblins lying below it in the snow and those goblins by the wall. But that was all."

He points at the Lord Protektor:

"It must have been him or one of his greenskin bastard lackeys."

The Lord Protektor shrugs:

"Only trees they be. Why to worry of them?"

Winnacer's eyes narrow as he glares at the goblin:

"Gag him and bind him. He comes with us."

"Noon tomorrow is when shall he die if not back I am," shouts the goblin in response.

Faewen'il gestures towards the web and utters a simple incantation. As she does so, the web disappears as quickly as it appeared. The goblin looks around, obviously seeing if there is the possibility of escape. The calivers that the two dwarven warriors are pointing at his head from several feet away tell him that this wouldn't be a terribly clever move for him to make. The priest of Ohen seems disappointed as the goblin stands back and allows the Bastioness to gag and bind him.

"We should go straight away now," Winnacer says. "The goblins will be here shortly. If we need to save Porter before noon tomorrow then we will not have time to go to Litultovitze and back, and so I believe that we must avail ourselves of Mrs. Veverka's accommodation this evening."

He looks around and sees that several of the warriors are still dripping blood. He looks up at the tree where Yaz is still attempting to put the fires out:

"Yaz, have you got one of your trail masking spells at your disposal today?"

"Yup," Yaz replies, "but I'm kinda busy right now."

Winnacer speaks to the throng of dwarves around him:

"Let us prepare everything for departure. We can't leave anything here."

They all hurry back into the warehouse, anxious not to waste any time what with the imminent possible arrival of goblin reinforcements, with the two warriors dragging the Lord Protektor behind them. Winnacer lifts Milan and puts him over one of the horses before going to retrieve 'Old Bohavia' while Zosia goes to get the Kristus family and the two other Council Members that did not participate in the combat. They then all head back to the trench where they find Yaz still frantically trying to extinguish the flames burning through the trees.

As they get there, he has finished saving one of the trees and is starting on one of the others:

"Sorry to bother you, Yaz," Winnacer says, "but could you cast your spell on us now?"

Yaz seems irritated:

"OK then, but I'll have to hurry. The trees are dying. Stand as closely together as you can."

As everyone bunches as closely together as possible around the horses, Yaz takes one of the burned sprigs of pine from the trees and starts to chant. He spends a whole minute chanting and then sprinkles the powdered pine ash in a circle around the group.

Immediately that he has finished, he rushes back to the trees:

"Go on then," he says, grabbing a blanket once more. "It should work now."

"We're going to Mrs. Veverka's apothecaries, Yaz," shouts Zosia as the group starts to make their way off, "where you were this morning, remember?"

"Sure, yes," Yaz says. "I'll be about ten minutes."

"Don't let the goblins catch you," says Winnacer.

With these final words, the group heads off as fast as they can while keeping within the confines of the spell. The spell works fine and they leave no trace as they make their way through the snow. They soon leave the dockside and walk through the empty streets of Tall Town. There is a great amount of commotion coming from the gates, but there is no sign of any goblins as they pass the 'Boar's Head' and continue on to the opposite side of the village before they all see the sign of Mrs. Veverka's Apothecary.