The Death Of Faewen'il?

Those manning the wall feel rather helpless as they wait for the ratmen to make their next assault. Faewen'il is coughing badly from the poisonous vapors and still doesn't look very well at all.

Suddenly, those at the wall hear a soft sound coming from behind them. As Milly, Dax and Faewen'il turn around in alarm, they see the figure of a dark-furred ratman dressed totally in black behind them with a shortsword in each hand. Before anyone has a chance to act, the ratassassin lashes out at Faewen'il with its twin blades, which they can see are dripping with purplish-black ichor.

Faewen'il's stoneskin protects her from one of the blades, but protecting her from this blow uses up the last of the CornerStone's magickal protection. Even Faewen'il's own magickal protection is not enough to protect her from the other blade in the skilled hands of the assassin and the blade cuts deep into her arm, injecting her with the deadly poison. The second that it does so, the already badly injured magess immediately closes her eyes and slumps to the ground.

Milly is horrified as she sees Faewen'il fall and immediately lays into the assassin with her fiery blade. Dax tries to do the same, but he is on the opposite side of Milly and cannot move around her with his leg in its condition. The ferocity of Milly takes the assassin totally by surprise. It tries to duck backwards, but Milly is ready for this and cuts a huge rent in the assassin's side. This obviously surprises the assassin and it looks down at its wound in horror. This is just the opening that Milly needs and she takes full advantage of it by plunging her blade through the assassin's chest. The thin leather armor that the ratman is wearing provides no protection at all from Milly's blade and she thrusts the blade through it to the hilt until the blade emerges through the ratman's back.

She brings her foot up to help her pull the blade free and the assassin's body falls to the ground with a dull thud.

Unaware of what has gone on behind the wall, Damene and Rowan carefully make their way over the disgusting carpet of roasted rat and then move even more slowly as they try to weave their way through the caltrop field without getting hurt in the process.

Meanwhile, Winnacer, Porter and Booker continue to advance down the tunnel. It is pitch dark down there and Porter can only see a few feet ahead of him. Booker gives him a running commentary, however, peering into the gloom to see if he can detect anything with his infravision. Winnacer, thanks to his helmet of night vision, has no problem with visibility either. As they move forward, Winnacer and Booker sees some ratmen in front of them. They see four ratmen in a line along the length of the tunnel. Each of them is bearing an over-sized morning-star, the heads of which seems to contain something burning inside, as the weapons are smoking slightly.

Behind this line, they also see an older looking ratmen dressed in sopping wet priestly vestments. The priest seems to be in a great amount of pain, the crushed glass globe at his feet probably the reason for much of it. Together with the ill-looking priest are a couple of the injured packmasters that ran from the initial assault and the two members of a ratman gunne crew. Winnacer notices that the barrel of the gunne is twisted and bent, making it unusable.

As Booker and the young Lord looks on, a sling bullet appears out of nowhere a few feet ahead of where Winnacer, Porter and the onyx dog are standing and the slingshot hurtles towards the ratpriest. The bullet smacks the ratpriest right in its forehead and it immediately falls to the ground, stone dead.

This sets panic through the ratman ranks. The gunne crew tosses the gunne to the ground and charge off deeper into the tunnel. The two packmasters decide to join them and head off also.

The four ratmen with the smoking morning-stars do not see the priest fall behind them, however, but they do see the approach of Winnacer, Porter and Booker emerging through the gloom. They immediately start to advance on the two fighters and the onyx dog, swinging their smoking weapons before them.

Milly immediately falls to her knees next to the fallen form of Faewen'il. She bends down to listen for her heartbeat. After a long moment, she rises up. Dax can see that her eyes are filling with tears:

"I ... I think she's dead," Milly stammers.

As the tears begin to brim over, she whispers something to her sword and the flames die. Sliding the sword smoothly into the scabbard she starts checking the rat assassin's body.

Sounding desperate, she says:

"Most smart folk carry an antidote to the poison they have."

Unfortunately for all, the ratmen are not the smartest folk in the realm, as they have demonstrated to the party each time that they have encountered them that safety is not their greatest concern when it comes to devising their lethal weapons. As a result, Milly's search of the assassin's body proves to be fruitless.

"Holy mother of .... arrgh!" Dax curses, having it cut off abruptly by a surge of pain from his leg, which he reflexively clutches at.

"I- is the lass beyond help, Milly?" he asks, slowly, as if in disbelief at how badly events have turned as Milly looks for an antidote on the assassin. "I think the gnome is."

Milly just nods sadly. Then, with an air of defeat, Milly gently picks up the body of the young woman and places it towards the side of the tunnel, out of the way of any conflict.

Turning back to Dax she says:

"I don't care what she may have said, or what Winnacer's rationale might be. She was too young to be here. War is not a kid's game."

Wiping her hand across her now red face, she continues:

"So, do we wait for the next wave or do we head down to meet the second team?"

"If there's hope for her, then I think we'd better try get her back up the tunnel and find someone who might be able to help her," Dax suggests.

"... maybe at the Cathedral ... if there's anyone bloody left there," he hisses. 'There's got to be SOMEONE up there waiting with some healing, right? I mean, the dwarves KNEW this vermin were coming, right?"

"I can TRY to take 'er," he says, returning to the problem at hand, "but I doubt I can carry 'er with my leg as it is ... e'en though she can't weigh all that much. So I've prob'ly got to just try to follow fast as I can -- 'cause I think we're DEAD if we stay here," he suggests, shrugging helplessly, with another grimace.

"Maybe the druid could help -- if we bloody knew where in the fiery realm he is," he curses through pain and gritted teeth. "Only the gods know where the bloody hell ANY of the others are or what they're waiting for... maybe for us all to be dead."

"Though I guess Winnacer'll get his bloody precious SURPRISE now," he sneers, absolutely humorlessly through his pain.

"C'mon, though," he urges Milly, regaining a measure of composure and trying to hobble toward her, using his sword as a crutch, "we prob'ly don't have much time. Let's see if I can help you with her at all ..."

As he slowly and painfully tries to make his way to Milly, Dax grunts in frustration. Then, after another crippled hobble made in contemplative silence, he stops:

"Milly," he says, suddenly completely calmly, "I just am not going to be able to do this with this leg. If I have to try to make a stand, I think it'll have to be here, where I can at least try to use the wall for support."

"It might be our best chance if you just go, fast as you can, back to the Cathedral yourself and try to get some help back down here. I'll try to look after the lass 'til you can get back if you can't carry 'er. She and I'd just slow you down, and then we'll ALL be dead..."

Milly waves her hand in dismissal:

"Sorry Dax," she replies, "I've always been the last to leave the scene so don't even try the chivalry act on me. Milly DOESN'T leave friends behind."

Dax looks at Milly with genuine appreciation before objecting:

"Milly, chivalry or no, I think if we don't get some help, we're finished. The magess' lightning was the lynchpin of the LawBringer's plan, and that's gone now. What's more, he doesn't even know it. Please go ... or this is going to be a short friendship."

"And that'd be a shame, wouldn't it?" Dax adds, with a weak attempt at a smile, which is again cut off by a grimace of pain.

With a word from Milly, the sword in her hand is wreathed in flame again.

Without even turning to look at Dax, she responds:

"Sorry, if we go we're goin' together - END of discussion."

Dax' voice trails off as he leaves Milly to ponder the options. The look in his eye says he hates all of them rather equally himself.

At that point, Rowan and Damene arrive at the wall. As they reach it, they are visibly shocked as they see the devastation before them, with Faewen'il and Emanuel lying unconscious on the floor and Dax struggling to keep himself upright as a result of his terribly mangled leg.

Milly looks visibly relieved at the appearance of the two warriors.

Further down the tunnel, as the ratmen with the smoking morning-star surge forwards, Porter says to Winnacer:

"Stay back!"

He then hurls something at the advancing line of rat bastards. Winnacer, however, is busy lighting the match of one of his caliver and bringing it up to aim at the priests.

In his haste to loosen the poison globe, Porter sends the globe flying too high and it flies over the ratmen's heads, crashing to the ground a few paces behind them, sending the poisonous vapors into the air harmlessly.

Winnacer has more success with his caliver, however, as he fires the weapon at almost point blank range. As the weapon is fired with an almighty bang, the bullet easily punches a hole in the ratman's chainmail and inflicts a serious wound upon the verman, although not enough to finish it.

The pair of them realize that they have no time for any more missile fire and so quickly grab their weapons in order to face the oncoming ratmen.

As they charge towards Porter and Winnacer, the ratmen start to whirl the morning-stars around them, producing a cloud of vapors. Two of the ratmen head for each of the warriors.

As Porter gets into the cloud, he coughs a little, but is able to avoid the full effects of the ratmen's vapors. He lashes out at one of them with his bastard sword. The first of the ratmen ducks under his first strike, but the second catches the vermin in the leg and cuts into him. Booker tries to bite at the second, but the whirling morning-star keeps the dog at bay.

Both of the ratpriests try and strike back, but Porter's stoneskin means that they have no chance of landing a blow upon him.

Next to him, Winnacer has no problem at all in avoiding the noxious vapors from the morning-star and easily hacks one of the ratmen down with two good blows from 'Old Bohavia'. The other ratmen tries to retaliate by swinging its morning-star, but the young Lord is also benefiting from the CornerStone's enchantment and so the ratman's efforts are in vain.

Meanwhile, back at the wall, Damene immediately rushes toward Dax, supporting him as he tries to stand. Taking in the devastation, she asks:

"What happened?"

And then just as quickly shakes her head:

"Never mind. Dax, we need to get you back out of the way. You're in no condition to be down here and no use like this."

"I ... I know," Dax winces, his voice a mixture of pain, humiliation and reluctant gratitude as he leans on Damene for support. "But I still took a few of 'em, I ..."

Dax suddenly stops short, as he catches a glimpse of the fallen Faewen'il and the illusionist.

"I'm sorry ... it all happened too fast," he says softly, bowing his head and falling silent as he tries to hobble where Damene guides him.

Damene then leads Dax over to the side of the wall, trying to get him in as defensive a location as possible, but one that still gives him a clear line of sight down the tunnel. Damene pulls off the short bow and hands it to Dax.

"I don't know much about bows, but it seems like this'll be easier to use than that longbow. And don't even think about trying to stand and use your sword....unless you have no choice."

Taking in the bodies of the magess and the illusionist, she asks:

"Are they dead?"

In reply, Dax simply bows his head even deeper and looks away, swallowing hard once as he does.

As she moves away from the bodies, Damene rests her hand briefly on each and bows her head. The movement is so quick,however that, unless someone is watching her, it would go unnoticed. She then turns back to Milly and Dax.

"Did any of 'em get passed or did they all retreat?"

"All the regular ratmen either retreated or are layin' around here somewhere," Milly replies.

Milly gestures at the many ratmen bodies strewn about.

"Except for him."

Milly kicks the body of the assassin.

"Somehow he got behind us."

"Winnacer and Porter were heading to where the rats entered," Damene continues. "Dax, do you still have that lantern? I think the element of surprise is gone, and we're going to need a light to make it back down the tunnel to them and the rats. Milly, do you wanna stay here or come with us? You saw what happened, so you'll know better than us if we still need people here or not."

"The lantern's in my pack," Dax fairly whispers,shrugging it off his shoulder and letting it fall to the ground in front of him.

Milly's face shows determination.

"I wanna finish this."

Looking at Dax, she continues:

"But I don't want to leave Dax here by himself. Rowan..."

She turns to Rowan:

"...do you think you could help Dax back to one of the temples?"

The swashbuckler nods but looks uncertain:

"Madam, I believe that I could, but I could never live with myself were something to happen to you ladies during our absence."

He looks over to Dax:

"And I believe that Dax would probably feel the same thing."

He looks at Dax for confirmation. Dax hardly seems to hear, slumping against the wall and the wall of the tunnel in miserable silence. But he does not object.

"However, if the two of you are looking to find out what is going on further down the tunnel, then I agree to stay with Dax and help to protect him in case there are any more assassins prowling around."

"Is this acceptable to the pair of you?"

Milly nods:

"Then take the lantern," she says, handing it to Rowan. "Damene and I will have our own light source."

She gestures with her sword.

After Damene and Milly head off down the tunnel, Dax remains absolutely silent for a long time, leaning solemnly against the wall, looking at the floor and, occasionally, glancing at the bodies of his fallen comrades.

Finally, after what seems forever, he begins to speak to Rowan, without looking up:

"Rowan," he begins, "maybe it's not too late for the lass. I think we SHOULD try to take her back up the tunnel and try to find some help at one of the churches."

"Else you should go help the others. There's no bloody use in you sitting here babysitting me. I can defend m'self well 'nough, I think."

"Take her, and one of that damned assassin's swords, with you; it's got to have some of the poison still on it. And go find her some help. Maybe send some down for the rest of us too ..."

"And watch out for that damned filthy priest we left at the mouth of the tunnel who never showed his cowardly face like he was supposed to when the fighting started," Dax snarls bitterly.

Rowan appears to be torn between staying with Dax, heading to the front to help out there and caring for the downed Faewen'il. As he looks at her still body lying on the ground, he finally makes a decision:

"You're right," he says nodding. "If there's a chance to save her, then I've got to take it."

He gets up and easily takes Fae's body in his arms:

"I shall take her to Joy in the Temple of Zlodey. If I'm not back by the time this business is over, then come and find me there. They might be able to do something about your leg also."

He stops to pick up one of the rat assassin's swords, taking care not to stab himself with it as he does so and then carries Faewen'il to the mouth of the tunnel as fast as he can, leaving Dax alone at the wall.

Further down the tunnel:

Porter lashes out at the ratman again, but once again, the smoking vapors are spoiling his concentration and the ratman dodges his blow. Booker, however, manages to bite a big chunk out of the leg of the other. The ratman lashes out at Booker in retaliation, but the nimble hound easily manages to avoid it. Thanks to the stoneskin enchantment, Porter is also saved from any damage.

Winnacer easily manages to cut down the other verman with one more blow from 'Old Bohavia' and moves across to assist Porter in finishing off the remaining two.

Back at the wall, Milly says the word once again and the blade of her sword bursts into flame once more. She and Damene then climb over the wall carefully, aware of the fact that the caltrop field is right beneath them and to fall on top of it would prove to be extremely painful, if not lethal. Once they are over the wall, they are forced to tread very carefully through the field that Dax and Milly carefully laid out before the start of the battle in order to avoid injuring themselves on the painful iron spikes.

Porter tries to fight off the vapor and hit the ratman as it ducks away from his blade. Finally, the bounty hunter sees an opening and plunges his bastard sword into the flank of one of the rats, killing it. Booker lunges for the last of the remaining vermen, but the ratman leaps back. Winnacer tries to finish him off and manages to cut a deep wound in the ratman's side, but it does not fall.

Free of the caltrop field now, Milly and Damene hurry up as they head back down the tunnel. As they get closer, they can hear the sound of the melee between Winnacer, Porter and the ratmen from ahead of them and quicken their pace in order to intervene.

The lone surviving ratman knows that it is pretty much done for now, and tries to run. As it turns away, however, Porter sees his chance and strikes at the ratman's back. The ratman stumbles and falls to the ground, landing in a pool of its own blood.

As Winnacer checks that Porter is OK, they both hear footsteps coming from behind them. Grasping their weapons tightly, they immediately turn to face the potential threat. The pair of them look relieved as they see that it is Damene and Milly.

"Come on," Winnacer whispers to the women, "let's see what is further up the tunnel."

With that, the four warriors start to cautiously head on down the tunnel.

They soon get their answer as they are almost blinded as two almighty fireballs erupt, just split-seconds apart, filling the tunnel with an inferno some 50' further down the tunnel. Averting their sight momentarily because of the bright light, when they look towards the flames once more, they see the back of a familiar half-elf ahead of them, silhouetted against the bright light of the fire. The foursome rush up to the figure to find Yaz laughing hysterically in a shrill half-elven cackle.

The pool of flame is burning furiously. From personal experience, Winnacer and Porter can see that at least one ratman flamethrower, probably more, has just exploded, spewing forth sticky, highly inflammable gunk over a wide area.

The heat coming from the burning gunk is immense and the four warriors have to step back a couple of paces to get back from it. Yaz doesn't seem to be effected by it at all, however. Whether Yaz doesn't see his companions coming up behind him or chooses not to acknowledge them or is so preoccupied with his own activities is unsure, but the druid simply starts to walk through the flames until he is right in the middle of them. At this point, he begins to cast in a grandiose fashion while bellowing out the words to an incantation that are still all but drowned out by the roaring of the flames. At the same time, he is molding a ball of sulfur and wax in his hands, forming it into a ball.

Through the flames, Winnacer, Porter, Milly and Damene can just make out that there is a large unit of brown-furred ratmen beyond the inferno. Exactly how many there are is difficult to make out through the dense smoke and heat haze, but there are definitely more than twenty of them.

Yaz finishes the incantation and hurls the ball through the flames at the ratmen. As he does so, the ball erupts into another fire covering a 12' area that catches a ratpriest at the head of the group and six of the rats behind him.

Five of the six ratmen immediately fall as a result of the flames that Yaz brings down upon them, while the priest and one survivor throw themselves to the ground in order to extinguish their burning clothes.

The rest of the ratmen are very much spooked by this, and immediately turn on their tails and start to scamper back down the tunnel as fast as their legs will carry them.

The flames blocking any further progress are starting to die down a little now, but the fires are still burning wildly and it is impossible for Winnacer, Porter, Damene and Milly to advance through them at the moment without their getting badly burned.

It is hard to judge Winnacer's expression with his helmet in place. It is probably better that way. As he waits at the fire's edge, he reloads his caliver then lights a stogie from the fire's edge and wedges it in his helmet.

Porter shakes his head with a smile:

"Freakin' crazy son-of-a-bitch."

He turns to Damene and Milly, asking:

"You guys come through all right back at the wall?"

Without turning her head, Milly says:

"No, not really."

Porter snaps his head around:

"What do you mean, 'not really'?"

Yaz the Fire God is still too enraptured with his success to notice the others:

"Come back!" he bellows in the direction of th fleeing rats as much as he is able, which is not much at all, his voice being too high for bellowing, "come back, mutant rat-bags! Come and taste more of my wrath! Ahahahaha!"

He shakes his fist at them and jumps up and down excitedly.

The rats are a-routing, however, and they soon disappear into the darkness. Of the two that survived Yaz' initial grilling, the one rat-trooper that tried to extinguish its burning fur expires before the flames are fully out and he quickly gets up and scampers after its rapidly departing comrades.

Once the ratmen are out of sight, Yaz moves back through the fast decreasing flames to the other side and peers down the hallway intently. Satisfied the ratmen have gone, he turns to head back towards the city, at which point he suddenly notices his companions there staring at him.

He smiles:

"Oh, hello," he says cheerfully.

Candy's voice is heard from near Yaz's head:

"Woo hoo! That was fantastic!"

Yaz cringes slightly at the unexpected touch out of nowhere, but manages:

"Ya, not bad was it?" in reply, looking around him for Candy but not finding her... and not putting two and two together where Candy's natural height is concerned.

Winnacer taps his caliver on his hip, obviously trying hard to keep his voice down:

"Yaz," Winnacer nods. "What lies up ahead?"

Yaz grins:

"Nuthin'," he states categorically, looking pleased with himself. "At least, I guess not. I didn't go all the way."

Not so cheerfully, but very calmly, Milly replies to the druid:

"It's probably too late now, but you wouldn't happen to have anything that works against poison would you?"

Yaz goes serious almost immediately:

"Whaddaya mean, poison...?"

She chokes back rising emotions.

"The girl, Fae, was injured by a rat assassin."

"It doesn't look like she made it."

Immediately, Yaz grabs his healing staff with both hands and whips it in the air as he turns and dashes back toward the wall.

Wiping the brimming tears from her eyes, Milly turns to Winnacer.

"Looks like ya picked the wrong person to guard the spellcasters. They're both dead."

Porter's face grows a shade paler and he turns and grabs the paladin:

"Winn! We got any antidote? We used something back in rat lair in that village. We got anymore?"

Winnacer's shock is evident by his brief, rigid pause before answering. As he answers, he starts rifling through his belt pouches:

"What in Spravedelna's name happened back there?" he asks. "There were just the rats, the slaves, and one of the globardiers. Faewen'il could have handled them all on her own. What happened?"

Getting her emotions again under control, Milly replies:

"I told you, it was an assassin - somehow he got behind us."

Winnacer finds what he was looking for and finds his calm:

"Forget about it, you'll explain later. Take these. The one on the left is an emetic, helpful for removing poison, the right bottles are healing ointments. See to them quickly."

"Where are Dax and Rowan? If Rowan is alive, asking him to help you take our injured to the Temple of Zlodey on the fourth level. He'll be able to get assistance from his sister and the whole Priesthood. They may be able to help them, and they are the only bastards not doing their civic duty. It sounds like that's their only chance."

Winnacer lowers his eyes.

"They both deserve all we can do...even if it may be too late."

"The rest of us will finish up here. Make haste."

Milly looks at the bottles in Winnacer's hands.

Turning to Damene, she says:

"More and more I'm learnin' that all I can do well is kill. Please take these back for me."

There is a pleading look on Milly's face.

Damene walks forward to take the bottles from Winnacer. The look she gives the LawBringer is almost pure hatred...but there is a certain disappointment there, too. As if she expected something more or better from the young Lord.

Damene then walks back and puts an arm around Milly. She leans close to speak softly to the older woman:

"Milly, I know you did what you could. That's all any of us can do."

Damene then looks over to Candy and holds out the bottles.

"Do you want to run this back?"

There is no answer from Candy, however.

Milly's face is ashen as she responds:

"Sorry Damene. This is something I've gotta do."

Leaving the comfort of Damene's arm, Milly confronts Winnacer:

"Now Mr. Stradhiem, you may not think much of me right now - and I have a tendency to agree with you - but I plan to stay here and make sure that this job is done."

Porter snatches the bottles out of Damene's hands, saying:

"Sorry for my rudeness, but we're going to need everyone here."

Porter takes out a piece of cloth from his beltpouch, wrapping the bottles in them as he kneels to the ground. Placing the wrapped bottles in Booker's mouth, he says:

"Get this to Yaz and Fae. Give them the score, and then get your ass back here, bro."

"Sho' thang, ma man," Booker replies. "Yo' Booker gonna work it out."

With that, the dog grasps the makeshift pouch between his powerful jaws and starts to bolt down the tunnel after the druid.

They see that the flames are starting to die down a little now, although they are still lighting up the immediate area quite nicely.

As the flames continue to die, Winnacer keeps an eye on the tunnel ahead, looking for any sign of ratmen activity.

He soon sees the sign:

"They're coming back," he says. "Time to get ready for a fight."

Immediately after the LawBringer says the words, the others can see that what Winnacer is saying is true. The unit of brownfurs that Yaz scared off a couple of minutes ago has obviously had their courage restored as they are charging back towards the party. It's hard to tell how many there are, but there are still well over twenty of them, all wearing chainmail and armed with the wicked looking curved swords with the serrated edges that are the favored ratmen weapons.

The flames have now died down to an extent where it is possible to run through them without taking any damage.

Winnacer's voice is decisive as he quickly passes instructions to those assembled:

"Everybody, fall back and set up to take a charge. Porter, get ready to toss that bomb onto the fire when they charge through the flames. That should slow them up a bit."

Winnacer starts to take some steps backwards, taking aim with his caliver and getting ready to fire at the lead rat:

"There are two vials of Greek fire on my hip. Somebody grab them if we need to fan the flames some more. And when they break through, stick close to me. Spravedelna's Love protects all those who fight at my side."

Milly and Damene both take one of the vials of Greek fire from Winnacer's pouch as the young Lord sets his sights upon the closest of the fast approaching ratmen. The shot flies true and injures the ratman badly in the shoulder.

The horde of ratmen continues their charge forwards, reaching the limits of the still smoldering flames from the exploded flamethrowers. As they do so, Porter hurls the bomb towards the pack as hard as he can. As the bomb lands at the far edge of the fire, there is an almighty explosion as it hits a patch of fire and lights up the tunnel as bright as daylight.

The explosion throws up an almighty cloud of dust and rock. In addition, the bomb was artfully prepared by the priest of Ohen to cause as much damage as possible and so the bomb also sends its payload of nails and broken glass that were added to cause the maximum amount of damage out in all directions.

The eight ratmen leading the charge are immediately blown to smithereens by the force of the explosion, sending rat limbs, tails and heads flying into the air along with the rest of the debris. The rest of the ratmen are all also effected by the force of the explosion and the deadly shards that were contained within. Due to the dust and debris thrown up by the force of the explosion, it is impossible to see exactly what the effects of the explosion were on the rest of the ratmen unit.

It was not for nothing that the priest of Ohen who created the bomb used a three-minute fuse for the bomb, as it was designed for a delayed action release. The reason why soon becomes apparent as the party is also caught in the outer blast radius and showered by dirt as well as the nails and broken glass.

Fortunately, being on the outer edges of the radius, the damage caused by the blast is minor. The stoneskin that the CornerStone cast upon Winnacer protects him from damage, but the force of the explosion uses up the spell. The same goes for Porter and just one shard of broken glass scratches him after the stoneskin is used up. With no protective spells upon them, Candy, Damene and Milly take more damage, but in no case is it severe.

As everyone groans from the impact of the shards, they wait to see what, if anything, will continue through the dust cloud to head into combat.

After surveying the damage from the bomb, Porter says with a smirk:

"Now THAT was f***ing cool!"

For some reason, Porter's vulgarity makes Winnacer think of the Diggerz with Attitude. He mimics Ice Pick:

"Respect."

Meanwhile, Yaz continues to bound back towards the wall as fast as he can, hoping that he's not too late. He comes to a screaming halt as he sees the caltrop field in front of him and starts to carefully thread his way through the field of spikes. As he does so, Booker bounds up to him and drops the pouch containing the emetics at his feet:

"Yo, dude, word up" Booker growls. "Ma man, Porter, done told me to give you dis shit."

Yaz crouches down and picks up the pouch containing the two bottles looking at them curiously. Then he remembers:

"Oh yeah, the emetics that we got in Vysoke Myto. It's got to be worth a try."

With that, he continues to make his way through the caltrop field. Booker obediently turns tail and heads back to join his master.

Through the cloud of dust and smoke from the still burning fires from the exploded flamethrowers, a few ratmen continue to charge home. As they come closer, the party members can see that all of the ratmen have been terribly effected by the explosion, with every single one of them suffering from a multitude of cuts and wounds caused by the bomb. It is obvious that only some form of enchantment cast upon the ratmen could have made them continue after taking such a terrible beating.

As the ratmen continue to close, Milly and Damene hurl Winnacer's vials of Greek fire at the rats. Milly's aim is poor and she only manages to splash one of the ratmen. Such is the extent of its wounds from the explosion, however, that the splash damage alone is almost enough to fell it. Almost, but not quite. Damene's aim is better and she manages to catch one of the ratmen fully with the oil, which catches light as the ratman continues forwards. As the oil bursts into flame, the ratman falls to the ground immediately as the flames immolate it.

The party members can see that there are still twelve ratmen remaining, all in the same terribly injured state. Candy immediately starts to casts, unseen because of her invisibility. Three of the ratmen are immediately held rigid as the spell takes effect.

The remaining eight all leap into combat, with two each going for Winnacer, Porter, Damene and Milly.

Winnacer is ready for them with 'Old Bohavia' as the ratmen surge forwards. He easily hacks one of them in two with the first strike from his noble blade, but the second of the ratman dodges away from his swing. It tries to retaliate, but the LawBringer easily manages to dodge the ratman's clumsy swing.

Porter is also ready, and thrusts his bastard sword through the first ratman's chest as it closes. However, it appears as if the 'curse of Porter' has not yet passed as he finds that the blade of the bastard sword has caught on the ratman's mail and won't come out. As he struggles to retrieve the blade, the other ratman swings at him, but Porter manages to backstep quickly and avoids the blow.

As Milly and Damene quickly take their swords from their scabbards, two more ratmen are upon the pair of them. Milly's loaned 'Fabio' armor proves impossible for the ratmen to penetrate, however, and Damene easily manages to duck away from the ratman's evil looking sword.

Not all of the ratmen surged forwards, however, as the ratpriest that was accompanying them holds back and begins to cast at Milly and Winnacer. As the spell finishes, Winnacer realizes that, underneath his platemail, he is starting to sweat a little more than should be the case. Milly feels no adverse effects, however.

Candy spots the priest lurking in the rear up to no good and produces her sling once again. She whirls it around her head and sends another bullet hurtling towards the ratpriest. The bullet smacks the priest in the gut and it yelps in agony. It looks to be in a pretty bad way now.

Meanwhile, further down the corridor, Yaz manages to cross over the caltrop field and climb up over the wall.

He sees Dax first:

"Where is she?" he demands.

"Rowan's taken her to the Church of Zlodey to try and find someone who might can help her," Dax answers, emotionlessly. "Up the tunnel."

It's then that Yaz notices Emanuel:

"Who's that?" he asks Dax, pointing with his thumb in the direction of the gnomish corpse.

"That is ... was ... the 'dwarven' illusionist that agreed to help us here," Dax replies sadly.

"The one that Winnacer promised wouldn't get caught in the fighting and so had nothing to worry about," he adds with a tinge of bitterness.

Yaz stands, walks over to the assassin, kicks it lightly, and rolls the body over with his toe:

"Huh," he says intelligently. "Bastard."

He then hauls off and kicks the ratman's head like a football for all he's worth:

"Bastard!" he yells at the top of his voice.

Yaz then turns to Dax:

"You look like you're in pain. You in pain? Hold still."

"Yea-... agghh!!!" Dax begins to answer, before having his reply cut off by the first of a series of grunts of pain resulting from Yaz' bedside manner as the druid grabs him roughly and starts to cast a healing enchantment upon him. The effects of the healing enchantment are strong and relieves a great deal of Dax's pain. It seems to do nothing to repair his broken cartilage, however.

Booker bounds back down the tunnel, and screams to a halt next to the bounty hunter.

Winnacer realizes that he is getting very hot inside his platemail now and knows that it is a result of the priest's heating it. Knowing that, by the time he would get all of his platemail off, the spell would be finished anyway, he gets ready to feel the familiar pain of getting burned, as he has done every other time that he has met the ratmen.

If he can't escape from the heat, at least he can get a little payback upon the rat bastard who caused it, he thinks. He easily manages to rid himself of the last of the terribly wounded ratmen upon him and dashes over towards the ratpriest, who is starting to cast once again. Before he can get there, however, another bullet appears from the air above him and smashes into the ratpriest's skull, sending it tumbling to the ground, dead.

Just behind the young Lord, Porter gives up on trying to extract his bastard sword for the moment and calls forth his net from his charm bracelet. Before he has chance to get at it, however, the ratman lashes out at him. Porter, however, has no problem in ducking the ratman's blow.

Porter gets the net in his hand. However, before he has chance to cast it at the last ratmen before it, Booker leaps up and grabs the ratman around its throat with his jaws. As the dog rips a chunk out of the ratman's thoat, the ratman falls to the ground, blood spewing from its gaping windpipe.

Porter nods:

"Good dog!"

As Milly draws her sword, the ratmen lash out at her again. One of the ratman misses her by a mile and almost trips over. The other one's blow is negated once more by Milly's armor. Milly doesn't have much better luck than the ratmen, however as the ratman easily avoids her first blow and she nearly loses her grip on her sword with her second strike.

Damene doesn't have any better luck than Milly as her first strike is negated by the ratman's armor. She easily manages to avoid the ratman's clumsy retaliatory blow, however. Damene doesn't have chance as the second ratman comes up and cuts into her arm with the serrated edge of its sword. She makes the ratman pay for the wound, however, as she plunges her dagger into the ratman's throat, sending it to the ground.

Back at the wall, Yaz can hear the melee continuing in the distance:

"I don't think that I'm gonna be able to get you walking again, no matter how many curing spells I give you," he says to Dax.

"And it looks like I gotta go save their asses again," he continues. "Maybe you can make a path through the pointy shit so when they run back to the wall here they won't get killed like I just about did just now. Oh, and here."

Yaz hurriedly opens his stash-pouch and drops several untouched joints onto the ground before Dax, along with his own pack and healing staff, then turns and bounds away again.

Dax does not bother trying to reply to the fast-departing Yaz, his attention being diverted by leaning over the wall to look at the caltrop field and wondering if he can get over it without falling and killing himself with his leg as it is.

As Yaz carefully starts to thread his way through the field of caltrops, Dax painfully clambers up against the wall and places the lantern upon it to light up the field. He then tries to haul himself on top of it, which he manages without a problem.

Further down the tunnel, the fires have all but died down now. Milly and Damene continue to try and finish off the last of the ratmen. One of the ratmen upon Milly manages to send his sword flying out of its hand in its haste to injure her. As it bends down to try and pick it up, Milly neatly cleaves it in two to save it the trouble. As she does so, however, the other ratman she is fighting manages to find a chink in her platemail and plunges its sword through, causing Milly a great deal of pain. She has to admit that her injuries are starting to mount up upon her now. Porter takes the opportunity to retrieve his bastard sword now that the ratmen he was fighting are both dead. By placing his foot on the chest of the dead ratman and tugging at the sword's hilt with all his might, he manages to pull the sword free once more.

Booker sees Milly still in combat with the ratman and decides to lend a helping jaw. It leaps upon the ratman and wraps its jaws around the vermin's neck, snapping its spine with a sickening crunch.

Damene has just one ratman left to contend with now. She lunges with her shortsword, but the ratman evades. Damene manages to dodge the retaliatory blow and follows up by burying her dagger in the ratman's face, finally finishing off the last of them.

Winnacer winces as his armor starts to smoke. The damage it causes him is inconsequential, but he knows that it is going to get a lot worse. Seeing that the rest of the ratmen are dead, he heads over to the three that Candy held and brings Spravedelna's form of rough justice to them as he decapitates the lot of them.

Just then, Yaz arrives, puffing and panting after the exertions of bounding back from the wall, to find that he has missed out on the fight.

Back at the wall, Dax takes the staff that Yaz left with him and painfully starts to flick the caltrops out of the way. Once he has cleared a space for himself, he equally painfully eases himself off the wall down into the space where he continues to work on clearing the caltrops out of the way in order to create a narrow path.