Exterminating The Vermen

Immediately that the party has finished with the last of the ratmen, they hear Candy's voice from a short way ahead:

"Hey, what do ratogres look like?" she asks. "Would they be about 10' tall, about 6' wide and armed with big clubs and big, yellow pointy teeth?"

"That sounds like them," Winnacer replies.

"In that case, there are four of them coming this way fast," Candy cheerily reports.

They all look up the tunnel through the clearing smoke and can see the ratogres charging towards them, sending the rock beneath the party members' feet shaking slightly as the ratogres' large bulky forms pound forwards.

The ratogres are so large that only three of them can run abreast, so the fourth is forced to trot behind the three in the lead. Behind them, four packmasters lash out at the gigantic brutes in order to urge them onwards.

Winnacer grits his teeth as he sees the beasts coming forwards. The searing heat coming from his armor is starting to hurt him a lot now.

Damene rushes to Winnacer, stowing sword and dagger as she goes. Reaching the LawBringer, she puts her gloved hands on the most easily removable piece:

"Off or leave it on?"

Winnacer lights the match of his second caliver, waving Damene off:

"Don't worry about me. I'm getting used to this. Just worry about these ratogres."

With that, Winnacer reaches behind him into his backpack and pulls forth a small glass vial containing an orange colored liquid. He drinks half the contents of the vial and finds that it brings him instant relief from the searing heat of his platemail.

As the ratogres continue to close, Porter reaches into his pouch as he takes a step forward. Winding up, he hurls another poison globe, aiming at the middle of the three ogres, hoping to hit it square in the chest.

With the ratogres filling the passageway, Porter can hardly miss at this range. The ratogre in the center starts coughing violently as the glass globe smashes against its immense chest. It does not fall, however. The ratogre on either side of the one in the center cough a little, but it is obvious that it has had little effect upon them.

Porter reaches into his pouch for another, but realizes that there is not enough time to throw another one without endangering the party as well, and so he draws his bastard sword instead.

Before the ratogres get to him, he says to Booker:

"Wait for an opening to get past the big f**ckers, and then get one of those handlers behind them."

"Yo, dude, I'm on the case," the dog confirms.

"Whoops," says Yaz, noticing the charging ratogres. He brakes to a halt and begins casting towards the ratogres as they approach.

As he finishes uttering the incantation, a bright flame materializes in the druid's hand, which he immediately tosses towards the ratogre in the center, trying to finish off at least one of the beasts. The ratogre catches it on its chest and the flame flares up around the brute, setting fire to its fur and making it bellow out with pain and rage.

Seeing that the creature is close to falling now, Winnacer tries to finish it off with a shot from his caliver. The shot only manages to catch the ratogre in the leg, however, and it still does not fall.

Damene reaches down to draw two daggers from her boots and takes aim at the badly injured ratogre's neck. Unfortunately, one of the daggers flies over the ratogre's head, while the other one fails to pierce the creature's thick leathery hide.

Candy tries to finish off the creature with a shot from her sling. However, she has no luck either, with the bullet flying over the ratogre's head also.

Back at the wall, Dax continues to clear a path through the caltrops with his sword while keeping himself upright with the aid of Yaz' staff.

The ratogres surge forwards and start to lash out at the warriors.

As Winnacer puts the caliver over his back and draws 'Old Bohavia' once more, the ratogre in the center crashes towards him, seemingly oblivious to the fact that its fur is on fire.

The young Lord tries to duck out of the way as the ratogre swings the tree-trunk sized club at him, but the ratogre is a lot quicker than its huge size would indicate and it smashes the club into Winnacer with a blow that would kill a normal man instantly. The LawBringer reels back from the blow and retaliates with a thrust from 'Old Bohavia'. He finds that he is unable to cut through the beast's skin, however. Just then, the creature suddenly lurches over and falls to the ground as it succumbs to the fire damage caused by the flames that are burning its fur.

Instantly, the fourth ratogre that was behind the first leaps over its fallen comrade. Winnacer is ready for it, however, and lashes out once more with 'Old Bohavia'. Once again, however, the ratogre is saved by its thick hide. The ratogre's blow with its club is clumsy and the young Lord is easily able to avoid the swing. Its attempt to bite at Winnacer with its huge yellow fangs is stopped as Winnacer smashes the beast in the face with his shield.

Next to him, Porter also has one to deal with. As the bounty hunter sees the immense club heading towards him, he quickly steps back just as the club smashes into the ground before him. He thrusts back with the bastard sword but, as Winnacer found, the creature's skin is harder than chainmail and he cannot penetrate. As Porter sees the creature's jaws bearing down upon him, he tries to bring his bastard sword up to parry, but the creature is too quick and it rips a chunk out of the bounty hunter's shoulder. Fighting off the pain, Porter thrusts the bastard sword into the creature's gut as hard as he can and it bellows in rage and pain as his sword penetrates deeply, opening up a massive wound.

Booker tries to help out his master, but is unable to bite through the creature's skin.

On the opposite side, Milly swings as the other ratogre charges forwards and sinks her flaming longsword deep into the ratogre's shoulder, inflicting a terrible wound. The flames from the sword start to lick across the creature's fur. As the ratogre bellows out with pain, it looks at Milly with venom in its eyes before bringing the club down upon her with a sickening crunch that almost knocks Milly to the ground.

Damene sees Milly wavering from the blow and cries out for assistance:

"Help," she cries as she starts to lay into the beast, "Milly's in trouble."

Yaz hears Damene's cry and realizes that if he doesn't do something quickly, Milly is done for. He puts the fire away and rushes over to her side.

To try and take the creature's attention away from Milly, Damene lays into it with her short sword and dagger. She sinks the blade of the short sword deep into the ratogre's flank opening up a terrible wound. She is unable to pierce its flesh with her dagger, however.

The ratogre bellows with pain from its wound and snaps out at Damene, but the nimble fighter manages to leap out of the way and its jaws catch nothing but air.

Milly shows that she isn't finished yet as she lashes out at the ratogre once again and sinks her longsword into the brute's neck. As she does so, the creature gives out an ear-shattering roar before it crashes to the ground.

Yaz gets to Milly and immediately casts a healing enchantment upon the badly injured warrior. Its effects are only average, however, and Milly is still in no condition to take another hit from a ratogre.

Candy sees two of the packmasters are coming round now, heading towards Milly and Damene now that their charges are dead and so the priestess of Boli sends a bullet flying towards the first of them. It catches the ratman with a glancing blow, but fails to stop it.

Back at the wall, Dax has managed to clear a path now. He painfully returns to the wall using the staff and clears some more of the caltrops away in order to make space for him to stand before the wall while keeping the passage through the caltrop field that he has created clear.

Winnacer continues to slug it out with the ratogre that he is locked in combat with. The creature tries to bite at him again, but its teeth are not able to penetrate the young Lord's platemail.

The LawBringer realizes that he is fighting a losing battle with the beast, which has hardly taken a wound so far. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees that Porter is out of his depth as well. He realizes that he is going to need Spravedelna's assistance if he is going to survive this one.

Turning slightly so as to get sight of both remaining ratogres and their handlers, his eyes start to glow green with his Holy Rage and his voice drops a couple of octaves as he bellows out at the creatures:

"HIDEOUS MONSTROSITIES THAT MOCK ALL THAT IS JUST AND RIGHT, FLEE NOW LEST YOU FEEL THE TRUE WRATH OF SPRAVEDELNA SMITING YOU DOWN."

This has the desired effect upon the ratogre that Winnacer is fighting and its packmaster as they both turn tail and run away from the combat. However, neither the ratogre that Porter is fighting, nor its packmaster, take any notice of Winnacer's rage and the fight continues.

Porter knows that he is fighting for his life, a fact that becomes apparent when he fails to avoid the ratogre's club that smashes into him, almost felling him with one blow. He is so dazed by the blow that he almost fails to see the creature's jaws coming down upon him. It is only due to being in the area of Spravedelna's blessing through his proximity to Winnacer that he does not end up with the creature tearing a huge chunk out of him. Knowing that he needs to finish off the ratogre before it finishes him off, Porter puts all of his strength behind a mighty swipe at the ratogre that cleaves a huge rent in its skin causing it terrible pain. It doesn't quite fall, however. Seeing his master in a terrible way, Booker tries to bring the beast down, but the ratogre manages to dodge out of the way.

On the other side of the tunnel, Damene sees the two packmasters still running towards her and Milly as the vermen were outside the view of Winnacer's Holy Rage. As they approach, Damene tries to take them out before they can get to the badly injured Milly. One of the packmasters lunges for her with its sword, but Damene easily dodges it and plunges her dagger into the ratman's neck. Already injured by Candy's bullet, the ratman falls from its wounds. The other packmaster tries to attack her and nearly finds a way through her defenses, but Damene's studded leather saves her from any damage. She gets her revenge by thrusting at the packmaster with her shortsword, opening up a bad wound upon the vermin, but not enough to kill it. She tries to finish it off with her dagger, but the creature ducks out of the way. Despite her wounds, Milly tries to assist, but her blow is short and she fails to connect with the beast.

Yaz sees that Winnacer has sent one of the ratogres and its handler packing, but that Porter is still fighting for his life against the other. He rushes over to provide assistance, summoning another handful of fire as he does so. Once he has the fire in his hands, he hurls it towards the ratogre with as much force as he can muster. The magickal flame hits the monster in its chest and sets fire to its fur.

With the packmasters now in combat, Candy cannot risk another shot. Looking around for a new target, she sees that Porter is very badly beaten up by the ratogre and immediately heads over to give him some assistance. As she reaches him, Porter can feel Candy's invisible hands behind him casting a healing spell. The results are nothing special, but Porter is thankful for anything that he can get right now.

With the ratogre that he was facing now in full retreat along with its packmaster, Winnacer sees that Porter is still locked in combat with the other one, burning as a result of Yaz' flame. The young Lord rushes over to see what assistance he can provide. However, as he does so, the already badly injured beast succumbs to the flames and crashes to the ground in a shower of sparks.

There is still the beast's packmaster remaining, however and Porter is feeling pissed and looking for a little payback. He swings at the creature with his sword, but misses it by a wide margin. Booker leaps up at the verman to try and take it down, but the packmaster ducks out of the way as it sees the dog coming.

As the packmaster drops its whip and draws forth his sword, Winnacer charges towards it and hacks deep into the ratman's arm with 'Old Bohavia'. Yaz joins in with the fight and hurls another handful of flame at the creature. The damage is slight, but its fur is burning now. Porter tries again to finish the packmaster, but once again his aim is off target. Candy tries to finish the job as she casts and then tries to strike the ratman with her fist. However, she only manages to catch the verman's chainmail and so her spell is without effect.

On the other side, Damene is still trying to finish off the last of the packmasters on the other side. She tries to parry the ratman's attack with her dagger, but the nimble verman sees a way through and inflicts a nasty wound upon her with its curved sword. She groans in pain and tries to finish it off, but neither her shortsword nor dagger find their marks. Milly, however, manages to finish the vermin off with another mighty blow from her fiery sword.

Seeing that it is faced by Porter, Booker, Winnacer and Yaz, the packmaster can tell that it has no chance of finishing the lot of them and so looks to run. However, as it turns to scamper away, already badly injured through a number of minor wounds, it succumbs to the flames burning its fur and falls to the ground.

All of the ratmen and the ratogres are either dead or have flown now. However, the party has no time to relax or lick their wounds as another threat comes at them from down the tunnel. They see that there is a group of ten blackfurred ratmen coming towards them. However, that is not the greatest reason to be worried. Through the group of ratmen, they can see that the ratmen are surrounding a grayfurred ratman, wearing ornate robes over a type of platemail that glows with a purplish tinge.

As the ratmen see that the party has finished off the last of the ratogres and their handlers, the group of ratmen immediately stops and forms a protective ring around the grayfur, which immediately starts to cast.

Milly immediately pulls her shortbow from her shoulder and nocks an arrow into it as Winnacer takes his caliver from his shoulder and starts to light it. Unseen, by the others, Candy starts to cast. A split second later, the grayfurred rat boss chitters to his guards and then starts to cast as well, pulling forth a handful of phosphorus as it does so.

Porter can see that the blackfurs in front of the ratpriest means that there is no way of hitting it with his iron bands and so he takes from his pouch the absolute last and final poison globe from his pouch. As Porter only borrowed two from Yaz' stash, the bounty hunter obviously helped himself to another one without asking at some point before the battle.

Candy is the fastest on the draw and, holding a small, straight piece of metal in her hands, she gestures towards the priest. Much to her annoyance, however, she sees that it has absolutely no effect upon the ratman.

Winnacer finishes lighting the gunne and starts to take aim at the gray-furred ratman as he bellows:

"SURRENDER NOW, SKRITCHIT!"

Skritchit ignores him, however, being far more interested in the spell that he is in the middle of casting.

Porter lobs the poison globe towards the priest. He manages to land the globe right next to the priest and four of the blackfurred guards immediately fall to the ground, coughing violently. Unfortunately, the priest manages to avoid the effects of the spell and continues to chant while gesturing towards the party. Neither of the guards standing in front of Skritchit fall either.

Milly lets her first arrow loose and it slams into one of the guards in front of the priest. It does not fall, however. Yaz rushes to the wall of the tunnel, stands with his back to it and starts to cast. Damene lets fly with her dagger, aiming at the same one in front of Skritchit that Milly caught with the arrow. He dagger flies true, despite the long distance of the throw and cuts deep into the vermin. She then draws another from a sheath in her back and gets ready for the ratmen's charge.

As the druid starts, however, Skritchit finishes his casting. As he does so, the flames on the burning ratogre before the party members suddenly flare up into a flashing and fiery burst of glowing, colored, aerial fireworks. As they do so, Candy, Damene, Milly, Porter and Booker are blinded by the light, seeing nothing but colored blobs before their eyes. Winnacer and Yaz, however, manage to avoid the effects.

Winnacer presses the trigger of the caliver and shoots at the ratman already wounded by Milly and Damene. His shot flies true and easily penetrates the ratman's chainmail as it blasts a hole in the verman's chest. As it does so, the ratman falls to the ground, dead.

As the priest sees most of the party members temporarily blinded by the lights, he orders the remaining five guards forwards to deal with the two that were able to fight off the spell's effects.

Yaz ignores the rest of the party's misfortune and melts into the wall, leaving Winnacer alone to face the ratmen.

As Yaz utters the final whispers of his enchantment, and his hindquarters start to become one with the stone wall behind him, his eyes flick open in time to see the preponderance of his associates shielding their eyes with their arms, while the black-furred ratmen, unaffected by the blinding fire, make ready to advance, and Winnacer, the perennial optimist when it comes to his own prowess in battle, prepares to take care of six ratmen on his own.

'Why is it so difficult for these Civs to behave rationally?' he asks himself, even as his shoulders and hips become cold with the merger of stone and flesh. Why are they fighting out here? This all would have been so much easier at the wall... His thoughts start to blur as the back of his brain solidifies into mineral. I don't understand honor... Maybe I should think of the reasonable thing, and expect the LawBringer to do the opposite... Then maybe I wouldn't have to save him all the time...

With that, he finishes the melding, the tip of his right big toe his only link to the outside world.

Seeing that there is no one else around to face the ratmen, Winnacer initially looks to position himself back to back with the druid as it starts to become clear that the two of them are about to be overwhelmed. It soon becomes clear that Yaz's mind, addled by the years of pickling from his various habits, has an idea of its own. And yet again, it seems that the Druid has chosen to abandon Winnacer in his hour of need, with not enough warning to even curse his name.

Instead, the Paladin quickly gets his back to the nearest wall, protecting himself from getting surrounded by the five assailants. He hefts 'Old Bohavia', determined to hold his ground, his teeth clenched in anger.

As the five blackfurs charge forwards to take out the lone survivor of the pyrotechnics spell, the gray priest in the warpstone armor hangs back and instead casts towards the LawBringer, taking a small piece of iron from his pouch as he does so. Once the incantation is complete ...

... the ratpriest squeaks in anger as nothing happens whatsoever.

With his back to the wall, just four of the five ratmen are able to find a way to get to the young Lord. As they charge forward, he lashes out with his noble blade and manages to severely injure one, but does not bring the ratman down. He thrusts once more, but the ratman easily dodges his blow.

The four ratmen all try and strike him, but these are no ratogres and so none of them come anywhere close to managing to get through the young Lord's armor. One of the ratmen comes very close to losing its grip on its curved sword in the process.

Winnacer strikes out again and manages to take down the one that he injured earlier, the other one that was unable to get at the young Lord immediately leaps over its former companion and joins in the melee, however. The four ratmen all try to land blows upon the LawBringer, but once again, none of them are able to find a way through his armor.

The gray priest casts again, gesticulating towards Winnacer. As he finishes the ensorcellment, the priest starts to chitter with laughter, and then squeaks an order to the four ratmen upon Winnacer.

He then calls out to the young Lord in bad Bohavian:

"Why you fight my boys? Skritchit want to be friend of you."

For some reason, this seems to make a lot of sense to Winnacer. The gray furred old priest seems to be a nice enough kind of mutant and hasn't done anything to harm him. The priest reminds Winnacer a little of his grandfather a little ... had his grandfather been an overgrown rat, that is.

Unbeknownst to everyone, the invisible Candy has stopped being blinded by the bright lights now and surveys the field of battle.

Winnacer looks at the rats surrounding him, confused as to why they are waving their swords around. With a shrug, the LawBringer steps past them to talk to Skritchit, placing 'Old Bohavia' back into its scabbard.

He looks at the gray-furred rat and smiles, then gives him a polite bow:

"I assume you are Lord Skritchit," the young Lord begins. "Am I correct?"

Winnacer awaits the rat's response.

The gray ratman nods:

"Right you be, no-fur," the priest replies. "Skritchit is I. Surprise is for me to know my name you."

"I was wondering if I was ever going to meet you," Winnacer continues. "You've been quite the gentleman opponent. It pleases me greatly to finally meet you, and more so that we can be friends after such competition."

"Is good that to hear," Skritchit replies. "Can help me much can you. Much work there is for to make skaven masters of all overground."

"Oh, where are my manners," the LawBringer adds. "I am Winnacer Duene Stradheim, LawBringer of Spravedelna. These are my comrades. They are a pretty decent bunch."

Skritchit scowls at them:

"Much trouble make them for me," he says. "Many skaven mine they did kill."

He then lets out a shrug:

"Plenty more where come from they, but."

Winnacer notices the ratmen starting to menace his comrades and makes the universal 'cut that out' sign. He turns to Lord Skritchit:

"Would you mind telling your men to leave my friends alone? As we can all see, there is no reason for hostility. We are all gentlemen and gentleladies here."

The ratlord chitters to his minions and they cease poking the blinded party members with their swords.

"You've given me quite a run of it over the last month," the young Lord continues. "I first heard about you from your Nemotz allies. They were a bit malodorous if you ask me; I'm surprised that your eminence could even tolerate them. They were very impolite to me and my colleagues as well. Unfortunately, they would not understand my reasonable demands and we came to blows. They all died in the ensuing battle. I hope that doesn't upset you too much."

The rat lord shrugs again:

"Served purpose have they now. Would kill all of them soon us. Only skaven will to rule the overground. No furs become slaves of ours will they."

He pauses for a moment:

"Not for you though. You friend of mine. Much power will I give to you."

"Afterwards, we heard about the plot to enslave the entire city of Opava using a newly developed plague," Winnacer adds. "Even though the dwarves can be disagreeable at times, I can't believe that they truly deserved such a fate. So my comrades and I decided to intervene. I boiled off the last of the virus over a week ago after catching the last of the Nemotz. They were not particularly challenging opponents."

"Oh...I forgot. We tried to come visit you as well. Your brethren were not particularly happy to see us, but we did come unannounced. Perhaps we should have had ourselves announced...anyway, a big fight ensued. I am sorry that we killed so many of your subjects. We should make some arrangements in the future so such atrocities can be avoided when I come visit you."

"Death to few skaven matter not much," Skritchit shrugs again, "soon more will there be. Breed fast, not like no-furs."

"Needless to say, we all knew you and your subjects were coming," Winnacer continues. "We mobilized most of the population of Opava to counter your cunning move. And then we set up down here to play in this last battle of this challenging match. However, I did not expect to have the honor of meeting you."

"Will make difference not," the gray priest adds, getting a little peeved now. "None is clever like skaven be. Ours Opava will be then whole of overground next."

Winnacer smiles warmly:

"It has been quite a lovely match. I must say I am quite pleased that it will end with a handshake. There is nothing left in Opava that is worth your continued efforts here, nor is there any reason to pursue this bout with your men. Against a cunning opponent like yourself, I am happy to settle for a draw."

"No draw," Skritchit hisses. "Always winners will skaven be."

"I would invite you back with us for some drinks and a light supper," adds the LawBringer, "but I would fear that the citizens of Opava may not understand. They have such poor manners. It would probably be best if we shake hands and take our leave of each other. Perhaps one day I will pay you a visit and you can show me the wonders of your realm. I would like that, considering I am already quite impressed with the ability of your weaponsmiths. Just tell your subjects to expect me this time so we can avoid any unfortunate conflicts."

Winnacer holds forth his hand, looking to shake Lord Skritchit's.

"It has been a real pleasure meeting you."

"Not leave me now, friend Stradheim," the ratpriest counters. "Much help can you be to tell little no-furs that Skritchit new master theirs must to be. First all friends yours to take as guests in my city and while do so you come with me to tell little no-furs to stop to fight skaven and bow before new Lord theirs."

While Skritchit is occupied in chatting with Winnacer, Yaz leaps out from the wall that he went into and charges toward the priest, throwing a handful of fire at him as he does so. Everything seems to go in slow motion for a while as the fistful of fire sails through the air and splatters into the gray priest's eyes.

Skritchit shrieks out with pain as the fire burns the fur on his face and he falls to the ground in order to try and put out the fire. He is chittering as he does so, firstly in rat and then in Bohavian:

"Get him!" the rat priest cries.

The four ratguards and Winnacer both immediately charge after Yaz. On the way over to beat the crap out of Yaz, however, Candy casts a quick incantation and throws her hands towards the young Lord. As the spell takes effect, the LawBringer is confused for a brief moment. It was almost as if he had sympathy for the rat priest for a short while.

He shakes his head, thinking that he must have been imagining it. He then starts to lash out at the ratmen running to intercept Yaz. It's hard to catch the nimble rats, however, and he only manages a glancing wound upon one of them.

Two of the ratmen stop chasing after Yaz and go after Winnacer instead. They needn't have bothered, however, as one of them misses him by a mile, while the other's sword clatters harmlessly against Winnacer's armor.

The other two lay into Yaz. However, the druid still has a fully functioning stoneskin upon him and so their efforts are in vain.

Booker stops rolling on the ground in agony as the temporary blindness comes to an end.

Skritchit rolls around on the floor and beats his head with his paws in order to put out the fire. He manages it, but as he does so, he stares around in panic. It appears as if Spravedelna Herself must have been watching the combat unfold and decided to blind the ratlord in retaliation for what he did to the rest of the party.

As he continues to stare around, Candy decides to make matters worse for him as she comes up behind him, still in her invisible form. She casts upon the rat priest and Skritchit seems to go a little mad. He gets up and runs around in circles, getting very upset for some reason. It is obvious that he is looking for someone to fight, but cannot see anyone because of his blindness.

Winnacer continues to lash out at the two ratmen upon him. He lashes out at the injured vermin and manages to land a couple of blows upon it, but in both cases the damage is not severe and the blackfur still lives. They strike back at the young Lord but, predictably, neither of their strikes find a way through his armor.

Booker lunges for the injured ratman and grabs it by the neck, killing it by breaking its spine.

As the two ratmen upon Yaz lunge at him, the druid takes another handful of fire and hurls it at one of them. Unfortunately, his fluke hit upon Skritchit is not repeated and the fire does not take hold. The flame dies in Yaz' hands, having now reached its full duration. The pair of ratmen lash out at the druid, but the stoneskin means that he avoids any damage once again.

At that point, Porter starts to blink violently and, to his great relief, finds that he can see again.

Winnacer tries to strike at the last remaining ratman before him, but tries a little too vigorously and comes very close to losing his grip on the hilt of 'Old Bohavia'. The ratman takes advantage of the young Lord's predicament by plunging its sword into Winnacer's side. It only causes the LawBringer a minor wound, but the ratman finds that his sword is lodged in the young Lord's platemail and he cannot remove it. Booker leaps up at the vermin once again and manages to bite a large chunk out of its arm.

Close by, Yaz reaches for his scimitar as he runs out of fire to lob. As he does so, both of the ratmen strike at him. The stoneskin continues to protect him, however. Yaz lashes out at one of them with his scimitar, but the ratmen's chainmail protects them from harm.

Seeing Yaz outnumbered, Porter pulls forth his bastard sword once again and leaps into the fray. He manages to inflict a fair wound upon one of them, but not enough to make it fall. Candy also tries to help finish the ratmen, but her sling bullet misses both of them by a wide margin.

Close by, Skritchit continues to growl in fury, lashing out at the air around him as he blindly runs around in circles.

Finally, Milly and Damene regain their sight as the effects of Skritchit's pyrotechnics wears off.

As the ratman fighting Winnacer fails to retrieve its sword stuck between the plates of the LawBringer's mail, it turns tail and starts to scamper away. Winnacer manages to give it a glancing blow as it starts to get away, but it still does not fall. Booker leaps up and grabs it by its neck. After a couple of vigorous shakes, there is a sound like a rotten log cracking and the ratman slumps to the ground.

Yaz continues to slug it out with the two remaining blackfur guards. He manages to cut one of them slightly. Porter tries to finish off the ratman but, true to form, his bastard sword slips out of his hand and he looks on with familiar horror as it slams into Yaz. Fortunately the druid is still protected by the stoneskin and so no harm is done.

The two ratmen strike back at Yaz and Porter. The druid's fast diminishing stoneskin means that he comes to no harm but after losing his bastard sword, Porter is unable to parry the attack from the other one and gets badly injured, leaving him a hair's breadth away from falling.

Damene and Milly see Porter's predicament and run forward in order to finish the two ratmen off. Milly assists Yaz by inflicting a couple of terrible wounds upon the ratmen with her flaming sword. The ratman is a huge brute, however, and still clings on to life. Damene goes to assist Porter, but neither her shortsword nor her daggers are able to penetrate the verman's mail, however. Candy manages to finish off one of them with a bullet to the head, however, leaving just one ratman remaining.

The ratlord's madness continues. He stops snarling and running around in circles and simply stands around, looking confused.

The last remaining guard realizes that it has no chance with four opponents stacked against it. It starts to run, but a cut from firstly Yaz's scimitar and then Damene's shortsword bring it down before it gets very far.

All of the guards are now dead.

Now that there are no more guards, everyone converges on the gray non-seer who is wandering around, chittering madly to himself.

Winnacer looks at the pathetic blind rat:

"We should capture him and have him stand trial for his crimes against the city of Opava," the LawBringer states.

Porter fights back his wounds and summons his net from his charm bracelet. It is simplicity itself to throw the net over Skritchit. The ratlord struggles to try and get out of it, but this only serves to entangle him even more. The bounty hunter follows up by tying his rope around the net and Skritchit is fully secured now.

The ratmen are finally vanquished.

Winnacer looms over Skritchit, sheathing his sword and grabbing the ratman roughly. He starts to work his way back out of the mineshaft, his face etched with sadness coupled with dissatisfaction:

"It looks like we got what we came here for. By the grace of Spravedelna, our casualities were small. Let us tend to the wounded."

Porter says quietly:

"You're assuming Fae ain't dead."

Winnacer contemplates his boots. He replies, in a soft, sad voice:

"Maire is a tough lass. I can't....I won't believe it until I see it with my own eyes."

He walks next to Porter, placing his arm around the injured bounty hunter.

"But if they had just one more trick, it could have been us all."

"I'm sorry," Candy's voice says close to Milly. "I'm all out of healing for the day."

"I haven't got that much more left," Yaz says tiredly. "I'll do what I can though."

Firstly he sees to Milly:

"I'm sorry that I couldn't get to you earlier, but I was kinda tied up," he apologizes. "Let's see if this will help a little."

He places his hands over the worst of Milly's wounds and starts to cast the familiar healing enchantment. The results are fairly weak, but Milly quietly thanks him for his assistance in any case.

Milly then whispers something to her sword and the flames vanish. Sheathing the weapon, she then turns and, without a word, proceeds to return the way they came down the hallway. Candy follows Milly down the hallway back to the others, though none can see her due to the fact that she is still invisible.

Yaz then turns his attention to Porter, who is now so weak from his wounds that he can hardly move. Booker stands over him, keeping watch in case any more ratmen might appear. Yaz lays his hands upon Porter's leg and casts another healing spell. As before, the results are far from spectacular and so the druid casts once more. Yet again the results are poor, but at least he is well enough to walk now.

As the adrenalin starts to wear off, Winnacer realizes that he still has the last ratman's sword wedged in his armor, piercing his flesh. He grabs the curved sword and tries to tug it out. It really is stuck in very hard indeed and, for a while, refuses to budge. It is only after a great deal of pain and effort that he finally manages to remove the sword, the serrated edges having caused a very bad wound in Winnacer's flank.

As everyone gets ready to follow Milly towards the mouth of the tunnel, Yaz speaks to them:

"I'll catch up with you in a little while," he says. "I just want to make sure that this tunnel is totally clear. I'll meet you back at the wall."

The others nod and watch on as Yaz starts to head off down the corridor in order to check it out. They then slowly start to make their way back towards the mouth of the tunnel, with Winnacer dragging the bound ratlord behind him.

As they walk back, they see that the return journey serves as a record of the battle as they firstly step over the bodies of the black-furred elite guards of the ratlord and then walk around the huge bulk of the three ratogres and their handlers. Next are the terribly burned, lacerated and blown to pieces bodies of the main unit of brownfurred troops that they pass over before walking through the sizeable crater formed by the bomb. They continue through the severely scorched area caused by the exploded flamethrowers and then over more bodies and the exploded remains of the globardiers before scrunching through the sea of charred and burned remains of the rat swarm.

Milly gets to the wall first, having hurried in order to check that Dax is safe. Arriving back at the stoneshaped wall, she passes through the cleared aisle of caltrops without comment.

Stepping over to where she sees Dax slumped against the wall, longbow in hand in case of any attack, she says simply:

"All the rats are dead."

Dax can see that her face is very pale.

"Rowen took the girl up to one of the temples?" she asks.

"Yes... the temple of Zlodey," Dax answers. "I thought there might still be a chance for her if she got help as quickly as possible. Figured it'd take me too bloody long to take her myself, what with two staircases and all. Prob'ly at LEAST three quarters an hour if she 'ad to have ME carry her. I didn't know if she could afford that."

"Well then let's get you there as well," Milly responds with a nod.

Touching herself and giving the command word 'Fabio', Milly then proceeds to offer her shoulder to Dax for support. Dax, however, cannot immediately take advantage of the offer, since he is still on the caltrop side of the wall. He also does not appear as anxious as Milly to leave.

"Where are Candy and Damene?" he asks, glancing back down the tunnel. "I don't want to leave without them ..."

Milly shrugs distractedly.

"They're fine. They'll probably be along any minute."

"Sorry," says Candy, appearing standing next to Milly. "I'm here, I just forgot you couldn't see me. Are you OK? Could anyone help the girl?"

"And the others too?" he adds as almost an afterthought, as he renews his struggle to get back over the wall, using the staff Yaz left him. "It sounded as though I missed a hell of a fight...damn this leg!"

Just as Dax asks, the others come into view, silhouetted against the dying embers of the fires further down the tunnel. Dax is relieved to see that it appears as if everyone made it.

"I don't see Yaz," Dax says.

"He's OK," Milly replies. "He just went to check the rest of the tunnel. I'm sure that he will be along later. I'm glad to say that the rest of us made it."

Dax then notices that Milly is far from the best of health at the moment:

"Are you alright, Milly? Ye look as if you've been through the wringer," he continues, with a tone of earnest concern as he focuses on Milly's injured appearance while grunting a bit in continuing his efforts to conquer the wall.

Milly rouses out of her melancholy realizing that Dax is still in a lot of pain:

"I'm sorry, Handsome, here let me help," she replies. "Don't worry about ol' Milly, she's survived worse."

While gently helping him over the wall, she proceeds to give a very condensed version of the battle.

"So in conclusion, the rats were sent packin' and we can get out of this hole," she finishes.

"I can take the other side if you want," Candy offers, holding an arm out for Dax as she sees Milly struggling with him. "Or we can wait for Damene. Sorry I don't have more healing. I wanted to have more aggressive kinds of stuff for the fight."

"No," Dax grunts, "that was the right thing."

"I wish I'D have brought more aggressive things for the fight, as it turns out," he jokes humorlessly.

Just then, the others arrive as Porter and Booker and then Winnacer arrive, the young Lord still dragging the ratlord behind him.

Damene, having waited a few extra minutes to make sure that everything was under control and that there were no signs of distress from the druid down the corridor, is the last to arrive.

"I'm here," she announces. She then walks over to Dax, smiling gently at Candy and Milly:

"Let me get him and you two take this chance to relax a bit. Your injuries look a bit worse than mine."

Milly gives Candy a knowing glance and almost a smile and then acquiesces.

Dax nearly manages a grin as Damene approaches to help him:

"And I was worried about YOU, was I?" he quips, ruefully. "You ARE alright, I hope?"

Damene smiles at Dax, pulling his arm around her shoulder and then putting her own arm around his waist to help him as he walks.

"I'll probably be seeing glowing red eyes and yellow fangs in my dreams for a while, but yeah...I'm alright."

Being so close, Dax can feel the slight shiver in Damene's body, indicating that she's not quite joking about the possibility bad dreams.

Candy, despite the gravity of the situation, giggles:

"Didya see that Yaz guy? He was awesome! He warped the guns and dumped water on 'em and everything. He barely needed us at all."

Then remembering the mage:

"Gosh, I hope we can get help for Fae. Should I go on ahead?"

Winnacer and Porter together haul Skritchit over the wall, not being too delicate in the process. Winnacer pants from the exertion:

"I think that we should head immediately to check upon Faewen'il," he starts. "However, before we do so, we should wait for Yaz' return. Let's all hope that he doesn't discover any more of them down there. We are in no condition to fight much more tonight."

Although all are desperate to check upon the magess' situation, they understand the wisdom of waiting for the druid, all except for Porter, who says:

"I ain't waiting any longer. I waited too long in that freakin' alcove. I'll see you at the Temple."

Porter heads out, Booker alongside him. The bounty hunter speaks to his dog:

"Hell of a job there, boy. I just hope she's all right."

"Ain't no thang," Booker shrugs, "but I's wit choo on hopin' that crazy witch chick ain't a gonna."

They wait for twenty minutes and then, to their relief, they see Yaz heading back.

He looks a little relieved, but a little disappointed also:

"Looks like we got the lot," he says. "I checked back as far as where they broke through and couldn't see any sign of them apart from bloody footprints showing that those which we sent packing ran all the way back."

"I was hoping that the gunne crew that I soaked would have dropped the gunne, but I guess that they must have taken it all the way back to their city."

Yaz then sees once more the body of the ratassassin that brought Faewen'il down, the one whose head he kicked in earlier. He crouches down in order to check it:

"I need something to remember him by should he run into the rat in reincarnate form," he says by way of explanation.

He sees that the assassin has got little on its person. It is dressed completely in black, with pitch-black leather armor hidden by a thin black cloak. It was wearing a strip of a black gauze-like material over its face to hide its eyes. It is no wonder that no one was able to see the assassin until it was right on top of them.

Yaz investigates the ratman further and checks out its remaining shortsword. It is simple in design and covered in weapon black. The sword is sweating with a purplish-black substance that is obviously the poison that brought Faewen'il down. He sees that the ratassassin has a pouch made of blackened leather. Inside, he discovers three throwing-stars with razor-sharp edges that also weep with the same substance.

Once Yaz has finished his investigation, Dax speaks to him:

"Here's your staff back," he says handing the twisted staff back to the druid.

"Ye might be wantin' to use its powers on Milly or some of the other wounded if there's anything left," he suggests.

Winnacer then speaks:

"Let us head to the Temple of Zlodey now to check upon Fae."