Goblin Gatecrashers

"That's all we need," says Winnacer. "The Priestesses must be right in the middle of performing the purification ritual upon Faewen'il now. The most logical thing to do would be simply to flee out of the window, but it's not an option, as the goblins would almost certainly stumble upon the Priestesses if that were the case."

"Normally, taking on a bunch of goblins would not be a problem, but most of us are still badly hurt from yesterday and without armor and weapons. In our present state, this could be a tricky situation."

Ithridiel reaches for his scabbard and produces his longsword, which he places upon the table:

"I'm sure that one of you can make much better use of this than I can," he says, looking towards the warriors.

"Blast it! I knew we didn't have much time!" Kokal hisses grimly through clenched teeth.

"I'll take the longsword," says Winnacer, taking Ithridiel's sword from the table.

The young Lord then reaches behind his back and hands 'The Justifier' to Xavier:

"You take this."

The Padre quickly rummages through his pack, taking from it a hand axe. He lays the hand axe on the table near the long sword.

"It isn't much, but it's better than nothing," he says. " Hopefully no one'll need it just yet."

Gronk picks up the axe and gives it a good look before nodding at the apparent quality of the weapon.

"They haven't put me with you yet," Kokal continues. "Let me go see if I can run some interference and keep them out of here long enough for you to try the windows. Maybe I can keep them downstairs and away from the Priestesses too, or at least get up there first and warn them."

"If ye can get out, try and make for the Unicorn, as Hana suggested. It's already been searched, so it should be safe enough. I'll bring the others there as soon as possible."

"And do something about that chest -- or at least what's in it! Godspeed."

The Padre heads cautiously for the door.

Apparently galvanized by the immediate threat to Fae and the rest of the party, Jihan shakes his head once as if to clear it before turning back to the group from his place at the door.

"It sounds as if they're still just talking at the moment, not searching up the stairs. All of my things are in my room, in a spot beneath the floor boards, but it's all there. I talked with our friend about getting a room facing the back just for situations like this. I think I can climb up the wall and get into my room to get my blades and armour, and I can grab some of your other armaments, drop down a few blankets first and then send them to the ground in the alley for you to pick up. I just hope that they haven't surrounded the bar to be watching down the alleys..."

The elf opens up one of the windows and carefully peeks his head out to see if the Nyemetz have sent anybody out back to watch the building's rear.

As he looks around and sees that the backyard is empty save for a couple of housewives hanging their washing out to dry, he gives the thumbs up sign and says:

"If you're willing to go out there and keep the Nyemetz occupied for a while, Padre, then I might be able to pull this off..."

To the rest he holds out his hand:

"Keys?" he asks, making a jigging motion with his fingers. He then pulls out one of the strips of limewood he had from the imprisonment and clenches it in his teeth.

Just before opening the door, Kokal stops.

"Better yet -- check the chest for the lass' spell books and such. If they're in there, let me try to bring them to her."

Aneira looks at herself, no armor, no weapons. On the other hand, she is relatively unwounded:

"If we have to fight, I can have a weapon for five minutes," she said. "After that..." she shrugged. "But I would feel badly fleeing with Fae left upstairs, especially after all she has suffered."

Her voice is emotionless, but she stands, waiting to see what strategies are proffered.

"Nyemetz bastards," Yaz mutters under his breath as he paces twice. "Jihan, d'you have a dagger I could use?"

Jihan simply shakes his head sadly.

Then the druid seems to have an idea:

"Quick, Winn, Will, let's grab this table and move it against the outside wall. Someone help me with this chest. Aneira?"

He moves over to the chest and makes to lift it:

"Put it on the table, so they can see it from the door. I'm thinkin' if a goblin sees it, he might forget being careful for a minnit and go to loot it. That'll give a few of us -- especially Jihan -- good surprise from behind. Move the chairs -- quick! -- around the sides of the door for cover and shadows. If you don't have a weapon, pick up a chair and hit a greenie with it!"

Winnacer finds himself picking up the table's end even as his voice protests:

"But we've got to keep the greenskins from checking upstairs...or else Magda, Fae, and the other Priestesses are going to be in a bit of trouble."

"That's Kokal's job," Yaz replies. "If we hear them stomping up the stairs, we can burst out and attack. But let's at least be ready here."

Aneira helps Yaz with the chest. She says nothing. Ithridiel, Oldrich and Will also lend a hand in order to place the tables and chest in place.

Jihan uses the table as an easy way to get out through the window before dropping into the yard outside with catlike grace. Will follows straight after him, landing next to him in the yard:

"Let me lend you a hand," he says to the elf. "They might need all the help that they can get up there."

With the table and chest now in place, Ithridiel speaks:

"Without my sword, I fear that I am going to be little use to you here. Let me take Oldrich out into the yard. If everything goes wrong, then perhaps we can get you some help."

Oldrich agrees and so the two of them head out of the window and into the yard.

Meanwhile, the Padre walks casually from the room and advances towards the greenskins, which are in the entrance to the inn. He sees the orc sargeant deep in conversation with the innkeeper in bad Bohavian. It is apparent that the innkeeper is scared witless from the sargeant's questioning regarding any guests that might be staying in the hotel. Although he is almost paralyzed with fear, he says nothing concerning the fact that the party is staying there, although he does hand over a bulky set of keys to the orc.

The sargeant hands the keys over to the goblin corporal and the Padre overhears him telling the corporal in Nyemetz to search all of the rooms upstairs carefully. The corporal takes the keys and the Padre hears him calling the second platoon to accompany him upstairs, while the sargeant takes the rest and tells them to investigate the ground floor with him.

Showing no signs of panic, the Padre casually begins to walk up the stairs in amongst the platoon of goblins. As he walks up, he starts to speak to the corporal in Nyemetz:

"How go search for bad rebels?" he grunts.

The corporal is somewhat surprised at being addressed in its native tongue, as it is not one that is often spoken by humans. Without breaking his stride, he looks around at the Padre and considers him carefully:

"Must not to say," he grunts back.

"You search here for rebels now?" the Padre asks.

The goblin grunts in the affirmative, now at the top of the stairs.

"My room too?" grunts the Padre.

"All rooms must we search," the corporal replies.

"But I am holy man of Church," the Padre replies, "and I have holy things in room. You must not to touch."

The corporal replies angrily:

"We check not for holy things. Only rebels must we look for."

"If so I accompany you my room to," the Padre says in a loud voice in the hope that Fae and the priestesses can hear. "See you that rebels not is in my room."

The Padre stands along with the corporal starts to unlock the first of the rooms in the corridor. He looks towards the far door, hoping that the Nyemetz will take their time to get there.

Meanwhile, Will and Jihan are outside. They look up quickly at the wall of the inn and see that it will be simplicity itself to climb it. Jihan speaks to Will:

"I shall go to my room and pick up my weapons. You climb up next to me and knock on the windows of Fae's room. Get them to let you in and then tell them to barricade the doors. Once they have done that, then use the sheets and blankets as ropes to try and lower them back down into the yard."

Will nods his head in agreement and the two of them start to climb up the wall to the rooms.

Back in the private room, the five who are present have just managed to get into position in the corners of the room, using the chairs as cover, when the door opens and the orc sargeant sticks his head through the door. He immediately sees the chest and starts to make towards it, with four goblins following him.

Aneira clasps the shard of broken glass in her hands and then starts to chant to Zima. Once she has finished, a swirling sword-shaped formation of jagged, fast-swirling ice shards extends from her hand.

While the ice maiden is casting her spell, the four others pounce upon the goblin. Winnacer throws himself against the orc sargeant. The orc sargeant looks round in surprise, only to see the young Lord's borrowed longsword heading towards him. With no time to duck the blow, the orc's head goes sailing through the air as its body slumps to the ground. Not hesitating for a moment, the young Lord wheels around and hacks the blade into the first of the goblins, killing it instantly too.

Xavier brings the awesome bulk of 'The Justifier' crashing down upon the next of the goblins, easily slicing the little greenskin in two. Gronk, however, has less luck, as the goblin he targets manages to duck the dwarf's blow from the hand axe that he borrowed from the Padre. The goblin starts to scream out in either rage or terror, it's hard to tell which, and lashes out at the dwarf with its shortsword in retaliation. However, the goblin's thrust was as far off target as Gronk's was, and so the dwarf avoids any damage.

Without any better weapon to hand, Yaz picks up a chair and tries to bring it down upon the head of the final goblin. However, Yaz is not the strongest of types and the heavy chair is difficult for him to lift and so the goblin is easily able to dodge the blow. The goblin immediately strikes back at the unfortunate druid and easily manages to plunge its shortsword into the druid's flank, leading him to scream out in pain.

Just two goblins remain in the room. However, the group can hear the sound of movement coming from the bar area. Obviously the other squad of goblins have heard the commotion and are on their way to find out what's going on.

Upstairs meanwhile, Jihan has managed to climb up the wall to the window of his room. Having no time for subtleties, he simply smashes the windowpane and opens up the window from the inside. He immediately drops to the ground inside the room before heading straight for the loose floorboard, under which he has stashed his gear.

The elf pops up the floorboard, then shrugs on his battle harness and carefully opens his door a bare crack to take a peek down the hall for any Nyemetz presence. He's sees that the Nyemetz accompanied by the Padre are almost outside his door and looks towards the Padre to see what he is intending to do.

In the next room, Will reaches the window to Fae's room and starts to knock upon it with great urgency. He sees that the purification rites are either finished or have set to be started, as Fae is in conversation with the High Priestess while Magda and the senior priestesses are standing by patiently.

Hana looks around as she hears the tapping on the window. Upon seeing Will's face, she immediately walks over and opens the window to him:

"What is it?" she asks with obvious concern.

"Nyemetz," Will replies sternly. "There's a company of goblins in the inn checking all of the rooms. They could be at your door in any second. Quickly bolt and barricade the door and then start to tie the sheets and blankets together in order to make a rope. I'll help you all down."

Hana turns to the others:

"Quickly see to it," she orders. "We cannot be seen to be aiding the group."

The priestesses are immediately on the case and start to drag the wardrobe and bed against the door in order to give them as much time as possible, while Will climbs through the window and starts to tie the sheets together.

In the corridor outside, the goblin corporal's ears start to prick up as he hears the sound of furniture being dragged into place:

"Someone in there," he barks in Nyemetz to the troops under his command. "We check there now."

With that, they start to rush towards the door of the room past the Padre.

Back downstairs in the private room, Aneira sees Yaz taking a bad wound from one of the goblins and rushes over to assist him, whirling the swirling sword-shaped force of ice shards before her. The razor sharp ice shards cut through the goblin's chainmail as if it were made of paper and lacerates the goblin terribly, leading it to shriek out in agony before falling to the floor.

Gronk also makes up for lost time by embedding the hand axe into the skull of the goblin he is facing, sending the little greenskin to a swift death.

"Whoa, baby! Let's kick some greenskin butt!" Gronk yells.

Before they have a chance to catch their breaths, however, another five goblins charge into the fray from the bar area opposite. Winnacer is ready for them, however, and easily manages to slice the first of them in two with a might blow from the longsword. Xavier tries to take out the second, but the little greenskin manages to dodge out of the way as it sees the heavy blade descending and thus misses getting hacked in two by a whisker. The goblin lashes out at Xavier with its shortsword as a reflex action. Although it was a clumsy shot, Xavier has no armor to protect him and so receives a slight cut from the sword.

As the goblins surge into the room, Yaz once again tries to smack one with the chair. Much to his amazement, the goblin doesn't see the blow coming at all and Yaz manages to hit it full square with the chair, crushing its skull instantly.

The other two goblins target Gronk and Aneira. The one aiming for Gronk manages to miss the dwarf by a wide margin. The one attempting to strike at Aneira has even less luck as it puts all of its weight against a might blow aimed at the ice maiden. Aneira sees the blow coming though, with the result that the goblin embeds its shortsword into the table behind her. Seeing the whirly snow-sword in her hand, the goblin tries to bring up its spear in order to parry the blow. Aneira's snowsword, however, passes straight through the spear and continues to hack straight into the goblin's chest, adding another of the greenskins to her tally.

Gronk attempts to finish off the last one, but the goblin ducks the dwarf's handaxe. The goblin hacks into the dwarf with its shortsword in response and cuts Gronk badly. It is, however, the last act that the goblin ever does. Although Yaz' attempt to finish off the goblin with his chair is easily avoided by the goblin, and the nimblefooted greenskin also manages to step back so as to avoid a bisection from The Justifier, a couple of blows from Winnacer's longsword are all it takes to finally bring the last of the platoon to the ground.

There is, however, no time for any congratulations as they all realize that those upstairs are very heavily outnumbered by the other platoon of goblins.

Seeing that it is pretty obvious the goblins are intent on investigating the noise coming from Fae's room, the Padre realizes that he must act. He steps into the open room and quickly gets his shield and morningstar out as the goblins start to pound upon the door to Fae's room. The Padre then steps back into the hallway and lays into the goblins, saying:

"I told you you'd not be searching my room!" in Nyemetz.

His cry serves to warn the goblins before him, however, with the result that the goblins turn around to see the morning star of the incensed Padre descending upon them. The goblins, showing a remarkable consideration of their safety, manage to duck away from the Padre's blows and thus avoid any damage. Immediately, the back rank of the goblin platoon draws their weapons and lash out at the Padre with their shortswords. The Padre is well protected, however, and none of the four goblins that are able to reach him are able to find a way of getting through his plate and mail.

Through the crack in the door, Jihan sees that the Padre is seriously outnumbered and realizes that he could easily be overpowered if he does not get aid, and quickly. Swiftly throwing on his leather armor and grabbing Makanuru and Langzhan, the elf flings open the door and starts to lay into the goblins.

Taking the goblins totally by surprise, he easily manages to plunge Makanuru into the back of the goblin corporal, killing it instantly. However, it does not take long for the elf's curse to show itself once again. As he lifts Langzhan high above him in order to despatch another of the goblins, Jihan loses his grip upon the blade to see it flying through the air, landing a short distance behind where the Padre is fighting. Fairly used to losing a weapon or two, Jihan immediately reaches into his boot and replaces the blade with Wespe.

As he does so, however, the goblins are starting to swarm around him, lashing out with their shortswords. His Black Cat armor manages to protect him from most of the goblin's retaliatory blows, but one of them manages to catch the elf in his side and plunges its shortsword deep into the elf's side, leading him to shriek out with pain. Still badly injured from the fireball of the previous evening, Jihan knows that he won't be able to take too much of this punishment.

The Padre looked with relief as he saw Jihan emerge from the room in order to give him some assistance. However, upon seeing the elf become wounded, he realizes that the two of them need to act quickly to prevent themselves being taken by the goblins. He raises his morningstar high above him in order to attempt to despatch one of the goblins, but yet again the goblins are able to avoid the blow.

At seeing all of their blows deflected by the Padre's armor, they realize that they have a tough opponent on their hands and so revert to their standard tactics against such opponents by rushing the Padre. Five of the goblins rush towards the Padre. He tries to fight them off with his morning star, but the goblins are quick off the mark and throw themselves against him. The Padre tries to knock them off, but to no avail and the Padre goes crashing down to the ground.

At seeing the Padre fall, Jihan redoubles his efforts to try and take out the four remaining goblins so as to aid his fallen colleague. It is not to be, however, as neither Makanuru nor Wespe can find their marks upon the goblins. The four remaining goblins all lash out at Jihan, but only one of them manages to connect with the nimble elf, and its blow is deflected by Jihan's leather armor.

With goblins swarming all over him, the Padre tries desperately to fight them off so that he can regain his footing. Three of the goblins try to keep him down while the other two hack into him. The Padre is struggling, however, and so the goblins are still unable to penetrate his armor. With a surge of strength, the Padre manages to push the goblins away from him and stumbles to his feet once more.

Jihan again lashes out at the goblins before him, but again has no luck in penetrating the goblins' mail. The goblins all strike back at him and one of them manages to get another bad cut in on the elf, leaving him just a hair's breath away from falling.

Meanwhile, in Fae's room, the sound of the conflict on the other side of the door is apparent to all and serves to hurry up their attempts to get out of the room as quickly as possible. Hana tells Will to assist the four senior priestesses to get out of the room first while she brings up the rear. Magda has her Holy Hammer in hand and stands behind the barricaded door, ready to intervene should the goblins start to barge in.

Will finishes tying the blankets together and loops them around the elderly female dwarf who is the least able to defend herself. It's a struggle to get her through the window as she is almost paralyzed with fear. However, Will somehow manages to calm her down and carefully lowers the dwarven matron to the ground. She then unties the makeshift rope from around her and Will hauls it back up.

Will shakes his head as he hurries to fasten the rope around the next of the senior priestesses and then speaks to Hana:

"I hope that the others are able to take care of the goblins for us. It's just going to take too long for us to lower everyone out this way."

All those that are downstairs continue to run upstairs in order to assist with the combat. As they get closer, they can hear the sound of fierce fighting that serves to hurry them up in order to assist Jihan and the Padre who are upstairs fighting for their lives.

"Pestilent scourges!" the Padre growls at the goblins swarming around him. "Now ye will surely taste the wrath of the war god!"

It is not to be, however, and the Padre's run of bad luck continues, as both of the blows from his morningstar are deflected by the goblins' armor. After the failure of their attempt to keep the Padre on the ground, the goblins return to the more traditional attack form of trying to find a chink in the Padre's armor.

One of them does.

As the Padre lifts his arm once more to attempt to bring the morningstar crashing down upon the goblins, one of the goblins sees its chance and thrusts up at the Padre's arm with all of its might. The Padre feels pain like he has never felt before as the blade hacks into the unfortunate priest's tendon, which causes his arm to go limp, thus dropping his weapon and inflicting terrible damage to Stanislav.

The goblin that caused such terrible pain starts to cackle with laughter as it sees the damage that it has done to the Padre. So much so that it doesn't see its comrade's desperate attack on the temporarily wide open defense of the priest. As the second goblin swirls around with its sword and catches the Padre again with another minor wound, the second goblin accidentally hacks off the head of the first. Mercifully, the other two goblins are so distracted by the bizarre turn of events that they are unable to concentrate upon their task sufficiently to cause the priest any more damage.

Seeing the Padre hors de combat and knowing that he too is close to death, Jihan strikes out in order to take down some of the goblins that are intent upon his destruction. He finally finds his form as he plunges Makanuru deep into one of the goblins, killing it instantly. He then wheels with Wespe in his left hand and manages to stab a second in the throat with it. The two remaining goblins both try and retaliate, but Jihan's leather armor manages to save him from falling yet again.

As the Padre looks up, defenseless, at the four goblins surrounding him, he thinks that he could well be on his way to the court of Radegast. However, just when things look to be over for him, the five from downstairs appear round the corner of the staircase. Seeing the Padre and Jihan in such dire straits, they immediately charge towards the goblins.

The corridor is fairly narrow and so it's not wide enough for all five of them to get into contact with the goblins. Aneira and Winnacer are at the front of the group and so are the first to strike at the goblins. Aneira lashes out once more at one of the goblins with her snowsword and easily hacks it to pieces with the frosty weapon.

Winnacer is enraged at seeing the Padre in such a bad state and lashes out wildly with his longsword, hacking two of the goblins to pieces in the process. Gronk manages to use his diminutive form to his advantage by squeezing between Aneira and Winnacer and hacking into another of the goblins with his handaxe. The blow is only a glancing one, however, and so the goblin does not fall. Xavier and Yaz, both of whom are badly injured, cannot find a way through the others in order to bring their bulky weapons to bear.

There are just three remaining goblins now. At seeing the arrival of the reinforcements, they start to scream in panic and lash out at the party members wildly in a desperate attempt to save their green hides. One of them lashes out at Jihan and hacks into the elf's leg. Jihan, who is already terribly wounded, falls as a result of the wound and falls to the ground, unconscious. The other goblin, petrified at seeing the rest of the party behind him, blocking his exit, realizes that he has just one chance for freedom and charges to the window before throwing itself through it. The three senior priestesses on the ground scream out in surprise as they see the green object crashing through the window before landing heavily on its head on the ground below, breaking its neck instantly.

One of the two remaining goblins lashes out at Gronk, but the dwarf is able to dodge the blow. Gronk attempts to finish off the goblin with a blow from its handaxe, but is unable to find a way through its frantic defense. The other goblin lashes out at Winnacer. Without the benefit of armor, the young Lord is hurt badly by the goblin's shortsword. In retaliation, the LawBringer easily manages to hack the goblin in two. Aneira sees just one injured goblin remaining and targets it with the snowsword. Her shot is way off target and the force of razor sharp ice shards only catches a glancing blow upon the goblin. However, such is the power of the weapon that this is still sufficient to finish off the last of the goblins, sending it to the ground. As the goblin falls, Aneira's snowsword disappears into nothingness.

Although the goblins are all dead, Jihan is unconscious and losing blood fast, while the Padre is in terrible agony. Aneira immediately runs towards Jihan in order to stop the bloodflow while Winnacer shouts out to the door to Fae's room:

"Hana, Magda, the goblins are all dead, but the price was high. We need your assistance here badly."

There is the sound of furniture being dragged away from the door before Hana, Magda, Fae and Will all emerge. The priestesses gasp as they see the extent of the injuries and immediately rush up to see to the wounds of Jihan and the Padre.

"N-no, no!" the Padre gasps, as the priestesses approach, weakly trying to wave them away. "S-s-s-ee, to th- the others f-first!"

"I m-may yet have Rad --ugh -- gast's bl-blessing .... if I, I h-have not shame -- shamed him too much."

Hana continues to advance upon the Padre, however.

"Magda will take care of Jihan," she replies to the Padre, "and none of the others are in a critical situation. That arm looks serious, however. I need to look at it immediately."

Kokal then tries to utter the words of a healing spell. Upon finishing the healing incantation, he feels slightly better, but it has done nothing to bring any more feeling back to his right arm.

As the Padre bites his lip to keep the pain away, Hana kneels beside him and investigates his arm. She winces a little as she sees the terrible injury, but then calmly places her hand upon the wound and starts to chant. The effects of her incantation are little short of miraculous. Not only does the severed tendon immediately join back together, but the flesh immediately heals up over the wound, leaving the Padre feeling as good as new.

As Padre Kokal looks down at his arm in amazement, feeling the senses in his arm coming back to him. Hana is nearly as surprised as he is. She smiles warmly towards the Padre and speaks:

"Although Radegast might not have been with you this day, Spravedelna has definitely smiled upon you as a reward for your actions."

"I thank you," the Padre says, his face still flushed with humiliation at his performance. "I do not know why Radegast did not smile more on me today..... perhaps he thought me too rash in bringing on this fight. But I could think of no other way to keep those vermin from you all, as they seemed intent on getting at you...."

"In any case, I am grateful. The Church of Radegast has always had pride in its dealings with Spravedelna's devoted."

"Perhaps one day I will be able to repay you -- though I hope it will be in a different way!" he adds with a small, rueful grin.

Hana smiles at the Padre in response:

"Without your actions, the goblins would most definitely have taken all of us. It is thus me who is repaying the debt that all of us owe to you. So, let's consider us now to be quits."

Xavier, who is sitting quietly, holding his own wounds, smiles at these words. He interjects with these words:

"Yar, Padre, a pleasure it be too to fight with one of the holy fathers by my side. It has been many years since a united shield wall of Rodengast, so to speak ... stood together against the whoreson Nymetz. Ve shall remember your inspiration in the days to come. Ve brothers of der faith must be villing to stand tall, shoulder to shoulder, shield to shield, sword to sword vith our allies to see this land free. May Rodengast be my witness!"

Hana then turns and walks back towards Magda to see how she is getting on with Jihan.

Upon leaving Fae's room, Magda immediately rushed towards Jihan and started to chant a healing spell upon him. As the spell is completed, the elf blinks his eyes as he starts to come round.

It is only through a colossal effort of will that Jihan manages to turn his head towards the room the priestesses commanded. Coughing up a spout of blood, the elf weakly peers around, his vision fading fast.

"Fae? FAE!" he calls out in fevered delirium, the all too familiar fingers of death beginning their grasping clutch for his possession.

"Is she... safe?" he gasps, his muscles clenching in pain.

Magda places a calming hand upon the elf's brow:

"She's fine," Magda replies. "She came to no harm thanks to the efforts of yourself and the Padre. You're still badly injured through, so let me try and ease your pain a little."

Xavier stumbles over to Magda's side. He speaks to the desperate elf:

"Shh, mein freund, fear not. She is vell and unhurt dis day. Yer vounds be of more concern this instant. Now be still vhile the priestess stitches you up. Yer have lost a lot of blood. Any more and you vill die."

"The Padre?" Jihan asks, peering around yet again. "He went down..."

Finding the both of them and seeing them relatively safe, the elf sighs with relief and submits himself to Magda's further ministrations.

"Praise the Three..." he mutters, his eyes lightly closed.

With that, Magda casts a couple of more healing spells upon the elf, after which the elf is feeling well enough to walk, although he is still far from being at full health.

"Thank you, sister," Jihan says simply, a smile of appreciation on his lips. Standing a little unsteadily, he leans against the wall for support, then retrieves the dropped Langzhan.

"Not your day today, was it, brother?" he inquires of the weapon, wiping it clean on a goblin corpse before resheathing it.

Seeing that the priests have the tending of wounds in hand, Gronk surveys the condition of the armor on the goblins upstairs. He finds the armor that is least damaged and removes it from the goblin. He then heads downstairs, bolts the front door to the inn and slips out through the back door to the alley where the priestesses are waiting, standing around the body of the splattered goblin.

With the Padre now back to full health and Jihan well on the road to recovery, Hana looks around and sees that all of the others are pretty badly injured, with the exception of Aneira, who is still almost unscratched.

"Let me bring the senior priestesses up and tend to the rest of you," she says.

Winnacer shakes his head in response:

"We haven't got time for that right now. Although none of the goblins were able to escape in order to raise the alarm, that company is going to be missed sooner or later and they will be here looking for them. We are currently in no fit state to fight off another attack and so we should depart from here as quickly as possible."

"Everyone should immediately pick up all of their belongings and then head off individually to the Silver Unicorn. Once we are there, then perhaps the priestesses can see to our wounds."

"You will find the Silver Unicorn two blocks north and one block east of the Cathedral," Magda adds. "I shall head off there now and arrange rooms for everyone."

Everyone nods in agreement and then head off to their rooms in order to pick up the meager belongings that weren't taken from you by the Nyemetz. Will, Oldrich and Ithridiel return to the private room and pick up Fae's chest, which they place upon the back of one of the horses.

Having no items of his own except for the handaxe that he borrowed from the Padre and the suit of chainmail acquired from one of the goblins, Gronk checks out Bennett's room and picks up 'Heart of Gyur', Bennett's magickal shield, and also 'Regret', which he takes with him in the hope of reuniting them with their original owner.

"Keep the axe a while, friend," Kokal says to Gronk, eyeing the goblin blood upon it. "It seems you've done more good with it than I would have."

After five minutes of activity, you have all of your belongings. Not wanting to risk leaving by the main door, you all head off one by one into the yard and through the alleyways that lead from it into the busy streets of Pardubitze.

On his way to the back door, Padre Kokal seeks out the innkeeper of The Vine. He is followed by the form of Jihan, who is still walks with a bit of a limp, as well as Winnacer.

"I'm afraid we've left a bit of a mess for your chamberstaff, my friend," the Padre says when he finds him, slipping some coins into his hand. "Perhaps this will make up for some of your trouble."

The Padre takes the barkeep by the hand, and leans in closer to speak softly to him.

"Thank you for your bravery in not revealing us to that lowlife sargeant. "It will not be forgotten."

The innkeeper is still shaking from the encounter with the goblins. However, his trembling hands push the coins back across the reception desk to the Padre:

"K-k-keep the coin," he stammers nervously. "If you wish to compensate me for what has happened, then do all that you can to make the city free once more. That is all that I wish for. May Spravedelna watch over you all and return Justice to this city."

Winnacer smiles warmly at his words, placing a friendly hand upon the man's shoulder:

"If every man in Pardubitze had half of your courage, your wish would soon be granted. May Spravedelna watch over you and your family."

Nodding his head at both sentiments, the elf extends a hand to the barkeep, his eyes sincerely appreciative:

"It is good to find a man so true of heart that Bohavia is his first concern."

Clasping the man's forearm, Jihan nods, then pats the fellow on the shoulder with his other hand before turning to leave.

As the Padre, Winnacer and Jihan leave the innkeeper, Kokal claps the elf lightly on the shoulder:

"In case events get too busy for this later, let me thank ye for ye help up there," he says. "Ye took a few of 'em, which is more than I can say for myself and, if not for that, I think I'd have met Radegast today, and the priestesses and your young magess would be in the Nyemetz' hands. Small wonder then that the gods would not let ye perish in the deed. I will fight with you any time, Jihan."

The elf nods his head at this, his own eyes a little distant:

"You are my brother," he says simply. "In the cause, and now at blades. Our blood has been spilt together for the good of others. I only wish there were different ways to bring people together, but these days, it is all so many of us have."