Dirty Kidnappers

Once all are ready to move out, they spur their horses on out of the village. There are quite a few villagers assembled to see them off now and the villagers all smile at the party and wave them off, all in high spirits as they have not heard the news about the losses in Pardubitze yet.

It is thus quite a relief for everyone to ride out of the village where there is not the constant sight of the villagers to remind them all of the results of the previous day's activities. Yaz is particularly pleased to be moving on as, within ten minutes of leaving the village, Jihan and Will lead the mounted group due east into the forests to the north of Holitze.

The ride is a pleasant one for all, as the horses move through the crisp, tranquil air of the forest. Seeing Yaz's reaction at being back in the forest tells everyone exactly how much he has been missing the place. After riding through the forest for around half and hour, they see the Hradetz to Trebova road which makes its way through the forest. Not particularly being in any hurry, the others agree to Yaz's request not to take the road and instead Jihan takes them across the road and they ride parallel to the road at a distance of around half a mile from it.

The journey through the forest is uneventful and they see few signs of any wildlife other than a few small creatures that they can see scurrying away in the distance. Yaz is slightly disappointed at not encountering more furry friends along the way, but realizes that, with more than ten horses crashing through the undergrowth, this is hardly surprising.

By mid-afternoon, they hit the forest fringes and, much to the druid's disappointment, they emerge from the trees onto the rolling plains of central Bohemia once more. For the rest of the afternoon, it is a fairly dull ride punctuated only by the constant singing, whistling and lute strumming of Oldrich as he lazily rides along behind the others.

Bennett yells back at the old bard:

"How about requests? Do you know 'Who want's to live forever?' Seems appropriate enough."

"You hum it, I'll sing it," Oldrich replies, pleased that his skills are appreciated by someone.

As the sun starts to set to the west, they can see the gentle slopes of Vratzlav Hill rising to their left and Will involuntarily shudders from the memory of his capture. They carry on for another couple of hours until they can see the lights of Vysoke Myto ahead of them further down the road.

Since leaving Pardubitze, Gronk has been unusually quite. He has spent all of his free time cleaning and honing the edge on Thunder. The others can hear him frequently speaking to Thunder in dwarven in a soft tone. Those of them who can understand dwarven pick up enough to realize that he is singing, as best he can, a love song to Thunder. The others all know that something is definitely amiss when Gronk doesn't complain once on the journey to Trebova about his horse.

It is just after 8.00pm by the time that Jihan circles the group around to the west at a fair distance from the town and then, leaving Nainie in Will's care, advances to the gap in the wall in order to determine that the coast is clear. He returns after ten minutes and tells the others that the coast is now clear for them all to lead their horses through the gap in the wall and through into the town.

Although the evening is not as cold as the previous one, the temperature has been steadily falling since the sun went down and is now just a little above freezing.

"Time to go and see Mirek Rohlik at the Cartwrights' Arms and arrange some accommodation for the night, methinks," says Jihan with a smile on his face. "Some more of the Sliprock Heights 3376 would go down a treat as well."

All are in agreement and so follow the elf as he walks Nainie towards the inn. After five minutes, he sees the familiar sign of the cartwheel and heads up to the inn. He is somewhat surprised, however, to see that there are no lights on in the bar area. With a puzzled look on his face, Jihan tries the door, but finds that it is locked:

"Strange," the elf says, "Yindrik's doors were never closed and his son didn't seem to be one for breaking family traditions."

"Let me have a look around the back to see if anyone is home."

Jihan walks around the back and returns a few seconds later:

"There's a light burning in the kitchen, so I imagine that they have just decided to take the night off. I'm sure that they wouldn't mind putting us up for the night, however. After all, they were more than hospitable during our last visit."

Winnacer tells the two squires to takes the horses to the stables and to look after their needs while the rest of the party follows Jihan round to the rear of the building, where the elf knocks upon the door.

Almost immediately, the door is answered by Mirek's wife. She is rather red-faced, but has a look of hope upon her face. The look immediately vanishes when she sees that it is the party members, however.

"I - I - I thought that you were M-M-Mirek and Zuzana," she stutters and then bursts into tears as she goes running from the door into the kitchen, where she sits at the table and continues weeping hysterically.

Jihan immediately follows after the woman and puts his hand upon his shoulder:

"What's happened?" the elf asks, his voice full of concern. "Where's Mirek?"

The woman is crying so badly that it takes her a while to calm down, but then, between sobs, she answers him:

"He just went out to take the dog for a walk along with Zuzana, our daughter, the night before last and that was the last that I've seen of them. They go out together every evening, just after closing down the bar. They're normally only gone for half an hour."

"I've looked everywhere for them, and asked everyone I know if they've seen them, but no one knows anything."

She looks up through puffy red eyes:

"I don't know what to do now."

"Where did they used to walk the dog, ma'am?" Will asks the woman politely.

"Please, call me Blanka," the woman answers.

"They used to walk halfway around the perimeter of the town," she says pointing to the south, "and then walk around for about 20 minutes and then cut back through the Town Square to get back to here."

"I will be back shortly," the ranger says to those paying attention.

He then mounts up and begins looking for traces of a trail or any sign, which might give a clue as to what happened.

With Min scampering along behind him, Will takes to his mount and begins following the tracks from the inn to the perimeter of the town. As he gets there, however, he sees that the path around the outside of the town is a well traveled one, and there are many, many footprints, making it next to impossible to track any one person. He notes, from the larger than man-sized boot prints, that the route is oft-trod by orc patrols.

He spends the best part of an hour combing the area, trying to pick up the tracks of the man and his daughter, but it is impossible. Disappointed, he is about to return to the Cartwrights', when he hears Min whining a short distance away. He spurs the mount over towards Min, which takes him just the other side of the town walls through a gap.

In the shallow ditch on the other side of the wall, he sees, partially obscured by the long grass growing within the ditch, the corpse of a mastiff. The dog's corpse is an unpleasant sight, as it is in the process of being eaten by maggots. He sees, however, that the dog was killed by several blows from a sword, or several swords.

Will looks around momentarily, trying to take in any other evidence laying around or see any tracks leading from the corpse.

He and Min then go back to the Inn and report. He sees that, while he has been gone, the rest of the group has been able to comfort the woman and she has managed to calm down due to a shot of brandy. Oldrich is currently in the process of finishing off the rest of the bottle.

"We found the dog," Will reports. "Alas, I'm sorry to say that the poor fellow has been killed by multiple sword blows."

"Poor Brutus," Blanka replies sadly. "He was such a loyal dog. He must have died trying to protect Mirek and Zuzana."

"I am prepared to go and continue looking for the perpetrators," continues the bard, "but thought it wise to report in and ask for Yaz and possibly Jihan to accompany me."

"Lady, excuse me, Blanka, do not fret. It seems that whoever has taken your loved ones wanted them alive, so there is yet hope. Can you tell us anyone that would want to do such a thing? Any recent threats or anger between your family and anyone that you can recall?"

Blanka simply shakes her head sadly:

"No one would want to hurt Mirek. He didn't have an enemy in the world. I can't see why the Nyemetz would want to take him either, as he did nothing to incur their wrath. In any case, it's not the Nyemetz style to steal someone away in the night. When they seize people, they like to make as much of a show about it as possible."

Winnacer looks visibly disturbed at Will news:

"It is not natural for a fresh body to be that quickly infested with the rot of flies. If what you describe is true, we may be dealing with things more offensive than family feuds and petty grudges."

Winnacer's hand falls to his silver gavel.

Jihan nods in agreement:

"That is indeed true. Prirodna does not usually move so quickly to return her children to the earth, especially not at this time of the year."

"Hmmmm," he ponders, deep in thought.

Winnacer turns to Blanka:

"Have you ever heard any rumors of strange occurrences in graveyards of this town or anything similar?"

Blanka shakes her head:

"No, nothing like that," she replies.

"Have you heard of any other unexplained disappearances recently?"

"Actually, while I was asking people whether they had seen anything of Mirek and Zuzana, a few people mentioned that they had heard similar tales of people disappearing over the past few years. Not many, but it seems that it is getting a more regular occurrence. Most folks simply put the disappearances down to wandering cutthroats and highwaymen. It's one of the main problems of living in a town on a major trade route and the Nyemetz are usually paid off to leave them to their own devices."

Bennett thinks for a moment:

"Couldn't be....You all think it might be slavers? We already know they exist around here, thanks to the Dobroushkan priest. If they do their patrols every so often, perhaps this is a place they stop and make a pick-up. I shiver to think what could happen to a young girl in the hands of such as those."

Realizing Blanka is listening, he lamely adds:

"Not that she got taken by them or anything. I'm sure she and your man just got lost, or something."

He smacks himself in the head:

"D'oh!"

Jihan, his face a picture of sympathy and distress for the situation of Mirek as he talks with the man's wife and then when Will brings news of his findings, turns his ear towards Bennett's latest bit of thoughtful speculation:

"Indeed... it is getting around to about that time of year..." he mutters, his voice filling with a bit of venom.

"Tell me, sister," he asks of Blanka, "do you remember if these disappearances came only at certain times of the year? Particularly, around the turn in the mid-winter months? I don't want to alarm you, but I don't want to lie to you either, my lady. All the Rohlik women I once knew were always the tough sort. We have heard word of people coming over the eastern passes to this part of the country seeking human cargo, though it is early in the year for them... Yet if truly this is what has befallen them, or indeed, if anything else bad has happened, you may rest assured that we will do all that is in our power to put the situation to right."

"The Mordion do not forget their own, nor the sons and daughters of their own..." he adds almost as an afterthought beneath his breath.

"I can't be too sure," Blanka replies shaking her head, "but there doesn't seem to be any pattern as to when the people disappeared, except for the fact that it is happening a lot more often now than it used to."

She shakes her head once more:

"No, from what I can make out, people have disappeared at random and at all times of the year."

Winnacer gently places his hand upon the lady's shoulder:

"Mirek has done us a good turn in our moment of need. And so shall we try to repay him tonight. We will search for Mirek, and with Spravedelna's graces, he may be back in your arms by midnight."

"Thank you for all of your help," she replies weakly.

"Come, let us all take a look at the site of the attack," the young Lord finishes.

Aneira watches and listens carefully. When they go to check out any clues, she follows.

One by one, the other members of the party all decide to join the group going out to look for clues, leaving just Oldrich and the two squires at The Cartwrights' Arms to look after Blanka.

Bennett absently follows Aneira out the door, speaking softly to the others:

"You don't suppose this is because of us? These people didn't do anything revolutionary. What use would the Nyemetz have for them? Something seems funny here."

He then quietens down, walking behind Aneira and to her left, watching her more than his own footsteps. At the first hole in the street, he trips, curses loudly and profanely, and then starts watching where he is going.

Aneira looks at Bennett absently, but sees nothing unusual in his behavior.

They all leave the inn and Will leads them in the direction of the spot where the corpse of the dog was found. They reach the quiet spot by the wall after just ten minutes and Will leads them to the maggot-infested corpse. They are all looking at the grisly sight, when they are suddenly alerted by the sound of muffled screams coming from a distance of a couple of hundred yards away, obscured by the back of one of the buildings.

All have their weapons in their hands in an instant and turn in the direction of the screams.

Bennett grabs the haft of Retribution:

"Still in the neighborhood, huh? Bad luck for them."

He smiles grimly and starts to head off toward the scream at a half-run.

Jihan whispers to them all:

"Let Will and I go ahead in order to check out what's going on. The rest of you follow behind us at a fair distance."

Bennett abruptly stops:

"Okay, if you say so. Just make sure I get my hands on one of those bastards!"

The rest of them agree and move slowly forwards as the elf and the bard scurry quietly towards the spot where the screams emanated from. They see Will and Jihan stop at the corner of the building and peer round at the sight before them. They spend less than a minute watching the sight before the scurry back in order to report their findings.

Jihan makes the report:

"Looks like we've found our kidnappers," he reports sternly. "There's a group of them who've managed to capture what looks to be a courting couple in their late teens. They've caught them in a net and they're currently trying to extract them from it."

Bennett nods:

"Gotta be the slavers. Looks like they target young people. I hope they didn't just kill the innkeeper."

"They've got five ogres with them providing the muscle," the elf continues. "Standing over the ogres are four other characters. Three of them are dressed in ornate robes of yellow and black. They had cowls pulled down over their faces and so I couldn't see what race they are. They have sickles in their hands."

Bennett grimaces:

"Oh, geez. Death priests again! Does that ring a bell with any of you religious types here?"

"The other one was a big guy," continues Jihan. "He is wearing black field plate and is holding a scythe. He has his visor pulled down and so I couldn't see his face either."

"The leader, surely," Bennett thinks out loud. "He sounds like a tough son of a bitch. He's mine!"

Bennett grins, muttering:

"About time I got into a scrap."

He then asks, almost pleadingly to the others:

"Three priests, though, that means a lot of hold spells. Maybe I should start there? Or do any of you have magicks to nail them before they nail us?"

"Behind them is a covered wagon with a couple of draft horses tethered to it," Jihan finishes. "There's a human carter in the driver's seat."

Bennett grimaces once again:

"I remember the last time we attacked a wagon. Humiliating, if I recall correctly. Need to do something about that this time, I think."

Jihan nods his head at this, and hefts Weitbeissen ominously:

"I will skirt around and see what I can do about stopping those wagons from bolting, even if I have to cut loose the horses. Perhaps you'd like to join me, brother?" he asks of Yaz. "It might be a good thing to attempt and secure the wagon before the fighting begins. We must definitely find out what they are about..."

Will suggests:

"Let us follow them if they are not going to harm the couple immediately. Certainly we will intervene if the captured pair is about to be severely injured. But if not, we may better find the other missing persons if we bide our time and follow the group.

As Gronk hears about the situation around the wagon he seems to snap out of his self-absorbed retreat:

"Looks like 'ey be needin' a good whackin', eh! I can be a usin' Thunder 'ere ta stun 'em as longs as ya let me out in front so nones of ya get in da way."

Winnacer's eyes glow fiercely as his hand grips tightly the Lord Protektor's sword:

"Blasphemous cowards. We must take them now, but make sure that at least one of them survives. There may be other groups as well."

Winnacer looks at Jihan and Will:

"Perhaps it would be best to allow you both to sneak out ahead of us and onto the cart. Would not want them to bolt with their human cargoes, nor would we want any unpleasant surprises to hop out of the wagon."

"Once you both are in position, it may be best to pepper them with arrowfire. Just be careful not to hit their quarry."

Winnacer looks at Yaz, Aniera, and the Padre:

"From surprise, we will have the benefit of casting spells first without fear of reprisals. Can we count on your aid here?"

Aneira looks at Winn coolly, but does not answer.

"Haven't much in the way of weapon spells, Lord Winnacer," Kokal replies. "Radegast prefers his priests to fight more directly, but my star is ready."

"Be careful approaching these -- I know those colors," the Padre continues, quietly and gravely, to the whole group. "Minions o' Nemotz -- the god o' disease. More of a secret society than a proper church, as I know 'em, but reviled everywhere. They live only t'spread disease an' death, so those poor captives will suffer a painful, 'orrid fate if we don't save 'em. But I'd say distance attacks or spells -- at last again' th' robed ones an' the one in th' black armor -- would be best. Th' gods only know what could 'appen if ye touch the vile scum."

Yaz ignores the question. He speaks hurriedly:

"I'll set the horses on the magic-users, then set up a field of spikes behind the ogres. After that, we'll see."

Aneira looks at Yaz:

"I will summon insects to harrass the mages as well. That should keep them from their own spellwork."

She turns to Bennett:

"Would you be wanting the strength spell then? I have one of them today."

Bennett smiles broadly:

"As always, I would love to have such magic."

He then stops for a moment:

"But I fear you will presume I am making ill use of you. If this is so, my natural talents will quite suffice, though I do love it when you cast your spell on me."

He smiles again, and the look is starting to suit him more, rather than the frown or grimace that has always been his status quo before now.

"I have no problem with casting spells for your benefit, Bennett," Aneira replies frostily, as always. "I have a problem with some only speaking to me when they would make us of my skills. We do need to kill another giant soon though, or I won't be able to cast it again."

"Be assured that you skills are just one of many reasons I want to speak to you, and not even the strongest one!" Bennett replies. "As for a giant, we killed some one-eyed giants over near Hradetz, if I remember right. Maybe next time we go by there we can see if there's any of them left."

Aneira nods, her mind on the upcoming battle more than Bennett's words.

Will speaks to Winnacer and the rest of the party:

"If we can take them out quickly without any escapees, and capture at least one for charming, then I will go along with this, but we must have some means of finding the other missing persons, and we cannot have any of them running off with the knowledge that we are on to them. Do you calculate that we can do that?"

The plans having been made, everyone starts to get into positions, moving around the house that obscures the party's position from that of the enemy so as to be able to approach the slavers from the rear.

Before Bennett starts his run against the armor-clad figure, Aneira takes a giant hair and a piece of granite and starts to cast the familiar words of the stone strength spell upon Bennett. The effects are as good as they have ever been and Bennett feels his muscles expanding and feels almost as good as he did under the effects of Petr's spell.

Bennett murmurs:

"Ooh, baby that's what I like!"

Aneira frowns at Bennett:

"If you continue to talk to me in that fashion, I will be forced to cast my spells elsewhere."

Bennett frowns back:

"I apologize. Caught up in the coming struggle, I guess."

Aneira turns her back to Bennett, already focusing on her next spell.

While Aneira was casting the stone strength spell upon Bennett, Padre Kokal is casting upon himself. Then Winnacer looks around and sees that everyone is now in position. He starts a countdown with his fingers and, once he gets down to zero, all hell lets loose.

Jihan is the first to react, as he loosens a sleep-envenomed arrow in the direction of the carter. However, the carter sits back just at that moment and the arrow misses him by a fraction of an inch. Not to be outdone, the elf immediately nocks another one into the bowstring of Weitbeissen and, before the carter has chance to react to the close miss, Jihan lets another arrow fly.

This one is on target and, with only a buff jacket to protect him, the arrow hits the carter in the arm. Being a fairly frail old bloke, this is enough to send him to his maker and the carter topples from the wagon.

Meanwhile, Gronk once more has little care for self-preservation and leads the pack towards the priests. As the priests look in his direction, quite probably somewhat surprised at seeing the fierce little fellow, although it is impossible to tell as their faces are still hidden by the cowls, they see Gronk hurl Thunder on the ground before them.

As the air is filled with a loud thunderclap that sends everyone's ears buzzing from the noise, two of the priestly types fall to the ground, totally immobile.

As the third of the priests starts to cast, Will produces his harp and plays a chord that produces an incredible sound that he focuses upon the last of the standing priests. Upon hearing the sound, the priest immediately stops his attempts to cast and Will hazards a guess that the priest is under his control.

"Surrender!" the bard shouts over the sound of his harp.

Seeing several members of the party bounding towards him with weapons in hand, the priest doesn't need to think about his decision twice and so falls to his knees as he puts his hands in the air.

Yaz is following right behind Gronk, muttering an incantation as he runs. As he comes to a halt ten yards away from the priests, the druid gestures to one of the stunned priests and then to the draft horses that are a short distance from the priests.

As Yaz finishes, he is somewhat disappointed to see that the draft horses don't gallop over and start to stamp all over the stunned cleric's head. Rather, they look towards the cleric, whinny and then start to trot off away from the battleground, crushing the carter's body beneath the heavy wheels of the cart as they lumber off.

While the druid shakes his head, Aneira gestures towards another of the stunned priests while holding the iron snowflake holy symbol in one hand with a rose petal and some mud in the others. As she finishes the long incantation, a swarm of beetles and ants swarm out of the cold grass that the priest is lying on and start to crawl all over the prone character, biting him as they go. As the priest is out cold from the results of Thunder, he can do nothing but let himself be eaten by the bugs.

Seeing that the others seem to have taken care of the priests for the time being, Bennett sets his sights upon the mysterious figure in the black platemail. He grips the haft of his axe and charges towards the figure.

Bennett smiles, mumbling:

"Just you and me, baby!"

As he closes into the dark figure, he has a strong urge to retch as he begins to smell its foul stench and feels a chill run through his body as the hairs on the back of his neck stand upright. Fighting back the urge to vomit, he raises Retribution and brings it crashing down upon the dark knight. The blow connects, but the knight is well armored. Although the axe smashes into the dark knight's shoulder, it causes him no damage.

Bennett's nose crinkles as he fights, the ghastly odor something he did not expect, despite the Padre's warning:

"What the hell kind of creature are you?"

Starting to worry that he chose poorly, Bennett redoubles his efforts, cutting out the jokes. He has never seen an opponent like this, and this certainly wasn't what he had in mind.

Showing almost unnatural reactions, the black figure brings his huge scythe around and tries to cut Bennett's legs from underneath him. Bennett tries to leap out of the way, but the dark knight is quick and even Bennett's 'Fabio' armor is not sufficient to stop the evil blade of the scythe from cutting deeply into his legs. The force of the blow would be enough the hack a normal man in two, but Bennett simply staggers back and brings 'Retribution' up for another blow against the dark warrior. The black warrior is bringing the scythe up for another stroke when Bennett hacks the axe down into his opponent's chest. This time the force of the strength-enhanced blow does manage to penetrate the armor and the blade comes out yellow from pus. This seems to have thrown the dark knight of his stride, however, as Bennett is easily able to dodge the second swipe of the scythe.

Bennett looks with grave concern at the wound, hoping it isn't poisoned or some such. Once he makes his own strike, he does not exhult in his usual style, but is disgusted by the putrescence of the creature, and just continues his efforts.

Winnacer notes Bennett's charge at the Plated Man and also charges forward to support him against the other priests. As Winnacer brings his blade to bear on the first Filth-Monger he calls out:

"Let the Purity of Law purify your malevolent humours!"

With one of the priests under Will's control and another one getting slowly consumed by ants, Winnacer has just one stunned priest to take care of. In his haste to despatch the priest, however, Winnacer misjudges the distance, as he has not used the Lord Protektor's sword before, and the blow glances off the chainmail that the priest is wearing underneath his robes. There is no stopping the second blow from striking true, however, and the blade cleaves into the cleric's leg.

Padre Kokal, meanwhile, realizes that there are still the five ogres to contend with, as they have now dropped the net containing the struggling couple and are hefting their clubs ready to give a little payback to the party. The Padre's run of bad luck continues, however, as he raises his morning star high and attempts to lay into the ogres, only to have both of his blows dodged by the hulking brutes.

The ogres' retribution is swift as four of them swarm round him and start to lay into him with their clubs. The first of the ogres proves to be as hapless as the Padre was, as he sends his club flying out of its hands to land at his feet. The others prove to be only slightly less unlucky, as just one of them manages to land a blow upon Kokal and this fails to find a way through the Padre's armor.

The fifth ogre, seeing that there is no way to get at the Padre, decides instead to have a go at Gronk. The dwarf, however, sees the brute coming and manages to duck out of the way as he sees the ogre's club coming down upon him.

Jihan nocks another arrow into Weitbeissen and looks around for more targets. However, seeing that all of the opposition is in melee with other members of the party, he sees that this would be a very risky exercise, especially knowing what his luck is like with friendly fire.

Then he sees that Yaz' spell has spooked the horses, which are now trotting away from the battle site at quite a fast rate. Casting his mind back to his failure to catch up with the runaway wagon containing Horvath back in Hradetz a couple of weeks ago, he decides to have another try. He quickly puts the shortbow over his shoulder and then runs after the runaway wagon.

This time he does not fail in his task and manages to grab hold of the rear of the wagon before pulling himself up onto it. Clambering onto the back of the wagon, he opens up the canvas covering and makes his way inside. He is relieved to see that there are no more opponents inside the covered wagon and sees that it is filled with metal cages. Quickly, he looks around to see if any of the cages are occupied, hoping that one of them might contain Mirek and Zuzana. Much to his disappointment, however, he sees that all of them are empty.

The elf continues through the wagon, emerging through the canvas on the other side. He then sits himself in the driver's seat and pulls hard on the reins, bringing the two runaway horses to an immediate stop some 50 yards from the battle that is raging behind them.

Back at the battle site, Will is in a similar predicament to Jihan. He knows that, without the benefit of armor, he is no match for an ogre in melee. He has his shortbow in hand and looks around for a target, but sees none that will not endanger others in the party. He then sees the one priest laying on the ground being slowly devoured by the bugs. Not knowing how long Thunder will keep him out of action for, Will decides to speed the priest to his doom by firing a couple of arrows into him. With the priest being prone, it is not a difficult target for the ranger, and both arrows find their mark. With the additional damage from the ants and beetles that are crawling all over him, he can see that the priest is already very close to death.

Winnacer continues to work upon the other of the stunned priests. He plunges the Lord Protektor's sword into the throat of the priest and easily manages to finish him off.

Gronk dodges again as the ogre facing him makes another clumsy swing at the dwarf as he makes to retrieve Thunder from the grass. The dwarf managed to outfox the ogre leaving him off balance, thus making it very easy for Gronk to quickly bring Thunder back in hand before sending it crashing into the ogre's flank, causing it an horrific injury, but not sufficient to drop it.

Yaz and Aneira both look towards the Padre, who is rather outnumbered by the four ogres that have surrounded him and are trying to beat the hell out of him. Yaz grasps his holy ganja and, with his other hand, pulls forth seven sharp thorns from his pouch while chanting and gesticulating to the area of ground just to the other side of the combat. As the druid finishes, he looks over to Winnacer and gives him a nod.

Meanwhile, the Padre is fighting for his life in amidst the ogres. He manages to catch a glancing blow upon one of the ogres with his morning star, but the weapon is ill suited for fighting such large opponents and the damaged caused is only average. In response, the ogres continue to try and club the unfortunate Padre to the ground. He is well protected by his armor and so several of the blows are deflected by his shield and plate & mail. Still, one of the ogres manages to catch him a nasty blow and Kokal staggers from the impact.

Seeing that the Padre is making little headway against the huge greenskins, Aneira begins to cast as she runs up to provide assistance to the Padre. As she gets to within three feet of the creatures, she opens her fingers into an arc and says the final word of the enchantment. As she does so, the two ogres in the arc are blasted from the rear with a frosty ray of ice. The two ogres bellow in pain from the horrific damage of the ice blast and turn to face Aneira, looking far from happy with the ice maiden.

Meanwhile, Bennett is locked in combat with the dark knight. His nose is starting to run a little now and he is starting to feel a buzzing in his head. It is not sufficient to distract him, however, as he uses all of the strength that Aneira gave him to cleave through the knight's platemail once more in order to inflict a terrible wound upon his adversary.

Bennett's eyes are wide, and he is starting to panic:

"What the hell are you doing to me?"

This takes the dark knight by surprise as he recoils from the pain of the blow, leaving Bennett to easily dodge the cutting movement of the scythe. The dark knight is fast, however and, as Bennett tries to stifle a sneeze, the plate-clad monster brings the scythe crashing down upon Bennett once more inflicting a fairly severe wound upon him.

Bennett is mortified at the new injury, and begins looking around for help, fear showing in his eyes for all to see.

With the horses and cart now out of the range of Yaz' spell, and the recipient of it dead in any case, the horses calm as Jihan pulls them to a halt. Looking over his shoulder and seeing the battle still raging behind him, Jihan sees that he could be of assistance there. He drops down from the footplate of the cart and then begins to dash towards the fight, with both of his shortswords in hand.

Back at the site, the third of the priests finally succumbs to his wounds, as the beetles and ants nip the last remaining life from him. All those who were preoccupied by the priests now look round and see that Aneira and the Padre are very much outnumbered by the ogres.

Gronk continues to slug it out with the ogre that he is fighting. The dwarf manages to give the ogre a good 'whackin' with Thunder and the ogre is starting to succumb to its wounds now. The ogre tries to retaliate, but the dwarf's chainmail manages to soak up all of the damage from the giant sized club.

The Padre, getting somewhat annoyed at his relative lack of success with his morning star thus far, lashes out with abandon at the four beasts surrounding him. He manages to get a good hit on one of the ogres that has been substantially weakened by Aneira's frosty fingers, but the blow from the weapon is not sufficient to down the beast.

Aneira, meanwhile, seeing the two ogres that she injured now turning towards her, decides that she needs a little help from Zima in order to put her on an even combat footing with the brutes. Quickly producing a shard of glass, she starts chanting once again and is rewarded by her goddess as a swirling sword-shaped formation of jagged, fast-swirling ice shards extends from her hand. As she is doing so, however, the two injured ogres try and give her a little payback for their terrible wounds and both lunge at her with their clubs. Although one of the ogres' blows is deflected by her borrowed chainmail, she is unable to spot the club of the other falling upon her and the ice maiden is momentarily dazed from the force of the blow.

The other two ogres continue to attempt to pound the Padre into the ground. Although he manages to avoid a clumsy blow from one of the two, he doesn't see the other one bringing its club to bear and the Padre gets hit in the stomach, winding him and knocking him to the ground.

As the ogres start to menace Aneira, Winnacer, Will and Yaz all pile in to the melee in order to try and finish the combat as quickly as possible. Yaz is first into the fray and lashes out at one of the ogres with his untested scimitar. He is rewarded by seeing the scimitar plunge into the ogre's scaly hide and hearing the beast bellow out in rage and pain. Although the ogre does not fall, it is obviously on its last legs.

Will is the next into the fray targeting another of the ogres with both The Educator and Teacher's Pet. The ogre is ready for him, however, and manages to dodge away from the bard's attacks with both blades.

Winnacer, seeing that two of the ogres are close to falling as a result of Aneira's frost attack, tries to take out both of them with two forceful attacks from Strakota's sword. Both of his mighty blows are on target and the two giant greenskins fall to the ground before the LawBringer's swirling blade.

Just a few yards away, Bennett is still locked in deadly combat with the death knight, with both of them having already taken sufficient damage to drop a normal man.

Bennett is now starting to see red spots before his eyes, his nose is running like a tap and his throat feels as if someone has been sandpapering it for the past half-hour. As the sweat starts to pour from his brow, he realizes that the death knight is a deadly opponent and that if he doesn't finish off the black armored figure quickly, then the filthy figure will surely finish him off instead. The sweat is poring from sickness, panic, and the activity all at once, and only the strength of Aneira's spell enables him to raise his axe once more rather than turn and flee this fearsome creature.

As a result, he puts all of his immense, goddess given strength behind one mighty blow with 'Retribution' aimed at the dark knight's neck. The dark knight, who is more concerned with attempting to hack Bennett's legs off with his scythe, does not see the blow coming until it is too late and is unable to dodge the blow. The finely honed dwarven blade rips through the plate of the dark knight's helmet as if it were little more than foil and there is a disgusting squelching noise as the axehead cleaves through the knight's neck, sending his head flying through the air, leaving a trail of pus, phlegm and bile in its wake. From the knight's neck, a spume of blood and mucus starts to gurgle out, some of it spraying over Bennett.

Bennett falls backward in disgust, grabbing for one of his cleaning rags to wipe it off with, then realizes that the rags were left behind when he was captured. He grabs absently at the much-abused Fabio armor, not remembering it is metal and not cloth. He falls to the floor and vomits in disgust, shaking and collapsing into a ball on the ground.

Meanwhile, back amongst the ogres, the party is very much in a commanding position, with only three ogres left to dispatch. Gronk rains down a couple of blows upon the one that he is facing and manages to carve it down to the ground.

In the center, Aneira brings her frosty blade to bear on the one uninjured ogre. The glittering white sword easily manages to cleave into the ogre's back and causes the ogre some fairly horrific damage, but not sufficient to fell it. The ogre swings around in order to try and beat off the ice maiden, but Aneira sees the blow coming and easily manages to jump back away from the club. Will attempts to finish it off, but once again, the injured ogre manages to avoid the blows from the bard.

Yaz, his confidence in his fighting ability restored at the terrible blow that he caused to the ogre with his new scimitar, lands another perfect blow upon the ogre before him. With the ogre in an already weakened state, the damage is more than enough to send the ogre to its maker, as it crumples into a heap at the druid's feet.

There is just one injured ogre remaining now and Winnacer tries to take it down before it is able to cause any more damage. He manages to land a good blow upon the ogre, but the damage is not quite enough to finish it off as it clings on to life by its fingertips.

Not for long, however.

Jihan runs up to the combat and sees that there is just one ogre remaining. Finding a gap between the other members of the party, Jihan leaps at the ogre from behind, putting all of his force behind him as he stabs the blade into the back of the ogre's skull. The shot is right on target and the blade slices through the beast's miniscule brain before emerging on the other side between its eyes.

As the beast keels over with a surprised look upon its face, it takes the shortsword with it, as it is embedded in the foul creature's skull.

All pause for a breath as they realize the short but bloody combat is over.