Securing Nemotz Island

As soon as the guards come within view, Gronk starts letting the bolts fly. Or at least that's what he wanted to do. Upon aiming at the leader of the group and pulling the trigger on his crossbow, the only result is a loud 'BOING' as the string snaps, leading Gronk to scream and shout out in frustration as he sets to work on restringing the bow.

Once he sees the guards approaching, Yaz sprints 60 feet to the southwest, his sling in hand.

Those that are close to Faewen'il see that she is not worried in the slightest at the sight of the approaching guards. In fact, a rare smile comes to her face as she sees that the guards are approaching the party in a line. Without waiting to see what anyone else in the party is doing, she reaches into her pouch and produces a glass rod together with a piece of fur. She starts to rub the fur over the glass rod while at the same time uttering an incantation.

Unaware of what Faewen'il is up to, Yaz also stops dead in his tracks as he sees that, not only are the guards heading towards you in a line, but that they are also following immediately behind one another. Obviously these mercenaries have not been in combat against spellcasters before. Scarcely believing his luck, Yaz reaches into his pouch and produces a mixture of sulfur and wax, which he moulds into a ball as he begins casting.

The glass rod in Fae's hand starts to crackle with static electricity as she grins and holds her hands towards the guards. As she says the final word of the incantation, there is an almighty crack, before an intense blue light pierces the darkness streaking towards the guards, blinding them all momentarily.

As they look up again, they see that five of the six guards are dead with their hair standing on end. The leader, however, who they notice is wearing gold braiding over his uniform, looks to be singed, but is far from being on his back.

Bennett cringes at the smell:

"Holy roasted mercenary!"

Then Yaz finishes his incantation and tosses the ball of paste and sulfur towards the remaining guard. As he watches the ball's progress, he curses to himself at the waste of his spell against just one adversary now that Faewen'il has taken most of the group out, but is compensated a little at seeing the leader overcome with flame as the area around him goes up with an almighty 'WOOF'.

Bennett smiles, though is amazed the guardsman survived both spells. He grabs his long neglected bow to try and finish the job, ignoring the bad vibe he gets when he pulls the first arrow back to his cheek.

The leader's robes are now very much alight and he starts to scream in panic. He immediately starts to head towards the river in order to try and extinguish the flames. To make life that little bit more unpleasant for him, the warriors decide to add a few arrows to the mix. Winnacer fires a couple of arrows at the rapidly departing fiery leader. The first hits him, but bounces off his chainmail, while the other hits the ground several yards away from him.

Bennett, who seems to have inherited Jihan's luck for the day, does significantly worse than the young Lord. Loosening off a quick shot from 'Smoked Goblin' at the leader, Bennett looks on in horror as the arrow flies on an upwards course aimed straight at Jihan, who is concentrating upon letting off a couple of shots at the departing leader. Needless to say, the arrow hits the unfortunate elf in the leg. As he was standing on the edge of the roof in order to get a good shot at the leader, the elf stumbles and starts to scream out as he topples over the edge heading towards the ground.

Bennett curses:

"Finally f***ing killed somebody with this damned thing, and it's Jihan!"

Enraged, he takes the cursed bow and snaps it over his knee.

Beneath him, Yaz is too busy retrieving his sling, 'Cyclops Killer' and grinning at the burning leader to see that there is an elf tumbling out of the sky above him. Everyone else closes their eyes as they wait for the sickening thud.

'THUD'

'OOF'

Bennett throws up his hands in disgust:

"You must be fucking kidding me!"

"FUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!" screams Yaz as the elf lands on top of him, knocking the wind and most probably the crap out of the druid. However, at least the druid is still conscious, which is a lot more that can be said for Jihan, who is out cold. In addition to this, his right leg is bent totally under his beaten body, with a femur poking out of his thigh.

When Bennett sees the carnage he has wreaked, he curses again at the broken bow, throwing it into the river. He rushes over toward the wounded fellows, then stands there dumbly.

Will manages to avoid the sight in order to concentrate upon unleashing a couple of arrows at the rapidly departing leader. Both of his shots simply ricochet off the leader's chainmail, however, as he throws himself into the lake in order to extinguish the flames that are consuming his body.

At seeing the extent of Jihan's injuries, the Padre and Aneira both run towards the elf, knowing that he will surely die if not given immediate attention. As they do so, Winnacer, Will and Bennett all attempt to finish off the leader, who has now managed to extinguish the flames. Winnacer and Bennett both fail to damage the leader, even though their shots were on target. They come to the realization that it is no normal chainmail that the leader is wearing. Will, however, has more success and pumps two arrows into the rapidly cooling leader.

The Padre and Aneira get to Jihan and immediately cast healing spells upon him. The effect of Aneira's spell is weak and does not rouse the elf back to consciousness, but the Padre's spell is more effective and Jihan comes to with a start:

"W-what happened?" asks the elf.

His face then contorts in pain.

"My leg," he whispers through gritted teeth. "I think it's broken."

Meanwhile, the now extinguished leader is running back to the safety of the gatehouse as fast as possible. The archers send another volley towards him in an attempt to finish him off before he can reach there, while Faewen'il starts to cast towards him.

The leader shouts out in pain as both Will and Winnacer both manage to pierce his armor and the leader definitely looks to be weak now. Gronk has now managed to fix his crossbow, but the quarrel that he shoots towards the leader misses him by a wide margin. As the leader is about to round the corner out of the party's view, three bolts of pure energy fly from Faewen'il's fingers and hit the leader in the back of the head. With one final scream of pain, the leader slumps to the ground, dead.

Realizing that the sneakiness is at an end, Gronk calls to Will:

"Can you's see what 'em other guards be doin'? Iffin 'ey be goin' for 'elp we may needs ta scoot quick like. We be OK iffin 'ey can't get word ta 'eir mates. Iffen 'ey do, maybe we's could take 'ere barge 'cross da river, leavin' 'em stuck o'er 'ere whiles we try ta recover."

Will shakes his head:

"I agree with you Gronk," he says. "I think I heard a gong sounding inside a couple of minutes ago. I think that it must have been the alarm sounding. I'm not really surprised after seeing the lightning bolt come shooting past them and all of the other noise."

"Let me see what the situation is at the gate."

With that, Will nods and quietly makes his way over to see what he can see.

Another thought crossed Gronk's mind and he calls over to Yaz:

"'ey, nature-boy, can ya be bendin' stone today? Iffin ya can, mayhap ya should go an' make sure 'em doors won't be openin'."

"Would those be the doors surrounded by ten panicky guards on high alert armed with longbows?" the druid replies sarcastically, still grimacing from the pain of being hit on the head from Jihan's impromptu skydiving demonstration.

Gronk moves over to the temple next to where Jihan took his dive. As the others tend to Jihan's wounds, Gronk takes a close look at the temple construction, trying to determine whatever he can about the walls.

Jihan, though quivering with pain, seems almost nonchalant about the extent of his injuries:

"Oh you're back," he mutters in near delirium, "thought I'd lost you there for a moment..."

Shaking his head, he peers up at his twin saviors, and gives a brave little grin:

"My thanks, Aneira, Padre. It's just a flesh wound, I'm sure..."

Only as he stares down at the extent of the twisting of his leg does he realize just how serious the situation is. The grin fades from his face even as the waves of pain find purchase on his brain through a thick blanket of shock and adrenaline.

"Well, brothers and sisters," he says, gritting his teeth as his weight shifts minutely, aggravating his leg further, "looks like I'm useless until I get patched up some. What's the plan now? I figure someone can carry me back with the boots and dump me off at camp for the squires to look after while you fellows have another go at the temple, put me out of my misery and float my carcass off down the river, or pack up all our bags and get the hell out of here for now."

"Ah, knock it off, will ye?" Kokal asks Jihan, not completely benignly. "Be 'appy ye not just a stain on th' groun' after a fall like tha'! 'An I c'n get ye so tha' you'll only be MOSTLY useless, at least."

The Padre flashes a SMALL grin, and sets about his healing, including getting the painkillers out that the party obtained from the apothecary in Vysoke Myto.

"See t' Yaz, 'less ye got a spell t'knit Jihan's bone," Kokal says to Aneira. "I c'n 'andle this ... e'en the disease if necessary. 'O knows 'ow much time we got 'afore there's more guards t'deal wit."

"No, I have no such power today," replies Aneira, her voice sounding somewhat muted in her own head.

"Speakin' o' which, ye might see t'yeself too," the Padre continues. "Lookin' a little pale ... e'en fer you."

Aneira shrugs:

"I have a month or more before I die; there may be others that need it more."

Bennett looks with admiration at the cool lady, speaking to Kokal:

"It may be tempting to use those disease curatives right now, but I would hold them off until we start to suffer from the nastiness. Surely we'll just run into more germs the longer we spend here."

He shrugs his shoulders, not really interested in arguing this point.

The Padre pauses a moment in his ministrations to Jihan and gives a quiet sigh, seemingly thrilled at being lectured about medical prudence by Bennett, but also decides he has more important things to do than argue.

Aneira then walks over to Yaz to see if he needs her aid.

"Yaz, can you heal yourself, or do you need my help?" asks Aneira, stifling another sneeze.

Yaz doesn't respond, more concerned with taking another breath before he asphyxiates. Eventually air returns to his lungs, and he gasps:

"Self..."

He then sets about casting on himself.

Aneira shrugs and leaves him to it.

The Padre turns back to tending to Jihan. After suggesting that now might be a good time for the elf to take one of the painkillers obtained from the Guildmistress of the Apothecaries' Guild, the Padre then starts to cast healing spells upon the elf. He casts four in all, but the effects of the healing spells overall are only average and the elf is still a way away from full recovery after the Padre has concluded his casting. Sill, the elf is looking in a lot better shape than he did earlier. Once the healing rites have been completed, the Padre takes a couple of arrows from Jihan's quiver and then snaps the heads of them off underfoot. He then proceeds to bandage the arrows to Jihan's broken leg in order to form a makeshift splint. After finishing, Jihan is still unable to walk unsupported, but can hop around if supported by someone else.

Emitting a few rounded curses in gnomish, the elf squirms about as the healing efforts of the Padre are completed:

"Probably be best to see what can be done about the other guards first... though I doubt any one of them is outside any more after that little bit of 'commotion'."

Looking rather pathetic in a macabre sort of way covered in mud and his own blood with a thin line of mucus running down his face, the elf struggles to look across at who he ended up hitting.

"Brother..." he utters upon seeing the crumpled form of Yaz nearby. "Sorry about that. You didn't get anything broken did you?"

Xavier, realizing that this is not an ideal situation to be wandering around dressed in just his gambeson, quickly heads over to the carcasses of the guards, still smoking from Faewen'il's shocking spell. He drags the chainmail off one of them and proceeds to put it on over his gambeson as quickly as possible. Aneira has the same idea. Leaving Jihan in the capable hands of the Padre, she rushes back over to where Winnacer deposited her armor and mace on the shore and quickly puts her chainmail on.

Bennett whispers to Yaz:

"Hell, you think Xavier's gonna wanna swim down to the bottom of the river to retrieve his damn helmet?"

He shakes his head, hoping the stubborn Saxon doesn't notice its absence.

Gronk quickly checks out the east and north walls of the building, not wanting to get too close to the southern end of the building. He then comes back to report:

"The northern end's pretty solid. Gotta be ten foot thick along most o' it."

"The western wall's a piece o' shit though. It can't be more than a foot or so thick. Crappy piece o' work. Sure as 'ell weren't built by no dwarves, that's for sure."

Bennett looks questioningly at Yaz:

"What do you think, tree-hugger? Seems like you could put a nasty dent in that wall."

While Gronk is checking out the wall, Will cautiously edges to the southern edge of the roof and looks over down to the gatehouse below. He studies them for just a couple of seconds before edging back across the roof as cautiously as he got there. He then reports his findings to the others:

"They're spooked alright. All of them have now got their heads above the battlements trying to see what's going on, with arrows nocked in their longbows. There's still all ten of them there spread out along the walls."

Bennett shakes his head:

"I ain't going that way. Fuck that!"

Will then freezes:

"I can hear some movement now, coming towards us," the bard continues. "Let me go and see what it is."

He then crawls back towards the southern edge of the rooftop. Upon popping his head over the edge of the roof, a look of panic comes to his face and he scuttles back across the roof towards the others' position at the northwestern edge of the temple.

"There are more guards coming," he quickly shouts. "There are six of them coming round the western side of the building. But what's worse is that …"

Before Will finishes, they can all see for themselves the reason for his panic. Around the eastern edge of the building, coming towards them, is another group of five guards. At their head is none other than a GermSpreader, clad in the same black platemail as the one that you faced in Vysoke Myto and similarly armed with a wicked looking scythe. The GermSpreader seems to be more aware of mages' tactics than the previous leader as this group is fairly spread out.

Everyone immediately scrambles to get ready to deal with the threat of the rapidly advancing guards.

Struggling to get into a sitting position, Jihan looks around for Weitbeissen and some arrows, the bow and most of his ammunition being thrown clear in the fall.

"Could someone kick my bow and a few arrows this way?" he asks.

"I can still shoot, but I'm a sitting duck here... Anyone up to giving a piggy-back ride to an elf in need?" he asks, not really expecting a serious response.

"I'll be ye crutch," Kokal says while moving himself -- and his shield between Jihan and the approaching guardsmen. "Radegastians don' leave fallen comrades on th'field."

"Nor do followers of the Three... Thank you, brother," the elf says quietly.

Bennett rolls his eyes at the religious claptrap, but is glad that the Padre volunteers. He sees a bigger fish to fry and rushes forwards in order to meet the attack of the GermSpreader and the guards.

Once he's positioned himself between Jihan and the approaching guards, Kokal takes a quick look around to see if he can recover the elf's bow and some arrows without getting distracted from the guard troop. He sees it laying just a few yards from where Jihan fell and so quickly dashes over to retrieve it for the elf.

Once the Padre returns, he says quietly to Jihan:

"C'n ye get 'old o' any fire? I got some vials o' combat oil tha' we could toss at th'armored bag o'pus there that'd make thins tough fer 'im .... an' disinfect t'boot."

Smiling a bit at the jest despite himself, Jihan gives himself the quick once over:

"I have my flint and steel, but all of my things are still wet from my dunk. Hand me a few scraps of dry cloth and I can wind a few flaming arrows if the need presents itself," the elf responds, already drawing his bow back as his eyes scan for possible targets.

"Best to wait and see what our dweomercasting friends will cook up first, though..."

"Aye," the Padre agrees. "Let's get ye into the safest position possible first of all while we see what's left o' them once they've done their casting."

With that, the Padre puts his arm under Jihan's shoulder and drags him back to the corner of the building in order to help protect him from the oncoming horde.

As soon as Gronk spots the GermSpreader he starts loosing bolts at him:

"Looks like we gots 'nother snot-nose ta take care o'."

He presses the trigger on the crossbow and sends a bolt heading towards the GermSpreader who is continuing to advance towards them, the five guards following behind him. The bolt is bang on target, but can only manage to scratch his armor. It's obvious that it is no normal platemail that the foul paladin is wearing.

"Shit!" yells Gronk, "damn magical tin bucket!"

Bennett forgets the discussion of how to get in and ignores the spell preparations of the others for the most part. He speaks softly, "Fabio", girds up his shield, calmly draws Retribution, murmuring to himself:

"Well, did it once, why not twice?"

Fae is not happy in the slightest and brings out her wand and levels it at the GermSpreader, saying something in an odd tongue as she did so. As she does so, a thin ray of bluish color flies from the wand aimed towards the GermSpreader. As the bolt of blue hits him, the GermSpreader is immediately struck rigid, not moving a muscle. The five guards behind him are not stopped by their leader's immobility, however, and rush in to close with the party.

Bennett looks a little disappointed at the ease with which Faewen'il was able to incapacitate the GermSpreader, but it does not weaken his resolve to see the GermSpreader finished.

"Someone needs to finish him," he mutters as he proceeds to advance towards the GermSpreader, intent upon finishing the big black armored fellow.

As he engages, he yells out to Xavier and Winnacer:

"Watch out for the ones on the west side!"

Xavier, in full stride, yells back at Bennett as he sees the other group of guards approaching from the west:

"Yar, Yar I see der bastards. Fear not!"

Xavier then hears Will shouting from the roof:

"Here, take my sword. You can't take them on with your bare hands."

He then throws The Educator down towards the Saxon before readying his shortbow to fire at the guards on the other side.

Xavier catches the sword and says:

"Danke, mein freund. Der blessings of Rodengast upon thee."

Xavier then strides forward with sword and shield raised for battle, his hair free of a helm blowing in the wind, his eyes glaring at the enemy.

As Xavier rushes to encounter the guards approaching from the west, Winnacer sees the guards rushing to defend the paralyzed GermSpreader from Bennett's attack. Realizing that the warrior is going to have difficulties accomplishing this on his own, Winnacer strides purposefully after Bennett in order to assist him in finishing off the anti-paladin.

As Bennett comes up close to the GermSpreader, three of the guards launch themselves at the warrior in order to try and stop him from finishing off their leader. Being so intent upon seeing the GermSpreader finished, Bennett is not concentrating upon the attacks of the guards and two of them manage to find a way through the Fabio armor. In keeping with the run of luck that the day has brought, one of them catches him in his unmentionables, leading Bennett to scream out in pain. A lesser man than Bennett would be doubled up with the pain from the attack, but Bennett, his face glowing red beneath his visor, manages to keep from keeling over.

Bennett doesn't say a word, only the groin protection of his plate armor keeping him from singing falsetto. He spins his head around in his best cartoon style, trying to clear his head.

Instead, he takes his frustration out on the paralyzed GermSpreader by kicking him firmly in the breastplate in order to topple him over, which he manages to do with ease. While trying to fend off the attacks of the guard with his shield, he looks for a way to finish off the GermSpreader quickly. Seeing that his platemail is all but impenetrable. He flicks open the GermSpreader visor with the axehead in order to hack into its face with 'Retribution'. As Bennett looks down at the face of the GermSpreader, however, he sees one of the most hideous sights that he has ever seen. The face is just one big mass of pus and warts and rot. One of the GermSpreader's eyes is missing and maggots are crawling out of the eye socket. Bennett tries to fight off the wave of nausea coming over him, but the sight is just too revolting and he can do nothing but retch uncontrollably from the sight and the terrible stench of decaying flesh. Bennett is overcome by the groin shot and the repulsive appearance of the anti-paladin, just hoping he hasn't been exposed to the same nasty virus as before by getting that close.

Meanwhile, Winnacer is right behind him and sees that Bennett could easily be overpowered while in his nauseous state. The LawBringer wades into the guards around Bennett and lashes out at the closest of them, inflicting a serious wound upon the guard, but not sufficient to fell him. Two guards try to counter attack against the LawBringer, but Winnacer's platemail and shield ensures that none of their blows strike home.

Gronk, seeing that combat has been joined, tosses his heavy crossbow to the ground and draws forth Thunder in order to assist Winnacer and Bennett in finishing them off.

Meanwhile, on the western flank, Will sends a couple of arrows flying towards the leader of the group. One of his arrows strikes home, hitting the sargeant in his arm.

Yaz has the same idea and draws forth 'Cyclops Killer' and sends a bullet hurling towards the sargeant. As is so often the case with him, however, the bullet misses its target by a wide margin. Seeing that Xavier is almost upon the leader now, Yaz draws forth his 'lucky' scimitar and runs after the Saxon.

Aneira, clad again in the chain armor she had recently acquired, clutches her mace and readies herself for attack. She sees that Xavier and the still far from healthy Yaz are going to have their work cut out holding off the six guards on their own and so wades in to attack the guards.

Xavier rushes in amongst the six guards and tries to take down the sargeant. However, even the magickal enchantment of The Educator is insufficient to compensate for the fact that Xavier is unused to fighting with a longsword and the sargeant easily manages to parry the blow. The sargeant tries to get a blow in on the Saxon, but Xavier's borrowed chainmail manages to protect him from any damage. Two other guards try to succeed where the sargeant failed, but Xavier manages to dodge their clumsy blows.

Aneira comes up at Xavier's side in order to stop him from being overpowered by the guards. She lashes out at the closest of them and manages to stove his head in with a mighty blow from her enchanted mace. Two other guards try and retaliate, but Zima is watching over her and neither of them come close to hitting her.

"Looks like the others have managed to keep them away from me, Father," says Jihan to the Padre who is shielding Jihan from possible attack from the guards.

"Aye," Padre Kokal responds. "The guards'll 'ave trouble gettin' through to ye now that the others are in among them."

"Leave me now, brother," Jihan replies. "I shall be able to look after myself, I think."

"Aye," the Padre agrees. "I think I best be givin' the west flank some support. Yaz ain't in no better shape than ye."

With that, the Padre draws his morningstar and heads off to where Xavier is keeping the west flank at bay.

Over on the east flank, Gronk heads directly for the guards that are surrounding Bennett, hoping to take the pressure off of him so he can finish the GermSpreader. Bennett is starting to fight off the effect of the GermSpreader induced bout of nausea that he has been feeling. Before he can, however, two of the guards take advantage of his situation by landing blows upon him. The strike of the first is only superficial, but the second finds a chink in the Fabio armor and plunges his longsword deep into it. Bennett screams with pain once again and is forced to bring his hand down to try and stop the blood jetting from his side.

"Son of a bitch," he shouts in frustration.

More eloquent cursing follows. He brings his shield arm down as he tries to halt the blood flow, swinging his axe about awkwardly.

Bennett is getting rather angry by now. Managing to fight off the bout of nausea finally, he takes Retribution by the haft and brings it down upon the open visor of the GermSpreader helm with all of his might. There are sparks as the axe blades cleaves through the side of the helm and hacks the top of the GermSpreader's head off, most definitely leaving the evil adversary stone dead.

Bennett continues to hold his hand to the wound, turning with a low crouch to attempt to help Winnacer dispatch the guards.

Meanwhile, Winnacer is trying to deal with another two of the guards. He plunges the Lord Protektor's sword right through the chainmail of the one that he had previously injured, killing him. The other guard facing Winnacer tries for a little payback. However, this time it is the bad guys' turn for the hand of luck to go against them and the guard manages to lose hold of his longsword, which narrowly avoids hitting one of the guards locked in combat with Bennett. The guard pulls out his knife in order to face the LawBringer.

Seeing Bennett taking a terrible beating, Gronk crashes into the melee in order to give the warrior a hand. Raising Thunder high in the air, he brings it down upon the guard that caused such terrible damage to Bennett and hacks into him, although the chainmail manages to absorb much of the impact of the blow.

Bennett nods toward the stout fellow with a grimace, but says nothing.

On the western flank, Xavier continues to fight it out against the sargeant, but continues to have little luck in getting the unfamiliar blade to do as he wishes, easily enabling the sargeant to parry. The sargeant counters with a thrust against the Saxon that hits him, but luckily causes little damage. Two other guards are fighting against Xavier, one of whom causes him a fairly effective wound.

Next to him, Aneira is also locked in combat with two of the guards. She strikes out again with her mace, but this time the guard manages to dodge. The guard tries to follow through with his sword, but Aneira sees the blow coming and parries it perfectly, smashing the blade of the guard's longsword to pieces and leaving him temporarily weaponless. The other guard that she is fighting, however, has a little more luck and manages to scratch the ice maiden. Aneira doesn't seem to notice the minor injury, but continues to fight as best she can. Her face is set and pale, except for the feverish red blotches beginning to stain her cheeks.

Just then, Yaz and the Padre come running in to join the fight. True to form, Yaz doesn't manage to hit any of them, but the Padre is one person who is on form today, as he easily manages to smash one of the guard's face to a pulp with two well aimed blows from his morningstar.

With the GermSpreader now well and truly dead, Bennett is looking for a little payback. However, the run of luck that he seemed to have borrowed from Jihan for the day shows no sign of abating as, with pain shooting through his body from his gonads, from the horrific wound in his side and from the nauseous feeling running throughout his body, it's not that easy for him to concentrate, and both of his blows are easily dodged by the guards. Gronk has just as little success, as the blow from Thunder cannot penetrate the guard's mail. The pair of them manage to avoid any retaliatory blows from the guards, however.

Continuing to swing Retribution around in an awkward, defensive arc, Bennett just attempts to keep his opponents busy until the more effective warriors dispatch them.

Winnacer has no such problems, however, and uses the Lord Protektor's sword to inflict a severe injury upon the guard who is unable to parry now that he has lost his sword. He tries to respond with his knife, but Winnacer's platemail manages to save him from harm.

On the western flank, the guards are starting to struggle a little now that they no longer outnumber their adversaries. Xavier, yet again, manages to come nowhere close to hitting the sargeant with The Educator, yet manages to avoid the sargeant's counter attack. Aneira is on form, however, and manages to land another glancing blow upon the guard with the broken sword. The guard pulls forth his dagger and thrusts it into the ice maiden's neck, inflicting a really bad wound.

Aneira feels the knife enter her skin with something like a smile of amusement at the pain the wound inflicts. Perhaps it is the fever speaking, but her eyes glitter brightly as she continues to use her mace to deadly effect as the blood drips wetly down her neck.

Next to her, Yaz tries once more to hit another of the guards with his 'lucky' scimitar. The luck is still not there, however, and he misses the guard by a wide margin. The guard's retaliatory blow is good, but Yaz' magic bracers glow and he is saved from harm. The Padre's new found form proves to be shortlived and the guard neatly dodges the Padre's morningstar. However, the guard also is unable to land a blow upon the Padre.

Bennett thrashes about wildly while trying to fight off the extent of his injuries, but to no avail and the guards easily manage to dodge the blows. Gronk has substantially more luck than his partner and manages to sink Thunder deep into the flank of one of the injured guards, killing him, before wheeling round and injuring another of them. As the guard screams out with the pain, he thrusts his longsword into the dwarf's shoulder and inflicts an even worse wound upon Gronk.

Seeing his partner wounded when he should have downed the guard by now, Bennett puts more energy into his wild swings, but with no better results. Fortunately for him, Winnacer is on the case.

Winnacer, meanwhile, can do no wrong. With one blow of the Lord Protektor's sword, he finishes off his adversary. The young Lord then turns and sinks the sword into the back of the guard fighting against Bennett, killing him in one stroke.

Bennett looks over at Winnacer, almost thankful. Almost....

On the other flank, Xavier is so annoyed with his lack of luck with the longsword that he flies off the handle and starts to rain blow after blow against the petrified sargeant. In his rage, which sees the Saxon frothing at the mouth, he hits the sargeant twice with the longsword, inflicting some horrific damage upon the guard. The sargeant lamely tries to retaliate, but has no chance of getting past the whirl of steel that is Xavier and The Educator.

Aneira too is pretty mad after getting wounded by the dagger armed guard and smashes her mace into the guard's chest once again, winding him. He makes a quick recovery, however, and manages to slash Aneira in the leg with his dagger. Aneira barely feels the slash, however. Yaz finally manages to have some success with the 'lucky' scimitar and plunges it into the guard's calf, killing the feeble fellow, even though the damage caused was not so great. The Padre rains down more blows upon the other guard with his morningstar, but the guard manages to dodge them all, but is unable to land a blow upon the Padre.

The sargeant facing the infuriated Saxon sees that the battle is going against them now and screams out:

"RETREAT!"

There is just one guard left on the eastern flank now, faced by Bennett, Gronk and Winnacer. As soon as he hears the order to retreat, he turns on his heels and tries to dodge the blows of the warriors in order to get out of the place as quickly as possible.

He's not getting away that easily though. Now totally enraged by his wounds, Bennett lets Retribution fly towards the back of the fleeing guard and inflicts a terrible injury upon him. As the guard pulls free of the head of Retribution, Gronk brings Thunder crashing down upon the guard's shoulder and fells him instantly.

Bennett grimly cheers as he allows the fellow to run after the stroke:

"Damn, on turned backs and frozen opponents, I'm a killer!"

On the western flank, Xavier's furious attacks with The Educator continue and he brings down the injured sargeant with one of his many blows. Aneira is similarly successful in finishing off the dagger-armed guard by smashing him over the head with her mace and stoving the man's head in. She watches the man die emotionlessly. Both Yaz and the Padre swing at the last remaining guard as he heads away from the fight, but he is too quick for either of them and he manages to escape from their weapons.

As he bolts away, the injured elf, laying on the ground with an arrow nocked in Weitbeissen, just waiting for an opportunity to let the arrow fly, lets it head off towards the fleeing guard. The first arrow misses the fleeing guard by a fair margin, but the second one hits the guard in the side. Will also sees the guard flee and also lets a couple of arrows fly towards the last of the guards. The guard is fleeing for his life, however, and neither of the arrows strike home.

Xavier, Yaz, Aneira and the Padre all charge after the fleeing guard in order to try and finish him. However, the guard is fast and rounds the corner of the building screaming for the others to help him. Knowing that rounding the corner of the building will result in their getting shot up by the guards at the gate, the four of them are forced to call off their chase, allowing the injured guard to reach the safety of the gatehouse.

Winnacer's face was grim and merciless as he methodically worked his way through the guards. His eyes at all times could be noted to be watching his comrades and the enemies engaging them, picking his strikes to be the most effective for the group rather than flashy. As his enemies fell, one by one, to his blade, he quickly reassessed where he was most needed and brought his new blade to bear.

As the battle drew to a close, Winnacer noted the numbers of guards torn to shreds by the Lord Protektor's blade. With a nod, Winnacer addresses the blade:

"You shall do nicely, for few blades have torn through the enemy as you have. You certainly are 'The Ripper of Pardubitze'."

Aneira walks to Bennett and lays her hand on his shoulder. She then, saying nothing, takes her hand away and waits to see what the others will do.

Bennett, preoccupied with his own injury, is surprised by the healing touch. Turning to thank Aneira, he notices her condition to be nearly as bad as his own.

Seeing Aneira head over to Bennett and Winnacer's portion of the field, Padre Kokal regards the situation following the battle on the western flank:

"Come wit me if ye wan' me t'see t'ye wounds, Sir Xavier" he says to the Saxon while starting to move back to Jihan's position. "I got t'see 'bout th' elf's sick an' my bet is th'guards ain't jus' gonna sit an' wait t'be 'it again."

"Danke Padre, it be but a scratch," Xavier replies. "Others may be more in need than I at this time. I shall see you when you are finished."

Xavier cleans his blade upon one of his foes, and removes the scabbard of one to put the borrowed "Educator" within.

Coming back to Jihan, Kokal asks:

"How're ye feelin'? I c'n take the disease fr' ye if ye wan'."

"Well, carrying just me around for the day is bad enough, but disease as well?" Jihan responds. "I'm sure I'll be fine, but if you get it, then you'll have to waste an unnecessary blessing on yourself. Cast away, brother."

"Can't do anythin' 'bout ye leg 'til th' mornin', tho'." the Padre says sadly, "an' I doubt ye c'n climb tha' rope wit it ... 'least not wit'out 'elp."

"Truth be tol', I be nearly out o' 'ealin' altogether fer t'day," he continues, almost to himself. "Might be best fer us t'retreat an' regroup 'fore we go inta tha' cursed place?"

Bennett turns to Kokal and Yaz as his foggy vision from the disease starts to clear as a result of Aneira's healing administrations:

"Some help here, fellas? The lady is in a bad way."

He grins despite Aneira's grim attitude:

"Kicked some ass over there, huh?"

Seeing no return smile, he ceases the attempt.

Padre Kokal is occupied with seeing to Jihan, but at hearing Bennett's question, he answers without looking at the fighter or turning his attention from the elf:

"She's turned me down every time I've wanted t' 'elp 'er, whether it's been 'cause o' blades or th' sick she got from th' water," he says with a mixture of sadness and annoyance. "I'm not goin' t'beg anyone t'let me see to 'em."

"Maybe she c'n 'eal 'erself? Any rate, I c'n only end one infection t'day, an' th' elf 'ere's got it too."

"I'm fine," Aneira snarls. "Leave me alone."

Bennett decides to keep a close eye on Aneira. He is very worried about the recent almost suicidal actions she is exhibiting, and intends do his best to make sure she doesn't take too much punishment.

Winnacer then sees Bennett's green-tinged face, that is now starting to return to normal and walks over and observes the putrid fleshy mass that lies hacked up at his feet. Winnacer sneers at the corpse and brings the newly dubbed 'Ripper' across its shoulders before giving the head a healthy kick:

"Filth-loving scum. May Spravedelna's Judgement give you an eternity to think about the errors of your ways."

Bennett then changes the habit of recent days and speaks directly to Winnacer:

"Winnacer, do you think you can remove his plate mail and weapons before we burn him? I know it's a filthy job, but magick plate mail is worth too much to just destroy. Boil it for a couple of days and it should be fine as a present. I have thoughts of a nice heap of magickal goodies to equip our rebel friends with. It's always good to have bribes for allies."

Winnacer turns to Bennett:

"We'll come back for the rest. We have to move quickly now while they are off balance."

"Okay," Bennett agrees. "But we'll need to retrieve the armor at some point. Once boiled, it will make a nice gift, unless it identifies as something really nice, in which case we can have Glorin rework it for one of us."

Winnacer then surveys the party, noting the severity of everybody's wounds. With a grim shake of his head, he speaks in a low voice:

"Let's see what we can quickly do to get everybody back on their feet again. I don't think it will be too long until they have a chance to prepare some staunch defenses against us."

Bennett stands up, not saying anything, but his stance indicates to all that he is on his feet now, particularly after Aneira's spell.

"I think it best if we were to push the slight advantage we have now," Winnacer states. "Most likely they will be trying to prepare to repulse an entry attempt by ourselves or watching for our retreat. If we could maneuver behind their defenses and hit them hard one last time, then retreat back across the lake, we could take the evening to lick our wounds with little fear of counter-attack."

Bennett nods, indicating his assent to this idea, but doesn't speak.

Yaz is practically hopping in impatience to go after the guards, still in battle-mode:

"Retreat? F*** that! Let's kill 'em all!" he shouts, raising his bloody scimitar high in the air, his straggly hair flying about his head.

"The guards' quarters are known to be on the west side of the building." Winnacer continues. "Likely the lot of them are being mobilized to defend against our entry. That means the room is most likely empty and entry through it would give us access to the fortress and give us an opportunity to hit them from surprise and from the rear. If Yaz can perhaps convince the stones of this diseased place to part for us on the west side, we can hit them hard and to the last man."

"If we're all fer goin' on straight 'way, I'll be with ye," the Padre says. "But after seein' t' Jihan's sick an' maybe one other hurt, which Sir Xavier has firs' dibs on, that's it fer MY 'ealin' 'til I c'n get some rest an' prayers in. So anythin' tha' 'appens inside 'til then I, at leas', c'n only see t'wit bandages an' th' like. Mebbe the priestess or th' druid has more 'n tha' still?"

Yaz has not yet come down from the adrenaline rush of combat, and replies a little too loudly, without humor:

"Thanks, Koke-man, but I'm no Druid, not yet! And for healing, I ain't got shit."

"Seems like a big risk tha' we'll clear tha' place out t' th' las' wit'out needin' more healin' than we got now or tha' we'll fin' a place t'sleep an' get more once we're in," the Padre continues. "But I agree tha' if we leave wit'out finishin', it'll be 'arder t'get back in next time 'less we can severly 'urt 'em first. So, I'd be for at eas' hittin' the barracks if we c'n do it wit'out too much risk o' lots o' wounds. Ye plan to come through th' walls an' hit 'em fast, then wit'draw sound reasonable, Lord Winnacer -- 'specially if we got some killer magicks t'throw at 'em."

"Course we don' know what more troops they might 'ave got undergroun'.... so let's not get TOO ambitious jus' yet, I'd say."

Bennett looks toward Yaz, giving up the mute act:

"Gronk said that was the best target for your spell. What do you think? Hit them now or move across the river and let them get ready for us?"

"Hit 'em now! Hit 'em now! I'll open the wall!!" Yaz jumps in the air a few times, arms flailing, then turns and tears off to the north, disappearing around the corner.

"I'm ready to go with the majority on this one, though I prefer making a move on the complex now as well," Bennett continues, "If Yaz springs open the wall, I will follow right behind Winnacer, assuming he's going to lead the way."

Bennett says this as he heads after Yaz, making sure he doesn't go in and fight all by himself.

"If the whole lot of us stick tight by the wall, we'll be out of range of their vision," the LawBringer continues. "It's not likely they'll peek over too much for fear of catching a lightning bolt in the arse, and if we move quick, they may even think we left. That will make it even a bigger surprise when we hit them hard from the rear."

"With the guards out of the way, it is likely the priests will take little offensive action against us when we pull out. We've blown all chance of doing this secretly, so it looks like we need to wipe this filthy blotch off the map if we wish to save the prisoners."

"It would be appropriate to discuss what magicks would be useful in such a rear assault, especially considering our somewhat weakened condition."

With Yaz enthusiastically rushing off round the west side of the building in order to start work on opening up an entrance, the decision is made to enter through a hole in the wall:

"Let me have a quick look at what's going on at the gatehouse at the moment," says Will, who is still up on the roof.

With that, he crawls cautiously across the roof and spends a few moments observing the guards before crawling back to the north of the roof. He then quickly descends Fae's magickal rope and comes to report upon his findings:

"It all seems pretty quiet upfront," he says. "There are still the ten of them there with bows ready, looking all around them for something to shoot at."

"I don't know what happened to the injured guard who managed to escape from us. He must be inside now, as I couldn't see any sign of him."

Once Will is down, Faewen'il walks over to the rope and claps her hands. The rope goes limp and falls to the ground next to her. She then proceeds to fold the rope and place it over her shoulder.

Winnacer watches everyone's final preparations and then urges everyone onwards:

"Everyone remember to keep close to the wall as we make our way round so that the guards at the gate can't see us."

With that, Winnacer leads the party around the west side of the building where he finds an excited Yaz molding a piece of wet clay into a flat oval shape:

"Hey, Gronk," the druid says as he sees the dwarf coming with the others, "how's the wall here? It's not too thick is it?"

Gronk looks carefully at the construction of the wall, taps it in a few places and then shakes his head:

"No, same piece o' crap as the east wall. Not much more than a foot or so thick anywhere."

"Great," Yaz replies. "That means that I should be able to make us a nice wide hole so we can get in and out of here in a hurry. No need for any of that crawling in and out business."

Yaz then proceeds to start uttering an incantation, which takes him a minute to recite and then he places the oval shape against the wall before him. As he does so, the wall starts to melt away before him, leaving a neat wide hole some five feet or so tall and three foot wide.