Entering The Lab

Bennett and Winnacer stand on either side of the hole as it opens and then peek round into it to see what is inside. They see, to their relief that the room is empty of inhabitants. Looking around, they see that the room is in darkness. However, they can see that it is a small room just 20' wide and 30' long. The room is crammed with bunk beds, six double-decker models, which just about fill the room.

As they peer in, Will speaks:

"With Jihan unable to move on his own, I suppose that it is probably better if I take the point position," the bard says. "The rest of you have armor and so won't be able to sneak around quietly if we have the need."

The others all agree and so Will steps into the room first of all. He carefully checks the room thoroughly, but sees that there is nothing much in the rooms save for the bunk beds:

"This looks as if it is the sleeping quarters for the guards that were with the GermSpreader earlier. That's why it is empty now."

Bennett look at the bunks:

"You could tell which butts rested here? Not bad."

He smiles, keeping watch on the door and the hole as the others rifle through the room.

Will grins a little:

"I'm working on becoming a master ranger someday."

Looking around some more, he sees that there are small chests underneath each of the beds. He carefully opens one of them and sees that it contains some personal items of the guards, clothing and a small amount of coins.

"We might as well have a look through all of them and see if there is anything of interest in any of them."

The rest of them enter into the cramped room and proceed to open up all of the chests. Their contents are similar to the other in that the only items of interest are a small number of coins. In total, they manage to find 50 gold pieces and 173 silver pieces.

As the coinage is found, Jihan fashions a sack from one of the guard's cloaks to carry it in.

"Anybody?" he asks, slinging it over his shoulder if no one else cares to carry it.

Bennett hoists the sack, not letting Jihan carried it in his immobile state.

"That's all there is in this room," Will says, "let us see what the rest of the building holds."

He then advances to the door on the eastern wall of the room. He checks the wooden door for traps, but can find none. He puts his ear to the door and has a listen, but can hear nothing on the other side. He then cautiously tries the lock, which he finds is unlocked and then opens the door a fraction. He pauses for a moment and then pokes his head through.

He sees that he is in a narrow corridor running north/south. It is 10' wide and 60' long and there is no one in it. He looks up and down its length and sees that there is a door at the southern end of the corridor. To the east and west of the northern ends, there are also a couple of doors:

"Any preferences as to which way we should go?" asks the bard.

"Not particularly," Winnacer replies.

"Very well," Will replies. "Let's go south in that case."

With that, the bard starts to pad down the corridor with the rest of the party following him at a safe distance. Upon reaching the door, he goes through the same routine as before, checking for traps, listening at the door and then trying the lock. As before, he finds that it is unlocked, seemingly untrapped and all quiet. Will tries the handle and opens the door.

As he peers inside, he sees that it is another bedroom, currently uninhabited. It is very similar to the last room, except for the fact that it is slightly larger than the first one, being 30' square. Once again, the room contains little save for bunk beds and small chests beneath them. Once again, they all look through the chests and find that, once again, they contain just clothing and personal items and a small collection of coins. In total, the haul amounts to 50 gold pieces and 168 silver pieces.

There are no other exits to the room and so they close the door and head north up the corridor. Will stops just before getting to the doors at the northern end of the corridor:

"I suggest that we finish the western wing off by checking on this room behind the western door," Will says. "It's obvious that it's a fairly small room from the layout of the building."

No one objects to Will's reasoning and so Will checks for traps and listens for the sounds of any activity within. However, all is quiet once more. He then tries the door, but finds it locked:

"I'm afraid that I have no skills in getting through locks," the bard says, apologetically.

He looks over at Jihan, who is being supported by the Padre as they move through the building:

"Do you care to have a try?"

"Certainly," Jihan replies.

"It's good to know that I'm useful for something," he adds, obviously feeling down and feeling as if he is little more than a burden to the rest of the party.

The Padre escorts him to the door and Jihan takes a set of files and other small tools from his pouch. With the Padre's assistance, he crouches and begins to work upon the lock. He spends five minutes or so fiddling with the lock, but eventually sits back, shaking his head:

"I'm sorry, but I can't get through it. I really should have spent a little more of my time learning these types of skills."

Still feeling rather worthless at the moment, Jihan stows away his lock picks, a look of determination in his eyes:

"Luuhan always was better with these sorts of things" he mutters, though it is unclear who he is addressing, then turns to join the rest of the party.

"Sorry to be such a bother, brother," he says to Kokal as he uses the man's massive frame for support.

"Bah," Kokal says, "I thin' ye doin' OK fer after a fall like tha'. Not t'worry tho'. Once I c'n get more spells, I'll fix ye .... or I'll 'least see 'bout makin' ye a crutch tha's more ye size."

Pulling out Makanuru into his free hand, Jihan peers down the corridor cautiously:

"Remember to keep your eyes open up there, brothers. Even the smallest abnormality might be fatal in the home of a paranoid bunch like these Nemotz scum."

"Just prop me up so that I can shoot when we get there," he asks of Kokal.

"Don' worry," the Padre says. "Y'know, I been thinkin' tha' it'd be fine thin' fer me t' earn t'use a bow. Thin' ye might be able t'teach it t' a warhorse like me once we're out o' 'ere?"

"Well, you've come to the right elf on that one," Jihan replies. "Once we get back on the road I can show you the ins and outs of the whole thing. When we get out of here, we'll just have to pick up a few of the guards' bows. These mercs seems like a fairly professional lot, for all that they've never come across much dweomercraft. Their equipment looks to be in fair condition from where I'm standing. The Rebellion can sure use a few more decent swords and bows, not to mention the mail, or we could make a pretty penny on the lot for more practical purposes..."

Not being able to walk around overmuch, still the elf's eyes wander back to the fight, pricing the guards' arms and armor.

Winnacer, seeing that the elf is down, puts a comforting hand upon his shoulder:

"Not to worry, Jihan. Perhaps we shall find a key during our travels, or perhaps we can force our way in later."

Bennett mentally notes this door, assuming there is something interesting therein, planning on smashing down the door later using Regret.

"Let us see what's through the next door," Will says.

With that, he goes through the same routine as usual, with the same results as usual. There are seemingly no traps, nothing to hear behind the door and the door is unlocked. Once again he opens the door just a crack and peers through. He continues to peer for quite a while and then closes the door in order to give his findings to the others in the party without having to whisper too softly:

"It appears that from here we have access to the main room in the temple, at least this level of the temple. I can see only a small proportion of the area from this position as we are at the corner of corridors that run south into the main room and also east to where it ends in some doors. There are also a few doors off the corridor to the east."

"From this position I can see that, at the southern end of the room there are a flight of stairs leading upwards, which must be the stairs that lead to the walls above the gatehouse. I can also just make out the edge of the main door. Between the stairs and the door I can see an 8' tall stone statue of a cowled figure wearing robes. I can also see a gong on the west wall. That's all that I can see from here."

"Heh heh," says Yaz evilly, "stairs up? Up to the top, where those jerk-off guards are?"

He grips his scimitar in reverse and holds it before him, slightly hunched:

"Let's get 'em," he says roughly.

Bennett speaks up:

"What say we continue on down here? I would venture to say that they won't anticipate us ransacking through their lab down here, while the guards up front will be ready for us. Hell, we might even catch one or two of them running toward the front to defend against us. Won't that be fun? I think we should head down the corridor, not either stair. Better to explore the level we're on, I think."

He shrugs, willing to go along with anything reasonable.

"Aye," the Padre says quietly. "Anyone got a way t'bar th'door up t'th gatehouse an' keep th'damn bowmen up there 'til we're damned good an' ready t'deal wit 'em? There's prob'ly another one fer the other side o' the wall too."

There then proceeds a short debate as to the marching order of the phalanx that is the party. Yaz is the first to suggest a possible marching order but, not surprisingly, several of the others have their own idea as to where everyone should be situated.

Bennett objects a bit to Yaz's lineup:

"Uh, does anybody think that Gronk is going to be able to get anything done from that position? Plus it makes more sense to me to have our war priest in front of our ice priestess, huh?"

After a few minutes a decision is reached and they start to make off southwards down the corridor.

Will then continues to lead them southwards and sees that the corridor opens up into a large entry chamber with a ceiling towering 40' overhead. The room is well lit by continual light spells. The northern doors, like the southern, are made of beaten bronze. The floor here is of simple stone. The rest of the room is constructed of the same material, but the walls and ceilings are intricately painted. The predominant colors are deep reds, browns and black. Everywhere they look, there is a scene of diseased and decaying people watched over by priests in yellow and black robes.

As they stand in the entry hall looking around at the disgusting scenes of disease and decay all around them, Winnacer speaks:

"So, we need to make our decision as to where we go next. Yaz has indicated that he would prefer to take out the guards on the walls outside immediately, while Bennett and the Padre have indicated that they would prefer to keep investigating this level. So which is it to be? And if we are to continue exploring within, then which door shall we try next? We now have several to choose from."

Having had little enough to say about marching orders and the like in his current condition, save that he be somewhere in the middle, Jihan comments on the order of operations within the place:

"Our surprise with the guards isn't going to last long, and soon they'll start attempting to think rationally again. Right now they're scared, and on edge, just waiting for something to happen. It probably wouldn't hurt to let them cool down for a while while we check out a few more rooms here. Let the adrenalin start to wear off and the curiosity pick up, then we rush them... We can't wait too long though, because they probably think they're in the prime defensive position out there, and won't be expecting an attack from inside. BUT, if they send someone around and find the hole in the wall, they just might take off with the ferry and make a break for it, maybe destroying the boat in the process or damaging the chains. In that case I'm not worried about us getting back, we can bar the doors down and sit out the night for Yaz's enchantments, but having a bunch of scared mercs on the other side with the boys... and only Oldrich there with them... Sure, they've been getting a lot better with their blades and bows, but ten hardened mercs. I say we just peer in whichever doors aren't locked and then make our way up to deal with them. I've got my mirrors to see around inside if we want to be careful," the elf says, pulling out a periscope-like contraption which he assembles into two angled mirrors on the end of a telescoping rod.

"Use this to peer around inside the rooms without opening the door more than a crack," he says to Will, if the bard must use such.

"Thank you, Jihan," Will says accepting the mirror," Any help is greatly appreciated as the outdoors is more my forte."

Aneira whispers hoarsely, her throat raw:

"And, can we try and disable those gongs somehow? I don't think we're ready to madly charge the guards up top. Let's see if we can find those held prisoner here and free them."

She muffles a hideous cough, trying to remain as quiet as possible.

Will goes over to investigate the gongs:

"They are just suspended onto the frame by hooks," he reports. "We can just lift them off the frame and hide them somewhere. That would disable them OK."

"Maybe we'll be more ready when we have to run for it later and find them all lined up blocking our exit?" snarls Yaz, clearly too wrapped up in excitement to think about diplomacy. "We can get them by surprise now, so we don't have to worry about them later. We gotta kill them some time, because we can't use the ferry until we do. And I ain't lettin' nobody carry me across the water again, no how no way!"

Aneira doesn't even notice Yaz's hostility:

"And maybe we can lure some of them down here at a time, ring one of those gongs and see what happens, lay a trap and heighten our odds."

She looks up at Yaz suddenly, an odd twisted smile crossing her face, her eyes gleaming feverishly bright:

"We can attack though. I'm not afraid to die. Are you?"

With the blood clotting on her neck and leg, and the flecks of dried vomit in the corners of her mouth, and the sweat on her face from the disease, she resembls some demon witch from hell. And she appears to revel in it.

Winnacer peers at Aneira, his face resolute:

"Let us hope that it does not come to that. We came here to hit them quickly in their flank and make sure they cannot sortie after us when we are forced to camp. I think we are likely strong enough to fight the remaining guards, but not prepared to engage the rest of the temple. Let's do what is feasible. Drudging through this place will only serve to prove that we are not afraid to die, but not smart enough to avoid such a fate."

"And let's not tell them where we are. Drawing them out without any secure escape route may end up with us overwhelmed with nowhere to go."

Winnacer's eyes fall upon Jihan's leg:

"We're in no shape to beat a hasty retreat across the river if things turn sour on us. We'd be better off barring entry from the lower levels up to where we are than drawing attention to ourselves."

Winnacer looks at Yaz, then at the rest of the party:

"Let's do this quickly and by the numbers. May Spravedelna be with us all."

"Arright," says Yaz, once Winnacer has finished his speech, "let's get 'em. How 'bout the people without armor on go first, to sneak up and get them from behind? Then the armored guys can rush out and join us."

Yaz looks to the tactician:

"Think it'd help if one of us went outside to do a distraction, Winn? It might even get all the guards in one place, on one wall. That'll make it easier on you fighters, and better for spells and stuff."

"I'd bet that the double doors in the antechamber lead to the stairs going down," replies Winnacer. "Let's quickly bar those doors and proceed to hit the guards hard. We don't have time to do a thorough search, we've wasted enough time already."

"I'll head up one column up the stairs while Bennett heads up the second. The warriors will push into the guards, freeing up some room by the stairs' landing for the others to join us. Bennett and I also can make sure that the guards can't get at the gongs once we get up there."

Winnacer looks back at Yaz:

"I'm not sure if your idea is the most prudent. We cannot be sure that the Nemotz have not sent some people to scout for us or flush us out. I'm not sure that you could handle staunch resistance judging by your wounds. But if this is how you feel you can best help us, then do as you must."

Winn then suggests assault groups:

"Myself, Xavier, Kokal and Faewen'il can take the west staircase, Bennett, Gronk, Will and Aneira, the east."

He then looks at the elf who is still supported by the Padre:

"Perhaps you should stay behind and watch that we do not get flanked - considering you're hobbled."

He then looks over at Yaz:

"And you fit in wherever you like."

Winnacer then adjusts his grip upon the Ripper as he heads towards the first set of stairs. He turns to Bennett:

"Don't let them raise an alarm. Let's make them pay for their sins."

"To hell with that, let's just make them pay for making us sick." mutters Aneira, clutching her mace and ready to smash some skulls.

Yaz gives the paladin a big, sincere smile:

"Aw..." he says, "you DO care!"

With that, he turns and makes for the hole:

"Your cue will be 'cock-holster'... listen for it!" he hisses and then heads back to the hole

On his way out the hole, he thinks to himself:

Y'know, maybe I'll say GermSpreader cock-holster instead of Nemotz priest. Has a better …. AAAARRRGGGHHHHH!!!!!!"

The rest of the party look round to see the druid disappearing from view as he falls through a trapdoor in the floor. There is a loud bang as he obviously hits the floor below, a scream, a sickening squelching noise and then more screaming. They can see a dull purple glow emanating from below and then they hear a creaking sound as the trapdoor slowly starts to rise once more:

"How can that be?" Jihan asks himself. "We've all walked over that area once and nothing happened."

Winnacer watched Yaz skip off to the hole in the building, mentally preparing himself for the battle to come. As the trapdoor opened, his eyes opened wide and his mouth gaped, and with the squelching sound Winnacer shuddered and ran over to see what happened.

"Shit!" Gronk yells. "Knew I oughtta been checkin' 'round better."

Gronk quickly moves toward the trapdoor:

"Quick, 'elp me keep 'is open."

As the trapdoor continues to close slowly, hiding the druid from view, Gronk jams the butt of his crossbow into the narrowing gap between the trapdoor and the wall of the hole. There is a creaking as the trapdoor comes to a stop, as the crossbow butt stops it from closing any further:

"Little lady, coulds 'at rope go down as well as up?" Gronk asks of Faewen'il. "Mayhap nature-boy cans climb back out."

The dour faced Fae surprisingly responds to being called 'little lady'; though her tone of voice suggests she is far from happy about the situation.

"No... we would have ta throw it down ta him an have him activate it. It would be far faster ta throw down a normal rope anyways."

Will leaps to help, simultaneously getting his rope out and tossing one end into the pit.

As they all rush towards the trapdoor, they peer in and see the druid trying to fend off six purple colored huge fungi, which are trying to attack him with their branches. They hear Yaz call out:

"Yaagh! Get me outta here!" while he covers his face to protect it from the fungi.

As Will quickly drops the end of the rope down on top of the druid, one of the violet fungi rakes the half-elf's face with a branch, leading Yaz to cry out with the pain once again.

When the rope comes down, Yaz immediately grabs on to it and Gronk, Winnacer, Bennett and Xavier help Will to haul Yaz out of the fungus garden as quickly as they can. Yaz manages to grab a handful of slime from the floor of the place before he gets hauled up.

Within seconds, the warriors have hauled Yaz up and he is lying on the floor before them, leaving him panting and a little spooked from the shock.

As soon as Yas it out, Gronk removes his crossbow, letting the trapdoor close and making sure the fungus remains behind.

"Pretty colors," he says, slightly dazed. "Weird trip, tho, man. Bad fungus problem. And check this shit out."

He holds out his purple slime-filled hand to Faewen'il for her inspection.

Faewen'il is not looking at the fungus in his hand, however, but rather at the druid's face. They can all see that there are cottony filaments stuck to his face from where the branch of the fungus hit him. The skin underneath the spores is red and bruised and is already beginning to swell up, giving the left side of his face an impression of a boiled chipmunk.

"What" says Yaz through his rapidly growing cheeks. "Why are you looking at me funny?"

Xavier walks over to Faewen'il as she studies the druid's face:

"Fraulein, dis does not look good for our good freund. Rus vas a foul place, in vhich all manner of obstacles, both animal and plant, sapped one's strength. Maybe in your readings did you learn anything of the nature of these twisted things of a botanic nature? You are the best read of us. A Barber Surgeon in Rus used to bathe a victim of such things in alcohol. Maybe that is worth a try."

"I ha never studied such thins, Xavier," Faewen'il replies, "but one would thin tha it be akin ta rot o some such an tha only thins I know tha be good far at least haltin such an infection be fire or frost."

"Bathe me in alcohol... Sounds great, I'm for that!" Yaz replies.

He struggles to stand, his body still battered and bruised from Jihan's fall. He reaches up to scratch his suddenly itchy face, and immediately pulls his hand away:

"Ack!" he cries. "My face is rotting!"

He sniffs the air:

"And it f***in' stinks! Aneira, anything you can do? Kokal? Please?"

Yaz looks to his herb pack to fetch some medicinal items to apply to his face to take the itch away, which he sets about doing immediately, from a sitting position on the floor.

Bennett barely notices the situation with Yaz, engrossed in his own thoughts as he has been for some time. The obvious danger of this place doesn't seem to have had that much effect on him as of yet.

Gronk stares at Yaz's face for a few moments before speaking:

"I says it be time ta give 'em guards a good whackin' an' 'en 'ead out ta lick our wounds. We needs time ta put pointy-ears leg back in 'is skin an' pop nature-boys face 'fore we's ready ta take on 'em pus priests."

Once Yaz is safe, Winnacer speaks, mostly to himself:

"This is a place most vile. I will be happy when this place is no more."

Then seeing Yaz's face, Winnacer suggests:

"Perhaps some of the apothecary's ointments can be of help here."

Once Yaz gets over the shock, and realizes no one can heal him just now, he gets back to business:

"Well, I'm for killin' those bastards now. So let's go do it. Jihan, I can't detect traps today, but I can find magical auras, and snares and trap doors and stuff. Ironic, isn't it? Should we do all the detecting now, or after? I vote after."

"I don't like the look of that fungus hit at all..." Jihan mutters, watching the interplay of the fungoid beasts in the chamber below with an almost morbid fascination as Gronk removes his crossbow from the trap door.

"We might as well just get those guards out of the way right now if there are surprises like this on this floor. We don't have the time to be careful if we've got to rush about. Some magickal aid in detecting such traps can be our next order of business when we return. I'll stay back with my bow to do what I can, brother," the elf says with a nod towards Winnacer.

"Yes, if we had had time to rest and gain spells, that would have been useful indeed," Aneira murmurs. "Unfortunately, I had curing and silence instead."

"Let's get this over with..."

Rubbing his face once more, Yaz carefully makes his way round the trapdoor, which continues to close once Gronk has retrieved his crossbow and heads towards the hole that he made in the side of the wall.

"Remember, 'cock holster' is the cue," he shouts as he departs.

The others return to the positions that they took up before Yaz made his unexpected trip to the basement, with Winnacer, Xavier, Kokal and Faewen'il taking the west staircase and Bennett, Gronk, Will and Aneira, the east. They silently stand behind the door waiting for Yaz to start his act.

Meanwhile, Yaz retraces his steps through the inside of the temple until he returns to the hole he made in the wall. Pausing in order to look carefully around to ensure that there are no guards roaming around outside, he then moves his way clockwise around the building, keeping tightly to the walls in order to ensure that there is no chance of his being seen by the guards. He manages to make it to the southeast corner of the wall without being seen.

Carefully, he looks around the corner to check upon what the guards are doing. They seem to have calmed down a little due to the half hour of inactivity since the fight against the GermSpreader and friends, but are still very much alert and looking all around them with their bows in their hands.

Yaz pulls his head back behind the corner and then begins to chant an unfamiliar spell. He continues to utter the words to the ensorcellment for two minutes, spinning around on the spot as he does it until he is feeling quite dizzy. As he finishes, the air around him seems to take on a life of its own and forms a small whirlwind five feet tall, with a one foot diameter at the base and a three foot diameter at the top. It continues to spin away merrily by his side as Yaz grins at it, his enflamed face forgotten for the moment.

He then pops his head around the corner of the wall once more and starts to yell out at the guards:

"Helloooo, assholes! Yer lookin' a little tired! Too much o' the backdoor orc-whorin' last night?"

There is the sound of movement on the walls as some of those in the center make their way towards the east wall. All of the guards immediately nock arrows into their longbows and cover the corner of the wall.

He pops his head around the corner once more and shouts to them again:

"You guys don't got mouths... You got GermSpreader cock-holsters!"

A volley of arrows comes flying towards the corner of the wall, but Yaz sees them coming and hides back out of the way as six arrows hit the wall at the side of him. The plague of clumsyitis effecting both friend and foe alike continues as one of the guards panics and manages to staple one of his comrades to the wall.

Upon hearing Yaz' code word, both doors to the walls open and the warriors start to flood into the surprised guards. The walls are not wide enough for more than two people to fit side by side and so only the front two warriors on each side are able to get at the guards on the wall. As Yaz hears the warriors bursting on to the wall, he points to the dust devil and sends it flying up to the far end of the wall so that it can start upon the guards that the party can't reach from their current position.

Faewen'il stands behind Xavier and watches the battle in front of her intently, saving her few remaining spells in case things start looking bad for them. Kurtek's wand has been tucked down the front of her dress for easy access should she need it.

Bennett charges into the first of the guards on the east side, pushing him out of the way so that Gronk has enough room to attack the other. While fungi-pits are not something he is enthusiastic about, fighting with guardsmen he can do. He attempts to keep the other opponents, which currently have their bows drawn, unable to draw their weapons by his furious attack. His first mighty blow from 'Retribution' hits the guardsman before he even knows what has hit him, bringing him to his knees. Bennett follows up immediately with a second blow that hacks the first of the guards to pieces even before he has brought his hand down to his sword.

Bennett turns toward his second target, stepping on and over the hacked body in front of him, attempting to leave Will an opening to dart in.

Gronk rushes past him and hacks into the next of the guards, inflicting a similarly mighty blow with Thunder. Laughing maniacally at the ease with which he brought the terrified guard down to his knees, Gronk lifts the axe high in order to deal the guard a deathblow. However, much to his frustration, he looks up only to see Thunder flying out of his hand, over the battlements going on to land with a clatter in the courtyard below.

"SHIT!" yells Gronk.

As Gronk starts to curse and shout after his missing weapon, Bennett sees the dwarf's predicament. Bennett reaches behind him and pulls out Regret, which he hands to the now weaponless dwarf.

"Might want to talk with Winnacer about that problem. He used to do that quite often, Bennett comments."

"'ank ya, Bent," Gronk says as turns to face the guard head on.

During the process, the guard draws his sword to try and fight back against the dwarf, but Gronk's chainmail saves him from any damage. Aneira and Will try to get into the combat, but there is no way for them to pass by Gronk and Bennett.

The two guards at the back try to train their bows on the party members, but their line of sight is obstructed by the other guards before them. Before they know what has hit them, Yaz' dust devil rises from next to him and Yaz directs it to attack the two guards. It obediently flies through the air towards them and starts to whirl around the guards' feet, although does not cause them any damage.

Bennett briefly winces as the guards draw a line on the group, then he notices them swinging their swords about and smiles, muttering something about Yaz being an excellent pest.

The two guards immediately draw their weapons in order to fight off the elemental. The first hacks into the moving air with his longsword, but the second is unable to get a shot at Yaz' helper.

On the other side, Winnacer and Xavier run from the door in the west in order to quickly finish off the four that are on that side. Winnacer rushes past the first of the guards and charges into the second, leaving the first to Xavier and Kokal.

In Winnacer's hand, the newly christened 'Ripper of Pardubitze' is as true as ever and smashes into the side of guard's head. Much of the impact is deadened by the guard's steel cap, but the guard is dazed by the attack and drops his longbow. Winnacer wields the Ripper once again, but the guard comes to and manages to duck away from the attack. He quickly draws his longsword and clumsily raises his sword in defense, but his shot is far from being on target.

Xavier, aware that he stands between Faewen'il and the enemy, fights with a cool head, taking less risks that was the norm. The wild fury usually evident is lacking, his sword play more clinical and precise. Xavier uses The Justifier upon the first of the guards, having given up on The Educator after his lack of success with it. With the familiar and mighty weapon, the Saxon has much better success and hacks into the guard twice, causing him some horrific injuries, but not enough to fell him. The guard tries to retaliate, but his blow is off target. Padre Kokal finds a way through to the guard by Winnacer's side and smashes his morningstar into the head of the guard, finishing him off finally.

Bennett steps over the first dead guard on his side and launches himself at the next one, who is behind Gronk. Bennett has now found his form after his earlier problems and easily manages to cleave the guard in two with a mighty swing from his blade. The only guard not in combat on the east side of the wall rushes forward to fill the gap, but is unable to find a way through the Fabio armor with his longsword.

Bennett looks at the fellow menacingly:

"Looks like your partners have already bit it. You care to join them, huh? For this temple?" he shrugs.

Behind him, Gronk tries to finish off the guard he has already brought to his knees with a blow from Regret. He is not used to the unfamiliar weapon, however, and misses the guard by a wide margin. Will finds a way to get to the guard too, however, and manages to finish him off with a blow from The Educator.

Bennett yells back toward Gronk:

"Don't lose that one. Xavier already lost Zsolt's sword back there and I'd like to walk out of here with some of my weapons!"

At the far end of the wall, Yaz' dust devil continues to whirl ineffectually. The two guards continue to fight it. Although they both hit it, their blows are not sufficient to bring it down.

On the opposite wall, Winnacer lashes out once more with the Ripper and gets another well aimed blow in on the guard, which is sufficient to finish him off. The two remaining guards charge forwards at the young Lord to fill the gap and both lash out at him. One of them misses the LawBringer by a wide margin, while the other's blow is absorbed by Winnacer's platemail. Xavier steps over the first of the guards in order to bring The Justifier to bear once more. The blow from the mighty blade causes horrific damage upon the guard, which almost cuts him in two, finishing the guard immediately.

Bennett strikes out again at the guard before him and causes another horrific injury upon the next of the guards, but not quite enough to finish him. The guard tries to strike back, but Bennett easily manages to dodge the blow. Gronk rushes past Bennett in order to strike out at the guards locked in combat with the dust devil. The dwarf's first blow misses, but the speed of his follow up is such that it takes the guard by surprise and he stumbles backwards and falls to the ground. The dust devil attempts to add to the guard's woes, but he is able to dodge out of the way of the whirling air. The final guard on the east side tries to finish off the dust devil, but the elemental moves just in time to avoid being hit. Will steps forwards in order to assist Bennett in quickly finishing off the guard he had injured, but neither The Educator nor Teacher's Pet manage to strike home.

Bennett smiles at Will:

"Not much left here for ya, but you're welcome to get a piece."

On the opposite side, both Winnacer and Xavier step forwards in order to finish off the last of their guards. Xavier need not have bothered, however, as Winnacer's skill with the Ripper is sufficient to slaughter the guard with two well aimed shots. The Padre uses the connecting bridge over the portcullis to try and catch the guard in combat with Bennett and Will with his morningstar. The Padre puts all of his weight behind a massive blow to the back of the guard's head with the star and crushes his head into a pulp.

As the guard's head smashes like a melon, Bennett ducks the inevitable squishy substances that come flying out:

"Damn, Padre!"

"Now, THA's more like it," Kokal growls, releasing quite a bit frustration on the guard's head.

There are now just two guards remaining, one of whom is now sprawled on the floor before Gronk. Seeing that they have Yaz' dust devil behind them and several angry warriors before them, none of whom have been injured during the brief combat, they realize that they have no chance of survival should they fight on. They throw their swords over the side of the battlements and hold up their hands in surrender.