Fiasco At The Gate

Winnacer leads the party out of the stables. As they enter the streets of Olmutz for the last time for a while, they see that it is still snowing heavily and that the ground has been covered by a fresh layer of snow during the night. Needless to say, it is horribly cold too.

Winnacer sighs as he pulls his cloak closer around him:

"It's always raining or snowing whenever we have to travel," he mutters, shaking his head.

As a result of the cold and the snow, the streets are quieter than they have been during the past few days and there are few in the streets to witness the party's departure as they ride eastwards through the city streets, heading out of the parish of Kitry, through that of Lechit and onwards towards the eastgate.

Yaz leads his horse through the city streets, talking with it in his own ignorant and simple terms about politics and the need to bring down the Nyemetz oppressors to restore the Balance and save the trees.

As they approach the eastgate, Winnacer raises his hand in the air and the procession stops. They all look ahead and see the reasons for Winnacer's action.

They see that there is quite a bit of activity at the eastgate. Not only is there the platoon of orcs checking upon everyone leaving and entering the city, but there are also a couple of armed men along with them. From their black uniforms and the crossed sword emblems on their back-and-breast armor, the party easily recognizes them to be members of the Bodyguard's Guild; quite possibly some of the men from the encounter of the previous night.

As if this wasn't trouble enough, there is a Witchfinder with them who is scanning everyone exiting the city with his Witchfinder's Rod.

Porter looks around further and sees that there are several rough looking characters loitering a short distance away from the gate. They too seem to be taking a great interest in everyone leaving the city.

Winnacer turns to the rest of the party and scowls at Rowan, then Porter and finally at Yaz:

"It would appear that quite a few people are interested in those who are leaving the city, for one reason or another. Has anyone any suggestions as to how we get through the gate without causing a major incident?"

"Define 'major,'" says Rowan.

Porter looks indignant:

"Hey don't look at me, 'cause I ain't the culprit here. Talk to lover-boy, maybe he's got some answers. And the only ideas I got for getting through the gate involve 'causing a major incident', so I'm no help there, either."

Aithne is riding Nainie when she sees the Witchfinder. Her hands clench on the reins, making the horse jump in surprise as they tighten unexpectedly. A low growl comes from her throat as she drops the reins entirely and slides off the horse, drawing both long and short sword, she runs incredibly fast toward the Witchfinder. Murder in her eyes.

Rowan grins, muttering somthing about impossible odds and loosening Chanticleer in her sheath.

Winnacer answers Porter:

"Well it seems that you're about to get your major incident," Winnacer sighs as he pushes his new helmet down over his head. "This is not the way this operation is supposed to work."

With relative calm, Winnacer hands the reins of Nainie and the two draft horses to Milan:

"Follow my charge and continue through. We'll catch up with you outside the gates. Be sharp, Milan."

"I'm going in to mix it up with them and hoist our suicidal comrade out of the jaws of death. We need something to hold them up for a few minutes, Yaz, so we can escape with our lives. Then get yourself through the gate."

"Porter, try to keep close by me and watch my back. Spravedelna protects those that fight at a LawBringer's side. Break through their lines when I get Aithne upon my horse, as I have a trick up my sleeve that you won't want to get caught in."

He turns and looks at Rowan as he spurs his horse forward, The Ripper of Pardubitze bared. With a flat voice he says:

"Do what you can."

Rowan opens his mouth to deliver a witty rejoinder regarding exactly what he can do, but thinks the better of it.

When Doctor Burian sees Aithne's intent, his eyes grow alert:

"Oh my," he says with some alarm.

Raising his staff slightly, he speaks softly, bearly loud enough for those nearby to hear, but the word he speaks carries a world of power across the distance between himself and the angry young woman.

"Peace."

Immediately, Aithne feels a comforting and relaxing sensation come over her and the murderous anger which had only a moment ago ruled her actions, simply melts away to be replaced by calm. Halfway towards the gate, with her swords ready to take out the hated Witchfinder, she suddenly realizes that violence is not the answer and stops in her tracks and sheathes her weapons. She feels the same sensation as she did when she was smoking the Prirodnan's holy ganja the previous day.

Aithne smiles at everyone. Life is good. The snow is so lovely today. And everyone is just so darned nice.

Doctor Burian looks around at everyone sternly:

"There shall be no unnecessary bloodshed in my presence," he says simply. "It is against the teachings of Lechit and I will not stand for it. I'm sorry, I should have mentioned this fact earlier."

"Good work, Doctor," says Winnacer. "It will be quite nice to travel with a man of your virtue and common sense."

Winnacer is polite enough to omit "for a change."

Luckily for Aithne and the others, the Witchfinder and the gate guards were busy searching a merchant convoy going through the gate at the time of the incident and so did not see the start of Aithne's charge towards the gate. A couple of the bodyguards and several of the loitering rogues check her out quite thoroughly, but she is obviously not what they are waiting for.

Aithne keeps aimlessly wandering toward the gate, not really wondering why, just feeling happy. She remembers vaguely that she is heading out of the city and keeps moving in that direction. She giggles and flirts with them all merrily.

Winnacer looks at Yaz:

"Want to give the walls a crack at it? I think leaving by the gate is bad news, even if we can unload all of our magicks. We could then make a break for it, and maybe even hide our tracks. Unless anyone's got a better idea..."

Yaz is still feeling terrible after his all-night dining experience and it takes him a while to get his wits about him.

During this time, Aithne continues to wander towards the gate just as the orc gate guards wave the merchant convoy through. At seeing the smiling woman come towards him, the Witchfinder smiles back at her response and lifts the Witchfinder Rod up and presses the rune upon it in order to activate it. Immediately that he does so, the crystal at the end of the rod starts to glow brightly.

Aithne giggles as she sees the crystal light up:

"That's pretty," she laughs.

The Witchfinder's smile drops in an instant as he sees the crystal glowing strongly. He quickly turns to the orog sargeant and barks out an order in Nyemetz.

The orog sargeant immediately advances towards the giggling and tries to grab her along with two of the orc spearmen from the company. The rest of the orcs grab their spears and move to block the gate, scanning around them in order to see if there are any further threats.

"Shit," exclaims Porter as he sees the events unfold.

He immediately lifts his longbow, nocks a sheaf arrow and lets it loose towards the Witchfinder. It's a long shot and Aithne's presence close to the Witchfinder makes it all the more difficult. Porter looks on to see the shot sail past the Witchfinder's back, missing him by a few inches.

This sends the Witchfinder and the orc company into pandemonium. The orog sargeant and the two orc spearmen immediately try to hit Aithne with their weapons, but miss her by an incredibly wide margin.

As the company tries to attack her, Aithne blinks, looks around her in confusion and then suddenly realizes where she is. Her hands immediately grab at the hilts of her blades.

"Oh no," Doctor Burian cries. "More bloodshed."

As they see Aithne go for her weapons, another three of the orc spearmen grab hold of their spears and join in with the orog sargeant and the two already upon her to try and bring her down.

The Witchfinder barks another order to the orc corporal, which forms the remaining 15 spearmen into a line to block the gate.

Aithne snaps back from "happy" land with only an instant of confusion. Her instincts are too good though, her swords are out in an instant and she begins to cut her way through the enemy. Seeing the Witchfinder, her lips curl back in anger, though this time she doesn't seem as consumed by her rage.

Had the rest of the party chance to sit back and watch Aithne in combat, then it would have been a fascinating sight, as the half-elf seems to move at the speed of light as she lashes out at the orog sargeant in a blur of steel. The orog's mail manages to save its green hide from Aithne's longsword, but her shortsword strikes true, inflicting a moderate wound upon him.

The orog and the five orcs try to strike back at her, but the cloak that she wears wrapped around her is now shimmering, sending the light in different directions. As a result, it is difficult for the greenskins to figure out quite where she is at any one time, and just one of the orcs manages to connect with her, causing only a very mild wound to her arm.

"Follow me," cries Winnacer as he lowers his lance and digs his heels into the flanks of his mount and starts to charge towards the ranks of orcish spears between Aithne's position and that of the rest of the party. As Winnacer starts to charge, Yaz, Porter, Milan and the Doctor all charge after him towards the orcs.

The thunder of the horses' hooves upon the snowcovered cobblestones immediately attracts the attention of the Witchfinder and the spearmen. The spearmen lower their spears and brace themselves in order to resist the charge. The Witchfinder, standing just behind the line of spears, calmly reaches into his pouch and produces a couple of skunk cabbage leaves and then proceeds to chant, before gesturing towards the oncoming charging horses.

Winnacer's eyes start to glow with rage and fury as he gets closer to the gateguards, with the others right behind him. As he gets to within range of his holy Fear, however, a cloud of noxious vapors appears in the midst of the party's position.

The results of the noxious cloud are devastating, as Winnacer and his mount immediately start coughing violently. The momentum of the charge pulls the horse through the cloud, but then it stops, whinnying in fear and coughing .. . errm .. . hoarsely.

The same fate befalls Porter, who also finds himself unable to do anything apart from to start coughing his guts out, his horse similarly effected. Milan and his horse are somehow unaffected by the cloud and he rides through it. Upon seeing his Lord stricken by the vapors, Milan nervously draws his sword and rides forwards in order to protect him. Yaz too is unaffected by the vapors, probably having built up an immunity through all of the noxious vapors that he is used to inhaling on a regular basis. He too pulls up his horse on the opposite side of the cloud next to the stricken Winnacer and Porter.

The Doctor was similarly effected by the vapor, but his horse manages to resist choking, pulling him through. As the horse sees the orcish ranks before it bearing long pointed objects, it decides that it doesn't really want to impale itself upon them and bolts away from the gate. The Doctor is still choking from the vapors and can do nothing but hold on to the reins, no doubt now very much aware of why the Surgeon General issues warnings regarding the dangers of smoking.

At seeing the cavalry charge broken, the corporal shouts out an order to his troops and they surge forwards in order to take advantage of the fact that the majority of the party are incapacitated. To make matters worse, the party can see that a company of goblin archers are running along the walls in order to take up positions.

Aithne, aware that she cannot break free of the fight she is currently engaged in, continues to push toward the Witchfinder in an attempt to keep him from breathing. She looks for a weak link in the foes that surround her, then makes her move, attempting to cut through them to her quarry. Once again, she wonders what this old sword of her grandfather's truly does....

At the moment, it doesn't seem to be doing terribly much of anything apart from missing the orog sargeant that she is trying to hit without a great deal of success. She has more success with her shortsword once more, however, as she uses it to find a chink in the orog's mail and inflicts a significant wound upon it. It is not sufficient to bring it down, but she can see that the greenskin is starting to weaken now.

Her shimmering cloak once more protects her from most of the greenskins' blows, but one of the orcs manages to find a way through it to hit her on the shoulder, inflicting a second minor wound to her. She looks around her to see if there is any way of getting through the orcs in order to take out the Witchfinder, but sees that she is totally surrounded by them and so she will need to take at least a few of them out before she is able to escape from the ring of greenskins around her.

The Witchfinder isn't concerned with Aithne in the slightest, happy to leave her to the orog sargeant and his troops. He looks towards the failed charge of the rest of the party and grins evilly at the damage that he managed to cause them. As the orc corporal leads the rest of the greenskins to charge towards the mostly incapacitated party members, the Witchfinder produces a pinch of sand from his pouch while chanting another quick ensorcellment before he tosses the sand in the direction of the party. As the sand lands upon the ground, the horses belonging to Yaz, Porter and Milan all fall to the ground in a coma, tossing their riders onto the snow-covered cobblestones, injuring them all slightly and confusing both Yaz and Milan.

Then the orcs crash into the disarrayed group, dropping their spears and drawing their broadswords as they close in to attack anything that they can find.

Two of them try and strike at Yaz, who is just trying to pull himself up from off the cobblestones. As he grabs his lucky scimitar, one of the orcs manages to injure him fairly badly, but Yaz manages to grab and parry the next orc's attack. The druid lashes out at one of the orcs in response as he gets up off the ground, but the fall has winded him and so his aim is off.

While the druid is thus preoccupied, another of the orcs comes up behind Yaz' sleeping mount and hacks its head off with its broadsword. Porter's mount, which was Xavier's old horse, Barbarossa, and that of Milan suffer the same fate. It is obvious that the orcs are well trained at how to stop people getting away from combat. Nainie and the two draft horses bearing the party's gear both bolted away as Milan let go of their reins and gallop away from the action.

Porter continues to cough his guts out, seemingly the worst affected of those that were caught by the stinking cloud. Two of the orcs try to take advantage of his situation as he tries to find his feet after being tossed from the saddle. Hardly able to defend himself as he gags from the vapors, both of the orcs manage to strike him.

Milan is absolutely petrified, as he finds himself in the midst of battle for the first time in his life. He quickly shouts out 'Fabio' as he saw Bennett doing on many occasions and his robes morph into the form of platemail. As he tries to get up, he holds the magickal shield that Winnacer gave him in order to keep the two orcs upon him at bay. However, he is still confused from the fall and one of the orcs manages to catch him in the thigh with its broadsword, sending Milan tumbling to the ground, unconscious.

Winnacer is the only one to remain mounted, although his horse rears up in panic as a result of the noxious vapors running through its system. One of the orcs manages to catch it with the blade of its broadsword and the horse whinnies from the pain, but does not fall. While Winnacer can do nothing but try and hold on to the bucking mount, coughing so badly that he can do nothing else, three of the orcs set upon him. Unable to see to try and dodge any of the orcs' blades, all three of his attackers manage to find their marks and Winnacer is already starting to look badly injured.

For reasons known only to himself, Rowan had decided not to join in with the others as they made their unfortunate charge towards the gate, but had turned around and started heading back into the city. However, as he looked back over his shoulder and saw his new colleagues heading into disaster, he knew that he could not leave them to deal with the orcs alone and so turned his horse round again and charged towards the combat, carefully avoiding the stationary cloud of greenish colored vapor as he goes.

As Rowan urges Maire forwards around the stinking cloud, some of the goblin bowmen that have managed to get themselves into position already and are trying to find a clear target see their opportunity and unleash a volley of arrows towards the oncoming swashbuckler. Two of the goblins manage to hit Maire with their arrows, injuring the horse quite badly, but not enough to fell her, while Rowan manages to avoid all of the arrows aimed towards him.

He quickly realizes that his horse will join the others in becoming dogmeat if he continues to ride her and so, quickly and dramatically, he leaps from the saddle with Chanticleer and whip in hand. He gives a quick flick of the whip to Maire's flank in order to get her out of harm's way as quickly as possible and the horse gallops off away from the melee.

He then looks around to see where his efforts would have the most effect. He sees that two of the orcs have brought Winnacer's squire, Milan, to the ground and are about to finish the unconscious lad off. Seeing his chance to have the paladin owe him one, he launches himself towards the two orcs leering over the poor squire and lashes out at them with his whip. This does the trick and sends the two orcs scurrying back away from the squire's body. Rowan drops the whip and pulls forth his main-gauche, ready to exact revenge upon the two orcs.

Aithne redoubles her efforts to try and take out the orog sargeant and an orc or two, as she desperately wants to take out the Witchfinder, who is gleefully watching the combat unfold. Finally, she finds her form, as she manages to lop off the arm of the orog sargeant, killing it, and then takes down one of the orcs with her shortsword for good measure. The remaining three orcs continue to crowd round her in order to try and make her pay for her actions. Two of them manage to penetrate her cloak, causing her some quite severe injuries, which she is now starting to feel.

The Witchfinder turns around and sees the half-elf taking out the orog sargeant and the other orc in quick succession. Seeing that she could be a threat, he starts to mumble a third incantation while pointing towards her. As he finishes, two bolts of magickal energy come flying from his outstretched hands, impacting upon Aithne, increasing her injuries still further.

The Witchfinder then decides that he has done quite enough for the Nyemetz cause already and starts to run away from the scene of the battle, heading for the center of the city.

As Yaz sees the orcs slaughtering the horses, he starts to bellow in rage, lashing out at the orcs around him in fury. In the rain of blows that he lands all around him, it is inevitable that one will find its mark and one of the orcs around him falls from its injuries. With the hail of blows that he is unleashing upon the greenskins, it is impossible for any of the orcs to get a counterattack in, as all they can do is try to keep away from the wrath of the druid.

Porter and Winnacer are still coughing their guts out. With Barbarossa having now been slaughtered, Porter has three of the orcs upon him now. He manages to dodge away from the blows of two of them, but one of them manages to hit him and Porter is now starting to moan from the pain in between his coughing.

Winnacer's horse is again hurt badly from a cut from one of the orcs' broadswords and looks to be close to falling now. Winnacer himself does not fair much better. He manages to dodge away from one of the orcs trying to bring him down, but the other two manage to strike true, with one of them cutting through the leather buckles attaching the gleave to his thigh, which tumbles to the ground, leaving his right thigh exposed as well as causing a bad cut upon it.

Rowan finds himself facing four orcs now. Having the distinct advantage of not coughing his guts out, Rowan shows the others that the rapier that he has been brandishing on a regular basis is not just for show as he manages to run the first of the orcs through with it, seemingly with ease.

Then, however, something happens that surprises even Rowan, as he pulls the magick blade free of the orc's body. Chanticleer starts grunting at him:

"Ugh, ugh," it grunts. "Tzo dyelame?"

Being able to comprehend Nyemetz, Rowan realizes that the sword is saying:

"Wh-what? What's happening?"

With three orcs still to face, Rowan realizes that now is not the time to stop and stare at his sword in wonderment. Instead, he simply sticks it through the throat of another orc, killing that one as well. He tries to follow up with a cut from his main-gauche, but the orc manages to dodge away from the blow. In response, one of the orcs manages to cut him in the arm.

Finally, Winnacer manages to fight off the effects of the noxious vapors, although the badly injured horse beneath him still continues to cough and stagger around in panic. Porter is still coughing as badly as ever before.

As soon as he comes round, Winnacer's eyes glow red with fury as he sets his sights upon the orcs swarming around him and his badly injured mount. His voice booms out across the cold streets of the city as he shouts out at those before him:

"Your hatred of all that is Just and total disregard for the sanctity of life has marked you as unfit for life. Flee now in terror, lest you all feel the true wrath of Spravedelna's might."

With Winnacer in the center of the group's position, he is unable to look at those that are fighting against Yaz, Rowan and Porter and he is also a little unsure as to whether his words would send his new colleagues fleeing along with the orcs. As a result, only the fours orcs that are upon him and the four surrounding Aithne are within sight of his furious glowing eyes.

Three of the orcs that are upon Winnacer immediately start to run away as quickly as they can, leaving just one of them able to resist Winnacer. The remaining orc tries to lash out at Winnacer, but now that he is able to properly defend himself as a result of not coughing from the fumes, the orc's blow is simply deflected by the young Lord's armor.

Aithne also finds that three of the orcs upon her have been terrified by the sight of Winnacer's rage and have decided to flee, leaving just one for her to contend with. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees the Witchfinder trying to flee from the scene. Although he is already quite a distance away from her, she sees that she has a chance of catching up with her hated foe and so quickly weaves around the orc in order to head after the fleeing Witchfinder.

As Aithne turns to run after the Witchfinder, the remaining orc lashes out at her, catching her in the leg. Aithne nearly stumbles as a result of the blow, but manages to keep to her feet and sets off towards the Witchfinder at an absolutely blistering pace, running faster than a horse in full gallop. The orc tries to chase after her, but is quickly left behind as Aithne continues to run at a fantastic rate.

As she charges after the Witchfinder, who is looking over his shoulder nervously as he sees the half-elf charging after him at an alarming pace, the goblin archers try and target her. Nine of the company of 20 goblin archers were also sent fleeing from the effects of Winnacer's Fear, but the remaining 11 all try and bring her down with arrowfire. Due to the light refracting effects of Aithne's cloak, the first volley from the archers don't even come close to hitting her. On the archers' second volley, however, despite the speed of Aithne's departure and the range, from the volley of eleven shots that shoot after her, some of them were bound to hit. Two of them do, and Aithne cries out from the pain as they both hit her in the back.

She can feel the blood trickling from several cuts and tries to fight the weakness that is growing from her substantial wounds. And she is slightly worried for the gap of time in which she remembers charging the Witchfinder and then suddenly under attack with no notion of how she got there. However, she manages to fight off the pain that is pulsing through her body as she can think of nothing but finishing the Witchfinder that she hates so much. She continues to chase after the Witchfinder, rounding a row of cottages as she does so, thus getting her away from the deadly arrows of the goblins.

The Witchfinder looks over her shoulder and gasps as he sees that Aithne has been able to catch up with him despite his substantial lead upon her. Panicking, he turns to face her, bringing up his Witchfinder's Rod in a feeble attempt to stop her from stabbing him in the back.

Elsewhere in the melee, Yaz is still lashing out at fury against the two horse-killing orcs upon him. Once again, the whirl of steel resulting from the druid's fury is too much for the orcs to resist and another one falls to the ground after being hacked to pieces. The last remaining orc upon him is still unable to find away through the crazed druid's attacks and can do nothing more than try and defend himself from Yaz' whirling blade.

Porter is still retching as a result of the noxious vapors. He tries to dodge the orcs' blows, but is only able to avoid the attacks from one of the three that are upon him. The other two manage to strike him and Porter is looking rather the worse for wear as the amount of injuries upon him mount up.

Rowan tries to fight off the confusion caused to him from the fact that Chanticleer is talking to him:

"Holy Krieg!" it grunts in Nyemetz. "I've died and come back to life as a sword. Help me!"

The grunting sword puts him off his stride a little, but his strike at one of the two remaining orcs is still made with sufficient force to down the greenskin. Obviously showing off now, he then slashes at the throat of the other orc with his main-gauche, slicing through the greenskin's windpipe and dropping that one as well, leaving him currently without a target.

Not stopping for a moment, Aithne launches herself at the Witchfinder with fury in her eyes. However, in her haste to try and strike down the Witchfinder, she brings up her longsword with a bit too much vigor, and the blade slices into her already badly damaged left leg. This is too much for the half-elf, who stumbles to the ground as the pain from her many wounds gets to be too much for her and she passes out.

Rowan, now without an opponent, sees Aithne fall and the look of glee upon the Witchfinder's face as she does so. The swashbuckler immediately turns his back upon the remaining orcs and charges off towards the Witchfinder in order to stop him taking advantage of her.

As he runs towards them, he can see that the Witchfinder is trying to drag Aithne's unconscious form away. However, as a result of Aithne's coruscating cloak, he is not finding it to be as easy as he thought it might be to grab at her. Then, Rowan sees something strange happen. Aithne's longsword that she dropped as she fell, suddenly picks itself up off the ground of its own accord and rises itself between the Witchfinder and the sword's downed mistress.

Back in the center of the battleground, Yaz' fury continues unabated as he hacks of the last of the horse-killers down in a rain of blows. He then immediately rushes over the assist the still choking Porter who is still frantically trying to stop the orcs from bringing him to the ground. Once again, he is only able to stop one of the three orcs from landing blows upon him and the other two hit. Porter is now losing blood at an alarming rate as he staggers to keep to his feet.

Winnacer sees that Milan's blood is still flowing from his untended wounds and tries to take out the orc upon him as quickly as possible. The run of bad luck that seems to have effected the group during the combat continues, however, as the orc brings its broadsword up to parry Winnacer's blow with 'The Ripper'. 'The Ripper' and the orc's broadsword collide in a shower of sparks, which sends the orc's broadsword flying from its hand. However, Winnacer sees, to his horror, that it has hacked a large notch in 'The Ripper's' blade and bent it ever so slightly. Not having time to worry about it just at the moment, Winnacer thrusts the blade into the side of the now weaponless orc, sending the greenskin tumbling to the ground.

Winnacer quickly dismounts and gives his panicked horse a slap on the rump to send it out of the way of any more damage. He then rushes over to Milan's side in order to try and bind the squire's wounds before he dies from the bloodloss.

As he heads towards the stricken squire, a hail of arrows head towards him. The majority of them simply bounce off his platemail, but one of them imbeds itself into Winnacer's thigh, which is now exposed after having lost the greave and the young Lord grimaces in pain. As he gets to Milan's body, another volley flies out and the young Lord is hit by another two arrows.

He realizes that he is not going to have time to see to Milan's wounds and that, if he does not try and drag the squire to safety immediately, then both of them will be doomed.

The Witchfinder looks up with horror as Aithne's sword defends its mistress from his advances. The Witchfinder manages to parry the dancing sword's blows with his Witchfinder's Rod. However, he then has more problems to contend with, as Rowan leaps forward to stand beside Aithne's blade. As he runs in to join her, he impales the Witchfinder on Chanticleer's slim blade and the Witchfinder expires with a look of surprise on his face.

"Nice one," Chanticleer congratulates Rowan on his accomplishment in Nyemetz. "I always 'ated them Witchfinder bastards."

Yaz's fury continues unabated as he rushes over to set about the three orcs that are still beating the crap out of the choking Porter. Once again, he lashes out at the orcs in a frenzy and one of the orcs falls beneath the whirling blade of Yaz' scimitar, leaving just two orcs remaining. At the same time, Porter starts to come round from his coughing fit and looks up at the orcs with a look of revenge upon his face. At seeing that they are now faced with two incredibly pissed off opponents, the two orcs decide that they are not ready to die today and turn tail, heading after the other fleeing orcs. Yaz tries to lash out at the fleeing orcs, but they are too quick for him and the orcs avoid getting themselves added to Yaz' impressive list of casualties from the combat.

The field is now empty of orcs, but the goblin archers are still a very serious threat to contend with. As Winnacer tries to fight off the pain from his wounds and drag Milan's bleeding body to safety, Yaz tries to do the same for the badly injured Porter, who is barely able to stand.

As the group tries to flee from the scene to get to the relative safety of the row of cottages, the inevitable volley from the goblin archers flies towards them. Several arrows bounce off Winnacer's platemail, but none of them manage to pass through and so the young Lord manages to get his squire to the safety of the row of cottages, where he finds Rowan tending to Aithne's wounds. With the swashbuckler having now disposed of the Witchfinder, Aithne's sword obediently flies to her scabbard and puts itself to bed.

Yaz and Porter, neither of them having the luxury of the LawBringer's armor, have worse problems with the goblins' arrows. Yaz gets hit by one of them, but has managed to survive the conflict thus far with little damage and so they do not slow him down. Sadly the same cannot be said for Porter, who takes an arrow in the back, sending him slumping to the ground. Yaz curses as he sees him fall and uses all of his feeble strength to try and drag him to safety, trying to shield him from any further safety as he does so.

As Yaz sees the corner to the cottages and safety ahead of him, a second volley flies out from the goblin archers. Yaz is the only target for them now, but luckily he is out of close range for the archers and so only two of them hit him and the damage is not too severe.

The druid manages to finally round the corner and drops Porter's unconscious form next to those of Milan and Aithne. Rowan has now managed to bind Aithne's wounds so that she is not in danger of losing any more blood and Winnacer has performed the same task for Milan.

Yaz immediately goes to Aithne and starts to cast upon her. His hand starts glowing with holy energy and he places it upon her badly injured leg. The results of the healing spell are only moderately successful, but are sufficient to bring the half-elf around and her eyes open.

"My hero," murmurs Aithne weakly, "I thought it was my time."

Then she remembers:

"Is it dead? Did someone kill the Witchfinder? I tried to...but then I was somewhere else. Oh gods, maybe my mind is going. I feel like I can't remember several minutes from right before the orcs and orog attacked me. That's never happened to me before."

Aithne's face is deathly white, primarily from loss of blood.

"Fear not, the Witchfinder is no more. Chanticleer and I have seen to that," Rowan replies proudly.

"Shandy what?" Chanticleer grunts in Nyemetz. "Shandy-bollocks. My name's Spudluk an' it was me wot killed that Witchfinder."

Aithne smiles weakly at Rowan:

"Then I owe you my life as well."

"A debt I hope you never need repay, m'lady," he answers with a grin.

"Yeah," adds the blade in Nyemetz. "Bloody Witchfinders...."

Yaz then turns his attention to Porter, firstly binding his wounds and then casting another healing spell upon him. As with Aithne, Porter's eyes open as he lets out a groan of pain.

Winnacer looks down at the injured form of Milan, then at Yaz with his eyes pleading.

Yaz can only shrug in response, however:

"I'm sorry, but that's all the healing that I've got for the day. I didn't think that we'd need so much."

Chanticleer starts laughing moronically as Rowan lets Yaz take care of the wounded:

"My mates f***ed you up pretty good, didn't they?" it laughs in Nyemetz.

Aithne stares wide-eyed at Rowan's sword. Finally, she remembers to check for her blades. The long sword is in its sheathe, someone must have picked it up for her when she fell. The short sword is still laying where she dropped it on the ground. She tries to get up and collect her other sword, eyeing Rowan's rapier warily.

Rowan sighs and sheathes his rapier.

"Oi," Chanticleer grunts. "Pack that in, will yer? Feels all cramped in 'ere. Can 'ardly breathe. Let me out! Let me out!"

"I can't explain it, so I'm not going to try," sighs Rowan. "But if you think MY sword is strange, you should've seen yours...."

"Mine?" questions Aithne looks from her short to her long sword. "The short sword is of rather simple dweomer, so you must mean the long sword. I got that...well, I inherited it from my Grandfather. I never have figured out quite what it does."

She looks sad as she speaks of her grandfather.

"Yes, well...," Rowan begins, "I think it would be in your best interests to take a closer look at it one of these days...."

"Oi, mate," Chanticleer then shouts out in Nyemetz. "She's a bit of all right, she is. You gonna 'do' 'er mate? I bleedin' would in your place, mate. She's f***ed up pretty good at the moment, so she wouldn't be able to fight yer off nor nuffin. Go on, mate, 'do' 'er while yer got the chance."

Luckily for Rowan, none of the others can speak Nyemetz, and so all they hear is grunting.

"Ah well, I suppose we better get out of here," Aithne says, her wounds still hurting badly. "Can someone round up the horses? I don't think I'm up to chasing them around the city."

"No sooner said than done-- I have suffered but a minor scratch," Rowan replies.

"See to their health, druid," the swashbuckler orders, "and force yourself not to eat any of them, if possible. I shall return promptly with the steeds."

"I don't know if there is time to get back any of the horses," Aithne shouts after the rapidly departing Rowan. "We need to get out of here before reinforcements arrive. In my current state, a five-year old child could track me down. So we need to move quickly and/or heal quickly. Porter and I -- and Milan -- will take a lot of healing."

"Does the Witchfinder have anything on him that may help us?" she asks, "A potion or some such thing?"

Yaz quickly checks over the body of the Witchfinder. He finds nothing of interest save for the Witchfinder's Rod and a pouch of spell components, however.