Old Acquaintances In The Night

Some time later in the night, they all start to come to, as they are awakened by the sounds of a wagon and horses approaching the inn. They hear a voice in Bohavian telling the horses to stop and the wagon comes to a halt outside the inn. They then hear footsteps getting down from the wagon.

Surprised that anyone would be traveling at this time of night, they are a little curious, but not enough to get out of their warm beds to go the window to check out what is going on. However, they then hear the sounds of feet scurrying across the snow-covered street followed by some screaming. They then hear the sound of excited chittering that sounds eerily familiar to both Winnacer and Yaz.

Immediately, they all leap out of their beds and head towards the window in order to view the events in the street below. Yaz and Winnacer have their worst suspicions confirmed, but for the others the sight below them is quite horrific. The wagon is being assaulted by eight creatures unlike any that they have seen before. The creatures stand 7' tall and have the appearance of being a cross between a human and a large black rat, with beady red eyes that sparkle in the moonlight and rows of sharp yellow teeth. The ratmen are wearing crude chainmail and are armed with curved swords with evil-looking serrated edges.

Two men are already lying dead in the snow, their blood turning the snow beneath them crimson. There are two survivors who are trying to fight off the ratmen. One appears to be a Bohavian female, while the other is a dwarf. The woman is trying to keep them at bay with a flail, while the dwarf is wielding a hammer. In the light of the waning moon, visibility is fairly good and the party can that, some 25 yards from the inn, another ratman is watching the events unfold. This ratman is brown in color and is smaller than the others. It is wearing tattered green robes daubed with evil looking runes.

Aithne wakes knowing something is wrong and reaches for her sword as she runs to the window:

"Damn," she mutters. "No rest for the wicked. Ah well, at least I'm not hung over."

She quickly puts on her leather armor, cloak, and boots and runs outside with two swords in hand.

Porter unsuccessfully tries to clear his head by shaking it back and forth. When that fails, he reaches into his belt pouch, pulling forth a pinch of something that he proceeds to inhale up one nostril. Eyes widening, he nocks an arrow in his longbow and says to everyone else in the room:

"I'll get that robed bastard."

Winnacer realizes from his perch that his Spravedelna given Fear would be useless. Quickly, he turns to Milan:

"Grab my bow and fire at the rats. I'm going down there."

Winnacer hastily tosses on the drying out and often abused Fabio clothing, grabbing his shield, placing his helmet upon his head and wrapping 'Old Bohavia' around his wrist.

"Keep them pinned down."

"But ... but," Milan feebly shouts after his fast departing Lord, his head feeling as if it has been trampled on by four giant otters.

At seeing that Winnacer has already left, Milan sighs and takes Winnacer's shortbow, trying to remember which way round it's supposed to point.

Winnacer dashes down the stairs, tapping the Fabio armor as he makes his way towards the ratmen, despite a pounding head and a mild dizziness.

"Gotta take out that runey bastard," Aithne says to herself as she charges towards the enrobed ratman.

"You wouldn't be Rowan's cousin now would you?" she asks the woman as she races by; her face is severe but her tone is lightly amused.

The woman looks surprised:

"Why?" she asks, "is he your friend?"

Any further conversation is impossible, however, as the woman and the dwarf along with her have their work cut out in keeping the eight ratmen upon them at bay. The woman casts towards one of the ratmen that is squeaking towards her and it suddenly stops in its tracks, chittering at her curiously. The other three ratmen are not so easily repulsed, however and launch themselves at her, wielding their evil-looking curved swords. The woman dodges their blows as they come towards her, managing to avoid any injury.

The dwarf next to her nobly tries to fight off the other four that are leaping over the wagon. In an amazing show of incompetence that surpasses even the efforts of some of the party members on occasion, he hefts his hammer high, only to lose his grip upon the handle of the hammer, whereupon the weapon smashes through one of the windows of the inn behind him.

Chittering with mirth, the ratmen take advantage of the dwarf's misfortune, as two of them easily manage to hack him to pieces with their swords.

From the window, Rowan sees seven of the ratmen begin to cluster around the woman. Hastily grabbing his weapons and slipping on his bracers, boots, and pants, Rowan leaps from his second-story window onto the wagon's canvas canopy, bounces off with a somersault, and lands deftly on his feet beside the dead dwarf and alive human.

"Rat problem?" he asks.

The woman looks around to see who dropped in:

"Rowan?" she questions, obviously amazed. "Fancy meeting you here."

"Joy?" Rowan questions in return.

"Is that your cousin then?" grunts Chanticleer in Nyemetz.

Rowan just nods.

"What an amazin' coincidence," Chanticleer replies. "Like somefing what you'd read about in a rubbish story."

Further conversation with either Joy or Chanticleer is impossible as the seven remaining ratmen start to menace the pair of them.

Rowan thrusts at one of them with both Chanticleer and his main-gauche. Both of them strike home, but the ratman is a particularly burly looking specimen and the blows do not fell him. He thrusts into the ratman once again with Chanticleer, and the huge black rat creature falls to the ground.

Milan tries to shoot an arrow over the heads of the other ratmen. Needless to say, it goes nowhere near the ratmen whatsoever, crashing into the side of a dwarven cairn some way down the road.

As Aithne rushes towards the ratman shaman, an arrow goes flying over her head as Porter loosens his arrow towards the enrobed creature. Porter obviously took a little too much of the powder, as his shot falls far short, missing Aithne by just a few feet.

Porter curses at his continuing bad luck and sends another arrow flying towards the shaman. This time, he is more alert and the arrow hits the shaman in the foot, sending the rodent squeaking and trying to get away.

Aithne continues towards the rat-shaman, but Yaz has managed to get to the window now and is also trying to get rid of the ratshaman. He holds a worg's tooth in his hand and is casting towards the ground right behind where the shaman is standing. As he finishes the incantation, the ground seems to cave in on itself, revealing a gigantic maw some 10' in diameter with stalactite-like teeth. The mouth rises up on a short serpentine neck and follows Yaz' gesture towards the shaman.

The shaman sees the earth maw coming behind him, alerted by the sound of the earth. With lightning fast reflexes, the shaman cries out with an ear-splitting shriek and leaps out of the way of the huge mouth, missing getting consumed by a narrow margin. The mouth then disappears into the earth as suddenly as it appeared.

Much cursing can be heard from behind the window to Yaz' room as the druid sees his spell fail.

No sooner has the shaman steadied himself after narrowly avoiding being eaten by the maw than Aithne is upon the oversized rodent, having run up to it surprisingly quickly. She lashes out at the ratpriest with both her long and shortswords. Both of her blades are right on target and injure the verman badly, leaving it spewing out blood. The shaman immediately responds by casting a quick incantation and gesturing towards Aithne. The ratpriest shrieks out with anger as it sees that its spell has no effect upon her whatsoever. Little does Aithne realize that it is only the elven blood that runs through her veins that has protected her from being incapacitated by the shaman's spell.

Winnacer rushes down the stairs and sees Rowan and the woman surrounded by ratmen. He runs in to join them. Fighting off his intoxication, the young Lord cleaves one of the creatures in two with one almighty blow from 'Old Bohavia' and then pierces a second one with a follow up thrust, injuring the second verman quite badly. Two of the vermen try to strike at Winnacer in response, but the LawBringer easily manages to dodge one of the ratmen's attacks and knocks another one's blow aside with his shield.

At seeing a second warrior joining the combat, the mystery woman locks her hands together in prayer and starts to chant to her god in order to speed the blades of her benefactors. Unfortunately, it is not enough to stop one of the ratmen hacking into her side just after she finishes it, and she is badly injured by the cut.

This annoys Rowan no end, and he immediately looks to get a little payback from the overgrown rodent. It is not to be, however, as his luck swiftly leaves him and the sneaky ratman manages to dodge Rowan's strikes with both Chanticleer and his main-gauche with ease.

This amuses Chanticleer considerably:

"Yer bloody rubbish you are," he grunts to himself.

To add injury to insult, Chanticleer's taunt spoils Rowan's concentration and he fails to see one of the ratmen strike him with a fairly vicious injury.

Milan draws back the string of Winnacer's shortbow once again, aiming to try and frighten off the ratmen. Much to everyone's amazement, especially Milan's, he actually manages to hit one of the ratmen, injuring it quite badly.

Porter, in the room next to him, sees that shooting arrows into the melee is most surely going to end in tears, as the combatants are so close together that it is a matter of luck as to whether a friend or foe gets hit. He leaves his longbow in the room and starts to run down the stairs in order to join the combat.

Upon reaching the combat, Porter shouts the word:

"Kurgan"

As he does so, a bastard sword materializes in his hand, which he immediately uses to wade into the combat. Once again, however, the powder seems to be affecting his aim badly, and the ratmen are easily able to avoid his clumsy blows.

Still cursing his lack of luck with the earth maw, Yaz tries a more tried and tested ensorcellment from his viewpoint in the window above the melee. He utters a familiar incantation while gesturing towards one of the uninjured ratmen. As with the earth maw, his spell seems to have no effect, however. The druid curses his weed for affecting his judgement so badly.

Meanwhile, a short distance from the melee beneath the inn, Aithne is locked in combat with the already injured shaman, which quickly draws its sword in order to try and fight off the half-elf. Before the shaman has managed to unsheathe its weapon, however, Aithne plunges her longsword deep into the shaman's mangy hide and the ratman promptly keels over and dies.

Aithne turns in order to help out with the melee back at the inn. As she does so, she spies a trail of ratmen footprints that are clearly visible in the snow heading westwards.

Porter is none too pleased with his further ineptness in front of his new comrades. He continues hacking away with the bastard sword, determined to prove he actually has some skill in combat. He follows up his initial swing with a backslash with the weapon. His horrendous lack of luck simply continues, however, as the ratman before him easily dodge away from his swings.

Winnacer lets a grim smile escape under his helmet as he feels the familiar grip of 'Old Bohavia' in his hand and his feet steady under him:

"Surrender now vermin! Spravedelna's Judgement shall be quick!"

Perhaps not surprisingly considering the fact that the ratmen don't understand Bohavian, the ratmen ignore his words and continue to harrass the partymembers.

The LawBringer brings the blade down again upon his wounded foe. His blow is on target, cutting through the overgrown rat's mail and cutting deep into its mangy flank. The ratman immediately falls to the floor, where it promptly expires. In response, another of the ratmen lashes out at the LawBringer with its curved sword. Still feeling the effects of the ales from earlier in the night, Winnacer is too slow to dodge the blow, and is slashed by the weapon.

Joy notices all the people helping her fight the ratmen with a slight look of confusion. She shrugs and motions for the one friendly ratman to stand near her. The ratman, however, simply stands still, cocking its head a little as if trying to work out what she wants. Joy gives a little shrug and returns her attention to the combat.

Rowan is at her side. He uses his main-gauche to parry one of the ratmen's attacks that would otherwise have surely cut into his naked torso, but is unable to parry the blow from the other of the two ratmen upon him and receives another bad cut. He immediately gets a little payback by inflicting a similar injury upon the ratman, as Chanticleer gouges the vermin's arm.

"Dear cousin!" Rowan says over the ring of metal upon metal. "You are wounded! I will have their heads for that!"

Joy lifts her flail to fight the other ratmen, trying to help Rowan. Anger shining in her eyes, she replies:

"You're hurt yourself. Fail me not, Zlodey! Make my aim true."

"Your aim, but hopefully not your words!" he quips back.

"Oh, and how I've missed your witty repartee while we were seperated, cousin!" she replies.

Joy then attempts to whack one of the ratmen with her flail, but the nimble rodent is easily able to dodge out of the way of the clumsy weapon.

Sorely tempted by her impulsive nature, Aithne almost turns back to follow the tracks that she saw, but she sees that her new friend, and his cousin, of course, seem to be having some difficulty:

"Ah, good, Rowan, you made it down here," she says as she gets to them. "Wasn't sure if you would wake up in time. I see your cousin got here in good time. Very good time considering she was in a wagon."

Aithne looks puzzled for a moment, then wades in with both weapons. She does, however, wade in a little too quickly, as she loses the grip on her longsword in her haste to finish off the ratmen and the noble and mysterious blade flies from her hand. The sudden loss of her longsword spoils her concentration and she fails to strike home with her shortsword as well. The ratman she targeted tries to take advantage of Aithne's misfortune, but her cloak seems to be warping the light around her and so the ratman's blow is way off target.

Trusting to her cloak to protect her, she quickly looks around to see if her sword is close enough to retrieve. To her amazement, however, she sees that the longsword has picked itself up off the ground of its own accord, and is now flying back to continue fighting the ratman on its own.

"Bloody hell. I guess the thing does fight on its own after all!" Aithne says, shaking her head as she continues to miss with her short sword.

Proving that his last shot was nothing more than a fluke, Milan tries to fire a warning shot over the heads of the ratmen once more. This time he has a lot less luck. Well, actually it ends up as Rowan being the unlucky one as it is he who Milan accidentally shoots, the arrow from his shortbow hitting the unfortunate swashbuckler in the arm.

"Errm .. . sorry," the drunken squire shouts out to Rowan, his formerly green-colored face now turning red with embarrassment.

Aithne shakes her head again:

"Somebody ought to say something about firing into melee combat. It's not very safe even when done by experts," she mutters.

Still cursing the failure of his spells, Yaz decides to revert to cold steel in the hope that it will prove to be more reliable. He rushes downstairs and joins the combat, scowling, scimitar in hand, pants only barely staying up as he runs. Waving the scimitar in as threatening a manner as he can muster, he runs to Aithne's side and lashes out at the ratmen she is facing. Yaz' theory regarding the reliability of cold steel proves to be true, as he slashes the ratman in the leg, although the wound is only a minor one.

With Yaz' arrival, the ratmen see that they are now outnumbered and the majority of their number are quite badly injured as well. As a result, they all start to turn and flee away as fast as they can, which is very fast. As they turn tail to leave, the party-members are able to catch parting blows upon them. Porter finally manages to make his strike count, inflicting a terrible wound upon the departing rodent. The ratman squeaks in pain and stumbles a little, allowing Winnacer to lash out at it with 'Old Bohavia', striking it in the back and sending it falling to the ground. Two more of the ratmen are just too quick for Rowan and Joy to hit as they sprint off in panic. The same is with the last of the ratmen, which manages to avoid the blows from Aithne's shortsword, her dancing longsword and also Yaz' scimitar.

The charmed ratman simply watches its colleagues sprint away in a westerly direction with obvious confusion. It looks back and forth between Joy and the departing vermin, obviously having great difficulty deciding which of his friends he should stay with.

"Alas, cousin!" Rowan says as the ratmen charge off, dropping to the ground awkwardly.

He stares at his left hand, which is covered in his own blood:

"I am wounded-- surely I am not long for this world! Oh cruel fate, that we should be reunited, only to part thusly...!"

Joy tries to frown at her cousin, but her grin is breaking through her stern expression.

Aithne rolls her eyes slightly and greets the stranger:

"Is he always like this?" she asks.

"The world goes dim, I fear... I am undone!" Rowan continues, to no one in particular.

As Rowan continues his theatrics, Aithne heads over to Joy in order to introduce herself:

"Well met, I am Aithne Laurellan, I do believe I'm the only one, other than yourself perhaps, that is sober."

She grins at the rest of the group merrily.

Joy curtsies and replies:

"Joy DeVitesse at your service. And yes, he's always like this."

She again frowns at her cousin.

"I feared as much," replies Aithne.

"Cousin, you flatter me," Rowan manages, weakly.

"Found some tracks over by the Runemeister," Aithne mentions while she looks at Joy curiously. "They appear to be running in the same direction that the ratmen fled off in. I guess we could follow them."

Then, eyeing Rowan's bloody torso and the various bloodshot eyes that were looking balefully back at her:

"Or maybe not," she sighs.

"Nonsense...!" Rowan gasps as he struggles to a sitting position. "I shall have those vermin... with my last breath, I swear it!"

As the others chat away initially, Winnacer inspects the fallen traveling companions of Joy, seeing if any cling to life, seeking to aid them if possible. He sees that the two Bohavians who were the first to be taken by the ratmen were liveried employees of a coaching company. The dwarf appears to have been a passenger, and is dressed in well made chainmail. Unfortunately, the three of them are obviously quite dead. After he sees they are all without hope, the LawBringer walks over to where the others have congregated, wiping his sword clean.

The young Lord comes to Rowan and gives him a little kick:

"Get to your feet, buffoon. Stop disgracing the newly fallen with your poor jokes; you belittle their deaths. We also have some work to do."

"Jokes?"

Rowan is incredulous.

"Sir, I bleed!"

He gestures to his gaping wounds, not the least of which is Milan's arrow stuck in his arm.

Winnacer purposely ignores him and turns to step forward to meet Joy. As he does so, he loses his footing on the packed snow underfoot, almost pitching over, but catches himself at the last minute.

Red-faced, he collects himself and offers his hand to Rowan's cousin:

"You must be Rowan's cousin, Joy. It's a pity we must meet under such dire circumstances. I am Winnacer Duene Stradheim. Please excuse my brevity, but we have business to attend to, unless you can communicate with this ratman you've placed under your powers."

Joy's previously happy eyes turn at this newcomer with anger. Her voice is sharp as she replies to him:

"Joy Devitesse. No, I can't speak to the rat thing."

Aithne adds in a soft voice to Joy:

"And, I'm afraid that Winnacer is always like that too. It's not just the alcohol induced temper."

She sighs:

"Of course, it doesn't help that your cousin had a brief fling with his sister."

Aithne winks as she helps Rowan up.

Winnacer looks towards the charmed ratman. It appears to be acting very nervously, not really knowing what to do. It has tucked its curved sword into its belt and is constantly looking back over its shoulder to see whether its comrades are returning. Seeing no sign of them, it looks back towards Joy. Nervously, it starts to come towards her, looking at the others around her timidly.

The LawBringer shakes his head as he continues to watch the beast:

"It's a pity that you can't communicate with it. What do you plan on doing with the beast? It certainly cannot be allowed to walk freely around the village. And what of your companions?"

Joy just shrugs:

"I didn't think much of it. I just wanted one of the things out of the fight when I was facing the four of 'em."

Aithne shrugs:

"Can anyone speak their language? And, I hate to say this, but none of you are in the best condition to be traipsing through the snow."

"You should at least get dressed first," she adds, looking towards Rowan.

"I shall-- if you insist," he replies.

"Though the sight of your naked flesh is close to making me swoon, I am afraid I do insist," Aithne replies. "After your cousin heals you, of course."

Aithne keeps a straight face, but her eyes dance.

"Ah, I feared it would be so," Rowan grins, seemingly already feeling slightly better, "but now is not the time, I'm afraid."

He staggers to his feet and raises Chanticleer dramatically:

"To the cruel... justice!"

Winnacer shoots Rowan a dirty look.

"What?" Rowan asks. "I heard a hero-type say it once... before I stabbed him in the back."

Joy then turns to Rowan and says:

"Yes, let me see your wounds. Where the hell did that arrow come from?"

A voice comes from above in answer to Rowan's question:

"Errm .. . sorry, Sir," Milan slurs. "That was me, Sir. Lord Winnacer wanted me to shoot some arrows, but I ain't never not fired a bow nor nothing before. I don't feel too good neither."

As proof of his condition, Milan lurches and sprays vomit out of the window, luckily not over any of the party. The ratman nervously approaches the pool of Milan's vomit that is starting to melt the snow. It sniffs at it for a few moments, and then starts to eat it.

Winnacer sighs and shakes his head:

"I think it's probably best if you get back to bed now," he says looking up at his green-hued squire.

Milan just nods his head and retires for the night once again.

Joy sighs at the shape Rowan's in. She frowns again at him and starts praying to Zlodey to cure Rowan of his wounds. As she does so, her hands start to glow with a holy green light. She places her glowing hand upon one of Rowan's wounds and the healing energy starts to flow through his body. Unfortunately, the effects of the healing are minor, and has done little to aid him. She sighs and then repeats the operation, but the results are identical in that they are next to useless, and Rowan remains almost as badly injured as he was before Joy started to see to him.

After Joy has done all that she can for him currently, she slaps him on the side of the head and says:

"Why did you let yourself get so hurt? What were you thinking?"

Rowan mock-recoils at her blow:

"This reunion is bittersweet, indeed! I was thinking, dear cousin, that you were in need of assistance, but perhaps I was mistaken."

After this, Joy hugs him and asks:

"Miss me much? I guess not. While I'm being nearly killed by rat things you're wooing females."

She rolls her eyes at Aithne.

"On the contrary!" Rowan breaks the embrace, looking offended. "These good people can attest that I have spoken of little else but my concern for you these past days. I am overjoyed to see you so quickly caught up with us-- I had not expected to see you until we reached Opava."

Aithne retrieves the long sword that has now stopped dancing and has come to rest upon the snow in between the ratmen bodies and cleans both weapons:

"I would think," she adds, "that interrogating the one that seems to think Joy a friend would be easiest--if we can speak to them at all, that is."

While the rest of the group are chatting, Yaz grins as he realized his imposing presence was what caused the ratmen to retreat. He stands, hands on hips defiantly for a moment, then lets his arms drop. Peering at the group around Rowan and the newcomers, then back at the departed ratmen, he determines that this fight isn't quite over yet.

While the group's attention remains focused elsewhere, Yaz's form changes quickly into that of a falcon and, in a flurry of wings, he is off in pursuit.

Aithne laughs as Yaz shapes into a winged avenger and chases after him, her swords readied:

"Not gonna let him have all the fun," she calls over her shoulder as she heads off after Falcon-Yaz and the fleeing ratmen, traveling at a blisteringly fast pace.

Joy looks inquisitively at Rowan, waiting to see what he'll do.

"Let them go," Rowan replies, wiping his weapons clean before sheathing them. "I have the eyes of neither the falcon nor the half elf, and do not wish to fumble about in the dark like a blind man. Besides, the druid is more than capable in the woods, I can tell you, and Aithne has the good sense and ability to return if anything serious happens."

"Unless there's a Witchfinder about," he adds.

Porter looks at Winnacer, pointing to the departing Aithne and Yaz, and says:

"They've got absolutely no sense, do they?"

"Not even a small bit," Winnacer replies, shaking his head. "But, as Rowan implied, they should be able to handle their quarry."

The decision as to whether to follow the ratmen is rather a moot one in any case, as the giant rodents fled off at a pace that most horses would be unable to hold over a short distance.

Falcon-Yaz flies for about three minutes' running time and manages to get in front of the ratmen, then drops down, behind the trunk of a long-dead yew tree. Seeing that the ratmen are fairly well bunched together as they dash away at quite alarming speed, the druid grins and removes seven long thorns from his pouch. He then begins to cast before throwing his hands towards an area of ground right before the frantically squeaking vermin.

Totally undetectable due to the snow, not that the ratmen are particularly paying attention to anything other than getting away from the village as quickly as they can, the ground just in front of them is immediately strewn with thorny spikes. The ratmen immediately start to squeak with agony as they run through the spiky patch, their naked paws providing no protection whatsoever from the piercing thorns. One of the ratmen trips over and expires within entering just a few feet of the patch. The other two, proving that goblins appear to be geniuses in comparison, squeak and cry out in agony, but cannot figure out what is happening and continue to plow through the patch. This proves to be the undoing of another one of them, but one of them just about manages to survive, although it is very badly injured indeed.

The last remaining ratman is crying out in agony, and is now limping badly, slowing it down as it leaves bloody footprints in the white snow.

Yaz is just about to change into a panther in order to finish off the last of the ratmen when he sees Aithne appear into his view. Seeing her heading straight for the spiky area, he shouts out to her:

"GO RIGHT," she shouts out to her. "SPIKES AHEAD."

Having seen the results of what Yaz' spell did to the company of goblins, Aithne changes course while still traveling at an incredible speed. She manages to by-pass the thorny patch and sees that the last of the ratmen has slowed down considerably now and she is approaching it at top speed.

The ratman hears her behind it and looks over its shoulder. As it does so, it sees that she is almost upon it. It tries to turn round and brings up its curved sword in order to try and parry her blow. It manages to turn around in time to spoil her attack with her longsword, but she manages a glancing wound upon it with her shortsword. The ratman looks to be very close to death now, but it manages to cling on to life in order to try and swing at her. Once again, her light-refracting cloak ensures that its attack is well off-target. Aithne strikes back at the vermin, and this time the lunge from her longsword is right on target and she easily manages to run the rodent through.

Yaz rushes down in order to provide assistance to Aithne, brandishing his scimitar. By the time that he gets there, however, the show is over.

The druid immediately gestures to the spike-strewn patch and clicks his fingers, rendering the area harmless once more. He then proceeds to search the bodies of the three ratmen. This is a particularly unpleasant task, as the ratmen stink to high heaven and are all infested with lice, fleas and other insects.

While Yaz investigates the bodies of the ratmen, Aithne looks to the ground and sees that the ratmen were following a trail of footprints that were obviously made by the ratmen as they came out towards the village. She follows the trail for a short distance and smiles as she sees that they lead from a narrow rocky fissure in the hillside some 50 yards from where the last of the ratmen expired.

She returns to where Yaz is standing:

"Looks as if we have found out where they came from," she says, pointing towards the narrow opening.

Yaz nods:

"That's good. You've had more luck than I have. Those stinking rat-bastards have got nothing of interest on them apart from their swords and a crude form of chainmail."

Aithne nods:

"Let's go back to the others and tell them what we've found."

The druid nods in agreement and the pair of half-elves start to walk the half-mile back to the 'Traveler's Rest'.

Meanwhile, Rowan looks with relief towards Joy, then at the ratmen bodies around them and then towards Winnacer and Porter:

"At the moment, I would have nothing more than to hear my cousin recount events since our parting, but not over the bodies of these poor unfortunates," he says.

Porter's interest lies with the wagon rather than the dead ratmen. As he starts to check over the contents of the wagon, he rolls his eyes to himself at the banter between Rowan and his cousin:

"Bet he screws his cousin," he thinks to himself.

Then out loud, he says in a low voice:

"Seems like the type anyway."

He then returns to the task of looking through the wagon. He sees that the vehicle is better described as a carriage rather than a wagon, as it is of a fine light construction and is drawn by four light horses rather than a draft horse or two that are more typical for hauling cargo. The carriage bears the inscription 'Moravia Coaching Co.'. The inside of the carriage is quite well furnished, obviously designed for passengers wanting to travel in comfort and at speed. He sees that there are three bundles in the carriage. One of them has the insignia of the Church of Zlodey on it. Realizing that this is, no doubt, Joy's possessions, he wisely leaves them alone.

The other two are sacks, one of which is quite small and empty while the other is fairly large and bulky. He looks at the first of sacks, opening it up and rummaging through the contents. It seems as if most of the contents of the sack are clothes. He pulls out the first item in the sack to see that it is a small tea towel. He opens it up and reads the inscription:

"My Father Went To Olmutz And All I Got Was This Lousy Tea-Towel," he reads.

He continues to rummage through the sack, producing several items of soiled clothing, all of them dwarf sized. In the bottom of the sack is a tiny replica of an anvil and a matching miniature hammer, both of which are emblazoned with the symbol of the Church of Zelezny, God of Blacksmiths.

"The dwarf must have been returning from a pilgrimage," Porter says to himself.

He continues to rummage through the sack, finding a small leather pouch. He opens it up to see that it contains 10 gold pieces and 13 silver pieces.

He then proceeds to take a look at the larger sack. Although it is large and bulky, it is surprisingly light. He opens it up and takes a look inside to see that it is filled with a number of letters and sealed parchments. He takes a look through a few of them, seeing that the majority of them are written in dwarvish.

"So this was a mail coach then," he says to himself, putting the letters back into the sack.

While Porter is busy with the contents of the mail coach, Winnacer points to the trail of ratprints:

"While Yaz and Aithne slake their bloodthirst, we should investigate the trail. With any luck, we'll find the correct fissure, saving us a lot of time tomorrow. Would you like the honors, Porter?"

Poter nods as he finishes poking through the wagon:

"Yeah, no problem, just let me finish up here."

Finished with examining its contents, he adds:

"You know, we should get ready to fight it out, if we're going to to do this now."

"I suppose our talk will have to wait a little longer, cousin," Rowan sighs as he looks to Joy once more. "Danger calls!"

Joy goes and grabs her pack from the wagon.

Porter then begins examining the tracks left by the ratmen, saying to the others:

"Why don't we get our crap together and be ready to go?"

Porter then heads back up to his room, donning the rest of his gear and a heavier garments to block out the cold.

Rowan does likewise and returns shortly, his remaining wounds bandaged, wearing his cloak and blouse and looking significantly better. Whatever brush with death he may have had seems to have passed.

The charmed ratman has now finished eating Milan's vomit. Still feeling a little peckish and seeing that the others are occupied, the ratman pads forwards and starts to gnaw the flesh from the dwarf's face. Joy sees what the ratman is doing and shoos the ratman away. It bounds off a short distance and kneels in the snow, chewing on the dwarf's nose.

Porter then looks towards the direction from which the ratmen approached, and compares it with the area the survivors fled. He suspects the two are identical, but he wants to be sure. He does indeed see that the ratmen have simply been retracing their steps as they have fled, and that they were obviously intending to return to their lair. Once he's satisfied about the situation, he starts to track the ratmen back in the direction they approached the wagon.

As he starts to follow the tracks, he sees that tracking the vermin is going to be simplicity itself, as there are few other tracks in the thick white covering of snow save for those made by the ratmen's large paws.

Winnacer nods his head in agreement as he sees that Porter is planning on following the tracks:

"We should also take our horses. I will not be smiling at the mile and a half walk back in the dead of night."

"However," the LawBringer continues, "before we set out towards their lair, we need to clear up the mess that we have made here. We should drag the bodies of the coachmen and the dwarf inside so that they may be given a proper burial and arrange for the bodies of the dead ratmen be buried."

He looks towards the charmed verman:

"And that one needs to be put in shackles as well. We can't have him simply running free."

The others agree and so start the unpleasant task of dealing with all of the bodies. The bodies of the coachmen and the nibbled dwarf are dragged into the stable and laid upon the straw covering the floor.

As her traveling companions are laid upon the straw, Joy starts to utter a prayer for their souls, reciting the last rites for them while the others look on. She pauses over the body of the dwarven pilgrim and says an especially long prayer. Once she has finished, he turns to them:

"We should bury them in the morning. We can't leave them here for long and it doesn't seem right just to burn their bodies."

The others agree and then start upon the even more unpleasant task of moving the corpses of the four dead ratmen and the shaman. They drag them a short distance away from the village and then Winnacer returns to his room. Here, he changes into his platemail, folding up the Fabio armor and laying it at Milan's bedside. He then shoulders the rest of the gear and returns to where the others have managed to arrange the ratmen corpses into a pile. He reaches into his pack and removes a flask of oil, which he then proceeds to pour over the bodies. He then takes his flint and steel and sets a spark to the bodies. The fur of the ratmen proves to be fairly inflammable and the corpses burn quickly.

Winnacer watches the corpses burn for a moment and then returns to the stables in order to get the horses belonging to himself and Porter.

Along with the horses, the LawBringer is carrying a length of chain and some shackles that he retrieved from the chest on the draft horse. He starts to advance upon the ratman that has been trailing Joy at a safe distance ever since the combat. As the ratman sees the LawBringer coming, however, it starts to hiss at him and swiftly moves out of the young Lord's way, always keeping Joy between Winnacer and itself.

Realizing that he has no chance of catching the fleet-footed vermin, Winnacer gives up and hands the chains and shackles to Joy:

"Perhaps you might have more luck with binding him than I have, seeing as how it is your friend."

Joy takes the shackles from Winnacer and starts to walk towards the ratman. Although it does not hiss at her or bolt away, it is obvious that bondage is just not what the verman is into and he refuses to let Joy get close enough to it to allow her to secure him. He seems to be quite happy to trail her, however.

As the party left in the village finish off seeing to the bodies and unsuccessfully try to secure the ratman, Yaz and Aithne return, looking very pleased with themselves.

"You can put those horses back for the night," Yaz says as he sees their making preparations for an immediate foray. "Aithne followed the tracks to where they came from, so there's no rush to do anything tonight."

He looks up at the sky and sees that it is totally clear, showing the large moon and the many stars up above:

"It's not going to be snowing tonight, so the tracks are still going to be there in the morning."

"And even if it did, we got Joe Rat here to lead us to the hole," he continues. "So let's get some sleep."

"I'm with Yaz on that one," Aithne agrees. "We have no idea what is down that fissure and nothing is going to change between now and the morning. Besides, Rowan is still badly injured and we may need all of the spells at our disposal for then."

Porter also nods his head in agreement:

"You know, I ain't in charge here, but for what it's worth, I agree with the druid that we might be better off waiting until tomorrow. I don't see to have the good karma going right now, and Milan and Rowan have seen better days. Perhaps we should wait until morning. If these creatures are nocturnal, they'll likely be easier to nail during the day, and I doubt they're smart enough to put much in the way of extra defense in the meantime."

Rowan nods in agreement:

"I believe you have a point. There may be no need to rush into this now when rushing into it later seems more advisable."

"Where are we going and who are we fighting?" Joy asks, looking with confusion at the people who are around her.

"And who are you?" she continues, directing her question to Porter.

Porter holds up his hands to either side of him, looking incredulously at the woman and says:

"Hello?! Giant ratmen? We're going to track them back into their lair?"

Porter takes the reins to his horse, mumbling to himself:

"Honestly, this is exactly why I work alone."

Joy just smiles in return and says to him:

"Lovely to meet you also. The name's Joy."

"He's normally a... well, tolerable sort," Rowan says as an aside to Joy.

Turning to Porter, however, he says, in a more strident tone:

"Watch your tongue, Porter, or I'll see it fed to the dogs. I have little patience for insults where my kin are concerned, especially Joy."

"Perhaps," he adds, grinning at Winnacer, "I'm just a little overprotective."

Winnacer glares at Rowan:

"Hypocritical cur."

He then walks over to help Porter.

Porter paused for a bit just to make sure he actually heard Rowan correctly. He then steps towards the swashbuckler, standing in his face and saying:

"I'm sorry, you weren't talking to ME, were you? Let me tell you something. I ain't the easy-going type like the paladin over there. If you had banged MY sister who was a nun, you'd be lying in a back alley with the maggots chewing on your balls, which would be in your mouth, by the way. So, don't threaten me, even jokingly, ever!"

"They love me," Rowan quips to his cousin.

Winnacer steps close, ready to break up any scuffle that may take place, but it appears that neither Rowan nor Porter are ready to start trading blows.

Winnacer comes to Porter and whispers to him:

"It helps when you can make your eyes glow with holy terror. Even this fop responds to that."

Porter raises his eyebrows,:

"That'd be a neat trick. Somehow I doubt you can teach it to me, though."

Joy looks back to her cousin:

"Rowan, what's going on here? What'd you get involved with?"

"Believe me, cousin," he replies, glancing meaningfully at Winnacer. "I had little choice in the matter initially... but I am here now. It is, in many ways, everything we've usually craved: adventure, excitement -- of a sort-- and the standard promises of wealth to come."

Joy looks with suprise at Rowan. Haltingly she asks:

"You're going along with them then?"

She appears doubtful, but adds:

"Well, you know I'll help if you think there's adventure and a chance at wealth in it."

"There's... um... more to it than that, but that's the gist of it," he replies, then lowers his voice. "We'll speak of it privately later."

Winnacer sees that the decision to leave the fissure until the morning is almost universally accepted:

"Of course we will wait until we are fully primed to enter their lair. We still are undermanned without the dwarven priest and I'm personally not up for it quite yet. We should, however, get ourselves ready for a fight anyway. We need to be ready to fight with any search party they may send for their overdue rat comrades. We also will have to wipe out our own prints as not to throw them off guard."

"Well, there's nothing I can do to help you there about the tracks," Aithne yawns. "I'm getting some sleep. I imagine we'll need it."

She turns and winks to Rowan as she walks back into the inn, then turns back briefly:

"Ah, Yaz, maybe Gertrude could keep an eye out for the ratmen in case the rest of you don't want to go back out there either."

She then continues into the inn.

Yaz nods at Aithne's words, turning to face Winnacer:

"There's nothing that I can do about those tracks either," he adds. "There's no magickal way of getting rid of them now that they're made and I can't see how it's possible to cover up half a mile of tracks that are sunk down half a foot."

"Aithne's idea sounds like a good one to me. I'll get Gertrude to keep an eye on the entrance. At the first sign of any rat-bastards coming out, then she'll come and alert us so that we can get ready for them."

Winnacer nods and looks once again at Joy's timid friend the ratman:

"So we just need to figure out what to do with that thing now. Unless anyone has got any better ideas, I suggest that we head over to the Chapel of Zemnye and tell them that we have a captive ratman. Hopefully they can help us to imprison it. If they can't, then I think that we'll just have to kill it. It would be a shame though."

Porter agrees:

"Yes, if we can keep the damn locked up until morning, it might be good to have him lead us into their lair. They don't look smart, but I bet they've got a number of traps nonetheless."

"We'll need some way to communicate with it, in that case," Winnacer adds. "It may be easiest to debrief him and not bother bringing the vermin with us. Having such a creature may just be a liability in the close quarters of the fissure, and you can never know when these magicks wear off, or can be removed. While it may not wish to cause us harm, it probably would be quite happy calling out to its buddies to tell them he's alright."

"He's definitely a resource, but it's just too chancy that he'll blow the whistle on us. I think it would be best if he would stay behind, after detailing the layout of the place. Which brings us back to point one, interpretation."

Yaz sighs:

"We don't need to bother the dwarves about this," he says. "These creatures are pretty dumb and so I can't believe that it's going to be that difficult to lock it in the cellar for the night. I can ask Prirodna to bless it with the ability to speak with us in the morning."

He looks over at Joy:

"He's your pet, right? Yeah, well I don't think he's that different from most of Prirodna's children. It seems as if food is pretty important to it. I think that, if you were to lure it somewhere by offering it some food and then ran away from it, we should be able to lock it in."

"OK," Joy replies. "If you think that it should work, then I'm willing to give it a try."

Yaz nods:

"Good, let me go and get you something to bribe him with."

The druid disappears into the inn for a moment and returns a few moments later with a grin on his face and half a wheel of cheese in his hand:

"It should like this," he says, handing her the cheese.

Yaz appears to be right, as the ratman is already starting to inch closer to Joy, sniffing at the cheese while its long pink tail starts to wag.

"The inn's got a cellar," Yaz adds. "I think that should be ideal for keeping him out of mischief for the night."

Joy looks a little unsure, but is willing to give it a try. She takes the cheese and starts to head into the inn. Rowan has Chanticleer ready in case anything should go wrong and the ratman should turn on his cousin.

However, all seems to be going to plan, as Joy walks through the inn and heads down the steps to the cellar with the ratman following a few steps behind her. Once she gets to the bottom of the stairs, she hurls the cheese into the far corner of the room and points to it. Nervously, the ratman heads over to the cheese and then nervously starts eating it. As it sees that Joy seems to be quite happy that it is eating the cheese, he starts to devour it hungrily.

Joy sees her chance for escape and quickly bounds up the stairs. Rowan quickly slams the door behind her and throws the bolt, securing the door firmly. The ratman soon realizes that his new mistress has given it the slip and starts to bound up the stairs after her. They can hear it banging on the door with its paws and squeaking sadly. However, the door is sturdy and there is no way that the ratman is getting out of its own accord.

Joy writes a note to the innkeeper and places it on the door, not wanting him to have a rather unpleasant surprise should he rise before the party does.

Seeing that the ratman situation has now been resolved, at least temporarily, Winnacer returns outside and looks to the carriage. He turns to Porter:

"We should take the mail with us when we continue on to Opava. It could be good cover for us and might earn us a few friends while we're at it."

"Are you SURE that the mail is meant for Opava?" Rowan questions.

Joy nods:

"I'm sure that it is," she replies. "I wanted to meet with you as quickly as possible and so I chose the fastest means of transport possible. It should have been a nonstop journey to Opava, arriving at dawn tomorrow. The drivers took the driving in shifts and they stopped at several places to change horses."

"There definitely were no stop-offs due before Opava."

"We can't leave the horses attached to the carriage all night," the LawBringer says.

"Can you help me to put them in the stables?" he asks Porter.

Porter nods his agreement and helps the LawBringer to unharness the four horses and the pair of them lead them to the stables, putting them with the rest of the party's mounts. They then return to the 'Traveler's Rest', picking up the sack of mail as they go. They then head back up to their rooms, getting undressed and going to sleep once more. Thankfully, the rest of the night is without incident.