Assaulting Fortress Skaven

Joy immediately pulls forth her holy symbol and starts to utter an incantation while pointing at each member of the party in turn. She continues to do this for a minute, while the others all grow anxious about the time that it is taking. As the Demarchess finishes the incantation, however, all save for Winnacer feel a warm glow inside, calming themselves slightly.

As soon as she finishes the blessing, Joy immediately starts to cast once again. She puts away her holy symbol and concentrates upon Yaz. As she makes an incantation and gestures towards the druid, Yaz' form starts to shimmer and then he all but disappears from view, appearing to be nothing but a blur. Realizing that there is no time to lose, Joy then throws the cloak around her and she and Yaz dash out into the cavern as quickly as they dare.

Upon entering the cavern, Joy and Yaz realize that they have not got a moment to lose. With his infravision, Yaz can see that the former occupants of the alcove over the southwest passageway are already down and are chatting to the relief force. He notices that all of the ratmen are keeping a safe distance from the ratogres and their handlers. One group of ratogres are being led towards the northeast passageway, while the others are heading towards the southeast.

Joy immediately starts to cast, uttering an incantation as quietly as she can so as to avoid detection. Luckily, the ratmen in the center of the cavern are squeaking quite loudly to each other and so her utterings are not heard over the noise. She gesticulates towards the entrance of the passageway that she and Yaz came from and, as she finishes the incantation, a floating form, similar to the beholder starts to emerge from it.

Yaz looks a little alarmed as he sees the form:

"Shit," he says, almost forgetting the need for silence. "The real one was much bigger than that."

"I'm sorry," Joy replies, "but I've never tried to summon up anything as big as that before. That's the best that I can do, I'm afraid."

Whether convincing or not, the arrival of the beholder-kin certainly gets a reaction from the ratmen, as they all start squeaking in panic. The two shamen, however, simply stare at the shadow-form with a little confusion. Then, as the form starts to fly above them, they start to squeak out instructions to the other ratmen while watching the shape curiously.

Yaz starts to get a little nervous, wondering whether the plan has been rumbled already. The relief force start to head towards the rope ladder that leads to the alcove above the southwest passageway while the handlers of the two groups of ratogres turn them around to try and see what is going on. However, Yaz sees, to his immense relief, that eyes are starting to appear over the crenellations of the other three alcoves. As they see that something is up, some of the eyes start to disappear and the sound of brass gongs sounding starts to fill the air.

Yaz checks out the ratmen's glowing red eyes carefully, checking which ones belong to the rats with the barrels strapped to them. He quickly manages to figure out which they are and shouts out to Joy, the sound of his voice masked by the gongs:

"I can see the ratbastards with the barrels. I'll take the ones in the northeast and southeast alcoves. You take the one in the northwest alcove. Aim for the second pair of glowing eyes from the right."

Joy nods, and then sets the shadow-beholder onto the ratmen starting to head up the rope ladder that leads to the vacant passageway. This mini-shadow-beholder only has six tentacles compared to the ten of the original, and so it tries to skewer one ratmen with each of them. Amazingly, all six of the tentacles manage to find their targets and all six of the ratguards are skewered by the sharp tentacles, sending the ratmen squealing out in pain.

At hearing their comrades in such pain, the guards in the other three alcoves bring their weaponry to bear, with gunnes and the nozzles of flamethrowers appearing over the crenellations.

Yaz ignores the sight of the ratmen getting impaled by the tentacles of the shadowy Death Kiss and pulls forth his holy ganja before starting to cast towards the direction of the two eastern alcoves. Joy does the same thing, clasping her holy symbol and gesturing towards the glowing red eyes that Yaz informed her belonged to the ratman with the barrel strapped to him. Upon completion of the spell, absolutely nothing happens:

"I guess that it will take a while for the metal to heat up," Yaz says a little doubtfully. "Either that or it hasn't worked."

Meanwhile, the others in the passageway can see none of the goings on in the cavern, even though they have moved to just beneath the alcove. However, as they hear the alarm gongs sounding, they realize that it is time to move.

Winnacer turns to Timex:

"It's time to go now," he says to the coughing dwarf.

"Please could you lift me up?" Timex asks. "I need to attach the clay to the ceiling and I can't reach it myself."

Together, Winnacer and Rowan haul the dwarf up until he is standing upon their shoulders and then hold him stable in position. Timex then starts to chant an incantation while holding the clay shape in his hands. It seems to take an age for the dwarf to make the enchantment and the heavy dwarf is getting difficult for them to hold still. Finally, however, Timex's incantation is complete and he slaps the clay shape against the ceiling. As he does so, the rock that it is attached to seems to almost melt, with the area above Timex seeming to start to drip down like a giant, knotty stalactite that falls to the floor. As it finishes, Timex starts coughing:

"Excellent," he says, "that seem to have gone all the way through."

By now the cavern is starting to get a little chaotic and very busy. The unit of ten ratmen has emerged from the northwest passageway and are looking around to see what is going on. The four monks with the smoldering morningstars have also entered the cavern, although there is no sign of the sneaky looking ratman. The alarms are still sounding.

All of a sudden, Joy and Yaz start to fear for their eardrums as the ratmen bring their artillery to bear upon the shadow beholder. There is an almighty "BOOOOOMMM" and the gunne from the northeastern alcove fires towards the beholder. The shot from the gunne just misses the beholder by a few inches, instead taking a huge chunk out of the crenellations of the southwestern alcove, sending rock fragments flying through the air. Immediately Yaz sees the ratman pull the gunne back in and start to reload. Then the gunne from the northwestern alcove shoots towards the beholder. This time, the gunne is right on target and catches the faux-beholder right in its center. Rather than exploding, the shadow monster simply disappears into nothingness and the ball continues to take out another huge chunk of wall at the south of the cavern.

"Shit," Yaz says to Joy as he sees the eye in the sky disappearing. "That didn't last very long."

Joy nods sadly:

"Yes," she agrees, "and they know that it was caused by magick as well."

No sooner has Joy said it that the two shamen start chittering together and staring around themselves. Yaz and Joy stand stock still to ensure that they are not seen, knowing that their cloaking devices are not 100% effective. The shamen are gesturing to the troops in the center now. The four ratpriests in the cloaks are sent back to the northeast, towards the iron doors and three of the ratogres plus their guardians are sent in that direction as well. The guards that have just been relieved of their posts all draw their weapons and remain in the center of the cavern, while the other three ratogres and their minder join them. The fresh guards, who seem to have survived the attack of the shadowy beholder with just minor scratches start to climb the rope ladder once more. The ten black ratmen are heading towards the southwest passageway, where the rest of the party is starting to climb up towards the alcove. The ratmen in the alcoves are continuing to scan the cavern, save for those that fired the gunnes, who are obviously in the process of reloading.

"Shit," Yaz says, once again, "if those barrels don't blow soon, then we're in trouble. I think it's time to obscure the area and get out."

Joy nods:

"I agree. It's probably not a good idea to be standing around here when those barrels go off in any case."

Yaz immediately starts to cast another spell while mouthing the words to a quick spell. As he finishes, the cavern starts to fill with a dense mist, coming from the direction of the southwestern passageway.

The ratmen are starting to squeak like crazy now and are trying to find out the source of all of the magick.

Meanwhile, Rowan springs lithely up the makeshift ladder, leading the way with weapons drawn. Aithne follows swiftly after him, nimbly climbing the knotty stalactite. Timex is getting very nervous now and is coughing violently. Winnacer helps him to ascend the ladder, but he is slow in getting up.

As he does so, Porter speaks to him, seeing the mist starting to swirl around:

"I'm going into the cavern," he says. "We can't leave Yaz and Joy alone in there and I want to try and get the handlers of those ratogres."

Winnacer nods:

"Very well, but be careful and try and stay away from the center, as we'll be raining down everything we can throw at them soon."

Porter nods and heads off into the main cavern in order to try and take out the handlers.

Rowan and Aithne scramble through the hole and get themselves into the alcove just in time to see two of the ratmen getting to the top of the rope ladder and about to get in. The pair of them immediately draw their blades and start to lash out at the two ratmen.

The first of the ratmen looks up in surprise as it sees that the gallery is occupied and doesn't even have time to squeak before Rowan runs it through with Chanticleer, sending the verman tumbling down the rope ladder. Aithne lashes out at the other one with her longsword. The ratman tries to duck away, but she still manages to cut into its shoulder. The ratman squeaks in surprise and quickly ducks just as Aithne tries to hit it with her shortsword, making her miss. Rowan tries to get it with his main-gauche, but the ratman is out of reach of the short blade now. He tries with Chanticleer once again and the slender blade easily finds its mark. The second of the ratmen squeaks and then falls from the ladder, quite dead. The two of them see that three more of the ratmen are still trying to climb the ladder, however.

Yaz' mist is starting to billow through the southwest passageway now and, through it, Winnacer can hear that some of the ratmen are heading towards their position. Not wanting Timex around to meet the ratmen down here, he quickly boosts the slow dwarf up the stone ladder and then turns to face the black ratmen heading towards him. As he sees that there are ten of them on their way, Winnacer decides that the odds are a bit too much against him in the darkness. Immediately that they head towards him, Winnacer's eyes start to glow with Holy Wrath and he bellows out at the creatures:

"FILTHY VERMIN THAT DEFILE ALL THAT IS GOOD IN THIS WORLD, YOU STAND ACCUSED OF CRIMES AGAINST ALL THAT IS RIGHT. FLEE NOW OR FACE HER DIVINE RETRIBUTION."

The Holy Fear of Spravedelna does not have quite the same effect as usual. Six of the vermen run away in peril, heading through the mist towards the northeast passageway, but four of them close and start to lay into the young Lord. None of them are able to find any way through his platemail, however.

Porter quickly past the swirling mists as he enters the cavern, keeping to the shadows and hoping for a break in his miserable luck. Finally, it does and he can just see the ratogre's handler standing behind the three lumbering beasts whose huge stature and large yellow eyes make them stand out easily. Masked by the mass of squeaking, he rushes up behind the handler and plunges his bastardsword through the rathandler's back with as much force as he can muster. The brown rathandler is a big bruiser of a creature, but Porter's sword runs it through like a knife through butter and the ratman falls to the ground. As he does so, the three ratogres look round and see their keeper falling to the floor.

Porter looks up at the gigantic creatures that seem to dwarf him in comparison. One of them just stands where it is, looking stupidly around. A second ratogre falls to its knees and lets out a cry of anguish as it tries to clutch its master's dead body in its arms. The other one lets out an almighty cry of rage and starts to turn on Porter.

Porter's luck continues to hold, however as, at that very moment, the mist swirls all around him and the ratogres, obscuring them from view. Porter takes advantage of the situation by getting away from there as quickly as possible.

Yaz and Joy, meanwhile, try and feel their way back to the southwest passageway, as the way is totally obscured by the mist. As they find their way, however, they hear squeaking ahead of them and guess that it is the ratmen in the mouth of the passageway, who are currently locked in combat with Winnacer.

Two more ratmen try to make their way up the rope ladder and Aithne and Rowan immediately try to take them down. Aithne manages to hit one of them with both her long and shortswords, but the brute is a large one and does not drop. Showing amazing agility and speed, it climbs over the wall and lashes out at the ranger with its curved sword. Aithne's corruscating cloak easily saves her from any damage, however. Rowan easily manages to run the other one through with his blade and then turns to assist Aithne with the one in the alcove. His aim is true and he inflicts a serious wound upon the beast, but it is still not enough to drop the vermin. One other ratman is scaling the rope ladder.

Below them, Winnacer draws 'Old Bohavia' and begins to lay into the ratmen. He hits the first of the ratmen with his noble blade and it hacks into the ratman's flank, injuring him slightly. He lifts the sword once more and thrusts it into the verman's flank once again inflicting a terrible wound upon it. It is still not enough the finish the huge black beast, however. The four ratmen all lash out at him with their curved swords, but his armor protects him from all but one of the blows, which inflicts a quite serious wound upon the young Lord. There is still plenty of fight left in him yet though.

All of a sudden, the party members are all practically deafened and nearly blinded as an almighty explosion rips through the cavern. Fragments of rock and ratmen are hurled all over the cavern as the first of the flame-throwers explodes spectacularly in the southeast alcove. A split-second later, the northeast alcove goes up too, with the same devastating results. Just as the first two explosions subside, the final flame-thrower in the northwest alcove goes up as well, once again showering rock fragments and singed ratmeat all over the cavern.

The alcoves are continuing to burn, making the whole cavern as light as day for the moment. It is quite obvious that there are no survivors in any of the three alcoves, as they are raging infernos yet there is no squeaking or frantic movement coming from within. The cavern below is almost totally filled with mist now. As it is 10' deep, you can see no movement down in the fog from the alcove that you are in.

Rowan takes a quick look at the alcove that he, Timex and Aithne are in. He sees that a 10' section of the wall was taken out by the explosion caused by the gunne aimed at the shadow-beholder. Inside the alcove he sees that the ratmen did indeed leave all of their equipment, consisting of a gunne, a stack of ammo, matches and charges, a flame-thrower and a wooden box containing 10 crystal grenades.

Down below, Joy quietly sneaks in behind one of the ratmen that is trying to fight Winnacer and tries to attack it from the back. All four of the ratmen are very much concentrating on the young Lord and so none of them are aware of Joy and Yaz coming up behind them. It is, therefore, a fairly easy exercise for her to smash one of the ratmen on the back with her mace. The large black ratmen squeaks with the pain and turns to face her, along with one of the others. Yaz decides that he needs to help out in order to get up top as quickly as possible and so quickly draws his scimitar and starts to lay into one of the other ratmen. The ratman tries to dodge out of the way of Yaz' blade but, due to the Zlodey's blessing that Joy cast upon him, his swing still manages to catch the ratman and the druid inflicts a good wound upon him.

Back in the cavern, Porter is relieved that his luck is continuing to hold. Through the swirling mists that are all around him, he can hear the bass chittering of the crazed ratogre that is stamping around looking for blood. Porter decides to see if it is just his blood that the ratogre is after, or whether anyone else will do.

He carefully makes his way through the mists, looking all around him as he goes, keeping the sound of the ratogre just a few more feet away from him. All of a sudden, he sees a green-robed shaman standing around with his back to Porter, squeaking out more orders. Porter comes up behind the shaman and gives him an almighty push in the direction of the ratogre. Although the shaman soon disappears into the mists, Porter's actions are rewarded by some enraged screaming from the ratogre, a high pitched scream from the shaman and some frenzied thumping noises.

Aithne quickly tries to take out the ratman that managed to get up inside the alcove before it can get up to any mischief. It is already badly injured and so just one swing of her longsword is enough to drop it to the ground.

Rowan, meanwhile, sees the last of the ratmen coming up the rope ladder. He lunges at the creature with Chanticleer and easily manages to skewer the creature with the slim blade. He brings his main-gauche up to parry any possible counter-attack, but the ratman is already dead and falling from the ropeladder.

Rowan, Aithne and Timex now have the alcove to themselves. They look into the swirling mists below, which are still lit up by the light of the burning alcoves. It is impossible for them to see any targets below them, however.

Right underneath the alcove, Winnacer continues his fight, hefting his blade into the injured rat before him. His blow is right on target and a powerful one, cleaving the already quite severely injured ratman in two. One of the other ratmen tries to retaliate, but manages to accidentally toss its sword away in its clumsy attempt. At realizing that it is now unarmed and facing a warrior in platemail, the ratman immediately turns on its tail and starts to head into the mist. Winnacer lashes out at the creature as it tries to make its escape and catches it full-square in the back, inflicting some horrific damage. The beast is another huge one, however, and does not fall, rather continuing to charge off into the mists at an alarmingly fast rate.

Joy and Yaz try to finish off the last of the two ratmen between them. Joy manages to land another good blow upon the ratman before her. It is looking pretty badly injured now, but still does not fall. It tries to lash out at her with its curved sword, but it is way off target. Yaz tries to strike the other one with his lucky scimitar. This time, however, it proves not to be so lucky, as he misses the ratman by a wide margin. The ratman lashes out at Yaz, and it is only the protection given to the druid by being in close proximity to Winnacer that stops him from getting caught by the heavy blade of the ratman's sword.

Porter decides not to push his new-found luck, and moves to beneath the seized alcove. Yelling up to his comrades, he says:

"Flame the center of the room! Aim the gunne at the northeast tunnel and I'll tell you when to fire!"

Porter then moves to the side of the northeast tunnel, still on the lookout for the sneaky rat bastard. He doesn't find the sneaky rat bastard, but one of the regular ratmen manages to finds him, as Porter makes his way through the fog. Porter sees the verman just about to lash out at him through the mists, but not in sufficient time for him to dodge the serrated edge of the ratman's curved sword as it hacks into his arm.

Porter tries to stifle a moan as he feels the blade connecting with his arm. The ratman is squeaking out in alarm now and so Porter tries to finish off the vermin quickly before others start to box him in.

Porter's miserable luck returns with a vengeance, however, as the ratman easily manages to dodge his clumsy blow with the bastard sword. Porter quickly tries to follow up with another blow, but he loses his grip on the hilt of the sword, which goes flying out of his hand, instantly getting lost in the fog-filled cavern.

Aithne looks quickly at Rowan to see if he has any great ideas:

"I don't think we can throw those things not knowing where our allies are."

She then starts to climb down into the fray, to see if she can be of aid.

Below her, Winnacer, Joy and Yaz are trying to finish off the last of the three black ratmen. Winnacer easily manages to bring one of them down with another mighty blow from 'Old Bohavia'. Yaz tries to take out the last remaining ratman with his scimitar, but he misses by a mile. The ratman tries to lash out at Winnacer, but his blow results in nothing more than a loud clanging noise as Winnacer parries the blow with his shield. Joy then tries her luck and manages to bring her mace crashing down on the shoulder of the ratman. It squeaks out from the pain, but does not fall. Winnacer tries to finish it off, but the ratman quickly dodges out of the way and it is as much as the young Lord can do to keep on his feet.

All of a sudden, Joy and Yaz hear the patter of furry feet behind them and look round just in time to see a black clad figure approaching through the mist with a shortsword in each hand. Alarmingly, both of the shortswords seem to be oozing some kind of purplish ichor-like substance. The sneaky rat tries to stab both Yaz and Joy in the back as it rushes forwards. Yaz manages to see it coming just in time and ducks as the shortsword flies over his head. Joy, however, is not so lucky, as the shortsword stabs her in the back. There is a look of surprise over her face for a moment, before her eyes close and she slumps to the ground.

The black-clad rat isn't hanging around to face the others. With a flick of its tail, it dashes away towards the fog.

At that moment, Aithne drops down from the stone ladder. The last remaining black ratman is right beneath her. She lashes out at it with her longsword, but the ratman sees it coming and steps out of the way. Aithne is more than a match for the ratman, however, and manages to stick him with her shortsword. The damage that she does is not that severe, however, and the ratman just about manages to survive the blow. It is badly injured, however, and so decides that it is time to try and join the rest of its fleeing comrades. As with all the other ratmen, this one is fast on its feet and Aithne misses as she tries to take it down as he runs. Winnacer is also taken off guard and so it is left to Yaz to drop the creature with a glancing blow from his scimitar.

With all of the ratmen now taken care of, Aithne, Yaz and Winnacer all look down at Joy. She looks to be in a pretty bad way, as she is unconscious and sweating profusely.

Up above, Rowan, flushed and exuberant from the seemingly one-sided battle, stands victorious in the alcove that is empty save for Timex and the ratmen's equipment.

"Taste the cold bite of my steel, rat-curs!" the swashbuckler says triumphantly.

But then he hears Winnacer shouting from below:

"Timex, get down here! Joy's down! Bring the flame machine with you."

At Winnacer's words, Rowan's mien changes abruptly. He drops down the hole and is quickly at his cousin's side. The light from the burning alcoves, filtered through the mist, gives her already-pallid features a ghastly aspect. His eyes search her unconcious face and body as if in the vain hope that a cure were in plain view, then turns to Yaz:

"Can you help her? You've got to help her!"

Meanwhile, back in the cavern ...

"Shit!" yells Porter, after losing his blade. Taking a step back, he reaches down for one of his nets, hurling it at the rat.

Showing the natural nimbleness of the ratmen once again, the ratman sidesteps the net and lashes out at Porter once again. Once again the ratman hits him too, although the wound is not nearly as bad this time. Mercifully, the sound of the combat between Porter and the ratman seems to have been lost in the chaos of the fog-shrouded cavern and no other ratmen arrive to join in with the combat.

Seeing Rowan's expression, Aithne looks at Yaz:

"Can you help her?" she asks.

Her voice is worried.

"I better look around some and see if I can catch up to anyone."

She darts off into the cave looking for trouble.

Yaz drops quickly to one knee, with one hand widening the hole in Joy's clothing that the blade left, and the other fishing herbs from his pouch. He sniffs the wound, then takes a taste sample, spitting the ichor-blood out immediately. Worried, he searches in his pouch for a few select herbs for the purpose of drawing out the poison.

Winnacer sees what he is doing and quickly reaches into his pouch:

"Try to give her this," he says passing a small vial to the druid. "Jihan gave each of us vials of fluid for clearing the bloodstream of poisons after his visit to Mistress Matysova, Guildmistress of the Herbalists' Guild of Vysoke Myto, don't you remember?"

"Errm ... yes," Yaz lies, having forgotten all about them.

Nevertheless, he pulls the cork stopper out of the vial, cradles Joy's head in his hands and pours the clear contents of the vial past Joy's lips until the vial is empty.

For a moment, nothing happens and Rowan's face looks as ashen as that of his cousin's. Then Joy's eyelids flutter before opening. She then retches and spews a stream of vomit over the druid before her.

Yaz, no stranger to being covered in vomit, usually his own, simply nods:

"That's good," he says. "The poison is leaving her system now. She will live, but I'm afraid that she's going to be out of things for a while."

He sees that blood is dripping from the deep wound caused by the ratbastard's shortsword and so starts to bind her wounds.

As he does so, all those below hear a grunting sound up above and then see Timex's face appearing in the hole:

"It's no good, I'm afraid," he wheezes painfully. "The barrel's too heavy and bulky for me to get down through the hole."

Winnacer looks to the swashbuckler, still kneeling concerned by his cousin:

"Rowan, did you have a view of anything while you were up there?"

"No," Rowan replies. "You can't see anything at all from up there. Everything is covered by the fog."

Winnacer nods and turns to the druid who is still tending to Joy:

"Yaz, once we are ready, you are going to have to do something about the fog. It has served its purpose. We'll get the flame machine ready and we'll proceed systematically."

"No can do, boss," Yaz scowls in response. "It'll take care of itself eventually. But I can slow them up a bit... I'm going to seal off that passage. Don't shoot the gunne at the entrance unless you hear the signal!"

"Don't do it," Winnacer implores Yaz. "We'll need the spell later to get by the iron door. Better to make them run this way and hit them with the flame cannon. I'm going up topside, you make them come into range and yell when you are clear."

Yaz pauses, screwing up his face in some semblance of thought:

"OK," he says, "but I'm not the one to lure them here... Let's find out what's happening first."

Yaz begins casting upon Gertrude the owl. When he's done, he looks the bird in the eye:

"Talk to me, baby."

"What exactly would you like me to say, Master Charaz?" Gertrude replies in fluent Bohavian.

Yaz smiles as Gertrude speaks his own language for the first time:

"Find out where the ratmen are," he instructs the bird. "Fly just under the surface of the fog so you can see them. But go quietly, and don't let them hit you! Watch for this..."

With that Yaz grabs his staff of healing from his back:

"That's me. Let's go."

With that he runs off into the fog, holding the staff so the tip of it protrudes up above the surface.

Winnacer nods as he sees Yaz heading into the fog. He turns to speak to Rowan:

"I'm going to go round to the rope ladder and see if I can see anything from up in the alcove."

"OK," Rowan says, not really listening to the young Lord, such is his grief. "Before you go though, can you help me get Joy up through the hole so that Timex can see to her?"

"OK," Winnacer replies. "You get up there first and I'll pass her up to you."

Rowan immediately ascends the crude stone ladder once again. As soon as he is halfway up, Winnacer takes Joy's unconscious body in his hands and lifts her up before starting to climb the steps after Rowan. The swashbuckler gets through the hole, kneels down at its edge and leans over in order to take Joy from Winnacer. He carefully pulls her through the hole and lays her down on the rubble-strewn floor of the alcove. Timex comes to her, shaking his head and coughing.

Meanwhile, Aithne is continuing to walk through the mist, looking for trouble. Trouble finds her a split-second before she finds it, however, as a brown ratman launches itself at her a fraction of a second before Aithne sees it. Aithne manages to dodge out of the way of the ratman, although it wouldn't have had a chance of hitting her due to her light-refracting cloak, in any case. She immediately lashes out at it with her longsword, but the nimble brownfur easily ducks away from her swing. She tries to follow through with her shortsword, but the ratman sees her second blade coming as well and deftly leaps back out of the way.

Although she doesn't know it, Porter is just 20' away from her, locked in his own combat with another of the ratmen. Extremely pissed off now, Porter throws caution to the wind and reaches for the hilt of his opponent's weapon, seeking to pull it away from him while throwing a cestus-clad punch to the face of the rat.

Porter is successful in grabbing hold of the ratman's weapon, but unfortunately he doesn't quite manage to grab the hilt, as the ratman pulls the blade back quickly and Porter finds himself grabbing the blade of the weapon, which the ratman evilly twists in order to inflict the maximum amount of damage.

Porter screams out with the pain as the sword all but cuts his fingers off as the sword bites through to the bone. Blood is pouring from his hand now and Porter realizes that he's not going to be able to hold anything in that hand until he gets it seen to by a cleric.

The ratman chitters with laughter as it sees Porter's predicament. However, Porter's clumsiness seems to be infectious, as the ratman lifts his sword high to try and finish him off. Porter is not quite done yet, however, and fights back his pain in order to dodge the blow. The ratman wasn't expecting this at all and stumbles to the ground, falling onto his sword, inflicting some equally horrific damage to itself. It seems to be stunned at the moment, as it doesn't get up. Porter too, however, seems to be stunned by the horrific damage to his hand and simply stands still grasping his hand. Fortunately the melee between the pair of them still doesn't seem to have attracted the attention of any of the other ratmen yet, however.

Yaz is heading around the outside of the cavern in a clockwise direction, heading for the northeast passageway to see what's there while holding his staff in the air high above his head. He keeps glancing above him as he goes, hoping to see Gertrude coming back with her reconnaissance report. While so doing, he fails to see that two more brown ratmen are coming towards him in the mist.

One of them thrusts at Yaz with its curved sword, but the druid's magickal protection saves him from any harm. The second of the ratmen enthusiastically tries to hack at the druid - a little too enthusiastically, as it happens - as he loses his grip on the sword, a common occurrence in the battle, it seems. The ratman looks on stupidly as its sword flies through the air to hit his companion in the neck, setting the ratman screaming and practically killing him. Yaz tries to finish the job, as he swings at the injured ratman, but his blade is unable to penetrate the ratman's chainmail. The second of the ratmen tries to search around in the mist for his lost blade, seemingly struggling. As the ratman turns his back on the druid, Yaz takes the opportunity of whacking him with his scimitar, inflicting a pretty horrific wound upon the beast.

Not too far away from this combat, Aithne is still fighting one more of the ratmen. She manages to get a good hit on the creature with her longsword, but not enough to finish it. The ratman tries to counter, but her light-refracting cloak saves her from any damage. Aithne lunges at the ratman with her shortsword and easily manages to run the creature through.

With the creature before her now dead, Aithne looks around for more trouble. Unfortunately for her, some very big trouble is approaching her from the rear. The first thing she knows about it is when two shortswords sink into her back, causing her horrendous injuries. Immediately, everything goes dark and she sinks to the floor. Unseen by all, the assassin disappears into the billowing mists once more.

Porter is still kneeling on the ground, stunned, as he fights off the pain throbbing through his lacerated hand. He quickly tears a strip from his torn clothes and starts to bind his wounds, knowing that he will die of bloodloss otherwise. The ratman which fell on its sword seems to be similarly stunned, but is starting to get up off the ground now. Still none of the other ratmen seem to be coming into sight.

Having neither his sword nor a hand to hold it in, Porter decides that he'd rather accept the humiliation of having been bested by a 'freakin' rat' than actually be killed by it. The rogue retreats, disappearing into the mists again. He heads for the alcove seized by the group, keeping a wary eye out for his skaven counterpart.

Winnacer rushes away from the passageway heading for the front of the alcove in order to climb up the rope ladder so as to get up to join Rowan. As he heads for it, he sees the huge form of a ratogre, which has been feasting on the body of a dead ratshaman. The ratogre lets out a mighty roar as it hears and then sees the metal-clad warrior coming towards him and then charges towards Winnacer.

Winnacer immediately has 'Old Bohavia' in hand and lashes out at the huge beast as it rushes forwards. The young Lord thrusts the noble longsword towards the horrifying creature with as much force as he can muster and it sinks into the ratogre's thigh, almost up to the hilt. The ratogre's roar of pain is nearly as deafening as the explosions were. Winnacer pulls the longsword free as the ratogre lashes out at the LawBringer with a huge ragged club. Winnacer tries to dodge out of the way, but the club still manages to get a glancing blow upon the young Lord. Winnacer lashes out again with 'Old Bohavia', but this time the blade is unable to penetrate the creature's thick hide. The ratogre follows up by snapping at Winnacer with its huge jaws, but the young Lord manages to beat it away with his shield.

Up above in the alcove, Rowan is oblivious to all that is going on in the mist below, seeing nothing apart from Yaz' staff poking out above the swirling vapors. He looks over and sees that Timex is taking good care of Joy, as he casts a major healing spell upon her. It's not enough to bring her back to consciousness, but she has stopped sweating now.

Seeing no point in waiting around in the alcove, Rowan decides to leave Joy in Timex's more than capable hands and descends the stone ladder once again before heading into the mists. As he enters the thick of it, he looks around and almost immediately sees the unconscious form of Aithne laying upon the ground.

Upon seeing Aithne's prone form, Rowan's anger builds:

"Vile vermin!" he says, to no one in particular. "Your miserable days are at an end!"

With that, he stalks off into the mist, quite determined to bring the assassin low.

As Porter continues to head for the tunnel, he sees Rowan heading away from the unconscious Aithne.

Porter curses again, saying:

"I'd give you a hand, but I only got one."

He then rushes off to the mouth of the passageway in order to get some much needed healing off Timex. As he exits the fog, however, he suddenly stops in his tracks.

He can see that the black-clad ratassassin is starting to climb up the stone ladder, obviously about to take out Timex and finish off Joy once and for all.

With his one remaining good hand, Porter quickly reaches into his pouch and produces what appears to be a small rusty iron sphere. He quickly tosses the ball towards the assassin. Unfortunately, a word that is fast becoming synonymous with Porter, he is unused to throwing items with his offhand and has no time to aim properly at the ratbastard and so the ball hits the stone ladder rather than the assassin, producing a hollow clanging sound before it rolls a short distance down the passageway.

The ratassassin sees that it had a close call and immediately changes its tactics. It drops down off the ladder, making not a sound as it does so, and rushes up to Porter. As he sees the twin shortswords heading for him, Porter instinctively ducks and the first of the swords passes over his head. The assassin follows up with remarkable speed, however, and plunges the sword into the unfortunate Porter's flank. Already badly injured after his encounter with the other ratman, Porter's agonized groan is cut short. He sinks to the ground as he falls unconscious.

The black-clad assassin doesn't give the downed rogue a second look as he slinks back into the mists of the main cavern.

In the alcove above, Timex was just finishing casting another major healing spell upon Joy when he heard the commotion from below. As the dwarf finishes casting the spell, Joy's eyes start to open and she looks up at the dwarf:

"That's a relief," Timex wheezes. "I really wasn't sure whether you'd pull through or not. You're going to be feeling very weak for a while, so please don't try and do anything too strenuous just yet."

Just then, he hears Porter's groan from down below. The dwarf peers through the hole in the floor of the alcove and sees the badly hacked up rogue lying dormant on the floor below.

"Oh my," the dwarf wheezes and immediately heads down the stone ladder in order to see whether it is not too late to provide some assistance to him.

Meanwhile, Yaz continues to slug it out with the two ratman that he stumbled into while making his way through to the northeast passageway. He lashes out at the one that is already badly injured through having been hit by its comrades flying sword. Luck is not with the druid, however, as his blow is deflected by the ratman's chainmail. The ratman lashes out at Yaz and inflicts a nasty wound to his chest. Luckily the druid is, as yet, uninjured and so it is no major problem quite yet. The other ratman looks around in order to try and find his missing sword. Fortunately for the ratman, he manages to find it quite quickly, and picks it up in order to help its comrade continue fighting the druid.

Locked in combat with the ratogre, Winnacer wheels around so that the cavern wall is protecting his back. The young Lord realizes that he has his work cut out in fighting off the ratogre and will have no opportunity to check for the ratassassin creeping up behind him.

He thrusts at the ratogre with 'Old Bohavia', but the lumbering creature is a little faster than the LawBringer expected and his sword fails to penetrate the beast's leathery hide. The ratogre raises its club high and brings it crashing down upon the young Lord. Winnacer immediately tries to parry with his shield, but the force of the brute's blow is so much that it still injures the young Lord a fair amount. The ratogre immediately tries to follow up by biting Winnacer. His teeth lock around the young Lord's sword arm and pierce the plates of his mail, inflicting some pretty horrific damage upon him. Winnacer realizes that it's going to take all of his skill and a fair amount of luck to fell the creature before the ratogre finishes him off.

Rowan continues to look around the mist shrouded cavern, looking for the ratassassin in order to get some payback for what it did to Joy. He sees a ratshaman standing on the far side on the cavern waiting to see what happens, but the shaman does not see him. Rowan holds his main-gauche before him to parry any potential strike from the ratshaman, just in case, however. He then avoids the shaman and continues his hunt for the sneaky black-clad rat.

Timex wheezes from the strain as he rushes down the stone ladder and kneels at the side of Porter's dormant form:

"Oh my," he coughs, "this doesn't look very good at all."

Immediately he starts to utter the familiar words of a healing ensorcellment. As he does so, his hand glows with a bright brown light and he places it over the wound caused by the assassin's shortsword. The brown light transfers from his hand and flows over Porter's body.

Porter comes round with a groan:

"Wh-what happened?" he mutters, looking up at the face of Timex looking down at him.

"You're very lucky," Timex says without a trace of irony.

"Yeah," Porter replies, his voice just gushing with sarcasm, "I'm the luckiest guy I know."

Timex doesn't see the irony at all as he continues:

"You must be made of some very strong stuff. The poison hardly seems to have entered your system at all. It was mostly the result of your wounds that you were brought down."

"Let me see to your other wounds," he continues. "My, oh my, what did you do to your hand?"

"Thank Zemnye that the ratassassin has only stricken you and Joy. Otherwise I would need to conserve my healing powers."

Above them, Timex's previous patient, Joy, manages to get to her feet and looks around to see what is going on, still feeling in a terrible state.

Yaz continues to slug it out with the two ratmen. He manages to catch the first of them with his scimitar, inflicting just a minor wound. The ratman was already badly injured, however, and so this is still enough to finish the vermin. The second ratman that has recently retrieved his sword, however, lashes out at the druid with renewed vigor. Yaz' magickal protection manages to save him from any damage, however.

Ninety degrees from where Yaz and the ratman are fighting, Winnacer continues to slug it out with the ratogre. Winnacer appeals to Spravedelna for aid in ridding the world of the abomination, but She is obviously otherwise engaged, as the ratogre neatly side-steps the young Lord's thrust. To make matters decidedly worse, the ratogre immediately responds by bringing its enormous club crashing down upon the head of the young Lord, inflicting an horrific injury upon him.

Winnacer uses his little remaining strength to thrust at the creature once more, but again he is incapable of landing the blow. The ratogre tries to bite another large chunk out of the LawBringer, but Winnacer brings his shield up just in time to batter the beast's jaws away. Winnacer can see that he definitely seems to be losing this fight at the moment.

Rowan continues to wander around the cavern trying to find the ratassassin, but to no avail. He does see, however, that there are really not many ratmen left in the mist-filled central cavern at all. He spots one ratogre standing around looking stupid, while another is still cradling the body of its deceased master in its huge, muscular arms and sobbing uncontrollably. Apart from the previously witnessed shaman, there are just two more brownfurs in the cavern, not counting the one in combat with Yaz.

As he makes a second rotation of the cavern, he comes across the body of Aithne still lying where she fell. He notices with some alarm that she is now completely pale and that sweat is streaming from her brow. He comes over to investigate her further to see that she is scarcely breathing.

Knowing that there is nothing that he, personally, can do for her, he shouts out in the direction of the alcove:

"Timex, we need you here. Aithne is in trouble."

Joy is feeling a little better now. At hearing her cousin cry out for Timex' assistance, she realizes that the combat is obviously not working out well and that having a rest is not a luxury that she can afford to take. She casts a healing enchantment upon herself in order to try and get fighting fit once again. The effects of the healing spell are strong and she feels quite a bit better now, although still far from returning to her pre-poisoned form.

Timex was just about to administer a second healing enchantment to Porter when he hears Rowan's cry.

"Oh my," he wheezes once again, "that sounds quite serious indeed. I better go and see what's the matter with her. Try and look after yourself while I'm gone."

With that, he rushes through the mist heading in the direction of where he heard Rowan's cry. He manages to find the pair of them and immediately sinks to his knees next to the still form of Aithne. He seems to be highly alarmed as he sees the state that she is in:

"Zemnye save her," the dwarf exclaims. "She looks to be in a terrible shape."

"How long has she been down for?" he asks, looking up at Rowan.

He then immediately starts casting a healing enchantment. His hand begins to glow with the brown light, which he places over one of the two rents in her back. The brown light spreads over her body and then dissipates. It seems to have done little to aid her condition, however.

Timex shakes his head once again:

"This isn't looking good at all," he coughs. "I've got just one healing spell left now. If that doesn't bring her round, then we may lose her."

Rowan stands guard over the pair of them, ready to defend them from any attack from ratmen yet, surprisingly, none appear.

As Timex continues to worry, he hears Winnacer shouting out his name:

"Timex, I could really do with your help over here at the moment."

The dwarf coughs violently and then shouts out a reply:

"I'm a bit busy at the moment. I'll be with you as soon as I can."

As he hears this, Winnacer realizes that he cannot continue slugging it out with the ratogre in his current condition. He tries to duck out of the combat, but the ratogre smashes him in the back with its club, which sends the young Lord sprawling to the floor.

From her position in the alcove above, Joy can see the events unfolding right beneath her. As she sees the ratogre's club hit the LawBringer's back and Winnacer fall down into the mist, she realizes that he must be in serious trouble. She sees that the rope ladder is right in front of her, leading straight down to where Winnacer is lying on the ground, but she knows that she is no match for a ratogre, certainly not in her current weakened state.

As she wonders whether she should try and risk herself to help the LawBringer, she sees a brownfurred ratman approaching the ratogre down below. As the ratogre sees the ratman, it lets out a mighty bellow and lurches towards the vermin. The ratman gives a shriek of terror and starts to run away as fast as it can. The ratogre lurches after it, leaving Winnacer's body behind in the process.

Yaz tries his hardest to finish off the last of the ratmen in his way. With a mighty blow from his scimitar, he hacks deep into the ratman's side, finally finishing the creature. As he does so, he sees Gertrude hovering above him waiting for him to finish off the vermin.

"Hey, Gertrude, what've you found?"

"The combat appears to be going rather badly, I regret to inform you, Master Charaz," Gertrude replies. "The cavern is nearly empty of the rat-creatures, but almost all of your colleagues are in a very bad condition. I think that they are in dire need of your healing talents in order that they may all live."