Traitors Amongst Us

Saying nothing, Svatopluk rises uncomfortably from his chair and slowly moves over to the door. In the lock is a large iron key. Slowly he turns the key in the lock. Everyone can hear it lock with a dull click. He takes the key out of the lock and puts it in his pocket.

He slowly makes his way back to his seat, and sits back down. As the bells of the Temple of Zlodey begin to ring out the hour of ten, Svatopluk begins to speak, in slow deliberate words.

'Ladies and Gentleman, it would appear that we have a problem. According to this anonymous....'

*CRASH*

*SPLAT*

It all happened so quickly that they hardly knew what happened. First a pane of the large lead glass window immediately behind Svatopluk shattered, and then his head exploded. For an instance everyone is stunned. Svatopluk's body is still sat upright, but where his head used to be is now just a mushy pulp, with blood spraying out of a severed vein. The rest of Svatopluk's face is deposited amongst all of them.

The 'painted man' is now even more painted than he was. Maire' looks down to see one of Svatopluk's cheeks and an eye staring up at her from her empty dinner plate. Corrow has an ear and a big chunk of gray brain matter sitting in his lap.

Even those of them who had not seen warfare first hand realize that they have just seen the devastating result of a musket shot.

They quickly take in their surroundings. At the top of the room is the glass window that the shot passed through. A few yards in front of it is the chair and table where Svatopluk was sitting. A few yards in front of that are the tables where they are sitting arranged in a three-sided square formation. A few yards behind them all is the door that they entered by, now locked by Svatopluk. To their left is a small door that looks like it leads to another small room. There is nothing else in the room that one would not expect to find in a banqueting room.

Darius rushes over to Svatopluk's life less body and pulls the note from his still warm hands. He also checks over his person, quickly.

Meanwhile, Colin and a couple of helpers take one of the tables and put it on its side so that it obscures the window. As long as the taller members of the group crouch a little, they should remain hidden from whoever fired at Svatopluk. However, all of them know that a musket round fired at short range can easily pass through an inch or two of wood. They soon realize, however, that there are no more shots coming, although perhaps the gunman is waiting for a clear target.

Merl goes over and opens the small door at the side of the room. The others see a look of surprise on his face as he looks in the room, and then he promptly closes the door again. He calls Winnacer over. Winnacer pulls out his sword and Merl produces a blade from his flute. The two of them open the door together. There is a brief exchange of words with someone or 'thing' inside the room and the others hear Winnacer announce to them that there is no exit from this door, so the only way out is through the locked main entrance, which leads to the tavern downstairs.

As Winnacer and Merl make their way over to the door hastily, the others see that an elderly Gnome dressed in some quite expensive robes follows them. He is carrying a pipe.

'Oi, wait a minute, all of yers. Ya can't leave yet! Svatopluk said that yers would be 'elpin' us get out o' this city! WAIT!', the Gnome cries.

Darius rushes towards the main door after producing the key from Svatopluk's pocket.

Winnacer looks straight into the Gnome's eyes, his expression complimenting the dead seriousness of his words. "Explain yourself quickly gnome, preferably on our way out the door. If you plan on living long enough to leave the city's borders, you will make haste. The details on you and your fellows quickly, while we get this door open. We will aide you, but only if our bodies aren't filled with musket shot."

'Err, well Svatopluk will tell you everything', says the Gnome.

At that very moment, he looks round and sees the headless body of Svatopluk sat in his chair.

'AAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!' screams the Gnome. "Bleedin' 'ell, what in 'eaven's name happened to 'im?'

Winnacer explains that he has been shot by an unknown gunman.

'Bleedin' 'ell' replies the Gnome 'I can see why's you in so much of an 'urry to get outta this place. It's got to be the work of the Nyemetz that 'as. Svatopluk was always worried that they would find out about his sympathy for the resistance and do 'im in sooner or later.'

'I guess I'll 'ave to tell you about me quickly then. Me name's Heimlin Goldstone an' I've been stuck in Mnyesto ever since the occupation. I made quite a bit o' coin before then through me jewelry business an' I've managed to avoid capture durin' the past 20 years by payin' off the right people in the Nyemetz guards, still managin' to keep me business goin'. Things 'ave got a bit 'airy recently though, as the Chief of the Guard 'as 'ad enough o' the bribery amongst the guards an' 'as executed a lot of the guards who I was payin' off. I now need to get out o' this city pretty damn fastish, as there are quite a few guards who would benefit from turnin' me in.'

'I've known Svatopluk for many years, and I knew that 'e 'ad thoughts of resistance, but didn't 'ave the resources to do much about's it. I came to a deal wiv 'im. I promised Svatopluk a big pile o' coin to get 'imself started on the revolution business, if 'e could get me out o' the city to me son at 'is place in Sudeten. It sounded like a good idea to 'im, so he said 'e was goin' to select a small group to get me out of 'ere and to bring the coin back to 'im. I guess that you is that small group. I don't know what to do now that e's dead though'

Breaking from the pandemonium that ensued following the grisly murder of Svatopluk, there is a deathly hush cast over the room as Darius' squeaky voice reads out the message that he took from Svatopluk's hand, a message warning him that there were traitors hidden among those attending the treasonous meeting.

For a few seconds, no one speaks. Everyone looks around them at the other strangers assembled here in the locked room, seeking clues as to the identity of the traitors from their countenances alone. It is a hard task to single out a possible traitor. Although everyone is trying hard to appear otherwise, there is not one person in the room who doesn't exhibit some sign of either fear or guilt and it is impossible for any of them to separate the two emotions.

Who will be the first to break they all think to themselves, as their eyes dart wildly round the room

Suddenly a booming voice from besides the door breaks the silence.

'It's time to die, ye rebels!' cries a dark cloaked figure that has been with the party through the evening, but has not spoken.

He lets his cloak falls and they see a glimpse of the visage of an unholy union between orc and woman. He swiftly draws a broad sword and takes a swipe at Darius, who is struggling with the key to the door. The nimble goblin ducks, just in time, and the half-orc's sword passes within a fraction of an inch of his head, pinning Darius' leather cap to the door with his sword.

Seeing this as a sign, the others in the room reveal their true colors. A female human cleric who has remained seated through the whole evening, listening to the conversation intently, utters a simple chant to an unholy god, and her right hand begins to glow and crackle with unholy energy. Screaming her loyalty to the Nyemetz and the Death god, Smrt, she tries to take a blow at Corrow who is seated next to her. Luckily for Corrow, her blow is off target and she misses him totally, the crackling unholy energy in her hand dissipating harmlessly as she curses her failure.

Finally, the third member of the traitorous spies who has also remained silent throughout enters the fray. He is human, tall and thin and clad in leather. He kicks over the table which is positioned in front of him, sending it crashing to the floor. With cat-like reflexes, he then produces a short sword and lunges at Yaz, who is sitting next to her. In his semi-comatose state, Yaz's reactions are too slow to avoid the blow and the blade opens a large gash in Yaz's left thigh.

Heimlin the Gnome goes white as he sees the melee ensuing before him. Being totally unarmed, he charges back through the small door that he emerged from moments ago and closes the door behind him with a loud bang.

Maire's eyes go wide as the traitors turn against the party. She knew she was no match physically for them... but they might be susceptible to her magic.

Maire' quickly hopped up on a chair so she could see the three people clearly. Digging out the string and piece of wood from her pouch she began to whisper words of power over the wood as she busily wound the string about it. Once completely wound up, she drew arcane symbols in the air over it and with a final word, the small construct vanished in the air with a *pop*

"I command ye to grab tha robe of that woman in tha dark robes over there and give it a mighty yankin up over her head." Maire' whispered into the din.

As the unholy energy dissipated from the dark robed woman, she cast her cloak aside. The flickering torches on the walls glint upon a razor edged sickle hanging from her belt. She brings her hand down to raise the sickle, but as she does, her robes seemingly take on a life of their own as they begin to raise above her head. Onlookers see her petticoats revealed as her vision is totally obscured by the raising of her robes.

'What?...what? ...what devilry is this' everyone hears her scream in a muffled voice, as she tries to drag the robes back into position.

She struggles with the robe for a few seconds, grunting as she tries to test her strength against that of Maire's otherworldly helper. After a few more seconds of struggling there is a loud rip, as both forces are stronger than the fabric of her robes. Taken totally aback, the woman tries to compose herself and get a view of what has been going on around her while she has been blinded.

Colin lunges between the half-orc and Darius, and tries, well, basically, to kill him. (The half-orc, that is.)

As Colin pulls his broadsword from his scabbard, the half-orc pulls his sword free from the door. From the corner of his eye, he sees Colin's sword about to pierce his chainmail and deftly deflects the blow with his own sword.

Winnacer, seeming unengaged quickly looks amongst the three enemies amongst them. As Maire' speaks her arcane words, Winnacer decides to act. He moves forward into the fray, gray eyes aglow with conviction beneath his metal cap, and readies his longsword. As the cleric's robes lift up unexpectedly, Winnacer strikes with lightning speed. He thrusts his longsword forcefully, in an attempt to bring her spleen into view.

With her face totally obscured by her robes, the evil cleric does not see Winnacer's approaching blade aimed at her stomach. Winnacer's sword strikes true and the air is filled with an evil scream as she feels Winnacer's cold steel pierce her stomach.

Xavier forever haunted by his past at Lake Roga, also perceives the greatest threat to be the sorcery wielded by the female cleric. His eyes glowing with manic hatred, and bellowing the battle cry of the extinct Knightly Order of Rodengast, he charges towards her. As his sword descends upon her in its swing, he shouts "and to death thee shall go, dark priestess"

Xavier sword bites deeply into the flesh of her thigh. The ugly sound of splintering bone is enough for Xavier to know that he has sent the cleric to meet her Death God in person. There is no other sound from the cleric and she slumps to the floor. All of her life has been expended.

Her leather clad companion sees the cleric fall mortally wounded as a result of Xavier's death blow.

'You bastard!', he cries 'you have killed my woman, now you must die!!!'

Corrow snatches up his staff and cowers behind it. He ducks and weaves, bobbing constantly. He moves surprisingly quickly, but it seems he is not trying to attack the priest of Smrt who stands in front of him. Rather, all his strength is taken up with trying to avoid being hit. "Someone help me!" he shouts, "I'm no good in a brawl, she'll knock my brains out, and I need 'em."

'Don't worry old man' cries Xavier above the noise of the scuffle, 'Rodengast has guided my arm, and I have sent this woman to see the God she adores'

Seeing his attacker disengage to avenge his fallen comrade, Yaz raises his scimitar in what seems to him a dream-world motion, swinging wildly missing his quickly departing attacker by a mile. On his knees, he rolls over next to a toppled table and tends his wounds. "Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow..." he says with a grimace as he applies herbs and a makeshift bandage about his leg. As the combination of carefully picked herbs enter Yaz's bloodstream, his moaning diminishes.

Meanwhile....

Although Colin's attack on the half orc by the door was deflected by the half orc's parry, it left the inhuman's chest exposed for a brief second. That brief second was all that the nimble handed goblin, Darius, needed to draw his shortsword and lash out at the half orc. Darius' aim was true, although the half orc's chainmail soaked up quite a bit of the damage. However, as Darius pulled his sword away to ready himself for a second strike, the red tint to his blade showed him that the half orc was cut.

The half orc bellowed with range.

'OWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!' the half orc cried, 'You little goblin turncoat runt! You're gonna pay dearly for that!'

And make Darius pay for his attack, he does.

As Darius turns his back on the half orc in order to attempt to hit him again from the rear, Darius' back faces the half orc. The half orc swings his broadsword, which connects with Darius' side, cutting through his cloak and into his soft gray flesh.

'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH H!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' screams Darius as the half orcs blade hacks into his side. Another inch and the half orc's sword would have cut his spine in two, but Darius survives.....just.

On the other side of the room, the leather clad amour of the dead cleric launches himself at Xavier with fury in his eyes.

'You killed my beloved Donnedilla - now you must die!!' he says.

His blade, however is not strong enough to pierce the chain covering Xavier's body. With a metallic *CHINK*, the rogue's short sword fails to cause any hurt to Xavier.

In the midst of all this pandemonium, a frantic knocking at the locked door can be heard and a voice shouting.

'What the hell's going in there?' the voice cries. 'Open up now, I demand of you!'

From her perch on high, Maire' directs the magical force once more with whispered words, her eyes bright with the power of the magic that flowed through her veins; though her skin was pallid as death visited the room in the form of violence.

"Grab tha piece of robe ya tore from the woman and wrap up the head of the half man that be attackin the goblin there." cries Maire'.

The magick hand obeys Maire's command instantly and swiftly crosses the room to where the half orc is just pulling his broadsword back from it's hacking into Darius' side. As he is about to land another blow on the hapless goblin, the robe fragment quickly begins to wrap itself around his eyes, totally obscuring his view.

The half orc roars once again, as he starts to panic a little and diverts his attention to pulling the fabric away from his eyes, giving a more open target got the others.

Meanwhile, in the center of the room, Xavier turns to face the new leather clad attacker, a look of unspeakable calm upon his face. He wipes the cleric's blood from his face and eerie laughter erupts from his throat as he shouts:

"And to her you shall soon return. The debt you traitors owe to your own kind, will never be repaid"

He raises his sword menacingly, dancing on the balls of his feet looking for an opening in the cleric's companion's defense. Seeing one at last, he strikes swiftly.

Xavier's patience in looking for the right opening was amply rewarded. For a brief second, the rogue let his guard down. Xavier struck like a cobra, pushing his sword into the rogue's chest with all the force that he could muster. The rogue's flimsy leather armor was no protection against the finely honed point of Xavier's sword and, in one fluid movement, he pierced the rogue's chest as well, the blow being so strong that the sword's point could be seen coming through the rogue's back.

The rogue was deadly quiet. The look in his eyes changed instantly from rage to shock. He stared into Xavier's eyes and then down to the blade embedded into in his chest and then back to Xavier.

'You … you killed me' he said, incredulously, and promptly keeled over in front of Xavier. Xavier quickly withdrew his sword from the rogue's chest.

Back at the door…

Winnacer looks around the room, quickly assessing where he would be most needed. He notices the capless Darius and Colin engaged with the half-orc sword swinger and decides to aid them. In a pitiful attempt of stealth, Winnacer tries to approach at the orc's back, hopeful that the two opponents to his front are keeping him occupied. Once in range, Winnacer again thrusts his bladepoint forward, aiming for the bones of his spine and the soft organs underlying the ribs. The aim of the blade not perfect. It strikes the half orc's body without any problem, but the foe's heavy chain mail stops the blow from wounding him. Winnacer brings his guard back up. Winnacer prepares for another thrust, realizing that swinging swords are more likely to hit his allies.

He bellows at his enemy, "Surrender your weapons now if you have any desire to leave this room with your life, else your fate shall be to join your priestess friend."

Before the half orc has a chance to respond, Colin has another attempt to despatch the foe, trying to make up for not hitting him previously. Colin is now filled with rage at seeing what the half orc did to Darius and hits out with a huge swing from his broadsword, although he is careful to avoid hitting Winnacer and Darius.

The broadsword connects with the half orc's torso and hacks through his chain mail like a butcher slicing beef. This was payback indeed for the half orc's attack on Darius, causing a similar amount of damage.

The half orc bellowed once more and seemed to slump a little. Even in the chaos of the melee, it was obvious that the half orc wasn't going to take too much more of that amount of carnage.

Corrow squawks in amazement and relief as Xavier dispatches the leather-clad rogue after finishing the evil death-priest and saves his hide. He scuttles away to the back of the room, trying to get out the way of the swinging blades.

He sees Yaz crash to the ground under his own momentum and shakes his head in wonder.

"What on earth am I doing with these fools?" he mutters to himself.

Hidden behind a table at the back of the room, Yaz views the events unfold before his eyes – too out of his skull to be much use in a fight.

Darius crawls slowly away from the melee between Winnacer, Colin and the half orc, his face a mask of pain, a trail of red drawn out behind him. "Help me, I" he whimpers.

The half orc finally manages to tear the robe fragment from his face. Knowing that both of his companions are dead and that he is now holding onto life by a thread, the realization that he is doomed permeates his thick skull.

He tosses his sword away and drops to his knees in front of Winnacer and Colin, holding his mailed hands in the air.

'Have mercy upon me' he says, starting to sob from his wounds and cowardice 'I beg of you, please let me live!'

There is hush across the room.

The silence is broken by the creaking of the side door opening. Then, the small, haggard face of Heimlin appears.

'Are-are they all…have you killed them all?' the gnome asks nervously.

BANG BANG BANG comes the noise from the main door.

'Open this door now' demands the voice behind sternly 'What the hell's going on in there?'