Twisted Firestarter

'Towcester!' shouts Flint with delight and he rushes towards the table and takes a short black rod that looks to be made from charcoal. The base of the rod appears to be made from some glossy black volcanic stone. At the head of the rod, a flame, similar to that given off by a candle, flickers.

Excitedly, the dwarf rushes up and takes the rod and kisses it several times as if it was a long-lost friend. His eyes then roam around the rest of the objects lying in the floor.

'Great!' he exclaims again. 'They haven't messed with the rest of my stuff.'

With that, he runs amongst the other items on the floor, most of which are Granny's and takes a heavy belt, upon which are fixed a multitude of large pouches which he places over his head. He then looks into a heavy leather backpack, looks inside, grins madly and slings it over his back.

Ignoring the rest of them, he then places the rod on its base so that the rod is facing upwards and starts chanting to it.

The others are also delighted to see that all of their items are there, although Winnacer is a little disappointed to see that 'Old Bohavia' is still not there.

'What the hell has happened to it?' thinks Winnacer to himself, puzzled.

In addition to all of their missing items there are some other items that they have not seen before. There is a sling, a weighty tome, a glowing gem and a suit of leather armor.

While they are looking at the items on the table, they notice something very curious indeed. Standing open, there is a small, ornate looking box, that they vaguely remember as being one of the items from Granny's that they put onto the cart. Inside of the box, there is a very small quantity of ordinary looking green powder, just a few pinches in total.

Next to the powderbox is a nose. An animated nose. Every few seconds the nose sneezes. The recoil from the sneeze sends the nose up into the air, before it lands again on the table. Then the cycle repeats itself again, giving the impression that the sneezing nose is bouncing around the table!

No sooner have they entered the room than Faewen’il and Xavier start having an incredible row concerning Xavier’s impulsive actions regarding slaughtering the apprentice. As the knight and the lass both consider themselves to be in the right, no quarter is given, and the fiery debate rages for several minutes. Both Winnacer and Jihan try to intervene in the debate, pointing out to them both that getting into such tantrums is far from advisable during a stealth mission. Eventually, the two of them hold their tongues but, from the look on their faces, the others can tell that the resolution to the argument is sure to be continued at a later stage.

While this argument has been raging, Yaz puts himself to more rather useful endeavors. He checks the room thoroughly for any secret doors, curious as to what happened to the missing Witchfinder. He searches for several minutes, but finds no secret entrances. Taking a look at the map that Winnacer is holding, he paces up the length of the laboratory and the other area holding the polymorphed gnome trying to gauge the distance. He realizes that the two rooms fill the hidden area totally.

He then looks at the containers of bubbling colored liquids on the large table in the center of the room. They are mixtures of different elements, the uses of which are impossible to guess at. The glass containers on the wall contain a variety of weird and wonderful items such as ‘assorted rats’ tails’, ‘hedgepig spines’, ‘desiccated otter bladders’ and ‘dove droppings’. As a result, the mixtures on the table could serve any kind of purpose.

The source of the heat is less of a mystery. In the center of the apparatus is a small keg of lamp oil that drips constantly into the network of glass pipes keeping small heaters burning under the liquids.

Jihan is also busy. He tries to ascertain whether there are any invisible Witchfinders in the lab by blowing dust around the room. However, he finds that there are none. He and Bennett are both suspicious of the statues in the room. The elf tries to test the statues, but they appear to be nothing other than made of stone. Bennett keeps his eyes on them to check for any movement.

Jihan then looks through the miscellaneous gear on the floor. He finds pretty much everything that the party has accumulated to date with the exception of ‘Old Bohavia’ and any coins or gems. All of the party’s funds seem to have been taken elsewhere. Yaz comes over and picks up his pipe. He thinks about joining Flint, but sees that the dwarf is still busy praying to his god.

Faewen’il goes to the table to check out the tome on the table. It has no marks on the outside, but appears to be a spellbook. Fearful of any magickal traps placed upon the book, she does not open it, but rather wraps it carefully in cloth before putting it with the rest of her possessions.

Yaz closes the small container of green dust. He sees that the container can be sealed easily without fear of spillage and pops it into his pouch. Moving the container away from the nose does not stop it from sneezing. The druid carefully wraps the nose in a cloth and is relieved to hear that the sneezing sound is not too loud when muffled in this way. He puts that in his pouch too, along with the sling. He then dons his orange leather armor.

Jihan investigates the two remaining items on the table, the leather armor and the gemstone. The leather armor he places in his backpack, not attempting to wear it. He then picks up the gemstone.

Immediately that the gemstone is removed from the table, they all hear the sound of the door into the lab slamming shut and a sinister creaking sound from behind them. They look round to see, to their horror, that the two statues behind them are starting to come to life. The gray stone is starting to turn to flesh and the swords that they are carrying are starting to turn to steel. Their eyes come alive with gleaming white light. Slowly, the two animated statues are starting to make their way towards them.

The warriors quickly grab their weapons and get ready to defend themselves. Winnacer, Darius and Jihan go for the one on their right, while Xavier, Bennett and Yaz go for the one on the left.

Winnacer attacks the first one, hitting it with his first stroke. Although the wound that he caused upon the statue should have been mighty, the damage caused to the statue appears to be a lot lighter than the young lord would have anticipated, obviously as a result of some sorcery. He follows up with a second attack, but it fails to penetrate through the ‘skin’ of the statue. Darius and Jihan both try to hit the statue, but neither of their blows affect the sorcerous artifact. The statue strikes back at Winnacer, and manages to wound the warrior, although the cut is not deep.

Xavier holds ‘The Justifier’ in his hands, smiling as he feels its welcome weight once more. He raises it high above the statue in his hands and brings it crashing down on the statue’s shoulder. The weight of the mighty sword causes a massive rent in the statue, as its sorcerous nature is no protection against the holy might of Yaromir’s artifact and so the blow causes the normal amount of damage.

Bennett makes up for the great fortune that he has benefited from during the heist to date by sending his bastard sword flying out of his hands. Yaz gets a good hit on the statue, but fails to cause any damage.

The statue strikes back at Xavier in retaliation for the damage that he caused it. The blow catches Xavier badly and hacks through his mail, leaving the Saxon very close to dropping, but still he carries on.

Winnacer, Darius and Jihan all try to land blows on the statue, but none manage to strike the form. The statue once again attacks Winnacer and once again is successful in landing another powerful blow on the young knight, leaving him as close to death as Xavier is.

Xavier tries to bring ‘The Justifier’ down again on the statue, but misses. Bennett, seeing that he cannot afford to leave the combat in order to retrieve his bastard sword, reaches behind himself and takes his battleaxe instead. He hacks the head of the battleaxe into the side of the statue causing some damage, but not a great deal. Yaz fails to land a blow on the object. The statue tries to land a blow on Bennett, but he is easily able to avoid the clumsy sweep of the statue’s sword.

Winnacer lashes out again at the statue, ignoring the pain that is shooting through his body. His first blow is successful and causes similar damage to his first attack. His second attack fails to penetrate the statue’s flesh. Darius’ shortsword just manages to avoid penetrating the statue’s flesh, but Jihan has more luck, stabbing Langzhan into the statue although, again, the damage is not severe.

The statue tries to land a blow on Jihan in retaliation, but the nimble elf easily manages to avoid the blow.

Xavier, summoning up the last of his strength, cries out to Rodengast as he brings ‘The Justifier’ down with all of his might upon the statue. Sparks fly as the holy blade plunges deep into the statue’s flesh. As it does so, there is a metallic snapping sound and Xavier looks on in abject horror as the hilt of ‘The Justifier’ comes away from the magickal blade, sending him reeling backwards. He simply stares at the statue, which has now returned to its former stony state, with the holy blade imbedded deep in it.

Bennett is nearly as shocked as Xavier by the loss of his blade, but realizes that now is not the time for remorse. He dashes over to the other combat and hacks his battleaxe into the other statue. The heavy head of the axe hacks into the statue, but again the damage is not severe. His subsequent blow fails to connect. Yaz also attempts to hit the statue but misses.

Winnacer misses the statue on his next attempt, but Darius’ blow is true. His blow would be a deep one under normal circumstances, but the resulting damage in this case is only slight. Jihan, Bennett and Yaz all fail to connect with the statue. The statue tries to retaliate against Darius, but the goblin sees the sword approaching and easily avoids it.

Winnacer once again raises his longsword high above him and brings it down with all of his strength on top of the statue. The blow is a mighty one indeed and causes the statue to immediately start turning back from flesh to stone. Winnacer quickly removes his blade from the statue before it breaks off as was the sad case with Xavier and ‘The Justifier’.

The combat is over. Bennett walks over and picks up his bastard sword and returns it to his scabbard. Xavier continues to look at the broken hilt of ‘The Justifier’, hardly noticing the state of his injuries.

Once the adrenaline of the combat subsides, Winnacer does notice the terrible state of the injuries caused by the statues and the firetrap. He hasn’t felt this beat up for a very long while. He looks around him and sees that both Jihan and Xavier are in a similar condition to him.

‘It’s time to leave this place’ says Winnacer. ‘We are in no condition to get involved in any more drawn out combats.’

Everyone collects the last of their belongings and they make towards the door. Jihan goes to open it, however, it fails to move. He pushes at it with all of his strength, but still it will not budge. All of the warriors come to the door in order to try and push it open with their combined strength, but still it fails to open.

Faewen’il takes the Witchfinder’s rod and points it towards the door. The gemstone at its head lights up like a beacon. She shakes her head:

‘There be an enchantment on it. The door be locked by means o magick. It bring me great sorrow ta say that I have nae scrolls or spells tae get passed it.’

All look sadly towards the door.

Winnacer shakes his head:

‘It looks very much as if we have been imprisoned again, unless any of you have any good ideas.’

All look at each other hopefully, but none make any suggestions.

Flint has been praying to his holy symbol throughout all of the proceeding events, but it is obvious that he has been listening, as he stops his chanting and comes up to the others.

‘That Kozlo thinks that she’s so bleeding clever, don’t she?’ says the dwarf. ‘But her followers’ "great magick" are little more than party tricks compared to the might of Ohen. Allow me to give you a little demonstration.’

Flint reaches to his bandoleer and opens up one of the large pouches. From it, he produces a small sack bulging with its contents. Flint starts his wild praying to Ohen once more, as his eyes start to burn wilder with excitement and anticipation. From the bound opening of the sack is a small length of twine. Flint takes his stogie and brings it down to the end of the twine, which starts it fizzling as it burns. He takes the sack and places it at the bottom of the door. The others all look on curious as to what Flint is up to, having never seen anything similar to Flint’s actions before.

Flint starts to walk towards the back of the room:

‘At this point of the proceedings, its usually advisable to run like f***!’ explains the dwarf, casually.

They think it advisable to follow the dwarf’s advice and run towards the back of the room. When they reach the far wall, they turn to see the result of Ohen’s ‘magick’.

KKKKKAAAAAAABBBBBBOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!

A huge, fiery explosion deafens them all for a short spell and they feel the entire building shake a little from its force. An enormous dust cloud has been thrown up by the explosion, obscuring the view.

When the dust finally settles, they see that the door is gone. And most of the walls. And most of the floor. And much of the ceiling.

‘HA! HA! HA! YEAH!’ laughs Flint maniacally, punching the dusty air in triumph.

‘Ohen 1: Kozlo 0! Up yours you overrated bitch!’ he adds sending an obscene gesture skywards.

The result of Flint's actions leaves the party feeling both impressed and terrified in equal measures. Jihan and Winnacer both see that Flint will easily be able to realize their desire to destroy the Witchfinder Building in its entirety, and ask Flint whether he wouldn't mind using more of Ohen's magick to fulfill their goals.

Flint looks at the two of them with a huge grin on his bearded face:

'What? You actually WANT me to blow up the building? Usually people I meet get horribly pissed off with me when I burn down or blow up things! I can see that we're going to get on…errrm… like a house on fire! Mighty Ohen's Holy Powder ain't easy for me to get hold of - not since I blew the left wing of the temple in any case. Right pissed off was the High Priest after that little episode! Anyway, it's worth using most of it to get my revenge on those Witchfinder bastards. Better get started.'

With that, Flint takes the pack off his back and starts to pull out sacks of the holy powder. He places one against the north-west corner of the room, and another in the north-east corner.

'How long do we need to get clear? It'll take me about 15 minutes to lay the other sacks and then, let's say another 15 minutes to get clear of the building so that we can watch it. I can't wait to see what happens. I've never blown up anything this big before!' says Flint, almost gibbering with excitement.

'So 30 minutes until detonation it is then'

With that, he unravels a couple of long lengths of twine, biting them off from the ball that he produced from his backpack. He then brings his stogie down and starts the ends of the twine fizzling away slowly.

Meanwhile, Jihan has been investigating the gem that set off the statues. He asks Faewen'il to check with the Witchfinder's rod to see whether it is magickal. The end of the Witchfinder's rod glows, showing that it is magickal. Jihan doesn't trust the stone and decides not to risk taking it with him. He places the stone under one of Flint's sacks of Holy Powder so as to ensure its destruction. Winnacer, however, is not so sure that the gem is harmful, when Jihan is not looking, the young knight retrieves the gem ad places it in his pouch.

Xavier tugs the blade of 'The Justifier' out of the statue, hoping in his heart that a way to repair the artifact can be found at some stage.

Seeing how beat up Xavier is (yet again), Yaz casts his final healing spell on the accident-prone Saxon. Prirodna obviously has sympathy on the plight of the knight, as the effect of the spell is maximum.

Once Xavier has been healed as well as possible, Yaz casts again. This time he casts a spell to detect the presence of magick in the area. All of the objects that they know to be magickal obviously show up under the spell. As for the new items, the leather armor, sling, tome and gemstone all show up to be magickal. The green powder and the nose, however show as not being magickal. The statues at the other end of the room also show as not being magickal. The two animated statues that they fought earlier have been blown to smithereens and thus are not showing as being magickal any more. All of Granny's possessions show as being magickal. Flint's holy symbol/rod shows as being magickal, but none of his bags of Holy Powder show up.

Having identified all of the contents of the room as being magickal or non-magickal, Yaz calls over Winnacer to allow him to see the map while he checks out the surrounding area. Of the part of the building that you have not yet explored, Yaz discovered that the door south from the study has magick, but there is nothing else magickal that shows, including the two statues next to the door. Yaz points towards the ceiling and determines that both sets of doors leading to the General's office contain magick, but the two doors into the reception area are not. As for the rest of the ground floor, it is too difficult for the druid to say. Some of the doors are definitely magickal, but it is difficult from this position to say exactly which.

They all look at Granny's items piled up next to the table. They realize that they could only take a very small selection of the items, and have no way of deciding which part could be useful and which is just junk. Eventually, forced to make a quick decision, they decide to leave the whole lot there to be buried in the forthcoming explosion, with the exception of Granny's spell books and a random selection of sundry items which Jihan stuffs into a couple of small sacks.

Flint moves through to the library. His eyes glint as he sees the pile of books on the floor. Reaching into his backpack again, he pulls out a couple of pig's stomachs, and bites a piece out of each of them, spitting it out. He then pours the contents of the stomachs, which turns out to be Greek Fire, all over the books before placing another of his sacks of holy powder on top of the pile.

'Incendiary!' he cries gleefully as he sets another fuse fizzling.

He moves into the study and sets more of the Holy Powder against the south-west and north-east corners of the room and then goes into the guardroom where he sets another sack against the south-east corner.

His backpack is getting pretty empty as he takes yet another sack and lays it before the entrance to the third cell.

'That's the last one, we've got 15 minutes now to scarper' says Flint, as he starts the fuse to the final sack of Holy Powder fizzling.

They are all about to go through the doors from the cell area to the north-south corridor leading to the stairs, when Jihan starts waving frantically for the rest of them to be quiet. They all stand totally still. Jihan presses his ear against the door.

'There's someone or something coming down the stairs. Two of them, perhaps three,' he whispers.

Yaz is just about to pop his hand through the door to throw the animated nose through the door and down the corridor to provide a distraction for the visitors, when Jihan stops him:

'Too close' Jihan whispers.

Jihan creeps into the corner of the doorpost and the third cell, so as to surprise anyone coming through the door. Darius, who has learned a fair bit from Jihan during the heist, does the same thing opposite to him, drawing his short sword.

Winnacer, realizing that even just a minor wound would render him unconscious and thus a burden on the party, moves to the other end of the corridor and nocks an arrow in his shortbow, ready to take out anyone coming through the door. The others, Yaz, Bennett, Xavier, Faewen'il and Flint creep into the doorways. Faewen'il readies a pinch of sand between her fingers. Flint starts to mumble an offering to Ohen, and is rewarded by a three foot blazing ray of red-hot fire springing forth from his right hand. He starts to chuckle maniacally.

Detonation in 14 minutes.

Immediately that everyone is in position, the double doors to the cellblock swing open. Two orogs bearing broadswords walk through the door. Behind them is a Witchfinder. She is a chubby woman in her late twenties. She is wearing a nightgown, over which she has thrown a belt with pouches. Her dark locks are wrapped tightly around small pieces of rags in her hair. Her face is covered in a white solution that looks like yogurt. She is not in the best of tempers.

Immediately, the heroes swing into action.

Jihan acts first, by throwing a handful of powder into the Witchfinder's face. However, the Witchfinder was not taken by surprise and covered her eyes with her hand as she saw the powder about to be thrown at her. She immediately begins to cast. Realizing that the spell must be stopped, Jihan tries to backstab her with Langzhan, but this too misses its target.

She hasn't seen Darius behind her, however, and so the goblin tries to get a clean cut on her back. His shot was on target, but as the blow comes towards her, she starts to glow with magickal energy and the blade fails to penetrate to her skin.

As soon as Faewen'il saw the Witchfinder enter the room, she started casting the now familiar words to the sleep spell. Upon finishing, she casts the pinch of sand towards the Witchfinder. To her horror, the lass sees that the spell fails to fell the Witchfinder.

The Witchfinder has had the same idea as Faewen'il and she turns and casts a fistful of black rose petals towards Jihan and Darius. Her magick is also weak, however, and only Darius slumps to the ground in slumber, leaving Jihan very much awake and ready to avenge his earlier mistakes.

At the front of the melee, Winnacer shoots an arrow from his shortbow at the first of the orogs to come through the door, not being able to get a shot at the Witchfinder. His shot proves to be far wide, however. He nocks another arrow to the bowstring, but by that time combat has been joined and there is no chance for another clear shot. He drops the bow, draws his longsword and waits to fill in any gaps in the ranks.

Flint has been praying. He points towards the largest of the orogs, although nothing seems to happen. By the manic cackling of the dwarf, however, the others get the feeling that something soon will.

Xavier launches himself at the largest of the two orogs, having to revert back to his bastard sword after the loss of 'The Justifier'. The hit is well on target and pierces the orog's armor easily, inflicting some reasonable damage on the orog. The orog cries out and slashes at Xavier, but he misses by a wide margin.

Bennett and Yaz both draw their weapons and charge the second of the orogs. Both of Bennett's attempts to hit the orog prove fruitless, but Yaz manages a good hit with his scimitar, inflicting some serious damage on the orog. The orog screams and attacks Yaz in return, but the druid avoids its clumsy blow with ease.

Detonation in 13 minutes.

Seeing Darius fall into slumber and the rest of the party's access to the Witchfinder blocked by the orogs, Jihan realizes that it is up to him to stop the Witchfinder from casting. He takes Langzhan and slashes at the Witchfinder. The blade cuts through the magickal shield protecting her, and Jihan looks on in triumph to see Langzhan take out the throat of the Witchfinder, felling her to the floor in an instant as blood pours from her open windpipe.

Xavier misses hitting the orog for a second time, but the beast misses him in return. For some reason, however, the beast is getting very fidgety and appears to be in a great deal of pain. Flint joins in with the combat, but his fiery blade is parried by the orog's broadsword.

Bennett's attack on the other orog fails to penetrate the beast's armor, however Yaz is successful again with a fine blow from his scimitar, leaving the beast inches from death. The orog strikes back at Yaz, but the druid's orange armor soaks up all of the damage.

Detonation in 12 minutes.

The first orog is in severe pain now. They can see its armor starting to glow red with heat and its skin starting to blister. Flint is laughing like the crazed dwarf he is. Xavier tries to finish off the creature anyhow, but misses the orog totally. Flint brings down his fiery blade upon the orog's head and it crashes to the floor, consumed with flame. Flint just stands over the fallen beast with a gleeful look of revenge on his face.

Bennett slashes at the other orog wildly, wanting to finish off the creature, but neither of his blows strike home. Yaz also finds no success, as the blow from his scimitar impacts harmlessly against the orog's armor. The orog strikes back against the druid and just nicks the druid, although the damage is only minimal.

Bennett and Yaz look up at the orog's face to see a blade suddenly appearing between the beast's eyes. With a puzzled look, the orog crashes forwards to reveal Jihan standing behind it with the crimson covered blade of Langzhan in his hands. The blade is surely blessed by Prirodna for its devastating actions in this combat.

Detonation in 11 minutes.

Winnacer rushes forwards to awaken the sleeping form of Darius, who takes a few seconds to realize what has been going on.

Bennett looks disappointed. He was hoping that the others would forget about the goblin sleeping in the corner of the room.

'Come' says Winnacer. 'We have just ten minutes to make our escape. Let's make sure that we are well clear.'

The party gathers their belongings and makes their way out of the corridor, starting to make their way up the stairs.

Detonation in 10 minutes.

They reach the top of the stairs and are relieved to see the door to the office is still standing open. They walk through it into the northern corridor.

Detonation in 9 minutes.

They walk through the door in to the guardroom, stepping over the body of the dead orog and then into the stables.

Detonation in 8 minutes.

Yaz rushes to the horses and leaps onto the black one, cutting it loose with his scimitar. Seeing the druid take one of the horses, Jihan takes the gray. Realizing that the remaining horse will not take the weight of any of the warriors, Winnacer cuts the rope to the dark brown horse and gives it a smack on the rump in order to send it galloping away from the stable.

Detonation in 7 minutes.

The party leaves the stable as quickly as they can and make their way into the thankfully empty square. As they rush into the square, Flint stops dead in his tracks. He has seen the huge bonfire in the center.

'F*** me!' exclaims the dwarf. 'It must be my f***ing birthday! Thank you, Ohen! Thank you!'

With that he runs towards the bonfire removing a couple of pigs' bladders as he runs.

Detonation in 6 minutes.

Flint bites open both of the bladders and throws them onto the corner of the bonfire. He then touches the dampened area with the tip of his staff.

WWWWWHHHHHHHUUUUUUFFFFFF!!!!!

The bonfire bursts into flames, sending cinders flying. Flint stares into the flames, jumping up and down in excitement as he sees the huge conflagration.

'Come on, Flint' says Winnacer, forcefully. 'We need to get into the shadows on the opposite side of the square so that we can watch the main event without fear of detection.'

Detonation in 5 minutes.

Flint reluctantly tears himself away from the spectacle of the bonfire and goes with Winnacer and the others towards the sanctuary of the southern side of the square.

As they run towards it, to everyone's alarm they see a company of 20 goblins led by an orc charging towards them, with shortswords in their hands. The party is backlit by the bonfire and so are easy to pick out.

Detonation in 4 minutes.

Everyone looks on shocked. They are in no position to fight a whole company of goblins at this juncture. They must surely be doomed.

Flint, however, has other ideas. He turns to Bennett:

'Oi, big fella. You look like a big tosser. Toss this sack above their heads.'

With that, Flint pulls out another sack from his bandoleer of pouches and gives it to Bennett. Bennett takes it, thinking the sack to be rather heavier than he was expecting. With all of his might, he hurls the sack in the direction of the fast approaching goblins in a high arc.

Detonation in 3 minutes.

Flint is muttering incantations as he watches the sack fly high into the air before starting to descend where it will sure land in the center of the company of goblins. When it is just a few feet above the goblins' heads, Flint shouts out an arcane word and points towards the sack. A bolt of bright flame hurtles through the night sky and hits the sack.

KKKKKKKAAAAABBBBBBOOOOOMMMMM!

'Airburst!' Flint shouts in excitement.

In addition to the loud explosion that they were expecting, there is also the sound of metallic rain. A large quantity of nails and broken glass falls out of the sky, some of which lands at their feet.

Detonation in 2 minutes.

When the acrid clouds of sulfur have parted, they see a vision of such devastation that they could never have imagined. The whole area is littered with bits of dead goblin. Those that were not torn to pieces by the force of the explosion were impaled on the nails and shards of glass that the psychotic dwarf had mixed in with the Holy Powder. They all have the strong desire to vomit.

'HA! HA! HA! HA!' screams the dwarf as he surveys his handiwork with delight.

Detonation in 1 minute.

'Quickly,' shouts Winnacer. 'She's going to blow at any minute.'

They all hurry towards the southern side of the square. They just reach the safety of the southern edge of the square as the first of the deep booms can be heard from the Witchfinder Building. They throw yourselves to the ground and look towards the building on the opposite side.

After the first explosion, they can already see the building, lit up by the flames of the bonfire, starting to crack, sending plaster falling into the square

Four more loud explosions follow almost simultaneously, sending the whole square shaking. With delight, they see that the walls of the building are starting to fall inwards.

As another two explosions go off, the building finally gives in to its fate and starts to collapse inwards. There is an almighty crash as the bricks start to tumble inwards, demolishing the building, while sending up a cloud of dust.

A final explosion goes off and angry red flames emerge from the eastern part of it, sending sparks and cinders high into the air. The fire spreads like…errm…wildfire and soon the whole building is one almighty blaze.

For once, Flint is silent, simply staring at the chaos with glassy eyes.

'That, is the coolest thing I have ever seen!' he finally says.

'Show's over now' says Winnacer, sensibly. 'The place will be crawling with Nyemetz in seconds. Jihan, lead us back to the safehouse.'

Jihan does as is requested. Luckily the hooves of his and Yaz's horses cannot be heard above the sound of the licking flames and sundry minor explosions emanating from the Witchfinder Building. Rather than taking a direct route, Jihan zigzags through the streets to lose any potential trackers. He looks over his shoulder constantly to check whether they are being followed. It seems that they are not.

After ten minutes or so, they finally reach the safehouse, entering into the yard where the horses cannot be seen.

Viktor is waiting for them at the door.

Flint spies the fireplace through the door and barges past a confused Viktor:

'Evening, guv'nor' says Flint, as he walks straight into the lounge and sits before the fire, staring into the flames, deep in thought.

'Well that wasn't very subtle was it?' says Viktor to them all, angrily. But he can't control his emotions any longer and his face breaks out into a wide grin. 'Now THAT is what I call payback!'

Heimlin's face emerges between Viktor's hip and the door. He looks at them all, checking that there is no one missing.

'Thank goodness for that!' exclaims the gnome, delirious with relief. 'You all made it back.'

'Quickly' interrupts Viktor. 'Come in. Your task is not yet fully complete. You have still to get out of Dvur Kralovye.'