In the morning, they find Nushaba already gone. Magnus appears, clean shaven with his hair tied up in a braid down the back, at the table dressed in the uniform of one of the soldiers that seems to have been designed for someone bulkier than the mage. One of Gwydeon's discarded swords strapped to his back. He hands two other uniforms to Jassal and Gwydeon. After a hearty breakfast Mistress Alintak appears at the table.

     Demic and Strongarm wear lopsided grins, while trying not to laugh.

     "I couldn't believe it when Sabik said there were soldiers here. You boys look absolutely hideous. None of the costumes fit you at all! This simply won't do! Follow me." She leads the group back to a room filled with mirrors and stools. Soon she and two other women, who seem to have appeared out of thin air are poking, prodding, pulling, tightening, and stretching various parts of the three costumes. After an interminably long time the ladies step back and nod. They look in the mirror and are surprised. The uniforms fit as if they were made just for each one of them! In fact if one didn't already know better one would think that they were all enemy soldiers.

     "Hmmm. much better. Can't say I like the color scheme, but I didn't choose this uniforms."

     Strongarm says, "That's much better. Now you look like soldiers, before you looked like kids playing soldiers."

     The group retires to the familiar meeting room to discuss strategy. Hours pass with little resolution of the problem beyond what was discussed the night before. Soon the time for departure has arrived. Sabik and a maid meet the group at the front entrance with cloaks in hand. "Remember you're not supposed to be in town yet so we can't have you wandering around with those uniforms where anyone can see."

     Cloaked they slip out in the same groups as last night and take roundabout routes to the room just down the street.

     As each one enters the room conversation stops and every man puts a hand on his sword, until their identity is verified. Around twenty men talk in hushed voices, huddling together in small groups they eye everyone else suspiciously. The most striking person in the room is the one who wears a hooded white robe with a single red rose.

     After a while Kendrick appears with the uniforms, "Gentleman, first let us get dressed and then we shall tell the rest of you the plan."

     Magnus volunteers the remainder of his uniforms indicating that he has several of the real gems. The men look at the uniforms and shutter. They draw lots and those who lose get the uniforms with the real gems. Kendrick motions for everyone to be quiet and says, "First thing I would like to says is I'm sorry for misleading you, but we will not be planning a frontal attack this evening." Several voices are raised in ire and anger. No few men start looking around as if they expect the walls to fall revealing real soldiers.

     "Here is the plan so far. We will enter the city through the eastern gate as the patrol that we are replacing would have entered. We will send word ahead to mobilize the guard because the Church has mobilized a large group of priests to help contain the spread of chaos. Once back inside, we will order the city gates closed. It should have just the right amount of panic in it to convince them of a real threat. At this point I'll send two of the real guards ahead, one to announce our presence to whoever is hiding in that fortress the other to mobilize a guard to encircle the temple in the city. Between guarding the gates, the temple and the inn, their forces should be relatively fragmented enough so that our followers can distract them, while the Harmony priests pacify them and destroy their evil gems in small groups. Alas, our trump card cannot be played. The mage who hired the large group to go in search of the magic we needed, has not yet returned and I fear for the worst. Four previous expeditions failed, but at least one or two survivors were always found. In any case, shortly after we enter the Hydra's head inn, we need to get anyone with a gem as far away from the entrance as possible. Our friend here," he points to the person in the robes, "will then pacify those enemies nearby giving us a fairly good opening wedge through which we can pour as many men as needed into the room. Our objective will be to capture the leader and force him to surrender. Guards outside will be too busy dealing other problems to help their comrades inside the inn. Once inside the inn, with the gems working we should be able to keep a decent deception up for the required length of time. As you can see it has several of the elements that I have mentioned before, but with the added power of the church and the gems behind us we can easily pull this off with less than half the risk. Our goal is to capture the leader. I prefer him alive, we can always feed him to the orcs later. No one makes a move anywhere until we discover who the leader is in this town, and what we can do to stop further interruptions in our peace from these blockheads".

     Many men talk of leaving and not coming back with no little grumbling, but even they stop grumbling when the Universal Harmony priest nears them as he passes a blessing on to each of them.

     "Now our final information is that many of the men who will be stationed at the bar will be quite drunk so this might be easier than we thought. We will be smuggled out of town by some friends of mine and we will return soon after in golden splendor."

     Jassal nudges Magnus; "Do you think we should tell him now?"

     Magnus whispers to Jassal, then moves over to Kendrick. 'Gideon' gets a ring from Magnus then he moves among the rest of the group.

     Gideon scans the group of men who fill the room. A bunch of mercenaries standing in groups of two's and three's. Some have that eager beaver look of those that have practiced, but never really fought in battle. One pair stands out in particular one man with a sword, the other wielding a rather large hammer once known as Chi 'Hian; the two old comrades known as Dayal and Pendran.

     A single knock on the door stops all conversation, half a dozen rapid knocks followed by a pause then a single knock another pause and six well spaced regular taps knock on the door. The door opens and several men carrying long robes and blankets enter the room. "We must go now," says one man with what looks like a bite mark above the left eye.

     Outside are wagons filled with hay, silks, and various other items. The men are loaded into the wagons and the items are arranged around them.

     The ride is quite bumpy and Magnus realizes that now he knows what vegetables on the way to market feel like. Eventually the wagon stops and he hears voices of soldiers. They search the wagon for something, but somehow they don't even get close to those hidden. Once outside the city the roads are so bad he wishes he was back in the city. Finally the wagons stop and they are let out.

     Magnus stands in a clearing with the same group of men back at the room. But here also are a dozen horses and a strange sort of banner. The banner looks like a white diamond on a red field with a jewel encrusted crown in the center of it. Everyone gets out and stretches from the uncomfortable ride.

     Gideon looks around and moves toward two men near the center of the group.

     A rather tall burly, red-haired, clean-shaven man moves out of the woods wearing a uniform with a golden gem. A single two handed sword is strapped to his back. He shouts, "Ho! Kendrick! I'm supposed to take a heavily guarded inn with this lot!" He laughs and says, "I'll be lucky if the chambermaids don't slaughter us." Kendrick laughs and moves to greet the stranger. They talk for a few minutes.

     Magnus goes over toward one of the horses and starts to rub its neck and look it over.

     Kendrick turns to the group and says, "This here is Teresal! He will be leading this group."

     Teresal looks around and says, "Look alive men, get to the horses and prepare for a nice short ride. When we get there look harried. Don't answer any questions. Anybody get too nosy just tell them to get moving and follow orders. Once we've distracted the men at the gate, we will move through to the inn and demand an immediate audience with the Head Marshall. Once we have him they don't dare touch us." He turns to Kendrick, "So where are my lieutenants?"

     Kendrick smiles and says, "Three men who have done us a great service to help make this moment possible. "Grayson, Magnus, & Torus get over here." The three converge on Teresal and begin talking.

     Gideon moves over to Pendran and Dayal and greets them. Pendran gives him a friendly greeting, but Dayal just grunts and watches him. When he asks how they got here, Pendran replies, "That's a story, even we haven't quite figured out yet. Much of it seems too unbelievable even for a bards tale. But the short of it is that after an incredible adventure down south and a few run-ins with orc raiding parties up north, we came here to find this city like this. Well, we can't have this now, because we need to be united with the coming orc war and these guys are just making things worse. So they must go before it is all too late." Gideon mentions that he ran across a foolish young elf named, 'Gwydeon' once, he wonders they've heard of him in their travels.

     Dayal grunts and laughs, "Yea foolish is about right."

     Pendran shakes his head and says, "We've fought with that elf. When we started our adventures he had almost no experience, but by the time we were done he was a good sword mate. He was brave, but a little headstrong."

     Dayal mutters, "Like I said foolish. So the boy has made a name for himself chasing the soldiers around town has he. Well we'd better get in there before he bites off more than he can swallow."

     Teresal moves amongst the men splitting them up into groups. Jassal, Demic and Strongarm stand in one group under Magnus. Gideon, Pendran, and Dayal make up a second group. While the third group is made up of the rest.

     Teresal gets up on the horse and gives the signal to ride.

     Everyone gets up on their horse and follows Teresal who sets out a blistering pace.

     After some time of galloping at full speed, the city gates appear out of the night. Teresal slows up as they reach the city gates. Kendrick moves beside him holding the banner high. A single guard runs up and salutes.

     Teresal says, "No time for formalities we've got trouble coming on the horizon."

     The soldier replies, "Yes sir, the scout informed us sir. Word has been sent throughout the town. We are moving our men into position. We will deploy your men along this..."

     Teresal says, "My men and lieutenants stay with me until we have met with the Marshall. Now open the gate and move it."

     The soldier looks uncertain for a second and Torus growls, "Move it soldier!" He spurs his horse a little toward the man, who then turns and runs yelling "Open the gates."

     The city gates creak open and the column files in. The area near the gate is alive with soldiers all preparing for battle.

     A soldier appears on horseback and says, "I'll lead you to where the Marshall is staying."

     Teresal moves nods and says, "I heard there is a temple in this town."

     The soldier looks uneasy, "Yes sir, we have sent archers and soldiers to surround the temple. Hopefully we can keep them penned in."

     Teresal says, "Good it's time we destroyed this rabble once and for all and liberated these poor people."

     With that the group takes off at a brisk pace. Before long they find themselves in front of the Hydra's Head Inn.

     They enter unto a scene of chaos.

     Inside is a rather large room where tables are overturned and men crouch behind them with weapons ready. They gesture for the newcomers to get down and they just barely dodge several arrows.

     At the other side of the room is a man pinned to the wall by several arrows he wears a uniform only remotely similar to the ones the soldiers wear. This one is much more decorated with gold and silver patterns. It is hard to tell much more about it because it seems to have multiple beer stains all over. Then man seems barely conscious. Next to him is one of the ugliest women ever seen. She wields a bow and shoots at anyone who so much as shows his face. "Die you bastards!!! DIE!!!!!"

     Gideon tries to move from behind his table and just misses getting pinned by the woman's furious attacks. Teresal signals to push the tables together.

     Magnus looks around at the confusion and yells out "Who is the hell is in charge here?" But he gets no answer.

     Gideon takes advantage of her reloading to dash over to Magnus.

     Four soldiers decide to charge her... only one makes it back to cover alive.

     "I don't care how many of you there are I got more than enough arrows for all of you!" She pauses and turns to the man she holds prisoner and gives him a vicious kick to the groin, causing the man to dry heave, before she turns her attention back to the group.

     Once Teresal gets the tables together he says, "Kendrick! Who in the nine hells is this bitch and why is she here now!"

     Kendrick looks frightened and says, "It's HER... we'd better get out of these uniforms or she'll kill us all."

     Teresal reaches over and grabs Kendrick by the collar and says, "Make sense man!"

     Kendrick gets control of himself and says, "There have been rumors around about a woman who was killing the soldiers, they say you never knew where she was until you were about to die. She's going to kill us all!" Magnus interrupts and says, "I know this woman... this could work out in our favor. Keep the soldiers down, I have an idea. If it works you should be the highest ranked soldier left in the bar and you could sent them all to attack the temple."

     Teresal looks over at Magnus and says, "If you say you know this woman." He gives and involuntary flinch and two arrows thud on the other side of the table. "Then do what you can. Just get her out of here!" Magnus moves over and consults with Gideon who also has a plan. The two quickly realize that they were thinking nearly the same thing. Gideon moves back over to his two comrades and relays the orders from Lieutenant Magnus.

     Pendran says, "Well that boy did have a little sense."

     Dayal says, "Yea *very* little sense, the closer we get to those arrows the more they are going to penetrate this table."

     Pendran says, "If it doesn't work well just have to fight it out."

     Dayal rolls his eyes and says, "Oh no. You and that damned hammer! With our luck you'll probably go flying through a wall and it'll collapses on us."

     Gideon brings the two soldiers back to the present and they begin to inch their way toward the female archer.

     Magnus shouts, "Know fear wench, your arrows and magic cannot kill us all." He is cut short and his table stops moving forward when one of the arrows pierces through the table and the pokes out several inches just to the left of his head. He nearly drops the scroll in his hand.

     Dayal mutters, "Idiot."

     The second table also stops as the arrows begin to pierce through the wood. There are explicit comments from the other soldiers hiding behind their tables.

     "They're mad! She'll cut them to ribbons."

     "They're mad?!? She's bloody insane She'll kill us all if something ain't done."

     "Charge then."

     "You charge, I don't plan on ending up like the others."

     "I thought you were a soldier."

     "I fight when I have a chance of winning. No one can pay me enough for a suicide mission, besides how would you spend the money?"

     Realizing they can get no closer and that Nushaba doesn't recognize them; they spring into action, Magnus reads a rune and a rainbow of light leaps from his hands and plays across the room back toward the doorway. The rainbow seems to have big bites taken out of it as it plays across the room as in some places the rainbow disappears. Accompanying the light is a mighty scream of pain as if some poor soul was being tortured on his death bed.

     The light and sound show cause Nushaba to hesitate for a moment. A moment is all Gideon needs as he stands and brings his arms together. The silver armbands begin to take on all the colors of the rainbow. His arms disappear around the elbow as they are engulfed in a rainbow of light that arcs out hitting the distracted archer. The blow knocks her back a few steps into the wall where she stares in surprise at the scene before her.

     Jassal and Strongarm heave their table over at a group of soldiers and the resulting crash send men sprawling everywhere to avoid the flying lumber. Jassal, Demic, Strongarm, Pendran, Dayal, Magnus and Gideon rush toward Nushaba and grab her and the Marshal. Nushaba upon being grabbed begins to put up a fight as Gideon drags her with him. He whispers something to her and she stops fighting and the group disappears up the stairway.

     Stopping off at the first level Magnus gestures over to Strongarm and the two push/pull a chest into the hallway. Downstairs Teresal gives orders and begins arguing with someone. A few men start up the stairwell.

     Magnus reads a rune from a second scroll and the chest expands quickly to fill the hallway cutting off all chance of pursuit.

     Magnus turns to Nushaba and says, "Mighty impressive to hold all those soldiers at bay milady. Now if you would direct us to the nearest upper level window we will make good our escape. Demic make sure the Marshall is bound and gagged so that he can't give us away. Nushaba are there any guards on the upper levels?"

     The Marshall seems to barely react to his surroundings.

     Pendran whispers something to Dayal about "Lieutenant Magnus" and the two guffaw.

     Nushaba says, "I was never allowed up here..."

     "There is a good reason for that wench..." says a voice on the level above. At the top of the stairway stand two men with long swords, behind him is at least one more. The advantage is theirs as the stairway is barely wide enough for one man to fight while at their level it is open so they can stand side by side and attack. "We saw that magic trick with the chest. I'll bet you're that mage we're looking for. I think we're in for a big bonus in our pay. Your magic won't work on us, so why don't you just hand over the Marshall and the bitch and surrender. I'm sure things will go much easier on you. "

     Sounds of fighting have broken out downstairs and seemingly all around the building.

     Magnus wears a lopsided grin and chuckles as he pulls out a dagger and grabs the Marshall by the hair. He puts the blade to this throat and says, "Now I may or may not be this mage that you are looking for and this drunkard may or may not be just a figurehead, but if you want to keep his sorry hide alive I suggest you drop your weapons."

     He pauses for a moment as the two men look at each other plainly not having considered this possibility. "As it stands we out number you three for the moment and we of course have this fine woman who has been taking down your own with impunity... money no matter how much is little use to the dead. So I suggest you decide quickly whether you are ready for the next life."

     While the men ponder Magnus looks over the mans uniform looking for a gem that doesn't exist.

     The decision is made as from behind the two men two rather large pouches of coin hit the floor at their feet and a voice says, "Kill them all and make sure the 'Marshall' doesn't survive. Do that and I think life will become very comfortable for you two." Greed apparently wins out as the quickly stuff the bags under their uniforms, giving them a rather bloated look.

     Magnus turns to Nushaba and says, "They are all yours... if possible just maim them for it seems they are too foolish to know otherwise."