Glorm morosely pondered his beer. Three days of sitting on their butts in this dinky little flatlander town had been hard on everyone. Lying low seemed like a good idea, but it chaffed in a way movement and action never did.
He thought for a moment about their situation. Possible bad guys on their tale, who knew something about them since they had attacked the Don and Krinn. Well prepared, careful planners, with a lot of resources available to them. He and his friends had made a trip along a well traveled road in a land where they stood out like a sore thumb, with an elf, a dwarf, a Kandayan and a Kethemer that gave themselves away any time they opened their mouth, even if they tried to disguise themselves as locals, which they hadn’t. They then sat for several days in a very small town were foreigners were not common. Glorm figured they had to be the talk of the town. Was there some reason to be concerned here? Should they at least try to buy some security by paying a few local boys to watch for other foreigners coming into town?
Naaa, too much like work. And yet, there was something in the pit of his stomach that said that they were perhaps not being wise.
He took a last swig, and decided to call it a night. The Sid would be hacked off if he knew Glorm had snuck down to the bar, but he needed to get out of that damn room. It was like a divine message, or something. At least he had waited until late at night when he was sure the others would be in bed.
He dropped a couple of silvers on the table and headed out of the common room and up the stairs to the square corridor that joined all the rooms. As he did, he looked out the window near the top. It stood over the roof of the stable off the back of the place. Moonlight flooded the building across the street, a warehouse of some kind. Two shadowy figures dressed in black darted from the side of the building across the street and into the stable below him. That was odd. As he watched, two more followed, then two more. Hmmmm? Perhaps he should wake the others? He thought hard.
Glorm realized that he had been on a lucky roll recently. He had located another of these fabulous gems, and recently the opportunity to spill some blood had been coming more and more frequently. He was really beginning to like this part of the world. Since it wasn't very fair to take all six of these fellows out alone, Glorm decided to wake the others...
SID
...[Laughter, deep and dark...shadows...a Face]... a stealthy, cautious treads[a Voice... promises of Chaos]... a creak of floorboard...the whispered sleeve of an arm reaching...
-- Sid's knife zizzed the air as he rolled up into a crouch, knees bent, offhand back for balance. The razored blade poised at an eviscerating level. His eyes focused in the dim light to see the stiletto's needled point pricking the tip of...
Glorm's bulbous nose. The Dwarf stood frozen, his eyes crossing as he tried to assess the extent of the damage. "Do you *have* to do that?" he asked plaintively. "Can not you call out 'Who's there?' or 'Leave a message with my Service' like every person?" Glorm backed off slowly already ruefully regretting the incipient itch from the papercut-like wound. "I hate it when you do that. You must have had very bad childhood."
Sid's eyes darted over Glorm's head and around the room before resheathing his blade. "You woke me just to discuss my sleeping habits?"
"Well, actually it was half-dozen men I saw sneaking around outside, but since you mention--"
"I thought you were supposed to stay put tonight."
"Ah,...I got bit thirsty. It was the, ah,... low humidity, yes, that be it, the low humidity. Affects my sinuses, too."
"Low humidity. Humidity. Right. Tell me about the men."
"You know. The usual cloaked, masked, low-down, up-to-skulduggery types. Methinks friends of yours."
"Friends of mine you never would have seen, friend Dwarf. Do you have a plan?"
"Well, a thought or two be occurring to me..."
After a few words, the two unlikely leaders agreed on a plan. Fuji was on guard duty, but he had studiously ignored the two dark figures until this point. "Wake the others quietly" said Sid. With quick efficiency Sid stationed the two clerics behind the far two doors. Glorm slipped into the shadows at the far end of the hallway, and Sid chanted off a few quick spells, disappearing near the stairway. Fuji, as instructed, slumped to the floor in the hallway, pretending to be asleep on guard duty. He held the flash sword, which he would discharge to start the fight off. He had reluctantly lent his family blade to Sid. He didn't like the look in Sid's eye as he carefully tested the blade's swing weight. As an afterthought the Sid sent Rosebud out the window, and down to the stables, to see who was left behind to watch for their escape. That done, the group settled in to wait for the latest bandits. As they waited, Glorm slipped the emerald around his neck, and the sapphire into his shield hand. In a pinch he figured he could bring the two stones together in melee.
Fuji waited until the dark figures were nearly upon him before discharging the sword. The effect was fairly dramatic in the poorly lit hallway, and four of the men were looking dazed. Before Fuji could take further action a ball of electricity exploded in the hallway, followed by a crackling bolt. When his vision cleared all of the men were down and only two were moving. Before Fuji could notice anything else Glorm's shadow was moving.
Glorm looked in wonder as the wrath of two gods smote the men to smouldering husks. Miraculously two men were getting up. One was running down the hall towards Sid; Glorm slipped in for a killing blow on the second. Hidden in the shadows, he raised his hammer for a death blow. Too late he noticed the bolt of electricity arcing down the hallway. The bolt took Glorm full in the chest, singing more than a few hairs, but leaving more vital organs untouched. The foolish druid was unseasoned, he thought idly, and afraid, which was understandable, but Glorm could have dismembered the man in seconds. Instead, he motioned to the druid telling him to bind the unconscious figure, and follow with the prisoner as quickly as possible. He looked towards Krinn peeking from the doorway, and said "search em". With that he was heading after the last man, too late of course. He looked up to see a sword arcing out of the shadows. In two quick blows the man was down, and Sid was checking his pockets and weapons. Glorm moved next to Sid quietly, and handed him one of the dead men's cloaks. "Shall we pay a visit to our friends in the stable?" he asked sardonically.
The Sid nodded quietly, a distant look in his eyes. That weird telepathy with his cat, no doubt. "Two, near the far end, with heavy crossbows, swords and small shields by their sides, wearing leather. No obvious magic, but I can’t be sure. Additional bolts on their back, not lined up in front of them... a little amateurish. They look nervous... must have heard the lightning ball." That wasn’t surprising; it had been rather loud and Glorm heard yells from downstairs and on the rooms across the way.
"We going to have company in a couple of minutes..." he said nervously.
Sid looked at Glorm for a minute, and said "Out the window. We can slip in behind them from the shadows, and have them down before they can react." As Glorm started moving, Sid quietly chanted a spell to enchant the sword once again. Glorm chuckled; he didn't think he would need any magical help.
They moved quickly to the window that looked over the stables and dropped quietly to the roof a few feet down. Glorm and the Sid scampered across the uneven wooden shingles as quietly as they could, which was irritatingly quiet for the Sid and rather noisy for Glorm. Still, they could hear the horses whinnying and stamping below, obviously sensing from the noise and commotion that something was not quite right, and there was some hope that it would cover any sounds from the roof.
They stopped over the large front door, and Sid pointed to one side, then the other. Glorm quickly moved down one eave while the Sid moved down the other, until they were only eight feet off the ground. The Sid waved once, looking down, waved twice. Glorm jumped on the third, hit with a thud and rolled. He moved a touch faster than the Sid getting in the door and ran with a furious battle cry into one corner, then paused, confused. There was nothing... a missile whistled out of empty air and hit with a thud that was jarring but not debilitating. There WAS a man there, dressed in black leather and with a black cape... how the hell had he missed him??? Glorm closed before the other man could change weapons, and swung, a overhead blow that hit with a satisfying jar and split the man’s head open.
H:8 + W/MP:1 + PA:0 + CA:4 - D:11; CP:1 -> 1 x dam
Bad Guy 5 attacks GLORM and hits for 1 times damage doing 8 points
He turned. The Sid had been luckier, or at least if he had taken a bolt it was not obvious, but his man had a sword in hand and they trade blows as he watched, both missing.
He closed quickly, and it clearly distracted the attacker, who missed with a second blow while the Sid connected solidly enough to put the man down, but not out. Glorm jumped and pinned him with the Sid’s help. The Sid had a dagger in hand, which he held under the man’s chin. The Sid's knife drew a thin line of blood across the gasping man's throat. "You agree you are a Dead Man?" The thugge, eyes bulging, sweating in fear, whispered his assent. "Then repeat the Words. You know them."
"I am a Dead Man, my life and contracts ended," the man croaked, "I am a Live Man, my life and contracts anew."
"Preva Bradford, then."
"Pr-e-v-a Br-a-adford," the hard man's voice shook.
"You are sure? I can end this now. Quickly."
"No," the assassin's voice firmed, "No. I am a Live Man."
"Very well."
A silver pressed the man's hand and he was gone.
Glorm and Sid also slipped from the stable, then sought the roof. "What be that which happened?" Glorm finally asked.
"He's an assassin Low level, but it doesn't matter. Once a contract is accepted, it is slow and painful death to ignore it."
"Why did not we question him?"
"Would have killed him...assassins die before they break. They don't have a choice in the matter."
Glorm reflected for a moment. "But he not accept a contract on our person's?"
"Yes, he did. A Contract is valid until rescinded by the contractor or the death of the assassin"
"Then the words...?"
"Ritual. If an assassin is caught with no hope of escape and his death is immediately certain, he is as a Dead Man. By this 'death', his old contracts are canceled. In letting him live, I made him a Live Man again. He became freed from the entanglements of his old contracts and able to accept new ones."
"This be common?"
"No. As I said, he is of low level."
"Lord Sid," Glorm continued carefully, "How you come to be knowing all these ways?"
Sid stopped in the black shadow of a gable, turned. In the darkness, his eyes glowed dangerously feral as they sought those of the Dwarf. Glorm's mouth went dry.
Further response was interrupted by the sounds of hoof beats. Down the street a group riding horses could be seen by moonlight, although details were not obvious in the dim light. From inside there was the twang of a crossbow being discharged. The Sid grimaced. In a normal whisper at odds with his eyes he observed, "It just keeps getting better, doesn't it?" They moved toward a window and reentered the Inn to assist and inform the others...
[The crossbow is a man in robes at the bottom of the stairs that shot at Fuji, who was searching bodies. The bolt missed.]