The aftermath

The opponent facing Hawk slices his green blade towards the Shifter and hits, slicing deeply. Hawk grimaces but uses the pain of the blow to fuel his rage and the proximity of his opponent to launch two savage blows. Hawks opponent crumples to the floor, unconscious but alive.

Hawk feels his battle rage begin to subside. A quick glance down at his wounds causes him to gulp nervously; blood is flowing freely from him and a light-headed feeling is growing within him.

Hawk grabs his collapsed opponent by his hair and drags him out of the inn, and drops him to the stable yard floor in front of his companions. Hawk then collapses in a heap next to his fallen foe.

"Good doggy" mutters Janin quietly to himself.

Avalon calls out to D-Ablow and climbs onto his back. Together with Vaelas, they close in on the final opponent as he finally untangles himself from Dua's magical webbing.

The sell-sword holds his hands up in a surrendering manner as he steps clear. Moments later though he is sprinting across the cobbles and runs straight up the stable wall, up fifteen foot and onto the roof. Vaelas manages to land a blow on the cowardly foe, but it does not slow him down.

D-Ablow turns, runs, performs a titanic leap and some how manages to scrabble onto the stable roof too. The dinosaur and the human face off, circling each other, testing defences.

The human creates a green blade from the end of his fist and slices it towards d-Ablow. It misses narrowly and D-Ablow unleashes his own salvo of attacks. A blur of teeth and claws means that the human is in poor shape only moments later.

Sensing he is clearly out-classed by the dinosaur, he runs down from the stable roof and across the cobbles to the inn. Janin meets him there and lays him out with a single blow from his mace.

Silence falls over the stable yard at the back of the inn. After half a minute the inn door opens and out steps Amelie, the elderly land lady.

"What’s going on? What’s this entire ruckus about?" Taking in the scene of fallen bodies and pools of blood, Amelie firmly plants her hands on her hips and looks expectantly at the obvious victors.

"There better be a good explanation for this and any damage to my inn better be paid for too!"

Avalon ignores the old woman and moves towards Hawk. He draws a wand from his pocket and uses it to treat some of the fallen Shifters wounds.

"We were attacked by these ruffians." Explains Vaelas. "I assure you that it was unprovoked, and we did everything we could to ensure that none of your other customers became involved or hurt."

Amelie squints suspiciously at the elf.

"Right, well we'll see about that. I'll go get a guard to arrest that one that's still breathing. You take those bodies and put them in the shed in the corner. Keeps things simpler for the guards that way and I’ll have someone dispose of the bodies later. Don't you guys go anywhere!"

With that the old woman begins shooing customers out of the inn, closes the doors and heads off down the street to find a city guard.

Avalon and Hawk gather the three bodies, relieve them of their armour and belongings, then put them into the shed as instructed. They then tie up the remaining foe, with his hands behind his back and put him in the stable.

Vaelas leaves to perform a lap of the streets around the inn.

"If someone paid these guys to attack us, then they may well be watching to see that they get their money's worth." He reasons. "I'll be back in a couple of minutes."

Janin stays in the stable yard to keep watch there.

Avalon uses his healing skills to treat the trussed-up human's wounds sufficiently for him to regain consciousness. Hawk then strides forward and grabs the human by the throat, lifting him slightly clear of the floor.

"Talk scum and we might let you live. Who sent you to attack us. Who are your masters?"

The human just about manages to muster a sneer before replying.

"Your threats are about as terrifying as your questions are irrelevant."

Hawk growls, deep in his throat. Avalon dismounts from D-Ablow and retrieves a rope from a saddlebag. He begins tying a complex knot in the rope and it is soon obvious that he is making a noose. Smiling he looks up.

"If he won't talk then let's get straight on with administering justice."

With that Avalon throws one end of the rope over a beam in the stables and lasso’s the humans head with the knotted end. He pulls the rope tight and ties the end to D-Ablow's pommel.

"Last chance to talk. Nothing to say? Fine, see you on the other side."

Vaelas has nearly finished his perimeter check when he notices a cloaked figure watching him from an alley way, sixty foot up the street from the Horn Blowers Inn. The hooded figure immediately steps back into the alleyway out of sight. Vaelas draws his scimitar and cautiously approaches the alley.

He peers down the alley entrance. It seems safe enough, a five feet wide gap between a butchers and a bakers. Litter and rubbish are the only features in it before it opens up into the next street after twenty feet.

He slowly proceeds down the alleyway until he emerges into the street at the other side. There is no sight of the cloaked figure and no threat as far as he can detect. Sheathing his sword, he retraces his steps.

Half way back along the alleyway he spots a familiar looking rag under some discarded paper. Pulling out with his foot, he recognises it as the cloak that the figure he spotted was wearing.

Giving the alleyway a final check in both directions, he takes the rags and heads back to the Horn Blowers Inn. He gives the rags do Dua and asks him to discern if there is anything magical about the robe.

Vaelas returns to the stables just as Avalon and Hawk are threatening to hoist the human up in his noose. Seeing that the human is resisting their attempts at intimidation though, they retrieve and stow their rope, then leave the stables for Vaelas to see if he can extract anything useful from their captive before the guards arrive.

"Well met, you fought well outside. A shame that you were out-matched." The elf says. The human raises his chin pridefully and visibly bristles at the comment.

"A minor miscalculation on behalf of my superiors. I said that we should have had one more on our side to even things up."

Encouraged by more than just a single word response, Vaelas decides to see if he can coax any more information or clues from the captive human.

"A minor miscalculation maybe, but one that cost your companions their lives. Still at least they had an honourable death in battle, presumably fighting for a cause that they believed in?"

Glancing suspiciously at the elf, the human clearly realises his ploy, but chooses to answer any way.

"It is good to see that not all of you are as barbaric as your Shifter friend there. Yes we are fighting for a cause that we believe in. However my obligation to my master means that I will not reveal details of our task, or why we were asked to perform it. I will give you the courtesy of my name; Soonan, but I cannot tell you any more than that."

Vaelas is in the process of musing where to take the conversation next when his sharp Elven ears pick up the sound of footsteps approaching....slow and light footsteps with quick heavy ones....probably Amelie with the guard....which is probably a Dwarf.

Vaelas turns to face the stable door just in time to see Amelie and a Dwarf in guards uniform enter.

"This is Welby." Says Amelie pointing to the guard. "He's here to arrest the scallywag that attacked you."

Vaelas explains to the guard a brief version of the events that took place, which Amelie corroborates, even though she probably only saw a fraction of what occurred. The dwarf scribbles a few notes on a his note pad, hits the human over the head with a light mace and walks off with the body slumped over his shoulder.

"Good, most efficient that one." Says Amelie. "Now, what about this damage to my inn. I can see roof tiles missing, windows broken, tables smashed, and blood everywhere."

Vaelas says nothing but tosses her a money pouch that they took from their attackers. Amelie opens it and winks slowly at the elf when she sees that it contains twenty five gold pieces.

With night now fully fallen, everyone heads up to Janins’ room to discuss the implications of the attack. Reasoning that the figure in the alleyway opposite might well have been the person that hired the sell-swords, they suggest that that might be worth investigating more.

Gargamadua returns the cloak from the alleyway to Vaelas.

"As far as I can tell, it is merely a tatty old cloak. Nothing magical about it, pretty old, poor quality. Looks like a beggars rags really, nothing more."

Avalon steps forward and has a look at the cloak.

"Let’s try something a little more mundane." He confidently suggests. "D-Ablow should be able to track the wearer of this cloak by scent. I'll take him down the alleyway and see if he can lead us anywhere."

Hawk goes with Avalon to follow the adage of safety in numbers. They take D-Ablow to the entrance to the alleyway and hold the cloak near his nostrils. The Clawfoot seems to understand what is required of him, and buries his nostrils in the material before sniffing deeply.

Suddenly the dinosaur rears up and snarls viciously, his eyes rolling frantically. Avalon tries to calm his mount, having never seen him behave like this. After a few moments D-Ablow has calmed and appears willing to follow the trail, but he clearly is not comfortable with what he might find.

The hunt ends sooner than expected however. It seems as though it begins at the start of the alleyway and then ends half way along it. Puzzled by their findings, Hawk gets down on his hands and knees and follows the trail with his eyes.

"I see here ridges in the dust where someone stood at the alley entrance and the robe we have rested in the dirt." Hawk carefully moves along the alley floor, careful not to disturb any vital evidence.

"And here, there are signs of the robe moving down the alleyway, and falling into a pile, discarded here. But....I don't understand it; there are no indentations of foot prints at any point. Was the wearer of the cloak flying?"

Unsure of what other conclusion to draw from the evidence, they return to the inn and tell their tale to their companions. Dua is the first to suggest an explanation.

"Perhaps it is a magically created floating eyeball from a crazed wizard that seeks our destruction at any cost?"

The room falls incredulously silent for a few moments before Janin speaks.

"Okay, so with no other suggestions, against all likelihood, we'll assume that that’s what it is for now. I think now would be a good time for us all to retire for the night. Some of us clearly need rest."

They split into two groups with Janin and Vaelas sleeping in one room and Hawk, Dua and Avalon sleeping in the other. Sleep soon comes and they all sleep uneventfully...except for Vaelas.

***

For the second time in a month you feel a tendril of non-aggressive psychic energy reach out to your mind and try to establish contact. Recognising it for what it is, you choose not to block the incoming telepathic contact.

The psionic bond settles into place in less than a second and you soon hear the hissing, slurring voice that you last heard in the devastated city of Vathirond.

“Vaelas Flameheart, my superiors at House Thuranni have received reports of a disturbing nature that we believe to have originated from you and your companions. We are curious to know more of your tale and are willing to listen.”

“So you may ask, why do I describe the reports to be disturbing in nature? The disturbing fact is that after House Thuranni made a gesture of faith and invested time and money in training you, you chose to completely leave us out of the loop in this matter. Still, our ears are…plentiful enough to hear of these matters independently.”

“You will meet with me two hours after the next sun-set, in the stables of the inn known as the Horn Blowers Inn. I will be alone and unarmed. You may bring weapons with you if you wish, but you will also come alone. Your companions may be nearby if you have any feelings of insecurity, even waiting in the stable yard if you wish.”

“House Thuranni expects your co-operation in this matter. I look forward to finally meeting you in person.”

Without waiting for a reply, the telepathic link ends.

***

In morning Avalon heads out to speak to Cade d'Jorasco. An employee of House Jorasco informs Avalon that Cade is indisposed today but that he has left a letter for him.

Avalon accepts the letter and reads it. It proves to be a copy of the letter that Cade had written to the House Jorasco Council on Avalon's behalf, informing them of the pending invasion they had discovered. There were also four replies from various house representatives. Avalon reads them with a look of grim determination growing on his face.

Janin goes to a house Sivis message station to send a report to superiors. He finds a message waiting for him however, and he also ends up with a slightly dismayed look on his face. He sends a reply and hopes for a better response this time.

The two adventurers head back to the Horn Blowers inn and both profess to have nothing of worth to report. The discussion again turns to where to proceed next.