A battle of wills

With the sound of the sell-sword's footsteps fading down the inn's corridor, his ultimatum is left hanging almost palpably in the air of the small room.

"So, suggestions?" asks Vaelas. He casts his eyes around the room and sees his own feelings mirrored in his companions’ faces; reluctance to fight, but willing to do so if it means innocents avoid being harmed.

Even Hawk, who seems to have developed a habit of muttering to himself and randomly growling, nods in agreement.

"In Talenta we Halflings have a saying. 'A trap is not a trap if you choose to spring it.'" says Avalon. The Halflings' wise words are followed by a moment’s silence as each of our heroes checks their equipment over before the fight begins.

The silence is broken a few moments later by Hawk dragging open the window, and moving out to climb onto the rooftop.

"I guess that signals the start of our attack then?" Asks Janin, a little disappointed by the lack of communication and organisation. He steps out of the room, into the corridor and turns left to head down the stairs near the bar. Vaelas and Avalon step out of the room, into the corridor and turn right to head down the stairs near the kitchen. Dua steps out of the room, strides across the corridor and into the opposite room that looks down on the stable yard at the back of the inn.

Janin immediately realises that he is alone on his route and almost audibly groans at the apparent randomness of their attack approach. 'Maybe it will confuse the enemy as much as it confuses me', he muses to himself. While his companions are still within a dozen feet of him he issues a warning to them.

"I may be able to influence our enemies actions somewhat. If they don't attack you then don't attack them." He isn't completely sure if his companions hear his warnings, as they each carry on walking.

Hawk finally manages to haul himself onto the roof of the Horn Blowers Inn, and looks around. Rising slowly he spots an enemy waiting beyond the apex of the roof. The enemy has his back turned and appears to be waiting to pounce on someone below.

Hawks' lip slowly curls and he forces a snarl into silence. He feels himself wanting to 'Shift' and lose himself in the animalistic rage burning inside him. He calms himself and moves to close the gap between himself and his opponent in half a dozen long strides.

Thinking to push the waiting man off the roof, Hawk realises at the last minute that it might not have been the best option. As he closes the distance and crosses the apex he sees that the human has a glowing, green blade protruding from one hand. The human brings the blade to meet Hawk's charge and plunges the blade into Hawks side.

Hawk feels a searing pain lance into him followed by a powerful surge of energy that burns and cramps the muscles around the wound. Convulsing slightly from the pain and shock, Hawk sidesteps his charge and stops himself a few feet past the human.

"Welcome to the fight beast! Keep up with me if you can!!" exclaims the human, before running along the rest of the inn roof and leaping across a fifteen foot gap to land on the roof of the stables. There he turns to face Hawk and assumes a defensive stance, waiting.

Dua's raises himself onto the tips of his claws and peers out of the inn window. In the courtyard below he sees the other three humans stood laughing and pointing at Hawk fighting on the rooftop.

"Right, they came looking for a fight, we'll see how funny they find it once we turn the odds. Let's try out this 'Web' scroll on them."

The kobold reaches into his belt pouch and pulls forth a vellum scroll that is covered with arcane symbols. Brushing his clawed finger down the length of the scroll he quickly finds the draconic words that invoke the power of the scroll. He utters at them and focuses his will on the corner of the stable yard that the three humans are standing in.

The sorcerous kobold feels the familiar surge of arcane energy and is pleased to see strands of magic suddenly appear all around his foes. The magic quickly solidifies into thick, sticky, white strands that cover nearly a quarter of the stable yard.

Hawk sees his quarry leap the gap between the inn and the stable, and without even considering the possibility of failure, he also charges and manages to clear the distance. He rolls to a stop and rises to face his foe again.

The human facing him seems to spend a moment concentrating, or focussing himself. Much to Hawks dismay, the blade in his opponents’ hand grows visibly brighter as he does so. The glowing blade lunges at Hawk and narrowly misses.

Janin calmly steps out of the door at the rear side of the inn. He has spent a few moments surveying the fight and assessing options. Taking a single deep breath to steady himself, he speaks clearly, intoning a prayer to the Silver Flame.

"By the will and the righteousness of the Silver Flame, I command those that oppose me to be calm. Know that your aggression is misplaced, I have decreed it!"

All of the sell-swords find their attention drawn to the clerics command, albeit briefly. One of them merely laughs at the suggestion. Janin clasps his holy symbol tightly in his fist and concentrates on enforcing his divine command.

Vaelas twirls his scimitar at a blurring speed, causing his opponent to furiously parry the blows. Avalon reaches to his side, draws his Talenta Boomerang and launches it at an opponent, hoping to catch him un-aware.

Thwack! The boomerang hits. The human sees stunned for a split second while his battle senses catch up with him and process the new threat.

Vaelas and Hawk both continue their melee against their respective opponents, all the time aware that the other two sell-swords are gradually working their way clear of the webbing that entangles them.

Dua conjures up a bolt of magical energy and launches it towards on of the human sell-swords. It smashes through the inn window, sending glass flying, and slams into the chest of the target, leaving a smoking wound.

Finally Vaelas manages to spot and weakness in his opponents training. He feigns to swing a log blow and whips it up for a quick double strike to the torso. His opponent opens his eyes wide in shock and crumples to the floor.

The human fighting Hawk also takes a savage blow from the claws of the Shifter and runs vertically thirty foot up the inn wall and comes to a stop on the roof.

One of the humans in the webbing finally manages to work his way free of it. He wastes no time and sprints across the stable yard and runs up the inn wall to join his companion on the roof.

Dua, thinking that he could prevent the remaining human from moving around so freely, summons three celestial dogs to harry his foe. This appears to work, but unfortunately has the side affect of drawing attention to himself.

The two humans on the roof run down the wall, in through the window and bear down on Dua. One moves to block the doorway, the other creates a glowing green blade in his hand and moves to attack the Kobold.

Dua dodges the green blade as best as he can, but he does take one cut before there is a heavy thud followed by the sound of wood splintering. Suddenly Hawk's head appears through the window. He is almost frothing at the mouth with anger and frustration at his targets evasive tactics.

Determined not to let his foe escape again, Hawk lunges at him and manages to rip his claws deeply enough through the flesh to cause almost instant death. The human crumples into a heap, his glowing green blade vanishing as he loses consciousness.

With Janin's prayer to calm his foes emotions, finally losing its effectiveness, the opponent in the inn room with Hawk and Dua finds himself able to attack, but deciding that he doesn't like the tactical location.

He opens the inn room door, takes a sword in the gut from Vaelas, who was waiting on the other side, and stumbles away down the inn corridor.

Hawk, his bloodlust not quenched, gives chase.