Café de Nuit

KAT

The Beast turns on Kat, snapping its huge wolf-like jaws and tearing at her armor with its forepaws.
She dodges back, scraped and battered but not yet really hurt.
Little dribbles of green ichor mark its hide where her sword blows needled it, and wisps of smoke curls from his flank where Raen's magical bolt struck it, but the creature-- it looks something like a small bear or a huge wolf-- doesn't seem slowed in the least by these minor injuries.
It circles round the floor, moving to cut Kat off from the open doorway.

It pants, licks its chops.
" Come to me and take a swift death in my jaws. Otherwise, you choke and burn."

The growling, rumbling voice sounds ill-suited to human speech, yet Kat has no trouble understanding the monster.

Its yellow eyes brighten as the smoke fills the upper part of the room, dimming the flickering blue light of Raen's spell.

Now the inner hallway is burning.

Raen coughs, slumped against the wall, but doesn't open his eyes or stand.

Sara was ready to go after the red haired man when heard Kat's cries and saw the flashes of light. Her companions are clearly in combat and from the cries apparently they are losing. Sighing at the opportunity to go after her quarry she climbs down and enters the house, sword in one hand and gun to the other.

The Beast growls as Sara enters the smoky room.

Kat lunges forward, stabbing it in its side.

It howls, leaping at a solid wall-- and passes right through the wood and stone as if through air.
Ash marks the spot where the creature passed.


The two women recover from their surprise at the monster's escape and collect Raen.
The smoke's getting bad...

Outside, in the alley, coughing and rubbing their eyes, they find that Raen yet lives, but is unconscious. He's badly hurt. It might be fatal if he's not taken to a healer.

Looking about, they see no sign of the creature.

But they aren't alone for long.

At the near end of the alley, the market side, six men with cudgels and daggers advance toward them. They all studded leather armor.

"You alright? We're from the gendarmes. We came to help" one calls out.
Another laughs.

No gendarmes' green cloaks.

And behind them, a man whose face is hidden by a sooty cloth wrap.
"Kill the warlock. If you can take the women alive, do it. I want the pleasure myself... But in any case, none of them leave that alley without us carrying them. Go, earn your pay!"

BENN AND DORGIO


Finished with the Ruby Oracle, the two men make their way toward the rendezvous...

THOM

ALAIN

With the others busy on their own errands and investigations, Alain has had time to finish putting his house in order, increase security there, and make a few inquiries of his own.

Kat's eyes slide across the large gang of armed men and she looks terrified. Her rapier droops until the point brushes the ground as the first line approaches and chokes out "h..hey guys we..we can talk about th..." halfway through a word she explodes forward in a lunge, glittering blade striking for the heart as the scared expression vanishes in an instant.

Raen gasps in pain while unconscious ... oblivious of the fight.

Sara doesn't even reply to them, she gets her second gun out and fires twice.

VAN wrote:Sara doesn't even reply to them, she gets her second gun out and fires twice.

Maybe distracted by the urgency of parrying Kat's lunge, the thug in front doesn't get out of the way of Sara's pistol barrels in time.
Or of Kat's sword, as she stabs again.

The man falls face-forward, a stunned look on his face and three bloody holes, two big, one small, in his breast.

Three of the others lurch forward, cursing, clubs raised.

The two in the back run away, past the man with the sooty wrap on his head. He ducks out after them, whipping left around the house where Kat fought the Beast.

Sara gets her guns away and drawing rapier and dagger tries to go closer to Kat flanking the man that is attacking her.

Fighting side by side in the narrow alley, Kat and Sara fight the three ruffians, quickly dispatching two (more) of them with sword and dagger.

The third man staggers back-- then forward, swinging his cudgel it in a vicious arc that just barely misses Sara's head. The wooden club rebounds off the wall of the burning house.

And it is burning now.
Smoke puffs out the open door and the loud crackling and hissing from within suggests the flames have spread into other rooms and halls.

Kat shoots the house an uneasy glance, but closes with the club wielder, blade flashing in an intricate web. She glances at Sara as she falls back to aid Raen and is careful not to push too far away from them, counting the seconds till the two flankers arrive!

kintire wrote:Kat shoots the house an uneasy glance, but closes with the club wielder, blade flashing in an intricate web. She glances at Sara as she falls back to aid Raen and is careful not to push too far away from them, counting the seconds till the two flankers arrive!

Kat injures the thug.

He turns and flees.

Her quick glance back shows Sara bandaging Raen.

The mage is still out. limp and pale.
And he is bleeding a lot, right through the bandages.

She hears a faint commotion from what seems to be the street beyond the far end of the alley. Could be those flankers rushing in...

If Adam approves...


After taking a ride in a wagon with a friendly and talkative carter, Benn and Dorgio arrives at the rendezvous site.

SARA and KAT

Unable to stop the bleeding, the two women awkwardly lift Raen and carry him toward the alley mouth, marketside. Swords out in their free hands.

But before they get clear of the area, the flankers charge into the alley from the opposite end.
The two ruffians slow their run.
They stop, looking down at their wounded and dying comrades sprawled on the bloody cobblestones.

The two men look at one another. Then at Kat and Sara, and at the women's red-stained swords.

One turns back and shouts down the alley at someone the women cannot see,
"Lotta smoke, boss--but it looks like we missed them!"

Hustling out before the cowardly--or maybe just smart-- thugs change their minds, the two women carry Raen into the market square.

He needs a healer. But neither woman can recall where the nearest physician or surgeon can be found.

The black ashfall has diminished, a few persons are trickling back into the plaza to tend to abandoned wares or resume errands.

A skinny old man in common garb pauses as he unties a tarp from a handcart. He turns to get a good look at the women and Raen as they cross the plaza.
"What's the matter? Why, that man's hurt!"

The peddler walks a little closer, but not too close. He seems wary of the two swordswomen and their bloody blades.
"That bandage won't do. Look, he's dripping blood all over the ground. Better set him down and let me see if I can help."

END OF CHAPTER