Café de Nuit

Kat smiles at Odell as he brings in the food

"I don't think so... thankyou."

Then she glances around.
"What's pecu..."

Her voice dies in her throat as she sees the ash raining down, and she leaps to her feet even as Raen begins to cast his spell.

"yes... yes master innkeeper that is pretty darn peculiar."

She eyes the various plumes with worry.

"Wait... is each of those plumes a... Raen, this could be a problem!"

Bennedict follows the others out into the street, looking around in puzzlement at the funnels of ash. He looks up the street for any sign of the gendarmes or a fire brigade to handle the blaze.

Adam wrote:Bennedict follows the others out into the street, looking around in puzzlement at the funnels of ash. He looks up the street for any sign of the gendarmes or a fire brigade to handle the blaze.

The nearest of the ash funnels whirls up from someplace behind a row of decrepit houses behind the café.
Not far.

Making out details isn't easy, even this close, because of the ash falling from the sky.

Benn takes a look up the street, toward the burning, shattered boarding house.
The explosion looks to have destroyed the upper floor and part of the roof. The murder room is certainly demolished...
Scorched tiles and bits of broken boards litter the paved gap between the café and the burning boarding house.
A terrifying shriek rips the air--in a moment, Benn places the noise: horses. The animal sounds come from the stables behind the inn, partly out of his view. From what he can see, that area isn't on fire.
Not yet...

No sign of gendarmes or a bucket brigade--but the fiery explosion occurred only moments ago.

DORGIO

Looking at the situation, Bennedict elects to take work on the more immediate problem first. He heads up the street to the boarding house, still scanning for if anyone who is actually trained to deal with the problem is nearby.

Once he reaches the outside of the house, he shouts in through the door. "Is anyone in there? Can you make your way out?"

Outside the house hit by the explosion:

Raen winces in pain. The effort takes its toll. He looks towards the stables and then all around to make sure there are no enemies coming. As Benn seeks wounded people, he moves towards the stable doors and attempts to open the doors.

Lord Skybolt wrote:"I agree with Sara on that " with that he passes her a bag* "these may come in handy as they are cold iron rounds for your gun, I could not make that many in a day so make them count ."

"Thank you very much, I will do my best."

After the explosion, she takes a moment to decide what to do. Valuing human lives more than the horses he joins Benn outside trying to see if there is anyone hurt or if there is any enemy around.

alhoon wrote:Outside the house hit by the explosion:

Raen winces in pain. The effort takes its toll. He looks towards the stables and then all around to make sure there are no enemies coming. As Benn seeks wounded people, he moves towards the stable doors and attempts to open the doors.

The stable doors swing open easily enough--no lock or latch.

A shrill neigh bursts in Raen's face, and a horse looms up over him, backlit by a swinging lantern up high in the stable.

Something moves on top of the horse--a rider!

Raen has only a moment to jump aside as the masked rider kicks the horse into a canter, rushing on with no regard for the mage's wellbeing.

Two other riders follow immediately after the first man.


Raen's companions, intent on the boarding house or the ash vortices, don't see the riders until the horses have moved a dagger toss down the street, headed south and a fast trot.

Screams rise from within the house, and shouting and thumping sounds.

A door flies open and a man tumbles out to the cobbles, coughing and rubbing his eyes.
''Help! Fire!"
He casts about, staggers farther from the smoke.
"Help--there's people inside."

Uttering a string of Lamordian curses, Bennedict fishes his handkerchief from a front pocket and ties it around his face. He peers in through the front door, seeing if its safe to enter the front of the building, before going in and heading towards the voices.

Adam wrote:Uttering a string of Lamordian curses, Bennedict fishes his handkerchief from a front pocket and ties it around his face. He peers in through the front door, seeing if its safe to enter the front of the building, before going in and heading towards the voices.

The front is smoky, but not yet burning.

Benn stalks in, casts about, peering through the haze and listening for the direction and proximity of the crying voices.

Sounds like a back room...

Benn rushes to the noise, kicks open an interior door.

Sees flames and smoke coiling across the ceiling of the kitchen, spreading from a black and jagged gap up there. Above, only fire and black smoke-nothing solid can be seen.
Something rumbles and crashes ahead of him.

He doesn't hear the screams now.
But he spots a huddled form in the far side of the room--a woman or girl, caught under a fallen roofbeam.

The archivist reaches her in a flash, grips the splintered and smoldering wood with both hands, and heaves upward.
The heavy beam slams sideways against the wall, falling flat and free of the injured female.
Benn scoops her up in both arms and staggers out of the kitchen.

He can hardly see for the tears and grit in his eyes.
His throat feels tight.

But he makes it out with the young woman, out past the billowing smoke.












--------------------

While Benn rushes in the front to rescue one of those trapped inside, and Raen investigates the stables and encounters the men fleeing on horseback, the others of the party see a hazy figure appear in the one remaining upper floor window in view that's not demolished by the explosion.
Seconds later, the window bursts outward and a figure leaps out amid a big puff of smoke.
The falling body twists and tucks before it hits the pavement.

''Unnhhhh..."
The jumper moans, rolls upright, and shuffles away from the burning inn, toward the party.

Smudged in ash, his clothes sooty, the thin man still looks somewhat familiar...

The old innkeeper, meanwhile, has recovered his calm sufficiently to jog over to the party.

He glances at the jumper, then back at the investigators.
"I've still got four--make that three, guests still inside, I think. And my servant Ermaline! She was in the kitchen when something like cannon fire just ripped through the upper floor. Shot me right down the stairs!"

Without waiting for a reply, he turns and calls out in a loud voice, ''Fire! Alarum, alarum, fire!"

A few figures appear in doorways and windows of nearby buildings, voices rise in the gloom, and a couple of distant lanterns flicker into sight.
But still no bucket brigades, and the upper floor of the inn looks three quarters wrecked and blazing...

The men on horseback are fleeing behind the inn, headed south...

Bennedict staggers from the front door with the woman, fairly dragging her as he reaches the street, coughing out his lungs.

"Anyone else?" he hoarsely mutters, "Anyone else inside?"

Outside the inn:
Raen tries to take a look at the horsemen in case he notices something noteworhty he could use to locate them later.
When he sees Benn bringing out a gasping woman, he rushes to her the Archivist and helps them out. "There are about three more guests according to the innkeeper!" he says to the man. "I am too bungled to be of much help..." he apologizes as he supports the woman to help her move away from the door. "... but it wouldn't do you much good to die in there from the smoke. I'll see if I can find something to tie you with, even if it's a string so that you can pull in case you start losing your conscience and we can follow you to find you."
He turns to the woman. "Are you okay madame?"

The young serving -woman coughs and rubs her eyes.

"I'm...uhhh...I'm alright. My leg's bruised, but I'm alright."
She looks back at the burning inn.

''The guests! Oh! And one's just a little boy!"

Odell emerges from his café, a sloshing bucket held in each hand.
He moves toward the blaze and tosses the buckets at one corner of the smoking and shattered upper level, swinging the buckets up high to splash the flames.
The water hisses and boils off in a cloud of dirty steam, but the fire keeps burning unabated.
It will take many more bucketfuls...

A kid... Raen looks at his wounds. Then at the fire.
"Nobody lives forever" he whispers to himself. "But I've lived longer than the kid".
He quickly wets a handkerchief with his waterskin and ties it around his face. Then he splashes some water on his robe while asking the woman "Where do you expect the kid to be? Anything would help..."

As Alain follows the others to help with finding survivors, but he pauses to see what the serving girl has to say as he prepares to cast as spell* when he gets into the general area of where she indicates the "kid"maybe . While waiting for her to say where the kid is, Alaine take really good look at the figure that fell through the window .






*Spontaneous Search-20 Radius 1 Round casting time . 29 Search in that area .