Café de Nuit

Rafael wrote:Cirdan spits. "Sure."

Assuming it is safe, Cirdan will take up the items in the chest.

"A conspiracy is going on here. Those thugs were paid by someone with power. No wonder the other one jumped into his death."

"Particularly if he knew the cultists would come for him and bring him back to some form of life."

As the party stands in the dimly lit room, discussing the possibility of cult activity, and what to do next....

You all hear footsteps and voices coming from the direction of the back door, down the hallway! It sounds as if two or more men are headed in your direction, but of course the wall prevents you from seeing them- or them seeing you. They sound as if they are getting closer to the doorway of the little room with the chests, though.

'' Jacques and Henri must have finished of that damned elfling by now. I see they left their horses tied up. They probably already went down.''

''You think they left any loot for us?''

''Probably not, but it wouldn't hurt to check.''

"YOU MISERABLE PIECES OF SCUM!"

Cirdan face is hot red.

"I will cut you into two, you scoundrels!"

His sword high over his head, he storms out of the room.

[Power attack + knight's challenge]

As Cirdan comes running out into the hall , he spots two men in mail shirts, just a few paces from him. The one on the left carried a poignard and his companion to the right carries a hatchet.

The hatchet-man raises his hatchet over his head and rushes to attack Cirdan. The man with teh poignard slides along the edge of the wall to the left, trying to position himslef for a flanking attack against the knight.

Cirdan's sword whistles downward, striking the hatchet-man alongside his head, taking his left ear off and smashing into his mailclad shoulder. The blade turns against the armor, rather than cutting clean through, but the blow is hard enough it to drive broken links of mail into the man's shoulder and push him to his knees.

The hatchet-man swings his axe into Cirdan's armored leg. It impacts just above the back of the knight's right knee- a vulnerable spot in the armor. The blow has little immediate effect, other than being painful.

While the knight is tangling with the hatcheteer, the man with the poignard darts in to stab at Cirdan's face, but hits the knight's gorget instead, doing no damage whatsoever.

Norzak sighs. Looking up from the chests he hears the two men approaching. Not more a these ruffians..... Aye I though we'd had our share of them. Zounds! I'll try ta get in a nice quick shot on one of them fellers. As his crossbow is already cocked he moves as silent as possible and tries to get a bead on one of the two men.

Move Silently 17, Hide 16, B.A.B on the bad guy 17, 2 dmg if applicable.

The loosed bolt grazes the side of the man with the poignard, wounding him slightly.

With his shield, Cirdan will try to drive the hatchet man towards a corner of the room, and there pierce through him with his sword...

"Cover my back, friends!"

Norzak drops his crossbow to the ground. He unsheathes his short sword and rushes the other man.

Both men throw down their weapons and raise their hands over their heads. The hatchet-man cries out:

''We give up! Don't hurt us!''

NOrzak approaches them both with an evil glint in his eye. "Ya best be talkin now! Or I cut yer fingers off one by one, ya mongrels! Tell us who ya work for now! OR else!"

Cirdan will collect the weapons from the men, then step back and start cleaning his sword, all the while patiently watching. [Attempting to intimidate.]

Rafael wrote:"YOU MISERABLE PIECES OF SCUM!"

Cirdan face is hot red.

"I will cut you into two, you scoundrels!"

His sword high over his head, he storms out of the room.

Bennedict sighs and rolls his eyes as the elf charges out the door, thankful that he discovered the healing discipline that allows some level of restoration all throughout the day. That elf is going to get me killed.

He hefts his crossbow and heads for the alley, but is surprised to discover that the enemies have already surrendered.

"Feel free to speak up," Bennedict adds after Norzak's threats. "He means what he says about the fingers. Seriously. I'm not joking."

Aid another on intimidate.

The two men press their backs against the wall and keep their hands in plain view.

The taller of the two is an ill-favored man with greasy brown hair, tied behind his head in a knot. [He's the one who attacked Cirdan with the hatchet]. He speaks up, his voice a little shakey:

''We work for Claude Malreux. He's the Boss! Euh.....You must be looking for the girl, yes? We don't have her. The others took her down the hole, to bring her to the Boss. We are just here to clean up, and take the last couple of horses back to the stables. We won't give you no trouble. Just let us leave and we won't tell nobody we saw you fellows. Is that good?''

The shorter man is shaking pretty badly. He tries to speak, but doesn't manage anything intelligible beyond: ''No trouble....'' A spreading wetness appears on the front of his trousers. It isn't dark enough to be blood.

Bennedict turns up his nose in disgust at the man who is wetting himself, turning his head to regard the other man.

"What do they want with her?"

The tall man replies:

''For a ransom, why else? We snatch the girl and her father pays us gold for her safe return. From what I heard, it was Pierre Renault's idea, to begin with. Somebody threw him out of a tower window and broke his neck, so he won't be getting none of the ransom money now. ''

The man frowns, then goes on to say,

''It was the Doctor who told the Boss about Renault's plan, now that I think of it. ''