Chiquq's words bring a flush to Katrina's pale skin, and Emil reaches under the bar for an axe handle, gripping it more in ineffectual self-defense than anything else. "Stop them!" cries Katrina, in an attempt to change the subject. Emil glances up at the gilt-framed mirror above the bar, as if for reassurance.
As Chiquq backs away, she feels the strength of Ila filling her, rising in response to her own anger over this blatant betrayal. She doesn't miss the way Emil looks at the mirror, and the Kellid bares her teeth briefly, her dark eyes flashing with sudden suspicion.
"Chek? Do you take orders from the white b*!&@es then, from your little mirror? Spies," she says, and spits on the bar floor. "Come then, if you are fools!" she says to the guards.
Loud enough for Chiquq to hear but not the others: "I am going to head up the ladder to get outside. You should come this way too!"
With that, Dezső will head up the ladder and then orient himself vis-a-vis the front door, looking out for anyone waiting at the top of the ladder.
"Dezső, what do we do? Do you have a plan?" Yrja hisses after the other tiefling, scrambling up the ladder. Perhaps it was better to run from this trouble, whatever it was. She keeps throwing glances over her shoulder, trying to spot Chiquq. And where were the others?!
Dezső quietly responds while taking in the surroundings outside: "Making it up as I go along! I don't know what we're facing upstairs, but it doesn't sound good. We may want to retreat, so getting out of the cellar seemed like a good idea. I'm sure Chiquq will follow."
The soldiers spread out to flank Chiquq, wary of her spear, while their leader nods at her. "Surrender and this will be easy," he says. The woodsmen have lost all bravado, and Emil and Katrina look frightened of the Guard themselves, though they clearly called for them.
Dez cannot see anything within the tavern from his vantage point. Yet.
Round 2! Make your moves!
"Yrja, should we create some commotion near the front door so Chiquq can run out the cellar?"
Chiquq keeps her grip on the spear steady, holding it out to try and keep the guard at bay. Her dark eyes bore past the line of swords to Emil and Katrina. "I will remember you," she says again, her words flat and cold as ice.
Then, she lunges into action-- her spear sweeping mugs and crockery off the sword towards the nearest guard, the one wearing red, before she throws herself backward through the cellar doors, hoping against hope that Dezso was right and there's some other way out of the basement, otherwise she is trapping herself.
"Good idea, but we should also be ready to cover Chiquq's retreat."
Yrja bends, scooping some snow from beneath the tavern's eves, where it is still soft and fluffy, shaping it into a ball and throwing it at the snow-covered roof, hoping to create a miniature avalanche that will make some noise.
"Pufos! Go scratch at the door!"
The lead guard snarls at one of his underlings, who runs outside and peeks around the corner.
One guard follows Chiquq down the stairs and swings at her.
His sword thrust fails to touch the wily Kellid.
Another guard heads down the stairs, and the rest follow as best they are able, cursing as they slip over fallen tankards and plates of broadbeans and unidentifiable dried meat.
Round 3--A Fight on Two Maps!
Chiquq doesn't stand to trade blows. She backs away, trying to head in the direction she last heard her companions speak, and the supposed way out.
"I have pulled my blows so far!" Chiquq yells over her shoulder to the guards. "The next time I swing at you it will be with the point and not the flat of this spear's head!"
Yrja tenses, preparing to unleash her magic on any guards that would either pursue Chiquq out of the cellar, or come around the corner to investigate the disturbance. She calls Pufos back to her, fearful that the guards might hurt the little bat.
Chiquq tries to butt at the guard, but her attack fails to connect with the Irriseni.
Dez never got his round two action, because I was waiting for an answer about the stairs. In round two, he ran back to the stairs, confirmed Chiquq was coming and had a good lead (a free action I think), and then ran back over by Yrja. In round three he will hold his action, waiting to see what is coming from the direction of the front door. If Yrja manages to slumber the guard, Dez will probably peek out and run forward to disarm the guard (unless he hears/sees others).
Yep.
Guards spill into the cellar, and meanwhile the outdoor scout almost runs into Dezső. "HERE! the man shouts, just barely maintaining his military-trained composure. The leader of the guards wheels about and heads out the door to join him. In the cellar, the guards shout as they pursue the Kellid.
Round 4! Lots of Chasing on Maps the GM Found!
All players are up!
Yrja yelps as the guard barrels around the corner, hurriedly taking a step away from the wall to have better sighting on him. "I heard somewhere that cold makes you sleepy. Aren't you sleepy?"
The guard crumples into the packed snow. Dez strips him of his gear rapidly.
Chiquq is up!
Chiquq doesn't stay around to get trapped. Again she simply retreats, pushing for the exit out that Yrja and Dezso must have used.
"Any sign of the others?" Chiquq calls as she runs to rejoin the two tieflings. "Those useless piss-swilling innkeeps are betraying us for some reason... and the man kept looking at the mirror. Maybe it is a witch-mirror like the one we found."
Two guards race up the steps after Chiquq; the other two, a bit stymied and wary of getting pushed en masse down the stairs, run back through the tavern towards the front door.
"We haff surround you!" shouts a guard in probably the only poor Taldan he knows. Indeed, they half-surround you, but don't actually surround you.
Round 5! So Much Running Through Maps! Party is up on the Exterior Map!
Chiquq bares her teeth at the guard who speaks. "You surround me as the sheep surround the wolf! I have given you enough chances."
She takes a short step forward-- but despite her hard-edged words, she swings with the butt of the spear.
Chiquq bursts out of the cellar, two guards hot on her heels, twisting to sweep her spear at the closest one. She glances around the corner at the guard that had fallen to her magic. The man is slumbering so peacefully, drooling a little puddle in the snow, and Yrja cannot help but laugh.
"What have we done that you pursue us?" she asks the other two guards in Hallit. "We do not wish to hurt you, but we won't let ourselves be taken like lambs to the slaughter, either." She continues Chiquq's sheep metaphor as she covertly makes another arcane sign with her fingers, trying to put another of the guards to sleep.
Dezső is a little confused at Chiquq showing mercy to the men who pursue us with swords, and probably took our friends.
Nonetheless, he uses his action to take out a rope and tie up the guard asleep at his feet.
The guard resists Yrja's hex, making a warding sign with his hands, but his compatriot is slammed to the ground by Chiquq's spearwork, blood spurting from his nose and a sharp bruise already blooming on his cheek.
The resistant guard shouts something military sounding to his leader around the corner, who pauses to blow a bone whistle. "Sergeant! Backup!" he calls, and drops his sword to pull out a crossbow, aiming at Dez.
The guard nearest Chiquq then takes a defensive stance.
A man appears in the square. He walks with the stance of authority. "Outlanders!" he shouts in a rippling voice. "Surrender now and be spared!"
His crossbow is drawn and also aiming at Dez, or thereabouts.
Round 6! A Challenger Appears!
Party is UPPP!
Dezső looks at his companions: "Shall we run? I'm quite fast (), but I don't know what you two think."
"I don't trust these guards! I'm going to go get help! You should run too!" Dezső runs, moving 120 feet straight east in the direction of Nadya's cabin.
"What do you want with us?" Yrja shouts back. running with crossbows pointed at them does not seem a wise idea to her, and she won't leave Ciquq behind, not to mention that running now would diminish their chances of finding Imendri and the others. Out of sight of the newcomer, she curses the guard who had resisted her previous hex.
"At least move this way, Yrja and Chiquq! There are too many of them, especially if we're trying not to hurt them! Nadya will know how to talk to them!"
"You can trust or not trust them all you please, but they are the guards of this town and we are, as he says, the outlanders," Chiquq says, with the experience of having often been 'the outlander' in various towns in her life. "Who do you think the people of this town will trust, the guards and the people running the taven, or stray Kellids and two who look... like you?"
She raises her voice to yell back at the commander: "The people in this inn took my coin and then told lies about me to your guards! And three of my friends are missing already! If your guards arrest me on the strength of lies without even hearing me, why should I believe your words either? It is plain how you treat visitors."
"And besides, Nadya has enough trouble, she won't thank us for bringing more on her head." adds Yrja, eyeing the remaining guards and what looks like their commander.
The guard blinks at Yrja's hex and feels it settle on his skin like hot spiderwebs. "Witch!" he snarls--apparently witches are revered and reviled, depending, in Irrisen--and charges at Yrja. Of course, he has to pass Chiquq, and so slashes at her with his sword.
[spoiiler=GM rolls]
[/spoiler]
Hexed, he misses the Kellid, and of course, is within stabbing distance of her spear.
The sergeant laughs at the fleeing tiefling. "Nowhere to run, devil-man! In the meantime..." He keeps a bead on Yrja with his crossbow, and his guards move up menacingly.
Party is up! Not sure how far Dez ran...
Chiquq no longer makes an attempt to pull her blows or strike with the shaft of the spear rather than the blade. The guardsman is trying to kill the woman that Chiquq has decided is now one of her tribe... as Ila was. The spear accurately intercepts the incoming guard, and Chiquq's lips press together in a thin line. "That is two of you now! Let us go!"
Seeing that his companions are not following, hearing the scorn in the commander's voice, and seeing the crossbow trained on Yrja, Dez turns back.
He yells: "Yrja! Use the gift of our ancestry to plunge yourself into darkness and then lead Chiquq this way to escape! Also, can you send your bat ahead to alert our host?!"
He then moves 20 feet further away from the commander (so he is 80 feet from the commander and 160 feet from Nadya's place) to a position of cover behind a tree or low wall (). He then fires an arrow at the commander, missing badly.
Yrja does as instructed, shrouding the area in darkness, then running towards Chiquq and taking her hand to lead her towards Dez.
Pufos! Go to the place we were before, with the sad woman. Try to give her warning.
In his desperation to see his friends escape, Dez becomes a little bossy: "Great, Yrja! Now go on a bit of a diagonal to stay away from them and you both run this way!"