Vard pursues.
"Apparently there's someone you do care if they get attacked! But maybe you could care.."
Vard attempts another swing but catches the head of his hammer on the doorframe.
".. a little more about others. Now stop in the name of the law!"
Thrym blinked in surprise as the little warrior swung his hammer, winding the evasive clerk but failed to quite floor him all the way. Unsurprisingly, the man cried for help while trying to scurry away, and from the sounds deeper in the warehouse, the call was heard. Well, the Ulfen shaman could certainly sympathize - he too had no patience with servants like this one. This was not a good start to the investigation, though… Thrym could well imagine the Lawkeeper’s displeasure once the corpses were piled after the battle.
Vard kept doggedly after the servant, following the fleeing man deeper into the building. That avenue of attack seemed well covered already, though, with both Jenni and Luk Luk inside to assist the halfling. Thus the shaman marched along the building’s wall towards the large cargo doors to the warehouse, seeking an alternate approach, accepting the fact that the hired help within would now see them as intruders and robbers, after their comrade’s call for help.
Luk Luk moves to block the man and tries something she believes is called knock upside the head with her dagger hilt.
It feels wrong to use the wrong end of the blade.
Oh, great! They're finally inside, Fain rushed to the door and opened it ready to leap in and yell - nobody go touching no alarms! - only to see a strange fellow holding the handle from the other side. Not sure what to do Fain ducks, curling into a ball on the floor, only to become a strange semi-soft obstacle for the running warehouse worker. "What's all this then???"
Ferdis continued to rush for the door only to find another halfling cutting him off. Scowling he said, "You're all crazy!" as he pulled out a short sword and swung it at Fain. However, the weapon flew over head as Fain suddenly ducked down. The men on the rafters pulled out shortbows and fired down at the intruder. Two shots flew wide, but one landed hit Fain in his backside.
"Sir, you need to surrender, now. Last warning."
Alenka couldn't fit into the next room with the others so she drew her cleaver and waited. Waited either for room to open up or for new foes to burst in the front door. At least this way, Vard and Luk Luk couldn't be flanked from behind.
"We're all crazy?!", Fain found himself suddenly between four attackers and his halfling instincts kicked in
Seeing one of the doors slightly ajar - possibly from the halfling's earlier scouting expedition - Thrym pushed his way inside. Finding the wagon just where Fain had said it would be, the shaman used the cover it provided to scan the large chamber with his eyes, noting the locations of enemies and considering who best to charge when an opportunity presented itself.
Not wanting to crowd her friends, Jenni followed Thrym, running round to the other large doors. She threw herself inside, looking for enemies to fight.
Vard, if you take a 5' step diagonally then Alenka can get in. If you don't you'll also loose you're flanking bonus as I'm full defensive.
Luk Luk is annoyed now. The guy couldn't just go down quick could he? The elf takes a brief step back.
And takes another pathetic swing at the human.
Realizing the Fain was not attacking him, Ferdis focused on defending himself from the halfling he knew wanted to hurt him. However, his swing seemed wild and untrained. I
n the warehouse, the men on the catwalks looked fearful to see more intruders. However, one's shot went wide, while the other's only grazed Jenni's arm. "Do the thing he said! Kick it!" He shouted to the third guy on a panic. The remaining worker gave them a nervous look, before kicking a ceramic pot off the catwalk. It shattered on the ground releasing a swarm of tiny red ooze balls. This cloud of ooze creeped and floated its way over to Fain and began sticking to his clothing. The men looked down in horror, clearly not having seen this thing in action before. "Oh god! What the hell?"
Fain was moving like he was a drunk who just realized the floor was covered in broken glass as he tried to dodge short sword and arrows that never came ... then he noticed the strange globules of red ooze float his way ... "Ale fun Yondallas' mshuge kazanz!"
Vard frowned as the man swing at him, then his eyes widened as he saw the red globules swarm over Fain. He adjusted his stance to no longer hold back.
"And what is that stuff?!"
Maneuvering around the man, he swung again.
Fain tried to get away from what looked to him to be some kind of malevolent jello. He went to move south almost bumping into the warehouse worker, then dove under the bench just north of him and rolled like a log to it's other side. Once there, he popped up and fired an arrow at the man just above him
Thrym frowned as a pot was dropped from the rafters, assuming it was full of oil or some other flammable and wondering what possessed the men to use something like that while themselves trapped in a building so full of wood and other fuel for the blaze, but the appearance of the red slime that moved on its own accord? Not what he had expected. Although from the startled cries of the men who had launched the attack, they had not quite known what would happen either.
What was clear, however, was that there was more to this warehouse than met the eyes, and to search the premises, the battle had to be concluded. Since there did not seem to be additional guards on the bottom floor, the need to get up to the rafters seemed the obvious course of action. Remaining behind cover of the boxes and crates as well as he could, Thrym rushed towards the ladder.
Is there any way to get on the catwalk other than the ladder? Climb onto a stack of stuff, jump up and grab it?
As Jenni ran into the warehouse, she saw that the ladder was off to the far side, and Thrym was already heading to it. She considered pulling out her crossbow, but she never used ranged weapons if hand-to-hand fighting was available.
Seeing a large wooden crate not far from the catwalk, Jenni ran towards it, leapt on top, then jumped again, reaching high for the catwalk with her hands. Feeling the metal under her hands, she attempted to pull herself up before any of the archers could knock her off again.
Alenka stepped into the back room along with the others. She already had her cleaver at the ready and quietly studied everyone's position, looking for weaknesses in the man's defenses. She advised, "I would listen to the paladin, son. Or he turns you over to me so that I can have a little fun. We have little time or patience, as you can see."
Vard's hammer swing was one too many for Ferdis, as he crumpled around it and fell to the ground. Fain threw off the tiny slimes and took cover, firing up at the catwalk, but finding it challenging to strike at the man from his own position of cover. In Fain's absence, the slimes continued to the next nearest creature, slowly covering the fallen receptionist.
Jenni landed up on the catwalk, much to the horror of the three warehouse workers. They turned all their bow towards her, but the volley they unleashed was nerve ridden and inaccurate.
Vard started as the globules crawled over the impudent lackey.
"Either of you know this?" he asks Alenka and Luk-Luk. "He was clearly off to warn his cronies, but I'd still rather take him alive."
Edging past the ooze and out the door, he sheathed his hammer and started scrabbling up the crates.
"Oi! What was that stuff?" he shouted up at the workmen, as his fingers slipped on the edge of the crate. "It's on your mate in the office!"
Fain scrambled up the table behind him, then onto the small crate and then the larger crate. Jenni was already on the catwalk taking on a hale of arrows. Perhaps he could make things a little easier for her if he could get a higher vantage point from a little further out.
Deciding she'd rather have one archer at her back than two, Jenni turned towards the ladder and lowered her shoulder. With a look not unlike that a mad bull might have, she charged towards the middle archer, hoping to push him back into his companion.
Luk Luk tried to figure out if she knew anything about this thing. Or what was good for fighting it's body. Meanwhile, she decided she now had the time to do something about how stabby her body was.
Thrym grinned when he glanced up after hearing cries of alarm and saw the half-blooded warrior clambering over the railing up to the walkway above. He had missed seeing how she got herself up there, but it had surely been a mighty feat of strength, to climb somewhere high enough she could jump the rest of the way from. And now that her presence distracted the workers his own climb should be all the easier.
Running up to the ladder, Thrym quickly sheathed his axe and began going up the rungs as quickly as he could.
Alenka stepped around the man on the floor. She watched in fascination as the red slime started to ooze its way over him.
Vard attempted to follow Jenni up the crates, however, he they were rather tall and he had difficulty getting up on top of them. As he shouted out to the men, they looked over the edge with horror, to see their coworker vanishing under the slimes. "Ferdis!"" To Vard they replied in a panic, "We have no idea what it is! We were just told to break it if attackers come!"
As Jenni shoved one of the men backwards and Fain's arrow struck another in the back, their attention snapped back to the problem at hand. "St..stay back!" They weakly ordered as the two surrounding Jenni fired at her, while the one nearest the ladder, turned to fire at the scary looking Ulfen man who had just climbed up the ladder. The shot at Thrym merely glanced off his axe as he drew it. However, both shots at Jenni met their mark. .
Forgetfully Fain yelled out, "Queen Jenni!", and fired at the warehouse worker again, guilty or not!
"Burning hands would harm it but also Fredis," Luk Luk wasn't certain what else to try to harm it. She figured it was worth a shot, save she realized she couldn't hit it without hitting Alenka or Fain too. "No angle!"
She popped her claws instead.
Vard shouted up "If you throw down your weapons and surrender, we can try to get it off him instead of attacking you! We've come from the Sheriff and we're to search the building!"
Jenni staggered with the pain of the two hits. That didn't work as I'd hoped. As lack of blood made her head swim, she felt the remaining blood boil inside her. Furious with herself for making such a stupid mistake, furious with the ones who'd hit her, she allowed her nails to grow long into claws, and she lashed out with her greatsword at the man before her.
Alenka continued to move around Fergis into the main room. Seeing the attack on Jenni, she ran towards the ladder to try and help her friend. As she ran she yelled, "Drop off the catwalk!"
Getting up just in time to see two arrows pierce the half-blooded warrior's skin, Thrym put his idea of getting prisoners on hold for the moment - clearly, the enemies needed weeding out first before there was time to worry about taking prisoners. Thus, the Ulfen shaman grinned savagely at the closest enemy, the one who had targeted him and rushed at the man, swinging his axe into the worker's side while bellowing a wordless war-cry in an effort to force the other two's attention his way.
Vard plead with the men to surrender, as he continued to struggle to climb the crates. However, his voice was drowned out by the cacophony of other voices and combat. Luk Luk clawed at the oozes. She popped some, but there were far too many for it to have a serious effect. Instead, the oozes began moving to crawl up her arms.
Fain's arrow shot the man nearest to him. With multiple arrow wounds, the man decided the fight was not worth it. Instead he leapt over the railing and on to crates to the South, running down them towards the exit. Thrym struck a hard blow at the nearest worker, causing him to stagger backward. With nowhere to run, he dropped to his knees and began begging, "Please...please don't kill me!"
The remaining, uninjured man, remained stubbornly determined. He slashed at Jenni once more, cutting her across the stomach.
With the crates remaining seemingly unclimbable, and seeing a man trying to escape, Vard took off after him at floor level, racing around the crates and blocking the door with his imposing 3 foot 2 frame.
"Drop your weapons and surrender."
”Stanna ner!” Thrym growled at the kneeling guard. While the man’s words made no sense to him, the gesture of submission was clear enough. Glancing behind him to see Alenka had followed him up, the shaman shouldered his way past the kneeling worker and moved to flank Jenni’s lone remaining opponent.
While the enemy’s attention was still fixed on the bloodied barbarian before him, Thrym smacked him on the back of the head with the flat of his axe… or that was his intention, but the man moved aside at precisely the right moment so Thrym’s attack merely clipped his left shoulder. Painfully, perhaps, but mostly ineffectually.
Fain lowers his bow and lept from one crate to another. no, no, no, this is all wrong. They don't seem to know anything! Jenni's hurt! Do we kill them! Jenni could be dead! No, no, no!
As he landed he yelled as loud as he could at everyone. Even though he was yelling in his mother tongue the way it came out was hardly a word and the anguish in his voice was clear,
<stop>
The kneeling man couldn't understand Thrym, but continued to grovel, as he dropped his weapon to the floor. Meanwhile the man on the crates saw that Vard had cut him off ran back along the crates, as if unsure where to go. The remaining man raised his weapon again, but Fain's voice cut through the warehouse. As if snapping to his senses, he looked around and saw that he was outnumbered and his coworkers were all fleeing, surrendering or otherwise defeated and his arm lowered. With a sigh, he dropped his weapon and raised his arms.
For a moment the battlefield was quiet and everyone could breath a sigh of relief. However, something odd caught the corner of Fain's eye. The door in the back of the warehouse. It had been closed, had it not? However, before he could process this new information a voice cut through the warehouse. "Scratevks! Ot rash iskan tri arbaranstak!" Suddenly Alenka felt a dagger fly into her back. . At the bottom of the ladder was an angry looking skulk, reaching to his side for another weapon.
"He shall need a healer!" Luk Luk took a step back and hoped that the pawn could take more punishment then the slime swarm. At least there wasn't any friendlies to worry over burning, "Burn slime!"
Jenni wobbled with blood loss and rage, but managed to refrain from murdering the man who'd surrendered. Then a flash of silver, and her friend was crying out in pain.
Jenni needed to kill that Skulk. But first she needed not to die. Pushing past the surrendered man, she grabbed Thrym's hand and clapped it over the sword wound in her ribs. "Heal me. Now."