Café de Nuit

Cirdan draws his sword and readies his shield.

"If we cannot flee, we have to take the initiative. We break through on one side, so we have the others in the back, but not around us. Do you understand?! - Follow at my sign, Ben , you have no good armor, so please go last!"

Unless the others do something entirely different, Cirdan won't wait any longer, and storm into the nearest of the tunnels, ready to slay whatever comes there...

Dorgio decides to stick close to the knight, and follows behind, slightly to the knight's left. "Take care," he warns, "the little girl, others are here looking for her too. I'll tell you if we come upon them."

OOC: Rewinding a bit

"Well, I am not certain how much I feel safe relating, given how little we know to be absolutely true. However, we have uncovered artifacts and religious iconography indicating some relationship between Frauliene Sancerre's kidnappers and worshippers of a god of pestilence and disease known as Incabulos. At best, they are probably misguided fools dressing up in rat and fly costumes and dancing around in the sewers. At worse....well, best not to think about what the worst case scenario might be."

At that the archivist and cleric meet up with the rest of the group, and were quickly surrounded by torch light. At Cirdan's comment, Bennedict raps his knuckles off of his breastplate. "Perhaps it is not so fancy as your armor, herr Cirdan, but it will have to do for now." He casts a nervous look at the number of lights coming closer and the grim determination set in the knight's jaw. "Still, perhaps it would be best if I was rear guard. You know, to be prepared for a flanking manuever?"

Standing in the intersection, our heroes see the lights and hear the footsteps converging on their position from all sides. Whoever they are, they'll be here soon...

Bump.

Scuffle, scuffle

Bump

You all hear something moving above you. It sounds as if it might be coming from the other side of that bronze hatch set into the ceilling.

Adam wrote:"Perhaps it is not so fancy as your armor, herr Cirdan, but it will have to do for now."

Cirdan looks at Ben as if he was seeing the breastplate for the very first time.... "Oh, well, then! Come and fight at my side!"

When he hears the sounds above him, Cirdan doesn't wait any longer:
His weapons drawn, he runs into one of the tunnels, hoping to slay as many as he can...

"Ostoba!" Dorgio curses in Luktar as he sees Cirdan run down the hall. He follows the knight, keeping his eyes peeled. Every few seconds, he will look behind him towards the hatch.

Not wanting any more civilians hurt, he shouts, "Friends, it is Dorgio! Declare yourselves!"

Bennedict aims his crossbow at the figures Cirdan is charging towards, a bead of sweat dripping down his brow. Noises overhead, figures moving closer with torches, Bennedict thinks, I'm going to need some laudanum if I ever get out of this.

"Dorgio, are the other searchers armed?" he mutters, drawing a bead on one torch and walking down the tunnel.

right hand branch.............

Three men are walking rapidly down the tunnel toward the intersection. The one in the lead carries a lantern. The trio stops, surprised, as Cirdan and Dorgio appear out of the semi-darkness, running towards them. All three men take a step back and draw daggers from their belts.

Dorgio recognizes all three men, and knows the lantern bearer by name, Konstans.

Konstans calls out:
''Ho! Wait, we mean you no harm! Dorgio?''

Bennedict breathes a sigh of relief, continuing down the tunnel but turning to face the crossbow back towards the other two branches.

"Are there more of your party down here?" Bennedict shouts over his shoulder at the three men. "There are others approcaching!"

"Only lightly," Dorgio shouts down to Benn. "No soldiers' weapons."

When he sees Konstass, his shoulders slump in relief and attempts to
step in between the three men and Cirdan. "These are friends," he tells
the knight. "Friends down this way!" he shouts in Benn and Norzak’s direction.

He then turns to the lantern-bearer. "Good to see you unhurt, Konstass! Good tidings, as well—little Anja has been found! She is now safe with a trustworthy man named Sancerre. I’ll give you directions to get to her. “But take care another woman has been kidnapped here—we’re looking for her, too,” he adds, gesturing towards Cirdan and the others.

After hearing Benn’s question, Dorgio hastily adds “Yes…are there others close by?”

Norzak arrives and looks at the newcomers. "Well tha more tha merrier I allas say. Make it more easy ta find tha scum who kidnapped lil missy n' teach 'em a lesson." Norzak belches and spits on the ground. "So which way we goin? I be goin' first cuz' a me eyes. That way I get first choice 'o' them maggots." He says with an eager glint in his eye.

Konstans smiles to see his friend Dorgio.


''Others? No it's just we three. But who are they?''

He points behind Dorgio and company, to the intersection. You haven't moved very far up the righthand tunnel, and the light of the lanterns is enough for you to see a small group of strangers gathered at the conjuction of tunnels. They are perhaps six or seven men, armed with swords and clubs.

One of the men looks down the righthand tunnel and spots your group. He waves and calls out:

''Marcus, is that you? C'mon you sluggard, we're going topside. They must have left- wait- you aren't Marcus! IT'S THEM LADS, GET 'EM!!!''

The men at the intersection quickly react, raising their weapons and launching a ragged charge towards your party.

The tunnel is narrow enough that no more than two men may easily fight abreast of one another.

Norzak reacts first(I hope) and charges them, yelling at the top of his lungs "Ya gonna get whats comin' to ye. Come meet yer maker, ya jackaninnies!" He waves his short sword at them even as he removes a dagger from his belt. Once he is in range he takes aim and throws it at the first enemy he sees! Then switches his short sword to his good hand!

A cold glint drops into Bennedict's eyes as he draws aim on the man shouting, loosing a bolt from his crossbow.

Adam wrote:A cold glint drops into Bennedict's eyes as he draws aim on the man shouting, loosing a bolt from his crossbow.

The bolt flies off into the darkness somewhere behind the onrushing attackers. Incredibly, Benn's shot didn't even graze any of them!