OOC: Sorry for the delay. It's been a busy week.


The ruffians don't have any exceptional abilities, and didn't seem to grasp that the group might have some. They'd expected you all either to surrender or run off. Once they started the brawl, however, they weren't about to back down from it.

Serena has no problem hamstringing her opponent in such a way that his leg gives out under him and his chin slams into a table as he drops, thus knocking him out.

Ero and Lureene provide sufficient distractions that the others have no problem knocking out the rest of the ruffians.

Maldor, Mithra and Artem bang heads enough to take out the ruffians fairly quickly after that, especially with Amiri's eldritch fire.


Outside, Cunaar hears the fighting inside suddenly grow quiet. Since he's not hearing any boasting from the bullies, he figures his comrades have proven victorious.

His prisoners are still asleep; the battle inside didn't last long.

"Say, mister," the lad says to Cunaar, "I know where there's a secret tunnel in the woods. I think the Redbrands have lair under the old manor house. I seen 'em talk to others what come out of the tunnel!"

Cunaar can now see that the lad is a Halfling child.

With his two sleeping prisoners tied up well and the inside getting just as quiet, Cunaar addresses the lad.
"You do not say. Do you see them moving in and out all day or at certain times?"
While he enjoyed getting information simply it may not pan out as true. Though looking at the halfling lad he figured he might go unnoticed to the Redbrands people.
"Let us go inside again and we can talk about it with the others."

Once the fight is over, Lureene starts looking at all the combatants -- first the adventurers, but then the ruffians -- for any serious injuries. "Well, that was rather silly of you boys" she admonishes the thugs, not particularly caring if they are conscious to hear her. "What did you think would happen, hmm?"

Maldor "nudged" the ruffian who had hit him with the tip of his boot. He let out a grunt.

"Bad men think rule town. Bad men think can do what bad men want."

Mal gained a broad smile, accenting his lower jutted teeth.

"What want now?"

The half-orc looked at his comrades.

"Maldor wonder if other bad men come when find out bad men get hurt. Come try hurt Maldor and friends."

Mal rotated his greatclub in his left palm, pondering the answer.

Serena flicks her rapier a bit artfully after having completely overwhelmed her target with sheer skill, finally sending him crashing to the ground due to a combination of a pommel-smash to the face and him tripping over his trousers, which came undone when she severed the clasp keeping them up wither swordwork.

She sheathed her weaepon, and looked at Laureen.

"I'm not sure, really. I find men as a whole tend to be a bit on the dafter side when it comes to their thinking about women. But really...it would be one thing if they only picked on our men. They may even have beaten them. But the thugs lost this fight the moment they started getting us women involved. That was the deciding factor right there." she said with a grin as she casually walked back to her perch, picked up her lute, and started playing it again like she was before.

Ero shakes his head solemnly.  "Absolutely shameful.  When they wake up, we should make sure they clean this poor place up.  It just wouldn't be fair to leave it to teh waitstaff."

In reply to Ero Sulaanin (msg # 86):

Yes, truly, they should clean this place up.

A moment later, Cunaar comes back inside with the Halfling lad, whose name is Carp.

He refuses to say anything while the Redbrands are within hearing distance, though.

Artem rubs his sore jaw and looks with interest at the Halfling. He didn't see too many of the small folk out in the village where he was raised. Every day there were some new people, an exotic experience, or some new fangled idea that he had not encountered before.

"Shall we drag the louts to the street and give a few of their coin to the innkeep as for the damages?" he muses to anyone within earshot.

The rest of the inn's patrons are suitably impressed by the group's handling of the Redbrands, but none are brave enough to loot the unconscious ruffians.

It quickly becomes obvious that the townsfolk think things will now get worse, especially when the group leaves.

"I don't think these louts could've beaten our men OR our women" Lureene opines. She glances around at the reaction of the townsfolk and purses her lips. "I would wager they largely feel like they own the town. Perhaps confident that if we resisted them worse retribution would be to come. That is an ugly, ugly problem, my friends, and one that I think we should solve proactively."

She looks over her companions again. "No one is injured?"

Maldor felt the bruise where the ruffian's fist contacted.

"Just scratch. Puny human hit like child."

The fighter looked down at the defeated scoundrel on the floor.

"Now puny human sleep like child. Maldor think funny."

The half-orc turned his lips up into a smile.

Serena continued playing her lute, although more softly so people could talk too.

"If they couldn't beat our men, then they certainly couldn't beat our women. Just making that clear. And if these Redbrands are a problem...maybe we ought to do something about it. You know...clean up shop if you will. Maybe kick them in the teeth and treat them that when you put too much badness out into the world, it has an odd way of coming back to you after a while." she said in response to Lureen.

She looked about.

"If anyone is injured I can try to help heal you, or if several of you have small injuries try to spread the energy of a single healing spell up between you like I did back with the styrges-wanna be bird things."
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:00, Fri 21 Aug 2015.

Cunaar re-enters the tavern as the group is talking about what to do with the Redbrands with the halfling lad in tow. Getting a chair for himself and the young halfling he joins in the conversation.
"If we plan on doing something about this group of thugs, which I concur, then our new friend here might have some important information. He knows where the Redbrands have secret tunnel in the woods and possibly a lair under the old manor house. He has seen their movements."
An attack from within their lair would be quite a surprise for them he was sure.

Ero rubs his chin.  "Perhaps we could turn this little altercation to our strategic advantage.  If these hooligans have been tyrannizing the good townspeople for a good while, perhaps the latter would be willing to show their gratitude in a pecuniary manner for our permanently dispatching this botheration."

"Clearing out the Redbrands' hideaway would be a good progression toward that objective."

Artem says to Serena, "I have a small ache on my face, so maybe a little something would help. As for the Redbrands, sure I'm game to bring them to justice."

Mal gave Ero an odd look when he spoke. The half-orc scratched his head.

"Maldor think Maldor push elf man out way too hard. Elf man speak funny. Maldor sorry hurt elf man. Hope elf man good soon. We fight puny humans, right?"

Once the Redbrands are moved outside or at least to one end of the great room, the Halfling lad will tell his secret only when he's at the opposite end of the great room.

His name is Carp. He was out in the woods to the east of town hunting squirrels when he spotted a pair of Redbrands. Although he claims he's not afraid of them, he was sensible enough to keep out of sight. Being just a kid and a Halfling, that wasn't hard. That's when he saw a pair of 'big ugly bandits' come out of a clump of bushes. The two groups met, as if they knew each other, talked some, and then went their separate ways again. He waited for awhile to make sure they didn't come back and then snuck over to the bushes. That's when he found the tunnel.

This was three days ago, and he's avoided the area since then.

"Well", said the beautiful Sunite once the lad had told his story, "our path seems clear, does it not? This is a rare opportunity to rid the town of these ruffians with the least amount of trouble." She turned her smile to the other adventurers. "Agreed?"

Maldor didn't bother to smile, but his imagining of trouncing ruffian skull did make him feel warm inside.

"Maldor say go hurt puny humans who hurt town people. Maldor no can carry torch. Maldor need both hand for use weapon."

The fighter raised his greatclub.

"We go, yes."

In reply to Maldor (msg # 100):

These bully's need to understand how much they can bun.

ooc: If there is a way to recover some or all of the hp of people who got hurt this fight besides using magic (like resting or heal checks or something), I'm down for it. But otherwise I'd like to cast a single cure light wounds spell and spread the healing out like Starmaster let us do in the bird fight.

Cunaar could only agree with the taking of these Redbrands and if they were to access them from within...where would they run? Perhaps they could burn the place down and pick them off as they get out.
"Yes, we hit them from within and they will not know what to think. To top it off they seem to be a collection of bullies that may fall to a stronger pressence."

"Shall we be spare or generous with our mercies during our assault?" Ero asks.  "I want to prepare the morrow's spells accordingly."

"We will be waiting 'til morning, correct?"

Maldor let out a small grunt.

"Human bad men not be kind. They will be weak, but will try hurt Maldor and friends. We not kind to bad men."

Mal thinks for a moment.

"Maldor wonder if tavern people know how many bad men in cave. If bad men have special bad men with them. Maldor want be prepared when he bash bad men skulls."