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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Brimshack" data-source="post: 4224646" data-attributes="member: 34694">By now I must confess that I and the others had used many of our spells up. Patty alone seemed confident in her ability to continue at pace, and I for one one contemplated the prospect of just leaving. We had done some serious damage by now. If we could exit without losing anyone, then perhaps we could secure any remaining goals by negotiation. We could even secure the freedom of many of the women as they were then under our control. Alternatively, if we could just capture the second hallway and the open area, then we could evacuate the bulk of the women, leaving the villains to hide at the top of the stairs. I thought surely an attempt to actually take the upper floor of the building would see us run aground, our good loock spent along with the last of our abilities. We had to make an early exit, I grew quite sure of this.But like my second thoughts on approaching the brothel, the course of events stampeded past anything I might have said or done to effect the idea.With the first hallway clear, Tom entered the common area, passing behind my sight in pursuit of Blizzard. Then August charged past me behind Tom and fired an arrow at a target hidden from my sight. I turned to look down the second hallway, and a moment later, August screamed out. Leaning back, I could see that August had gained a new foe, another axe wielding dwarf as it  happens, one with an arrow lodged harmlessly amidst the chain links of its armor. Most importantly, August had gained a terrible wound. A great vertical gash could be found in his chest. His chain mail hanging to either side of the opening. I could see that a great many of August's ribs must have been smashed in its making. Blood flowed freely from the wound, then splatterd wildly as August’s own bow smashed into his chest, it being knocked backward by another swing of the dwarven axe. So, there August stood, bow in hand, facing an opponent with far more appropriate weaponry and far superior melee skills; all of this while struggling simply to breath. He clearly would not withstand another attack.Michael took careful aim and fired at the dwarf. He missed. I could see that Michael was concentrating on getting another shot in, but the look on his face betrayed a decided lack of confidence. Twisting his face in frustration, or perhaps in resignation, Michale pronounced his verdict on the situation, “You’re ****ed Fred!” “My name was August!” Then, a blur of fur, teeth, and claws pounce upon the dwarf, splashing some quantity of blood from it’s armor (I know not from what part of the dwarf’s body). I breathed a sigh of relief. Blizzard would keep August alive long enough for me to complete a healing spell. And then Blizzard was gone again having disappeared somewhere into the open room. I sighed, knowing the poor little fellow did not have the mind to understand its error. In its haste to explore new parts of the battlefield, the waggamaeph had left August vulnerable to another attack. Bilzzard had simply forgotten to save our friend. Tom fired at the dwarf and missed. Then Seamus entered the room. Charging directly into the dwarf, Seamus pushed him backwards all the way to the bar and well away from August. Unfortunately, this took the foe within striking range of Tom, but of course Tom was at least healthy enough to fend for himself. And he wound have the benefit of a flanking ally. I breathed a sigh of relief.August might live.As Carla entered the open barroom, the dwarf gave up entirely. Seamus knocked him out with the hilt of his sword, and Carla emerged from the room tucking a wine bottle into her possessions. Seamus passed by the doorway to the opposite side of the open barroom. I healed August, and we all began to turn our attention to the second hallway.“He’s Twitching!” Tom’s voice echoed from the open barrom. It was followed shortly after by the sound of an arrow loosed, followed immediately with the sound of an arrow finding a home in loose flesh. I cringed.But the battle would not wait for moral quandaries. The bulk of the women and customers from the second hallway had either retreated to their own rooms by now or fled up the spiral stairs at the  end of the second hall. At the bottom of the stairs, two defenders stood their ground. One of them fired arrows down the hall at us, and the second carried a sword and shield. He too wore armor, a sure sign that he was one of the more powerful guards in the establishment.Around this time (I learned this later), Seamus and the waggamaeph chased a crowd down a second staircase in the open barroom and into the basement. Blizzard attacked a single opponent without killing him and ran back up the stairs. For his own part, Seamus would eventually slay two enemies in the basement, then teke the time to escort the remaining crowd (consisting of customers and prostitutes) up through the front hallway and out the front door. This was his contribution to the remaining battle, an honorable one to be sure.But for the present...A flurry of arrows flew about the hallway, one of them striking me, several striking the chest of the archer down the hallway. He collapsed at the foot of the stairs, spilling the contents of his quiver in front of the first step. The swordsmen quickly retreated up the staircase, leaving the rest of us entirely in control of the bottom floor.For a moment, the only sound in the hallway was that of the dying archer struggling to draw one last breath without the benefit of working lungs.All the wounded in our party gathered in a circle about me as I took extra time with a healing spell. As my own wounds hampered my efforts, I needed the extra time to compensate, but I took still more time than that giving us all a great healing boost....all but the waggamaeph, I should say. While I was still in the midst of my spell, he ran straight up the staircase, I thought surely to his own death. From the looks passed about the party as I continued the spell, I gather that others must have had similar expectations. Blizzard returned a moment later, blinked at us from the bottom of the stair case, and went right back up. This time we could hear fighting break out somewhere upstairs.And then my spell was complete.  It was a powerful moment of healing. Open wounds closed about me, bones reset, and bruises faded. Many of us breathed a sigh of relief, and gathered ourselves to finish the day's work.As I cast a second healing spell, Patty quickened us and with my aid gave us all magical armor. Casting spells so quickly is is very taxing, even with the aid of a friend. Clearly Patty has a tremendous magical reserve. Before either Patty or myself could finish our last spells, August ran up the stairs (we all assumed to his own death). The Waggamaeph was fast enough to pull that sort of thing off, but our clumsy archer friend would surely be at a disadvantage. ...even if he had taken the spells we were preparing, which he did not.Our final spells completed, Carla was next up the stairs. A moment later, the swordsman’s body came rolling down, his eyes still  registering the last traces of conscious thought. He died at my feet, looking up at me as if to pleading for help.Lord forgive me, I stepped over the man.I stepped over him as I rushed up the stairs myself along with the rest of my friends. It was well past time for the final assault.As I emerged at the top of the stairs, I found Blizzard fighting a lone enemy in the room opposite the staircase. August stood at the top of the staircase and back against a wall. He was wounded again, though not quite so badly as before. The rest of my friends swarmed about the place, each seeking out an enemy of his own.A hall travelled the length of the upstairs floor, ending in a room guarded by two archers and one or two more melee fighters. Behind them I could see a spell caster and a couple of the women who had fled the hallways earlier. Two doorways stood opposite each other at the mid section of the hallway, and I could hear the sounds of combat in the one to my left.Realising that I had but one spell left for the day, I thought to save it for a great healing spell at the end of the battle. In the meantime, the best I could do was to aid someone by flanking an enemy. So, I charged into the room on the left side of the hallway.I wish that I had not that.</blockquote>

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