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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DM with a vengence" data-source="post: 203131" data-attributes="member: 1679">RevengeRevenge It was nearing sunset as the NGSPiT topped the last ridge before Tanar.  As one the turned off the road and lead their horses along a small track to the east.  After about an hour of riding, they saw the torches topping the walls of Zahn’s fortress, they rode up to the gate.    “Halt! Who goes there?”  A sentry called out.“Guests to see Warlord Zahn.”  Kit answered.“Okay, just let me open the gate.”  The sentry climbed down and pulled open one of the pair of massive wooden gates.  “Hey you guys look a little--”Kit jammed the crossbow in the man’s stomach and pulled the trigger three times.  The man fell face down into the mud with the bolts protruding from his back, surronded by a spreading dark stain.  “Dangerous.”  Kit finished, reloading her crossbow up to its maximum of 5 bolts.Nikki walked to the inner doors into the hall and pushed them open.    The hall stretched away, at least 300 people were sitting at the long table, singing, laughing and joking.  Dogs fought over scraps as fat dripped from a whole cow turning over the central firepit.  At the head table at the far end, Warlord Zahn was laughing at something a thin man dressed in red and white robes was saying.  The Non-Gender Specific People in Tights formed up into a line abreast and walked down the pathway between the trestle tables, armor clinking, scabbards slapping against their legs. As they walked down, a wave of silence seemed to pass with them, the merriment fading out.  Ladinya whispered to the rest of the party.  “Remember, if things go wrong, I get Milo, and Nikki gets Kit, then up and away.”  The rest nodded as they pulled up before the head table.  Zahn took a swig of ale and said in a booming voice that echoed round the hall.  “Why, Milo Bookbender, I didn’t expect to see you. Ahehehehehe.”    “Have you ever been dead?”  Milo said without pretense, pacing before the high table with his hands clasped behind him.  “I have, and it’s a pretty unpleasant place.  Unlike some bleeding hearts I know, I, however, would like to see my worst enemy there.  Do you see this?”  He lifted his mail shirt, exposing the long curving scar across his side where the barbarian had hit him.  “This was given to me on the road back from Crayvaenn by a bandit, a brigand, coward lurking in the shadows.  We killed him, but he is not the one I want dead.  You see, someone else sent him, someone who happens to lead a large number of barbarians.  Zahn, you are a coward! You fight through proxies!  You have no future and no past, you are a nothing!  I spit on you as I would spit on a cat!  Come and let me see the edge of your blade, master of assassins!”    The challenge hung in the smoky air as the entire room registered their shock at seeing someone so brash as to challenge Zahn.  He frowned, and then smiled.  “Hohoho, Milo Bookbender, you do not become a leader simply by challenging and slaying.  The first rule of ruling is to plan.  Do you think I would not plan for this eventuality, how foolish you are.”  He lifted his hand and snapped his fingers.  There was a sudden rustling around the room as several dozen barbarians pulled crossbow, bow, and throwing knife from under their cloths and seat.“Airborne!” Ladinya scream as she tackled Milo and shot up into the air, spinning to throw off the archer’s aim.  Kit grabbed onto Nikki’s arm as they rose off the ground at a slightly slower rate, arrows, bolts and knives bouncing off them, or missing and falling back into the crowd.  The screams of those unlucky enough to be caught in this hail rose past the NGSPiT as they smashed through the boards in the ceiling broke onto the roof.    Milo jumped down, rolling lightly as everybody else settled themselves onto the thatch.  “Okay, we leave the horses and fly back to Tanar, there’s still enough time on the spells for that.”    “That won’t be happen, warriors.”  The man in the red and white robes was hovering above the hole in the roof.  He kicked himself towards the party and dropped lightly.  “I am Kava, and you won’t be going anywhere.”</blockquote>

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