** Part I: Fire and Ash **

[spike]

Ash nods affirmatively, outstretched his palm and chanting beneath his breath, a cone of light blasted forth out of his holy symbol, paralyzing all three of the black clad soldiers.

Ash said 'WAIT!!!!' he strode into the cabin and said 'don't kill them yet, we may need to extract some information out of one. The officer, let him live. These other two are not of any use'

Trunks: "Aye, keep him alive, but bind him securely"

[Nocturno]

Delilah will bind the officer, and pull him out of the cottage. Banging his head on the door frame, and tripping him to land on his face in a pile of horse shit.

"Apologies good sir."

[TristenC]

Idrys looks to his sister and nods in Delilah's direction, I like that one. He strolls up behind the other two and knocks them out cold before tying them up.

[spike]

Ash said 'get them back into the cabin, if these were here there may be more hereabouts. We sit and wait for an hour before we proceed. I want to see some of the river traffic before we continue'

The cleric in black checked their bindings, and he removed a small bandolier of vials off of each officer. He handed each of you a bandolier 'this is thyriz, each of them take this each day it enhances their strength, increases energy and decreases...emotional obstacles''

The officer Delilah took out turned to her in an enraged snarl 'I'll flay you for that you little pointy eared bitch!'

The river pilot said 'John! Thank the Gods! You saved my bacon and just in the right time, too. This bastard was about to gut my entire family. I knew I did right to bore you down the Snake river! Hah hah. I have a storm cellar in case we need to hide out and rest'

[Nocturno]

"I hate hollow promises. If you want to get a round with me, tell them what we want to know."

[Chris1234]

"Trust a brother to take the credit for what his sister has just told him," comments Karlane with irony. "Anyone need healing?"

She says in a voice just loud enough for the prisoners can hear, "Want me to turn the prisoners into zombies? They can carry our stuff then."

[TristenC]

"Trust a brother to take the credit for what his sister has just told him," comments Karlane with irony. "

[ooc: not sure what that is referring to...?]

Idrys looks to his sister with some confusion. I just meant I like Delilah's methods... He glances over to the Elven woman, She's not bad looking, either. He teases his sister.

[spike]

The officer laughed, 'You fools! You're all under arrest for sedition . Drop your weapons immediately and kneel and receive the Emperor's mercy. You've ten beats of the heart to comply"

[TristenC]

Idrys asks if they are going to question him yet or wait until later. If later, he gags the man with the dirtiest [iece of spare cloth/leather/underwear the riverboat pilot had to offer. Shhh... he says to the officer, like a man chiding a noisy pup. Don't worry, we'll play with you when we're done taking care of business. Be a good boy. he then goes and scratches the white wolf-pup behind the ears.

[spike]

Kessa: "We've no time to interrogate that one, It will need to wait for later. And he's too much burden to carry along, plus I somehow doubt he knows anything of value to us wouldn't you agree?'

Ash: 'He would know something, like useful passwords and possible military deployments of black imperials throughout the area'

River pilot: 'John, afraid I'd have to charge you double my usual fee, if you want passage for you and your friends, there's checkpoints to get past. And you and your companions can hide comfortably in my cargo hold. Here to Harby there'd be at least one checkpoint. The risk is high, to me and my family.'

Trunks: 'This is where we part ways, I fear. I would marshal some forces throughout the region to quell these black cloaks from their transgressions. Go, and I will dissuade any from hotly pursuing your trail. We gave them the slip, but not for very long' he turned to Delilah 'be well! Remember, seek Hedge in Harby he may be difficult to track down, so your elvish patience will be tested' he grinned then transformed into a falcon, flying off into the air.

Ash 'It was nice having him around, that tree loving fool has enough destructive power to lay siege to a citadel' he said with lament in his voice.

[Nocturno]

Delilah will commit the name to memory.

Once Idrys gags the officer she will give him a boot to the gut clearly winding him to make sure he won't be casting any non verbal spells.

She will look at the other two and see if they dare to meet her gaze.

"I could get used to this life of a ruffian!" her naivety clearly showing.

[spike]

The other two officers eyes look cold and emotionless, they look at you with a calm subdued look.

one of them said 'why do you resist? Simply surrender there's no hope or chance for any of you. You can escape, for the now. Eventually you'll get caught.'

[Nocturno]

"That mindwashing syrup works well on these folk."

[spike]

Narn: "Let's go, the druid will quell the forces looking for Ash. However there may be more black cloaks on the river patrolling for signs of us'

The river pilot guides the group to his barge, large enough to maintain the party with room to spare. Kessa brings her horse aboard, which had until now been in the Bog people's stables. John hands him a pouch of money and he in turn handed it to his wife, who places it in a satchel.

River pilot: 'Everybody on the right side of the barge, we'll be making a hard turn shortly!'

As the ship banked a hard right, the waters became more turbulent and churning here. You were going downward and the pilot issued a heads up, 'prepare yourselves, there's a bit of a bump ahead'. When, the ship flew over a small waterfall, falling and crashing hard into water below, at least a good 15 ft drop. The ship absorbed the impact and remarkably the pilot kept it in stable condition.

AS the water seems calmer here, the journey takes a relaxed turn and the pilot keeps a steady consistent speed. An hour later, three giant bot flies descends toward the ship and move to attack the party, the first which assails the portly wife of the pilot, injecting her with its larva.

Narn is screaming 'get away from her!' whacking the bot fly #1 with a club.
Ash chanting 'targig doithrim s'lgonth' bringing a shimmering white sword to appear above the woman and her two children defensively.

Meanwhile, in the far distance from where the party came, you see a barge filled with black guardsmen, and two canoes with Hobgoblin shock troops. There's 15 black guard on the barge, and 5 hobgoblins in each canoe.

One of the two boys shouts 'mother!'

ACTIONS?

[Chris1234]

She's not bad looking, either.[/b] He teases his sister.

"You trying to get me to bat for the other side, brother?" Karlane teased back.

Trunks: …Remember, seek Hedge in Harby he may be difficult to track down…

As the men in black hear this, their life expectancy drops. Karlane says to the first one, “You have ten seconds to tell me something that I don’t know but that will be useful to me,” and removes his gag (if any). If he tries to make a loud noise or fails to tell her something she deems useful, she hits him in the face with her mace. She repeats the same with the second and then the third man. After cleaning her mace on their clothing, any dead bodies can go in the water. {OOC: we can retrofit the balance of this later. We need to be able to use this mechanism otherwise the time zones are too intrusive.}

***
On seeing the bot flies, Karlene tries to hit the nearest one of them with her mace.
Init [1d10+5] = 7+5 = 12, to hit [1d20] = 14, dam [1d6+4] = 4+4 = 8 versus THAC0 18