FLUFF: Jammers: Turn 27 Chapter 1

The Past Adventures of my Jammers PBEM game.

For me, one of the joys of PBEM gaming is the ability to revisit the
old adventures by reading the turn summaries. I think they make great
fan fiction.

This game has been going on since September, 1997. I thought folks
might enjoy reading the old turns in order, as fluff fiction. I know
I post the current turns as fluff as well, but the past turns were,
well, six years ago and new list members, as well as some old, may
still enjoy getting the old reads in their mailbox once per week. If
not, let me know and I'll stop sending them.

To give folks an idea of how much is still to come, the game is now
in Turn 37 of Chapter 7. Chapter 1 has 30 turns...

I thought the brawls with Gantius and his gang were some of my
favorite combats!

----------- = Meanwhile, elsewhere...
*********** = Later...

IC:
Holland walks up to the bar and orders an ale, pays for it and slowly
begins to drink it.

Nilaroo walks into the bar behind Holland and orders a drink at the bar
when the waitress becomes available.

She brings him a mug of ale.  At the tables by the fireplace the men there
seem to have returned to their conversation.

The bartender seems to brighten as the bar starts to fill a bit, but the
men at the tables lower their conversation distinctly and seem unhappy to
see the new patrons.

Outside:
Once Holland and Nilaroo enter the Thumb, Kain starts his own low-toned
count.  "Billy," he says off-hand, "ah, what are we going to.. ah.. do with
these goons once they're taken care of?  Do we deliver them somewhere?"
Kain looks slightly pale and runs his fingers over the pommel of his
shortsword.

Billy gives Kain a quick smile. "The only one that is important is
Gantius... The reward as it stands is for the death of the thugs and the
capture of
Gantius. We would also receive payment if he died, but far less... As for
where...  There is this place I know in the Burrows where we can drop him
off... I'm sure that the rest of the details will take care of
themselves..."

Inside Reynard's Run (F):
Radick turns to Deigatt, "So... do we let them have all the fun?" he says
with a sly grin. "Or shall we join them and add to the excitement? I am
sure my showing up might cause a little extra excitement, wouldn't you
agree?" Radick begins to rub his fingers together anxiously all the while
his smile seems to grow wider.

"Comrade Radick, I'm sure they have things well hin hand," the minotaur
replies seriously. "We should remain disengaged but ready should their
battle turn hagainst them. Those who think that combat his a party har
likely to wake hup with painful hangovers, hif they wake hup hat hall."

Radick smiles as he leans back in his chair.  "Well you know something
Deigatt, you got a good head on your shoulders there. Let us just sit back
and wait for the dirty work to be finished." Radick points over to the
Twisted Thumb as Leera steps to the door, and Billy begins to move. "Seems
like their party has just begun."  Lifting his mug he tilts it back and
enjoys the cold beverage as it slides down his throat.

Back inside the Thumb:
Holland pauses and gets out a wisp of spider web, a smile coming to his lips.

Holland smiles again and turns around leaving his half-full mug of ale on the
bar. Looking at the table where the men are sitting he quickly starts to
weave his hands and cast a spell on the lot of them.  Even as he gets up
from the bar, however, he hears the man at the rear of the table yell
"Now!".

The mean looking blond kid(#8) leaps from his chair spinning, he sends his
dagger slicing across Holland's waist as Holland steps back.  The dagger's
slice leaves a burning sensation across Holland's stomach but the gash
doesn't bleed much.  Holland curses knowing his spell is now ruined.

The rest of the thugs leap to their feet drawing weapons as the bartender
and waitress head rapidly for the door behind the bar.

Leera leaps to her feet and calls to Jamila as she heads for the door
"Watch those two by the bar, I'll get the others!" Arriving at the door,
Leera opens it and calls (not too loudly) to her friends outside "Come on
in! The party's started!"

Springing up from where she was sitting, Jamila draws both of her cutlass's
and takes up a position to intercept the thugs.  "Mish  kwayis" she mutters
while giving a few sweeps of her cutlass's to  loosen up her muscles for
the coming battle. With a grim smile, "Najm shukran!" Jamila calls out in a
loudish voice.

A big grin slowly spreads on Billy's face. He draws his shortsword and
mutters something under his breath. He trots down Great Market street along
the Twisted Thumb and stops under the window located near where the thugs
are sitting. Billy carefully peeks through the window to look at what's
happening...

Raken gives a quiet chuckle and starts chanting.  "By Celestrian's Glorious
Journey throughout the Cosmos, Bless these men so that we may fight in your
glory!"  He centers the spell near the middle of the street so that Leera
is at it's outer edge and catches everyone still outside the bar.  "I hope
to try out some new blessings from Celestrian this time out," he says to
Kain as he walks up to door to enter the building.  With hand on blade,
Raken enters the foul establishment.

"I just want to make it through the fight," Kain mutters as he watches the
market out of the corner of his eye.

Round 1:

The blond haired thug(#8) slashes savagely at Holland again, but Holland
steps back quickly out of the blade's path. Holland hurls some sand from
his fingers while intoning a spell, the sand transforms into a wave of
clashing, colored light.  The blond haired thug drops before this wave,
unconcious, behind him, an older human male is caught in the same wave of
light and drops as well, his shortsword falling from his now senseless
fingers.

Even as Holland smiles at his victory he feels a a vicious, searing pain as
the broadsword and dagger of a young thug in a green cloak(#4) cut deeply
into his side.  Holland staggers back a step.

Nilaroo moves forward, preparing to attack the man who wounded Holland so
badly, but the old half-orc(#6) rushes him first.  The grey haired rogue
dodges Nilaroo's hasty swing and stabs him lightly in the bicep with a
return thrust of his longsword.

An ugly old man with stringing blod hair (#3) rushes Jamila with a
battleaxe.  Jamila calls "Saheeda!"in a loud, clear voice, the old man's
battleaxe leaves a nasty cut on her shoulder but Jamila's left hand
scimiter cuts cleanly across the man's throat, he collapses as his blood
spurts from his neck in lethal quantities.

Billy peeks in through the window to see what is going on...

The black-jacket thug(#1) suddenly suddenly falls on his face to the floor
as he rushes forward.

Upon seeing the mess those inside the bar are in, Raken draws a sharp
breath.  "Celestrian's Journey, they were laying for us.  Damnit," he says
under his breath.  With a snap, his blade is in his hand, and he takes
charge.  "Hol, get behind me!"  He rushes forward, "Just like Robber's Road
back home," he mutters "Lets Dance."

Grigree follows Raken into the bar.

Leera (who still looks like the sailor), reaches into a pouch and draws
forth a pinch of sand. With a quick succession of arcane gestures, she
weaves a spell and directs it at a brown cloaked man (#5) as he rushes
Jamila. He instantly falls into a deep slumber.

After the calls of Leera and Raken, Kain follows Grigree into the Thumb.
Drawing his shortsword as he shuts the door behind him, Kain scans the
action around the bar.

The giff (#7) hurls the tables aside as he rushes forward.

Round 2:

Holland stumbles back against the bar, still reeling in pain from the
vicious wounds he suffered.

Ignoring Holland the thug who cut him (#4) rushes past towards the new
threat, Raken.

Raken holds his position agianst the thug, slashing out viciously with his
blade but failing to land.  The thug is very quick, his broadsword licks
out twice, inflicting two slashes on Raken's chest, though his dagger falls
short as it thrust for Raken's gut.

Coming up behind Raken, Grigree whips out his swords and slices one of them
around Raken into the thugs side.

Jamila calls "Najm shukran" as she moves past her old opponents body to
engage the onrushing giff.  She ducks beneath his ponderous sword arm and
sends one lightening swift slice across the back of his knee,  hamstringing
him.  As the massive creature falls forward onto his knees she pirouettes
and ends his anguished cry of pain with a savage slash through his throat.
The giff falls forward with a thunderous crash,  massive amounts of blood
seeping out from beneath his corpse.

Watching the fight, Kain pauses.  After that moment of hesitation, he makes
his way to the fray.

Nilaroo swings his massive sword almost impossibly quick,  he leaves a
large, dangerous gash in the half-orc's leg.  Snarling, the elderly
humanoid sends his longsword thrusting into Nilaroo's gut.  The gromman
gasp and pain and swings his sword madly, but the hilt slips from his
fingers and his sword flies across the room and lands somewhere behind the
bar.

Round 3:

Holland continues leaning against the bar, holding his hand tightly against
the wound in his side and trying to recatch his breath.

Raken slashes out with his blade, attempting to slice the thug open.  "You
know ugly," he says to the thug he's fighting "you remind me of someone I
used to know.  He had a face just as ugly as yours.  When he died, he
squeeled like the pig he was.  Let's see how well you squeele, pigface,"
Raken says with a wicked gleam in his eye as his scimiter leaves a gash in
the man's arm.

The thug in the green cloak (#4) ignores Raken's jibes and attacks, instead
throwing himself towards Grigree he slashes with his sword and tries to
parry with his dagger.  Grigree is forced to retreat a little,  and one of
Grigree's blade is parried by the thug's dagger, but the other slips
beneath the thug's sword and flicks it it out of his hands, leaving the
thug with just his dagger.

Jamila sees Nilaroo weaponless and rushes the half-orc from the side,  he
sees her swirling attack at the last moment and turns to meet it.  Jamila
manages to leave a minor gash on his leg,  and dodges his return swing.

Nilaroo, weaponless and badly wounded reverts to his instincts,  with a
savage roar he swings one massive paw about in a roundhouse, openhanded
slap against the side of the half-orc's semi-bald, grey-pated skull.  The
blow lifts the humanoid up into the air and sends him flating across the
room until he slams into the bricks surrounding the fireplace, his skull
smashing open like a pumpkin.  The Gromman's shoulder's sag as the pain of
his deep gut wound begins to affect him.

Circling around the thug fighting Raken and Grigree(#4), Kain looks for an
opening, and thinking he sees it, lunges forward with his shortsword but
slips in the massive quantities of blood now soaking the floor and falls on
his back.

Leera sees that the bartender and waitress have disappeared.

Date/time:  2:17 pm  17th day of the 4th Month, 5049 OC

--
"...How shall a man judge what to do in such times?!"
"As he has ever judged," said Aragorn "Good and evil have not changed
since yesteryear..."
J.R.R. Tolkien, _The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers_

Paul Westermeyer,  pwestermeyer@????????.??.com