The BEGINNING!

[Carthrat]

"A group of travellers booked in here tonight. One was named John Truesword. Where is he?" asked the lead man.

"Bah. Can't remember things like that..."

One gold coin.

"Come to think of it, I remember he was staying upstairs..."

Two gold coins.

"In room 2b... but the door'll be locked..."

Three gold coins.

"Wait, I have a key here..."

So the group of men travelled up to room 2B, and unlocked the door...

[Bean Bandit]

Jean slipped back down the hall silently. They didn't seem to be after her...but she had a nagging suspicion...

She ducked back into her room and shook the elf-girl awake.

"Elf-g...er, Lallie! Wake up! What was the name of the beefcake you were traveling with? Hurry, It may be important!"

[calendar]

Someone was shaking her awake.  Lallie listened groggily.

"Beefcake?  Sounds yummy."

She shook her head to wake herself up, then wondered what was going on.  "His name is John Trueblade."

[Bean Bandit]

Jean frowned. That was too close to be a coincidence.

"A bunch of shady looking characters just paid the innkeeper to tell them where a 'John Truesword' was staying."

She paused, looking thoughtful.  "It might be someone else, or they might be dumber than a sack of hammers, and couldn't get the name right. What do you think? Is your boyfriend in trouble?"

[calendar]

Lallie was standing up in an instant, longbow over her shoulder and crossbows on her hips.

"Let's go save Luvey-Muffy!"

[Bean Bandit]

Jean choked down a giggle at the pet name, then she statement hit her. She blinked.

"Wait just a damn minute. I'm no fighter! YOU go save him!"

[calendar]

"But, but. . ."  Lallie trailed off, eyes glistening with tears.  "I'm just a pretty, young, innocent girl?  However will I overcome these strong men?"

Her longbow shifted on her shoulder, the arrow rubbing up against it.  "And, and. . . just look at my hair!"  She pointed up at the beautiful green tresses.  "I could have some KNOTS!"

[Bean Bandit]

Jean fixed Lallie with a baleful stare. 'How on earth did I ever peg this girl as the smart one?'

"So what do I look like?" Jean huffed. "I'm a girl too! And I don't fight! You do!" She said pointing to Lallie's weapons. And pushing her to the door.

"So...GO!"

[calendar]

Lallie glared balefully at the door.  So much for tying up the thief and getting the money back.

She headed to go find her Smoochie-woochie.

[Bean Bandit]

Jean realized she was alone again.

"Time to put this opportunity to good use," She decided, grabbing her things and slipping out the window.

[Carthrat]

Unfortunately for Jean... the Monks had placed one other monk on lookout, from which he lurked on top of the tavern.

He saw Jean... and began traling her movements from the window..

Perhaps good for a monk, but not so good a master thief wouldn't notice..

[Anonymous]

Steel rang on steel as John Truesword fought for his life, these thugs had taken him completely unawares as they rushed into his room.

Having grabbed his sword, he used all the skills that years of fighting had instilled in him. To no avail, he just couldn't win under these circumstances!

He winced as his arm was nicked by one of the men's blades. Chastising himself for being so careless, he begin to force his opponents back out into the hallway.

He wasn't going to die yet! He still had to see that reward money, after all.

[TannimFodder]

Hammerfist Axebeard blinked tiredly as he exited his room to the sound of fighting.  His axe was slung over his shoulder as usual.  He was blinking furiously, trying to clear his head of the small headache he had from drinking the piss-poor human ale the night before.

Several cowled people were standing about the hall, while some of their number were gathered around the entrance to his new friend and ally's room, John Sword-something-or-other.  It wasn't a proper dwarven name, but it was as close to one as any human was likely to get.

Hammerfist reached up and smashed the side of his axe against one of the cowled men to get the attention of the rest.  A meaty -thunk- followed by a loud -thud- got the attention of several of the men.

"What's going on here, then?" he asked innocently.

[Carthrat]

Three things happened at once.

Firstly, with a loud puff of smoke, and appropriate thunder effects, a cowled figure, slightly taller than the rest, appeared in the middle of the room and began chanting.

Secondly, three men launched complex, synchronized attacks against John, with the intent of cutting him into more pieces than a can of dog food stuck in a blender.

Third, the OTHER three men launched not so complex and hardly synchronized attacks against Hammerfist, with the aforementioned intent.

The mage was reaching the end of his spell- a truly powerful magic..

OOC: And Fredumont the Cleric sleeps through the whole thing... wake up, Rez!

[Bean Bandit]

Jean picked up the rather inexpert tail before she was five steps away from the window.

She pretended not to notice and dashed around the corner as quickly as she could, found cover, and waited to see if the lookout would take the bait and follow her as she slipped the dagger from her sleeve again...