Oh, Rats!

Stubb, Viddick, Darkmane, Dangeon, Adyna, Hactor

Location: Ruingate

The opalescent eye of the moon stares, unblinking, down at the snow-dusted city. Flakes have already gathered in the scruff of Stubb's neck, overgrown with two seasons' fur. He shivers but trudges cautiously forward, eyes fixed on Viddick.

Viddick is just up ahead, scratching his chin. He stops to rub life into his legs, as the storm carries on... he straightens up and gestures, "C'mon, lads... not much further, now... tunnel's just a few more paces now. We'll have to be on our wits, there are lots of guards out for it tonight..." His voice might reach Stubb if he's lucky, but it's completely lost to Amos, farther behind.

The falling snow confounds Stubb's best attempts to peer forward toward the rat's objective, so he pursues with cautious steps. "No' so 'asty, ma'e. Oi'd loike ta know moise'f where dis tunnel is, so oi can scout i' out la'er when tha loigh's be'tah."

"Oh, of course, mate. No problem at all with that sensible suggestchen..." Viddick snickers quietly to himself - that weasel will see it sure enough in the morning... from the inside! "We're approachin' it now... see, up ahead! It's unfinished, the front of it - they're workin' on closin' it up I think..."

Stubb's steps slacken further as the stark figure of the gallows tree rises out of the misty whiteness. "Oi don' see nuffin', 'cept that ol' tree."

Darkmane charges after the group in a more or less full run after having been told the direction they went in by one of the citizens of the town, his hands holding Dangeon's feet gently as she is being carried on his back. His gaze quickly surveying the area as he moves.

The rat is patient, "Just a bit further, my friend... past the big ol' building there... see that entrance, next to it? Leads underground..." The bars might set off some red flags, but in an unfamiliar place at night, it wouldn't be obvious. The building next to it doesn't exactly say 'Hall of Law' on it, neither does the prison advertise itself... slowly, out of the poor visibility, other rats materialize...

Stubb is naturally startled by the rapid-fire drumming of Darkmane's hooves digging into the fresh snowdrifts, and he turns, eyes wide as if in anticipation of a rear ambush. "Darky, ma'e, you nearly trampled us!" He squints up at Viddick. "'Ope you don' moind if a couple more a moi friends join us? Seems you invoi'ed some a your own a'ready, eh?"

Dangeon has her ears perked and a bottle with her. Not a big, expensive glass one; just a cheap ceramic of wine. So, she's appreciative for Darkmane's hold, as she only considers one paw free to steady herself.

What started out as a simple search for an unoccupied attic or, even better, wine cellar, has become a stalking expedition, as Adyna's been doing a decent job of shadowing the small group since shortly after they left the Skull and Candle - at least, until Darkmane charges in, forcing her to stop advancing and take cover behind a fallen awning. Damn and double-damn..

The rats quickly cut off Stubb and Amos from the others in pursuit, brandishing swords and makeshift clubs. One or two with torches, that remained at their posts until the others were in place, now come up and light up the treacherous scene. Viddick turns, grinning. "Aww, now, don't look so sour..." He trails off as he hears the hooves and smacks his forehead. "Grab these two and take cover, you all distract the big brute there!"

Stubb's aspect reflects bafflement more than anything else. He casts a questioning look back at Amos, shrugging subtly, then stares at Viddick while three horde rats claw at his unresisting limbs. The contents of his pack shift noisily as they manhandle his lanky frame. "Whoi now?" he barks in a loud whisper to Amos. "An whoi us?"

Darkmane tilts his head slightly "hold on tight angel" then moments later skids to a stop a step or two away from the rats as his hands moves down to grab a hold of his 'short swords', his lips curled back into a snarl as he lets out the closest thing to a growl a equine can manage "I am Darkmane, Enforcer of the Sword Dancers which I'm sure some of you can remember, and a few of you might even recall my secondary duty as their Torturer" his eyes glowering down at the rats "So I will give you one chance to step aside or face the justice I decide to mete out on your hides"

"Holding." Dangeon confirms happily; referring to her grip on the wine of course. Her grip on Darkmane can't be too bad either, because she's still there on his back when he stops. She lets go of the horse for a moment, peers round at the rats and makes a rude gesture at them. "Aye! Beware his dancin' sword things!"

The rats facing the horse and the haremaid all fan out around him, and one looks over at the others, "U-uh... m..." He drops his sword, his legs trembling and a dark stain spreading over his shorts as he just outright runs after the others. The others look back at him, nervous about such a large creature but still not backing down.

Adyna watches the unfolding situation warily - silently, gently, she slides the rapier out of its sheath and stays put in her hiding place, keeping a firm grip on it. She's half-tensed to charge herself.. but she holds her position, until she gets a firm idea of what's going on.

Viddick overhears the weasel, "Why? Certainly - because nobody here likes you folks... we heard about you, expected you when we heard the abbey was taken back - word travels fast, and certainly faster than that dodderin' fox thinks it does. There'll be no takin' Ruingate as your own - that's an outdated arrangement." He leans in close, "But I promise ye'll have that tree yonder /all/ to yourself... hehehehee..." He barks at the others, "Get that trinket out of 'is pack, I want to see it good." He keeps an eye on the horse, running with the others all the while toward the underground sanctuary...

Stubb turned the precious few moments of rat-horde distraction afforded by Darkmane's raucous challenge to slip an arm from an assailant's grasp. Stubb has slipped a dagger from his vest into his sleeve by the time the rat regains enough of his senses to take the weasel's arm back, violently, into his control. As another rat tears open Stubb's pack, the weasel begins to struggle against the smaller creatures, thrashing violently enough at first to fling the bag-raider into the snow.

"You can take tha bleedin' fox, if 'e's wha' you lo' want!" Stubb shouts. "'Actor's more trouble dan 'es worf. E were usefu' once. Now, seems all 'e bring is trouble."

Darkmane smirks slightly even if its just one who flees as he draws his two blades, his voice calm and ice cold "I guess some people just don't value their lives these days, Rage and Fury its time to earn your keep" his blades moved into position before he swipes both of them at two different rats aiming low

(One of the rats jumps over Darkmane's swipe and lashes out for the horse's front leg as it comes by... the other, at the trailing edge of the swipe, didn't expect the attack to reach him and is late in jumping; his bare hind leg is slashed deep and he falls over, clutching it. His sword remains held up in defense, as the others circle around the horse's blind side and all lash out at his hind legs and even some trying to climb the beast!)

Dangeon clings to Darkmane as rats decide to attack, trying to find somewhere to hide her bottle. As they draw close, she gives up on holding onto the horse, keeping the bottle in one paw and taking her scimitar in her free paw. "No! This is a bloomin' one seater horse! Bally well off! Get!" She swipes at rats that try to climb.

Adyna leaves Viddick's group and wanders off on her own.

A rat is clinging to the horse's tail, two more are are using his shoulders as stepping stools and swiping swords at Dangeon while holding onto each other for balance... once makes contact with Dangeon's blade and they tip precariously but stay balanced - one is in front fending off the horse with the injured soldier who is limping and helping out his comrade.

Viddick, meanwhile, has had enough - he reaches in and takes the treasure Stubb was handling earlier. "Hahahaha!!! Got it!" He runs away from the scene, yelling back, "Get them to prison one way or another, lads - or you'll have hell and our boss to pay! Or that damn horse, at the very least!" He circles around behind the tree, noticing Adyna in hiding too...

Stubb spits loud curses at Viddick's retreating back and sheds what restraint he is still maintaining, slicing as deeply into the side of his captor as his present condition permits. The wounded rat's grip grows instantly feebler, and Stubb severs the grip completely with a sharp kick. The previously grounded horde-rat, meanwhile, has returned to his paws, barely winded by his contact with the ground, and launches his shoulder into the weasel's gut while his compatriot gains control over the captive's knife-bearing arm.

Darkmane Snarls as he feels tugging on his tail which is one indignity to much for him, the wounds to his legs ignored in his fury "hold love" his words spoken even as he starts to spin around in a circle faster and faster. his blades slashing high, low, stabbing and even flatsided at those around him almost without rythm or sense except for in the mind of the equine himself

Dangeon blinks. "Hold?! With wha-? ACK!" Luckily, she misses the swords, ending on her scut, rather painfully on the ground. The first thing she does is check to see if her bottle's intact. Amazingly, it survives. The second thing she does is to stay very low and start scooting backwards and away from the blender-horse.

Dangeon then, has a quick swig, of course, once she thinks she's safe enough away. Also, down here, she can swipe at rat legs when they come near enough.

Viddick sneaks up behind Dangeon. Perfect. He already has the handkerchief out, ready to disable the haremaid... two other patient rats, unlike the others fighting, creep out with the foreigner and help with the devious and cruel operation. His arm swings violently around the front of the hare and clamps down however it can to attempt to knock her out.

The horse's bloody display is barely a ripple on the bubble of Stubb's consciousness, so consumed is he by his own desperate fight. Small as he is, the rats have brought his flailings more or less under control; his dagger jerks wildly but vainly in his paw. Indeed, the only actual effect of his writhing is to cause two buttons on his vest to pop into the air. Only Stubb's head is free to move.

Once they have her, unconscious, the three rats drag her as quickly as possible between the narrow space afforded by the other fighting rats and onward to the prison... Viddick couldn't care less about weasel and the wildcat's fates - he's worried about himself and this haremaid! "Quick, now, in case he catches up - hoist 'er up as a sheild, so the brute can't attack us! The prison, quick!!"

Dangeon swings her arm up and backwards on a reflex, to swipe at whoever is doing that; unfortunately, she seems to be swiping with her bottle, which will likely smash if it contacts with a rat. And, she's realised and trying to swipe the sword as she's passing out.

Darkmane actually tosses his sword at the last of the standing rats around him before he exhales deeply and starts slowing, with his circling having stopped in Stubbs direction his free hand quickly draws and tosses two daggers toward his assailants having seen his trouble(don't try this at home kids) before turning to check up on the hare, A roar escaping his lips as more of his daggers is aimed at those not carrying dangeon not wanting to harm her.

The rats on Amos are being flung all about, having their own wild ride of sorts on the back of the wildcat and on his arms... those on Stubb try their best to hold him down. One attempts to disarm him completely by twisting at his wrist... "Watch fer his teeth, mate!! Get... get his-"

Stubb is too quick, though, biting into one of the rat's shoulders before the hapless rodent has time to absorb the shouted warning. The weasel's weight, already bearing down on him, now pushes him to the ground in a crunch of joints. The ensuing disorder allows a wide enough window for Stubb to stab out again, but his dagger point lands on the meat of the other rat's rump; a painful wound, but one that's easy enough to shrug off. The third rat, bleeding, is back on his paws, but his frantic eyes dart from Darkmane to Stubb to Viddick's retreating back, and he's caught in a moment of doubt serious enough to register on his face.

Stubb is still quite entangled, so that all he can do toward retrieving his lost trinket is to peer desperately after it and emit a hopeless cry that is instantly absorbed by the still-falling snow.

Viddick and the two others finally reach the gaping, cavernous maw of the unfinished underground prison, and load the limp haremaid's body onto a cart. "You take that side, there, and you get the other... now - move!! This thing is still open-ended; I'll lead the way..." He grabs a torch lying on the ground, still burning, and retreats into the depths of the foundations of Ruingate. He waves and grins back at the wailing weasel.

Darkmane ignores his fallen weapons for now as he charges after Viddick with a short sword in one hand and a dagger in the other "Release Dangeon now if you wish to survive this night rat" His dagger or sword darting out at anybody even thinking of trying to interfering with his chase "I swear there will not be a flicker of fur left on your skin before i perform the blood eagle on you if you don't obey"

The three rats and the haremaid are winding their way down, down a stone set of stairs and into the main dungeon, where there's another beast, a fox, to meet them. Viddick lets the other two go on, through a passageway that seems to have just randomly opened up in the stone, while he converses with the fox - but not for long, as the horse is heard at the entrance of the prison, "I've done as asked - I want payment now! And quickly, for both our sakes!"

Stubb's third rat attacker continues to vacillate where he stands, and, after a few moments, his eyes begin to glaze. Only then does the bleeding start, flowing from the wound in his midriff dealt by one of Darkmane's hurtled blades. It is the matter of only a few moments before he buckles forward with a pathetic wimper and faints into the snow, where his life flows out of him. The others relinquish Stubb to draw their weapons. One wields a slender rapier; the other a shortsword.

The fox, hooded like an executioner, shakes his head; his voice is muffled by the cloth, dampened like a soggy, rainy day, "You'f not done what was asked, Fiddick - we haf pursuers... you will get your payment when we'f retreated to safety..." Viddick answers, "But - I've delivered her earlier than expected! She followed the others of her own accord!" He turns, emotionless, and they both exit through the hole in the wall, which closes up behind them.

Stubb makes a break for it as he's briefly released, shedding his backpack as he runs toward the former hole in the wall. The quicker of the two rats manages to snag the weasel by the wrist, and his claws dig bloody trenches in it. Stubb is slowed but not stopped; he pulls his arm free with a suppressed wince and charges after the horse, depositing a dotted trail of blood as he sprints.

Darkmane having seen the door...wall...whatever close dosn't stop but instead actually increases the speed of his charge as he adjust his body for an proper impact with the wall and......gets stopped cold, the impact punching the air out of his lungs as he falls over on his back.

The rats are not wholly fools, and they do not allow Stubb much time to make his flight. The first, on his left heel, manages a grip on the pack, just as it's dropped. The second, rapier brandished at arm's length, swings it forward as he pursues with legs pumping despite the skewered haunch. It nips Stubb in the small of the back, but this seems only to encourage him in his getaway

Then an old beggar come across the scene. But apon seeing the hostile rats his eye glents and he brandishes a walking stick swinging to smack one of them square in the head..

Darkmane snarls and curses up a loud storm that would likely make even a sailor blush as he slowly gets back to his feet, his eyes and hands trying to find a way to get the passage opened again

By that time, the cracks in the stone darken, as the torchlight fades as the quartet and their captive descend deeper into the passage. The rolling wheels of the cart soon follow, fading into silence.

Stubb, a former sailor, is indeed blushing, but not on account of any modesty. He is still pursued by the horde-rats as he nears the dazed colossus by the sealed passageway. The rats only notice the hulking horse when they're close at hand, and they wheel immediately around to evade his hungry blades. Stubb pants to a stop in this equine haven.

Hactor still swinging his cane, rushes past the rats whom nearly nick him with a sword blade. Once he reaches the weasel and horse he too is panting. He splutters between pants, "What the..bloody hell...ave you gotten yurself into!?"