Thieves

Kuohka and Brakus drunken squabbling finally faded into an occasional snore as they drifted into an exhausted and intoxicated sleep. The north wind had settled too, into a gentle breeze that whistled intermittently through the eves of the inn and sent the wrought iron sign outside the front door swinging and creaking a little as it moved.

Daram tried to sleep, but even after a few cups of wine, his overactive mind would not settle into restfulness. In the room across from his, E'llarn listened to his sister move about the building, tidying and preparing for business the next day. The quiet, insistent tap of her walking stick, almost enough to lull him into slumber. 

Brin, tired and not a little tipsy made her way through the kitchen and up the stairs in the back of the inn to her room, not a secret passage per se, just not well known. It allowed her to move a little more quickly through her home. Her room was about twice the size of the rented accommodations in the inn. It doubled as her office. She spent most of her time either here or down in the bar. Local pinewood furnishings gave the room a light and airy feel. Two oil lamps produced a glow that gave the room a noticeable warmth.She settled back in a soft leather upholstered chair, another local product. The cows were farmed in the south, outside Cumbra, a few of them were marched up here every few months.  The local butchers, inns and craftsmen made the most of them.
 
The most business like object in her room was a forged iron box, her lock box.  It was black  and ugly.  She opened the heavy hinged door on the box and checked its contents.  Her legal papers and the inns earnings were kept in the box, but sitting atop of those was a jewel the size of a walnut.  She picked it up and weighed it in her hand as she had every night since the evening four days ago when she had bought it. It would have been worth something just for the artistry of its making, polished faces, a crystal of fine clarity that seemed to trap and hold the light, but a corner had been badly chipped, an ugly flaw. However, there was something special about the jewel, a mystery in its heritage. She set it back in the safe and closed and locked the door. Time to make her final walk around, make sure the perimeter was secure. She smiled to herself as she struggled to her feet. Old habits die hard. 

Brin hobbled out into the main corridor on the second floor and made her way as quietly as she could over to the balcony overlooking the pub, self conscious of the tapping made by her walking stick hitting the wooden floor. A single lamp burned down in the common room, turned down low causing it to flicker and the shadows to dance. Glancing around with an experienced eye, all looked as it should. Good, time for bed. The thought barely finished, she stopped, listening. She heard a scratching at the door, the sound of metal on metal.

The sound grew louder as the subtle attempt to pick the large heavy lock on the big door at the front of the inn turned into hurried incompetence when the lock failed to yield easily. Brin heard a door open behind her, her brother. She gestured him to silence. They had fought together, and sometimes talk was not necessary. He went to rouse the others. Daram was sitting in his room, almost as if he was waiting for E'llarn. 'Get the others, don't let them make too much noise,' he hissed below a whisper.

Daram moved quickly up the corridor to the next set of rooms. E'llarn went back to his sister. 'Don't kill them right away, want to know what they want,' she murmurs quietly.
With a nod, he headed down the steps into the common room drawing his bastard sword in his right hand and a short sword in his left. He waited behind the bar for whatever was coming. He wondered at his sister's motives. Who was she expecting?

The lock on the door finally gave way under the inept manipulations of the scoundrels beyond. The door was pushed open slowly and in the dim light of the oil lamp, E'llarn saw Hobs, two of them. Hobs were blunt faced, leathery skinned brutes. E'llarn and his friends had fought hundreds of them in the beast wars. They were the foot soldiers, the shock troops of the beast armies, tough and dangerous, particularly in large numbers.

They snuck into the common room unaware that they were being observed. One of them, the shorter of the two, pulled something from a belt pouch. The strange artifact was a T-shaped piece of wood, inverted, with twine attached to each end. On either end of the T, a rock was attached to the twine, one a common stone, the other a shard of crystal. The Hob dangled this contraption from the third piece of twine. The artifact swung freely, turning, apparently pointing, as the Hob started moving in the direction the crystal was pulling, gesturing to his companion.

Daram roused the drunken duo from their slumber. Kuohka and Brakus didn't so much start arguing as much as they continued the argument they had been having when they had passed out. Any opportunity for a quiet ambush was lost in the squabbling.

The Hobs in the common room hearing the clamor in the corridor above, gave up on stealth and ran for the kitchen. Reinforcements burst in through the front door and other Hobs scrambled in through the second floor back window.

With a burst of speed E'llarn leapt across the bar into the path of the first two transgressors. Even as the surprised Hobs made ready to defend themselves, he cut the first of them down, a sweeping blow with his bastard sword which he pushed through to slice into the second of them with brutish strength. On the landing above, Daram loosed knives toward the first interloper climbing through the window. Brakus and Kuohka, finally realizing that something serious was in fact taking place acted in concert.

Nobody talked much about the source of Brakus' power. What little his companions had learned of it, they had found downright unsettling. Standing in the corridor, still a little unsteady on his feet from the wine, Brakus allowed the slightest gap to open into that place between life and death that fed his magic, and using his mind like a prism he allowed some of that darkness to show through, directing it at the Hobs.  Whatever it was that the two Hobs saw was too much for their simple minds. The one climbing over the sill on the second floor, screamed in terror and pushed himself back off the window letting go.  He landed in soft snowy powder and turned and ran in screaming terror. Another of the Hobs at the front of the inn had seen too much also. He turned running from the inn, weeping and babbling to himself. His ally, had looked away quickly enough not to feel the full effect, but even he stared down at his own feet dazed.

One Hob had made it through the window and loosed an arrow. Daram grunted as the arrow lodged itself into his leather jacket. He pulled a dagger free from his belt and flung it at the beast archer. The dagger dug deep into the creature's leg. It wailed and made to shoot again. The arrow went awry this time as the Hob lost its balance, it's feet entangled by Kuohka's long bullwhip. Kuohka pulled hard and the Hob toppled to the ground. Kuohka lashed out again. This time the archer's bow his target. As the Hob struggled to keep a hold of his bow, Daram threw another dagger with deadly accuracy killing the entangled creature.

Brin thought for a moment about doing something to help, but as E'llarn quickly felled another Hob with his heavy blade, she decided against it. Her leg was aching and they hardly needed her assistance.

The last Hob standing, having shaken off the aftereffect of Brakus' magic, seemed to realize he was alone only after he engaged with E'llarn with his longsword. He stood his ground for second after second moving his sword manically to fend off E'llarn's deadly blows. E'llarn flinched as the Hob sliced low and drew blood across his upper thigh. The Hob pressed his advantage, what little he had. 

Behind E'llarn, Brakus leapt off the balcony to the ground beside the bar.  E'llarn stepped back giving Brakus room and stopping the Hob's advance. Then, together they attacked, the Hob lasted but a second as he was pummeled from two directions. The creature's quick sword arm was not enough. As he parried high, blocking the weight of Brakus' morningstar driving down from above, E'llarn lunged forward gutting him first with his bastard sword and then finishing him as he thrust his dagger through the Hob's neck.  Blood gushed as the creature slid from E'llarn's blades.

So much for not killing them all.