"Dearly beloved," the mole priest adjusted his glasses, looking at the small casket, surrounded by candles, on which were balanced a curved sword, a small shield and an empty helm, "we now commend the soul and mortal remains of the warrior, Berry Town the Shrew, to his final rest. Born free, captured and enslaved, freed, took down his old slave master. A small shrew, with a great heart. He had a great many adventures, but most of all, he was a valued by his friends who mourn him here today; and his cousin Abi Berry the Shrew, who will miss him dearly. May the Great Mother be with you all." He closed up his holy book and gestured to the assembled creatures of The Free Beasts of the Well of Ashes, "If you care to join us in the Tithe Barn, we will have a few nibbles and drinks to toast his spirit being, at last, at rest."
The gang, dressed in their funeral clothes, solemnly trooped through to the barn. Weapons and equipment had been safely stored. A fine spread lay on a long trestle table, but it was also not unoccupied. Red the Witch-Hunter mouse walked in as the last member of the party, the great double doors slammed shut behind them, and they heard the locks outside being sealed. At a table, sat both a heavily armoured otter witch-hunter, and a mouse priest. Several town watch creatures stepped out from the shadows of the walls, also heavily armed and armoured.
"Gentlecreatures, take a seat, we need to have a frank and forthright discussion about what happened to your dear friend." The otter steepled his paws and fixed the gang with his stare.
"I will show him discussion..." Bowie growled, flexing claws under his breath.
"Easy Bowie, if I wanted too, I could call lightning down on them all right now, but today is not the day." L'Otter rested a her left paw on his arm, although her other paw did crackle slightly at her waist.
The otter Witch-Hunter looked at them, "We mean you no harm. Please, be seated. I am Captain Benadict Otterbranch, Occult Investigation Division. We would just like you to describe the situation yesterday, do not spare the details, for myself, the chapel, or the local authorities want to know what power blighted us. We want to know what factors contributed or caused the strange events of the day. We have reason to believe that dark, or maybe even necromantic magic was in play. As a talented mage, would you know anything about this, Lady Door?" He asked as he gently, but ominously, lifted a large warhammer and placed it firmly on the table.
The Dormouse noble looked affronted, years of noble breeding suddenly overtaking the little dormouse, snapping her out of her mourning, "Well, I hope that baseless accusation was not directed at me! How dare you insinuate I meddle in the dark arts, on a day such as today. How DARE YOU interrupt our mourning to question us like this. I demand you strike that from your records this instant, and remove that THING from the dining table!"
The mouse priest coughed, scratching out the previous comment as the otter Witch-Hunter nodded, and the mouse steadied his paws by looking like he was sharpening a quill. He had now began to struggle to write down details and description as the gang, as usual, had all chipped in, often with unhelpful ideas, and a fair few ribaulded comments about each other, even in the sombre setting. The town watch members grinned, and stood more at ease as the tension dropped in the room.
"Ppppplease, one at a time?" The scribe quavered.
Sneaker started, "Simply put, we were after Big Yin's gang, our usual feud, that I am sure you know about," he winked at the assembled watch creatures, "they deserved a good kicking for helping the Barbaric Pedestrians ambush us a while back".
Lady Door, still putting on her finest airs, added, "We had tracked them down to the ruins of St. Moustine's Priory, and were moving quickly to get on to them, we had good sight lines and were ready to shoot them down, as taking them on in combat is never a good plan."
Red the mouse looked at the Witch Hunter captain, repeatedly nervously fingering a holy symbol around his neck that was usually concealed beneath his armour. "Brother, then things got really weird. This absolute pea-souper of a fog came out of nowhere. It had been a beautifully clear and warm day, and them, snap! You could hardly see your paw in front of your face. It could not be anything but black magic, brother!"
Batty the assassin added, "Despite the fog, I could tell where Big Yin's gang were, bat senses of course. It was strange, it was like there was something invisible lurking near them, loads of them froze in fear or wandered around aimlessly. Big Yin, Rufus the hound and their mouse Archie were all that managed to advance."
"Be honest Batty, how do bats do that? You can hardly see your wing in front of your face at the archery range, yet you can spot moving targets in the fog?" L'Ouseux the sparrow nudged him with a wing, obviously seeing this as a way of avoiding the magic questions by making light of her friend. She looked at the bat and shrugged. "I flew up and all I could see was shades of grey!"
The gang, dressed in their funeral clothes, solemnly trooped through to the barn. Weapons and equipment had been safely stored. A fine spread lay on a long trestle table, but it was also not unoccupied. Red the Witch-Hunter mouse walked in as the last member of the party, the great double doors slammed shut behind them, and they heard the locks outside being sealed. At a table, sat both a heavily armoured otter witch-hunter, and a mouse priest. Several town watch creatures stepped out from the shadows of the walls, also heavily armed and armoured.
"Gentlecreatures, take a seat, we need to have a frank and forthright discussion about what happened to your dear friend." The otter steepled his paws and fixed the gang with his stare.
"I will show him discussion..." Bowie growled, flexing claws under his breath.
"Easy Bowie, if I wanted too, I could call lightning down on them all right now, but today is not the day." L'Otter rested a her left paw on his arm, although her other paw did crackle slightly at her waist.
The otter Witch-Hunter looked at them, "We mean you no harm. Please, be seated. I am Captain Benadict Otterbranch, Occult Investigation Division. We would just like you to describe the situation yesterday, do not spare the details, for myself, the chapel, or the local authorities want to know what power blighted us. We want to know what factors contributed or caused the strange events of the day. We have reason to believe that dark, or maybe even necromantic magic was in play. As a talented mage, would you know anything about this, Lady Door?" He asked as he gently, but ominously, lifted a large warhammer and placed it firmly on the table.
The Dormouse noble looked affronted, years of noble breeding suddenly overtaking the little dormouse, snapping her out of her mourning, "Well, I hope that baseless accusation was not directed at me! How dare you insinuate I meddle in the dark arts, on a day such as today. How DARE YOU interrupt our mourning to question us like this. I demand you strike that from your records this instant, and remove that THING from the dining table!"
The mouse priest coughed, scratching out the previous comment as the otter Witch-Hunter nodded, and the mouse steadied his paws by looking like he was sharpening a quill. He had now began to struggle to write down details and description as the gang, as usual, had all chipped in, often with unhelpful ideas, and a fair few ribaulded comments about each other, even in the sombre setting. The town watch members grinned, and stood more at ease as the tension dropped in the room.
"Ppppplease, one at a time?" The scribe quavered.
Sneaker started, "Simply put, we were after Big Yin's gang, our usual feud, that I am sure you know about," he winked at the assembled watch creatures, "they deserved a good kicking for helping the Barbaric Pedestrians ambush us a while back".
Lady Door, still putting on her finest airs, added, "We had tracked them down to the ruins of St. Moustine's Priory, and were moving quickly to get on to them, we had good sight lines and were ready to shoot them down, as taking them on in combat is never a good plan."
Red the mouse looked at the Witch Hunter captain, repeatedly nervously fingering a holy symbol around his neck that was usually concealed beneath his armour. "Brother, then things got really weird. This absolute pea-souper of a fog came out of nowhere. It had been a beautifully clear and warm day, and them, snap! You could hardly see your paw in front of your face. It could not be anything but black magic, brother!"
Batty the assassin added, "Despite the fog, I could tell where Big Yin's gang were, bat senses of course. It was strange, it was like there was something invisible lurking near them, loads of them froze in fear or wandered around aimlessly. Big Yin, Rufus the hound and their mouse Archie were all that managed to advance."
"Be honest Batty, how do bats do that? You can hardly see your wing in front of your face at the archery range, yet you can spot moving targets in the fog?" L'Ouseux the sparrow nudged him with a wing, obviously seeing this as a way of avoiding the magic questions by making light of her friend. She looked at the bat and shrugged. "I flew up and all I could see was shades of grey!"
"Bovva looked really afraid, he was not moving at all," Batty continued, "strange a normally fearless weasel clamming up like that, if his fears come to taunt him, no wonder he hits the bottle so hard." The bat was obviously pleased to be taking the role of narrator for the group, "And it looked like he might be disappearing into the fog for ever, like some siren song called to him while the others quickly approached the ruined precinct."
"Or someone calling 'Last Orders'." L'Ouseux chirped.
"Honestly," Snappy the Squirrel interjected, looking longingly at the wake food on the table, "Our view was not much better, Red here blundered into some rocks, Bowie was lost, Abi only found the ruined tower base by mistake while L'Otter literally walked into the cottage wall. It was a shambles."
"While you could see us, Snappy" Bowie added, "we could hardly make you out. It was like someone was targeting us with individual fog patches!"
"Interesting. Could it have been the squirrel mage from the other gang?" enquired the Witch-Hunter.
"No, she's just a wild mage, a pretty good one, but only wild and definitely not that powerful." L'Otter replied.
L'Ouseux chirped, "Big Yin made it to the gate in the wall as I hoped over it, he really was not happy!"
"He never is!" Lady Door smiled wanly, she was missing her shrew amour.
"We were all clustering round that ruin, it felt almost comforting." Red uttered, "Maybe it was because some of it was holy ground. Berry was waiting by the wall, he's quite sneaky like that!"
"Was," the mouse scribe added, the looked embarrassed as Bowie hissed under his whiskers.
"I took the highest point I could think of, so I could try and work out what was going on..." Batty pointed to the church tower in the distance.
"But it was not great up there either."
"I could just make out the Big Yin's gang filtering through the ruins towards what they thought was safety of the edge of the fog" Batty added, "they were waiting by the ruined door."
"Good thing we were waiting by the other side of the door!" Bowie grinned.
"Snappy and I were guarding one end of the ruins, as they were sneaking round." Abi continued, "we could see Her Ladyship trying to sneak through, but we both had a bead on her. We were trying to hit her with arrows and throwing knives."
"I had a great view through the doorway too," Bowie languished as his booted feet were lifted on to a neighbouring chair, "and Red was at my shoulder, no one was getting through in a hurry!"
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Red sounded pleased.
L'Otter laughed, lifting her paws onto the table, via swatting Bowie's boots down, "Did not help each time I cast 'Haste' on you old friend, you bolted off in random directions like a scalded cat!"
"Unfortunately, as I had just landed on the other side of the wall, they did not come through but their hound Rufus went for me!" L'Ouseux interrupted. "Bovva and Cynthia the Squirrel had managed to get their fear sorted out and had moved up too, along with Archie the mouse."
"Things could have got really bloody if I had not cast the Unbound spell 'Sangram's Portable Protector' on our noble sparrow here, while L'Otter here cast the Light spell 'Invulnerable' on Bowie, boosting them to incredible defenses. So, we cannot be Dark Mages." Lady Door explained.
The mouse scribe looked over his glasses, "Labouring this point rather aren't you, M'lady?"
The otter Witch Hunter smiled wanly. "I think they might have proved they were innocent."
"We'll see," the mouse continued.
"By this time, I could see Berry behind the crates to the left, while I was behind him, Sneaker was hiding behind the wall."
"The fog got thicker and thicker! Looking down from the tower I could see nothing."
"So I left the area," Batty frowned.
"Most of us were round the ruins by now, with just the psychos fighting!" Abi grinned.
"Oi! I resemble that remark!" Bowie laughed.
"Well, all the psychos apart from Big and Little Yin, who kept wandering off." Abi winked.
"Bovva tried to get round the ruins to get to to my cousin Berry," Abi continued the narration, somberly, "when from the right this blur flashed through the fog and Sneaker leaped out of ambush at him, bringing him down, hard, with but a single blow!"
"It was quite some attack!"
"It just felt right," Sneaker smiled.
"Yeah, the assassin's guild would like a word after." The Witch-hunter whispered, handing over a small, black edged, hand-written card to the slightly bemused mouse.
"And I thought you were a fellow ranger!" Snappy the squirrel winked.
"If I could have seen further than the end of my whiskers, I would have used my bow." The mouse grinned, and maybe blushed.
"Meanwhile, on the right of the ruins, from both sides, more of our knives and daggers flew across the wall, while swords prodded wildly." Snappy added, "Her Ladyship was joined by Bovva's Little Brova, a nasty pairing."
Abi turned round and shot Snappy a grimace, "Can't believe that Bovva's Little Brova came across the wall."
"Honestly don't think he was really looking where he was going, he looked pretty lost and alone," the squirrel replied.
"The darkness of the fog does affect your soul," The otter Witch-Hunter mused.
Red combed his whiskers thoughtfully, elbows on the table, "Berry the Shrew, bless him, swung in on Cynthia the Squirrel, while I followed round, past the recumbent Bovva."
"With Bovva's Little Brova taking on you, Abi, I had a clear line of sight through the ruined archway to the brawl on the other side." L'Otter continued.
"Thanks for the heal." Bowie smiled.
"To be fair, most of you were past the ruins and heading to safety now." The otter arch-mage added.
"I would not call being hit by a two-handed sword welding ferret safety!" Bowie frowned, "But it was keeping them from hitting L'Ouseux so he could get away to safety."
"Honestly," Snappy the Squirrel interjected, looking longingly at the wake food on the table, "Our view was not much better, Red here blundered into some rocks, Bowie was lost, Abi only found the ruined tower base by mistake while L'Otter literally walked into the cottage wall. It was a shambles."
"While you could see us, Snappy" Bowie added, "we could hardly make you out. It was like someone was targeting us with individual fog patches!"
"Interesting. Could it have been the squirrel mage from the other gang?" enquired the Witch-Hunter.
"No, she's just a wild mage, a pretty good one, but only wild and definitely not that powerful." L'Otter replied.
L'Ouseux chirped, "Big Yin made it to the gate in the wall as I hoped over it, he really was not happy!"
"He never is!" Lady Door smiled wanly, she was missing her shrew amour.
"We were all clustering round that ruin, it felt almost comforting." Red uttered, "Maybe it was because some of it was holy ground. Berry was waiting by the wall, he's quite sneaky like that!"
"Was," the mouse scribe added, the looked embarrassed as Bowie hissed under his whiskers.
"I took the highest point I could think of, so I could try and work out what was going on..." Batty pointed to the church tower in the distance.
"But it was not great up there either."
"I could just make out the Big Yin's gang filtering through the ruins towards what they thought was safety of the edge of the fog" Batty added, "they were waiting by the ruined door."
"Good thing we were waiting by the other side of the door!" Bowie grinned.
"Snappy and I were guarding one end of the ruins, as they were sneaking round." Abi continued, "we could see Her Ladyship trying to sneak through, but we both had a bead on her. We were trying to hit her with arrows and throwing knives."
"I had a great view through the doorway too," Bowie languished as his booted feet were lifted on to a neighbouring chair, "and Red was at my shoulder, no one was getting through in a hurry!"
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Red sounded pleased.
L'Otter laughed, lifting her paws onto the table, via swatting Bowie's boots down, "Did not help each time I cast 'Haste' on you old friend, you bolted off in random directions like a scalded cat!"
"Unfortunately, as I had just landed on the other side of the wall, they did not come through but their hound Rufus went for me!" L'Ouseux interrupted. "Bovva and Cynthia the Squirrel had managed to get their fear sorted out and had moved up too, along with Archie the mouse."
"Things could have got really bloody if I had not cast the Unbound spell 'Sangram's Portable Protector' on our noble sparrow here, while L'Otter here cast the Light spell 'Invulnerable' on Bowie, boosting them to incredible defenses. So, we cannot be Dark Mages." Lady Door explained.
The mouse scribe looked over his glasses, "Labouring this point rather aren't you, M'lady?"
The otter Witch Hunter smiled wanly. "I think they might have proved they were innocent."
"We'll see," the mouse continued.
"By this time, I could see Berry behind the crates to the left, while I was behind him, Sneaker was hiding behind the wall."
"The fog got thicker and thicker! Looking down from the tower I could see nothing."
"So I left the area," Batty frowned.
"Most of us were round the ruins by now, with just the psychos fighting!" Abi grinned.
"Oi! I resemble that remark!" Bowie laughed.
"Well, all the psychos apart from Big and Little Yin, who kept wandering off." Abi winked.
"Bovva tried to get round the ruins to get to to my cousin Berry," Abi continued the narration, somberly, "when from the right this blur flashed through the fog and Sneaker leaped out of ambush at him, bringing him down, hard, with but a single blow!"
"It was quite some attack!"
"It just felt right," Sneaker smiled.
"Yeah, the assassin's guild would like a word after." The Witch-hunter whispered, handing over a small, black edged, hand-written card to the slightly bemused mouse.
"And I thought you were a fellow ranger!" Snappy the squirrel winked.
"If I could have seen further than the end of my whiskers, I would have used my bow." The mouse grinned, and maybe blushed.
"Meanwhile, on the right of the ruins, from both sides, more of our knives and daggers flew across the wall, while swords prodded wildly." Snappy added, "Her Ladyship was joined by Bovva's Little Brova, a nasty pairing."
Abi turned round and shot Snappy a grimace, "Can't believe that Bovva's Little Brova came across the wall."
"Honestly don't think he was really looking where he was going, he looked pretty lost and alone," the squirrel replied.
"The darkness of the fog does affect your soul," The otter Witch-Hunter mused.
Red combed his whiskers thoughtfully, elbows on the table, "Berry the Shrew, bless him, swung in on Cynthia the Squirrel, while I followed round, past the recumbent Bovva."
"With Bovva's Little Brova taking on you, Abi, I had a clear line of sight through the ruined archway to the brawl on the other side." L'Otter continued.
"Thanks for the heal." Bowie smiled.
"To be fair, most of you were past the ruins and heading to safety now." The otter arch-mage added.
"I would not call being hit by a two-handed sword welding ferret safety!" Bowie frowned, "But it was keeping them from hitting L'Ouseux so he could get away to safety."
"Lucky you, I was getting hammered hard by Her Ladyship! She really packs a punch you know!" Snappy groaned. "I was down before I knew it."
"While you lot were having fun, Little Yin came in to fight me," L'Ouseux the sparrow moaned, "while Sneaker and Berry the Shrew headed for safety.".
"Thankfully, Her Ladyship randomly wandered off towards the church instead of after me," Abi grinned.
"Cynthia squirrel came round the ruins, I tried to zap her with lightning and she cured Bovva's Little Brova, I was looking forwards to a good magical duel." L'Otter the mage complained.
"No wonder we detected so much extra magical energy around the building." The mouse scribe looked at a separate sheet of data.
"That's when things beyond the wall got weird again," Red the mouse added, "I could see L'Ouseux fly off to safety as Little Yin wandered off by himself, but Abi and Sneaker were leading Berry Town the Shrew behind, he stopped in his tracks, just off the precinct pavement, almost exactly where Bovva had frozen earlier."
Wiping away a tear, Lady Door uttered "I knew I should have stayed with him, but he was always the trustworthy, sensible one!" Her shoulders shuddered as she drew a shuddering, deep breath, and then the tears flowed. Bowie reached across the table and proffered a silken handkerchief.
"I should have gone after your love too. I am sorry Abi. He was too good a friend," the cat mused, "but I suddenly found myself the wrong side of the ruined door again."
"I was following Sneaker, when he stopped, frozen, I saw Berry walk off in the same direction, but only then did I realise his normal shrew stride was more of an aimless shuffle, I called out, but he was gone."
L'Otter looked around, "My turn to admit a mistake, I stood too close to the archway, and Big Yin swung at me, it was a furious blow that floored me straight away. To be honest, he could have killed a fully-armoured badger with that strike!"
"I would have had him for that," Bowie growled.
"But no need, five of us had made it to safety, Lady Door, Batty, Red, Sneaker and L'Ouseux had all made it to the edge of the spell's effect, the mist lifted as quickly as it arrived. Little Yin even came over to thank me for helping lift the enchantment." Abi added through sobs.
"We found Berry, or his remains, shortly after, propped against a wall, sword still clutched in his shrivelled hand, but his face at peace. No idea what got him, but he was gone." L'Otter added. "Now if you don't mind, there is a particularly fine bramble gin that our friend was very keen on, and we would like some peace to toast his memory!"
"While you lot were having fun, Little Yin came in to fight me," L'Ouseux the sparrow moaned, "while Sneaker and Berry the Shrew headed for safety.".
"Thankfully, Her Ladyship randomly wandered off towards the church instead of after me," Abi grinned.
"Cynthia squirrel came round the ruins, I tried to zap her with lightning and she cured Bovva's Little Brova, I was looking forwards to a good magical duel." L'Otter the mage complained.
"No wonder we detected so much extra magical energy around the building." The mouse scribe looked at a separate sheet of data.
"That's when things beyond the wall got weird again," Red the mouse added, "I could see L'Ouseux fly off to safety as Little Yin wandered off by himself, but Abi and Sneaker were leading Berry Town the Shrew behind, he stopped in his tracks, just off the precinct pavement, almost exactly where Bovva had frozen earlier."
Wiping away a tear, Lady Door uttered "I knew I should have stayed with him, but he was always the trustworthy, sensible one!" Her shoulders shuddered as she drew a shuddering, deep breath, and then the tears flowed. Bowie reached across the table and proffered a silken handkerchief.
"I should have gone after your love too. I am sorry Abi. He was too good a friend," the cat mused, "but I suddenly found myself the wrong side of the ruined door again."
"I was following Sneaker, when he stopped, frozen, I saw Berry walk off in the same direction, but only then did I realise his normal shrew stride was more of an aimless shuffle, I called out, but he was gone."
L'Otter looked around, "My turn to admit a mistake, I stood too close to the archway, and Big Yin swung at me, it was a furious blow that floored me straight away. To be honest, he could have killed a fully-armoured badger with that strike!"
"I would have had him for that," Bowie growled.
"But no need, five of us had made it to safety, Lady Door, Batty, Red, Sneaker and L'Ouseux had all made it to the edge of the spell's effect, the mist lifted as quickly as it arrived. Little Yin even came over to thank me for helping lift the enchantment." Abi added through sobs.
"We found Berry, or his remains, shortly after, propped against a wall, sword still clutched in his shrivelled hand, but his face at peace. No idea what got him, but he was gone." L'Otter added. "Now if you don't mind, there is a particularly fine bramble gin that our friend was very keen on, and we would like some peace to toast his memory!"
Bowie leaned forwards to Benedict The With Hunter, and turned on his beguiling eyes, "If you're free, we could do with someone of your integrity to watch out for dark thoughts in the gang!"
The gang departed before nightfall, to various tasks to earn their keep. Not with their usual gusto, but with heavy hearts.
A great game, We had set up a beautiful 6x4' table, but the scenario calls for a much smaller area, so we played between the inn and the outside of the church. If we had played much narrower, it would have been truly catastrophic for several other characters too. There we go! Mort gets ready before we rolled the scenario...
The gang departed before nightfall, to various tasks to earn their keep. Not with their usual gusto, but with heavy hearts.
A great game, We had set up a beautiful 6x4' table, but the scenario calls for a much smaller area, so we played between the inn and the outside of the church. If we had played much narrower, it would have been truly catastrophic for several other characters too. There we go! Mort gets ready before we rolled the scenario...
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