Berry reclined on the short, nibbled, grass with a goblet of L'Otter's finest wine in his hand, looking down on the 'Weasel's Arms' Inn, as the sun set behind him and the first stars twinkled in the dusk. He sipped the wine and grinned to himself through his scars. Today had been a good day, and he was enjoying a rare moment to himself in the twilight.
They had arrived at the village mid-afternoon to find the slaver rounding up the locals, who were tied up and their possession heaped on the cart. On the other side of the village Big Yin and his gang had also heard the news and were joining in the quest to deal with the Slaver, well, maybe to liberate the cart and the Slaver's cash first.
Four of the locals were caught, that was not fair! Slavers were not meant to take from the local population, but this was not the first time, as Berry knew.
The Slaver was a huge wildcat with a weasel and two mice as lackys, all armed with wicked blades. Berry felt his blood boil at the thought, this was the slaver who had captured and sold him all those years ago and had captured Lady Door. He would pay for this!
The gang sprang into action, Sneaker had taken a position where he could see most of the Slavers and drew a bead on one of those mice, his arrow thrummed out of the bow spring and buried itself deep into the guard's hide.
Snapy had also taken an adventagous position, his arrow also hit a mouse, but his arrow was not as accurate and only nicked the guard. This alerted the Slavers that they were in trouble, especially as Big
Yin's gang was approaching fast.
"Oi, what you doing out here!" A flutter from above him woke him from his memories. Batty hovered
above him, obviously out in an early evening bug hunt. "Stop being mopey and get down to the bar, it's Bowie's round!"
"Oh Batty, after today, it's going to be Bowie's round for quite a long time!"
"Phah! Youze tellin' me!" Another set of wings fluttered down, L'Ouseux had come along too.
'Unusual for him to be out this late' Berry thought, as the Sparrow landed next to him, dropping a flask in his lap 'He's usually propping up the bar by now.'.
"From L'Otter, she says yer deserves it!"
Berry opened it and sniffed, bramble gin, he was being spoiled. "Where were you two off to this afternoon, thought we were after the Slavers?" Berry mused. The two fliers had immediately flitted off behing the hall, away from trouble that they usually went straight for.
"Youse dinna hear, there wiz a bounty on that squirrel witch!"
"So, we thought we might have a go!" Batty raised a whisker and pointed at the Sparrow. "We might have thought that through a bit more!"
Berry thought, yes, he had been preoccupied. He was sure that L'Otter and Bowie had muttered about something, but his attention had been caught by the sight of the Slaver in teh village. He and Lady Door had both seen red and headed straight for the monsterous cat.
The foul beast had seen them, and turned, spitting. It even recognised the two of them, swearing it would put them back into chains, barrelling towards them. Wrong thing to say! Berry had felt confidence course through him, maybe it was the 'Luck' spell L'Otter had just cast on him, but he had felt like he could take on the world in that moment. As the Wild Cat had swunged up his sword, his gang had scattered for cover under the eaves of the nearby buildings.
"You know, you really are anti-social sometimes!
Berry jumped out of his skin, spilling his wine across the grass. Beside him sat Sneaker, with two more
goblets and another flaggon of L'Otter's best. How on Earth had he got there?
"We thought you had improved your spotting skills!" Suddenly Snappy was on his other side. Had he really been that caught up in his thoughts, or had the gang's rangers snuck up? Snappy spead a blanket out on the rich turf. "We need to work on that Berry!" The squirrel laughed and poured the scared shrew
another generous goblet of wine. "Good view mate!"
Batty came to rest on the blanket, stretched out his wings and smiled a fanged grin. "At least we know I can hit things with my throwing knives, I got that squirrel and their sniper with a couple of good shots."
"Yer should've come o'er the fence wi'me, I could have done with yer help taking doon tha' witch!" L'Ouseux poured himself a goblet, Berry noticed his beak and face had also picked up scars to match his. "That damned Littl' Yin, taking me doon with one hack!"
"Yeah, sorry mate, normally you and that shield stop him." Batty slurped his wine "Not bad that!"
"No bad! You try takin' a great sword te tha face!"
"You know, I thought you and the Lady Door were in trouble when that Slaver turned round and charged you." purred a voice from the rug. Was Bowie laying out a picnic? How! He wasn't there 20 seconds ago. "I could see in my mind's eye flying dormouse and shrews being barrelled over! Walnut?"
"How..." Berry spluttered.
Snappy giggled "You SURE you been working on those spotting skills?"
"Oi, I parried him, just like you showed me." Lady Door put down her goblet and helped herself to a wildeberry. "See, all that weapons training did help Bowie." She had not been there just now either. Berry felt very confused and eyed his wine suspiciously, had he been drugged?
"But you were very brave Berry, charging him like that." She leant over and kissed his scarred cheek. He could feel himself blushing around the ridges of scars.
"You be careful with my cousin, he's dangerous!" A light voice laughed behind him. Abi stood, in her pirate garb, with a chalace of beer that was definitely too big for her.
"I don't know what came over me, I just saw red, and the next thing..."
"You charged, landed the perfect blow, well, about a dozen blows Berry, and cut him to pieces! You were enraged and fighting like a beserker, it was incredible. Never seen anything like it!" Sneaker said, munching a slice of apple off his knife. "Almost as red as your face now, Berry!"
"Also, cousin, please don't swear like that in front of a lady!" Abi nudged him hard with an elbow as she sat down next to him.
Berry could feel himself turning red again, but all he could hear was the gang rolling about in laughter and the clink of goblets as they toasted him. He was sure he heard Lady Door repeat some of them to Sneaker!
"What you all missed next was hilarious," Batty squeaked, "you know the Slaver was down, but his 'assisants' all split. Some of you managed to put arrows into them. However, the weasel legged it round that top corner of the hall. You should have seen his face as he ran straight into Her Ladyship!"
"Was their much of it left?" Abi butted in.
"No. It was a mess! On the road Big Yin just strolled right past too."
"Couldn't happen to a nicer bloke!"
"DOOR! That's not what I would expect from you!" Bowie laughed in mock shock.
"I mean, I saw you, straight up to the locals, checking they were okay, cutting their bonds, it was really nice of you." Berry muttered.
"Yeah, well, Bother and The Big Yin were also there trying to free the locals, the locals did the right thing and scarpered didn't they!"
Bowie licked his paws where red stained them, "Relax shrew, it's berry juice!"
"Oh yeah, while you goody-goodys were freeing the locals, you didn't notice Bother's Brother sneak over to the cart! I had to almost wake you all up to get you to notice!" Sneaker moaned over the ridge of his cup. "Good thing I put an arrow in him to slow him down!"
"No, you put an arrow in the cart, it was my lightning that slowed him down!" L'Otter strode up the hill, deploying multi-coloured mage lights over the picnic area and putting down a basket of steaming pies and pastries.
"Big Yin was a bit close, there really was only one thing to do." Bowie pulled himself up to his full height, puffing out his chest.
"Oh come on then, show off!" Berry chirped in.
"That's brave from you shrew!" Bowie grinned down at him.
"Think I might change my name to cat-killer!" The Shrew grinned, maybe his luck still held.
Bowie threw back and laughed. "No way would I fight you, you're way too dangerous! Anyway, we know how dangerous the Yins are on the charge..."
"Aye, don't we just!" L'Ouseux rubbed his ravaged and disfigured face.
"I mean, turning on your full beguiling charm on Big Yin, that was, erm..." L'Otter raised an eye-whisker, and twiddled her withered hand.
Bowie interupted "Awesome? Amazing? Jaw dropping? Eye catching? Bedazzling?"
"Bullying?" Abi chipped in, hitting Bowie with a well aimed wallnut on his nose! 
"Can't believe you took him down with one blow, charging, weapon master, plus all your beguling self!" Sneaker added. "I hear he's now sporting a rather fetching eyepatch!"
"Well, you've either got it, or you haven't!" Bowie grinned, casually hurling the walnut back at the piratical shrew, who caught it and started gnawing it.
"I was hurling daggers at Bother, hope you noticed the distraction." Abi added. She had hit Bother with a throwing knife with a level of accuracy too, useful skills she was picking up.
"It was appreciated" Bowie nodded.
"Enough for me to free the last hostage." the Lady Door added.
About this time, we all heard the squeal as Her Ladyship put that weasel out of his misery." L'Otter added.
"Heard it? Some of us watched it. I'll be having nightmares about that for weeks!" Batty added. 
"Bother was a bit bothered, he kept taunting you Bowie" Lady Door interjected.
"My charms did not work so well on him!" the cat mused, twiddling his whiskers. "But at least I could ignore his taunts."
"Little Yin took a swing at me, but thankfully he missed as we fought over by the well." Berry muttered, was it time to start the gin yet? He had an idea how the rest of the gang had got here.
"Thanks to you, I could get more arrows in at Bother's Brother." Sneaker added.
"It wasn't the arrows that did for him though, it was the tactical application of prescise eletric discharges." L'Otter grinned, helping herself to her wine.
"Eh?" muttered Bowie.
"She zapped him with lightning!" Abi laughed.
"Which means, Berry my friend, this feast is paid for by your old friend, the slaver!" L'Otter grinned.
"I would drink to his health, but you made sure he did not have any of that left."
"How long until we tell the townmouse who joined us after that he isn't a slave?" Berry asked.
"Maybe we will let him finish the washing-up at the Inn first." Sneaker grinned. 
"No, he's off having his armour fitted, he knows!" Bowie grinned. "Anyway, did I tell you how I took
Big Yin down? Oi! Stop it!" he was showered with seeds and nutshells.
"So, with your extra concealment skills, have you worked out how we got here?" Snappy asked.
"I have now," Berry smiled, "As L'Otter walked up here, she must have cast haste on all of you!"
Berry grinned, laid back and looked up at the now shimmering stars, now so bright he could make out the Big Nibbler. "Yeah, life is good."
In the days that followed, the coins they had earned were spent on Town Mouse's equipment and good food, the materials gifted by grateful locals were safely stashed for building works:-
L'Ouseux spent his time recovering, sitting in L'Otter's garden.
Bowie decided to try his luck in a local gambling den, but came away red faced after rolling a double 1 straight away. Abi had to save face and went in and won 22 pennies for the gang straight away.
The Lady Door made friends with the local blackmarketeer, but he had nothing the gangs alchemical
lab could not make themselves, he did have an interesting broach, but at 38 pennies, it was not worth it!
Sneaker helped the Townmouse adjust to gang life after being a slave, and how to forage for himself.
Snappy found an old chapel and his service there earned the gang four extra fate points, he was quite proud and was winding Abi up as she had not found any, until L'Otter returned with five more from a local stone circle.
Berry spent his time at the ancient stone circle, there was no effects, he just liked the solitude...
Another interesting game. Bowie's new skill of Beguiling, added to his d12 presence means he has become quite a dangerous character in combat, his charge on Big Yin came in at +12 before the roll off as he had a perfect roll s Yin's 7, then Yin rolled badly on his block...
In fact we had three combats where the opponent was taken out on the charge (Big Yin, the Slaver and L'Ouseux)
It also shows that firing has become a lot miore lethal, Sneakers first shot was perfect and caused a massive 12 damage perfect, while Berry charging teh Slaver had rolled 4 on a d4, (perfect)+7, +1 weapon master, +2 charging, +7 beserk (special rule for exslaves vs slavemaster), +3 for the luck spell = 24. I honestly though he and Lady Door would get splattered, but in one blow, the slightly annoyed Shrew flattened the Wild Cat! Truely a hero, his reward, extra concealment. L'Otter is now up to d12 Fortitude, Abi and Lady Door both picked up accuracy skills from their time at the range.
Another top game, scenario is here...
Oh, and Imi's Rebels smashed David at Legion again! He conceeded on round 4!
Great write up Will, sounds a lot of fun!
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