Burrows & Badgers: Battle at the Tomb (Take and hold)

The fire crackled in the bar, spitting as a few walnut shells flew in. It was a warm summer's evening, so the warband stretched leisurely in front of it on different sized chairs rather than outside with the locals. Various creatures sat round, discussing the day's business, some wore variously bright and colourful uniforms of foreign uniforms matching their Germanic accents, slightly soiled and others very bloody in some cases.
"Cheers all, a good day," a grey mouse grinned. The leader of the group, Hannibal, habitually chewed a large liquorice stick. Including him, several of the warband had fresh cuts and bruises, but most looked fresh and unscathed. "Being hired to guard six points in the town, great for funding."
"Well, that was a tight one!" Aimee, a small shrew, propped her drink back onto the table.
"It's alright for you, Hazel, you spent the day guarding the windmill with no-one bothering you, while some of us have nothing to show but a major headache." BA Barotterus scratched his head, where a large egg still remained.
Hannibal the mouse grinned, chewing on the liquorice stick, "It was a good plan, go for the tomb, spread out and take a few more places, the more places, better the pay."
"They also had the same as us, numbers wise, but definitely lots more skills with those guys too. They were a quality Royalist outfit," the Moling Mad Murdoch raised an eyebrow.


"The top of that tomb was slippery, every time I tried moving across it, I got nowhere." Murdoch complained, "You got across it easily enough B.A., spilt blood meant it was getting more and more slippery for the rest of us."
"Yeah mole, but most of it was yours by the end!" Henlor Kremmel the Necromancer giggled.


"That mouse was a fool trying to take me on! Maynard Whitlow the mouse will think again before messing with B.A. Barotterous" The otter grinned, taking a sip of plum brandy, his grin shortly turned into a grimace as his head throbbed. "It was then I noticed their leader, could have been my twin, coming in fast! That Van Der Velk guy hits HARD!"



"So hard," Murdoch laughed, "he sent you flying!"
"No fool makes B.A. Barrotterus fly!" the otter growled.
"Berserkers, such a pain!" Face the Ferret winked.
"I say, do you mind, bit rude, some of us are afflicted too,"The shrewzerker looked up from his newspaper, folded over twice, and went back to the headlines. 
"Their mage, Brother Carter, was having to do lots of healing, I noticed. He was draining lots of magic from the ether," the rat necromancer waved his paws mystically, which the rest ignored.


"Their leader was tasty, I like a nice, powerful otter spirit," Henlor Kremmel the Necromancer mused, "tasty, slightly fishy hints, but good and reviving!" He licked his lips. "The squirrel Bramble was nutty and firey too."
"I'm really not sure you should be doing that," Aimee the shrew whispered across at the rat. "But good hit Murdoch, he really needed an apothecary after that."
"I've heard an Der Valk was on death's door," the Shrewzerker looked up from the crossword, pushing back a pair of halfmoon glasses, "but managed to pull through."
"You got pretty beaten up too, are you okay?" Aimee asked the other shrew.
"I'll be fine." The shewzerker, chewing on the end of his pencil and scribbling "17 down: "Throw advantage, missing answer - laughed, ohhh, chuckled".


"I can't believe that they left their buildings they were meant to be guarding so empty," Hazel, the dormouse archer snickered, tossing a hazelnut shell on the fire, "All I had to do was run over and grab up a fourth one out of the six we were paid to look after.".


"It was a graceful dive, good artistic interpretation," Face the Ferret smiled with glee.


"They never went up to the windmill, I just sat down and watched the scrap." Aimee winked."Think they were too busy trying to hit us hard, rather than grabbing things to guard." Hannibal mused, "Sir Archibold Hastings the mouse and the squirrel Bramble spent a lot of time tryig to hurt me."
Kimler looked over at the stoat and smiled, "Great shot taking down their crossbow weasel, Tubbs, many shots nicked him, but that last one really hit hard, thought I was going to get a new subject to play with! That one passed on I hear."
"Don't push it, you are technically still a prisoner," Hannibal the mouse looked at the rat.
"Ya, or the mole could have been a pincushion for me to practise on!" The Rat laughed.
"You took hits too," the mole mimed tugging a forelock, "but we are made of stronger stuff."
"Or other people's stuff kept us going" Kimler winked, as the others tried to ignore the thought of his dark deeds.


"A good haul of cash all, while I pulled a bouncer shift here, you lot gathered forty-seven pennies, plus lots of materials too!" Face looked at his purse and pulling.out a list, "Five extra healing potions, a master smithed sword, three fate points, help from a black marketeer with that sword and a new recruit to boot."
"New recruit, but vague, it's another otter, a girl otter and a freed slave!"
"Maybe she will have connections to get us home?"
"Maybe we should look at improving our den too?" Hazel the dormouse added, "We could do with an archery range maybe?"
"No, a magic garden?"
"Pells..."
The friendly arguement ran long into the summer night.