Echo stumbled out of the darkness and fetched Gala from Tauster's to check on the wounded. She returned with the priestess a few minutes later, and Gala set about bandaging everyone as best she could. Lytern awoke after a few minutes, looking physically ill and ashamed of himself.
The darkness that the priest had thrown in the room extended out into the main room of the house as well. It showed no sign of disappearing.
Arachne came up out of a door in the floor of the back hallway while Echo was gone. She was carrying the torn remains of a dress with her.
Arachne held out the tatters of dress for whomever was curious. "Looks like the missing barmaid was here for a while," she said. "She isn't now --and she may not be in very good shape wherever she is. There's some blood, probably hers, left downstairs. No-one else is there, but it looks like the room was routinely used to house prisoners. Smells like it, too. So what's been going on up here?"
Jana came out into the light with her sword in one hand, dragging the priest's body with the other. She blinked, waiting for her eyes to adjust. She released the body and cleaned her sword on his clothes and return it to its scabbard. Jana's face was pale and her eyes dull. The knife wound in her back was fairly nasty, soaking her armor and clothing in blood. Blood continued to flow out of the deep wound in her left side, coming out in sheets as she moved. Minor wounds on her left leg and her right arm also bled. She appeared to be wearing more blood than she carried inside of her.
Jana walked unsteadily to Lytern and said, "It wasn't your fault." Her voice was strained. "Don't blame yourself." She managed a smile and put her hand on his shoulder, leaving a bloody smear. She winced, then stumbled over to a convenient wall and leaned her back against it. Her eyes unfocused a bit and she slid down to a sitting position, leaving a red trail on the wall behind her. "I don't feel very good," she mumbled.
When Gala came around to bandage, Jana cooperated, moving slowly, listlessly. "Thanks," she mumbled. She leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes.
"Look after Kuiper and Johnt first. I'll live, I've been worse." Blacky said, unconvincingly, since he looked as bad off as Jana.
Will left the dark room and surveyed the injured. "You folks done real good," he said. "Like I said, it's good that somebody came by to stand up to these creeps."
He then turned towards the door. "I better go see that my wife and kids are ok. If any of ya are ever in these parts again, and I can help ya with anything, just holler." The hammer-wielding man then stepped through the door and back into the village.
Azrun crawled around on the floor trying to find his way out of the darkness. He asked Jyothki in elven, "Jyothki, you okay?" then to the others in common, "Everyone alright?"
Azrun looked around at the group. He was bruised up pretty good, but was in a lot better shape than the rest. Seeing how bad a shape Jana was in, he went to her first to offer any help he could. "You took quite a beating in there, Jana. Maybe we should look into getting you and Blacky some better protection. We can see what these guys had on them and get some coins to maybe buy some better armor for you two." He made sure she was comfortable for the moment and then went to check on Blacky.
Jana smiled weakly at Azrun. "Someone painted a target on my armor while I wasn't looking." Some of the color was coming back into her face, thanks to the bandaging. "I brought out the priest's body. Maybe he's got some papers on him or something." Her expression grew concerned. "Are Kuiper and Johnt okay? This wasn't their fight."
Once everyone was being looked after, Azrun began to check over the dead. He methodically searched through their pockets studying trinkets and the such.
After surveying the injuries, Arachne went and sat next to Jana. Touching the warrior lightly, the gnome did whatever she could to stabilize Jana's circulation and keep her conscious. The doing wasn't much, no more than a few inane encouragements, like "Just remember to breathe..." delivered in Arachne's usual, soft, calm, (unfortunately, frequently soporific) voice.
"Don' use magic on me yet," Jana said, not unkindly. "I'll be fine. Check Kuiper, Johnt, Blacky and Echo first, okay?" She stood up and smiled, albeit weakly, at the gnome.
The gnome smiled and nodded back. "All right." She attempted to follow Jana's list, in precisely the order given. She first looked for Kuiper, then Johnt, and so on, to see if each of those in turn wanted any help. She stayed away from the conversations with the prisoner, but did go with the group back to Tauster's when they left.
"I'm a lot better than you are," Echo insisted to Jana. True enough, she looked only half dead, as opposed to mostly dead or actually dead like many of the other people around. "As soon as everyone's stable, maybe we should move this little party back to Tauster's? The other prisoners are there, and we might want to talk to them before we start rambling around in here."
Jana grinned and said, "If I had the sense the gods gave a turnip, I wouldn't be a big ol' stupid mercenary." She nodded and started to help gather things up. "You're right, of course, we should get back over there. Provided Tauster will let us back in his house."
When they were ready to leave, Jana walked over to the prisoner. She pulled out her sword and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, placing the blade against his side. "I'm tired and in a very, very bad mood," she said to the man, her voice dangerously quiet. "Just so you know, I have absolutely no problem with slitting your throat right now. Don't annoy me." Jana went with the others, escorting their prisoner.
Seeing that Jana had the prisoner well in hand, Blacky helped Azrun with the search of the bodies, particularly the priest and wizards. He then carried any weapons and armor that looked valuable back to Tauster's and proptly sat down before he passed out.
On Blacky's orders, the fighter who had surrendered turned over his mace and struggled out of his splint mail, keeping on the light tunic and breeches that he wore under the armor. He handed over a dagger from his boot and a pouch of coins. He merely nodded as Jana threatened to slit his throat.
The priest wore chain mail under his dark clothing and carried a flail. Other than his holy symbol, a pair of glowing green eyes on the palm of a hand in a black background, a few spell components, and a scroll case, he carried little else on his person.
The three dead fighters in the room wore leather armor and had short swords. Two of them had light crossbows and fifteen quarrels between them. The dead wizard had a pouch of spell components and another pouch containing a few coins. The body of the half-elven woman was still in the dark room.
Blacky drug the half elven woman out of the room for Azrun to search. He then collected the splint and chain mail as well as the mace, flail, scroll case, and fighter's dagger when they were ready to leave. "Azrun, we might want to take those spell components as well." Blacky said.
Blacky, after a great deal of searching and fumbling in the inky darkness, managed to find the half-elf's body. He walked into the door on the way out of the room and managed to slip on some of the liters of blood that now decorated the various rooms of the house while dragging the dead woman's slight weight.
A search of the woman's body yielded a few more coins, a few more spell components, three daggers, a short sword, and a vial filled with liquid.
Lytern's look of nausea had been getting increasingly worse, in spite of Jana's earlier words, and as he watched the half-elf's belongings being pilfered, he emptied the contents of his stomach on the floor.
Jana winced at Lytern's obvious discomfort. She glanced over at Azrun as she bullied the prisoner. "Can someone get him out of here?" Jana asked, inclining her head toward Lytern. "Maybe Tauster can tell if her spell is still affecting him."
Azrun was looking at the half elf's things when Jana spoke. He nodded to her and then stood up. Looking back at the ground, he stooped down and picked up the vial the half elf had. He examined it for a moment then walked over to the guard Jana had, "What did she do to him? She give him some kind of poison? Speak up or I'll have my friend here make sure you don't have children." He looked up at Jana, "We don't want his kind having kids do we?"
Jana laughed, low and nasty, from her position behind the prisoner. "Give me an excuse," she purred. Jana looked up at Azrun, her face not visible to the prisoner, and winked.
Gala busily examined the wounds. "Kuiper is the most wounded, but Johnt's arm is shattered." she exclaimed. "I'm afraid I used my curing spells on you all already this morning, before this fight." she added. "What? Lytern may be poisoned?"
The prisoner took a deep shuddering breath, but replied in a controlled voice, "She didn't poison him. She just made friends with him."
Lytern stood up and wiped the vomit from his face as he listened to Azrun's words. "You really are a monster, aren't you? I didn't believe it, wanted to find out for myself, but you are. You really are. How can you even say things like that?" his voice cracked as his words poured out at a near hysterical pace. He threw Jana a pain-filled look before grabbing the body of the woman and running outside.
Azrun wiped the look of shock off his face, then turned to Jana, "See what you can find out from him.....I'll go talk to Lytern." Azrun turned and headed out the door after Lytern.
"Damn witch's magic still has a hold on him. We'd better get him straightened out before his father's guards come looking for him or we'll have another fight on our hands, hopefully Tauster can help." Blacky said with a distasteful look on his face. "Let's gather up what we're taking and go. Jana, I think our "friend's" armor might fit you, looks too small for me."
