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-----Seth opens his pouch and makes sure his ingredients are ready. He then looks at the scroll cases and slings the protection from magic over his left shoulder and the Protection from Lycanthrope over his right shoulder. He then looks at the new ring and gives it a small kiss before following Lotley.
-----Drawing her sword and dagger, Kazel naturally goes around to cover the other side of the building. She peers quickly into any windows she passes on the way, then goes around to the back and scatters caltrops in front of the back door, before settling in the shadows next to the windows on the rear right corner of the building.
-----Seth stands behind Lotley and Pelator. The paladin pounds on the door again. A low husky voice with an accent inside the shop answers, "Who goes dere?"
-----"Nylan Lotley, Paladin of Joren, the Holy Guardian. I demand of ye, open thy doors to me now!" Nylan boldly says.
-----"Ist very late, a moment pleeze!" the voice replies within. After a few moments, a sound is heard as the plank of wood barring the large doors is withdrawn. One door swings forward just a few inches and a reddish glow from the forge spills out the door.
-----Suddenly an older voice from within commands, "Destroy those outside the door!" From within the door comes a light twittering sound that grows as if made by many birds or . . .
-----Looking in the crack of the door, Seth sees the floor of the place somehow moving or pulsating. Then he realizes dozens of small creatures are moving toward the slightly opened door. The light catches small beady eyes and long tails.
-----"By the Righteous Shield of Joren!" Lotley yells as he sees the rats rushing toward them.
-----Seth thinks ... "I wish I had that oil I left behind at the guild...or Kazel’s ring" ... Just then the thought comes to him... "Somehow a wizard must be controlling those rats.. If I can make him stop concentrating the rats will go away..."
-----He tries to see the person through the slit in the door. He looks at his Ring of the RAM and then looks at the door... Suddenly from behind the two Righteous Brothers, he punches out his fist at the door and yells, "Sabba Sa!"
-----For a second, everything seems to go quiet, even over the squeaking of the rushing rodents and the heavily falling rain. As the door slowly opens wider, a great whoosh of air is heard and something seems to rush away from Seth’s out thrust fist. Both Lotley and Pelator lean away from Seth as the rush comes over their shoulders. "Zounds!" Pelator shouts.
-----In a heartbeat, Seth sees a shadowy man-sized form illuminated in a scarlet glow standing behind the mass of rats. What left Seth’s hand heads right for the form and begins to take a transparent shape in the outline of a ram’s head. The force hits the shadowy person square in the chest and knocks him back a few feet where he lands on the floor.
-----Just then a slight hesitation seems to come over the rats and even though they begin to spill forth from the door, they scatter before Seth and the other two men.
-----Seth looks at the ring and then slowly smiles. He looks up at the man on his back and then taps Lotley on the shoulder. "I think that man should be bound and gagged, and maybe rendered unconscious at the earliest moment."
-----Just then they hear a woman scream from within the workshop. Lotley draws his sword and swinging one of the doors open charges into the blacksmith’s shop with Pelator behind him.
-----He boldly commands, "Surrender, Doers of Evil! I am the Paladin Nylan Lotley and I arrest ye in the Name of the Good and Righteous People of the Town of Hearthorn in the Kingdom of Altoria!"
-----As Seth peeks in, he can see Gimplefwick standing close to the cloaked form that Seth’s ring knocked down. The hooded form slowly begins to rise.
-----Kazel is to the left of the Dread Pirate and has her short sword drawn on a muscular woman with blond hair and wearing studded leather. Another man dressed in studded leather and a man dressed in the work clothes of a blacksmith stare at the paladin.
-----For a moment, everyone is quiet as if frozen in time. That is, except for the woman on the floor in front of Kazel, rolling in pain from her injury.
-----Seth slowly follows after the Paladin. He puffs himself as if he were Mayor of the City. "Well, Well, Well, Doers of Evil, I suggest you surrender now to the Just Lotley rather than to 'others' that may have an interest in you not living through the night!!!"
-----Gimplefwick eyes the paladin briefly and then attempts to plunge his new shortsword into the black-robed figure. Just before he does, the lips in the old face move, uttering one word, "Surrender!" The Dread Pirate suddenly blinks and his jaw drops. His weapon falls from his grasp and Gimplefwick is suddenly at the mercy of the evil one in the hooded cloak. With a quick sudden movement, a black short sword appears from beneath the cloak. Gimplefwick is then pulled in front of the old one. One wrinkled dirty hand pulls the Dread Pirate’s mop of hair making Gimplefwick stretch up on his toes. Another old hand holds the short sword under the Dread Pirate’s chin.
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