Bad day, bad day, bad day. These were my thoughts as I raced back toward the constable's place. Gunther was next to me and between us we held Junior. Junior sort of ran on his own, but we had him by the arm bones (creepy) and whisked him along. Grens, about ten paces behind us, claimed to have him back under control but we weren't taking any chances.
A frightening wail pierced the otherwise dull mining village. There was a lot of yammering when that woman fainted and all the townspeople realised what was going on. Apparently it was her husband. He was her husband - Junior used to be. Fulmond, they said. I wish I hadn't heard his name.
When she woke up again it got worse. She grabbed on to Junior with all the anger, relief, grief, and terror that one could expect of a destitute widow seeing her husband up and walking. I don't think Junior knows her. I dont think he remembers being alive at all - at least, he didn't show any kind of human emotion. He didn't react to his old house, not really, his bones just sort of fell into their old habit of sitting outside and shaving in the morning. That's what I keep telling myself.
Whatever the reason, the reunion got us even deeper into the midden heap we'd been wallowing in since arriving at Tine Gorge. Of course Grens wanted the woman's hands off of his servant, the woman wanted Grens' magic off of her husband, and the townspeople just wanted to see some blood so they could feel like they accomplished something.
Hence the running.
Not everyone from the hostel followed us, though some were hard behind us. I think the rest were gathering together a lynch mob. I cursed with each heavy breath as I ran to our little base of operations.
The hobgoblins were all gathered in front of the contables' house. It looked like they had assembled on purpose - some less fully dressed than normal and quite a few looking sleepy, slouchy or bored. But I suspect the sudden outburst of screaming from across town had sent them the clear message that they needed to be ready. They even had their dire wolves (still hobbled) in their midst, which seemed to make some of them uneasy.
"Get those bones in the house!" I yelled to Gunther as I let go of my side of Junior. He didn't even break his pace. I set about cutting the ropes on the dire wolves' legs, paying no mind the the risks of being so close to their teeth. My gaze swung back and forth over the beast men. "Gods damn you all! Doesn't any of you speak Common?"
A hand slowly went up. The beast it belonged to didn't stand out in my memory; he wasn't one I had paid any attention to before. But he looked resolute and spoke with confident, if heavily accented Common. "I do."
"Get everyone inside now. Now! Go, go, go!" He started yelling orders. One of the veteran hobgoblins seemed to talk back to him and reached for a weapon; I suppose he wasn't used to taking orders from anyone but the chief. I was faster, though, and the DarkeSworde was at his throat before he could make good on his threats. The other veterans began to shuffle inside obediently, and after a moment I let the rebellious one go inside too.
The villagers who had chased after us stood at a slight distance from the crowd of hobgoblins, fearful but still angry. I could see more humans appearing from buildings along the main street and knew it wouldn't be long before we had the whole town crying for blood. I flashed the DarkeSworde at a couple of beast men who were bickering about the wolves. They decided teeth were safer then swords and began to lead, coax and shove the dire wolves through the open door of the constable's house. I was the last one through the door and slammed it behind me.
"Is Tallow here?" I asked.
The little guy seemed to have no problem getting through the crowd of beasts. He reached the door and nodded.
"You want to go talk to them?"
"We're gonna have to give up somebody."
"Just stall."
He nodded and opened the door enough to slip out. He was right though, they'd either want the law man's blood or all of ours. I forced the thought back while I got hobgoblins lined up at the front windows with weapons. Junior was sent to the back by the constable while I conferred with the others.
By this time the constable seemed delirious. "See that? One day without me and the place falls apart!"
"Shut up!" I barked at him. "You got a back door?"
"It look like I do?"
I darted to the cell and shoved my sword between the bars. The half-beast barely backed up in time. "Do you have a back door? A secret one? Anything?"
A little more sober, he shook his head. "No."
I looked around the room in desparation. There was an axe, but no way they'd miss the sound of us breaking out the back. We needed...
"A saw. You got a saw?" Gunther was ahead of me, apparently.
The constable pointed one out, hung from a peg near the ceiling. While I got it down I heard our new translator shouting to the hobgoblins. One by one they started to bang their weapons together - swords on shields, spears on the wood floor, even fists beating proudly against chests. And they started up some kind of war-chant I'd never heard before.
I nodded thanks to the bright beast-man as I went to work on the rear wall. Outside I imagine there was a lot of shouting by the townspeople and a lot of lofty speech from Tallow. Meanwhile, I had plenty of plaster to smash off before I could hope to start sawing through the planks of the outer wall. It was still a little country house, though, built by committee with whatever materials could be found close by. I made good progress.
Tallow stumbled back in the door under a hail of thrown stones and garbage. He bolted the door behind him and shouted over the beast men.
"They want the law man."
"Ha!" the constable barked, a look of pride on his face.
I grimaced and stepped away from the wall. "No, Tallow, that would be wrong. He must stand before a full court."
My fellows PC's stared at me, each with their own unique mixture of confusion, amusement, and outrage. I found that my demon wouldn't let me say anything else, so I just shook my head slightly and mouthed the words "not me".
They relaxed a little. "Alright," said Gunther, moving to unlock the gaol. "Tell 'em we'll send him out. Stall some more, will ya?"
Tallow grimaced. "I'll try."
So I went back to sawing furiously, the constable went back to gloating, and Tallow went back out into the rain of trash. Once I got a good start in the first plank it only took a minute to saw a long vertical line through the rest. We had one half of the outline of a doorway.
The front door, meanwhile, opened yet again. A very battered Tallow dove in. "Give 'em their man!" he moaned as he slunk to the floor. The translator hobgoblin quickly shoved the door shut so the villagers couldn't see what we were planning.
Out went the prisoner, and the shouting from outside momentarily drowned out the beast song. I stared at the would-be doorway in dismay. Not half done and we had nothing left to bargain with. I really didn't want to fight these villagers.
Gunther tapped me on the shoulder. "May I?" he asked.
I stepped aside with a slight bow as if offering him my dance partner. Setting his jaw, he bullrushed the sawed planks and, in one great crack, broke through to the outside. He stumbled along the uneven ground behind the house and quickly looked around to see if anyone had thought to watch the back. I followed him out. It was clear.
So out we went. One by one, first humans, then skeleton, then wolves, then beast men left behind our erstwhile refuge. I don't know if anyone in town heard the hobgoblin warsong peter out, or if anyone looked and saw less and less figures in the front windows. But all we heard as we left were the horrified shouts of a man who thought he'd been rescued, but found himself sentenced. And the gleeful cheers of the villagers at his expense.
For our part, we were out one prisoner, one chief, and quite a few horses. I don't think any of us cared. We crept along behind the row of houses and moved as fast as we could toward the open road.
Editor's Note: The Coerced Adventures will continue to be updated, but I can no longer commit to an every-Thursday schedule. Expect a bit more randomness throughout the summer, but one entry every 1-2 weeks. I'll announce updates in my signature at the GiantITP.com forums, or of course you can just check here.
Another_Poet Editor, The Coerced Adventures
