The Siege of the Unlucky Crab

[The Raven]

Ser Reggie whirled about with his blade, with the look of a man ready to kill on sight. Fortunately, he recognized his master. "Lord Blackfort. I was on the verge of running your friend through for lack of evidence. Welcome to the party." He gestured to the table of men he and his friend had already killed.

The wounded knight stood, leaning against a pillar. "My lord... Great to see some reinforcements. Is..." He coughed blood. "Is Aegon still out there with the taxes?"

***

Dacey's last efforts at sniping come to nought. Below her, the captured thug starts screaming again. "You will never see as far as Skinner Jon, woman! He has the old eyes, and he knows where you shall aim before you even look upon it!"

Dacey sees her companions heading into the tavern area. Two Harrenhal guards remained behind with Lady Blackfort and the prisoner. "Any orders, milady?"

[Vex]

Dacey leapt down from the wall and backhanded the bandit across the face to gain his attention.

"Bring me a horse. Hurry!" she commanded the guard, her eyes never leaving the thug in front of her. She grabbed his collar with one hand and forced a quickly drawn arrow up his nose with the other, hard enough to draw blood. "This won't kill you," she said, applying more pressure to split the man's nostril, "but you will wish it had. Was that him running away? Where are they going?" she demanded, her hand steady in case he needed further encouragement.

[30 Unarmed Combat, 40 Intimidation, 43 Observation]

[Ethan Flatrivers]

"There's another exit from the basement," Kyle said. "Your real target is armored so he won't be stealthy but he might get a lead on you," he continued. "You'll want him alive."

[Ser Willis Blackfort]

Willis nodded at the information. "Where's the way down?"

[Lucas of Brindlewood]

Willem, for once apparently thinking along the same lines as Willis, stepped out of the group and began scanning the room in search of a way to the basement.

(Observation 78)

[The Raven]

(+2 to Intimidation, +1 to Unarmed Combat, and +0 to Observation.)

The arrowhead slips smoothly threw the flesh, causing the man to stifle a cry while attempting to avoid an accidental lobotomy. "Sh-sh-Shoreham... He went back to Shoreham this morning. Bad dreams... The rest of us stayed, because Hal said this is a good position... I mean, we thought it was... As I said, Skinner Jon knows where you'll aim before you even see the mark..." He tried to give a brave grin, but his farmer's courage was failing. "The rest will be on their way to him as well, if they don't just rejoin Hal in the house... I mean... All they gotta do is kill Belric... And your house joins the rest..." His grin grew wider and shakier. "Skinner Jon foresaw that too..."

One of her men leads a strong healthy horse to her. Surely, Ser Reggie won't mind.

[Vex]

"Those bad dreams... do you know what he saw? Me, shoving both my blades in his eye sockets," said Dacey and leaned closer, her steely grey-green eyes shining amid the black paint. She twisted the arrow, not daring to push it any further for fear of killing the man too soon. "Where in Shoreham?" she demanded.

[42 Intimidation]

[Ethan Flatrivers]

Kyle pointed out the way he had come, but hesitated. "That's the obvious way, and the only one leading here. They'd run outside," he said, "through a storm cellar or whatnot. And they have a girl hostage, please don't let him hurt her," he said sincerely. He disliked violence. Real thieves never left a mark.

[The Raven]

Willem's precognition fails him, leading him to suspect the toilet of being the sought after path. Fortunately, Kyle saves him from having to witness the unspeakable terror of that particular hell.

***

(Intimidation failure.)

Suddenly, the man pushed his head forward and impaled his brain onto the arrow. As his body twitched out his death throe, Dacey could swear he saw the man's brown eyes shift to a milky white color for the briefest instant.

"Seven hells!" Cursed one of the footsoldiers as he tried to pull the man's head, revealing dead brown eyes.

[Vex]

Dacey pulled the arrow out and wiped it on the man's cloaked shoulder before returning it to her quiver.

"Least he gave us Shoreham," she said, turning to the guards with a grim expression. "Guard the perimeter. When Belric emerges, let him know what he said."

She jumped into the saddle and spurred her horse in the direction the men had ran, looking for any tracks on the ground.

[41 Survival, 45 Observation]

[Lucas of Brindlewood]

Willem was making his way toward what he was quite sure was the door to the basement, when he heard the directions of where he should actually be going given to Willis. He turned around and hurried back the way he had intended to go in the first place.

[Ser Willis Blackfort]

Willis waited, half hoping that Willem would start digging around in piss and shit. Alas, he realized his mistake. Willis followed after him.

[The Raven]

She finds their tracks with little difficulty, along with those of a pair of horses.

Around the house, she sees four men. Two of them are on horseback, a thin nag and a well-bred stallion. On the nag sits a plump, hairless man in a traveling cloak. On the stallion sits a thin man with an unkempt moustache and the bags of tax money.

The leathered men on the ground are waving their weapons at the pair on horseback. Dacey can guess they're demanding aid of some sort, most likely a ride to Shoreham.

(2 Observation to Nickelplate.)

The thin man notices Dacey approaching and cries out, "Light some fire in your loins, boys! Brothel's made a delivery!"

***

(2 Strength to Hal.)

The hallway door flies off the hinges and and a well-built blonde man in rusty plate steps across the threshold. "Get away from my friend before I tear your head off, fill it with my shit, and leave it on your wife's bed, you babykilling tyrant horsefucker!"

He waved his warhammer about, marking a perimeter around his person. "Anyone make a move and Master Honeyspoon will be digging a pair of graves."

[Lord Belric Blackfort]

"The taxes and Ser Aegon are missing." Replied Belric. He looked to both Ser Reggie and Kyle, "Who's in charge of these bandits?"

[Ethan Flatrivers]

If the man's less than subtle appearance hadn't answered that question Kyle wasn't sure what would. He acted like he was panicking and ran upstairs to where the lady had fled earlier.  If they hadn't spotted him as a double agent yet...maybe he could play this game again.