Moonday Night, third floor of palace, Fireseek 3, 591 Common Year

On the balcony Rain finds herself confronted by three men cloaked in black from head to toe except for their eyes. In their hands are small black throwing stars. Behind them she sees padded grappling hooks hanging off the balustrade, and more of the black clad men climbing up onto the balcony. The closest flings one of his black stars at Rain’s face. But Rain pulls her head away though she can feel the wind of it whipping past her. She quickly jumps back and as she practiced in the bouts hurls her dagger at the assassin’s face. This time it is a naked blade that sinks into the assassin’s exposed eye, and he falls lifeless to the ground.

The other two assassins are also hurling their black stars into the room. Sedara yells, “Get the prince to safety, I’ll hold them off!” Suddenly Rain sees Sedara flying past foot first in the air. The assassin dodges aside but Sedara lands like a cat and sends him hurling over the balcony with what the Keepers in town like to call a ‘boot to the head.’ Sedara’s fist lashes out swift as the lightning that she wears as an amulet at the last assassin on the balcony but he jumps away from her. Unfortunately, three more have clambered up onto the balustrade.

Across the room, Ragnbjorn has his dagger out and is pushing the prince ahead of him towards the door, “Sir Bodwyn! Ware the assassins!”

Bodwyn rushes into the room with his sword drawn. “By the gods!” he cries as he grabs the prince and pulls him out of the room. Ragnbjorn slams the door behind him and turns to face the assassins with only his dagger held before him.

The assassins on the balustrade hurl more of their black stars, two at Sedara and one at Rain. Sedara deflects them with her bracelets.

Rain is hit on the cheek and she can feel the blood trickling down her face – and something else. She begins to feel woozy, even sleepy, but she fights it off, draws her shortsword and prepares herself for battle.

The last assassin from the first wave draws his shortsword and tries to dive past Sedara but she kicks him in mid-air into one of the chairs which splinters on impact. Rain sees him shaking his head but before he can regain his feet Ragnbjorn leaps atop him and practically takes off his head with his large hunting knife.

Sedara fells another assassin with a kick to the jaw and with her elbow strikes another in the solar plexus sending him reeling back, but the third from the second wave dodges her next kick.

Three more assassins leap up onto the balustrade whereupon they draw their swords. The last two left from the second wave draw their swords and converge on Sedara. One of them slashes her across the back. Rain looks in shock as a line of scarlet stains Sedara’s white blouse.

Rain, wary of the one on the balustrade most likely to attack, moves up behind the assassin who struck Sedara and buries her shortsword in his kidneys. As Rain steps over his corpse she shouts, “Ware the stars, poison!”

Sedara plants her foot in the other assassin who was flanking her and he crumples to the floor in a heap. She leaps over him and begins delivering a flurry of kicks and hand strikes at one of the assassins who had leapt down from the balustrade.

Ragnbjorn grabs the shortsword from the one he killed and runs to the balcony to assist Sedara. With his first swipe he slashes open the sword arm of his opponent.

Unfortunately, the assassin, in turn, slashes open Ragnbjorn’s left cheek. The two others begin attacking Sedara in tandem, though neither is able to maneuver behind her. One manages to cut into her right foot before she retracts it from an attempted strike. Behind them, three more assassins clamber up onto the balustrade.

Outside they hear Sir Bodwyn crying, “Assassins! Assassins in the halls! Get behind me my prince!”

The three assassins on the balustrade all draw their swords and leap over the heads of their comrades as well as Ragnbjorn and Sedara. Two land on either side of Rain, though the one who attempted to land in front of her slips on a foot stool and crashes in a heap.

Rain shifts to her right against the wall of the solar, putting the one who had landed on her right directly in front of her. She stabs him in the heart and another assassin is down. The one who fell is getting to his feet as the third assassin that leapt at her rushes forward to take her down. Rain keeps her back to the wall and easily fends him off, and then when the opening presents itself she lunges forward and stabs him through the teeth and up into his brain. She kicks the dead assassin off her blade in time to see that Sedara and Ragnbjorn have killed all the others, including the one who had been trying to get to his feet.

There are cries from the hallway and a flash of light glares through the cracks in the door. They hear Bodwyn yelling, “My prince! My prince!” and then there is a loud series of crashes as Bodwyn is kicked down the stairs.

“Quickly,” cries Ragnbjorn, “We must save the prince!”

Carefully, Rain opens the door just as a something lands at her feet. Fortunately she jerks her head back inside and her eyes are turned away when the flesh pellet goes off. Seeing the assassin who threw it in the hall beyond she immediately hurls her dagger right into his eye and another assassin falls.

Sedara rushes into the hall past the stairwell, but where the hall turns to the right into the rest of the south-east wing of the palace there is only darkness, all the everburning torches have been taken away or covered up. “Rangbjorn, throw me a torch from the solar!” Ragnbjorn drops the sword he had taken to grab a torch from a bracket by the door and hurls it over to her.

Just then Noch runs up the stairs, bow drawn and ready. “Bodwyn is down on the landing, he’s alright but shaken up. There are assassins below, Aramek and the others are holding them off. What’s happening up here?”

“Shhh…” Sedara says, as she prepares to move into the hall after the prince and his captors.

Noch puts down his bow and draws his shortsword, prepared to back up Sedara.

Fingol and Gar arrive, as well as Sir Bodwyn who is bruised but otherwise unhurt, in time to see Sedara, torch in hand, spring down the hall as swift and graceful as a deer. “Ware the caltrops!” she cries to those behind her. They notice that her blouse is cut in the back and awash with blood, as is her right foot. One of the assassins casts another throwing star at her, but she bats it away with her left bracelet and then she is on them. With a flying kick she snaps his neck, and as she lands she lashes out with a knife hand strike that snaps the neck of the assassin holding the prince’s legs. She somersaults over to the last and strikes out with her fist, but he has already dropped the prince to the floor and backed up against the door to the southeast tower. In desperation he draws his sword and then falls upon it to elude the disgrace of capture, dying without a word or even a whimper. Lady Sedara falls to her knees by Prince Prospero, still holding the torch in her right hand.

“Heironeous be praised! He’s alive. Sir Ragnbjorn, call for the clerics.”

Fingol and Gar notice that Noch, shortsword drawn, is by the steps prepared for anything. Ragnbjorn stands before him, bloody dagger in his left hand. There is a gash along his right arm and on his left cheek, and his blouse and pants are covered in blood. A dead assassin lies outside the door. The salon door is open, but the room within is dark. By the light that spills into it from the torch on the stairs, it looks as though there must be around a dozen dead assassins strewn about the room.

Rain makes her way carefully past the caltrops in the hallway, shortsword and dagger drawn as usual, to help Sedara with Prince Prospero. From behind she seems to be unharmed, but suddenly she collapses.

“Rain!” cries Ragnbjorn, who sprints, though carefully due to the caltrops, to her side.

Aramek arrives and blanches as he sees Ragnbjorn stoop to pick up a seemingly lifeless Rain and yells, “Oh, gods, no!  Rain! Rain! How is she? How is she! Is she… is she?” and the words to follow are lost in his throat.

“It’s okay, I think she’s just asleep, as is the Prince,” Ragnbjorn says to Aramek and the others.

Gar touches his little Green Man and a resounding “Om!” is heard as positive life giving energy radiates from him to heal those present. He first heals Bodwn of his bruises. Indranil and Lorindel who are coming up the stairs are also bathed in the healing radiance and their wounds vanish without a trace. Gar carefully walks down the hall and heals Ragnbjorn and the unconscious Rain, whose scratch closes up right away. Finally he reaches Prince Prospero and Sedara and they too are healed. Rain and the Prince continue to sleep however, for the healing energy can close wounds but cannot rid their blood of the poison.

Gar calls out in a loud voice, “Where are the clerics? The Prince and Rain have been poisoned! We need clerics who can cure poison!

Ragnbjorn, still carrying Rain, makes his way carefully through the caltrops, Aramek at his side. Fingol turns to him in concern, “Father, what of your wounds? Are they poisoned?” He reaches for his father’s arm.

“I’m alright son. I suspect it’s a sleeping poison on their throwing stars, but I managed to shake it off. It got to this one though,” meaning Rain, “and the Prince. I think I can hear the clerics and paladins now.”

Indeed, there are the sounds of men shouting down below and from the far side of the hall armored knights are turning the corner. One of them lifts up the Prince. Sedara leads him back down the hall.

Before long there are three fully armored paladins and eight clerics in night robes led by Paragon Muire filling the hallway. Fortunately the paladins grabbed torches from the other wings, so there is finally enough light. Ragnbjorn hands Rain over to the clerics, and then he and Sedara dart back into the room with a torch. Sedara tells Sir Bodwyn to keep everyone else out of it. “There may be more! Wait until Sir Ragnbjorn and I have made sure that it is safe. She then slams the door to the solar shut.

Prince Prospero and Rain are taken into a spare room on the third floor so that Paragon Muire can begin using his divine power to neutralize the toxins that have put them to sleep. One of the paladins asks Aramek, Noch, and the others from the second floor to show them where they were attacked.