Zoom 2021-08-12 21:00

“To lose one monk may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose two ….... is a bonus?” 
The party prepares itself for an attack, having sent out runners to our Elven contacts explaining what we have observed and our situation.
Caradoc prepares the roof against infiltration with caltrops, loosened gutters and other obstacles, while the monks take up position on the roof as observers. Twoo ensconces himself on the top of a nearby building overlooking our roof and main entrance. Tooit is hidden in the eaves as another observer.
The rest of the party have dinner, then Q. and W. go upstairs for a kip (with J. and C. also going upstairs as guards), while the rest stay downstairs for a (very slowly consumed) drink.
One of the new patrons to the bar sees F. and goes over to him – F. recognises him as a groundsman from the Nature Shrine. After a lot of ‘innocent talk’ the guy leaves, handing over some ‘notes’ for Q. In the middle of a load of legalistic gibberish, it says:
* Sword+Shield = SARN
* Doors now closed and locked
* Watch your backs
* Friend at Halls is investigating
Later on, someone tries to backstab Twoo – but he is lucky (along with his sense danger), and without seeing who/what it was, flies down to the inn and runs in through the door. The monks on the roof, seeing Twoo run to the door, freeze in place hoping not to be seen – and promptly go to sleep.
Meanwhile, inside the pub, a couple of ‘ringers’ seem to be organising a good old sing-song with the bar patrons downstairs (which Umar objects to), while upstairs the party detects some intruders in one of the bedrooms – cloaked by a silence spell. There follows a fight with a total of 8 people coming in through various bedroom windows and out into the corridor – all of whom get taken out very easily by the party, or surrender (other than the initial two who fled following a ‘Mexican stand-off’ with C.). Twoo used the scroll of invisibility but found nothing. While all other party members except F. had gone upstairs to deal with the intruders, F. stayed downstairs guarding the stairwell when he was the two ringers start to leave and wave goodbye – at which point, all the other patrons and bar staff succumb to sleep spells. F. challenges the two ringers - who immediately surrender. F. knocks them out with his sword pommel.
Caradoc goes up onto the roof – to find (a) no monks, (b) all his caltrops and traps moved aside and (c) a note saying ‘We have your hobbits’. He takes a gulp of invisibility potion and takes off trying to get ahead of whoever is carrying the monks.
We are left with 6 intruders from upstairs (1 dead, 2 unconscious and 3 bound) and 2 knocked-out ringers from downstairs. The upstairs intruders appear to be minor street thugs (just high enough level to not be automatically taken out by a sleep spell) who were hired by 'some dwarf' – and given some spell support to get them through the windows where they thought there were some easy pickings to be had. They were obviously just a diversion while our monks were abducted. The two ringers may have more interesting stories to tell though...