Sarah's Story Chapter 027 - Nightwatch and Dragon's Flame

A party of five adventurers entered the Guildhall with grim expressions. Two wore long robes covering almost their entire bodies, one with a hood thrown back and the other with a wide-brimmed, pointy hat. Behind them entered a man carrying a short spear and a shield, which he set down by the entrance, and behind him entered a man carrying two battle axes and wearing chainmail over leather armor, jingling as he walked. He carefully set them on the rack, treating them preciously, compared to the spearman who almost tossed his equipment to the ground. Finally, a short, slender man wearing very light leather armor stepped over the threshold and immediately locked eyes with Sarah.

Sarah looked on, curious, as the man’s eyes widened in shock. He quickly scanned around the room, and then hurried up to the Spearman and grabbed him by the shoulder, interrupting him before he could start talking to the receptionist.

If Sarah had to guess, this was the Nightwatch. A Spearman, a Warrior, two Mages, and a Scout.

The spearman turned to Sarah, looked her up and down, and then started quietly talking to the receptionist.

Sarah, having taken their measure, turned back to monitoring the bar. Once the Nightwatch finished their business with the receptionists, they found a spot at one of the long tables and sat down with tankards of ale and put in an order for food with a barmaid.

Barely fifteen minutes later, if Sarah was reading the clock right, another party of adventurers she hadn’t seen before stepped over the threshold. First was a swordsman carrying a shield with a one-handed longsword on his hip, and then another swordsman with one of the largest swords she had ever seen strapped to his back, clearly meant to be wielded with two hands. Both wore a mix of pieces of plate armor over chainmail over leather armor. Behind them was a broad-shouldered man with dark, nearly black hair, unusual in these parts, carrying an unstrung bow, with a quiver full of arrows on his back, and two long daggers sheathed on his hips.

He would have been cute if he didn’t have that arrogant smirk on his face.

Disappointed, Sarah continued observing as the next member entered, a man carrying a huge shield and a long halberd, which just barely fit in the rack as he set it down carefully. He left a short spear strapped to his back. The last to enter was a slender man, average height, but with that same unusual black hair, and a dagger on his hip. Like the other party, as soon as he stepped inside, he locked eyes with Sarah, but instead of being shocked, he merely narrowed his eyes and clicked his tongue.

The entire party froze, looking around before spotting Sarah, and giving her a once over. The slender man said something Sarah couldn’t hear, and the archer’s smirk returned to his face.

Then they all turned away to talk to one of the receptionists.

Sarah narrowed her eyes at them, now ignoring her. Two Swordsmen, a Spearman, an Archer, and a Scout. They must be the Dragon’s Flame.

Both parties the Guild was worried about were here.

She glanced over to the Nightwatch, and saw a barmaid scurrying away after having delivered their food. They were completely ignoring her, focused entirely on the Dragon’s Flame.

Looking back at them, she pursed her lips as she noticed that, other than the archer’s bow and the spearman’s halberd and shield, every member of the Dragon’s Flame was armed as they headed to a standing table near the Nightwatch.

Jacob caught her eye, and subtly dipped his head towards the two parties. Sarah nodded back. She watched them intently as the Dragon’s Flame ordered a round of ale and started drinking.

The scout from the Nightwatch was saying something to their spearman with an urgent expression, bu the spearman’s face drew a deeper and deeper frown before he snapped back at the scout. The scout looked at each of the other members, but they all shook their head at him.

He bit his lip and stood up, abandoning a nearly untouched plate of food, and took a wide path around the bar area, past Sarah, to the receptionist desk. After some words, he left, walking quickly out the door.

Laughter and jeers from the bar area drew Sarah’s attention back, and she saw the Dragon’s Flame taunting the Nightwatch. Sarah stood up straight, no longer leaning against the wall, and uncrossed her arms.

Ready to move at a moment’s notice.

The scout and the archer glanced at her, and the archer sneered before they both turned back to the Nightwatch.

Sarah’s [Danger Sense] flared in her mind. [Threat Awareness] was already drawing her attention to both parties’ weapons and their hands, but oddly the growing threat seemed to be the two mages, even though they hadn’t done anything yet.

The Dragon’s Flame swordsman with the large sword took a step towards the Nightwatch, and their entire party stood from their table.

The rest of the bar patrons started getting up from their tables, heading for the door.

“Back up!” the spearman from the Nightwatch yelled at the swordsman from the Dragon’s Flame.

“Or what?” the archer sneered, putting his hands on his daggers’ hilts.

Sarah stepped forward, about to intervene as her [Threat Awareness] spiked. But not from the Dragon’s Flame. It was the Nightwatch’s mages.

Oh shit.

“Everybody freeze!” she shouted as she reached into her pocket, and a wave of darkness swept over the Guildhall.

Sarah was blind.

Her promise to her mother flashed in her mind. No holding back.

“Everybody get down!” she yelled, and she started throwing stones. Nine throws, as fast as she could, towards where she remembered the heads of each of the feuding adventurers had been.

She heard two of the stones land with a sickening thud, and then a fwoosh sound that cut off unnaturally. By her estimate, she probably hit the Dragon’s Flame scout and the mage wearing the hat in the Nightwatch. Her [Threat Awareness] had spiked again, just after she was blinded, but now it subsided slightly.

Still, there was the other mage. Weren’t mages supposed to chant spells or something?

Stepping silently, she moved to the closest chair she could remember being empty, found it, picked it up, and hurled it with all her strength at where the Nightwatch had been standing and where someone had started to say, “Oh shit, Jenk–”

There was a crash. Got him.

“Oh fuck, it’s that girl!” she heard, and threw a handful of pocket sand in their direction.

“Argh!” several voices cried out, but there was no time to follow up. There was a rasp as a large sword was unsheathed amid the sounds of bodies hitting the floor and starting to crawl away.

“You’re fucking DEAD, Nightwatch!” he shouted.

He would get the next hurled chair.

But he smashed it out of the air with his sword.

He wasn’t able to block the thrown stone after it, though. There was a thock sound as it caught him right in the forehead, then the crumple and jingle of a body wearing chainmail falling to the floor, followed by the clang of a sword following close behind.

The night receptionists, meanwhile, cowered behind their emergency ward, looking out at the unnatural darkness that enveloped the rest of the first floor of the Guildhall. Shouts and swears and the crashing of breaking furniture filled air. This was far, far beyond what they had been warned was a ‘minor feud’ between two up and coming parties of Dungeon Explorers.

This was chaos.

More grunts and shouts followed. More crashes and bangs and thuds, and one or two sickening sounds that could only be flesh. There was the unmistakable crack of bone breaking, a scream, and then a disturbing silence as it was cut off. A few more thuds, and the darkness vanished, revealing a complete mess.