Blondie

July 3rd (evening), Albanus 1

As the guardian swan's dying croak faded, the party scrambled into action.

Severus peered out the shuttered window and spied three creatures in the night.  Grey, human-like forms, with no hair or clothes.  Fanged mouths split their faces.  Where their eyes should have been, there was just a single, deep hole, with which they seemed to scent the wind.  The creatures appeared hesitant, perhaps confused or at a loss.

Gaius stepped out and began waking the people in the other rooms.  Not having time to don his armor, Titus simply grabbed his sword and ran downstairs.  Marius followed him.  Meanwhile in the women's room, Leyna rushed Clarissa Benobles out towards another room, away from the demons, and Corvina jammed the shutters closed.  A moment later Severus popped into the room, and shoved Clarissa's feather matress against the shutters.

The demons had begun loping ahead.  However the two near the women's room suddenly stopped, scented the air, and started making a low chufffng call.  The third had already bounded past, headed for the inn's courtyard, but these two scrambled up the inn wall.  Well, one of them did, anyways.  The other kept scrabbling up a few feet and toppling off.

The third demon tore around the corner into the inn's courtyard... and ran head-first into Lucellus (who thought Titus' plan was a great one, and was charging outside himself).  It slashed him nicely once.  And then the paladin lopped its head off, quite neatly.

The second demon made it to the second floor window and shredded the feather matress and shutters.  As it did this, the party set up an ambush for it.  Gaius positioned himself by the balcony railing, where he had a clear shot.  Severus and an extremely nervous Philipus hid on either side of the doorway.  And Leyna (the honorary bait) stood in the middle of the door.  Once the demon had demolished the shutters it charged -- just as they'd hoped.  Leyna managed to keep its attention as the group frantically hacked, slashed, and shot at the critter.  (Philipus, they discovered, had missed some important combat pointers.  Like, you hit more often if you keep your eyes open.)  Many blows bounced off the demon's magical hide, but eventually they pulled it down -- though Leyna got a bit battered and bruised in the process.

Meanwhile, Fred the Butter-Fingered Demon had just managed to fall (again...) onto the ground.  Just when he was about to die of apoplectic rage, Titus popped out of the kitchen door.  Overjoyed to find a target that didn't require climbing, the demon charged him. At about that moment, Corvina's familiar Tenebrus flew over the roof with a lightstone in his beak, illuminating the area.  The paladin's first strike nearly gutted the fiend.  It grew more cautious then, and the two traded blows.  Severus leaped out the shattered window, landing nimbly on his feet, and lent his brother a hand.  But before Titus could finish the demon off, Lucellus came bounding around the corner and killed it.

As the dust settled, much searching and investigating ensued.  The abbess believed that baby Marcus should have been concealed from the creatures;  she thought that the demons must have been sent to the Golden House and told to look for him.  Tracks indicated that they had come down from the mountains, following much the same path as the band had, earlier.  When no other threats present, the party returned to bed.

The next morning, uncle Larentius announced that he wanted to stay here, in Benobles, rather than going on to Harrans.  Severus explained that he couldn't -- he'd create too many problems for the abbess, and Count Benobles could not shelter him.  Larentius insisted that he could not go to Harrans, and when told there was no other alternative, he muttered that there was... one.  Marius (an astute judge of character) noted that his uncle was drinking heavily, though it was early in the morning, and guessed he was trying to build up the courage to commit suicide.  Severus reminded him how unpleasant it would be to face Count Arius in the afterlife before he'd atoned for his slander against the Countess.  Marius and Gaius pointed out that there was still a lot he could do to help.  He was the Surrexus counselor;  he knew far more about the other nobles than any of them.  As they asked him questions about the various counts, Larentius became calmer.  And by the end of breakfast, he seemed reconciled to staying alive.  For the time being, anyways.