Disregard!

Aga screams as the collapses under a pile of vampire, their jaws latching onto her arm, her thigh, her neck, and her shoulder, the group of them fall to the ground together, blood everywhere as the four vampires hungrily feed on her body.  Her lifeless eyes stare to the ceiling...the viciousness and sudden overwhelming attack leaves the party stunned and breathless.

Ireena shrieks.  Ismark yells, "Flee!!  Fleeee!! Let us burn this building down!!"   Though they both hold their swords ready to attack.

Everyone's turn!

"Run!" yelled Lionel in a booming voice, he was going to be the last at the door. As others retreated, he tried to push some logs and crates between them and the vampires, slashing some with the sword in hope the wood can catch fire.

After getting outside, he would try to find the way to block the door - furniture from another room, his javelin, jamming the door in place - anything that could work.

Meepo stares at Aga's corpse.  He cannot believe she was taken down.  He takes one more shot at the feeding vampires...

To hit:  13

Damage:  4

Then he flees with the others.  If necessary he will use misty step to get further along. 

As the group retreat, Mordekai looks for an opportunity to step up (looking to be able to catch all of them in a 10ft cube from Mordekai, and as few of the group as possible. It may use up 5ft or so of Mordekai's movement to do so, but certainly not going close enough to give them attacks of opportunity). If such an opportunity arise, Mordekai will use his Fey Presence ability to cause all creatures within a 10ft cube make a WIS15 saving throw or be frightened of him until the end of his next turn. If no such opportunity arises, Mordekai will simply run. Either way, he's going to use all of his movement to get away, and use Misty Step as a bonus action like Meepo if necessary. 

With Lionel's confirmation to run, the group begins their retreat.  A crossbow strikes one of the feeding vampires who hisses, stands, and advances towards Lionel who is acting as rear guard.  Ismark and Ireena are quick down the stairs, followed by Kane and Meepo, but the stairs are crowded and the creatures appear to be taking notice. Mordekai steps beside Lionel and let's his fey presence spread before him.  8

Then Mordekai "bamf's" away downstairs.  Lionel sweeps some wood between him and the advancing spawn, the lights on fire as it clatters to the floor, before leaping down the stairs. 

As the group rushes through the room downstairs and into the street, one of the spawn gives chase.  As Lionel leaps through the front door, a round staff of wood is jammed into the door handle.  The door clatters but does not open.  Ismark, also with a staff runs around to the side.  You hear him, "Clear!" 

Upstairs, the building begins to burn.  Henrik is already outside, cowering across the street, and shouts, "No!  NO!  My home!!! My SHOP!!!" 

The dry wood lights quickly.  A bell can be heard ringing in town as the smoke rises into the sky. 

The glass cube windows upstairs begin being slammed from the inside, the doors downstairs clatter, but it's clear the home was made to be very secure.  Soon it's fully ablaze and shrieking can be heard from inside.  Town guards coming running, yelling for a bucket brigade, but it's clear they are only here to try and douse the nearby buildings, to prevent the fire from spreading.  There's no stopping the coffin shop, filled with wood, from burning to the ground.

The fire burns for nearly an hour.  The group watches carefully, but it seems impossible for anything to have escaped the inferno. There's no basement for certain, and the final timbers crash to the ground, big clouds of light grey billow into the sky as the city watches the building burn out. 

"Meepo, did you find the bones?" Mordekai earnestly hopes that wasn't all in vain.

"Henrik, it is unfortunate that you lost your shop. However, that is what will happen when you lie with the devil. I believe you only have yourself to blame. Let us hope, for all our sakes, that all of those creatures were destroyed." 

All that hour, while the house was burning down, Lionel was standing in front of it, praying for the souls of his friends. He was not swayed by angry yells of Henrik and let guardsmen to take care about keeping other houses wet enough to prevent fire spreading. When the deed was done, the young man kneeled before the ashes of the house and whispered the last good bye: "Rest in peace Olard, Melvin, Keris, Dowan, Ardin, Berth. May Tyr accept your souls and cleanse the stain of the Devil. I swear to avenge your death and your torture. Dio ripozu viajn animojn." He took the handful of ashes, carefully placed it in a small silk neck pouch, put it on and hid under the short. After that, Lionel returned to the group of strangers he accidentally involved in his life quest.

"My reckless approach cost you the life of your friend. I never knew that brave warrior but I share your loss and beg for your forgiveness. Though I can not replace your friend in your hearts, I offer you my service as a protector, should you have me." He bowed and waited for the group's verdict with a calm resolve.

Meepo holds up the bag of bones.  "Meepo found bones." He says, his voice sad.  He stares at the remains of the house, smoke still rising as the few smoldering patches of it continue to burn.

At the ashes still smoke, the group prepares to return to St Andral's church with the bones. Several guards approach the group, one speaks. He wears bits of rusted armor, and his eyes seem to lack vitality as they stare at you without much emotion. "You have been accused of destroying this house and place of business by Henrik van der Voot. We will take you to the Burgomaster now, to stand trial. Please hand your weapons over to the soldiers peacefully and do not resist."  He could easily be talking to you about the color grey and have the same level of emotion. 

The other guards appear equally untouched by the situation.

"The only one responsible for the fire was me," answered Lionel before someone else could interfere. "Let those people go with their business and I will gladly accompany you to the Burgomaster".

Meepo waits to see what the guards say or do to this...

The guard nods, "Very well." 

They attempt to disarm Lionel and escort him away. 

Lionel willingly gave the guard his sword and a javelin. He nodded good bye to the party and followed his apathetic escort to the Burgomaster.

"Take bones priest." Meepo suggests, holding up the bones.  "Meepo then go talk burgo master..."  He glances towards where they just took the warrior away.

Ismark and Ireena nod, grabbing the bones.  Kane says, "I"ll go with them."  The three of them head off to St Andrals.  Meepo, Mordekai and Olin follow the guards.  

(OOC:  Little busy atm, will write more later)

(was actually hoping to go to the church, and get the priest's help with the burgo master issue...)

The group departs their new ally and head quickly to the church. St Andal's outer lanterns are just being lit up by Father Petrovich, night approaches quickly. A few people are arriving, and the Father sees the group approach with relief.  "Oh, thank goodness.....please tell me you have them!" 

Meepo hands over the bones with a nod.  He looks with almost panicked thanks in his eyes, "Thank you all, praise be to you...I must place them in their proper spot..."  He rushes away without another word.  A few minutes later he arrives back in the church.  "Oh, with any luck and praise, we will again be a sanctuary from the Devil.  Many people here count on it." 

The group recounts the story to him.  He nods, "Best head to the Burgomasters' place immediately. But...I must stay here to welcome people to safety...I hold no sway with the Burgomaster anyway, he and I are not on speaking terms, I would do no good were I to come with you.  The man...is vain, be careful." 

Leaving St. Andals, with the church safe but without any local support the group follows the priests directions to the Burgomasters house.  You find the busy place with ease. This mansion has walls of plastered stone that display many scars where the plaster has fallen away from age and neglect. Drapes cover every window, including a large, arched opening above the mansion's double en­trance doors.

You find that the guards are standing outside with Lionel between them.  A man with two creeping bald strips in a long red robe stands outside on the steps. Two mastiff flank him. Just behind him stands a massive bald man holding a massive axe. One of his arms looks fairly normal, if large and muscular, while the other has strange barbs along it and thick clawed hands. 

The man in the red robe is speaking to Lionel behind the row of guards, "And so, you say, there are vampire within, but without proof this is nothing more than a story, and you nothing more than a trumped up arsonist. You say there are vampires within? Well, their bones and fangs will tell the truth of it. I will have my guards search the ruins for proof. Until then you are remanded to the stocks. I expect Izek here will determine if there is proof or not by tomorrow at noon.  Won't you my dear Izek."  

Mordekai approaches the man, and gives a slight bow. "Burgomaster. It is good to finally meet the man in charge around here. Apologies for our delay in getting here, we had a pressing matter to deal with on our way." Mordekai bows lower at the word 'Apologies'. "Perhaps now that we are face to face with the man with real authority, we might resolve this matter. Excuse me for being so bold, but might I suggest that there is another way to obtain proof - one that will not result in our new friend being left out in the open in the dangerous night. Whilst it may seem that Henrik is the victim of a crime here, having regrettably lost his house and business to the flames, I believe it may be worth asking him a few questions himself. I don't presume to tell you how to do your job, far from it, but is it not worth asking Henrik himself about the existence of the vampires in his house? He may decide to lie about it, of course, but I'm sure someone as adept as yourself at dealing with matters of justice would be able to extract the truth from him. And if it does indeed turn out that he was sheltering vampires in his residence, then you'll obviously want to question him sooner rather than later about how they came to be there. Indeed, if he was in league with these vampires, you could make a case that he was lucky to only lose his house, and that the real crime was his."

(Persuasion if necessary: 11) 

The Burgomaster raises a hand to stop Izek from raising his axe as Mordekai approaches, and listens carefully.  "We are not accustom to trusting strangers here in our lovely town of Vallaki. But, you are treating me with the respect of my station, and thus treating this town with respect. Very well, yes, let us hear from the accusor.  Though this is what the accused asked for, it makes much more sense coming from a disinterested third party." 

Henrik, from beyond the threshold of the house practically shrieks, "DISINTERESTED!!  HE HELPED BURN MY HOUSE DOWN!!!"  

The Burgomaster looks surprised, but reacts more to the shrieking than the words, "Excuse me Henrik Von Voosty, you are addressing the Burgomaster and court of this town, and you'll do so with respect!"  

Henrik's face screws up in indignation, "WHAT? Didn't you HEAR ME!?  He's WITH THE ARSONIST YOU DOLT!  And it's VAN DER VOORT!!"  

The Burgomaster snears, and raises an eyebrow, "Oh dear. I see now we were mistaken. Izek, please attend to Van DER Voort here..."   Henrik's eyes dart to Izek, then the Burgomaster, then Mordekai.  "What? WHAT?!  NO!"  

Henrik shrieks in protest as he's dragged away by Izek.  The Burgomaster shakes his head with a forgiving smile, "A nasty business.  Guards, release the accused. I suppose we have you to thank for taking another step towards keeping the Devil from our doorsteps.  Excellent, excellent. All will be well!."    A woman approaches from within the home, an older woman, taller than the Burgomaster.  She laughs an awkward, forced twitter of a laugh, "All will be well!"  She echos.  She looks vaguely familiar to the group as she emerges next to her husband.  

The Burgomaster, "Oh, my lovely wife, Baroness Petrovna. And I of course am Burgomaster of Vallaki, Baron Vargas Valla­kovich. We are pleased you have come, and will celebrate when you depart."  He continues on as if he hadn't just said he'd celebrate you leaving.  "We are having a celebration in just two days from now, a Festival of the Blazing Sun! It will be most wonderful. We insist you consider staying on until then. Though we understand if you must leave immediately. Please...enjoy your stay in Vallaki, even if your business forces you to make it most short."   With that, he heads inside his home.  Two guards close the doors behind him, not giving you so much as a glance. 

Lionel walks up to the group, a free man apparently.