We finish cleaning up the room and hiding the bodies, and Geeves recommends that we have more of a strategy next time. We agree and decide that the dwarves will go first to do close combat and the elves will cover us from behind.

Jean listens at the door and doesn’t hear anything except the wind. It seems to open to the courtyard. Tobruk goes first and hugs close to the wall. Jean listens at all of the other doors. He smells animals at one and another seems to be a kitchen.

We decide that our target is probably upstairs, and devise a plan to keep all of the doors down here closed so they can’t flank us. We use the manacles from the jail and tie ropes across the courtyard so the doors keep each other closed. No one seems to notice our little

Then we head upstairs. This is a middle level with stairs to the battlements on the south side and some other rooms. We hear voices but from upstairs several more. There seems to be a hall up there. We attempt to tie these doors closed as well.

We head up the stairs and there is a landing here with a large door to the south. We hear at least half a dozen voices from the room, and they are bragging about people they stole from recently. Tobruk kicks the door in and we advance immediately. There are eight of the Black Arrows in this room at a large table. Tobrok chops one of them in the chest and kills him instantly. Brokk stabs one but he crawls away. Three of them rush to get bows off of the wall but Vedasi throws a bomb into the back of the room and it explodes on them. There is a big cloud so it’s hard to see what is going on.

One of them slices Brokk in the arm. One runs away from Tobruk and he slices him in the leg, and the man falls and dies. Tobruk runs across the room and takes out another one who was near Brokk. Maruviel puts an arrow into the cheek of the one who stabbed Brokk, and he falls to the floor and drops his sword.

Brokk and Tobruk crawl under the table to set up their next attack (not to retreat!). Suddenly a woman appears and rides the chandelier down onto the table. It breaks and lands on top of Brokk and Tobruk, knocking them to the ground. She has a bomb with a long fuse in her hand and she threatens to blow everyone up if we don’t throw down our swords. The elves keep firing their arrows, however, hitting her in the face a couple of times.

Tobruk heaves upward and knocks her off of the table but she manages to keep her footing. She tries to hurl the grenade but the fuse has gone down too much and it explodes in her hand, turning her arm into bloody pulp. She crumples to the ground. Tobruk comes up and chops her leg off and she perishes.

Brokk runs and restrains one of the men coming in the south stairwell and as he lifts him up, Vedasi puts an arrow in his face. Maruviel hits another one right in the face. No face is safe!!

Geeves drinks a healing draught and runs forward, chopping another one down.

The fight is done and we search the woman. She has a key in her pocket and some weapons but nothing more.

We head upstairs holding shields. We see a landing with a double door to the south and a spiral staircase. The man has come through the doors and is getting medical attention by two others. We take them out and continue up the spiral staircase.

At the top is the Black Arrow’s room. The chandelier was suspended from this loft which is how she got all the way down. We find a chest under her bed and we smash it open. It has gems and coins but no diamonds. 200 gold crowns and 100 gold worth of gems.

We find words tattooed on the woman’s head in Breton (which Jean can read) and it shows the heraldry of the crossed lances in a nursery rhyme that warns children that if they aren’t good they will be locked in the cellar. We see that as a clue that it may be hidden in the cellar either here or at the crossed lances.

Looking through the rest of the keep we find no one else. There are stables on the bottom floor and four horses. We go into the kitchen and we hear whimpering from the cupboard. We coax him out and it is a fat halfling named Sleeves. We ask him to stay and cook for us and he is astonished that we were able to get rid of the Black Arrows. He seems to be the only one here. Tobruk gives him a silver piece which is more money than he’s ever seen.

The halfling cooks us dinner and we invite him to eat with us. He says that Annalisa kept all of her valuables in her room, so no leads there. He says that he worked for the previous Black Arrow which was Kellerman, and after he was injured by bounty hunters, he left and made the inn.

The second floor has six beds with foot lockers, and 100 crowns more. The pantry has beer and some sundries, and there is a well. There are food and supplies for the horses as well.

We offer Sleeves one silver per month (1/30th of the going rate) to help keep the place up and he is ecstatic. Searching the rest of the place, we don’t see any sign of the diamond. It is probably at the Inn in the cellar.

We stay the night here and plan to leave in the morning.