Part II- First Blood

The elf moved first. With a nimble roll, Raina easily moved away from the three thugs and positioned herself behind Lazarus. With surprising efficiency, her hand crossbow was loaded and locked before the mechanism fired. The bolt whizzed past Lazarus's ear, and embedded itself in the front thugs shoulder, the man roared and reached up, pulling the projectile out of his flesh. Then the man charged blindly forward, brandishing his club at the first person he saw, which was Lazarus. He was by no means slow, but Lazarus was quicker. Moving faster than would be expected, his bastard sword was unsheathed, accompanied by the grating sound of metal on metal. There was a keening sound as Lazarus's giant sword swung through the air and connected with the crude wooden club. It was cut cleanly in half and would have separated the thug's head from his shoulders, if he hadn't had the tact to step back at the last moment, barely avoiding death. At some point, all the commotion had roused the dwarf out of whatever state of intoxication he was in because seemingly out of no where Morngrim swung with a battle cry, his great axe connected with the thug's other shoulder with the sickening sound of rending flesh. Blood flew out in a messy arc from the wound and the weaponless man fell, groaning in pain. The coup de grâce came in the form of Lazarus's sword, beheaded the wounded thug in a single swing.

Blood pooled on the floor, but the other two thugs completely ignored the bloody mess of their former companion, seeing only their future paycheck. There was the sound of a crossbow being fired and then, not a moment later, a second one. The twin bolts that Raina fired planted themselves deep in the second thug's chest and he doubled over, blood spilling out of his mouth. Wasting no time, Lazarus stepped forward only to be blocked by the third thug, who wielded a beat-up mace. Raina made an annoyed sound and fired her crossbow once more, only this shot was made in haste, and skewed to the left, striking the adjacent wall and somehow bouncing off. Then there was a yelp of pain, as the the projectile's improbable trajectory found it's way into the barkeep's body. Morngrim out of kinsmanship or still-drunkenness, charged forward to what might have been an attempt at helping the wounded dwarf only to have his large frame slam into the bar proper, knocking the entire structure over, subsequently crushing the barkeep beneath it. There was the sound of crunching bones and a howl of pain which quickly died into a whimper. While Morngrim tried to amend his folly, the third thug charged dumbly foarward, ignoring his bleeding compatriot.